7.    A ____ is a variety of language that serves as a medium of communication among groups of people for diverse linguistic backgrounds.
A. lingua franca                            B. register
C. Creole                                    D. national language
8.    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
9.    In normal situations, ____ speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than their ____ counterparts with the same social background.
A. female; male        B. male; female         C. old; young            D. young; old
10.    A linguistic _______ refers to a word or expression that is prohibited by the “polite” society from general use.
A. slang                B. euphemism         C. jargon                D. taboo

II.    Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)

11.    Language as a means of social communication is a homogeneous system with a homogeneous group of speakers.
12.    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.
13.    From the sociolinguistic perspective, the term “speech variety” can not be used to refer to standard language, vernacular language, dialect or pidgin.
14.    The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its grammar and uses of vocabulary.
15.    A person’s social backgrounds do not exert a shaping influence on his choice of linguistic features.
16.    Every speaker of a language is, in a stricter sense, a speaker of a distinct idiolect.
17.    A lingua franca can only be used within a particular country for communication among groups of people with different linguistic backgrounds.
18.    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.
19.    Bilingualism and diglossia mean the same thing.
20.    The use of euphemisms has the effect of removing derogatory overtones and the disassociative effect as such is usually long-lasting.

III.    Fill in the blanks. (20%)

21.     The social group isolated for any given study is called the speech __________.
22.     Speech __________ 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 __________ variety of a language.
24.     Language standardization is also called language __________.
25. Social variation gives rise to __________ which are subdivisible into smaller speech categories that reflect their socioeconomic, educational, occupational background, etc.
26.     __________ 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 __________ language of a country.
28.     The standard language is a __________, socially prestigious dialect of language.
29.     Language varieties other than the standard are called nonstandard, or __________ languages.
30.     A pidgin typically lacks in __________ morphemes.

IV.    Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)

31.    Lingua franca
32.    Regional dialect
33.    Register
34.    Sociolinguistics

V.    Answer the following questions. (20%)

35.    Is American English superior to African English? Why or why not? （中国人民大学，2003）
36.    If we take it as rule that language is intimately related to culture, then how do the kinship words, such as uncle and aunt, reflect the cultural differences between English and Chinese? （东北师范大学，2004）

VI.    Analyze the following situation. (20%)

37.    Explain the differences between registers and regional/social dialects. Give examples if necessary. （东北师范大学，2005）

Key:
I.
1~5 BCAAC                    6~10 DACAD
II.
11~15 FTFFF                    16~20 TFTFF
III.
21. community                22. variety
23. dialectal                   24.planning
25. sociolects                    26. Stylistic
27. official                       28. superposed
29. vernacular                   30. inflectional
IV.
31.    Lingua franca: A lingua franca is a variety of language that serves as a common speech for social contact among groups of people who speaks different native languages or dialects.
32.    Regional dialect: Regional dialect, also social or class dialect, is a speech variety spoken by the members of a particular group or stratum of a speech community.
33.    Register: Register, also situational dialect, refers to the language variety appropriate for use in particular speech situations on which degrees of formality depends.
34.    Sociolinguistics: Defined in its broadest way, sociolinguistics, a subdiscipline of linguistics, is the study of language in relation to society. It is concerned with language variation, language use, the impact of extra-linguistic factors on language use, etc.
V.
35.
American English is not superior to African English. As different branches of English, African English and American English are equal. Similar as they are, they are influenced by their respective cultural context and thus form respective systems of pronunciation, words and even grammar.
36.   
    In China, Chinese has a more strict and complex relationship system. So in Chinese there are a lot more kinship words than in English.
VI.
37.
    (Omit.)
 

Chapter 8 Language in Use


I.    Choose the best answer. (20%)

1.    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
2.    A sentence is a _________ concept, and the meaning of a sentence is often studied in isolation.
A. pragmatic            B. grammatical         C. mental                D. conceptual
3.    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
4.    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.
5.    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
6.    __________ 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
7.    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
8.    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
9.    __________ is advanced by Paul Grice
A. Cooperative Principle                     B. Politeness Principle
C. The General Principle of Universal Grammar    D. Adjacency Principle
10.    When any of the maxims under the cooperative principle is flouted, _______ might arise.
     A. impoliteness                            B. contradictions 
C. mutual understanding                        D. conversational implicatures

II.    Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)

11.    Pragmatics treats the meaning of language as something intrinsic and inherent.
12.    It would be impossible to give an adequate description of meaning if the context of language use was left unconsidered.
13.    What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered.
14.    The major difference between a sentence and an utterance is that a sentence is not uttered while an utterance is.
15.    The meaning of a sentence is abstract, but context-dependent.
16.    The meaning of an utterance is decontexualized, therefore stable.
17.    Utterances always take the form of complete sentences
18.    Speech act theory was originated with the British philosopher John Searle.
19.    Speech act theory started in the late 50’s of the 20th century.
20.    Austin made the distinction between a constative and a performative.

