I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or Fal:
1. Sociolinguistics is the sub-discipline of linguistics that studies social contexts. F
2. Language as a means of social communication is a homogeneous system with a homogeneous group of speakers. F
3. Language u varies from one speech community to another, from one regional group to another, from one social group to another, and even from one individual to another. T
4. The goal of sociolinguistics is to explore the nature of language variation and language u among a variety of speech communities and in different social situations. T
5. The linguistic markers that characterize individual social groups may rve as social markers of group membership. T
6. From the sociolinguistic per spective, the term “speech variety ” can not be ud to refer to standard language, vernacular language, dialect or pidgin. F
7.Functional speech varieties are known as regional dialects.F
8. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its grammar and us of vocabulary. F
9.Geographical barriers are the only source of regional variation of language. F
10. A person’s social backgrounds do not exert a shaping influence on his choice of linguistic features. F
11.Two speakers of the same language or dialect u their language or dialect in the same way. F
12. Every speaker of a language is, in a stricter n, a speaker of a distinct idiolect. T
13. The standard language is a better language than nonstandard languages. F
14. A lingua franca can only be ud within a particular country for communication among groups of people with different linguistic backgrounds. F
15.Pidgins are linguistically inferior to standard languages. F
16. 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. T
17.The major difference between a pidgin and a creole is that the former usually has its native speakers while the latter doesn’t. F
18.Bilingualism and diglossia mean the same thing. F
19.The kind of name or term speakers u to call or refer to someone may indicate something of their social relationship to or personal feelings about that individual. T
20.The u of euphemisms has the effect of removing derogatory overtones and the disassociative effect as such is usually long-lasting. F
II. Fill in each of the blanks below with one word which begins with the letter given:
21. The social group isolated for any given study is called the speech community.
22. Speech variety refers to any distinguishable form of speech ud by a speaker or group of speakers.
23. From the sociolinguistic perspective, a speech variety is no more than a dialectal variety of a language.
24. Language standardization is also called language planning.
25. Social variation gives ri to sociolects which are subdivisible into smaller speech categories that reflect their socioeconomic, educational, occupational background, etc.
26. Stylistic 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 official language of a country.
28. The standard language is a superpod , socially prestigious dialect of language.
29. Language varieties other than the standard are called nonstandard, or vernacular languages.
30. A pidgin typically lacks in inflectional morphemes.
31. Linguistic taboo reflects social taboo.
32. The avoidance of using taboo language mirrors social attitudes, emotions and value judgments and has no linguistic basis.
III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:
33. Sociolinguistics is concerned with the social significance of language variation and language u in different speech communities.震耳欲聋是什么意思
34. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its accent .
35. Regional variation is speech variation according to the particular area where a speaker comes from.
36. Geographical barriers are the major source of regional variation of language.
37. Language planning means that certain authorities, such as the government choo, a particular speech variety, standardize it and spread the u of it across regional boundaries.
38. Stylistic 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.
39. A lingua franca is a variety of language that rves as a medium of communication among groups of people for diver linguistic backgrounds .
40. Although pidgins are simplified languages with reduced grammatical features, they are rule-governed, like any human language.
41. In normal situations, female speakers tend to u more prestigious forms than their male counterparts with the same social background.济南鲁菜馆排名
全国工商查询42. A linguistic taboo refers to a word or expression that is prohibited by the "polite" society from general u.
IV. Define the following terms:
43. sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the study of language in social contexts.
44. speech community
The social group isolated for any given study is called the speech community or a speech community is a group of people who form a community and share the same language or a particular variety of language. The important characteristic of a speech community is that the members of the
group must, in some reasonable way, interact linguistically with other members of the community. They may share cloly related language varieties, as well as attitudes toward linguistic norms. 45. speech variety
Speech variety, also known as language variety, refers to any distinguishable form of speech ud by a speaker or group of speakers. The distinctive characteristics of a speech variety may be lexical, phonological, morphological, syntactic, or a combination of linguistic features.
46. language planning
language standardization is known as language planning. This means that certain authorities, such as the government or government agency of a country, choo a particular speech variety and spread the u of it, including its pronunciation and spelling systems, across regional boundaries.
