语言学练习题(附答案) Chapter 1 Language

Chapter One Language

1. Define the following terms

1) discreteness 2) design features

3) arbitrariness 4) duality

5) displacement 6) cultural transmission

7) the imaginative function of language 8) the personal function of language

9) the heuristic function of language 10) language

2. Multiple Choice

Directions: In each question there are four choices. Decide which one would be the best

answer to the question or to complete the sentence best.

1) Which of the following words is entirely arbitrary?

A. tree B. crash C. typewriter D. bang

2) The function of the sentence “Water boils at 100 degrees Centigrade” is ________.

A. interrogative B. directive C. informative D. performative

3) In Chinese when someone breaks a bowl or a plate the host or the people present are

likely to say sui sui ping an (every year be safe and happy) as a means of controlling the

forces which the believers feel might affect their lives. Which function does it

perform?

A. Interpersonal. B. Emotive. C Performative. D. Recreational.

4) Which of the following properties of language enables language users to overcome the

barriers causedby time and place, due to this feature of language, speakers of a language

are free to talk about anything in any situation?

A. interchangeability. B. Duality.

C. Displacement. D. Arbitrariness.

5) Study the following dialogue. What function does it play according to the functions of

language?

—A nice day, isn’t it?

— Right! I really enjoy the sunlight.

A. Emotive B. Phatic. C. Peformative. D. Interpersonal.

6) Unlike animal communication systems, human language is .

A. stimulus free

B. stimulus bound

C. under immediate stimulus control

D. stimulated by some occurrence of communal interest.

7) Which of the following is the most important function of language?

A. interpersonal function B. performative function

C. informative function D. recreational function

8) In different languages, different terms are used to express the animal “狗”, this shows

the nature of --- of human language.

A arbitrariness B cultural transmission C displacement D discreteness

9) Which of the following disciplines are related to applied linguistics?

A. statistics B. psycholinguistics

C. physics D. philosophy

10) has been widely accepted as the father of modem linguistics.

A. Chomsky B. Saussure C. Bloomfield D. John Lyons

3. Word Completion

Directions: Fill in the blanks with the most suitable words.

1) Design features, a framework proposed by the American linguist Charles Hockett, refer

to the ________ properties of human language that distinguishes it from any animal

system of communication.

2) ________ refers to the phenomenon that the sounds in a language are meaningfully

distinct. For instance, the difference between the sounds /p/ and /b/ is not actually very

great, but when these sounds are part of a language like English, they are used in such a

way that the occurrence of one rather than the other is meaningful.

3) In any language words can be used in new ways to mean new things and can be

combined into innumerable sentences based on limited rules. This feature is usually

termed p_______ or c________.

4) Language has many functions. We can use language to talk about language itself. This

function is m________ function.

5) Cultural transmission refers to the fact that language is c________ transmitted. It is

passed on from one generation to the next through teaching and learning, rather than by

i_________.

6) One general principle of linguistic analysis is the primacy of ________ over writing.

7) The ________ function refers to the use of language to communicate knowledge about

the world, to report events, to make statements, to give accounts, to explain relationships,

to relay messages and so on.

8) The ________ function refers to language used to ensure social maintenance. Phatic

communion is part of it. The term phatic communion introduced by the anthropologist

Bronislaw Malinowski refers to language used for establishing an atmosphere or

maintaining social contact rather than for exchanging facts.

9) Language is a system of arbitrary symbols used for human Communication.

10) Language has two levels. They are ______ level and ______ level.

11) Language is a ________ because every language consists of a set of rules which

underlie people’s actual speech or writing.

12) The _ function refers to language used in an attempt to control events once they

happen.

13) The design features of language are (1) (2) (3)

(4) (5) (6) and (7) _______.

14) By saying “language is arbitrary”, we mean that there is no logical connection between

meaning and .

15) The four principles in the linguistic study are (1) (2) (3)

and (4) .

4. True or False Questions

Directions: Decide whether the following statements are true or false. Write T for true

and F for false in the bracket before each of them.

