题目内容
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A dialect is a variety of a language spoken by a very small number of people.
A．Y
B．N
C．NG
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更多“A dialect is a variety of a la…”相关的问题
A．Lowering the pieces of the newspapers.
B．Shortening their news stories.
C．Adding variety to the content of the newspaper.
D．To have more news.
A.Argot
B.Slang
C.Jargon
D.Dialectal words
A.Southern American English
B. New England Dialect
C.African American English
D.General American
A New Zealand saddleback learns the language of another saddleback in order to ______.
A．share information about food with it
B．beat it in the competition for a spouse
C．use the dialect to control the territory it just moves into
D．show that it has the ability to acquire different dialects
A．To give an example of someone who was the subject of one of Stowe's biographies.
B．To give an example of another author who used local dialect in his writing.
C．To suggest that his work was less popular than Stowe's.
D．To point out another author who wrote about New England.
Language Varieties
Languages constantly undergo changes, resulting in the development of different varieties of the languages.
A. Dialects
A dialect is a variety of a language spoken by an identifiable subgroup of people. Traditionally, linguists have applied the term dialect to geographically distinct language varieties, but in current usage the term can include speech varieties characteristic of other socially definable groups. Determining whether two speech varieties are dialects of the same language, or whether they have changed enough to be considered distinct languages, has often proved a difficult and controversial decision. Linguists usually cite mutual intelligibility as the major criterion in making this decision. If two speech varieties are not mutually intelligible, then the speech varieties are different languages; if they are mutually intelligible but differ systematically from one another, then they are dialects of the same language. There are problems with this definition, however, because many levels of mutual intelligibility exist, and linguists must decide at what level speech varieties should no longer be considered mutually intelligible. This is difficult to establish in practice. Intelligibility(可理解性) has a large psychological component: If a speaker of one speech variety wants to understand a speaker of another speech variety, understanding is more likely than if this were not the case. In addition, chains of speech varieties exist in which adjacent speech varieties are mutually intelligible, but speech varieties farther apart in the chain are not. Furthermore, sociopolitical factors almost inevitably intervene in the process of distinguishing between dialects and languages. Such factors, for example, led to the traditional characterization of Chinese as a single language with a number of mutually unintelligible dialects.
Dialects develop primarily as a result of limited communication between different parts of a community that share one language. Under such circumstances, changes that take place in the language of one part of the community do not spread elsewhere. As a result, the speech varieties become more distinct from one another. If contact continues to be limited for a long enough period, sufficient changes will accumulate to make the speech varieties mutually unintelligible. When this occurs, and especially if it is accompanied by the sociopolitical separation of a group of speakers from the larger community, it usually leads to the recognition of separate languages. The different changes that took place in spoken Latin in different parts of the Roman Empire, for example, eventually gave rise to the distinct modem Romance languages, including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian.
In ordinary usage, the term dialect can also signify a variety of a language that is distinct from what is considered the standard form. of that language. Linguists, however, consider the standard language to be simply one dialect of a language. For example, the dialect of French spoken in Paris became the standard language of France not because of any linguistic features of this dialect but because Paris was the political and cultural centre of the country.
B. Social Varieties of Language
Sociolects(社会方言) are dialects determined by social factors rather than by geography. Socioleets often develop due to social divisions within a society, such as those of socioeconomic class and religion. In New York City, for example, the probability that someone will pronounce the letter when it occurs at the end of a syllable, as in the word fourth, varies with socioeconomic class. The pronunciation of a final in general is associated with members of higher socioeconomic classes. The same is true in England of the pronunciation of h, as in hat. Members of certain social groups often adopt a particular pronunciation as a way of distinguishin
A．Y
B．N
C．NG
听力原文：W: Thank you, (22)Professor, for coming to our program and answer the listeners' questions.
M: You're welcome. I'm glad to be here sharing my knowledge of English with all the learners.
W: Well, talking about learning English, is there any difference between Canadian English, British English and American English？
M: Yes. In some aspects, the English spoken by Canadians is different from that of the British people while in other aspects it is different from American English.
W: Some people hold that Canadian English must be a dialect of British English because Canada was once a colony of Britain and ever since her independence she has remained a member country of the British Common Wealth. Is that true？
M: No. This is a false idea. According to history, the first batch of English speakers settling down in Canada were not from Britain but from the United States. They were the so-called American "loyalists"—Americans who had moved northwards into Canada after the American Revolution for Independence. (23)They were called "loyalists" because after the American Revolution, they remained loyal to the British crown, Thus, it seems more appropriate to regard Canadian English as a variety of American English in origin.
W: I see. Then, is there anything peculiar about Canadian English？
M: (24)Canadian English is a unique dialect with demurs similar to both American and British English. Although Canada is a large country, the pronunciation of Canadian English is quite uniform. from the east coast to the west coast.
W: That's interesting. What about the spelling system？
M: This is a difficult question to answer. (25)Generally speaking, the British spelling system is chosen for more prestigious articles while the American spelling system is for the popular topics.
(23)
A．A magazine reporter and a professor of politics.
B．TV program hostess and a professor of history.
C．Radio program hostess and a professor of language.
D．A language learner and a professor of English.
【C5】______, the standard variety of English is based on the London【C6】______of English that developed after the Norman Conquest resulted in the removal of the Court from Winchester to London. This dialect became the one【C7】______by the educated, and it was developed and promoted【C8】______a model, or norm, for wider and wider segments of society. It was also the【C9】______that was carried overseas, but not one unaffected by such export. Today,【C10】______English is arranged to the extent that the grammar and vocabulary of English are【C11】______the same everywhere in the world where English is used;【C12】______among local standards is really quite minor,【C13】______the Singapore, South Africa, and Irish varieties are really very【C14】______different from one another so far as grammar and vocabulary are【C15】______. Indeed, Standard English is so powerful that it exerts a tremendous【C16】______on all local varieties, to the extent that many of long-established dialects of England have【C17】______much of their vigor(活力)and there is considerable pressure on them to be【C18】______. This latter situation is not unique【C19】______English. it is also true in other countries where processes of standardization are【C20】______. But it sometimes creates problems for speakers who try to strike some kind of compromise between local norms and national, even supranational(跨国的)ones.
【C1】
A．said
B．told
C．talked
D．spoken
