General Linguistics Test 1 (Preparation Questions).pdf

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DELEGAÇÃO DE MANICA 
FACULDADE DE LINGUAGEM, COMUNICAÇÃO E ARTES 
DEPARTAMENTO DE LÍNGUAS 
CURSO DE LICENCIATURA EM ENSINO DE INGLÊS (MAJOR) COM HABILITAÇÃO EM 
PORTUGUÊS (MINOR) 
Avenida da Liberdade, C. Postal nº 323, Telefone: 25124759; Fax: 25124758, Chimoio – 
Moçambique 
REVIEW QUESTIONS 
 
1. How would you define Linguistics? 
2. In what ways is Linguistics different from traditional grammar? 
3. What is the rationale behind the fact that Linguists regard speech rather than writing as primary? 
4. What is the scope of Linguistics? Explain the terms phonology, syntax and semantics? 
5. Talk about the importance of Linguistics to English Language Teachers? 
6. What is language? 
7. Do animals understand and use human language? Justify your answer. 
8. Discuss the difference between linguistic communication and non-linguistic communication. 
9. A useful approach that helps in distinguishing language from animal communication is a list 
of design features. 
a) Comment on arbitrariness and duality. 
b) Comment on displacement and discreteness. 
c) Is the body language communicative or informative? And how about hand shakes and facial 
expressions? 
d) Which term is used to describe the ability human language users to discuss topics which are 
remote in space and time? 
10. What kind of evidence supports the idea that language is culturally transmitted? 
11. In what ways are communicative signals different from informative signals? 
12. How would you define writing? 
13. What is the difference between ideograms and pictograms? 
14. Distinguish the phonological systems of writing from the non-phonological ones. 
15. What is meant by the term ‘cuneiform’? 
16. Talk about the syllabic writing. 
17. Talk about the experiments with chimpanzees. 
18. In Sarah’s vocabulary, the colour ‘red’ was represented by a grey plastic shape. If Sarah could 
use this plastic shape to convey the meaning ‘red’ which property does her language have? 
19. How did the Gardeners try to show that Washoes was not necessarily repeating signs made by 
interacting humans? 
20. Distinguish the natural-sound source from the oral-gesture one on the origin of language. 
21. Explain the term Glossogenetics. 
22. What does the divine source say about the origin of language?