2.3　考研真题与典型题详解

I. Fill in the blanks

1．Much of the evidence used in the reconstruction of ancient writing systems comes from _____ on stone or tablets found in the rubble of ruined cities.

2．A modern writing system which is based, to a certain extent, on the use of logograms can be found in _____.

3．A/An _____ is essentially a set of written symbols which each represent a single type of sound.

4．The modified version, called _____, is the basis of the writing system used in Russia today.

【答案】1. inscriptions 2. China 3. alphabet 4. the Cyrillic alphabet.

II. Explain the following terms

1．Pictograms

【答案】When some of the ‘pictures’ came to represent particular images in a consistent way, we can begin to describe the product as a form of picture-writing, or pictograms.

2．Ideograms

【答案】The picture might take on a more fixed symbolic form and come to be used for ‘heat’ and ‘daytime’, as well as for ‘sun’. This type of symbol is considered to be part of a system of idea-writing, or ideograms.

3．Rebus writing

【答案】One way of using existing symbols to represent the sounds of language is via a process known as Rebus writing. In this process, the symbol for one entity is taken over as the symbol for the sound of the spoken word used to refer to that entity. That symbol then comes to be used whenever that sound occurs in any words.

4．Syllabic writing

【答案】When a writing system employs a set of symbols which represent the pronunciations of syllables, it is described as syllabic writing. There are no purely syllabic writing systems in use today, but modern Japanese can be written with a set of single symbols which represent spoken syllables and is consequently often described as having a (partially) syllabic writing system, or a syllabary.

III. Short answer questions

1．What will you say to a statement like “our language is our culture”? （四川大学2006研）

【答案】This statement reveals a fact that language is part of the culture. Culture is the total pattern of beliefs, customs, institutions, objects and techniques that characterize the life of a particular society. It is regarded as a carrier of culture, because without language culture would be impossible. Language is the principal means by which culture is passed down. Language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking. People use language for the sake of communication, but language itself cannot fulfil the task of communication without the culture system behind the language. Language is a product of our social life.

2．What are the disadvantages of a logographic writing system?

【答案】An extremely large number of separate symbols are involved, so there are problems in learning all the symbols and also in remembering them.

3．What is the process known as Rebus writing?

【答案】Rebus writing involves a process whereby the symbol used for an entity comes to be used for the sound of the spoken word used for that entity.

IV. Essay questions

1．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. （北外2004研）

【答案】Humans have a unique linguistic system for communication that serves as the primary vehicle for expressing thoughts. Language and thought may be viewed as two independent circles that develop along two different routes but overlap in some parts, where language and thought are consistent with each other. But language is not the only means of expressing thought. As for the relationship between language and the thought, we think that language does not determine the way we think but influence the way we perceive the world and recall things, and affects the ease with which we perform mental tasks. That is, language may be used to provide new ideas, bring about a change in beliefs and values, solve problems, and keep track of things in memory. For example, a well-developed vocabulary may well assist us in learning the concepts the lexis covers. We recall things more easily when they correspond to readily available words or phrases. It is certainly easier for us to make a conceptual distinction if it neatly corresponds to a particular lexical item available in our language. When we label our experience with linguistic symbols, our language will influence how we remember and think about those experiences; otherwise the relationship between language and perception, memory or thinking will be greatly reduced.

In terms of relationship between language and culture, we can infer that a language not only expresses facts, ideas, or events that represent similar world knowledge by its people, but also reflects the people’s attitudes, beliefs, world outlooks, and etc. Language expresses cultural reality. On the other hand, as people’s language uses express their culture represented by its social conventions, norms and social appropriateness, the culture both emancipates and constrains people socially, historically and metaphorically. Sharing a same community culture, people have acquired common ways of viewing the world through their speech interactions with other members of the same group. Although language and culture are inextricably intertwined, culture is a wider system that completely includes language as a subsystem. The knowledge and beliefs that constitute a people’s culture are habitually encoded and transmitted in the language of the people. Language as an integral part of human being, permeates his thinking and way of viewing the world, language both expresses and embodies cultural reality.

