语言学期末复习题

Decide whether each of the following statements is true of false.

1. Both semantics and pragmatics study how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.

2. Pragmatics treats the meaning of language as something intrinsic and inherent.

3. It would be impossible to give an adequate description of meaning if the context of language use was left unconsidered.

4. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered.

5. The major difference between a sentence and an utterance is that a sentence is not uttered while an utterance is.

6. The meaning of a sentence is abstract, but context-dependent.

7. The meaning of an utterance is decontextualized, therefore stable.

8. Utterances always take the form of complete sentences.

9. Speech act theory was originated with the British philosopher John Searle.

10. Speech act theory started in the late 50’s of the 20th century.

11. Austin made the distinction between a constative and a performative.

12. Perlocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention.

Fill in each blank below with one word which begins with the letter given.

1. P______ is the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.

2. What essentially distinguish s_____ and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered.

3. The notion of c____ is essential to the pragmatic study of language.

4. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes an u_____.

5. The meaning of a sentence is a_____, and decontextualized.

6. C_____ were statements that either state or describe, and were thus verifiable.

7. P_____ were sentences that did not state a fact or describe a state, and were not verifiable.

8. A l_____ act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.

9. An i_____ act is the act of expressing the speakers’ intention; it is the act performed in saying something.

10. There are four maxims under the cooperative principle: the maxim of q____, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of maner.

Define the following linguistic terms briefly.

1. pragmatics

2. context

3. utterance meaning

4. sentence meaning

5. illocutionary act

6. perlocutionary act

7. Cooperative Principle

Answer the following questions briefly. Give examples for illustration if necessary.

1. How are semantics and pragmatics different from each other?

2. How does a sentence meaning differ from an utterance meaning?

1. Seale classified illocutionary acts into five categories. Discuss each of them in detail with examples.

2. What are the four maxims of the cooperative principle? Try to give your own examples to show how flouting these maxims can give rise to conversational implicature?

Chapter Eight: Sociolinguistics

Fill in the blanks with one word which begins with the letter given.

1. A e_____ is a mild, indirect or less offensive word or expression substituted when the speaker or writer fears more direct, or offensive wording might be harsh, unpleasantly direct, or offensive.

2. R_____ are language varieties appropriate for use in particular speech

situation.

3. S____ are varieties of language used by people belonging to particular social classes.

4. The s_____ language of many countries is designated as the national or official language.

5. B_______ refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard languages are used either by an individual or by a group of speakers.

Choose the best answer for each of the following statements.

1. The goal of _____ is to explore the nature of language variation and language use among a variety of speech communities and different social situation.

A. psycholinguistics B. sociolinguistics

C. historical linguistics D. general linguistics

2. Black English is probably the most widespread and most familiar _____ variety of the English language.

A. regional B. ethnic C. social D. lower class

3. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its _____.

A. use of words B. use of structures

C. accent D. morphemes

4. In normal situations, ______ speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than their _____ counterparts with the same social background.

A. female; male B. male; female

C. old; young D. young; old

5. A linguistic ____ refers to a word or expression that is prohibited by the “polite” society from general use.

A. slang B. euphemism

C. jargon D. taboo

Answer the following questions briefly. Give examples for illustration if necessary.

1. How is language related to society?

2. What is meant by the term idiolect?

3. What is a pidgin? And how my it be distinguished from a creole?

4. How do bilingualism and diglossia differ, and what do they have in common?

Chapter nine Psycholinguistics

Define the following terms briefly.

1. psycholinguistics.

2. language comprehension

Answer the following questions briefly. Give examples to illustrate if necessary.

1. “I know what I want to say, but I can’t find the word.” What implication does this phenomenon have for the language and thought controversy?

2. How are language and thought related to each other?

Chapter 11 SLA

Decide whether each of the following statements is true or false.

1. L1 development and L2 development seem to involve the same process.

2.The capacity to acquire one’s first language is a fundamental human trait that all human beings are equally well possessed with.

3. All normal children have equal ability to acquire their first language.

4. Children follow a similar acquisition schedule of predictable stages along the route of language development across cultures, though there is an idiosyncratic variation in the amount of time that takes individuals to master different aspects of the grammar.

5. Humans can be said to be predisposed and biologically programmed to acquire at least one language.

6. Language acquisition is primarily the acquisition of the vocabulary and the meaning of language.

7. Children who grow up in culture where caretaker speech is absent acquire their native language more slowly than children who are exposed to caretaker speech.

8. In mother tongue acquisition, normal children are not necessarily equally successful.

9. For the vast majority of children, language development occurs spontaneously and require little conscious instruction on the part of adults.

10. Correction and reinforcement are not key factors in child language development as they were claimed to be.

11. Observations of children in different language areas of the world reveal that the development states are similar, possibly universal, whatever the nature of input.

12. In general, the two-word stage begins roughly in the second half of the child’s first year.

13. Children’s two-word expressions are absent of syntactic or morphological markers.

14. Children first acquire the sounds in all languages of the world, no matter what language they are exposed to, and in late stages acquire the more difficult sounds.

15. Language acquisition begins at about the same time as lateralization does and is normally complete, as far as the essentials are concerned, by the time that the process of lateralization comes to an end.

Define the following terms briefly.

1. first language acquisition

2. behaviorist approach

3. innateness approach

4. second language acquisition

5. social interactionist approach

6. critical period hypothesis

7. contrastive analysis

8. error analysis

9. language aptitude

10. learning strategies

11. interlanguage

12. fossilization

Answer the following questions briefly. Give examples for illustration if

necessary.

1. What is the role of imitation in first language acquisition?

2. What are the major stages that a child has to follow in first language development? What are the features of the linguistic forms at each stage?

3. What is the role of correction and reinforcement in first language acquisition?

4. Why do we say language acquisition is primarily the acquisition of the grammatical system of language?

5. How do the learner factors potentially influence the way in which a second language is acquired?

6. What happens when an interlanguage fossilizes? Have you ever experienced any fossilization in your language learning? Do you think fossilization can be reserved?

7. Do you think external factors are important for second language acquisition? Why?