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语言学教程复习题与答案(胡壮麟版第七章)

Sociolinguistics I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False: 1. Sociolinguistics is the sub-discipline of linguistics that studies social contexts. 2. Language as a means of social communication is a homogeneous system with a homogeneous group of speakers.3. Language use varies from one speech community to another, from one regional group to another, from one social group to another, and even from one individual to another. 4. The goal of sociolinguistics is to explore the nature of language variation and language use among a variety of speech communities and in different social situations. 5. The linguistic markers that characterize individual social groups may serve as social markers of group membership. 6. From the sociolinguistic perspective, the term “speech variety ” can not be used to refer to standard language, vernacular language, dialect or pidgin. 7.Functional speech varieties are known as regional dialects. 8. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its grammar and uses of vocabulary. 9.Geographical barriers are the only source of regional variation of language. 10. A person’s social backgrounds do not exert a shaping influence on his choice of linguistic features. 11.Two speakers of the same language or dialect use their language or dialect in the same way. 12. Every speaker of a language is, in a stricter sense, a speaker of a distinct idiolect. 13. The standard language is a better language than nonstandard languages. 14. A lingua franca can only be used within a particular country for communication among groups of people with different linguistic backgrounds. 15.Pidgins are linguistically inferior to standard languages. 16. A pidgin usually reflects the influence of the higher, or dominant, language in its lexicon and that of the lower language in their phonology and occasionally syntax. 17.The major difference between a pidgin and a creole is that the former usually has its native speakers while the latter doesn’t. 18.Bilingualism and diglossia mean the same thing. 19.The kind of name or term speakers use to call or refer to someone may indicate somet

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hing of their social relationship to or personal feelings about that individual.

20.The use of euphemisms has the effect of removing derogatory overtones and the disassociative effect as such is usually long-lasting. II. Fill in each of the blanks below with one word which begins with the letter given: 21. The social group isolated for any given study is called the speech c________. 2

2. Speech v_________ refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or group of speakers.

23. From the sociolinguistic perspective, a speech variety is no more than a d__________ variety of a language. 24. Language standardization is also called language p_______. 25. Social variation gives rise to s_________ which are subdivisible into smaller speech categories that reflect their socioeconomic, educational, occupational background, etc. 26. S_______ variation in a person’s speech or writing usually ranges on a continuum from casual or colloquial to formal or polite according to the type of communicative situation. 27. A regional dialect may gain status and become standardized as the national or o________ language of a country. 28. The standard language is a s_________, socially prestigious dialect of language. 29. Language varieties other than the standard are called nonstandard, or v_______ languages. 30. A pidgin typically lacks in i_______ morphemes. 31. Linguistic taboo reflects s_________ taboo. 32. The avoidance of using taboo language mirrors social attitudes, emotions and value judgments and has no l_________ basis. III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement: 33. _______ is concerned with the social significance of language variation and language use in different speech communities. A. Psycholinguistics B. Sociolinguistics C. Historical linguistics D. General linguistics 34. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its _____. A. use of words B. use of structures C. accent D. morphemes 35. ____ is speech variation according to the particular area where a speaker comes from. A. Regional variation

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B. Language variation C. Social variation D. Register variation 36. _______ are the major source of regional variation of language. A. Geographical barriers B. Loyalty to and confidence in one’s native speech

C. Physical discomfort and psychological resistance to change

D. Social barriers 37. _________ means that certain authorities, such as the gov-ernment choose, a particular speech variety, standardize it and spread the use of it across regional boundaries. A. Language interference B. Language changes C. Language planning D. Language transfer 38. _________ in a person’s speech or writing usually ranges on a continuum from casual or colloquial to formal or polite according to the type of communicative situation. A. Regional variation B. Changes in emotions C. Variation in connotations D. Stylistic variation 39. A ____ is a variety of language that serves as a medium of com-munication among groups of people for diverse linguistic back-grounds . A. lingua franca B. register C. Creole D. national language

40. Although _______ are simplified languages with reduced grammatical features, they are rule-governed, like any human language. A. vernacular languages B. creoles C. pidgins D. sociolects 41. In normal situations, ____ speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than their ____ counterparts with the same social back-ground. A. female; male B. male; female C. old; young D. young; old 42. A linguistic ____ refers to a word or expression that is prohibit-ed by the "polite" society from general use. A. slang B. euphemism C. jargon D. taboo IV. Define the following terms: 43. sociolinguistics 44. speech community 45. speech variety 46. language planning 47. idiolect 48. standard language 49. nonstandard language 50. lingua franca 51. pidgin 52. Creole 53. diglossia 54. Bilingualism 55. ethnic dialect 56. Sociolect 57. register 58. slang 59. taboo 60. euphemism V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary: 61. Discuss wit

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h examples that the speech of women may differ from the speech of men. 62. Discuss with examples some of the linguistic differences between Standard English and Black English. 63. What is a linguistic taboo? What effect does it have on our use of language?

