Exercisesto Linguistics
外语系
黄永亮
Chapter 1 Invitation to Linguistics
1.Define the following terms:
Langue: Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech munity.
Parole:parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use.
Prescriptive: Prescriptive and descriptive represent two different types of linguistic study. if the linguistic study aims to lay down rules for “correct and standard〞 behaviour in using language, i.e. to tell people what they should day and what they should not say, it is said to be prescriptive.
Descriptive: Prescriptive and descriptive represent two different types of linguistic study. If a linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, it is said to be descriptive; 
petence:Chomsky defines petence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language.
Performance: Chomsky defines performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic munication.
Synchronic: The description of a language at some point of time in history is a synchronic study;
Diachronic: The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study.
Linguistics：Linguistics may be defined as the systematic (or scientific) study of language.       
language： Language is a form of human munication by means of a system of symbols principally transmitted by vocal sounds.〞
2.Does the traffic light system have duality, why?
No. No discrete units on the first level that can be bined freely in the second level to form meaning. There is only simple one to one relationshipbetween signs and meaning, namely, re-stop, green-go and yellow-get ready to go or stop.
3.munication can take many forms, such as sign, speech, body language and facial expression. Do body language and facial expression share or lack the distinctive properties of human language?
Less arbitrary, lack duality, less creative, limited repertoire, emotional-oriented.
4.Why is petence and performance an importantdistinction in linguistics?
According to Chomsky, a language user’s underlying knowledge about the system of rule
s is called his linguistic petence. And performance refers to the actual enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinitenumbers of sentences and to recognizegrammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speaker’s petence is stable but his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. Thus, Chomsky proposed that linguists should focus on the study of petence, notperformance. The distinction of the two terms “ petence and performance〞 represents the orientation of linguistic study. So we can say petence and performance is an importantdistinction in linguistics.
5.In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar?
Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in the following basic ways:
Firstly, priority is given, as mentioned earlier, to spoken unity 教程language. Secondly, focus is on synchronic study of language, rather than on diachronic study of language. Thirdly, modern linguistics is descriptive rather than prescriptive in nature. Linguists endeavor to state objectively the regularities of a language. They aim at finding out how a language is
spoken: they do not attempt to tell people how it should be spoken. Fourthly, modern linguistics is theoretically rather than pedagogically oriented. Modern linguists strive to construct theories of language that can account for language in general. These features distinguished modern linguistics from traditionalgrammar. The two are plementary. Not contradictory. Knowledge of both is necessary for a language teacher: knowledge of the latter is necessary for a language learner.
Chapter 2 Phonetics
1. Give the description of the following sound segments in English
1)[ ] voiced dental fricative
2)[ ] voiceless alveolar fricative
3)[ ] velar nasal
4)[ ] voiced alveolar stop
5)[ ] voiceless bilabial stop
6)[ ] voiceless velar stop
7)[ ] (alveolar) lateral
8)[ ] high front lax unrounded vowel
9)[ :] high back tense rounded vowel
10)[ ] low back lax rounded vowel
2. How is the description of consonants different from that of vowels?
    Consonants are described according to manner and place of articulation while vowels are described with four criteria: part of the tongue that is raised; extent to which the tongue rises in the direction of the palate; kind of opening made at the lips; position of soft palate.
3. Which sound may be described as
    a voiced bilabial plosive  [ ]
    a voiced labio-dental fricative  [ ]
    a voiceless velar plosive  [ ]

版权声明：本站内容均来自互联网，仅供演示用，请勿用于商业和其他非法用途。如果侵犯了您的权益请与我们联系QQ:729038198，我们将在24小时内删除。