1) ( ) The relation between form and meaning in human language is natural.

2) ( ) When language is used to get information from others, it serves an informative

function.

3) ( ) The reason for French to use cheval and for English to use horse to refer to the same

animal is inexplicable.

4) ( ) Most animal communication systems lack the primary level of articulation.

5) ( ) Language change is universal,ongoing and arbitrary.

6) ( ) Language is a system of arbitrary, written signs which permit all the people in a given

culture, or other people who have learned the system of that culture, to communicate or

interact.

7) ( ) In theory, the length of sentences is limited.

8) ( ) The relationship between the sounds and their meaning is arbitrary.

9) ( ) Linguistic symbols are a kind of visual symbols, which include vocal symbols.

10) ( ) Linguistic symbols are produced by human speech organs.

11) ( ) Every language has two levels: grammatically — meaningless and sound —

meaningful.

12) ( ) Such features of language as being creative, vocal, and arbitrary can differentiate

human languages from animal communicative systems.

13) ( ) Duality is one of the characteristics of human language. It refers to the fact that

language has two levels of structures: the system of sounds and the system of meanings.

14) ( ) Language is a means of verbal communication. Therefore, the communication way

used by the deaf-mute is not language.

15) ( ) Arbitrariness of language makes it potentially creative, and conventionality of

language makes a language be passed from generation to generation. As a foreign

language learner, the latter is more important for us.

5. Glossary translation

1) personal function

2) heauristic function

3) ideational function

4) interchangeability

5) 控制功能

6) 表现功能

7) 文化传递性

8) 分离性

9) 区别性特征

10) 不受时空限制的属性

11) Interactional function

12) instrumentational function

13) imaginative function

14) 寒暄功能

15) 元语言功能

16) Personal function

17) performative function

18) 娱乐功能

19) 信息功能

20) 人际功能

6. Short Essay Questions

1) What are the functions of language? Exemplify each function.

2) Explain what the term duality means as it is used to describe a property of human

language.

3) Is language productive or not? Why?

4) What is language?

5) What are the major design features of language? Please explain three of them with

examples.

Key to Chapter One

1. Define the followina terms

1) Discreteness refers to the phenomenon that the sounds in a language are meaningfully

distinct. For instance, the difference between the sounds /p/ and /b/ is not actually very great, but

when these sounds are part of a language like English, they are used in such a way that the

occurrence of one rather than the other is meaningful. The fact that the pronunciation of the

forms pad and bad leads to a distinction in meaning can only be due to the difference between the

sounds /p/ and /b/ in English. Each sound in the language is thought of as discrete. It is

possible to produce a range of sounds in a continuous stream which are all generally like the

sounds /p/ and /b/.

2) “Design features” refer to the defining properties of human language that tell the

difference between human language and any system of animal communication. They are

arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement, cultural transmission and interchangeability. (3

分)

3) “Arbitrariness” means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. A

dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig.

Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely arbitrary, because there

are cases where there are or at least seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of

echo Words, like “bang”, “crash”,”roar”,’ which are motivated in a certain sense. Secondly, some

compounds are not entirely arbitrary either. “Snow” and “storm” are arbitrary or unmotivated

words, while “snowstorm” is less so. So we can say “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.

4) Linguists refer “duality” of structure to the fact that in all languages so far investigated,

one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is analyzed in

terms of combinations of meaningful units (such as morphemes, words etc.); at the second, lower

level, it is seen as a sequence of segments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which

combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhuanglin et al., language is a system of two

sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. This is important for the workings of

language. A small number of sounds can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of

semantic units (words), and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite

number of sentences. (For example, we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of sentences!)

Duality makes it possible for a person to talk about anything within his knowledge. No animal

communication system enjoys this duality, or even approaches this honor.

5) “Displacement”, as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact that

one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In other words,

one can refer to real and unreal things, things of the past, of the present, of the future. Language

itself can be talked about too. People can use language’ to describe something that had occurred, is

occurring, or is to occur. But a dog could not bark for a bone to be lost. The bee’s System has a

small share of “displacement”, but it is an unspeakable tiny share.