I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False: l.F 2.F 3.T 4.T 5.T 6.F 7.F 8.F 9.F 10.F 11. F 12. T 13. F 14. F 15.F 16. T 17. F 18. F 19. T 20. F II. Fill in each of the blanks below with one word which begins with the letter given: 21. community 22. variety 23. dialectal 24.planning 25. sociolects26. Stylistic 27. official 28. superposed 29. vernacular30. inflectional 31. social 32. linguisticIII. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement: 33.

B 34. C 35. A. 36. A. 37. C 38.D 39.A 40. C 41. A 42. D IV. Define the following terms: 43. sociolinguistics: Sociolinguistics is the study of language in social contexts. 44. speech community: The social group isolated for any given study is called the speech community or a speech community is a group of people who form a community and share the same language or a particular variety of language. The important characteristic of a speech community is that the members of the group must, in some reasonable way, interact lin-guistically with other members of the community. They may share closely re-lated language varieties, as well as attitudes toward linguistic norms. 45. speech variety: Speech variety, also known as language variety, refers to any distin-guishable form of speech used by a speaker or group of speakers. The dis-tinctive characteristics of a speech variety may be lexical, phonological, morphological, syntactic, or a combination of linguistic features. 46. language planning: language standardization is known as lan-guage planning. This means that certain authorities, such as the government or government agency of a country, choose a particular speech variety and spread the use of it, including its

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pronunciation and spelling systems, across regional boundaries. 47. Idiolect: An idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that com-bines aspects of all the elements regarding regional, social, and stylistic variation, in one form or another. In a narrower sense, what makes up one’s idiolect includes also such factors as voice quality, pitch and speech rhythm, which all contribute to the identifying features in an individual' s speech. 48. standard language : The standard language is a superposed, socially prestigious dialect of language. It is the language employed by the government and the judiciary system, used by the mass media, and taught in educational institutions, in-cluding school settings where the language is taught as a foreign or second language. 49. nonstandard language: Language varieties other than the standard are called nonstandard languages 50. lingua franca: A lingua franca is a variety of language that serves as a medium of com-munication among groups of people for diverse linguistic backgrounds. 51. pidgin: A pidgin is a variety of language that is generally used by native speak-ers of other languages as a medium of communication. 52. Creole: A Creole language is originally a pidgin that has become established as a native language in some speech community. 53. diglossia : Diglossia usually describes a situation in which two very different vari-eties of language co-exist in a speech community, each with a distinct range of purely social function and appropriate for certain situations. 54. Bilingualism: Bilingualism refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard lan-guages are used either by an individual or by a group of speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a nation. 55. ethnic dialect: Within a society, speech variation may come about because of different ethnic backgrounds . An ethnic language variety is a so-cial dialect of a language, often cutting across regional differences. An eth-nic dialect is spoken mainly by a less privileged population that has experi-enced some form of social isolation, such as racial discrimina-tion or segregation. 56. Sociolect: Social dialects, or sociolects, are varieties of language used by people belonging to particular social classes. 57. register: Registers are language varieties which ar

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e appropriate for use in partic-ular speech situations, in contrast to language varieties that are associated with the social or regional grouping of their customary users. Format reason, registers are also known as situational dialects .