47. idiolect
An idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines aspects of all the elements regarding regional, social, and stylistic variation, in one form or another. In a narrower n, what ma kes up one’s idiolect includes also such factors as voice quality, pitch and speech rhythm, which all contribute to the identifying features in an individual' s speech. 48. standard language
The standard language is a superpod, socially prestigious dialect of language. It is the language employed by the
government and the judiciary system, ud by the mass media, and taught in educational institutions, in cluding school ttings where the language is taught as a foreign or cond language.
49. nonstandard language
Language varieties other than the standard are called nonstandard languages
50. lingua franca
A lingua franca is a variety of language that rves as a medium of communication among groups of people for diver linguistic backgrounds.
51. pidgin
A pidgin is a variety of language that is generally ud by native speakers of other languages as a medium of communication.
52. Creole
A Creole language is originally a pidgin that has become established as a native language in some speech community.
53. diglossia
Diglossia usually describes a situation in which two very different varieties of language co-exist in a speech community, each with a distinct range of purely social function and appropriate for certain situations.
54. Bilingualism
Bilingualism refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard languages are ud either by an individual or by a group of speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a nation.
55. ethnic dialect
Within a society, speech variation may come about becau of different ethnic backgrounds . An ethnic language variety is a social dialect of a language, often cutting across regional differences. An ethnic dialect is spoken mainly by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation, such as racial discrimination or gregation.
56. Sociolect
Social dialects, or sociolects, are varieties of language ud by people belonging to particular social class.
57. register
Registers are language varieties which are appropriate for u in particular speech situations, in contrast to language varieties that are associated with the social or regional grouping of their customary urs. Format reason, registers are als o known as situational dialects.
58. slang
Slang is a casual u of language that consists of expressive but non-standard vocabulary, typically of arbitrary, flashy and often ephemeral coinages and figures of speech characterized by spontaneity and sometimes by raciness.
59. taboo
taboo, or rather linguistic taboo, denotes any prohibition by the polite society on the u of particular lexical items to refer to objects or acts.
60. euphemism
A euphemism, then, is a mild, indirect or less offensive word or expression substituted when the speaker or writer fears more direct wording might be harsh, unpleasantly direct, or offensive.
V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary:
61. Discuss with examples that the speech of women may differ from the speech of men.
In normal situations, female speakers tend to u more prestigious forms than their male counterparts with the same general social background. For example, standard English forms such as "I did it" and "he isn' t" can be found more often in the speech of females, while the more colloquial "I done it" and "he ain' t" occur more frequently in the speech of males.
Another feature often associated with so-called women' s language is politeness. Usually, tough and rough speeches have connotations of masculinity and are not considered to be desirable feminine qualities. In general, men's language is more straightforward, less polite, and more direct, and women's language is more indirect, less blunt, and more circumlocutory. This phenomenon of x-pr
幼儿园成长手册eferential differentiation is also reflected in the relative frequency with which males and females u the same lexical items. For example, certain words that are cloly associated with women may sound typically feminine as a result of that association. For example, some English adjectives like "lovely", "nice", "darling" and "cute" occur more often in female speeches and therefore cau feminine association. Females have also been shown to posss a greater variety of specific color terms than males, in spite of the fact that men do not necessarily posss less acute color perception than women. On the other hand, males have the reputation of posssing a larger vocabulary in traditionally male-dominated domains such as sports, hunting and the military.
A request in English such as " Clo the door when you leave" can be phrad in a number of ways ranging from a harsh command to a very polite request:
a. Clo the door when you leave.
b. Plea clo the door when you leave.
c. Would you plea clo the door when you leave?
d. Could you clo the door when you leave?
Although the above options are all available to both men and women, it is usually the more polite forms that are lec ted by female speakers. In general, females are found to u more questions than declarative statements in comparison with males.
62. Discuss with examples some of the linguistic differences between Standard English and Black English.
One of the most prominent phonological characteristics of Black English is the frequent simplification of consonant clusters at the end of words when one of the two consonants is an alveolar /t/, /d/, /s/, or /z/. The application of this simplification rule may delete the past - ten morpheme, so "past "and "pasd "are both pronounced like "pass."
Another salient characteristic of Black English phonological system concerns the deletion of some word-final stop consonants in words like "side" and "borrowed." Speakers of Black English frequently delete the word-final stops, pronouncing “side” like “sigh” and “borrowed” like “borrow.”
