are influenced by their respective cultural context and thus form respective systems of pronunciation, words and even grammar. 36.
In China, Chinese has a more strict and complex relationship system. So in Chinese there are a lot more kinship words than in English. VI. 37.
(Omit.)
Chapter 8 Language in Use
I. Choose the best answer. (20%)
1. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning _________ is considered.
A. reference B. speech act C. practical usage D. context 2. A sentence is a _________ concept, and the meaning of a sentence is often studied in isolation.
A. pragmatic B. grammatical C. mental D. conceptual 3. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes a (n) _________.
A. constative B. directive C. utterance D. expressive 4. Which of the following is true?
A. Utterances usually do not take the form of sentences. B. Some utterances cannot be restored to complete sentences. C. No utterances can take the form of sentences.
D. All utterances can be restored to complete sentences.
5. Speech act theory did not come into being until __________.
A. in the late 50’s of the 20the century B. in the early 1950’s C. in the late 1960’s D. in the early 21st century
6. __________ is the act performed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance.
A. A locutionary act B. An illocutionary act C. A perlocutionary act D. A performative act 7. According to Searle, the illocutionary point of the representative is ______. A. to get the hearer to do something
B. to commit the speaker to something’s being the case C. to commit the speaker to some future course of action
D. to express the feelings or attitude towards an existing state of affairs 8. All the acts that belong to the same category share the same purpose, but they differ __________.
A. in their illocutionary acts B. in their intentions expressed C. in their strength or force D. in their effect brought about 9. __________ is advanced by Paul Grice
A. Cooperative Principle B. Politeness Principle C. The General Principle of Universal Grammar D. Adjacency Principle 10. When any of the maxims under the cooperative principle is flouted, _______ might arise.
A. impoliteness B. contradictions
C. mutual understanding D. conversational implicatures
II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)
11. Pragmatics treats the meaning of language as something intrinsic and inherent. 12. It would be impossible to give an adequate description of meaning if the context of language use was left unconsidered.
13. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered.
14. The major difference between a sentence and an utterance is that a sentence is not uttered while an utterance is.
15. The meaning of a sentence is abstract, but context-dependent. 16. The meaning of an utterance is decontexualized, therefore stable. 17. Utterances always take the form of complete sentences
18. Speech act theory was originated with the British philosopher John Searle. 19. Speech act theory started in the late 50’s of the 20th century. 20. Austin made the distinction between a constative and a performative.
III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)
21. The notion of __________ is essential to the pragmatic study of language. 22. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes an __________.
23. The meaning of a sentence is __________, and decontexualized.
24. __________ were statements that either state or describe, and were thus verifiable.
25. __________ were sentences that did not state a fact or describe a state, and were not verifiable.
26. A(n) __________ act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology. 27. A(n) __________ act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention; it is the act performed in saying something.
28. A(n) _________ is commit the speaker himself to some future course of action. 29. A(n) ________ is to express feelings or attitude towards an existing state. 30. There are four maxims under the cooperative principle: the maxim of
__________, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner.
IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)
31. Conversational implicature 32. Performative 33. Locutionary act 34. Q-principle (Horn)
V. Answer the following questions. (20%)
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. Key: I.
1~5 DBCBA 6~10 CBCAD II.
11~15 FTTFF 16~20 FFFTT
III.
21. context 22. utterance 23. abstract 24. Constatives 25. Performatives 26. locutionary 27. illocutionary 28. commissive 29. expressive 30. quantity IV.
31. Conversational implicature: In our daily life, speakers and listeners
involved in conversation are generally cooperating with each other. In other words, when people are talking with each other, they must try to converse smoothly and successfully. In accepting speakers’ presuppositions, listeners have to assume that a speaker is not trying to mislead them. This sense of cooperation is simply one in which people having a conversation are not normally assumed to be trying to confuse, trick, or withhold relevant information from one another. However, in real communication, the intention of the speaker is often not the literal meaning of what he or she says. The real intention implied in the words is called conversational implicature.
32. Performative: In speech act theory an utterance which performs an act, such as Watch out (= a warning).
33. Locutionary act: A locutionary act is the saying of something which is meaningful and can be understood.
34. Horn’s Q-principle: (1) Make your contribution sufficient (cf. quantity); (2) Say as much as you can (given R). V. 35.
Pragmatics is the study of the use of language in communication, particularly the relationships between sentences and the contexts and situations in which they are used. Pragmatics includes the study of
(1) How the interpretation and use of utterances depends on knowledge of the real world;
(2) How speakers use and understand speech acts;
(3) How the structure of sentences is influenced by the relationship between the speaker and the hearer.
Pragmatics is sometimes contrasted with semantics, which deals with meaning without reference to the users and communicative functions of sentences. 36.
