2010年10月现代语言学自考试题

全国2010年10月自考
现代语言学试题
课程代码：00830

I. Directions: Read each of the following statements carefully. Decide which one of the four choices best completes the statement and put the letter A, B, C, or D in the brackets. (2%10=20% )
1. The purpose of Chomsky’s definition is to focus attention on the purely ______ properties of language, and these properties can be studied from a mathematically precise point of view. （      ）
A. lexical  B. grammatical
C. semantic  D. structural
2. We refer to the limited range of sounds as the phonic medium of language and individual sounds within that range as ______.（      ）
A. vowels  B. consonants
C. sounds  D. speech sounds
3. A(n) ______ refers to the existing form to which a derivational affix can be added. （      ）
A. root  B. stem
C. affix  D. morpheme
4. All sentences in all languages can be represented by constituent structure trees, and all have syntactic rules that determine the linear order of words and their ______ structure. （      ）
 A. linear  B. hierarchical
 C. constituent  D. syntactic
5. In semantic analysis of a sentence, a(n) ______ is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal element in a sentence. （      ）
A. argument  B. subject
C. object  D. predicate
6. Speaker A: Can you answer the telephone?
  Speaker B: I’m in the bath.
  Speaker B is violating the maxim of ______.（      ）
A. quantity  B. quality
C. relation  D. manner
7. New words may be formed from existing words by the removal of a suffix thought to be part of the old word. Such a process is called ______, e.g., caretake from caretaker. （      ）
A. back-formation  B. clipping
C. blending  D. abbreviating
8. It is insulting to a woman to be called a spinster, but it is not insulting to a man to be called a bachelor. There is nothing inherently ______ about the word spinster. The connotations reflect the sexist views society has about an unmarried woman as opposed to an unmarried man. （      ）
A. important  B. unusual
C. pejorative  D. commendatory
9. Human linguistic ability depends primarily on human ______. （      ）
A. brain  B. vocal cords
C. tongue  D. articulatory organs
10. In the ______ stage, children begin to produce longer utterances with more complex grammatical structures. （      ）
A. prelinguistic  B. one-word
C. two-word  D. multi-word

Ⅱ. Directions: Fill in the blank in each of the following statements with one word, the first letter of which is already given as a clue. Note that you are to fill in ONE word only, and you are not allowed to change the letter given. ( 1%10=10% )
11. D       linguistics is the systematic description and elucidation of all linguistic changes through time. It studies the historical development of language over a period of time. For example, a study of the changes English has undergone since the time of Shakespeare would be a diachronic study.
12. The phonemes of a language cannot be strung together in any random order to form words. The phonological system determines which phonemes can begin a word, end a word, and follow each other, in other words, there are s       rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language.
13. Morphology can be divided into two sub-branches: inflectional morphology and d      morphology.
14. Syntax consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammatical sentences. It is universally found that syntactic rules comprise a speaker’s system of i       linguistic knowledge known as linguistic competence.
15. Pairs of words which exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the lexical items are called r       opposites.
16. Pragmatics and semantics are both linguistic studies of m      , but what distinguishes them is whether the context of use is considered.
17. In Old English the word order is different from that of Modern English, and there are two negatives, “ne” (“not”) and “nfre” (“not” “ever”=“never”). So d       rule is one of the grammatical rules in Old English.
18. When a pidgin comes to be adopted by a community as its native tongue and is learned by children as their first language, it becomes c      .
19. The c       age for the acquisition of the first language coincides with the period of brain lateralization.
20. In second language learning, instrumental motivation occurs when the learner’s goal is f       , and integrative motivation occurs when the learner’s goal is social.

III. Directions: Judge whether each of the following statements is true or false. Put a T for true or F for false in the brackets in front of each statement. If you think a statement is false, you must explain why you think so and then give the correct version. （ 2%10=20% ）
21. （      ）Language is arbitrary by nature. And it is entirely arbitrary.
22.（      ）In producing stops or plosives, the obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, with the obstruction audibly released and the air passing out again, such as English stops [p] and [t] in pit. In producing [p] and [t] the flow of air is blocked through the mouth only.
23.（      ）From the semantic point of view, the meaning of a compound is always perceived from the meanings of its components.
24.（      ）According to the “principles-and-parameters” theory, “principles” refer to highly abstract properties of grammar which are applied to language in general and which generate phrases and at the same time restrain the power of Move a, while “parameters” allow general principles to operate in certain restricted ways, according to which particular grammars of natural languages vary.
25.（      ）In discussing the sense relations between sentences, Y is a prerequisite of X. So if Y is true, X must be true.
26.（      ）According to Austin’s classification of perlocutionary acts, speech acts fall into five general categories, which are representatives, directives, commissives, expressives and decalrations.
27.（      ）For some speakers of American English, the word ask is pronounced [ks], but the word asking is pronounced [skI?]. It is interesting that in Old English the verb ask was aksian, with the/k/preceding the/s/. This means that a historical metathesis rule switched these two consonants, producing ask in most dialects of English. Metathesis is the phonological process that reorders segments, often by transposing two adjoining sound segments.
28.（      ）Language varieties may be standard and nonstandard. Nonstandard varieties are regarded as substandard languages. Only standard varieties are regarded as the only correct, logical and pure, and are effective in expressing ideas in co