58. Slang: Slang is a casual use of language that consists of expressive but non-standard vocabulary, typically of arbitrary, flashy and often ephemeral coinages and figures of speech characterized by spontaneity and sometimes by raciness. 59. taboo : taboo, or rather linguistic taboo, denotes any pro-hibition by the polite society on the use of particular lexical items to refer to objects or acts. 60. euphemism: A euphemism, then, is a mild, indirect or less of-fensive word or expression substituted when the speaker or writer fears more direct wording might be harsh, unpleasantly direct, or offensive. V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary: 61. Discuss with examples that the speech of women may differ from the speech of men. In normal situations, female speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than their male counterparts with the same general social background. For example, standard English forms such as "I did it" and "he isn' t" can be found more often in the speech of females, while the more colloquial "I done it" and "he ain' t" occur more frequently in the speech of males. Another feature often associated with so-called women' s language is politeness. Usually, tough and rough speeches have connotations of mas-culinity and are not considered to be desirable feminine qualities. In gener-al, men's language is more straightforward, less polite, and more direct, and women's language is more indirect, less blunt, and more circumlocuto-ry. This pheno广告网址n of sex-preferential differentiation is also reflected in the relative frequency with which males and females use the same lexical items. For example, certain words that are closely associated with women may sound typically feminine as a result of that association. For example, some English adjectives like "lovely", "nice", "darling" and "cute" occur more often in female speeches and therefore cause feminine association. Fe-males have also been shown to possess a greater variety of specific color terms than

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males, in spite of the fact that men do not necessarily possess less acute color perception than women. On the other hand, males have the reputation of possessing a larger vocabulary in traditionally male-dominated domains such as sports, hunting and the military. A request in English such as " Close the door when you leave" can be phrased in a number of ways ranging from a harsh command to a very polite request: a. Close the door when you leave. b. Please close the door when you leave. c. Would you please close the door when you leave? d. Could you close the door when you leave? Although the above options are all available to both men and women, it is usually the more polite forms that are selected by female speakers. In general, females are found to use more questions than declarative statements in comparison with males. 62. Discuss with examples some of the linguistic differences between Standard English and Black English. One of the most prominent phonological characteristics of Black E

nglish is the frequent

simplification of consonant clu

sters at the end of words when one of the two consonants is an alveolar /t/, /d/, /s/, or /z/. The application of this simplification rule may delete the past - tense morpheme, so "past "and "passed "are both pronounced like "pass." Another salient characteristic of Black English phonological system con-cerns the deletion of some word-final stop consonants in words like "side" and "borrowed." Speakers of Black English frequently delete these word-fi-nal stops, pronouncing “side” like “sigh” and “borrowed” like “borrow.” One prominent syntactic feature is the frequent absence of various forms of the copula "be" in Black English, which are required of Standard Eng-lish. Compare the following expressions in Black English and Standard Eng-lish: (1) Black English Standard English They mine. They' re mine. You crazy. You re crazy. Another distinctive syntactic feature of Black English is the systematic use of die expression "it is" where Standard En

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glish uses "there is " in the sense of “there exists” : Is it a Mr. Johnson in this office? Another aspect of Black English is the use of double negation constructions. Whenever the verb is negated, the indefinite pronouns "something", "some-body", and "some" become the negative indefinites "nothing", "nobody", and "none", for example: He don't know nothing. (He doesn't know anything.) 63. What is a linguistic taboo? What effect does it have on our use of language? A linguistic taboo refers to a word or expression that is prohibited by the "polite" society from general use. Obscene, profane, and swear words are all taboo words that are to be avoided entirely, or at least avoided in mixed company. In sociolinguistics, a linguistic taboo, denotes any pro-hibition on the use of particular lexical items to refer to objects or acts. As language use is contextualized in particular social settings, linguistic taboo originates from social taboo. When an act is taboo, reference to this act may also become taboo. Taboo words and expressions reflect the particular social customs and views of a particular culture. As linguistic taboo reflects social taboo, certain words are more likely to be avoided, for examples, the words related to sex, sex organs and ex-crement in many cultures. The avoidance of using taboo language mirrors social attitudes, emo-tions and value judgments, and has no linguistic basis. The avoidance of using taboo language has led to the creation of euphemisms. A euphemism is a mild, indirect or less of-fensive word or expression substituted when the speaker or writer fears more direct wording might be harsh, unpleasantly direct, or offensive. For exam-ple, we say "portly" instead of "fat". In many cultures, people avoid using direct words that pertain to death or dying because it is the subject that everyone fears and is unpleasant to talk about. In the English-speaking world, for example, people do not “die” , but “pass away”. Euphemisms involve a wide range of fields. Although the use of euphemisms has the effect of removing derogatory overtones, the disassociative effect is never long-lasting . Often when the negative connotation of a word is recognized in its euphemistic form, a new euphemism will have to be sought for. However, a

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n excessive use of euphemism may have negative effects. As a matter of fact, many euphemisms have become cliches that are to be avoided in formal speech and writing. They also tend to be wordy and to give writing a timid quality. In addition, euphemism can be evasive or even deceitful. Because they are often improperly used to obscure the intended meaning, many people find them offensive and prefer plain language.

