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一、Directions: Please define the following terms. 1. minimal pair test
words that differ in only one sound
They differ in meaning, they differ only in one sound segment, the different sounds occur in the same environment
Example: beat, bit They form a minimal pair So /ea/ and /i/ are different sounds in English They are different phonemes
2. the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
linguistic determinism (语言决定论) -Language determines thought.
and linguistic relativity (语言相对论)-There is no limit to the structural diversity of languages.
3. Behaviorism
Behaviorism in linguistics holds the view that Children learn language through a chain of stimulus-response-reinforcement (刺激—反应—强化), and adults? use of language is also a process of stimulus-response.
4. discovery procedures
A grammar is discovered through the performing of certain operations on a corpus of data 5. Universal Grammar
UG consists of a set of innate grammatical principles. Each principle is associated with a number of parameters. 6. Systemic Grammar
It aims to explain the internal relations in language as a system network, or meaning potential.
7. Ideational Metafunction
The Ideational Function (Experiential and Logical) is to convey new information, to communicate a content that is unknown to the hearer. It is a meaning potential.
It mainly consists of “transitivity” and “voice”. This function not only specifies the available options in meaning but also determines the nature of their structural realisations. For example, “John built a new house” can be analysed as a configuration of the functions (功能配置):
Actor: John
Process: Material: Creation: built Goal: Affected: a new house
8. Interpersonal Metafunction
The INTERPERSONAL FUNCTION embodies all uses of language to express social and personal relations. This includes the various ways the speaker enters a speech situation and performs a speech act.
9. basic speech roles
The most fundamental types of speech role are just two: (i) giving, and (ii) demanding.
Cutting across this basic distinction between giving and demanding is another distinction that relates to the nature of the commodity being exchanged. This may be either (a) goods-&-services or (b) information.
10. finite verbal operators
Finiteness is thus expressed by means of a verbal operator which is either temporal or modal.
11. Textual Metafunction
The textual metafunction enables the realization of the relation between language and context, making the language user produce a text which matches the situation. It refers to the fact that language has mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken or
written discourse into coherent and unified texts and make a living passage different from a random list of sentences.
It is realized by thematic structure, information structure and cohesion.
12. theme and rheme
The Theme is the element which serves as the point of departure of the message.
The remainder of the message, the part in which the Theme is developed, is called the Rheme.
As a message structure, a clause consists of a Theme accompanied by a Rheme. The Theme is the first constituent of the clause. All the rest of the clause is simply labelled the Rheme
13. experientialism
Experientialism assumes that the external reality is constrained by our uniquely human experience.
The parts of this external reality to which we have access are largely constrained by the ecological niche we have adapted to and the nature of our embodiment. In other words, language does not directly re?ect the world. Rather, it re?ects our unique human construal of the world: our ?world view? as it appears to us through the lens of our embodiment.
This view of reality has been termed experientialism or experiential realism by cognitive linguists George Lako? and Mark Johnson. Experiential realism acknowledges that there is an external reality that is re?ected by concepts and by language. However, this reality is mediated by our uniquely human experience which constrains the nature of this reality ?for us?.
14. image schemata
An image schema is a recurring structure within our cognitive processes which
establishes patterns of understanding and reasoning. Image schemas are formed from our bodily interactions, from linguistic experience, and from historical context.
15. prototype theory
Prototype theory is a mode of graded categorization in cognitive science, where some members of a category are more central than others. For example, when asked to give an example of the concept furniture, chair is more frequently cited than, say, stool. Prototype theory has also been applied in linguistics, as part of the mapping from phonological structure to semantics.
二、Directions: Please answer the following questions.
1. Why is Saussure called “one of the founders of structural linguistics and “father of
modern linguistics”?
He helped to set the study of human behavior on a new footing (basis). He helped to promote semiology.
He clarified the formal strategies of Modernist thoughts.
He attached importance to the study of the intimate relation between language and human mind.
2. What are the similarities and differences between Saussure?s langue and parole and
Chomsky?s competence and performance?
The similarities (1) language and competence mainly concerns the user?s underlying knowledge; parole and performance concerns the actual phenomena (2) language and competence are abstract; parole and performance are concrete.
The differences (1) according to Saussure, language is a mere systematic
inventoryof items; according to Chomsky, competence should refer to the underlying competence as a system of generative processes (2)According to Saussure, language mainly base on sociology, in separating language from parole, we separate social from individual; according to Chomsky, competence was restricted to a knowledge of grammar.
3. What is the conflict between descriptive adequacy and explanatory adequacy?
And what is Chomsky?s solution to this conflict?
a theory of grammar: descriptively adequateshould adequately describe the grammatical dada of a language.
should not just focus on a fragment of a language.
a theory of grammar: explanatorily adequate shouldexplain the general form of language.
should choose among alternative descriptively-adequate grammars. should essentially be about how a child acquires a grammar.
A theory of grammar should be both descriptively and explanatorily adequate.
But there is a conflict:
To achieve DA, the grammar must be very detailed.
To achieve EA, the grammar must be very simple. (think why?)
because the child can learn a language very easily on very little language exposure.
Chomsky?s solution: construct a simple UG
letindividual grammars be derivable from UG
4. What are Chomsky?s contributions to the linguistic revolution?
Chomsky?s contribution to the linguistic revolution is that he showed the world a totally new way of looking at language and at human nature, particularly the human mind. Chomsky challenged behaviorism and empiricism because he believes that language is innate.
Rationalism (vs. empiricism in philosophy) Empiricist evidence is often unreliable. Innateness (vs. behaviorism in psychology)
Children can acquire a complicated language on the basis of very limited exposure to speech.
This indicates that UG is innate faculty.
5. How to compare and contrast Generative Linguistics and Systemic-Functional
Linguistics from perspectives of epistemology, theoretical basis, research tasks and methodology? EpistemologyTheoretical base Research tasks Methodology