语言学教程测试题及标准答案

Chapter 1 Introductions to Linguistics

I. Choose the best answer. (20%)

1. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human

__________

A. contact B. communication C. relation D. community

2. Which of the following words is entirely arbitrary?

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

3. The function of the sentence “Water boils at 100 degrees Centigrade.” is

__________.

A. interrogative（疑问） B. directive C. informative D. performative

4. In Chinese when someone breaks a bowl or a plate the host or the people present are likely

to say“碎碎（岁岁）平安”as a means of controlling the forces which they believes feel might affect

their lives. Which functions does it perform?

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

5. Which of the following property of language enables language users to overcome the barriers

caused by time and place, due to this feature of language, speakers of a language are free to talk

about anything in any situation?

A. Transferability B. Duality C. Displacement D. Arbitrariness

6. 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. Performative D. Interpersonal

7. __________ refers to the actual realization of the ideal language user’s knowledge of the rules

of his language in utterances.

A. Performance B. Competence C. Langue D. Parole

8. When a dog is barking, you assume it is barking for something or at someone that exists

hear and now. It couldn’t be sorrowful for some lost love or lost bone. This indicates the design

feature of __________.

A. cultural transmission B. productivity C. displacement D. duality

9. __________ answers such questions as how we as infants acquire our first language.

A. Psycholinguistics pological linguistics

C. Sociolinguistics D. Applied linguistics

10. __________ deals with language application to other fields, particularly education.

A. Linguistic theory B. Practical linguistics

C. Applied linguistics D. Comparative linguistics

II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)

11. Language is a means of verbal communication. Therefore, the communication way used

by the deaf-mute is not language.F

12. Language change is universal, ongoing and ??

13. Speaking is the quickest and most efficient way of the human communication

??

14. Language is written because writing is the primary medium for all languages.F

15. We were all born with the ability to acquire language, which means the details of any

language system can be genetically transmitted.F

16. Only human beings are able to communicate.F

17. F. de Saussure, who made the distinction between langue and parole in the early 20th

century, was a French linguist.F Swiss

18. A study of the features of the English used in Shakespeare’s time is an example of the

diachronic study of language.F

19. Speech and writing came into being at much the same time in human history.F

20. All the languages in the world today have both spoken and written forms.F

III. Fill in the blanks. (10%)

21. Language, broadly speaking, is a means of __verbal_ communication.

22. 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

__creativity________.

23. Language has many functions. We can use language to talk about itself. This function is

___metalingual function_______.

24. Theory that primitive man made involuntary vocal noises while performing heavy work

has been called the __yo-he-ho________ theory.

25. Linguistics is the _scientific_________ study of language.

26. Modern linguistics is _descriptive_________ in the sense that the linguist tries to

discover what language is rather than lay down some rules for people to observe.

27. One general principle of linguistic analysis is the primacy of ___speech_______ over

writing.

28. The description of a language as it changes through time is a

_diachronic_linguistic________ study.

29. Saussure put forward two important concepts. _langue_________ refers to the abstract

linguistic system shared by all members of a speech community.

30. Linguistic potential is similar to Saussure’s langue and Chomsky’s

__competence________.

IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)

31. Design feature

Design feature: It refers to the defining properties of human language that tell the difference

between human language and any system of animal communication.

32. Displacement

Displacement: It means that human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and

concepts, which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication.

33. Competence

Competence: It is an essential part of performance. It is the speaker’s knowledge of his or her

language; that is, of its sound structure, its words, and its grammatical rules. Competence is, in a

way, an encyclopedia of language. Moreover, the knowledge involved in competence is generally

unconscious. A transformational-generative grammar is a model of competence.

34. Synchronic linguistics

Synchronic linguistics: It refers to the study of a language at a given point in time. The time

studied may be either the present or a particular point in the past; synchronic analyses can also be

made of dead languages, such as Latin. Synchronic linguistics is contrasted with diachronic

linguistics, the study of a language over a period of time.

V. Answer the following questions. (20%)

35. Why do people take duality as one of the important design features of human language?

Can you tell us what language will be if it has no such design feature? （南开大学，2004）

Duality makes our language productive. A large number of different units can be formed out of a

small number of elements – for instance, tens of thousands of words out of a small set of sounds,

around 48 in the case of the English language. And out of the huge number of words, there can be

astronomical number of possible sentences and phrases, which in turn can combine to form

unlimited number of texts. Most animal communication systems do not have this design feature of

human language. If language has no such design feature, then it will be like animal

communicational system which will be highly limited. It cannot produce a very large number of

sound combinations, e.g. words, which are distinct in meaning.

