I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:
l.F   2.F   3.T   4.F   5.T   6.T   7.F   8.T   9.T   10.T
II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:
11. Semantics 12. direct 13.Reference 14. synonyms 15.homophones 16.Relational 17. Componential 18. selectional 19. argument  20. naming
III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:
2l.A 22.B 23.D 24.D 25.B 26.C 27.A 28.C 29.D 30.A
IV. Define the following terms:
31. Semantics: Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning in language.
32. Sense: Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de -contextualised.
33. Reference: Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience
34. Synonymy :Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning.
35. Polysemy olysemy refers to the fact that the same one word may have more than one meaning.
36. Homonymy :Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different mean-ings have the same form, i.e. , different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.
37. homophones :When two words are identical in sound, they are called homophones
38. homographs :When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.
39. complete homonyms.:When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are called complete homonyms.

40.Hyponymy :Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word.
41. Antonymy :Antonymy refers to the relation of oppositeness of meaning.
42. Componential analysis : Componential analysis is a way to analyze word meaning. It was pro-posed by structural semanticists. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a -word can be divided into meaning components, which are called semantic features.
43.The grammatical meaning : The grammatical meaning of a sentence refers to its grammaticality, i.e. , its grammatical well-formedness . The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by the grammatical rules of the language.
44. predica-tion :The predica-tion is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.
45. ar-gument : An ar-gument is a logical participant in a predication. It is generally identical with the nominal element (s) in a sentence.
46. predicate : A predicate is something that is said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.
47. two-place predication :  A two-place predication is one which con-tains two arguments.
V. Answer the following questions:
48.   Why do we say that a meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components?
    The meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components because it cannot be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its constituent words. For example;
           (A) The dog bit the man.
           (B) The man bit the dog.
If the meaning of a sentence were the sum total of the meanings of all its components, then the above two sentences would have the same meaning. In fact they are different in meanings.
As we know, there are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical mean-ing and semantic meaning. The grammatical meanings of “the dog” and “the man” in (A) are different from the grammatical meanings of “the dog” and “the man” in (B). The meaning of a sentence is the product of both lexical and grammatical meaning. It is the product of the meaning of the constituent words and of the grammatical constructions that relate one word syntagmatically to another.
49.   What is componential analysis? Illustrate it with examples.
    Componential analysis, pro-posed by structural semanticists, is a way to analyze word meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be divided into meaning components, which are called semantic features. Plus and minus signs are used to indicate whether a certain semantic feature is present or absent in the meaning of a word, and these feature symbols are usually written in capitalized letters. For example, the word “man” is ana-lyzed as consisting of the semantic features of [+ HUMAN, + ADULT, + ANIMATE, +MALE]
50.   How do you distinguish between entailment and presupposition in terms of truth values?
Entailment is a relation of inclusion. Suppose there are two sentences X and Y:
    X: He has been to France.
    Y: He has been to Europe.
In terms of truth values, if X is true, Y is necessarily true, e.g. If he has been to France, he must have been to Europe.
  If X is false, Y may be true or false, e. g. If he has not been to France, he may still have been to Europe or he has not been to Europe. If Y is true, X may be true or false, e.g. If he has been to Europe, he may or may not have been to France.
If Y is false, X is false, e.g. If he has not been to Europe, he cannot have been to France.
Therefore we conclude that X entails Y or Y is an entailment of X.
The truth conditions that we use to judge presupposition is as follows:
Suppose there are two sentences X and Y
          X: John' s bike needs repairing.
          Y: John has a bike.
If X is true, Y must be true, e.g. If John' s bike needs repairing, John must have a bike.
If X is false, Y is still true, e. g. If John' s bike does not need repairing, John still has a bike. If Y is true, X is either true or false, e.g. If John has a bike, it may or may not need repairing. If Y is false, no truth value can be said about X, e.g. If John does not have a bike, nothing can be said about whether his bike needs repairing or not. Therefore, X presupposes Y, or Y is a presupposition of X.
51.   How do you account for such sense relations between sentences as synonymous relation, inconsistent relation in terms of truth values?
   In terms of truth condition, of the two sentences X and Y, if X is true, Y is true; if X is false, Y is false, therefore X is synonymous with Y
e.g. X; He was a bachelor all his life.
Y: He never married all his life.
Of the two sentences X and Y, if X is true, Y is false; if X is false, Y is true, then we can say A is inconsistent with Y
e.g.  X: John is married.
      Y: John is a bachelor.
52.   According to the ways synonyms differ, how many groups can we classify synonyms into? Illustrate them with examples.
