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
2015-01-31
20
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.
Interview work-sheets and questionnaires can be used to generate specific data.
选项
答案
M
解析
本题意为面试表格和调查问卷可以用来生成具体的数据。题干中interview work-sheets and questionnaires为关键词,定位到M段A large number ofpoints can be covered in a short time,using interview work-sheets and questionnaires.“通过使用面试表格和调查问卷,我们能够在很短的时间里覆盖大量的知识点。”题干中specific data对应原文中a large number of points。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/thh7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、Americansliketohaveiceddrinks.B、TheScottishgovernmentofficesareintheCastle.C、Scotlandwasanindependentnation
A、Tosharetheirvideoswithothers.B、Tomakealiving.C、Toshowtheirtalentsforwebsite-making.D、Tosetupabusinessoft
A、IthasthestrongesteconomyinAfrica.B、ItisthemostfamouscountryinAfrica.C、IthasthemoststabledemocracyinAfric
A、Workerscan’treceivetheregulartraining.B、Companiesbegintofiretheirworkers.C、Thegovernmentimposesheavytaxesonp
A、Hismom’ssupport.B、Hiswife’ssuggestion.C、Histerribleexperienceinthehotel.D、Hispreviousbusinesssuccessofvarious
Anadvanceddegreeinbusinessstudiesisnowamustforanyambitiousandfocusedexecutivehopingtoclimbthecareerladderi
Anadvanceddegreeinbusinessstudiesisnowamustforanyambitiousandfocusedexecutivehopingtoclimbthecareerladderi
Englishistheleadinginternationallanguage.Indifferentcountriesaroundtheglobe,English【B1】______themothertongue,ino
Englishistheleadinginternationallanguage.Indifferentcountriesaroundtheglobe,English【B1】______themothertongue,ino
随机试题
血氧饱和度的高低主要取决于
锥虫的免疫逃避机制主要是()
咳粉红色泡沫样痰最常见的疾病是()
木材的力学性能为各向异性,表现为( )。
对在我国境内收购烟叶的单位,按照收购烟叶的金额征收,税率为()。
夹套管道的内管应用干燥无油压缩空气进行系统吹扫,气体流速不应小于()m/s,在管子出口处放置白布进行检查,以无铁锈、脏物为合格。
以下哪项不是银行营销组织设立的原则?()
ABC会计师事务所接受委托,承办XYZ公司2007年度会计报表审计业务。A和B注册会计师负责外勤审计工作。A和B注册会计师对XYZ公司及其环境进行了了解,得知被审计单位急需融资,以解燃眉之急。注册会计师认为其财务报表层次存在重大错报风险。请代注册会计师回答
We’vegottwoTVsets,but_____workswell.
下列情形中应当认定为自首的有()。
最新回复
(
0
)