英语语言学实用教程答案UNIT1.doc

Unit 1 Some Preliminaries about Language [Check your understanding] State whether each of the following statements is True or False. (1) There is universal agreement about the origin of language. F (2) Pet dogs can speak human languages. F (3) All human infants can speak some language. F Note: All normal human infants can learn to speak some language. (4) By creativity we mean the creative use of language as often practiced by poets. F Note: By creativity we mean that we can always create and understand new sentences never used before. (5) With different cultures there will be different languages. F Note: Some cultures can share the same language. (6) Not all uses of language are meant to convey new information. T Note: Example: language used for phatic communion is not meant to convey new information. ■ In-Class Activities 1. ASK: (1) What does “language” mean in each of the contexts? a. a natural language; language in particular. b. a human-specific tool for communication; language in general. c. individual style of language use. d. a metaphorical way of referring to bees’ system of communication. (2) Is there any other context in which the use of the word means something else? Yes. Example: language for the computer like C+ 2. ASK: (1) What if there were no language? Omit. (2) What if there were only one language the world over? Omit. (3) What can we learn from this Bible story? Language is powerful as a tool of human communication. 3. ASK: (1) Do you think the two statements are equally probable, and if not, why not? (a) is more likely than (b), because the word as the basic unit of meaning that can occur independently in language is finite in number, whereas the sentence as composed of words, though almost infinite in number, is made possible by our knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We can always produce and understand sentences that we never come across before. In that sense, no sentence is really new. (2) In what context do we make t