FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS DA LINGUAGEM, COMUNICAÇÃO E ARTES

English Course
General Linguistics Academic year: 2022 Semester I

Study questions

1. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

a) Modern Linguistics is concerned with written aspects of language.

b) As an academic subject, Linguistics is supposed to be prescriptive.

c) The traditional grammar school was strongly descriptive.

d) In the wide sense of signalling system, animals are not described as having
‘language’.

e) Animals like dogs and horses follow human commands because they understand
human language.

f) Pictograms are non-verbal ways of expressing ideas verbally.

g) Communication is the same as language.

j) Prevarication is a design feature of human language and animal communication

system which allows them to tell lies.

Part II
1. Why do linguists tend to be so critical of traditional grammar?

2. What does the backing of dogs, the meowing of cats and the singings of birds
have in common with human language?

3. “Since every branch of knowledge makes use of language, linguistics may, in

some respects, be said to lie at the centre of them all, as being the study of the tool
that they must use” (Robins, 1979a: 7). Discuss.

4. “It has been suggested that speech is, in fact, an `overlaid´ function, employing
physical attributes of the human which were developed for other, more basic,
functions (e.g. breathing, eating). What evidence would you use to support or
refute such a proposal?

5. Have any chimpanzees ever been taught human language? What has been the
problem?
6. In Sarah’s (a chimpanzee which has been taught to produce human language)
vocabulary the colour red was used to represent the grey plastic shape. If Sarah
was able to identify the grey plastic shape, what property does her language have?

7. Why are we ‘language-using animals’ for linguists?

8. How has the scientific method been applied over the last six centuries?

9. What makes language difficult to study scientifically?

10. What does it mean when we say that linguistics is not dependent on a
traditional mythology?

11. What is the difference between ‘objective’ and ‘descriptive’ and ‘subjective’ and
‘prescriptive’?

12 What is meant by saying that linguistics is relativistic?

13 What is to be understood by the statement that linguistics is autonomous?

14. In what sense can some animal species be said to have language?

15. In what sense must we, on the basis of present knowledge, exclude animals
from having ‘language’?

16.’ Linguistics is concerned with all aspects of language equally’. Is this, in your
view, a realistic claim?

17. Are human beings animals? In discussing this question, examine not only your
intellectual but also your emotional response to the idea.

18. There is a lot of spoken language directed by humans to animals and the
animals act in accordance with human speech commands (Yule, 1996); For
example, riders can say whoa to horses and they stop;
Is this example evidence that non-humans can understand human language?
Substantiate your answer.

19. The most striking parallelism is between bee dancing and human language,
which share arbitrariness. Discuss.

20. Which of the following best describes the meaning of Charles Hackett’s feature
displacement?
(i) The property of something being in the wrong place.
(ii) Capacity of communicating about the system of communication.
(iii) Capacity of being able to produce new meaning.
(iv) Ability to communicate about things not actually present.

21. Which of the following is not an example of a sign?

(i) The word and

(ii) The letter g in the word give
(iii) The word bird
(iv) The H in H20