语言学教程复习题与答案(胡壮麟版第八章)

Psycholinguistics I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False: 1. The linguistic ability of human beings depends primarily on the structure of the vocal cords. 2. Human beings are the only organisms in which one particular part of the left half of the brain is larger than the corresponding part of the right half. 3. The case of Phineas Gage suggests that if our language ability is located in the brain, it is clear that it is not situated right at the front. 4. In general, the right side of the brain controls voluntary movements of, and responds to signals from, the left side of the body, whereas the left side controls voluntary movements of, and responds to signals from, the right side of the body. 5. Language functions are believed to be lateralized primarily in the left hemisphere of the brain. 6. The language we speak determines the way we perceive the world and therefore the nature of thought. 7. Human beings can not think without language, just as they can not speak without thinking. 8. If a language lacks a word, its speakers will not be able to grasp its concept. 9. Generally speaking, left hemisphere is responsible for language and speech, analytic reasoning, associative thought, etc., while the right hemisphere is responsible for perception of nonlinguistic sounds, holistic reasoning, recognition of musical melodies, etc.

10. Language by no means determines the ways we perceive the objective world, but by its convenience, availability, and habitual use, does influence the perceptions of human being. II. Fill in each of the blanks below with one w

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ord which begins with the letter given: 11. P_________ is the study of language in relation to the mind. 12. The most important part of the brain is the outside surface of the brain, called the cerebral c_________, which is the decision-making organ of the body. 13. The brain is divided into two roughly symmetrical halves, called h_________, one on the right and one on the left. 1

4. The localization of cognitive and perceptual functions in a particular side of the brain is called l__________. 15. Brain lateralization is g__________ programmed, but takes time to develop. 16. In addition to the m________ area which is responsible for physical articulation of utterances, three areas of the left hemisphere are vital to language, namely, Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area and the angular gyrus. 17. The relationship between the name and the meaning of a word is quite a______________. 18. When language and thought are identical or closely parallel to each other, we may regard thought as s________ speech and speech as o__________ thought. 19. Because languages differ in many ways, Whorf believed that speakers of different languages perceive and experience the world differently, relative to their linguistic background. This notion is called linguistic r__________. 20. The basic essentials of the first language are acquired in the short period from about age two to puberty, which is called the c____ period for first language acquisition. 21. The strong version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has two aspects: linguistic d_______ and linguistic relativism. III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement: 22. Human linguistic ability largely depends on the structure and dynamics of _________. A. human brain B. human vocal cords C. human memory D. human 2

3. Psychologists, neurologists and linguists have concluded that, in addition to the motor area which is responsible for physical articulation of utterances, three areas of the left brain are vital to language, namely, _______. A. Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area and the angular gyrus B. Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area and cerebral cortex C. Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area and neurons D. Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area and Exner’s area 24. The ____ a

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ge for the acquisition of the first language coincides with the period of brain lateralization. A. youngest B. flexible C. optimu

m D. relevant 25. Linguistic ____ is the brain’s neurological specialization for lan-guage. A. fossilization B. performance C. competence D. lateralization26. Our linguistic ability is a ________ gift of the species’ gene program.A. chemical B. physical C. scientifi

c D. biological 27. ________shows that if our language ability is located in the brain, it is clear that it is not situated right at the front of the brain. A.The case of Genie B. The case of Phineas Gage C. The componential analysis D. The contrastive analysis 28. The most important part of the brain is the outside surface of the brain, called _________. A. the neurons B. nerve pathways C. cerebral cortex d. sensory organs 2

9. According to lateralization theory, which of the following is not the primary function of the left hemisphere of the brain? A. analytic reasoning B. temporal ordering C. associative thought D.visual and spatial skills 30. _______ is commonly held to be an evolutionary precondition of the development of superior intelligence as well as a precondition of language acquisition.

