2009 年天津商业大学语言学及翻译考研真题 Linguistics (100 marks) 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 %) a) language; b) diachronic study; c)assimilation; d)morpheme e)minimal pairs f) surface structure; g)implicature h)linguistic determinism; i)reference j) denotation II. Studying linguistics we have been acquainted with many linguists, some of whom are listed below. Write out a phrase that may best represent their contributions to linguistics. （10%） a) Noam Chomsky b) M. A. K. Halliday c) L. Bloomfield d) Ferdinand de Saussure e) H. P. Grice f) J. Firth g) William Labov h) D. Sperber & D. Wilson i) John Austin 

j) Dell Hymes 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%) 1. Please give the corresponding sound segments according to the descriptions: voiceless bilabial stop: a)________ alveolar nasal: b)_________ lateral: c)__________ 2. In speak, /p/ is articulated as [ph]; in play, /p/ is articulated as [pl]. [ph] and [pl]are therefore d)____________ of e)_________ because they are not distinctive in f)______________. 3. There are 4 maxims in Cooperative Principle, they are g)__________, quality, h)_________, and i)__________. Please read the dialogue below: A: Let’s get the kids something to eat. B: Ok, but I veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M. In this dialogue, maxim of j)___________ is flouted. 4. From the perspective of lexical sense relation, police and criminal are in the relation of k)___________; car and rear-view mirror are in the relation of l)_________________. 5. The design features of language are arbitrariness, m)___________, displacement, and n)__________. 6. In morphology, ad is short for advertisement; plane is short for aeroplane. This is a phenomenon called o)____________. IV. 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%) 1. What are the features of modern linguistics? And how do they becomedistinguished compared to historical linguistics? (7%) 2. Try to use tree diagram to illustrate the meaning of more expensive clothes. (5%) 3. As is known, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis has two versions: strong and weak. How would you understand the difference? (8%) 4. What is semantic triangle? Please explain it with an example. (7%) 

5. First consider the following situation: A: What’s the time now? B: The milkman is coming. Then answer the question: what implicature can you get from B’s utterance? (8 %) V. Write two short essays on the following topics to demonstrate your potential of doing linguistics. (30%) 1. David Crystal (1992:17), a famous linguist, once wrote: “Language marks our identity, physically in terms of age, sex, and voiceprints; psychologically in terms of language and personality, intelligence; geographically in terms of accents, dialects; ethnically and socially in terms of social stratification, class, status, role, solidarity and distance”. Could you please write down your understanding of the above quotation? (15%) 2. We have various linguistic rules functioning at different levels of language. For example, in syntax we have PS rules that generate deep structure. Could you list 3-5 other rules that you know and explain their functions? (15%) Translation (50 marks) I．将下列短文译成汉语 Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality, but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any sensible student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, famous reputation and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that’s not what I did. I chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts (文科) university that doesn’ t even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide 

me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my career. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by interacting with people who weren’t studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a sensible choice. They told me I was wise and mature beyond my 18 years, and I believed them. I headed off to college sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering “factories” where they didn’t care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical genius and sensitive humanist (人文学者) all in one. Now I’m not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideals crashed into reality, as all noble ideals eventually do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal-arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile (协调) engineering with liberal-arts courses in college. II．将下列短文译成英语 我们的传统节日大都与古代的农业生产紧密相连，当我们告别农耕社会奔赴工业社会之后， 传统节日在工业大生产时代功能开始式微，西学东进，西节也迅速在这片土地上枝叶繁茂起 来，甚至有喧宾夺主之势。圣诞节、情人节、复活节、万圣节、感恩节似乎已经成了光辉的 “中国节”，商家的精明造势加上年轻一代的推波助澜一一传统节日渐行渐远，西方节日大 行其道。相比之下，中国传统节日却没有得到有力保护。1949 年以后，大多数节日都被视 为封建残余而废除，幸存下来的也只有春节、端午和中秋，其中只有春节被列入法定假日。 1949 年以来我们的全民放假日只有 7 天，直至 1999 年国务院发布《全国节日及纪念日放假 办法》才增至 10 天。这与中国宋代的 69 天、日本的 15 天、韩国的 16 天、澳门的 22 天和 美国的 23 天相比，明显过于短暂。传统节日的受冷落与洋人节日的受追捧构成了这个时
 代最戏剧化的景象。