III.    Fill in the blanks. (20%)

21.    The notion of __________ is essential to the pragmatic study of language.
22.    If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes an __________.
23.    The meaning of a sentence is __________, and decontexualized.
24.    __________ were statements that either state or describe, and were thus verifiable.
25.    __________ were sentences that did not state a fact or describe a state, and were not verifiable.
26.    A(n) __________ act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.
27.    A(n) __________ act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention; it is the act performed in saying something.
28.    A(n) _________ is commit the speaker himself to some future course of action.
29.    A(n) ________ is to express feelings or attitude towards an existing state.
30.    There are four maxims under the cooperative principle: the maxim of __________, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner.  

IV.    Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)

31.    Conversational implicature
32.    Performative
33.    Locutionary act
34.    Q-principle (Horn)

V.    Answer the following questions. (20%)

35.    Explain the following remarks with examples or make some comments.
“Both semantics and pragmatics are concerned with meaning, but the difference between them can be traced to two different uses of the verb mean: (a) What does X mean? (b) What did you mean by X?” （东北师范大学，2006）
36.    Do you think B is cooperative in the following dialogue? Support your argument with Cooperative Principle. （南开大学，2004）
    A: When is the bus coming?
    B: There has been an accident further up the road.

VI.    Analyze the following situation. (20%)

37.    What is the function of context in communication? Try to explain the following utterances rather than just state facts.
    (1)    The room is messy.
    (2)    It would be good if she had a green skirt on.

Key:
I.
1~5    DBCBA                    6~10 CBCAD
II.
11~15 FTTFF                    16~20 FFFTT
III.
21. context                    22. utterance   
23. abstract                     24. Constatives
25. Performatives              26. locutionary 
27. illocutionary                  28. commissive  
29. expressive                   30. quantity
IV.
31.    Conversational implicature: In our daily life, speakers and listeners involved in conversation are generally cooperating with each other. In other words, when people are talking with each other, they must try to converse smoothly and successfully. In accepting speakers’ presuppositions, listeners have to assume that a speaker is not trying to mislead them. This sense of cooperation is simply one in which people having a conversation are not normally assumed to be trying to confuse, trick, or withhold relevant information from one another. However, in real communication, the intention of the speaker is often not the literal meaning of what he or she says. The real intention implied in the words is called conversational implicature.
32.    Performative: In speech act theory an utterance which performs an act, such as Watch out (= a warning).
33.    Locutionary act: A locutionary act is the saying of something which is meaningful and can be understood.
34.    Horn’s Q-principle: (1) Make your contribution sufficient (cf. quantity); (2) Say as much as you can (given R).
V.
35.   
Pragmatics is the study of the use of language in communication, particularly the relationships between sentences and the contexts and situations in which they are used. Pragmatics includes the study of
    (1)    How the interpretation and use of utterances depends on knowledge of the real world;
    (2)    How speakers use and understand speech acts;
(3)    How the structure of sentences is influenced by the relationship between the speaker and the hearer.
    Pragmatics is sometimes contrasted with semantics, which deals with meaning without reference to the users and communicative functions of sentences.
36.   
Yes, B is cooperative. On the face of it, B’s statement is not an answer to A’s question. B doesn’t say “when.” However, A will immediately interpret the statement as meaning “I don’t know” or “I am not sure.” Just assume that B is being “relevant” and “informative.” Given that B’s answer contains relevant information, A can work out that “an accident further up the road” conventionally involves “traffic jam,” and “traffic jam” preludes “bus coming.” Thus, B’s answer is not simply a statement of “when the bus comes”; it contains an implicature concerning “when the bus comes.”
VI.
37.
    It occurs before and / or after a word, a phrase or even a longer utterance or a text. The context often helps in understanding the particular meaning of the word, phrase, etc.