4.3　考研真題與典型題詳解

I. True or False

1．The definition of what counts as “using language” is non-controversial.

【答案】F

【解析】對于“語言的使用”還沒有完全不存在爭議的定義。

2．Animals have their special communication system.

【答案】T

【解析】動物之間也會進行交流，它們有其獨特的交流系統。

3．Washoe and Kanzi were capable of taking part in interaction with humans by using a symbol system chosen by humans and not chimpanzees.

【答案】T

【解析】從他們的試驗中可以得出，Washoe和Kanzi能夠應用人類的信號系統與人類進行互動。

4．Washoe and Kanzi went on to perform linguistically on a level comparable to a human child about to begin pre-school.

【答案】F

【解析】實際上Washoe和Kanzi的語言水平達不到學前孩子的水平。

II. Short answer question

Why language is uniquely human according to the chimpanzees’ learning human language?

【答案】Underlying the two-year-old communicative activity is the capacity to develop a highly complex system of sounds and structures, plus a set of computational procedures, that will allow the child to produce extended discourse containing a potentially infinite number of novel utterances. No other creature has been observed “using language” in this sense. It is in this more fundamental or abstract sense that we say that language is uniquely human.