6) Language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, but the details of

the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. It is true that the capacity for

language in human beings (N. Chomsky called it “language acquisition device”, or LAD) has a

geneticbasis, but the particular language a person learns to speak is a cultural one rather than a

genetic one like the dog’s barking system. If a human being is brought up in isolation he cannot

acquire language. The wolf-child reared by the wolves turned out to speak the wolf’s roaring

“tongue” when he was saved. And it was difficult for him to acquire human language.

7) The imaginative function refers to language used to create imaginary system, whether

these are literary works, philosophical systems or utopian visions on the one hand, or daydreams

and idle musings on the other hand. It is also language used for sheer joy of using language,

such as a baby’s babbling, a chanter’s chanting, a poet’s pleasuring.

8) The personal function refers to language used to express the individual’s feelings,

emotions and personality.

9) The heuristic function of language refers to language used in order to acquire knowledge

and understanding the world. The heuristic functioning provides a basis for the structure of

knowledge in the different disciplines. Language allows people to ask questions about the nature

of the world they live in and to construct possible answers.

10) Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

2. Multiple Choice

1) – 5): A C C C B 6) – 10): A C C B B

3. Word Completion.

1) defining 2) Descreteness 3）productivity or creativity 4) metalingual 5) culturally, instinct

or inheritance 6) speech 7) representational 8) interactional; 9) vocal;10) gramatically meaningful,

sound meaningless; 11) system; 12) regulatory 13) arbitrariness, duality, productivity, cultural

transmission, interchangeability, discreteness, displacement. 14) sound; 15) exhaustiveness,

economy, objectivity, consistency

4. True or False Questions

1 – 5: FFTFF 6 – 10: FFTFT 11 – 15: FFTFT

5. Glossary Translation

1) personal function: 人际功能

2) heauristic function： 启发功能

3) ideational function： 概念功能

4) interchangeability： 互换性

5) 控制功能： regulatory function

6) 表现功能: representational functin

7) 文化传递性: cultural transmisssion

8) 分离性: discreteness

9) 区别性特征: design features

10) 不受时空限制的属性: displacement

11) Interactional function: 互动功能

12) instrumentational function： 工具功能

13) imaginative function： 想象功能

14) 寒暄功能： phatic function

15) 元语言功能: metalingual function or metafunction of language

16) personal function: 自指性功能

17) performative function: 表达功能

18) 娱乐功能: recreational function

19) 信息功能: informative function

20) 人际功能: interpersonal function

6. Short Essay Questions

1) What are the functions of language? Exemplify each function.

According to Wang Gang (1988: 11), the functions of language can be mainly embodied in

three aspects. i) Language is a tool of human communication; ii) Language is a tool whereby

people learn about the world; iii) Language is a tool by which people create art.

As a matter of fact, different linguists have different terms for the various functions of

language. The British linguist M. A. K. Halliday uses the following terms to refer to the initial

functions of children’s language:

(1) Instrumental

The instrumental function of language refers to the fact that language allows speakers to get

things done. It allows them to control things in the environment. People can cause things to be

done and to happen through the use of words alone. An immediate contrast here is with the

animal world in which sounds are hardly used in this way, and, when they are, they are used in an

extremely limited degree. The instrumental function can be primitive too in human interaction.

Performative utterances such as the words which name a ship at a launching ceremony clearly

have instrumental functions if the right circumstances exist；they are acts, e.g. I name this ship

Liberty Bell.

(2) Regulatory

The regulatory function refers to language used in an attempt to control events once they

happen. Those events may involve the self as well as others. People do try to control

themselves through language, e.g. Why did I say that? / Steady! / And Let me think about that

again. Language helps to regulate encounters among people. Language provides devices for

regulating specific kinds of encounters and contains words for approving or disapproving and for

controlling or disrupting the behavior of others. It allows us to establish complex patterns of

organization in order to try to regulate behavior, from game playing to political organization, from

answering the telephone to addressing in foreign affairs. It is the regulatory function of language

that allows people some measure of control over events that occur in their lives.

