12/30/22, 11:39 AM First exam of linguistics 20212021.(corrigé type).

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First exam of linguistics 20212021.(corrigé type).docx

‫الجمهورية الجزائرية الديمقراطية الشعبية‬

République Algérienne Démocratique et Populaire

‫وزارة التعليـــــــــم العالـــــي و البحـــث العلـمـــي‬

Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique

Ecole Normale Supérieure de Laghouat ‫المدرســــة العلــــيا لألساتـــذة باألغــــــواط‬

Department of English ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬
Level: First Year

……………………………………… : Name

………………………… : Group

First Mid-Term Exam in Linguistics

Activity One : (10pt)
1) What is the difference between a prescriptive and a descriptive approach to language ? (2pt)

The main difference between descriptive and prescriptive approach to language is that
the descriptive describes language and its whereas the prescriptive grammar explains how the
language should be used by the speakers. In other words, descriptive describes only while
perspective tells how things should be done.

Briefly explain the following terms: fusional languages, Divine theory, Agglutination, psycholinguistics.
(2pt)
a) A fusional language is a language in which one form of a morpheme can simultaneously encode
several meanings. ·
b)Divine command theory is the belief that things are right because God commands them to be. In
other words, it means that things which are considered wrong or unethical are wrong because they
are forbidden by God. It is an absolutist theory. This theory says that language is a gift from God
c)Agglutinative languages tend to have a high rate of affixes (prefixes and prefixes) or morphemes
per word, and to be very regular, in particular with very few irregular verbs. Examples: English,
Frensh
d)Psycholinguistics is the field of study in which researchers investigate the psychological
processes involved in the use of language, including language comprehension, language production,
and first and second language acquisition.
2) Language is multifunctional. What are its different functions? (2pt)

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12/30/22, 11:39 AM First exam of linguistics 20212021.(corrigé type).docx

Someof the language functions are:

1) DIRECTIVE 2)INFORMATIVE 3)EXPRESSIVE 4)COMMUNICATIVE
3) What do language families have in common? (1,5 pt)
Language families come to have a common protolanguage.

4) Explain how language families are classified? (2pt)

There are two kinds of classification of languages practiced in linguistics: genetic (or genealogical)
and typological. The purpose of genetic classification is to group languages into families according
to their degree of diachronic relatedness. A typological classification groups languages into types
according to their structural characteristics. The most famous typological classification is probably
that of isolating, agglutinating, and inflecting (or fusional) languages
5) Languages that have no common features among each other are known (0,5pt) as LANGUAGE ISOLATES

6) Activity Two: Try to imagine what would happen if we suddenly lost one of the following features of
language: (3pt)
a) Arbitrariness
ALL WORDS WOULD BE ONOMATOPEIC
b) Duality
THERE WOULD BE NO LINEARITY OR STRUCTURE IN LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE WOULD BE BASED ON THE
USE OF SOUNDS OR WORDS ONLY
c) Displacement
HUMANS WILLLOOSE THE ABILITY TO TALK ABOUT PAST OR FUTURE EVENTS AND THEIR LANGUAGE WOULD
BE TOTALLY CONTEXT BOUND

Activity Three : Cross out (X) the irrelevant terms in the series below: (3pt)

_Standard language, arbitrariness, accent , dialect.

_Russian, Welsh, Irish, Breton.
_Displacement, discretness, Cultural transmission, typologial classification.
_Morphology, syntax, semantics, neurolinguistics.
_American English, Middle English, Old English, Modern English.
_Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Romance.

Activity Four: (4pt)

There exist many definitions of language, one of them is Sapir’s definition (1921) which states that:
“Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires
by means of voluntarily produced symbols.” In no more than five lines, try to criticize this definition in
relation to the definition of language that you have studied in the class.
CRITICS:
1)LANGUAGE IS NOT PURELY HUMAN AS ANIMALS DO HAVE A LANGUAGE AS WELL
BUT THE DIFFRENCE IS IN THE WAY OF COMMUNICATION
2) LANGUAGE CAN BE INSTINCTIVE AS IT WAS PROVED BY CHOMESKY
3) LANGUAGE IS NOT JUST PRODUCED SYMBOLS BUT IT AN BE SOUNDS AS WELL

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