A. Lateralization B. Maturation C. Brain separation D. Memory capacity 31. The dichotic listening research shows that the left hemisphere is not superior for processing all sounds, but only for those that are ________ in nature. A. non-linguistic B. musical C. linguistic D. natural 32. _______ is responsible for physical articulation of utterances. A. The motor area B. Broca’s area C. Wernicke’s area D. The angular gyrus 33. Language disorder resulting from a damage to _________ in the brain reveals word-finding difficulties and problems with syntax. A. the motor area B. Broca’s area C. Wernicke’s area D. the angular gyrus

34. In 1874, the young German physician Carl Wernicke published his discovery in a paper which contributed to the hypothesis that __________. A. there was only one language area in the left brain B. there was no language area in the left brain C. there was one language area in the right brain D. there

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was more than one language area in the left brain. 35. __________ is the language center primarily responsible for converting a visual stimulus into an auditory form and vice versa. A. The motor area B. Broca’s area C. Wernicke’s area D. The angular gyrus 36. The neurobiologist Eric Lenneberg is a major proponent of the idea that ________. A. there is a distinction between acquisition and learning B. there is a critical period for language acquisition C. language influences thinking D. there is interrelationship between language and thinking 37. The case of Genie shows that ____________. A. language can not be acquired at all after the critical period. B. Cerebral plasticity after puberty is still high enough to for a successful mastery of a new language. C. the language faculty of an average human degenerates after the critical period D. the language learning should be done as early as possible. IV Explain the following terms: 38. psycholinguistics 39. brain lateralization 40. dichotic listening 41. Broca's area 42. angular gym

s 43. cerebral plasticity 44. linguistic determinism 45. sub vocal speech 46. cerebral cortex 47. linguistic lateralization 48. right ear advantage 49. critical period hypothesis 50. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 51. linguistic relativism 52. overt thought 53. intrapersonal communication 54. interpersonal communication V. Answer the following questions:

55. What are the biological fou

ndations of language? 56. Wh

at are the major mental functions under the control of each hemi-sphere? 5

7. What can we do by means of dichotic listening tests? 58. What is the safe conclusion from Genie's case? 59. How are language and thought related to each other?

I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. F 2.T 3.T 4.T 5.T 6. F 7.F 8.F 9.T 10.T II. II. Fill in each of the

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blanks below with one word which begins with the letter given: 11. Psycholinguistics 12. cortex 13. hemispheres 14. lateralization 15. genetically 16. Motor 17. arbitrary 18. sub-vocal, overt 19.relativism 20. critical 21. determinism III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement: 22.A 23.A 24.C 25.D 26.D 27.B 28.C 29.

D 30.A 31.C 32. A 33. B 34. D 35. D 36. B 37. C IV Explain the following terms: 38. Psycholinguistics: Psycholinguistics is the study of language in relation to the mind. 39. brain lateralization: The localization of cognitive and perceptual functions in a particular hemisphere of the brain is called brain lateralization. 40.dichotic listening: a research technique which has been used to study how the brain controls hearing and language, with which subjects wear earphones and simultaneously receive different sounds in the right and left ear, and are then asked to repeat what they hear. Dichotic listening research makes use of the generally established fact that anything experienced on the right-hand side of the body is processed in the left hemisphere of the brain, and vice versa. A basic assumption, thus, would be that a signal coming in the right ear will go to the left hemisphere and a signal coming in the left ear will go to the right hemisphere.41. Broca's area : It refers to the frontal lobe in the left cerebral hemisphere, which is vital to language. This area is discovered by Paul Broca, a French surgeon and anatomist.42. angular gyms: The angular gyrus lies behind Wernicke' s area. The angular gyrus is the language center re-sponsible for converting a visual stimulus into an auditory form and vice ver-sa. This area is crucial for the matching of a spoken form with a perceived object, for the naming of objects, and for the comprehension of written lan-guage , all of which require connections between visual and speech regions.43. cerebral plasticity: Ac-cording to Lenneberg, prior to the end of the critical period, both hemispheres are involved to some extent in language and one can take over if the other is damaged. This neurological flexibility is called cerebral plasticity .44. linguistic determinism: a theory put forward by the American anthropological linguists Sapir and Whorf, which states

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that the way people view the world is determined by the structure of their native language. 45. subvocal speech: a term used to refer to thought when thought and language are identical or closely parallel to each other.46. cerebral cortex : the outside surface of the brain which receives messages from all the sensory organs and where human cognitive abilities reside.

