湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
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.
12. Language change is universal, ongoing and arbitrary.
13. Speaking is the quickest and most efficient way of the human communication systems. 14. Language is written because writing is the primary medium for all languages.
15. We were all born with the ability to acquire language, which means the details of any
language system can be genetically transmitted. 16. Only human beings are able to communicate.
17. F. de Saussure, who made the distinction between langue and parole in the early 20th century,
was a French linguist.
18. A study of the features of the English used in Shakespeare’s time is an example of the
diachronic study of language.
19. Speech and writing came into being at much the same time in human history. 20. All the languages in the world today have both spoken and written forms.
III. Fill in the blanks. (10%)
21. Language, broadly speaking, is a means of __________ 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 __________.
23. Language has many functions. We can use language to talk about itself. This function is
__________.
24. Theory that primitive man made involuntary vocal noises while performing heavy work has
been called the __________ theory.
25. Linguistics is the __________ study of language.
26. Modern linguistics is __________ 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 __________ over writing. 28. The description of a language as it changes through time is a __________ study.
29. Saussure put forward two important concepts. __________ 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 __________.
IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)
31. Design feature 32. Displacement 33. Competence
34. Synchronic linguistics
V. Answer the following questions. (20%)
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
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） 36. Why is it difficult to define language? （北京第二外国语大学，2004）
VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)
37. How can a linguist make his analysis scientific? （青岛海洋大学，1999）
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
Test Two: Phonetics and Phonology
I. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Choose the best answer. (20%)
Pitch variation is known as __________ when its patterns are imposed on sentences. A. intonation B. tone C. pronunciation D. voice Conventionally a __________ is put in slashes (/ /). A. allophone B. phone C. phoneme D. morpheme An aspirated p, an unaspirated p and an unreleased p are __________ of the p phoneme. A. analogues B. tagmemes C. morphemes D. allophones The opening between the vocal cords is sometimes referred to as __________. A. glottis B. vocal cavity C. pharynx D. uvula
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 A phoneme is a group of similar sounds called __________. A. minimal pairs B. allomorphs C. phones D. allophones Which branch of phonetics concerns the production of speech sounds? A. Acoustic phonetics B. Articulatory phonetics C. Auditory phonetics D. None of the above Which one is different from the others according to places of articulation? A. [n] B. [m] C. [b] D. [p] Which vowel is different from the others according to the characteristics of vowels? A. [i:] B. [u] C. [e] D. [i] What kind of sounds can we make when the vocal cords are vibrating? A. Voiceless B. Voiced C. Glottal stop D. Consonant
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
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.
12. The air stream provided by the lungs has to undergo a number of modification to acquire the
quality of a speech sound.
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. 14. [p] is a voiced bilabial stop.
15. Acoustic phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech sounds.
16. All syllables must have a nucleus but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda. 17. When pure vowels or monophthongs are pronounced, no vowel glides take place.
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
18. According to the length or tenseness of the pronunciation, vowels can be divided into tense
vs. lax or long vs. short.
19. Received Pronunciation is the pronunciation accepted by most people.
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.
III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)
21. Consonant sounds can be either __________ or __________, while all vowel sounds are
__________.
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 __________. 23. The qualities of vowels depend upon the position of the __________ 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 __________ to which that part of the tongue is raised.
25. Consonants differ from vowels in that the latter are produced without __________.
26. In phonological analysis the words fail / veil are distinguishable simply because of the two
phonemes /f/ - /v/. This is an example for illustrating __________.
27. In English there are a number of __________, which are produced by moving from one
vowel position to another through intervening positions.
28. __________ refers to the phenomenon of sounds continually show the influence of their
neighbors.
29. __________ 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 __________ coming from the lungs.
IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)
31. Sound assimilation 32. Suprasegmental feature 33. Complementary distribution 34. Distinctive features
V. Answer the following questions. (20%)
35. What is acoustic phonetics?（中国人民大学，2003）
36. What are the differences between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds in terms of articulation?
（南开大学，2004）
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
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
大学，1999）
(1) voiceless bilabial unaspirated stop (2) low front vowel (3) lateral liquid (4) velar nasal
(5) voiced interdental fricative
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