MH Language and Linguistics 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which theory of meaning argues that the meaning of a word is determined by its use in language, not by a fixed mental concept?
- Referential theory
- Ideational theory
- Use theory (Wittgenstein) (Correct answer)
- Truth-conditional semantics
Correct answer: Use theory (Wittgenstein)
Wittgenstein's use theory holds that meaning is not a private mental image but is constituted by how words are used in social practice and language games.
Question 2: What does 'historical linguistics' primarily investigate?
- How children acquire their first language
- How languages change over time and how languages are related (Correct answer)
- The neural basis of language processing
- Cross-cultural differences in politeness strategies
Correct answer: How languages change over time and how languages are related
Historical linguistics studies linguistic change over time, reconstructs proto-languages, and establishes genealogical relationships between languages.
Question 3: What is 'markedness' in linguistic theory?
- The degree to which a morpheme is phonologically complex
- A relationship where one linguistic form is unmarked (default) and another is marked (less basic or more complex) (Correct answer)
- The use of punctuation marks in written language
- The process of adding suffixes to base forms
Correct answer: A relationship where one linguistic form is unmarked (default) and another is marked (less basic or more complex)
Markedness refers to the asymmetry between a default, more natural form (unmarked) and a less basic, more restricted form (marked) in phonology, morphology, and syntax.
Question 4: Which linguistic concept explains why the sentence 'The king of France is bald' is problematic when France has no king?
- Conversational implicature
- Presupposition failure (Correct answer)
- Semantic anomaly
- Pragmatic ambiguity
Correct answer: Presupposition failure
Presupposition failure occurs when an utterance assumes something that is not true, making the statement neither straightforwardly true nor false.
Question 5: What is the key distinction between langue and parole in Saussure's linguistics?
- Langue is spoken language; parole is written language
- Langue is the abstract system of a language; parole is actual speech use by individuals (Correct answer)
- Langue refers to vocabulary; parole refers to grammar
- Langue is diachronic study; parole is synchronic study
Correct answer: Langue is the abstract system of a language; parole is actual speech use by individuals
For Saussure, langue is the shared, abstract system of rules and conventions, while parole is the individual, concrete acts of speaking that draw on that system.
Question 6: In syntax, what does 'constituency' refer to?
- The voters who support a language policy
- Groupings of words that function as single units within a sentence structure (Correct answer)
- The number of arguments a verb takes
- The agreement features between subject and verb
Correct answer: Groupings of words that function as single units within a sentence structure
Constituency refers to how words group together into phrases or constituents that function as unified structural units within a sentence.
Question 7: Which term describes a word or phrase that refers to another element in the same text, typically a noun phrase mentioned earlier?
- Deixis
- Anaphora (Correct answer)
- Cataphora
- Ellipsis
Correct answer: Anaphora
Anaphora is a referential expression (like a pronoun) that points back to a previously mentioned antecedent in the discourse.
MH Language and Linguistics 4
Which theory of meaning argues that the meaning of a word is determined by its use in language, not by a fixed mental concept?