    According to the ways synonyms differ, synonyms can be divided into the following groups.
i.   Dialectal synonyms
They are synonyms which are used in different regional dialects. British English and American English are the two major geographical varieties of the English language. For examples:
           British English            American English
             autumn                    fall
               lift                     elevator
Then dialectal synonyms can also be found within British, or American English itself. For example, "girl" is called "lass" or "lassie" in Scottish dialect, and "liquor" is called "whisky" in Irish dialect.
ii. Stylistic synonyms
They are synonyms which differ in style or degree of formality. Some of the stylistic synonyms tend to be more formal, others tend to be casual, and still oth-ers are neutral in style. For example:
           old man, daddy, dad, father, male parent
           chap, pal, friend, companion
iii. Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning
They are the words that have the same meaning but express different emotions of the user. The emotions of the user indicate the attitude or bias of the user toward what he is talking about . For exam-ple, “collaborator”  and  “accomplice”  are synonymous, sharing the meaning of "a person who helps another", but they are different in their evaluative meaning. The former means that a person who helps another in do-ing something good, while the latter refers to a person who helps another in a criminal act.
iv. Collocational synonyms
They are synonyms which differ in their collocation. For example, we can use accuse, charge, rebuke to say that someone has done something wrong or even criminal, but they are used with different preposi-tions accuse. . . of, charge. . . with, rebuke. . .for. v. V. Semantically different synonyms
Semantically different synonyms refer to the synonyms that differ slight-ly in what they mean. For example, "amaze" and "astound" are very close in meaning to the word "surprise," but they have very subtle differences in meaning. While amaze suggests confusion and bewilderment, " astound" implies difficulty in believing. "
53.  What are the major views concerning the study of meaning? How do they differ?
  One of the oldest was the naming theory, proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato, who believed that the words used in a language are taken to be la-bels of the objects they stand for. The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a lin-guistic form and what it refers to. The form and the meaning are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. Two kinds of context are recognized; the situational context and the linguistic context.
For example, the meaning of the word "seal" in the sentence "The seal could not be found" can only be determined ac-cording to the context in which the sentence occurs:
The seal could not be found. The zoo keeper became worried.
(seal meaning an aquatic mammal)
The seal could not be found. The king became worried.
(seal meaning the king's stamp)
    Behaviorism drew on behaviorist psychology when he tried to define the meaning of linguistic forms. Behaviorists attempted to de-fine the meaning of a language form as " the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer".

AD:天然气气体检测仪、探测器、报警器

Chapter 6：Pragmatics I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False: 1. Both semantics and pragmatics study how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication 2. Pragmatics treats the meaning of language as something intrinsic and inherent. 3. It would be impossible to give an adequate description of meaning if the context of language use was left unconsidered. 4. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered. 5. The major difference between a sentence and an utterance is that a sentence is not uttered while an utterance is. 6. The meaning of a sentence is abstract, but context-dependent. 7. The meaning of an utterance is decontexualized, therefore stable. 8. Utterances always take the form of complete sentences 9. Speech act theory was originated with the British philosopher John Searle. 10. Speech act theory started in the late 50’s of the 20th century. 11. Austin made the distinction between a constative and a performative. 12. Perlocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention. II. Fill in each blank below with one word which begins with the letter given: 13. P_________ is the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication. 14. What essentially distinguishes s_______ and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered. 15. The notion of c_________ is essential to the pragmatic study of language. 16. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes an u___________. 17. The meaning of a sentence is a_______, and decontexualized. 18. C________ were statements that either state or describe, and were thus verifiable. 19. P________ were sentences that did not state a fact or describe a state, and were not verifiable. 20. A l_________ act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology. 21. An i__________ act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention; it is the act performed in saying something. 22. A c_________ is commit the speaker himself to some future course of action. 23. An e________ is to express feelings or attitude towards an existing state. 24. There are four maxims under the cooperative principle: the maxim of q_______, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner. III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement: 25. _________ does not study meaning in isolation, but in context. A. Pragmatics B. Semantics C. Sense relation D. Concept 26. The meaning of language was considered as something _______ in traditional semantics. A. contextual B. behaviouristic C. intrinsic D. logical 27. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning _________ is considered. A. reference B. speech act C. practical usage D. context 28. A sentence is a _________ concept, and the meaning of a sentence is often studied in isolation. A. pragmatic B. grammatical C. mental D. conceptual 29. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes a(n) _________. A. constative B. directive C. utterance D. expressive 30. Which of the following is true? A. Utterances usually do not take the form of sentences. B. Some utterances cannot be restored to complete sentences. C. No utterances can take the form of sentences. D. All utterances can be restored to complete sentences. 31. Speech act theory did not come into being until __________. A. in the late 50’s of the 20the century B. in the early 1950’s C. in the late 1960’s D. in the early 21st century. 32. __________ is the act performed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance. A. A locutionary act B. An illocutionary act C. A perlocutionary act D. A performative act 33. According to Searle, the illocutionary point of the representative is ______. A. to get the hearer to do something B. to commit the speaker to something’s being the case C. to commit the speaker to some future course of action D. to express the feelings or attitude towards an existing state of affairs. 34. All the acts that belong to the same category share the same purpose, but they differ __________. A. in their illocutionary acts. B. in their intentions expressed C. in their strength or force D. in their effect brought about 35. __________ is advanced by Paul Grice A. Cooperative Principle B. Politeness Principle C. The General Principle of Universal Grammar D. Adjacency Principle 36. When any of the maxims under the cooperative principle is flouted, _______ might arise. A. impoliteness B. contradictions C. mutual understanding D. conversational implicatures IV. Define the terms below: 37. pragmatics 38. context 39. utterance meaning 40. sentence meaning 41. constative 42. performative 43. locutionary act 44. illocutionary act 45. perlocutionary act 46.. Cooperative Principle V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary: 47. How are semantics and pragmatics different from each other? 48. How does a sentence differ from an utterance? 49. How does a sentence meaning differ from an utterance meaning? 50. Discuss in detail the locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. 51. Searle classified illocutionary act into five categories. Discuss each of them in detail with examples. 52. What are the four maxims under the cooperative principle? 53. How does the flouting of the maxims give rise to conversational implicatures?

I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:
  l. F   2. F  3.T   4.T   5.F   6.F   7.F  8.F   9.F   10.T   11.T   12.F   
II. Fill in each blank below with one word which begins with the letter given:
13.  Pragmatics    14. semantics    15. context    16. utterance    17. abstract
18.Constatives    19. Performatives  20. locutionary  21. illocutionary  
22. commissive  23. expressive   24. quantity
III.             There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:
25. A    26.C    27.D    28.B      29.C      30.B
31.A    32.C    33.B    34.C      35. A      36.D
IV. Define the terms below:
37.  pragmatics: Pragmatics can be defined as the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.   
38.  Context: Generally speaking, it consists of the knowledge that is shared by the speak-er and the hearer. The shared knowledge is of two types: the knowledge of the language they use, and the knowledge about the world, including the general knowledge about the world and the specific knowledge about the situ-ation in which linguistic communication is taking place.        
39.  utterance meaning: the meaning of an utterance is concrete, and context-dependent. Utterance is based on sentence meaning; it is realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context.
40.  sentence meaning: The meaning of a sentence is of-ten considered as the abstract, intrinsic property of the sentence itself in terms of a predication.     
41.  Constative: Constatives were statements that either state or describe, and were verifi-able ;      
42.  Performative: performatives, on the other hand, were sentences that did not state a fact or describe a state, and were not verifiable. Their function is to perform a particular speech act.   
43. locutionary act: A locutionary act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonol-ogy.     
44. illocutionary act: An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker's intention; it is the act performed in saying something.   
45. perlocutionary act: A perlocutionary act is the act per-formed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance; it is the act performed by saying something.
46. Cooperative Principle: It is principle advanced by Paul Grice. It is a principle that guides our conversational behaviours. The content is : Make your conversational contribution such as is required at the stage at which it occurs by the accepted purpose or the talk exchange in which you are engaged.
V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary:
47.  How are semantics and pragmatics different from each other?
    Traditional semantics studied meaning, but the meaning of language was considered as something intrinsic, and inherent, i.e. a property attached to language itself. Therefore, meanings of words, meanings of sentences were all studied in an isolated manner, detached from the context in which they were used. Pragmatics studies meaning not in isolation, but in context. The essential distinction between semantics and pragmatics is whether the context of use is considered in the study of mean-ing . If it is not considered, the study is restricted to the area of traditional semantics; if it is considered, the study is being carried out in the area of pragmatics.
48.  How does a sentence differ from an utterance?
    A sentence is a grammatical concept. It usually consists of a subject and predicate. An utterance is the unit of communication. It is the smallest linguistic unit that has a communicative value. If we regard a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes an utterance. Whether “Mary is beautiful.” is a sentence or an utterance de-pends on how we look at it. If we regard it as a grammatical unit or a self-contained unit in isolation, then it is a sentence. If we look at it as something uttered in a certain situation with a certain purpose, then it is an utterance. Most utter-ances take the form of complete sentences, but some utterances are not, and some cannot even be restored to complete sentences.
