2016 年天津商业大学语言学及翻译考研真题 Part A Linguistics (100 points) I. Studying linguistics, we have come across a lot of technical terms, some of which are listed below. Please write out the most acceptable definitions for each of them. (10 points) a) linguistics; b) language; c) morphology: d) duality; e) cultural transmission: f) phoneme; g) syntax; h) synonyms; i) pragmatics; j) speech community II. Studying linguistics we have been acquainted with many linguists, five of whom are listed below. Write out a phrase that may best represent their contributions to linguistics. （10 points） a) Ferdinand de Saussure; b) Noam Chomsky; c) M. A. K. Halliday d) H. P. Grice; e) Leonard Bloomfield III. Linguistics as a specified discipline has its own technical ways of operation. Try to fill the blanks to demonstrate your technical sense of linguistics. (15 points) 1. Please give the corresponding sound segments according to the descriptions: voiced bilabial stop: a)________; alveolar nasal: b)_________ Voiceless labiodental fricative: c)__________ 2. A morpheme which can be a word by itself is called a d)____________ morpheme, whereas a morpheme that must be attached to another one is a e)_________ morpheme. The plural -s in “books”, for example, is a f)__________ morpheme. 3. Words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms. Oppositeness can be found on different dimensions and different kinds of antonyms have been recognized by linguists. For example, “hot” and “cold” are recognized as g)___________ antonyms, “male” and “female” as h)______________ antonyms and teacher and 

pupil as i)____________ opposites. 4. There are 4 maxims in Cooperative Principle, namely, the maxim of quantity, the maxim of j)__________, the maxim of k)_________, and the maxim of l)__________. 5. What function does language perform? Three main functions are often recognized: the m)______________ function, the n)_________________function and the o) ____________ function. III. To be a student of linguistics, it is important to develop a sense of critical thinking. Please answer the following questions to demonstrate your critical potentials. (35 points) 1. Prescriptive and descriptive approaches represent two different types of linguistic study. What is the significance of this distinction? 2. The distinction between langue and parole was made in the early 20th century. Why was this distinction made? 3. The classic semantic triangle was suggested by Ogden and Richards to explain the relationship between words and things. What is the shortcoming of this triangle? 4. First consider the following situation: A: Shall we go to the party tonight? B: Well, I have to prepare for the coming exam. Then answer the question: what implicature can you get from B’s utterance? 5. First read the following newspaper report: The main factor for the success of Toyota, the number-one company for customer service, is not only its products. Toyota provides the products that customers most want to buy, and designs models that meet people’s changing priorities. In particular, it has responded to the industry trend by providing smaller, more environmentally friendly cars, such as the Prius, a hybrid car with both petrol and electric engines. Then try to analyze the newspaper report in terms of field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse. V. Write two short essays on the following topics to demonstrate your potential 

of doing linguistics. (30 points) 1. The following two passages will reveal how language can vary in the degree of formality: Passage A: It has been noted with concern that the stock of books in the library has been declining alarmingly. Students are asked to remind themselves of the rules for the borrowing and return of books, and to bear in mind the needs of other students. Penalties for overdue books will in the future be strictly enforced. Passage B The number of books in the library has been going down. Please make sure you know the rules for borrowing, and don’t forget that the library is for everyone’s convenience. So from now on, we’re going to enforce the rules strictly. You have been warned! Passage A is obviously more formal than Passage B. Now please compare the two passages and try to point out, with examples, what makes Passage A more formal. 2. Different languages may reflect different cultures; different cultures entail different language expressions. Proverbs, sayings and idioms, derived from different origins, also demonstrate cultural differences. Try to use the animal “dogs” to illustrate this point of view. Part B Translation (50 points) I. Translate the following passage into Chinese. (25 points) Living alone is the new norm. The extraordinary rise of solitary living is the biggest social change that we have neglected to identify, let alone examine. Consider that in 1950, a mere 4 million Americans lived alone, and they made up only 9% of households. Back then, living alone was most common in the open Western states —Alaska, Montana and Nevada—that attracted migrant workingmen, and it was usually short-lived stage on the road to a more conventional domestic life. Not anymore. According to 2011 census data, people who live alone—nearly 33 million Americans —make up 28% of all U.S. households, which means they are now tied with childless 

couples as the most prominent residential type, more common than the nuclear family and the multigenerational family. Living alone, being alone and feeling lonely are hardly the same, yet in recent years experts have routinely conflated them. In fact, there’s little evidence that the rise of living alone is making more Americans lonely. It’s the quality, not the quantity, of social interactions that best predicts loneliness. As John T. Cacioppo at the University of Chicago concluded in the book he coauthored, Loneliness, what matters is not whether we live alone but whether we feel alone. There’s much support for this idea outside the laboratory. As divorced or separated people often say, there’s nothing lonelier than living with the wrong person. After all, living alone serves a purpose: it helps us pursue sacred modern values—individual freedom, personal control and self-realization—that carry us from adolescence to our final days. II. Translate the following passage into English. (25 points) 前后加起来，我在北京已经住了四十多年，算是一个老北京了。北京的名胜古迹，北京 的妙处，我应该说是了解的；其他老北京当然也了解。但是有一点，我相信绝大多数的老北 京并不了解，这就是黎明时分以前的北京。 多少年来，我养成了一个习惯：每天早晨四点在黎明以前起床工作。我不出去跑步或者 散步，而是一下床就干活儿。因此我对黎明前的北京的了解是在屋子里感觉到的。我从前在 什么报上读过一篇文章，讲黎明时分天安门广场上的清洁工人，那情景必然是非常动人的， 可惜我从未能见到，只是心向往之而已。…… 几年以后，我搬到西郊来住，照例四点起床，坐在窗前工作。白天透过窗子能够看到北 京展览馆那金光闪闪的高塔的尖顶，此时当然看不到了。