英语语言学课后练习提示.doc

《英语语言学实用教程》 课后练习提示 Unit 1 Some Preliminaries about Language ■ Exercises Task 3: Study Questions 1. What do you think is essential to the emergence of language? The existence of social activities; the need to express diverse ideas, emotions, etc.; the need to communicate ideas to distant places; etc. 2. Can our pets learn human languages? Why or why not? No. They are genetically not endowed with the capacity. 3. What role does body language play in language communication? Omit. 4. Naturally occurring “experiments” with so-called “wolf-children”, “bear-children”, “Mowgli” or “monkey-children” and other such feral youngsters have been widely reported for hundreds of years. None of these children could speak or understand speech and, indeed, most efforts to teach them language ended in failure. How would you account for the failure? The language acquisition device has to be triggered before a certain age (that of puberty). Sufficient expose to a language environment at the right time is essential to language acquisition. 5. The following are some instances of using English for communication. What specific function does each use of English serve in the following pictures? Informative (in the form of commanding) Directive (Advertising in the form of requesting) Directive (Persuading in the form of threatening) Directive (Recruiting) 6．Iconicity of language is an aspect of language where form echoes meaning. Onomatopoeia, also known as “sound symbolism”, is one type of iconicity. Some researchers have found other evidence of iconicity. For example, words beginning with the sound combination sl- in English often have an unpleasant sense, as in slithering, slimy, slugs. Here are some questions: a. Is the “unpleasant” sense actually true of all, or even most, words beginning with sl- in English? No. e.g. slight. b. Are there any other sounds or sound combinations that you associate with particular meanings? Gliding: slide, slip, slippery; Rolling: tumble, crum