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
"Speech and Writing" One of the basic assumptions of modern linguistics is that speech is primary and writing is secondary. T
"Speech and Writing" One of the basic assumptions of modern linguistics is that speech is primary and writing is secondary. T
admin
2018-07-24
37
问题
"Speech and Writing"
One of the basic assumptions of modern linguistics is that speech is primary and writing is secondary. The most immediate manifestation of language is speech and not writing. Writing is simply the representation of speech in another physical medium. Spoken language encodes thought into a physically transmittable form, while writing, in turn, encodes spoken language into a physically preservable form. Writing is a three-stage process: thinking of an idea, expressing it in mental grammar, and then transferring it to written form. All units of writing, whether letters or characters, are based on units of speech, i.e., words, sounds, or syllables. When linguists study language, therefore, they take the spoken language as their best source of data and their object of description except in instances of languages like Latin for which there are no longer any speakers.
You may think that with the advent of so many "instant messaging" programs, writing can now be as immediate as speech. But it is important to remember that even though the written form can be nearly immediate these days, there is still an extra step between conceptualizing the message you want to communicate and the reception of that idea, if you have to write it—regardless of whether you do so longhand or type it into a computer.
There are several reasons for maintaining that speech is primary and writing is secondary. A Writing is a later historical development than spoken language. B Archeological evidence indicates that writing was first utilized in Sumer, that is, modern-day Iraq, about 6,000 years ago. C As far as physical and cultural anthropologists can tell, spoken language has probably been used by humans for hundreds of thousands of years. D
Writing does not exist everywhere that spoken language does. This seems hard to imagine in our highly literate society, but the fact is that there are still many communities in the world where a written form of language is not used. Even in those cultures using a writing system, there are individuals who fail to learn the written form of their language. In fact, the majority of the Earth’s inhabitants are illiterate, though quite capable of spoken communication. However, no society uses only a written language with no spoken form.
Writing must be taught, whereas spoken language is acquired automatically. All children, except children with serious learning disabilities, naturally learn to speak the language of the community in which they are brought up. They acquire the basics of their native language before they enter school, and even if they never attend school, they become fully competent speakers. Writing systems vary in complexity, but regardless of their level of sophistication, they must all be taught.
Neurolinguistic evidence (studies of the brain in action during language use) demonstrates that the processing and production of written language is overlaid on the spoken language centers in the brain. Spoken language involves several distinct areas of the brain; writing uses these areas and others as well.
Despite all this evidence, it is a widely held misconception that writing is more perfect than speech. To many people, writing somehow seems more correct and more stable, whereas speech can be careless, corrupted, and susceptible to change. Some people even go so far as to identify "language" with writing and to regard speech as a secondary form of language used imperfectly to approximate the ideals of the written language.
What gives rise to the misconception that writing is more perfect than speech? There are several reasons. Writing can be edited, and so the product of writing is usually more aptly worded and better organized, containing fewer errors, hesitations, and incomplete sentences than are found in speech. This "perfection of writing" can be explained by the fact that writing is the result of deliberation, correction, and revision, while speech is the spontaneous and simultaneous formulation of ideas; writing is therefore less subject to the constraint of time than speech is. Writing must be taught and is therefore ultimately associated with education and educated speech. Since the speech of the educated is more often than not set up as the "standard language," writing is associated indirectly with the varieties of language that people tend to view as "correct." However, the association of writing with the standard variety is not a necessary one, as evidenced by the attempts of writers to transcribe faithfully the speech of their characters. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men contain examples of this. Writing is more physically stable than spoken language, which consists of nothing more than sound waves traveling through the air, and is therefore ephemeral and transient. Writing tends to last, because of its physical medium (characters on some surface), and can be preserved for a very long time. Spelling does not seem to vary from individual to individual or from place to place as easily as pronunciation does. Thus, writing has the appearance of being more stable especially in the modern era. Of course, spelling does vary, as exemplified by the differences between the American ways of spelling gray and words with the suffixes -ize and -ization as compared with the British spelling of grey and -ise and -isation. Writing could also change if it were made to follow the changes of speech. The fact that people at various times try to carry out spelling reforms amply illustrates this possibility.
Which of the sentences below best expresses the information in the highlighted statement in the passage? The other choices change the meaning or leave out important information.
选项
A、Writing that has a very complex system must be learned.
B、All writing has to be taught because the systems are variable.
C、In spite of complex features in writing systems, people can learn them.
D、Both simple and complex writing systems require direct instruction.
答案
D
解析
Both simple and complex writing systems paraphrases "Writing systems [that] vary in complexity," and require direct instruction paraphrases "must all be taught."
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Z3fO777K
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
Completetheflowchartbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSforeachanswer.ExpertiseincreativewritingB
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSforeachanswer.CLIMATEANDARCHITECTURECasesandexamplesarefrom
Whichattitudeisassociatedwiththefollowingpeopleduringtheconversation?ChooseSIXanswersfromtheboxandwritetheco
Choosethecorrectletter,A,BorC.MayorJohnC.WileydecidedtheClocktowerwouldbeusedasa______intheearlystages
077876345提示句为“…mayIhaveyourcontactnumberthatwecanusetoreachyouduringtheweek?”,当这一句出现之后就应该通过这个问题预测到接下来回答者的回答内容,当提示
CoursesforinternationalstudentsExampleWritinginfirsttermInsecondterm:【L1】________Throughouttheyear:【L2】_______
CoursesforinternationalstudentsExampleWritinginfirsttermInsecondterm:【L1】________Throughouttheyear:【L2】_______
EngineeringforsustainabledevelopmentTheGreenhouseProject(Himalayanmountainregion)ProblemShortgrowingseason
Amergerisachievedwhenacompanypurchasedtheproperty(ofother)firms,(thus)absorbingthem(into)onecorporatestructur
PatentsandInventionsWhenaninventionismade,theinventorhasthreepossiblecoursesofactionopentohim:first,hec
随机试题
患者男,36岁,三个月前因外伤一上前牙脱落,今要求烤瓷修复。口腔检查:左上l缺失,间隙正常,牙槽嵴无明显吸收。右上1牙冠1/2缺损,已露髓,探稍敏感,叩诊阴性,无松动。左上2牙冠良好,叩诊阴性,无松动。上下前牙牙龈轻度红肿,易出血,可见菌斑及牙石。余牙未见
A.居住建筑密度B.人口净密度C.人口毛密度D.居住系数E.建筑容积率1ha(=10000m2)居住建筑用地面积上的居住人数为
RPI卡环组采用近中支托的主要作用是
急性胰腺炎患者急诊入院,护士应给予满足的需求是()
根据《合伙企业法》的规定,合伙协议未约定合伙利润分配和亏损分担比例的,合伙人之间分配利润和分担亏损的原则是( )。
音乐教学的中心环节是()。
设函数f(x)=x3一3x2,该函数的极大值为().
治安工作社会化是人民群众在社会治安方面当家做主的体现,是人民群众参与社会治安事务的一个必然趋势。()
缺少风雅时光的时代,是一个鄙俗粗劣的时代,,也是文化和情趣________的时代。看一个时代的文化________,要看看有多少“菜佣酒保”式的人物在想着看“落照”。依次填入画横线部分最恰当的一项是()。
Americans’prideandfaithoftheireconomicsystem,【C1】______thatitprovidesopportunitiesforallcitizenstohavegoodliv
最新回复
(
0
)