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北京外国语大学

2004年硕士研究生入学考试语言学与应用语言学专业试卷

IMPORTANT!!!

All the questions are to be answered in English on the answer sheets provided．

1．Shakespeare has Juliet say：

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet．

What do the above lines say to you about the relationship between the form (sounds) and meaning (concept) of a word in spoken language?

Explain with positive evidence as well as exceptions from the English language．(15 points)

2．How much does our language influence the way we think? How deeply do language and culture

interpenetrate and influence one another? These questions about language have fascinated thinkers throughout the ages．For example，Johann Gottfried Herder and Wilhelm yon Humboldt in the German Romantic tradition regarded language as a prisma or grid spread over things in the world so that each language reflects a different worldview．Write a short essay to explain your position on this view．(35 points)

3．Is English a language that uses a phonetic alphabet system? Explain briefly why or why not

with examples．(15 points)

4．Suppose you were given four cards，each of which had a different phoneme of English printed

on it：

k b l I

Now arrange these cards to form all the "possible" words that these four phonemes could form ．Discuss what rules you have followed t0 come up with these words．(20 points)

5．Paraphrase each of the following sentences in two different ways to show that you understand

the ambiguity involved：(10 points)

a ．Dick finally decided on the boat．

b ．The professor's appointment was shocking．

c ．The governor is a dirty street fighter．

d ．Terry loves his wife and so do I．

e ．No smoking section available．

6．It is argued that grammaticality judgments do not depend on whether the sentence is meaningful

or not, as shown by the sentence "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously”，which does not make much sense but is syntactically well formed．How would you respond to this argument?(25points)

7．TOEFL often requires the examinees to specify the situational context after listening to a conversation ．See for example a tape-script below for an exam item．

V oice A (male)：How much is this tie?

V oice B (female)：Forty

V oice C (male)：Where does this conversation most probably take place?

What do you think is the TOEFL people’s belief about what constitutes linguistic competence and how linguistic competence can be tested? (30 points)