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一、Explain-the-fllowing-terms

1． Syllable

【答案】 Syllable : It refers to a unit of spoken language that is bigger than a speech sound. It consists of one or more vowel sounds alone or of a syllabic consonant alone or of either with one or more consonant sounds preceding or following.

2． Transformational-Generative grammar

【答案】 Transformational-generative grammar is proposed by Noam Chomsky. He postulated a syntactic base of language （called deep structure ） , which consists of a series of phrase-structure rewrite rules, i.e., a series of （possibly universal） rules that generates the underlying phrase-structure of a sentence. The end result of a transformational-generative grammar is a surface structure that is identical to an actual sentence of a language , after the mediating of a series of rules （called transformations ） that act upon the deep structures.

3． Assimilation

【答案】 It is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound. It is often used synonymously with coarticulation. Nasalization, dentalization and，velarization are all instances of assimilation. There are two possibilities of assimilation: if a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, it is regressive assimilation;

the converse process, in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, is known as progressive assimilation. For example, in “mink”，“n”，which is originally pronounced aswill be velarized by the following “k”/k/，and therefore the word will be pronounced as

4． Hyponymy

Hyponymy. It refers to the sense relationship between a more general, more inclusive and 【答案】

a more specific word. The word which is more general in meaning is called the superordiante, and the more specific words are called its hyponyms. For example , the hyponymy relationship could be established between “animal” and “rabbit”.

5． Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived. It 【答案】

can be divided into three main areas of study articulatory phonetics , acoustic phonetics and perceptual/auditory phonetics.

二、Fill-in-the-blanks

6． Hymes5 theory leads to nation/function-based syllables, and a step further, _____syllabuses.

【答案】communicative

【解析】海姆斯提出的交际教学大纲以功能一意念大纲为基础，它教授表达和理解不同语言功能时所需要的语 言，并且强调交际的过程。

7． The qualities of vowels depend upon the position of the_____and the lips.

【答案】tongue

8． When language is used for establishing an atmosphere or maintaining social contact rather than exchanging information or ideas, its function is _____ function.

【答案】Interpersonal

【解析】人际功能是语言最重要的社会功能，人们由此建立和维持他们的身份和社会地位。

9． English belongs to the_____subfamily of the_____family.

【答案】Gemanic ; Indo-European

【解析】英语属于印欧语系日耳曼语的一支。

10．The term _____describes a situation in which two distinct varieties of a language，a “high ” and a “low ”，are used, each with separate social functions.

【答案】diglossia

【解析】双语的定义。

11．When language is used for establishing an atmosphere or maintaining social contact rather than exchanging information or ideas, its function is_____ function.

【答案】phatic

【解析】寒暄功能是指那些有助于确立和维持人际关系的表达，例如俚语、玩笑、行话、礼节性的问候、社 会方言或地域方言的转用等。

三、Short-answer-questions

12．How is language related to society?

【答案】 （1） While language is principally used to communicate meaning, it is also used to establish and maintain social relationships. This social function of language is embodied in the use of such utterances as “Good morning!”，“How is your family?' “Nice day today, isn‟t it?”

（2）Users of the same language in a sense all speak differently. The kind of language each of them chooses to use is in part determined by his social background. And language , in its turn , reveals information about its speaker.

（3）Language , especially the structure of its lexicon , reflects both the physical and social environment of a society. For example, while there is only one word in English for usnow, 9, there are

several in Eskimo. This is a reflection of the need for the Eskimos to make distinctions between various kinds of snow in their snowy living environment.

13．How is the illocutionary act different from the perlocutionary act?

【答案】 An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker^ intention; it is the act performed in saying something. Thus, if someone says “Morning”，we can ask questions like “What did he mean?” and the answer could be “He offered a greeting.”

A perlocutionary act, however, is the effect of the utterance. By telling somebody something the speaker may change the opinion of the hearer on something, or mislead him, or surprise him, or induce him to do something, and so on. Therefore，the perlocutionary act of the saying “Morning” could be to keep friendly relations with the hearer.

14．What is the difference between mistakes and errors?

【答案】 Errors are defined as unintentionally deviant from the target language and not self-corrigible by the learner and suggest failure in competence, while mistakes as either intentionally or unintentionally deviant forms and self-corrigible suggest failure in performance.

15．Explain three levels of categorization.

【答案】 Three levels of categorization

（1） Superordinate levels mean higher levels or more general levels. Furniture and animal are examples of superordinate category levels.

（2）Basic-level categories are more specific , but not too specific. Chair is an example of basic-level categories.

（3）Subordinate levels mean lower levels or more specific categories. Desk chair is an example of subordinate categories.