(3)Representational

The representational function refers to the use of language to communicate knowledge about

the world, to report events, to make statements, to give accounts, to explain relationships, to relay

messages and so on. This function of language is represented by all kinds of record-keeping,

such as historical records, geographical surveys, business accounts, scientific reports, government

acts, and public data banks. It is an essential domain of language use, for the availability of this

material guarantees the knowledge-base of subsequent generations, which is a prerequisite of

social development.

(4) Interactional

The interactional function refers to language used to ensure social maintenance. Phatic

communion is part of it. The term phatic communion introduced by the anthropologist

Bronislaw Malinowski refers to language used for establishing an atmosphere or maintaining

social contact rather than for exchanging facts. A greeting such as how are you? is relatively

empty of content, and answers like fine or very well, thank you are equally empty, because the

speaker is not interested in the hearer’s health, but rather to demonstrate his politeness and general

attitude toward the other person when he gives a conversational greeting.

(5) Personal

The personal function refers to language used to express the individual’s feelings, emotions

and personality. A person’s individuality is usually characterized by his or her use of personal

function of communication. Each individual has a “voice” in what happens to him. He is free

to speak or not to speak, to say, as much or as little as he pleases, and to choose how to say what

he says. The use of language can tell the listener or reader a great deal about the speaker or

writer — in particular, about his regional origin, social background, level of education, occupation,

age, sex, and personality.

Language also provides the individual with a means to express feelings, whether outright in

the form of exclamations, endorsements, or curse, or much more subtly through a careful choice of

words. Many social situations display language used to foster a sense of identity: the shouting of

a crowd at a football match, the shouting of names or slogans at public meetings, the reactions of

the audience to television game shows, the shouts of affirmation at some religious meetings. For

example, the crowds attending President Regan’s pre-election meetings in 1984 repeatedly

shouted “Four more years!” which united among those who shared the same political views.

(6) Heuristic

The heuristic function refers to language used in order to acquire knowledge and

understanding the world. The heuristic functioning provides a basis for the structure of

knowledge in the different disciplines. Insofar as the inquiry into language itself, a necessary

result is the creation of a metalanguage, i.e. a language used to refer to language, containing terms

such as sound, syllable, word, structure, sentence, meaning and so on.

(7) Imaginative

The imaginative function refers to language used to create imaginary system, whether these

are literary works, philosophical systems or utopian visions on the one hand, or daydreams and

idle musings on the other hand. The imaginative function also allows people to consider not just

the real world but all possible worlds — and many impossible ones. Much literature is the most

obvious example to serve this function as an account of Robinson Crusoe in the deserted island.

The imaginative function enables life to be lived vicariously and helps satisfy numerous deep

artistic urges.

2) Explain what the term duality means as it is used to describe a property of human

language.

Language is organized at two levels or layers-- sounds and meaning-- simultaneously. This

property is called duality, or “double articulation”. In terms of speech production, we have the

physical level at which we can produce individual sounds, like n, b, and i. As individual sound,

none of these discrete forms has any intrinsic meaning. When we produce those sounds in a

particular combination, as in bin, we have another level producing a meaning, which is different

from the meaning of the combination in nib. So, at one level, we have distinct sounds, and at

another level, we have distinct meanings. This duality of levels is, in fact,: one of the most

economical features of human language, since with a limited set of distinct sounds we are capable

of producing a very large number of sound combinations (relatively finite words and infinite

number of sentences) which are distinct in meaning. No animal communication system has duality,

or ever comes near to possessing it.

3) Is language productive or not? Why?

(1) Language is productive or creative. (233) This means that users can understand and

produce sentences they have never heard before. Every day we send messages that have never

been sent before, and we understand novel messages. Much of them we say and hear for the first

time; yet there seems no problem of understanding. For example, the sentence” A red-eyed

elephant is dancing on the hotel bed” must be new to you and it does not describe a common

happening in the world. Nevertheless, nobody has any difficulty in understanding it.