Yes, B is cooperative. On the face of it, B’s statement is not an answer to A’s question. B doesn’t say “when.” However, A will immediately interpret the statement as meaning “I don’t know” or “I am not sure.” Just assume that B is being “relevant” and “informative.” Given that B’s answer contains relevant information, A can work out that “an accident further up the road” conventionally involves “traffic jam,” and “traffic jam” preludes “bus coming.” Thus, B’s answer is not simply a statement of “when the bus comes”; it contains an implicature concerning “when the bus comes.” VI. 37.
It occurs before and / or after a word, a phrase or even a longer utterance or a text. The context often helps in understanding the particular meaning of the word, phrase, etc.
The context may also be the broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used. (1)
a. A mild criticism of someone who should have cleaned the room.
b. In a language class where a student made a mistake, for he intended to say “tidy.”
c. The room was wanted for a meeting. (2)
a. A mild way to express disagreement with someone who has complimented on a
lady’s appearance.
b. A regret that the customer had not taken the dress. c. That she wore a red shirt was not in agreement with the custom on the occasion.
Chapter 12 Theories and Schools of Modern Linguistics 【注：第九、十、十一章无测试题】
I. Choose the best answer. (20%)
1. The person who is often described as “father of modern linguistics” is __________..
A. Firth B. Saussure C. Halliday D. Chomsky
2. 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 3. The principal representative of American descriptive linguistics is __________.
A. Boas B. Sapir C. Bloomfield D. Harris
4. 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
5. __________ Grammar is the most widespread and the best understood method of discussing Indo-European languages.
A. Traditional B. Structural C. Functional D. Generative 6. __________ 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 7. 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 8. The rheme in the sentence “On it stood Jane” is __________. A. On it B. stood C. On it stood D. Jane
9. Chomsky follows __________ in philosophy and mentalism in psychology. A. empiricism B. behaviorism C. relationalism D. mentalism 10. TG grammar has seen __________ stages of development.
A. three B. four C. five D. six
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. 16. The Standard Theory focuses discussion on language universals and universal grammar.
17. American descriptive linguistics is empiricist and focuses on diversities of languages.
18. Chomsky’s concept of linguistic performance is similar to Saussure’s concept of parole, while his use of linguistic competence is somewhat different from Saussure’s langue.
19. Glossematics emphasizes the nature and status of linguistic theory and its relation to description. 20. If two sentences have exactly the same ideational and interpersonal functions,
they would be the same in terms of textual coherence.
III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)
21. The Prague School practiced a special style of __________ Linguistics. 22. The Prague School is best known and remembered for its contribution to phonology and the distinction between __________ and phonology.
23. The man who turned linguistics proper into a recognized distinct academic subject in Britain was __________.
24. Halliday’s Systemic Grammar contains a functional component, and the theory behind his Functional Grammar is __________.
25. Systemic-Functional Grammar is a(n) __________ oriented functional linguistic approach.
26. Structuralism is based on the assumption that grammatical categories should be defined not in terms of meaning but in terms of __________.
27. In the history of American linguistics, the period between 1933 and 1950 is also known as __________ Age.
28. __________ in language theories is characteristic of America.
29. The starting point of Chomsky’s TG grammar is his __________ hypothesis. 30. Chomsky argues that LAD probably consists of three elements, that is a __________, linguistic universal, and an evaluation procedure.
IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)
31. FSP
32. Cohesion 33. LAD
34. Case Grammar
V. Answer the following questions. (20%)
35. Why is Saussure hailed as the father of modern linguistics?
36. What is behaviorism? What is behaviorism in linguistics? What is the relationship between linguistics and behaviorism according to Bloomfield? Does behaviorism have any limitations? If yes, what are they?
VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)
37. Can you make a brief introduction to some important schools and their influential representatives in modern linguistics? Key: I.
1~5 BACAA 6~10 ABDCC II.
11~15 FFTTF 16~20 FTTTF III.
21. synchronic 22. phonetics 23. J. R. Firth 24. systemic 25. sociologically 26. distribution 27. Bloomfieldian 28. Descriptivism 29. innateness 30. hypothesis-maker IV.
31. FSP: It stands for Functional Sentence Perspective. It is a theory of
linguistic analysis which refers to an analysis of utterances (or texts) in terms
of the information they contain.
32. Cohesion: The Cohesion shows whether a certain tagmeme is dominating other tagmemes or is dominated by others.
33. LAD: LAD, that is Language Acquisition Device, is posited by Chomsky in the 1960s as a device effectively present in the minds of children by which a grammar of their native language is constructed.
34. Case Grammar: It is an approach that stresses the relationship of elements in a sentence. It is a type of generative grammar developed by C. J. Fillmore in the late 1960s. V. VI. Omit.