49.  How does a sentence meaning differ from an utterance meaning?
    A sentence meaning is of-ten considered as the intrinsic property of the sentence itself in terms of a predication. It is abstract and independent of context. The meaning of an utterance is concrete, and context-dependent. The utterance meaning is based on sentence meaning; it is realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context. For example, “There is a dog at the door”. The speaker could utter it as a matter- of- fact state-ment, telling the hearer that the dog is at the door. The speaker could use it as a warning, asking the hearer not to approach the door. There are other possibilities, too. So, the understanding of the utterance meaning of “There is a dog at the door” de-pends on the context in which it is uttered and the purpose for which the speaker utters it.
50.  Discuss in detail the locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.
    A locutionary act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonol-ogy. An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker's intention; it is the act performed in saying something. A perlocutionary act is the act per-formed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance; it is the act performed by saying something.  For example:
You have left the door wide open.
The locutionary act performed by the speaker is that he has uttered all the words " you,' " have," " door," " left," " open," etc. and expressed what the word literally mean.
The illocutionary act performed by the speaker is that by making such an utterance, he has expressed his intention of asking the hearer to close the door.
The perlocutionary act refers to the effect of the utterance. If the hearer understands that the speaker intends him to close the door and closes the door, the speaker has successfully brought about the change in the real world he has intended to; then the perlocutiohary act is successfully per-formed .
51. Searle classified illocutionary act into five categories. Discuss each of them in detail with examples.
1)      representatives: representatives are used to state, to describe, to report, etc.. The illocutionary point of the representatives is to commit the speaker to something's being the case, to the truth of what has been said. For example:
         (I swear) I have never seen the man before.

         (I state) the earth is a globe.
2)  directives: Directives are attempts by the speaker to get the hearer to do some-thing. Inviting, suggesting, requesting, advising, warning, threatening, or-dering are all specific instances of this class.
        For example:
    Open the window!
3) commissives: Commissives are those illocutionary acts whose point is to commit the speaker to some future course of action. When the speaker is speaking, he puts himself under obligation. For example:
             I promise to come.
         I will bring you the book tomorrow without fail.
4)  expressives: The illocutionary point of expressives is to express the psychological state specified in the utterance. The speaker is expressing his feelings or attitude towards an existing state of affairs, e.g. apologizing, thanking, congratulating. For example:
            I'm sorry for the mess I have made.
5) declarations: Declarations have the characteristic that the successful performance of such an act brings about the correspondence between what is said and reality. For example:
I now declare the meeting open.
52.  What are the four maxims under the cooperative principle?
The maxim of quantity
1. Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange) .
2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
2. The maxim of quality
1. Do not say what you believe to be false.
2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
2. The maxim of relation
Be relevant.
The maxim of manner
1. Avoid obscurity of expression.
2. Avoid ambiguity.
3. Be brief ( avoid unnecessary prolixity) .
4. Be orderly.
53.  How does the flouting of the maxims give rise to conversational implicatures?
         A: Do you know where Mr. Smith lives?
         B: Somewhere in the southern suburbs of the city.
    This is said when both A and B know that B does know Mr. Smith' s address. Thus B does not give enough information that is required, and he has flouted the maxim of quantity. Therefore, such conversational implica-ture as "I do not wish to tell you where Mr. Smith lives" is produced.
       A: Would you like to come to our party tonight?
       B: I'm afraid I' m not feeling so well today.
    This is said when both A and B know that B is not having any health problem that will prevent him from going to a party. Thus B is saying some-thing that he himself knows to be false and he is violating the maxim of qual-ity. The conversational implicature " I do not want to go to your party tonight" is then produced.
           A: The hostess is an awful bore. Don't you think?
           B: The roses in the garden are beautiful, aren't they?
    This is said when both A and B know that it is entirely possible for B to make a comment on the hostess. Thus B is saying something irrelevant to what A has just said, and he has flouted the maxim of relation. The conver-sational implicature "I don't wish to talk about the hostess in such a rude manner" is produced.
              A: Shall we get something for the kids?
              B: Yes. But I veto I - C - E - C - R - E - A - M.
    This is said when both A and B know that B has no difficulty in pro-nouncing the word "ice-cream." Thus B has flouted the maxim of manner. The conversational implicature "I don’t want the kids to know we are talking about ice-cream" is then produced.

Chapter 7： Historical Linguistics
I.  Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:
1.  One of the tasks of the historical linguists is to explore methods to reconstruct linguistic history and establish the relationship between languages.
2.  Language change is a gradual and constant process, therefore often indiscernible to speakers of the same generation.
3.  The history of the English language is divided into the periods of Old English, Middle English and Modern English.
4.  Middle English began with the arrival of Anglo-Saxons, who invaded the British Isles from northern Europe.
5.  In Old English, all the nouns are inflected to mark nominative, genitive, dative and accusative cases.
6.  In Old English, the verb of a sentence often precedes the subject rather than follows it.
7.  A direct consequence of the Renaissance Movement was the revival of French as a literary language.
8.  In general, linguistic change in grammar is more noticeable than that in the sound system and the vocabulary of a language.
9.  The sound changes include changes in vowel sounds, and in the loss, gain and movement of sounds.
10.    The least widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English are the loss and addition of affixes.
11.    In Old English, the morphosyntactic rule of adjective agreement stipulated that the endings of adjective must agree with the head noun in case, number and gender.
12.    The word order of Modern English is more variable than that of Old English.
13.    Derivation refers to the process by which new words are formed by the addition of affixes to the roots, stems, or words.
14.    “Smog” is a word formed by the word-forming process called acronymy.
15.    “fridge” is a word formed by abbreviation.
16.    Modern linguists are able to provide a consistent account for the exact causes of all types of language change.
17.    Sound assimilation may bring about the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in sequence, as in the case of change of “Engla-land” to “England”.
18.    Rule elaboration occurs when there is a need to reduce ambiguity and increase communicative clarity or expressiveness.
19.    Language change is always a change towards the simplification of language rules
20.    The way children acquire the language is one of the causes for language change.
II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:
21.    H________ linguistics is the subfield of linguistics that studies language change.
22.    The historical study of language is a d________ study of language rather than a synchronic study.
23.    European R________ Movement separates the period of Middle English from that of modern English.
24.    An important set of extensive sound changes, which affected 7 long or tense vowels and which led to one of the major discrepancies between phonemic representations of words and morphemes at the end of the Middle English Period, is known as the Great V_______ Shift.
25.    A_______ involves the deletion of a word-final vowel segment.
26.    A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as  e__________.
27.    The three sets of consonant shifts that Grimm discovered became known collectively as Grimm s L ____.
28.    Sound change as a result of sound movement, known as m_______, involves a reversal in position of two adjoining sound segments.
29.    B________ is a process by which new words are formed by taking away the supposed suffixes of exiting words.
30.    Semantic b________ refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denotation.
31.    The original form of a language family that has ceased to exist is called the p_________.
32.    Sound a________ refers to the physiological effect of one sound on another. In this process, successive sounds are made identical or similar to one another in terms of place or manner of articulation.
33.    In order to reduce the exceptional or irregular morphemes, speakers of a particular language may borrow a rule from one part of the grammar and apply it generally. This phenomenon is called i_________ borrowing.
34.    By identifying and comparing similar linguistic forms with similar meanings across related languages, historical linguists reconstruct the proto form in the common ancestral language. This process is called c________ reconstruction.
35.    The m ____ rule of adjective agreement has been lost from English.
III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:
36.     Historical linguistics explores ________________.
     A.   the nature of language change
B.   the causes that lead to language change
   C.  the relationship between languages
   D. all of the above
37.    Language change is ______________.
A.   universal, continuous and ,to a large extent, regular and systematic
B.   continuous, regular, systematic, but not universal
C.   universal, continuous, but not regular and systematic
D.   always regular and systematic, but not universal and continuous
38.    Modern English period starts roughly _____________.
A.   from 449 to 1100
B.   from 1500 to the present
C.   from 1100 to the present
D.   from 1700 to the present
39.    Old English dates back to the mid-fifth century when _________.
A.  the Norman French invaders under William the Conqueror arrived in England
B.   the printing technology was invented
C.  Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northern Europe
D.  the Celtic people began to inhabit England
40.    Middle English was deeply influenced by ___________.
A.  Norman French in vocabulary and grammar
B.   Greek and Latin because of the European renaissance movement
C.  Danish languages because Denmark placed a king on the throne of England
D.  the Celtic people who were the first inhabitants of England
41.    Language change is essentially a matter of change ________.
A. in collocations                 B. in meaning
C. in grammar                   D. in usages
42.    In Old and Middle English, both /k/ and /n/ in the word “knight” were pronounced, but in modern English, /k/ in the sound /kn-/ clusters was not pronounced. This phenomenon is known as ________.
A. sound addition              B. sound loss
C. sound shift                 D. sound movement
43.    A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as _____.
A. apocope                    B. epenthesis
C. parenthesis                  D. antithesis
44.    Segment switch of sound positions can be seen in the example of the modern word “ bird” which comes from the old English word “bridd”. The change of the word from “bridd” to “bird” is a case of _________.
  A. metathesis                   B. sound loss
  C. sound addition                D. apocope
45.    _________ is a process of combining two or more words into one lexical unit.
A. Derivation                     B. Blending
C. Compounding                  D. Abbreviation
46.    “Wife”, which used to refer to any woman, stands for “ a married woman” in modern English. This phenomenon is known as ________.
A. semantic shift                   B. semantic broadening
C. semantic elevation               D. semantic narrowing
47.    English language belongs to _________.
A. Indo-European Family            B. Sino-Tibetan Family
C. Austronesian Family              D. Afroasiatic Family
48.    By analogy to the plural formation of the word “dog-s”, speakers started saying “cows” as the plural of “cow” instead of the earlier plural “kine”. This is the case of _________.
A. elaboration                       B. external borrowing
C. sound assimilation                 D. internal borrowing
49.    Morphologcial changes can involve __________.
A.  the loss of morphological rules
B.   the addition of morphological rules
C.  the alteration of morphological rules
D.  all of the above
50.    The most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss of ________.
A.  comparative markers
B.   tense markers
C.  gender and case markers
D.  none of the above   
IV. Define the following terms:
51. Apocope               52. Metathesis             53. Derivation  
54. back-formation          55. semantic narrowing     56.protolanguage   
57. haplology              58. epenthesis            59. Compounding  
60. Blending             61. semantic broadening   62. semantic shift         
63. Great Vowel Shift         64. acronym         65. sound assimilation   
V. Answer the following questions:
66.  What is the purpose or significance of the historical study of language?
67.  What are the characteristics of the nature of language change?
68.  What are the major periods in the history of English?
69.  As language changes over time, the meaning of a word may deviate from its original denotation. Discuss the major types of semantic changes.
70.  Over the years from Old English period to the Modern English period, English has undergone some major sound changes. Illustrate these changes with some examples.
71.  What are the most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English?
72.  What are the causes of language change? Discuss them in detail.

I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:
l.T   2.T   3.T   4.F   5.F   6.T   7.F   8.F   9.T   10.F
11.T  12.F  13.T  14.F  15.F  16. F  17. T  18. T  19. F  20.T
II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:
21.Historical         22.diachronic         23.Renaissance       24.Vowel
25.Apocope         26.epenthesis         27.Law              28. Metathesis 29.Backformation     30.broadening        31.protolanguage     32.assimilation 33. internal         34.comparative       35. morphosyntactic
III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:
36.D   37.A   38.B   39.C   40.A   41.C   42.B   43.B   44.A   45.C
46. D  47.A   48. D   49. D  50. C
IV. Define the following terms:
1.  Apocope : Apocope is the deletion of a word-final vowel segment.
2.  Metathesis: Sound change as a result of sound movement is known as metathesis. It involves a reversal in position of two neighbouring sound seg-ments.
3.  Derivation: It is a process by which new words are formed by the addition of affixes to the roots, stems or words.
4.  back-formation: It is a process by which new words are formed by taking away the supposed suffix of an existing word.
5.  semantic narrowing: Semantic narrowing is a process in which the meaning of a word be-comes less general or inclusive than its historically earlier meaning.
6.  Protolanguage: It is the original form of a language family that has ceased to exist.
7.  Haplology: It refers to the phenomenon of the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in sequence.
8.    Epenthesis: A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as epenthesis.
9.    Compounding: It is a process of combining two or more than two words into one lexical unit.  
10.    Blending: It is a process of forming a new word by combining parts of other words.
11.    semantic broadening: Semantic broadening refers to the process in which the  meaning of a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denota-tion.
62. semantic shift: Semantic shift is a process of semantic change in which a word loses its former meaning and acquires a new, sometimes related, meaning.
63.  Great Vowel Shift: It is a series of systematic sound change at the end of the Middle English period approximately between 1400 and 1600 in the history of English that involved seven long vowels and consequently led to one of the major discrepancies between English pronunciation and its spelling system.
64. Acronym: An acronym is a word created by combining the initials of a number of words.      
65.  sound assimilation: Sound assimilation refers to the physiological effect of one sound on an-other. In an assimilative process, successive sounds are made identical, or more similar, to one another in terms of place or manner of articulation, or of haplology.
V. Answer the following questions:
66.  What is the purpose or significance of the historical study of language?
1)   Researches in historical linguistics shed light on prehistoric developments in the evolution of language and the connections of earlier and later variants of the same lan-guage and provide valuable insights into the kinship patterns of different languages.
2)   The identification of the changes that a particular language has undergone enables us to reconstruct the linguistic history of that language, and thereby hypothesizes its earlier forms from which current speech and writing have evolved.
3)   The historical study of language also en-ables them to determine how non - linguistic factors, such as social, cultural and psychological factors, interact over time to cause linguistic change.
67.  What are the characteristics of the nature of language change?
  All living languages change with time and language change is inevitable. As a general rule, language change is universal, continuous and, to a considerable de-gree, regular and systematic. Language change is extensive, taking place in virtually all aspects of the grammar.
  Although language change is universal, inevitable, and in some cases, vigorous, it is never an overnight occurrence, but a gradual and constant process, often indiscernible to speakers of the same generation.
68.  What are the major periods in the history of English?
    The major periods in the history of English are Old English period (roughly from 449 to 1100), Middle English period(roughly from 1100 to 1500), and Modern English period (roughly from 1500 to the pre-sent). Old English dates back to the mid-fifth century when Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northern Europe.
   The pronunciation of Old English is very different from its modem form. For example, the Old English word "ham" is pronounced as /ha:m/. In terms of morphology, nearly half of the nouns are inflected to mark nomi-native , genitive, dative, and accusative cases . In addition, suffixes are added to verbs to indicate tense. Syntactical-ly , the verb of an Old English sentence precedes, hut does not follow, the subject.
    Middle English began when the Norman French invaders invaded England under William the Conqueror in 1066. Middle English had been deeply influenced by Norman French in vocabulary and grammar. For example, such terms as " army," " court," " defense," " faith," "prison" and "tax" came from the language of the French rulers.
    Modern English period starts with European renaissance move-ment. A di-rect consequence of the Renaissance movement was the revival of Latin as a literary language. In the post-Renaissance period, the "British Empire" set up English-speaking colonies in many parts of the world. By the nineteenth century, English was recognized as the language of the government, the law, higher education, and business and commerce in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Today Modern English is widely used and has in fact become an important tool of international communication among peoples of different countries.
69.  As language changes over time, the meaning of a word may deviate from its original denotation. Discuss the major types of semantic changes.
   Major types of semantic changes are semantic broadening, semantic narrowing and semantic shift.
    Semantic broadening refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denota-tion. Take the word "holiday" for example,  The older meaning was a " holy day." Today everyone enjoys a holiday, whether he or she is religious or not.
    Semantic narrowing is a process in which the meaning of a word be-comes less general or inclusive than its historically earlier meaning. For ex-ample, " wife," used to mean "any woman," but now it means “married fe-males” only.
    Semantic shift is a process of semantic change in which a word loses its former meaning and acquires a new, sometimes related, meaning. For example, the word silly meant “happy” in Old English, and naive in Middle English, but "foolish" in Modern English.
70.    Over the years from Old English period to the Modern English period, English has undergone some major sound changes. Illustrate these changes with some examples.
The major sound changes include changes in vowel sounds, and in the loss, gain and movement of sounds.
The changes in vowel sounds can be seen in the Great Vowel Shift in the history of English, which led to one of the major dis-agreements between the pronunciation and the spelling system of Modern English. These changes involve seven long, or tense vowels, for example
Words   
Middle English   
Modem English   
Five  
fi:v   
faiv
Mouse
Mu:s
maus
Feet
fe:t
fi:t  
Mood  
Mo:d   
mu:d  
Break
Brε:ken
breik
    Sounds do not just change, they can be lost. vowel sounds change, but some sounds simply disappeared from the general pronunciation of English. One example of sound loss is the /kn - / clusters in the word - initial position. In Old and Middle English, both /k/ and /n/ were pro-nounced, as is shown in the spelling of such words as "knight" and "knee." Although Modern English spelling of these words still keeps the initial letter k, its sound is no longer pronounced.
  Sound changes can also take the form of sound addition. Sound addition includes the gain or insertion of a sound, for example:
              spinle          spindle
              emty           empty
Sound change can take the form of sound movement. It involves a reversal in position of two neighbouring sound seg-ments. For example, the /r/ sound in the Old English words "bridd" ("bird") and "hros" ("horse") was moved to the right of the vowel sounds in their Modem English counterparts "bird" and "horse."
71. What are the most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English?
The most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English are the loss and addition of affixes. A number of morphological rules in Old English are now lost in Modern English. Some of these rules are about derivational affixes, such as suffixes "-baere" and "-bora" . In Old English an adjective would derive if "-baere" was added to a noun, such as:
   lust ("pleasure") + baere     lustbaere ("agreeable")
But this rule has been lost in modern English.
    The most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss of gender and case marking. In Old English,for example, "st?n" ("stone") was marked masculine, while "gief" ("gift") and "d…or" ("wild animal") were marked respectively feminine and neuter. In modern English, the gender markers of these words have been lost.
    Some affixes have been added to the English morphological system.Take "-able" for example, it has been added to English since the Old English period. At first, words ending in "-able," such as "favourable" and "conceivable," were borrowed altogether from French. Then this suffix be-came a productive rule in English. It was used with other verbs to form ad-jectives. Contemporary English speakers apply this suffix rule to more stems, thus producing new adjectives such as " payable," and “washable.”
72.What are the causes of language change? Discuss them in detail.
Language changes are due to the following causes:
1)   Sound assimilation: Sound assimilation refers to the physiological effect of one sound on an-other. In an assimilative process, successive sounds are made identical, or more similar, to one another in terms of place or manner of articulation, or of haplology, the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in sequence. For example, the Old English word "Engla-land" ("the land of the Angles") came to be pronounced “England” through the assimilation of "la-la sounds.
2)    Rule simplification and regularization: Some changes are the result of simplification and regularization. The plural forms of borrowed words are usually irregular, thus complex. For example, the plural forms of  "agendum", "datum", "curriculum" and "memorandum" are "agenda" , "data" , "curricula" and "mem-oranda" . The irregular plurals of these nouns have been replaced by regular plurals of "agendas", "curriculums", and "memorandums" among many speakers, thus making them simplified and regularized.
3)    Internal borrowing: In order to reduce the number of ex-ceptional or irregular morphemes, speakers of a particular language may bor-row a rule from one part of the grammar and apply it generally. For exam-ple, by analogy to the plural formation of "foe-s" and "dog-s", speakers started saying "cows" as the plural of "cow" instead of the earlier plural kine.
4)   Elaboration: Rule elaboration occurs when there is a need to reduce ambiguity and increase communicative clarity or expressiveness. If a particular grammatical feature is lost as a re-sult of a change in the phonological system, some other feature may be added in another component of the grammar.
5)   Social triggers: Socio-political changes such as wars, invasions, oc-cupation, colonization, and language planning and standardiza-tion policies lead to language changes. For example, in the history of English, the Norman Conquest marked the beginning of the Middle English period. And British colonial settlement, and the country' s political, cultural and economic advances in distant lands such as North America, Oceania, South Africa, and India lead to the change of English into British, American, Australian, South African and Indian varieties.
6)    Cultural transmission: Although a new generation has to find a way of using the language of the previous generation, it has to find expressions that can best communicate the views and concepts of the time and the changed and ever-changing social life, and re-create the language of the community. For example, while old people tend to call a refrigerator "icebox," the younger generation is more often heard speaking of a "fridge." This tenuous transmission process adds up to the inevitable and ongoing language change and variation.
7)    Children's approximation toward the adult grammar:The way children acquire the language is another basic cause for lan-guage change. Children usually construct their personal grammars by themselves and generalize rules from the linguistic information they hear. Children' s grammar never models exactly after that of the adult speech community, because children are exposed to diverse linguistic infor-mation.
All the above factors contribute to language changes.

Chapter 8：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 something 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________.
22.  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                 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 with 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. sociolects
26. Stylistic  27. official  28. superposed  29. vernacular
30. inflectional  31. social   32. linguistic
III. 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 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 are 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 phenomenon 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 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 English is the frequent simplification of consonant clusters 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 English 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, an 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.

Chapter 9： 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 word 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.
14.    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
23.     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 ____ age for the acquisition of the first language coincides with the period of brain lateralization.
        A. youngest                   B. flexible
        C. optimum                   D. relevant
25. Linguistic ____ is the brain’s neurological specialization for lan-guage.
A. fossilization               B. performance

          C. competence               D. lateralization
26. Our linguistic ability is a ________ gift of the species’ gene program.
A. chemical                    B. physical
C. scientific                    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
29.  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 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 gyms                   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 foundations of language?
56.  What are the major mental functions under the control of each hemi-sphere?
57.  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 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