【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 between meanings and sounds. For instance, there is no necessary relationship between the word elephant and the animal it symbolizes. In addition, different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages, and even within the same language, the same sound does not refer to the same thing. However, language is not entirelyarbitrary. There are words which are created in the imitation of sounds by sounds, such as crash, bang in English. Besides, some pound words are also not entirely arbitrary. But the nonarbitrary words are quite limited in number. The arbitrary nature of language makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions. 2) Productivity Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. This is why they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences that they have never said or heard before. They can send messages which no one else has ever sent before. Productivity is unique to human language. Most animal munication systems appear to be highly restricted with respect to the number of different signals that their users can send and receive. 3) Duality The duality nature of language means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds and the other of meanings. At the lower or the basic level, there is the structure of sounds, which are meaningless, discrete, individual sounds. But the sounds of language can be bined according to rules into units of meaning such as morphemes and words, which, at the higher level,can be arranged into sentences. This duality of structure or double articulation of language enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge. No animal munication system has duality or even es near to possessing it. 4) Displacement Displacement means that language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in faraway places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. Animal calls are mainly uttered in response to immediate changes of situation. 5) Cultural transmission Human beings were born with the ability to acquire language, but the details of any language are not genetically transmitted or passed down by instinct. They have to be taught and learned,but animal call systems are genetically transmitted. 63. How is modern linguistics different from traditional grammar? Traditional grammar is prescriptive。 it is based on high (religious, literary) written language. It sets grammatical rules and imposes the rules on language users. But Modern linguistics is descriptive。 It collects authentic, and mainly spoken language data and then it studies and describes the data in an objective and scientific way.64. How do you understand the distinction between a synchronic study and a diachronic study? The description of a language at some point in time is a Synchronic study。 the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. A synchronic study of language describes a language as it is at some particular point in time, while a diachronic study of language is the study of the historical development of language over a period of time. 65. Why does modern linguistics regard the spoken form of language as primary, not the written? First, the spoken form is prior to the written form and most writing systems are derived from the spoken form of language. Second, the spoken form plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed and it serves a wider range of purposes Finally, the spoken form is the medium through which we acquire our mother tongue. 66. What are the major distinctions between langue and parole?The distinction between langue, and parole was made by the famous linguist Ferdinand de Saussure early this century. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech munity, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow while parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules. Langue is abstract。 it is not the language people actually use, but parole is concrete。 it refers to the naturally occurring language events. Langue is relatively stable。 it does not change frequently。 while parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.67. How do you understand petence and performance? American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950’s proposed the distinction between petence and performance. Chomsky defines petence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language. This internalized set of rules enables the language user to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. According to Chomsky,performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic munication. Although the speaker’s knowledge of his mother tongue is perfect, his performances may have mistakes because of social and psychological factors such as stress, embarrassment, etc.. Chomsky believes that what linguists should study is the petence, which is systematic, not the performance, which is too haphazard.68. Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole seems similar to Chomsky’s distinction between petence and performance. What do you think are their major differences? Although Saussure’s distinction and Chomsky’s are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a mater of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of vies and to him, petence is a property of the mind of each individual.69. Do you think human language is entirely arbitrary? Why? Language is arbitrary in nature, it is not entirely arbitrary, because there are a limited number of words whose connections between forms and meanings can be logically explained to a certain extent, for example, the onomatopoeia, words which are coined on the basis of imitation of sounds by sounds such as bang, crash,etc.. Take pounds for anoth