47. linguistic lateralization: It refers the brain’s neurological specialization for language. 48.right ear advantage: The speech signals presented in the right ear goes directly to the left brain, while the speech signals in the left ear must first go to the right hemisphere, from where it is transferred to the left side of the brain for processing. Since the speech signals in the left ear takes a non-direct route and a longer time before processing than a linguistic signal received through the right ear, linguistic stimuli heard in the left ear are reported less accurately than those heard in the right ear. This pheno广告网址n is called the right ear advantage.49. critical period hypothesis: The critical period hypothesis refers to a period in one' s life extending from about age two to puberty, during which the human brain is most ready to acquire a particular language and language learning can proceed easily,ftly, and without explicit instruction.50.Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: a theory put forward by the American anthropological linguists Sapir and Whorf which states that the way people view the world is determined wholly or partly by the structure of their native language. 51.linguistic relativism: Whorf believed that speakers of different languages perceive and experience the world differently, relative to their linguistic back-ground, hence the notion of linguistic relativism . 52. overt thought: When language and thought are identical or closely parallel to each other, we may regard speech as "overt thought.” 53. intrapersonal communication: It means that language users use language to facilitates thinking, speech behavior and action for the individual.54.interpersonal communication: It means language users use language to convey information, thoughts and feelings from one person to another, or to control each other' s behavior.V. Answer the follo

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wing questions: 55. What are the biological foundations of language? Of all organisms, human beings are the only spontaneous cre-ators and users of highly sophisticated languages that permit the communica-tion of a wide range of knowledge and ideas. Evidently, our linguistic ability does not depend primarily on the struc-ture of our vocal cords, for other mammals also have vocal cords. Human linguistic ability largely depends, instead, on the structure and dynamics of the human brain. As far as is currently known, human beings are the only organisms in which one particular part of the left half of the brain is larger than the corresponding part of the right half. This has led to the belief that human language is biologically, or more exactly, neurologically, based. 56. What are the major mental functions under the control of each hemi-sphere? Psychological research suggests that both hemispheres perform important mental functions and they differ only in the manner in which they treat incoming stimuli. For example, the right hemisphere processes stimuli more holistically and the left hemisphere more analytically. Brain lateralization for major mental functions under the control of each hemisphere is given as follows: (1) Left hemisphere Right hemisphere language and speech perception of nonlinguistic sounds analytic reasoning holistic reasoning temporal ordering visual and spatial skills reading and writing recognition of patterns calculation recognition of musical melodies associative thought Because each cerebral hemisphere has unique functional superiority, it is accurate to think of the hemispheres as complementarily spe-cialized . 57. What can we do by means of dichotic listening tests? Dichotic listening research makes use of the generally established fact that anything experienced on the right-hand side of the body is processed in the left hemisphere of the brain, and vice versa. A basic assumption, thus, would be that a signal coming in the right ear will go to the left hemisphere and a signal coming in the left ear will go to the right hemisphere. By means of dichotic listening tests, we can analyze the characteristics of incoming stimuli processed by the individual hemispheres. Dichotic listening test can show

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that the left hemisphere is not superior for process-ing all sounds, but only for those that are linguistic in nature, thus providing evidence in support of the view that the left side of the brain is specialized for language and that it is where language centers reside. 58. What is the safe conclusion from Genie's case? A safe conclusion from Genie' s case is that the lan-guage faculty of an average human degenerates after the critical period and consequently, most linguistic skills cannot develop. 59. How are language and thought related to each other? Language and thought may be viewed as two independent circles overlapping in some parts, where language and thought are consistent with each other and one never occurs without the other. When language and thought are identical or closely parallel to each other, we may regard thought as "subvocal speech”, and speech as "overt thought. In such a case, speaking and thinking take place simultaneously.

语言学教程复习题与答案(胡壮麟版第九章)

Language Acquisition I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False: 1. L1 development and L2 development seem to involve the same processes. 2. The capacity to acquire one’s first language is a fundamental human trait that all human beings are equally well possessed with. 3. All normal children have equal ability to acquire their first language. 4. Children follow a similar acquisition schedule of predictable stages along the route of language development across cultures, though there is an idiosyncratic variation in the amount of time that takes individuals to master different aspects of the grammar. 5. Humans can be said to be predisposed and biologically programmed to acquire at least one language. 6. Some languages are inferior, or superior, to other languages. 7. Language acquisition is primarily the acquisition of the vocabulary and the meaning of language. 8. Human beings are genetically predetermined to acquire language, this genetic predisposition is a sufficient condition for language development. 9. Children who grow up in cult