首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Obtaining Linguistic Data A)Many procedures are available for obtaining data about a language. They range from a carefully plann
Obtaining Linguistic Data A)Many procedures are available for obtaining data about a language. They range from a carefully plann
admin
2014-12-26
68
问题
Obtaining Linguistic Data
A)Many procedures are available for obtaining data about a language. They range from a carefully planned, intensive field investigation in a foreign country to a casual introspection about one’ s mother tongue carried out in an armchair at home.
B)In all cases, someone has to act as a source of language data—an informant. Informants are(ideally)native speakers of a language, who provide utterances for analysis and other kinds of information about the language(e.g. translations, comments about correctness, or judgements on usage).
C)Often, when studying their mother tongue, linguists act as their own informants, judging the ambiguity, acceptability, or other properties of utterances against their own intuitions. The convenience of this approach makes it widely used, and it is considered the norm in the generative approach to linguistics.
D)But a linguist’ s personal judgements are often uncertain, or disagree with the judgements of other linguists, at which point resource is needed to more object methods of enquiry, using non-linguists as informants. The later procedure is unavoidable when working on foreign languages, or child speech.
E)Many factors must be considered when selecting informants—whether one is working with single speakers(a common situation when languages have not been described before), two people interacting, small groups or large-scale samples. Age, sex, social background and other aspects of identity are important, as these factors are known to influence the kind of language used.
F)The topic of conversation and the characteristics of the social setting(e.g. the level of formality)are also highly relevant, as are the personal qualities of the informants(e.g. their fluency and consistency). For larger studies, scrupulous attention has been paid to the sampling theory employed, and in all cases, decisions have to be made about the best investigative techniques to use.
G)Today, researchers often tape-record informants. This enables the linguist’s claims about the language to be checked, and provides a way of making those claims more accurate("difficult" pieces of speech can be listened to repeatedly).
H)But obtaining naturalistic, good-quality data is never easy. People talk abnormally when they know they are being recorded, and sound quality can be poor. A variety of tape-recording procedures have thus been devised to minimise the "observer’s paradox"(how to observe the way people behave when they are not being observed).
I)Some recordings are made without the speakers being aware of the fact—a procedure that obtains very natural data, though ethical objections must be anticipated. Alternatively, attempts can be made to make the speaker forget about the recording, such as keeping the tape recorder out of sight, or using radio microphones. A useful technique is to introduce a topic that quickly involves the speaker, and stimulates a natural language style(e.g. asking older informants about how times have changed in their locality).
J)An audio tape recording does not solve all the linguist’s problems, however. Speech is often unclear and ambiguous. Where possible, therefore, the recording has to be supplements by the observer’s written comments on the non-verbal behaviour of the participants, and about the context in general.
K)A facial expression, for example, can dramatically alter the meaning of what is said. Video recordings avoid these problems to a large extent, but even they have limitations(the camera cannot be everywhere), and transcription always benefits from any additional commentary provided by an observer.
L)Linguists also make great use of structured sessions, in which they systematically ask their informants for utterances that describe certain actions, objects or behaviours. With a bilingual informant, or though use of an interpreter, it is possible to use translation technique(’How do you say table in your language?’).
M)A large number of points can be covered in a short time, using interview work-sheets and questionnaires. Often, the researcher wishes to obtain information about just a single variable, in which case a restricted set of questions may be used: a particular feature of pronunciation, for example, can be elicited by asking the informant to say a restricted set of words. There are also several direct methods of elicitation, such as
asking informants to fill in the blanks in a substitution frame(e.g. "I___see a car."), or
feeding them the wrong stimulus for correction("Is it possible to say I no can see?").
N)A representative sample of language, complied for the purpose of linguistic analysis, is known as a corpus. A corpus enables the linguist to make unbiased statements about frequency of usage, and it provides accessible data for the use of different researchers. Its range and size are variable. Some corpora attempt to cover the language as a whole, taking extracts from many kinds of text; others are extremely selective, providing a collection of material that deals only with a particular linguistic feature.