36. Why is it difficult to define language? （北京第二外国语大学，2004）

It is difficult to define language, as it is such a general term that covers too many things. Thus,

definitions for it all have their own special emphasis, and are not totally free from limitations.

VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)

37. How can a linguist make his analysis scientific? （青岛海洋大学，1999）

It should be guided by the four principles of science: exhaustiveness, consistency, economy and

objectivity and follow the scientific procedure: form hypothesis – collect data – check against the

observable facts – come to a conclusion.

I.

1~5 BACCC 6~10 BACAC

II.

11~15 FFTFF 16~20 FFFFF

III.

21. verbal 22. productivity / creativity

23. metalingual function 24. yo-he-ho

25. scientific 26. descriptive

27. speech 28. diachronic linguistic

29. langue 30. competence

Chapter 2 Speech Sounds

I. Choose the best answer. (20%)

1. Pitch variation is known as __________ when its patterns are imposed on sentences.

A. intonation B. tone C. pronunciation D. voice

2. Conventionally a __________ is put in slashes (/ /).

A. allophone B. phone [] C. phoneme // D. morpheme

3. An aspirated p, an unaspirated p and an unreleased p are __________ of the p phoneme.

A. analogues B. tagmemes C. morphemes D. allophones

4. The opening between the vocal cords is sometimes referred to as

__________.

A. glottis 声门 B. vocal cavity C. pharynx D. uvula

5. The diphthongs that are made with a movement of the tongue towards the center are

known as __________ diphthongs.??

A. wide B. closing C. narrow D. centering

6. A phoneme is a group of similar sounds called __________.

A. minimal pairs B. allomorphs C. phones D. allophones

7. Which branch of phonetics concerns the production of speech sounds?

A. Acoustic phonetics B. Articulatory phonetics

C. Auditory phonetics D. None of the above

8. Which one is different from the others according to places of articulation?

A. [n] B. [m] C. [ b ] D. [p]

9. Which vowel is different from the others according to the characteristics of vowels?

A. [i:] B. [ u ] C. [e] D. [ i ]

10. What kind of sounds can we make when the vocal cords are vibrating?

A. Voiceless B. Voiced C. Glottal stop D. Consonant

II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)

11. Suprasegmental phonology refers to the study of phonological properties of units larger

than the segment-phoneme, such as syllable, word and sentence.T

12. The air stream provided by the lungs has to undergo a number of modification to acquire

the quality of a speech sound.T

13. Two sounds are in free variation when they occur in the same environment and do not

contrast, namely, the substitution of one for the other does not produce a different word, but

merely a different pronunciation.T

14. [p] is a voiced bilabial stop.F

15. Acoustic phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech sounds.F

16. All syllables must have a nucleus but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda.T

17. When pure vowels or monophthongs are pronounced, no vowel glides take place.T

18. According to the length or tenseness of the pronunciation, vowels can be divided into

tense vs. lax or long vs. short.T

19. Received Pronunciation is the pronunciation accepted by most people.F

20. The maximal onset principle states that when there is a choice as to where to place a

consonant, it is put into the coda rather than the onset.F

III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)

21. Consonant sounds can be either _voiceless_________ or ___voiced_______, while all

vowel sounds are ___voiced_______.

22. Consonant sounds can also be made when two organs of speech in the mouth are brought

close together so that the air is pushed out between them, causing _friction_________.

23. The qualities of vowels depend upon the position of the ___tongue_______ and the lips.

24. One element in the description of vowels is the part of the tongue which is at the highest

point in the mouth. A second element is the ___height_______ to which that part of the tongue is

raised.

25. Consonants differ from vowels in that the latter are produced without

__obstruction________.

26. In phonological analysis the words fail / veil are distinguishable simply because of the

two phonemes /f/ - /v/. This is an example for illustrating __minimal pairs________.

27. In English there are a number of diphthongs__________, which are produced by moving

from one vowel position to another through intervening positions.

28. Coarticulation__________ refers to the phenomenon of sounds continually show the

influence of their neighbors.

29. __Phonemes________ is the smallest linguistic unit.

30. Speech takes place when the organs of speech move to produce patterns of sound. These

movements have an effect on the __air stream________ coming from the lungs.

IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)

31. Sound assimilation

Sound assimilation: Speech sounds seldom occur in isolation. In connected speech, under the

influence of their neighbors, are replaced by other sounds. Sometimes two neighboring sounds

influence each other and are replaced by a third sound which is different from both original sounds.

This process is called sound assimilation.

32. Suprasegmental feature

Suprasegmental feature: The phonetic features that occur above the level of the segments are

called suprasegmental features; these are the phonological properties of such units as the syllable,

the word, and the sentence. The main suprasegmental ones includes stress, intonation, and tone.

