目录 第1章导言 第2章音位学 第3章形态学 第4章句法学 第5章语义学 第6章语用学 第7章语言变化 第8章语言与社会 第9章语言与文化 第10章语言习得 第11章第二语言习得 第12章语言与大脑 第1章导言 1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Key: Linguistics is a scientific study of language because it follows the methodology of other scientific study: First of all, it is based on full and systematic collection and investigation of linguistic data, which display some similarities, and generalizations are made about them. Then linguists formulate some hypotheses about the language structure. The hypotheses thus formed have to be checked repeatedly against the observed facts to fully prove their validity. In linguistics, as in any other discipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation, that is, a theory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data without being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things. 2. What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study? Key: Linguistics includes Micro-Linguistics and Macro-Linguistics. (1) Branches of Micro-Linguistics: Phonetics: it studies the sounds used in linguistic communication; Phonology: it studies how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication; Morphology: it studies the way in which linguistic symbols representing sounds are arranged and combined to form words; Syntax: it studies the rules which govern how words are combined to form grammatically permissible sentences in languages; Semantics: it studies meaning conveyed by language; Pragmatics: it studies the meaning in the context of language use. (2) Branches of Macro-Linguistics: Psycholinguistics: it studies language and its relation with psychology. Sociolinguistics: it studies all social aspects of language and its relation with society form the core of the branch. Applied linguistics: it studies the applications of language to the solution of practical problems. Narrowly, it is the application of linguistic theories and principles to language teaching, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages. Other branches, such as computational linguistics, neurolinguistics. 3. In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar? Key: Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in several basic ways. (1) Modern linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive. (2) Modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the other hand, tended to emphasize, or over-emphasize, the importance of the written documents especially the Greek or Roman Classical works, partly because of its permanence. (3) Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a Latin-based grammar framework. 4. Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic? Why? Key: In modern linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic one. Because people believe that unless the various states of a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development. 5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing? Key: Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modern linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language. Modern linguistics gives the spoken language priority for some obvious reasons: (1) From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system of any language is always “invented” by its users to record speech. Even in todays world there are still many languages that can only be spoken but not written. (2) In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. People use much more oral language in daily life than using written language. (3) Speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his or her mother tongue, while writing is learned and taught later, when he or she goes to school. (4) For modern linguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised” record of speech. Thus their data, for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regard as authentic. 6. How is Saussures distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomskys distinction between competence and performance? Key: In Saussures definition, langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. Similar to Saussures distinction, Chomskys definition about competence is the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguisti。