Questions

 

*Question of the week

1.

Decide what you think are the four most important characteristics of language and explain them.

2.

Explain one-to-one mapping.

3.

Compare the Chinese language situation with the Romance language situation with regard to defining what one language is.

4.

Ø          What does ¡§taboo¡¨ mean?

Ø          What are the six areas of language taboo in English?

Ø          How do people avoid breaking language taboos?

Ø          Are areas of language taboo in Mandarin Chinese the same as those in English?

5.

See Yule p.50 #1-5 and p.51 B (i)".

 

 

*Discussion Questions

#1  #2  #3

*Remember that what we want here is discussion, not just repetition of what the textbook or professor has said.

#1 Introduction

1.      Give examples of each of the levels of language in English, Mandarin, or any other language that you know.  Explain your examples.

2.      Give examples from your own life and experience to show that language is social and cultural.  See if you can find examples in which language form is affected by social factors.

3.      Below are some common, though probably mistaken, ideas about language.  What do you think about each one?  What kind of linguistic evidence would we need to disprove (or prove) each one?

a)     French is the most beautiful language.

b)     British English is better than American English.

c)      Some languages are primitive, with simple vocabulary and grammar.

d)    Mandarin has no grammar.

e)     The Japanese language came from Chinese.

f)       Women generally speak better than men.

 

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#2 Psycholinguistics

1.      How are comprehension and speaking different?  How are they similar?

 

2.      What effect does the rule BE EXPRESSIVE (RHETORICALLY) have on language?  Try to give some examples from English and Chinese showing how this rule may compete with the other three rules.  Why is this rule necessary?

 

3.      What is happening when children learning Mandarin use ­Ó for all measure words?  What other Mandarin forms do you think children may overgeneralize?  Why?

 

4.      How do we know that language ¡§grows¡¨ to meet the Four Rules?

 

 

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#3 Sociolinguistics

1.      Find some features of language which can be (and are) used to identify things about people in the English Department.  Consider features of language such as pronunciation (of certain sounds), word choice, sentence structures, choice of language(s) to use and their frequency, and code-switching.  What things about people are the features used to identify?  (Avoid naming any specific people.)

 

2.      What features of your speech can be used to identify things about you, personally?  What things about you can they be used to identify?

 

3.   To speak a language, what do you have to know (unconsciously) about its sounds and sound system?  List as many things as you can, and explain why you need to know them.

 

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