全国2006年10月高等教育自学考试现代语言学试题

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．Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing, which is a feature of（　　　）

A．all consonants  B．vowels only

C．all consonants and some vowels  D．all vowels and some consonants

2．The negative prefix“ in-”in English, when added to the adjective “possible”, is actually pronounced/im/,and spelt as “im”. This is the result of the ______________rule at work.（　　　）

A．deletion  B．assimilation

C．phonetic  D．sequential

3．The word “ecology” is a two-morpheme cluster that contains_______________.（　　　）

A．two roots  B．a root and a suffix

C．a root and a free morpheme  D．a prefix and a root

4．When we move the adverbial phrase “every day” in the sentence “Every day, we study English” to the end of the sentence, we are now ______________ the phrase to the right.（　　　）

A．rewriting  B．preposing

C．postposing  D．maintaining

5．Antonyms are divided into several kinds .Which of the following is NOT a kind of antonyms?（　　　）

A．complementary  B．relational

C．superordinate  D．gradable

6．In terms of predication analysis , the utterance“ Is it going to snow this afternoon?” is a______________（　　　）

A．one-place predication  B．two-place predication

C．three-place predication  D．no-place predication

7．In Old English, word order was freer because the case endings were rich. So in Old English, word orders included SVO, VSO, SOV and OSV. However, Modern English has a much weaker case system, so its sentences have to follow a basic word order of________________.（　　　）

A．SOV  B．SVO

C．VSO  D．OSV

8．Black English is a kind of _______________dialect.（　　　）

A．regional  B．standard

C．ethnic  D．situational

9．The critical period for language acquisition refers to the short period of _____________years old in one’s life, during which the human brain is most ready to acquire a particular language.（　　　）

A．1-2  B．2-12

C．1-12  D．13-18

10．In a sense, humans can be said to be biologically programmed to acquire at least one language. What is meant by this ______________view of language acquisition is that humans are equipped with the neural prerequisites for language and language use.（　　　）

A．behaviorist  B．nativist

C．mentalist  D．empiricist

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.A scientific study of language is based on the s________________ investigation of language data.

12.The limited range of sounds which are meaningful in human linguistic communication and are of interest to linguistic studies are called the p________________ medium of language.

13.phrase structure rules can generate an infinite number of sentences with infinite length, due to their r________________ properties.

14.A f_________________ clause is a clause that takes a subject and a main verb, and at the same time stands structurally alone.

15.In terms of truth condition, if X is true, Y is false, and if X is false, Y is true. The relationship between X and Y is i_________________ 

16.In Austin’ s early speech act theory, c________________ were statements that either state or describe, and were thus verifiable.

17.In the historical development of language, sound change is inevitable, such as sound loss, sound a________________ and sound movement.

18.Slang is often perceived as a low or vulgar form of language and is deemed to be undesirable in f_________________ styles of language.

19.D_________________ listening tests involve simultaneously presenting, through earphones, two different auditory signals, one to the right ear and the other to the left ear.

20.At children’s language development, one-word utterances can be used to express a concept or predication similar to a sentence in adult speech. For example, a child might use the word “dada” to mean “Dada, come here”, “more” to mean “Give me more candy”. Those utterances can also be called h_________________ sentences.

Ⅲ.Directions: Judge whether each of the following statements is true or false. Put a T for true or F for false in the bracket in front of each statement. If you think a statement is false, you must explain why you think so and give the correct version.(2%×10=20%)

21.(     )Language can be studied both synchronically and diachronically. The two approaches are equally favored by modern linguists.

22. (     )Stress is a suprasegmental feature that is exclusively used with words, not with sentences.

23. (     )A compound can be written as one word with or without a hyphen between its components, or as two separate words. It is simply a matter of convention.

24. (     )Major lexical categories are closed categories because the number of lexical items in these categories is fixed and no new members are allowed for.

25. (     )The important criteria to distinguish polysemy from homonymy are the etymology of the words in question and the closeness of the relationship between the meanings in question.

26. (     )The significance of Grice’s Cooperative Principle lies in that it explains how it is possible for the speaker to convey more than is literally said.

27. (     )The invention of steam-powered boats gave the verb sail an opportunity to extend its meaning to boats without sails. This example indicates that the meaning or semantic representation of words may become broader.

28. (     )An official language is in fact a national language.

29. (     )Generally speaking, left-handed people have their language centers in the left hemisphere of the brain.

30. (     )A child born to a Chinese or English speaking family takes about the same number of years to acquire their native tongue, regardless of their general intelligence.

Ⅳ.Directions: Explain the following terms, using one or two examples for illustration.(3%×10=30%)

31.phonemic contrast

32.free morphemes

33.hierarchical structure

34.co-hyponyms

35.utterance meaning

36.perlocutionary act

37.internal borrowing

38.subvocal speech

39.contrastive analysis

40.caretaker speech

Ⅴ.Answer the following questions.(10%×2=20%)

41.Discuss any FOUR of the features of human language that distinguish it from animal communication system.

42.What is bilingualism? What is a bilingual community? What does it mean that most bilingual communities have one thing in common?