33. Complementary distribution

Complementary distribution: The different allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the

same phonetic context. When two or more allophones of one phoneme never occur in the same

linguistic environment they are said to be in complementary distribution.

34. Distinctive features

Distinctive features: It refers to the features that can distinguish one phoneme from another. If we

can group the phonemes into two categories: one with this feature and the other without, this

feature is called a distinctive feature.

V. Answer the following questions. (20%)

35. What is acoustic phonetics?（中国人民大学，2003）

Acoustic phonetics deals with the transmission of speech sounds through the air. When a speech

sound is produced it causes minor air disturbances (sound waves). Various instruments are used to

measure the characteristics of these sound waves.

36. What are the differences between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds in terms of

articulation?（南开大学，2004）

When the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded.

Sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless; consonants [p, s, t] are produced in this

way. But when the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them

apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as

voiced. [b, z, d] are voiced consonants.

VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)

37. Write the symbol that corresponds to each of the following phonetic descriptions; then

give an English word that contains this sound. Example: voiced alveolar stop [d] dog. （青岛海洋

大学，1999）

(1) voiceless bilabial unaspirated stop

(2) low front vowel

(3) lateral liquid

(4) velar nasal

(5) voiced interdental fricative

答案I.

1~5 ACDAA 6~10 DBABB

II.

11~15 TTTFF 16~20 TTTFF

III.

21. voiced, voiceless, voiced 22. friction

23. tongue 24. height

25. obstruction 26. minimal pairs

27. diphthongs 28. Co-articulation

29. Phonemes 30. air stream

36.

Chapter 3 Lexicon

I. Choose the best answer. (20%)

1. Nouns, verbs and adjectives can be classified as __________.

A. lexical words B. grammatical words

C. function words D. form words

2. Morphemes that represent tense, number, gender and case are called __________

morpheme.

A. inflectional B. free C. bound D. derivational

3. There are __________ morphemes in the word +nation+al+iz+ation

A. three B. four C. five D. six

4. In English –ise and –tion are called __________.

A. prefixes B. suffixes C. infixes D. stems

5. The three subtypes of affixes are: prefix, suffix and __________.

A. derivational affix B. inflectional affix C. infix D. back-formation

6. __________ is a way in which new words may be formed from already existing words by

subtracting an affix which is thought to be part of the old word.

A. affixation B. back-formation C. insertion D. addition

7. The word TB is formed in the way of __________.

A. acronymy B. clipping C. initialism D. blending

8. The words like comsat and sitcom are formed by __________.

A. blending B. clipping C. back-formation D. acronymy

9. The stem of disagreements is __________.

A. agreement B. agree C. disagree D. disagreement

10. All of them are meaningful except for __________.

A. lexeme B. phoneme C. morpheme D. allomorph

II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)

11. Phonetically, the stress of a compound always falls on the first element, while the second

element receives secondary stress.

12. Fore as in foretell is both a prefix and a bound morpheme.

13. Base refers to the part of the word that remains when all inflectional affixes are removed.

14. In most cases, prefixes change the meaning of the base whereas suffixes change the

word-class of the base.

15. Conversion from noun to verb is the most productive process of a word.

16. Reduplicative compound is formed by repeating the same morpheme of a word.

17. The words whimper, whisper and whistle are formed in the way of onomatopoeia.

18. In most cases, the number of syllables of a word corresponds to the number of

morphemes.

19. Back-formation is a productive way of word-formations.

20. Inflection is a particular way of word-formations.

III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)

21. An __________ is pronounced letter by letter, while an __________ is pronounced as a

word.

22. Lexicon, in most cases, is synonymous with __________.

23. Orthographically, compounds are written in three ways: __________, __________ and

__________.

24. All words may be said to contain a root __________.

25. A small set of conjunctions, prepositions and pronouns belong to __________ class,

while the largest part of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs belongs to __________ class.

26. __________ is a reverse process of derivation, and therefore is a process of shortening.

27. __________ is extremely productive, because English had lost most of its inflectional

endings by the end of Middle English period, which facilitated the use of words interchangeably

as verbs or nouns, verbs or adjectives, and vice versa.

28. Words are divided into simple, compound and derived words on the __________ level.

29. A word formed by derivation is called a __________, and a word formed by

compounding is called a __________.

