Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics
1. Define the following terms:
design feature: the distinctive features of human language that esntially make human language distinguishable from languages of animals.
function: the role language plays in communication (e.g. to express ideas, attitudes) or in particular social situations (e.g. religious, legal).
synchronic: said of an approach that studies language at a theoretical ‘point’ in time.
diachronic: said of the study of development of language and languages over time.
prescriptive: to make authoritarian statement about the correctness of a particular u of language.
descriptive: to make an objective and systematic account of the patterns and u of a language or variety.
arbitrariness: the abnce of any physical correspondence between linguistic signals and the entities to which they refer.
duality: the structural organization of language into two abstract levels: meaningful units (e.g. words) and meaningless gments (e.g. sounds, letters).
displacement: the ability of language to refer to contexts removed from the speaker’s immediate situation.
phatic communion: said of talk ud to establish atmosphere or maintain social contact.
劳动教育实施方案metalanguage: a language ud for talking about language.
macrolinguistics: a broad conception of linguistic enquiry, including psychological, cultural, etc.
competence: unconscious knowledge of the system of grammatical rules in a language.
保证书格式performance: the language actually ud by people in speaking or writing.
1989年属蛇langue: the language system shared by a “speech community”.
parole: the concrete utterances of a speaker.
2. Consult at least four introductory linguistics textbooks (not dictionaries), and copy the definitions of “language” that each gives. After carefully comparing the definitions, write a paper discussing which points recur and explaining the significance of the similarities and differences among the definitions.
ANSWER:All the definitions should not exclude the description of design features that have been mentioned in this cour book. Also it will be better if other design features, say, interchangeability or cultural transmission is included. But it ems impossible to give an unimpeachable definition on language, becau the facets people want to emphasize are ldom unanimous. To compare veral definitions can make you realize where the argument is.
3. Can you think of some words in English which are onomatopoeic?
ANSWERS:
creak: the sound made by a badly oiled door when it opens.
cuckoo: the call of cuckoo.
bang: a sudden loud noi.美术风格
roar: a deep loud continuing sound.
buzz: a noi of buzzing.林和夜
hiss: a hissing sound.
neigh: the long and loud cry that a hor makes.
mew: the noi that a gull makes.
bleat: the sound made by a sheep, goat or calf.
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4. Do you think that onomatopoeia indicates a non-arbitrary relationship between form and meaning?
ANSWER:4. No matter you say "Yes" or "No", you cannot deny that onomatopoeia needs arbitrariness. Before we feel a word is onomatopoeic we should first know which sound the word imitates. Just as what is said in Chapter One, in order to imitate the noi of flying mosquitoes, there are many choices like "murmurous" and "murderous". They both bear more or less remblance to the genuine natural sound, but "murmurous" is fortunately chon to mean the noi while "murderous" is chon to mean something quite different. They are arbitrary as signifiers.左邻右舍的意思
我的朋友普通话三分钟范文5. A story by Robert Louis Stevenson contains the ntence “As the night fell, the wind ro.” Could this be expresd as “As the wind ro, the night fell?” If not, why? Does this indicate a degree of non-arbitrariness about word order? (Bolinger, 1981: 15)
5. Yes. It is a ca in point to illustrate non-arbitrariness about word order. When the two parts interchange, the focus and the meaning of the ntence is forced to change, becau
claus occurring in linear quence without time indicators will be taken as matching the actual quence of happening. The writer’s original intention is distorted, and we can feel it effortlessly by reading. That is why systemic-functionalists and American functionalists think language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level.
6. Does the traffic light system have duality? Can you explain by drawing a simple graph?
6. Traffic light does not have duality. Obviously, it is not a double-level system. There is only one-to-one relationship between signs and meaning but the meaning units cannot be divided into smaller meaningless elements further. So the traffic light only has the primary level and lacks the condary level like animals’ calls.
