湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
35. Explain the following remarks with examples or make some comments.
“Both semantics and pragmatics are concerned with meaning, but the difference between them can be traced to two different uses of the verb mean: (a) What does X mean? (b) What did you mean by X?” （东北师范大学，2006）
36. Do you think B is cooperative in the following dialogue? Support your argument with
Cooperative Principle. （南开大学，2004） A: When is the bus coming? B: There has been an accident further up the road.
VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)
37. What is the function of context in communication? Try to explain the following utterances
rather than just state facts. (1) The room is messy. (2) It would be good if she had a green skirt on.
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
Test Seven: Language, Culture and Society
I. Choose the best answer. (20%)
1. _______ is concerned with the social significance of language variation and language use in
different speech communities. A. Psycholinguistics B. Sociolinguistics C. Applied linguistics D. General linguistics
2. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its __________.
A. use of words B. use of structures C. accent D. morphemes
3. __________ is speech variation according to the particular area where a speaker comes from.
A. Regional variation B. Language variation C. Social variation D. Register variation 4. _______ are the major source of regional variation of language.
A. Geographical barriers
B. Loyalty to and confidence in one’s native speech
C. Physical discomfort and psychological resistance to change D. Social barriers
5. _________ means that certain authorities, such as the government choose, a particular speech
variety, standardize it and spread the use of it across regional boundaries. A. Language interference B. Language changes C. Language planning D. Language transfer
6. _________ in a person’s speech or writing usually ranges on a continuum from casual or
colloquial to formal or polite according to the type of communicative situation. A. Regional variation B. Changes in emotions C. Variation in connotations D. Stylistic variation
7. A ____ is a variety of language that serves as a medium of communication among groups of
people for diverse linguistic backgrounds. A. lingua franca B. register C. Creole D. national language
8. Although _______ are simplified languages with reduced grammatical features, they are
rule-governed, like any human language. A. vernacular languages B. creoles C. pidgins D. sociolects 9. 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 10. 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
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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 as a means of social communication is a homogeneous system with a
homogeneous group of speakers.
12. The goal of sociolinguistics is to explore the nature of language variation and language use
among a variety of speech communities and in different social situations.
13. From the sociolinguistic perspective, the term “speech variety” can not be used to refer to
standard language, vernacular language, dialect or pidgin.
14. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its grammar and uses of
vocabulary.
15. A person’s social backgrounds do not exert a shaping influence on his choice of linguistic
features.
16. Every speaker of a language is, in a stricter sense, a speaker of a distinct idiolect.
17. A lingua franca can only be used within a particular country for communication among
groups of people with different linguistic backgrounds.
18. A pidgin usually reflects the influence of the higher, or dominant, language in its lexicon and
that of the lower language in their phonology and occasionally syntax. 19. Bilingualism and diglossia mean the same thing.
20. The use of euphemisms has the effect of removing derogatory overtones and the
disassociative effect as such is usually long-lasting.
III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)
21. The social group isolated for any given study is called the speech __________.
22. Speech __________ refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or group
of speakers.
23. From the sociolinguistic perspective, a speech variety is no more than a __________ variety
of a language.
24. Language standardization is also called language __________.
25. Social variation gives rise to __________ which are subdivisible into smaller speech
categories that reflect their socioeconomic, educational, occupational background, etc.
26. __________ variation in a person’s speech or writing usually ranges on a continuum from
casual or colloquial to formal or polite according to the type of communicative situation. 27. A regional dialect may gain status and become standardized as the national or __________
language of a country.
28. The standard language is a __________, socially prestigious dialect of language.
29. Language varieties other than the standard are called nonstandard, or __________ languages. 30. A pidgin typically lacks in __________ morphemes.
IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)
31. Lingua franca 32. Regional dialect
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
33. 34. V. 35.
Register
Sociolinguistics
Answer the following questions. (20%)
Is American English superior to African English? Why or why not? （中国人民大学，2003） words, such as uncle and aunt, reflect the cultural differences between English and Chinese? （东北师范大学，2004）
36. If we take it as rule that language is intimately related to culture, then how do the kinship
VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)
37. Explain the differences between registers and regional/social dialects. Give examples if
necessary. （东北师范大学，2005）
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
Test Eight: Theories and Schools of Modern Linguistics
I. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Choose the best answer. (20%)
The person who is often described as “father of modern linguistics” is __________.. A. Firth B. Saussure C. Halliday D. Chomsky
The most important contribution of the Prague School to linguistics is that it sees language in terms of __________. A. function B. meaning C. signs D. system The principal representative of American descriptive linguistics is __________. A. Boas B. Sapir C. Bloomfield D. Harris
Generally speaking, the __________ specifies whether a certain tagmeme is in the position of the Nucleus or of the Margin in the structure. A. Slot B. Class C. Role D. Cohesion
__________ Grammar is the most widespread and the best understood method of discussing Indo-European languages. A. Traditional B. Structural C. Functional D. Generative __________ Grammar started from the American linguist Sydney M. Lamb in the late 1950s and the early 1960s. A. Stratificational B. Case C. Relational D. Montague
In Halliday’s view, the __________ function is the function that the child uses to know about his surroundings. A. personal B. heuristic C. imaginative D. informative The rheme in the sentence “On it stood Jane” is __________. A. On it B. stood C. On it stood D. Jane Chomsky follows __________ in philosophy and mentalism in psychology. A. empiricism B. behaviorism C. relationalism D. mentalism TG grammar has seen __________ stages of development. A. three B. four C. five D. six
8. 9. 10.
II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)
11. Following Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole, Trubetzkoy argued that
phonetics belonged to langue whereas phonology belonged to parole.
12. The subject-predicate distinction is the same as the theme and rheme contrast. 13. London School is also known as systemic linguistics and functional linguistics.
14. According to Firth, a system is a set of mutually exclusive options that come into play at
some point in a linguistic structure.
15. American Structuralism is a branch of diachronic linguistics that emerged independently in
the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century.
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