TUTORAIL ACTIVITIES/QUESTIONS for Chapter 1

1. Try to define language in your own words.

2. Express and then justify your view on the proposition that language is unique to human beings.

3. Try to generalize what you do with language.

4. Do you agree with Engels that language was created in the process of labor?

5. Discuss the meaning of science and then linguistics as a science. Can one truly understand what 　science is before one is engaged in it? Write down now what you think linguistics is. Keep it till the end of this course and see whether your understanding of linguistics changes.

 

TUTORIAL ACTIVITIES/QUESTIONS

1. Collect all the onomatopoetic English words (words which imitate natural sounds) you can find and compare them with their equivalents in Chinese or another language you know. Using them as data, write a short paper on the arbitrariness of language.

2. Write a short paper on the English language, informing your readers of the following:

a) What sort of language is English, genetically and typologically?

b) How many native speakers of English are there in the world?

c) How many countries use English as an official language?