Pidgins typically have a limited vocabulary and a very reduced grammatical structure characterized by the loss of inflections, gender end case, The “simplified” variety performs its functions as trading and employment.
8. How do bilingualism and diglossia differ, and what do they have in common?
答：  Bilingualism refers to the situation that in some speech communities, two languages are used side by side with each having a different role to play; and language switching occurs when the situation changes. But instead of two different languages, in a diglossic situation two varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the community, with each having a definite role to play.
      The two languages of bilingualism and the two varieties of diglossia each has different role to play as situation changes.

Chapter 9  Language and Culture
1. Try to sum up the relation between language and culture. Can you find similar relationship between local dialect and regional culture?
答：   The relation between language and culture is dialectical. Every language is part of a culture. As such, it cannot but serve and reflect cultural needs. Within tile broad limits set by the specific needs of a culture, a language is free to make arbitrary selections of signified. That is to say, language is not a passive reflector of culture. Even assuming that culture is in many cases the first cause in the language-culture relationship, language as the effect in the first link of the causal chain will in turn be the cause in the next link, reinforcing and preserving beliefs and customs and conditioning their future course. We can find similar relationship between local dialect and regional culture. For example, in China, there are many local dialects and many regional operas. Those regional operas can only be performed in the local dialects; meanwhile those regional operas are part of local cultures.
2. What do you think of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? Give examples or proof to support your point of view.
答： The studies have shed new light on our understanding of the hypothesis: people tend to sort out and distinguish experiences differently according to the semantic categories provided by their different codes.
      Here is an example. English-speaking culture teaches its people to name what is practical, useful and important. In a general sense, the important things take on specific names while the less important things have general names that must be modified through additional words to become specific. A good illustration of this point is the word snow in Eskimo and English.
3. Can you find some loan words in Chinese from other language? How were they used in the original language and how are they used in Chinese?
答：  There are many loan words in Chinese from other languages. For example, “哲学” comes from Japanese, and “雷达” comes from English. These two words have the same meaning in both languages. The former refers to a discipline, and the latter refers to a machine which can detect an object far away by radio.
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4. Based on your own learning experiences, please illustrate how important it is to learn its culture when learning a foreign language.
答：  Based on my own learning experiences, I find it is very important to learn its culture when learning a foreign language, A typical example of these is that when greeting acquaintances, we tend to say "Have you eaten?", which will cause misunderstanding to a foreigner.
5. What do you think of linguistic imperialism and cultural imperialism? Is it nonsense or something worth consideration?
答：  Linguistic imperialism is closely related to cultural imperialism. Linguistic imperialism is a kind of linguicism which can be defined as the promulgation of global ideologies through the world-wide expansion of one language. With the monopoly of one language over others, its accompanied ideologies, structures and practices will be a potential threat to the individual cultural identity and cultural integrity. From this, we can know that linguistic imperialism is something worth consideration.
6. Work out the meaning of the following underlined expressions.
  Find its origin and corresponding Chinese expressions.
  a) The boss offers a high pay, but he wants his pound of flesh back in return and make them working very hard.
  b) All work and no pay makes Jack a dull boy.
  c) That's a dear John letter saying that she would never come back again.
  d) The best fish swim near the bottom.
  e) By so doing, they have actually opened a Pandora's box.
  f) Any engineer worth his salt should know how to deal with such problems.