As for the relationship between language and world views, the language system does not necessarily provide specifics of one’s world view. All humans share a general conceptualizing capacity; Speakers of different languages are capable of distinguishing and recognizing experiences according to their respectively different linguistic coding systems for the same objective world. On the one hand, people speaking the same language may have different world views, including political, social, religious, scientific and philosophical views. On the other hand, people speaking different languages may share similar world views on above aspects. Moreover, one language can describe many different worldviews, as is evident in the case of successful translation.

According to the theories shown above, we can infer that Johann Gottfried Herder and Wilhelm yon Humboldt’s view has both merits and limitations. First, they see clearly that there exists a relationship between language and thoughts. Second, they assume that language influences so much the way people think that people who think in different ways will have different world views. Based on the theoretical views above we think this view is not rational in this aspect.

2．It has been noticed that Chinese learners of English tend to make mistakes in the marking of past tense，even at the advanced level of proficiency. What do you think are the possible causes of this problem? How call language teachers help solve this problem and why? （北外2005研）

【答案】Tenses are one of the most difficult aspects for Chinese to master because of the non-inflected nature of the Chinese language In English, the different forms of the verb can tell us whether something is happening in the present or in the past. This information is technically termed as tense. The tense is shown by adding related morphemes at the end of the verb. So the learners can judge the tense easily by looking at the different verb forms. However, the Chinese verb form does not have a well defined past, present or future tense. In writing or in speaking, the Chinese verb in the sentence does not necessarily inform the reader or listener as to whether they are referring to the past, present or future. Therefore, Chinese often places prepositional, phrases, as well as conjunctive adverbs (e.g. Mandarin Chinese le, guo) that indicate time at the front of the sentence so as to inform the speaker or the reader of the appropriate tense. The different ways of expressing the tense cause Chinese learners of English tend to make mistakes in the marking of tense. When translating into English, Chinese writers sometimes forget that English has a well-defined past/present/future verb tense. Therefore, the unconscious tendency of placing several prepositional or other phrases that indicate time at the front of the sentence is often redundant or neglect using different tense form of verb. Another factor which contributes to the difficulties is the difference in the concept of time of Chinese as compared to native speakers of English. Different concepts of time of non-native speakers with those of native speakers contribute to their difficulties in learning the English tenses.

As the learning of tenses, Chinese learners are faced with a totally new set of classification of time situations that have no counterpart in their own native language. So in teaching English tenses teachers have to explain English time attributes thoroughly rather than assuming L 2 learners will understand them as long as they have acquired the rules. For example, past tense is used for situations which are less probable, or more remote. A lot of Chinese do not have this concept and teachers should spend time in clarifying this to them. Teachers can also allow learners to understand the meanings of the two broad types of English and Chinese tenses and their differences in teaching Chinese learners. Through the comparison of different ways of expressing tense, the teacher can provide the students a clear framework and then students will take special notice in using verb associated with tense.

3．Identify pictograms and ideograms.

【答案】The distinction between pictograms and ideograms is essentially a difference in the relationship between the symbol and the entity it represents. The more ‘picture-like’ forms are pictograms, the more abstract, derived forms are ideograms. A key property of both pictograms and ideograms is that they do not represent words or sounds in a particular language. Modern pictograms, such as those represented in the accompanying illustration, are language independent. It is generally thought that there are pictographic or ideographic origins for a large number of symbols which turn up in later writing systems.

When the relationship between the symbol and the entity or idea becomes sufficiently abstract, we can be more confident that the symbol is being used to represent words in a language.

4．Advantages and disadvantages of Chinese written symbols.

【答案】Many Chinese written symbols, or characters, are used as representations of the meaning of words and not of the sounds of the spoken language, One of the advantages of such a system is that two speakers of very different dialects of Chinese, who might have great difficulty understanding each other’s spoken forms, can both read the same written text. Chinese writing, with the longest continuous history of use as a writing system (i.e.3,000 years), clearly has many other advantages for its users. One major disadvantage is that an extremely large number of different written symbols exists within this writing system, although basic literacy is possible with knowledge of only 2,000 characters. Remembering large numbers of different word-symbols, however, does seem to present a substantial memory load, and the history of most other writing systems illustrates a development away from logographic writing. To accomplish this, some principled method is required to go from symbols which represent words (i.e. a logographic system) to a set of symbols which represent sounds (i.e. a phonographic system).