As modern linguistics aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, a

han the spoken form. for a of reasons.()

and forms of expression. But there is a vital distinctionbetween good developments, which add to the language, enabling us to say thingswe could not say before, and bad developments, which subtract from the languageby rendering it less precise. A vivacious, colorful use of words is not to beconfused with mere slovenliness. The kind of slovenliness in which someprofessionals deliberately indulge is perhaps akin to the cult(迷信)of the unfinished work, whichhas eroded most of the arts in our time. And the true answer to it is the samethat art is enhanced, not hindered, by discipline. You cannot carvesatisfactorily in butter. The corruption of written English has been accompanied by an evensharper decline in the standard of spoken English. We speak very much less wellthan was common among educated Englishmen a generation or two ago. The modern theatre has played a baneful (有害的)part in dimming ourappreciation of language. Instead of the immensely articulate dialogue of, forexample, Shaw (who was also very insistent on good pronunciation), audiencesare now subjected to streams of barely literate trivia, often designed, onlytoo well, to exhibit lack of communication, and larded(夹杂)with the obscenities(下流的话)and grammaticalerrors of the intellectually impoverished. Emily Post once advised her readers:"The theatre is the best possible place to hear correctly-enunciatedspeech. " Alas, no more. One young actress was recently reported to betaking lessons in how to speak badly, so that she should fit in better. But the BBC is the worst traitor. After years of very successfullyhelping to raise the general standard of spoken English, it suddenly went intoreverse. As the head of the Pronunciation Unit coyly(含蓄地)put it, "In the 1960s theBBC opened the field to a much wider range of speakers." To hear a BBCdisc jockey talking to the latest ape-like pop idol is a truly shockingexperience of verbal squalor. And the prospect seems to be of even worse tocome. School teachers are actively encouraged to ignore little Johnnysincoherent grammar, atrocious spelling and haphazard punctuation, becauseworrying about such things might inhibit his creative genius. The writer relates linguistic slovenliness to tendencies inthe arts today in that they both __________.

A.occasionally aim at a certain fluidity

B.appear to shun perfection

C.from time to time show regard for the finishing touch

D.make use of economical short cuts

A phoneme is a minimal distinctive linguistic unit. ()

Linguistic change occurs only in the sound and lexical system, but not in syntax.()

Reference relates linguistic forms to some other related linguistic forms.()

Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning.()

What is linguistic relativity and why is it so important in linguistic studies

What is linguistic relativity and why is it so important in linguistic studies