30. Bound morphemes are classified into two types: __________ and __________.

IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)

31. Blending

32. Allomorph

33. Closed-class word

34. Morphological rule

V. Answer the following questions. (20%)

35. How many types of morphemes are there in the English language? What are they? （厦

门大学，2003）

36. What are the main features of the English compounds?

VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)

37. Match the terms under COLUMN I with the underlined forms from COLUMN II （武汉

大学，2004）

I II

(1) acronym a. foe

(2) free morpheme b. subconscious

(3) derivational morpheme c. UNESCO

(4) inflectional morpheme d. overwhelmed

(5) prefix e. calculation

Key:

I.

1~5 AACBB 6~10 BCADB

II.

11~15 FTFTT 16~20 FTFFF

III.

21. initialism, acronym 22. vocabulary

23. solid, hyphenated, open 24. morpheme

25. close, open 26. back-formation

27. conversion 28. morpheme

29. derivative, compound 30. affix, bound root

IV.

31. Blending: It is a process of word-formation in which a new word is formed by combining

the meanings and sounds of two words, one of which is not in its full form or both of which are

not in their full forms, like newscast (news + broadcast), brunch (breakfast + lunch)

32. Allomorph: It is any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by position or

adjoining sounds.

33. Close-class word: It is a word whose membership is fixed or limited. Pronouns,

prepositions, conjunctions, articles, etc. are all closed-class words.

34. Morphological rule: It is the rule that governs which affix can be added to what type of

base to form a new word, e.g. –ly can be added to a noun to form an adjective.

V.

Omit.

VI.

37.

(1) c (2) a (3) e (4) d (5) b

Chapter 4 Syntax

I. Choose the best answer. (20%)

1. The sentence structure is ________.

A. only linear B. only hierarchical

C. complex D. both linear and hierarchical

2. The syntactic rules of any language are ____ in number.

A. large B. small C. finite D. infinite

3. The ________ rules are the rules that group words and phrases to form grammatical

sentences.

A. lexical B. morphological C. linguistic D. combinational

4. A sentence is considered ____ when it does not conform to the grammati¬cal knowledge

in the mind of native speakers.

A. right B. wrong C. grammatical D. ungrammatical

5. A __________ in the embedded clause refers to the introductory word that introduces the

embedded clause.

A. coordinator B. particle C. preposition D. subordinator

6. Phrase structure rules have ____ properties.

A. recursive B. grammatical C. social D. functional

7. Phrase structure rules allow us to better understand _____________.

A. how words and phrases form sentences.

B. what constitutes the grammaticality of strings of words

C. how people produce and recognize possible sentences

D. all of the above.

8. The head of the phrase “the city Rome” is __________.

A. the city B. Rome C. city D. the city Rome

9. The phrase “on the shelf” belongs to __________ construction.

A. endocentric B. exocentric C. subordinate D. coordinate

10. The sentence “They were wanted to remain quiet and not to expose themselves.” is a

__________ sentence.

A. simple B. coordinate C. compound D. complex

II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)

11. Universally found in the grammars of all human languages, syntactic rules that comprise the

system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speaker are known as linguistic

competence.

12. The syntactic rules of any language are finite in number, but there is no limit to the number

of sentences native speakers of that language are able to produce and comprehend.

13. In a complex sentence, the two clauses hold unequal status, one subordinating the other.

14. Constituents that can be substituted for one another without loss of grammaticality belong to

the same syntactic category.

15. Minor lexical categories are open because these categories are not fixed and new members

are allowed for.

16. In English syntactic analysis, four phrasal categories are commonly recognized and

discussed, namely, noun phrase, verb phrase, infinitive phrase, and auxiliary phrase.

17. In English the subject usually precedes the verb and the direct object usually follows the

verb.

18. What is actually internalized in the mind of a native speaker is a complete list of words and

phrases rather than grammatical knowledge.

19. A noun phrase must contain a noun, but other elements are optional.

20. It is believed that phrase structure rules, with the insertion of the lexicon, generate sentences

at the level of D-structure.

III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)

21. A __________ sentence consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate

and stands alone as its own sentence.

22. A __________ is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to

form a complete statement, question or command.

23. A __________ may be a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence that usually precedes the

predicate.

24. The part of a sentence which comprises a finite verb or a verb phrase and which says

something about the subject is grammatically called __________.

25. A __________ sentence contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the

other.

26. In the complex sentence, the incorporated or subordinate clause is normally called an

__________ clause.

27. Major lexical categories are __________ categories in the sense that new words are

constantly added.

28. __________ condition on case assignment states that a case assignor and a case recipient

should stay adjacent to each other.

29. __________ are syntactic options of UG that allow general principles to operate in one

way or another and contribute to significant linguistic variations between and among

natural languages.

30. The theory of __________ condition explains the fact that noun phrases appear only in

subject and object positions.

IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)

31. Syntax

32. IC analysis

33. Hierarchical structure

34. Trace theory

V. Answer the following questions. (20%)

35. What are endocentric construction and exocentric construction? （武汉大学，2004）

36. Distinguish the two possible meanings of “more beautiful flowers” by means of IC analysis.

（北京第二外国语大学，2004）

VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)

37. Draw a tree diagram according to the PS rules to show the deep structure of the sentence:

The student wrote a letter yesterday.

Key:

I.

1~5 DCDDD 6~10 ADDBA

II.

11~15 TTTTF 16~20 FTFTT

III.

21. simple 22. sentence

23. subject 24. predicate

25. complex 26. embedded

27. open 28. Adjacency

29. Parameters 30. Case

IV.

31. Syntax: Syntax refers to the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences

in a language, or simply, the study of the formation of sentences.

32. IC analysis: Immediate constituent analysis, IC analysis for short, refers to the analysis of a

sentence in terms of its immediate constituents – word groups (phrases), which are in turn

analyzed into the immediate constituents of their own, and the process goes on until the ultimate

sake of convenience.

33. Hierarchical structure: It is the sentence structure that groups words into structural

constituents and shows the syntactic category of each structural constituent, such as NP, VP and PP.

34. Trace theory: After the movement of an element in a sentence there will be a trace left in the

original position. This is the notion trace in T-G grammar. It’s suggested that if we have the notion

trace, all the necessary information for semantic interpretation may come from the surface

structure. E.g. The passive Dams are built by beavers. differs from the active Beavers built dams.

in implying that all dams are built by beavers. If we add a trace element represented by the letter t

after built in the passive as Dams are built t by beavers, then the deep structure information that

the word dams was originally the object of built is also captured by the surface structure. Trace

theory proves to be not only theoretically significant but also empirically valid.

V.

35.

An endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent, or approaching

equivalence, to one of its constituents, which serves as the center, or head, of the whole. A typical

example is the three small children with children as its head. The exocentric construction, opposite

to the first type, is defined negatively as a construction whose distribution is not functionally

equivalent to any of its constituents. Prepositional phrasal like on the shelf are typical examples of

this type.

36.

(1) more | beautiful flowers

(2) more beautiful | flowers

Chapter 5 Meaning

[Mainly taken from lxm1000w’s exercises. – icywarmtea]

I. Choose the best answer. (20%)

1. The naming theory is advanced by ________.

A. Plato B. Bloomfield C. Geoffrey Leech D. Firth

2. “We shall know a word by the company it keeps.” This statement represents _______.

A. the conceptualist view B. contexutalism

C. the naming theory D. behaviorism

3. Which of the following is NOT true?

A. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.

B. Sense is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form.

C. Sense is abstract and decontextualized.

D. Sense is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are not interested in.

4. “Can I borrow your bike?”_______ “You have a bike.”

A. is synonymous with B. is inconsistent with

C. entails D. presupposes

5. ___________ is a way in which the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning

components, called semantic features.

A. Predication analysis B. Componential analysis

C. Phonemic analysis D. Grammatical analysis

6. “Alive” and “dead” are ______________.

A. gradable antonyms B. relational antonyms

C. complementary antonyms D. None of the above

7. _________ deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic

world of experience.

A. Reference B. Concept C. Semantics D. Sense

8. ___________ refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same

form.

A. Polysemy B. Synonymy C. Homonymy D. Hyponymy

9. Words that are close in meaning are called ______________.

A. homonyms B. polysemies C. hyponyms D. synonyms

10. The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by _______.

A. grammatical rules B. selectional restrictions

C. semantic rules D. semantic features

II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)

11. Dialectal synonyms can often be found in different regional dialects such as British English

and American English but cannot be found within the variety itself, for example, within British

English or American English.

12. Sense is concerned with the relationship between the linguistic element and the

non-linguistic world of experience, while the reference deals with the inherent meaning of the

linguistic form.

13. Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations.

14. In semantics, meaning of language is considered as the intrinsic and inherent relation to the

physical world of experience.

15. Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce

meaning to observable contexts.

16. Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the situation in which

the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.

17. The meaning of a sentence is the sum total of the meanings of all its components.

18. Most languages have sets of lexical items similar in meaning but ranked differently

according to their degree of formality.

19. “It is hot.” is a no-place predication because it contains no argument.

20. In grammatical analysis, the sentence is taken to be the basic unit, but in semantic analysis of

a sentence, the basic unit is predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.

III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)

21. __________ can be defined as the study of meaning.

22. The conceptualist view holds that there is no __________ link between a linguistic form and

what it refers to.