2. 考研
  3. For half a century, language experts have fallen into two camps, with most lexicographers and academic linguists on one side, an

For half a century, language experts have fallen into two camps, with most lexicographers and academic linguists on one side, an

admin2019-08-08  24
问题    For half a century, language experts have fallen into two camps, with most lexicographers and academic linguists on one side, and traditionalist writers and editors on the other. Should language experts aim to describe the state of the language accurately? Or should they prescribe how the language should be used? 【F1】Over the decades, the two sides have traded insults; prescribers are authoritarians in denial about the real world and describers are random with no standards.
   Two authors in the past two years have made clear that it is time to move on. Steven Pinker is a describer, a linguist and cognitive scientist. But two years ago he published "The Sense of Style", a guide to good writing that ended with a section of prescriptions: do this, not that. Now come two new books by Bryan Garner, a proud prescriptivist who reaches the same point from the opposite direction. Mr. Garner has tangled with Mr. Pinker and other descriptive linguists. His explicit aim is to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do. But he has also called himself a "descriptive prescriber", and this is clearer than ever before in the fourth edition of his masterly usage dictionary and a new book.
   The conflict between description and prescription should never have become so bitter. Mr. Pinker is a fine English stylist; it is no surprise that he has opinions on whether some words and formations are better than others. And Mr. Garner is a deeply read man and a lawyer, so it should come as no surprise that he gathers evidence. But both camps were ill-served by less thoughtful standard-bearers. 【F2】Many clueless prescribers really did push faulty rules: the ban on split infinitives, the ban on ending sentences with prepositions, the notion that "since" cannot mean "because" and so many more. These were passed down from teachers to students over generations. 【F3】When academic linguists began systematically investigating English by looking at texts and listening to speakers, they found that many such "rules" were anything but, and some began teasing the rule-promoters.
   In the pushback against a history of prejudices, prescription represented authority and tradition, and description represented democracy and progress. 【F4】But sensible writers on both sides have come to agree, however implicitly, that there is a variety, called standard English, with rules that can be found by looking at large volumes of the stuff. 【F5】The best prescribers are becoming ever more informed, and the describers more comfortable with the idea of giving people "right" and "wrong" judgments on standard English.
【F3】
选项
答案语言学研究者通过阅读文本和聆听演说家讲话，开始对英语语言进行有系统地研究，这时他们才发现很多这类“规定”根本是无稽之谈，有些人开始嘲笑这些规定的推行者。
解析 ①本句是主从复合句。包含一个时间状语从句和一个宾语从句。②主句是由and连接的两个并列句，前一个分句包含that引导的宾语从句，作谓语动词found的宾语，指出语言学者的研究发现。后一分句的主语some省略了academic linguists，此句说的是某些语言学者的做法。③时间状语从句句末的介词短语为方式状语(by looking…speakers)，说明语言学者是如何研究英语语言的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/sC2Z777K
0

考研英语一

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)