O)The size of the corpus depends on practical factors, such as the time available to collect, process and store the data: it can take up to several hours to provide an accurate transcription of a few minutes of speech. Sometimes a small sample of data will be enough to decide a linguistic hypothesis; by contrast, corpora in major research projects can total millions of words. An important principle is that all corpora, whatever their size, are inevitably limited in their coverage, and always need to be supplemented by data derived from the intuitions of native speakers of the language, though either introspection or experimentation.
Convenience is an advantage for linguists who work as informants.
选项
答案
C
解析
本题意为语言学家作为资料提供者的优势是方便。题干中的名词“convenience”,“informants”为关键词,对应到文章C段Often,when studying theirmother tongue,linguists act as their own informants…The convenience of this approachmakes it widely used,and it is considered the norm in the generative approach tolinguistics.“在研究本国语言时,语言学家本人往往充当资料提供者,这种方法因其便利性而被广泛使用,而且还被看作语言生成方式的规范。”
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/52h7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、Howmuchheshouldpayforit.B、Howmanyworkshopsithas.C、Howmanypeoplewilljoinit.D、Howmanyclassesitwilloffer.
A、AnAmericanfamily.B、Oneoftheirfriends.C、Aforeigncustom.D、Anunpleasantjourney.C
HereareSofiaFranco,thefoodwriterandstylist’stop11tipsforahealthydiet:1.Drinklotsofwater.Takea1.5literbo
HereareSofiaFranco,thefoodwriterandstylist’stop11tipsforahealthydiet:1.Drinklotsofwater.Takea1.5literbo
A、Industrialdevelopment.B、Theirownhealth.C、Theirchildren’sfuture.D、Soundenvironment.A短文提到,我们把“提高工业化”作为我们首要目标。所以A正确。选项为
IfthepopulationoftheEarthgoesonincreasingatitspresentrate,therewill【B1】______notbeenoughresourcesleftto【B2】_
DoctorsinBritainarewarningofanobesitytimebomb,whenchildrenwhoarealreadyoverweightgrowup.So,whatshouldwedo?
Choiceblindness:Youdon’tknowwhatyouwant[A]Wehaveallheardofexpertswhofailbasictestsofsensorydiscriminationin
A、Creatingspeciallanguage.B、Sellingavarietyofproducts.C、Providingacomfortableenvironment.D、Openingstoresinbusyar
Englishistheleadinginternationallanguage.Indifferentcountriesaroundtheglobe,English【B1】______themothertongue,ino
随机试题
A.脑膜刺激征阳性B.皮肤有出血点C.呕吐、脓血便D.惊厥停止后神志即恢复正常E.肢体瘫痪流行性脑脊髓膜炎(败血症期)
8月上旬,一男性儿童前额部出现2个红肿结块,约2cm×2cm,中央有一个脓头未溃,疼痛拒按,伴口渴便秘,尿短赤。应选用
我国某进出口公司和德国商人签订一份买卖钢材的合同,由德国商人向我国公司提供钢材200吨,交货条件为CIF上海港。我国某进出口公司依照合同规定按时开出以该德国商人为受益人的不可撤销信用证。德国商人收到信用证后,按时将货物送上船,取得轮船公司签发的已装船提单,
在进行费用偏差分析时,应考虑的几组费用偏差参数是()。
市场实现资源配置和组织生产所通过的方式是()。
行政监督尤其是合理性监督与行政活动有着密切联系,可以说何时有行政活动,何时就有行政监督。这主要体现了行政监督的:
C
WhatthewomenIspokewithsaidwasthattheywantahusbandwhoisindependentanddedicatedtohiscareer,butthathedoesn’
CampingFirst,theequipment.【1】______.and【1】______sleeping-bagarethemostimportantitems.Bot
Tobeagoodteacher,youneedsomeofthegiftsofagoodactor:youmustbeableto【C1】______theattentionandinterestofy
最新回复
(
0
)