刘润清新编语言学答案.doc

Chapter 1 Introduction 1. De?ne the following terms brie?y. (1) linguistics: the scienti?c or systematic study of language. (2) language: a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.(3) arbitrariness: the absence of similarity between the form of a linguistic sign and what it relates to in reality, e.g. the word dog does not look like a dog.(4) duality: the way meaningless elements of language at one level (sounds and letters) combine to form meaningful units (words) at another level.(5) competence: knowledge of the grammar of a language as a formal abstraction and distinct from the behavior of actual language use, i.e. performance.(6) performance: Chomsky’s term for actual language behavior as distinct from the knowledge that underlies it, or competence.(7) stylistics: the study of how literary effects can be related to linguistic features.(8) phatic communion: Language is used to establish an atmosphere or maintain social contact between the speaker and the hearer.(9) functionalism: the study of the forms of language in reference to their socialfunction in communication.(10) formalism: the study of the abstract forms of language and their internal relations.(11) synchronic linguistics: the study of language and speech as they are used at agiven moment and not in terms of how they have evolved over time.(12) diachronic linguistics: the study of linguistic change over time in contrast to looking at language as it is used at a given moment. 2. No, language is human-speci?c. Human language has seven design features, in cluding arbitrariness, duality, productivity, interchangeability, displacement, spe-cialization and cultural transmission. These features are found utterly lacking in dogs’ or pigs’ noises and thus set human language apart from animal cry systems. 3. Arbitrariness refers to the fact that there is no logical or intrinsic connection between a particular sound and the meaning it is associated with. For example, for the