(2) Productivity is unique to human language. Most animal communication systems appear to

be highly restricted with respect to the number of different signals that their users can send and

receive. For example, gibbon calls are not productive, for they draw all their calls from a limited

repertoire, which is rapidly exhausted, making any novelty impossible. Bee dancing is used only

to indicate food sources, which is the only message that can be sent through the dancing.

(3) The productivity or creativity of language partially. originates from its duality, because of

which the speaker is able to combine the basic linguistic units to form an infinite set of sentences,

most of which are never before produced or heard. The productivity of language also means its

potential to create endless sentences. It is the recursive nature of language that provides a

theoretical basis for this possibility.

4) What is language?

(1) It is very difficult to give this question a satisfactory definition. However, most linguists

would accept a tentative definition like this: language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used

for human communication. (2) Language must be a system, since elements in it are arranged

according to certain rules; they cannot be combined at will. If language were not systematic, it

could not be learned or used consistently. (3) Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no

intrinsic connection between the word pen and the thing we use to write with. The fact that

different languages have different words for it (钢笔 in Chinese for instance) speaks strongly for

the arbitrary nature of language. (4) This also explains the symbolic nature of language: words are

associated with objects, actions, ideas by convention. (5) We say language is vocal because the

primary medium is sound for all languages, no matter how well developed are their writing

systems. All evidence shows that writing systems came much later than the spoken forms and that

they are only attempts to capture sounds and meaning on paper (6) The term “human” in the

definition is meant to specify that language is ic; that is, it is very different from the

communication systems other forms of life possess.

5) What are the major design features of language? Please explain three of them

with examples.

(1) Displacement is one of the defining properties of human language, which refers to the

fact that human language can be used to talk about things that are present or not present, real or

not real, and about matters in the past, present or future, or in far-away places. In other words,

language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of its users.

This phenomenon is thought of as “displacement”, which can provide its users with an opportunity

to communicate about a wide range of subjects, free from any barriers caused by separation in

time and space. That is, the feature of displacement can enable us to talk about things and places

whose existence we cannot even be sure of. We can refer to mythical creatures, demons, fairies,

angels, Santa Claus, and recently invented characters such as superman. This feature is unique to

human language. No animal communication system possesses it. Some animal calls are often

uttered in response to immediate changes of situation. For instance, during the mating season, in

the present of danger or pain, animals will make calls. Once the danger or pain is missing, their

calls stop.

(2) Discreteness The sounds used in language are meaningfully distinct. For example, the

difference between the sounds b andp is actually not very great, but when these sounds are part of

a language like English, they are used in such a way that the occurrence of one rather than the

other is meaningful. The fact that the pronunciation of the forms pack and back leads to a

distinction in meaning can only be due to the difference between the sounds p and b in English.

This property of language is described as discreteness. Each sound in the language is treated as

discrete. It is possible; in fact, to produce a range of sounds in a continuous stream which are all

generally like the p and b sounds. However, that continuous stream will only be interpreted as

being either a p sound, or a b sound (or, possibly, as a non-sound) in the language. We have a very

discrete view of the sounds of our language and wherever a pronunciation falls within the

physically possible range of sounds, it will be interpreted as a linguistically specific and

meaningfully distinct sound

(3) Language is a system. It is organized into two levels simultaneously. We have distinct

sounds at the lower level (sound level), which is seen as a sequence of segments which have no

meaning in themselves. At the higher level, we have distinct meanings (meaningful level).

Language is analyzed in terms of combination of meaningful units. Then the meaningful units

(such as morphemes, words, etc.) at the higher level can be arranged and rearranged into an

infinite number of sentences. The organization of language into levels, one of sounds, the other

of meaning, is known as duality or double articulation. This unique feature of language

enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge. No animal communication

system possesses the feature of duality.