One prominent syntactic feature is the frequent abnce of various forms of the copula "be" in Black English, which are required of Standard English. Compare the following expressions in Black English and Standard English:
(1) Black English Standard English
They mine. They' re mine.
风雅是什么意思Y ou crazy. Y ou re crazy.
Another distinctive syntactic feature of Black English is the systematic u of die expression "it is" where Standard English us "there is " in the n of “there exists” :
Is it a Mr. Johnson in this office?
Another aspect of Black English is the u of double negation constructions. Whenever the verb is negated, the indefinite pronouns "something", "somebody", and "some" become the negative indefinites "nothing", "nobody", and "none", for example:
He don't know nothing. (He doesn't know anything.)
63. What is a linguistic taboo? What effect does it have on our u of language?
A linguistic taboo refers to a word or expression that is prohibited by the "polite" society from general
u. Obscene, profane, and swear words are all taboo words that are to be avoided entirely, or at least avoided in mixed company.
In sociolinguistics, a linguistic taboo, denotes any prohibition on the u of particular lexical items to refer to objects or acts. As language u is contextualized in particular social ttings, linguistic taboo originates from social taboo. When an act is taboo, reference to this act may also become taboo. Taboo words and expressions reflect the particular social customs and
views of a particular culture.
As linguistic taboo reflects social taboo, certain words are more likely to be avoided, for examples, the words related to x, x organs and excrement in many cultures. The avoidance of using taboo language mirrors social attitudes, emotions and value judgments, and has no linguistic basis.
The avoidance of using taboo language has led to the creation of euphemisms. A euphemism is a mild, indirect or less of-fensive word or expression substituted when the speaker or writer fears more direct wording might be hars h, unpleasantly direct, or offensive. For example, we say "portly" instead of "fat".
In many cultures, people avoid using direct words that pertain to death or dying becau it is the subject that everyone fears and is unpleasant to talk about. In the English-speaking world, for example, people do not “die”, but “pass away”. Euphemisms involve a wide range of fields. Although the u of euphemisms has the effect of removing derogatory overtones, the disassociative effect is never long-lasting. Often when the negative connotation of a word is recognized in its euphemistic form, a new euphemism will have to be sought for. However, an excessive u of euphemism may have negative effects. As a matter of fact, many euphemisms have become cliches that are to be avoided in formal speech and writing. They also tend to be wordy and to give writing a timid quality. In addition, euphemism can be evasive or even deceitful. Becau they are often improperly ud to obscure the intended meaning, many people find them offensive and prefer plain language.
64. 众所周知，所谓"魔力之词"，如"thank you"和"plea"等，普遍存在。这类词语在英语社会中的使用比在汉语社会中更为普遍频繁。对这种现象的一种看法是：瞧！这些外国人真是比咱们的同胞礼貌多了。请你运用社会语言学知识，从文化差异的角度评价这种说法的正误。八字个性签名
语言形式和交际功能的关系，文化差异，礼貌理论，交谈惯例，意图、诚意和交际的关系
2．Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
努力工作英语Edward S apir and Benjamin Whorf, proclaimed that the structure of the language people habitually u influences the ways they think and behave, i.e. different languages offer people different ways of expressing the world around, they think and speak differently, this is also known as linguistic relativity.
Sapir and Whorf believe that language filters people’s perception and the way they categorize experiences. This interdependence of language and thought is now known as Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.
早餐应该吃什么3. Cultural diffusion
Through communication, some elements of culture A enter culture B and become part of culture B, this phenomenon is known as cultural diffusion.
One typical example of cultural diffusion is the appearance of loan words.
The practice of obrving h olidays of foreign origins and accepting concepts from other cultures.
The attitude towards cultural diffusion (esp. cultural imperialism owing to linguistic imperialism)
Intercultural communication
Intercultural or cross-cultural communication is communication between people from different cultures (their cultural perceptions and symbols systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event.)
In cross-cultural communication, we need to pay special attention to the significant differences regarding social relations and concept of univer from different perspectives such as language, food, dress, attitude towards time, work habits, social behavior and religious belief that can cau frustrations in communications and contact。
4.The relatedness between language and society
----There are many indications of the inter-relationship between language and society.
Language is often ud to establish and maintain social relationships. (e.g. greeting)
The u of language is in part determined by t h e ur’s social background. (social class, age, x, education level, etc.) Language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society. (“snow” for Eskimo)
