语言学大题

32. What is the function of context in communication? Try to explain the following utterances rather than just state facts.

(1) The room is messy. (2) It would be good if she had a green skirt on.

Context is essential to the pragmatic study of language. It is generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by both the speaker and the hearer, such as cultural background, situation (time, place, manner, etc.), the relationship between the speaker and the hearer, etc.

Context determ ines the speaker’s use of language and also hearer’s interpretation of what is said to him. The context often helps in understanding the particular meaning of the word, phrase, etc. It may also be the broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used.

(1) a. A mild criticism of someone who should have cleaned the room.

b. In a language class where a student made a mistake, for he intended to say “tidy.”

c. The room was wanted for a meeting.

(2) a. A mild way to express disagreement with someone who has complimented on a lady’s appearance.

b.A regret that the customer had not taken the dress.

c.That she wore a red shirt was not in agreement with the custom on the occasion.

Suprasegamental feature(definition, category)

S uprasegmental features are the phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments. They include stress, tone, intonation, pitch etc.

⑴Stress: definition is the intensity or prominence given to a syllable

at the word level right (argument; Example;explain how)

at the sentence level peter left direction for mary to follow

peter left direction for mary to follow (argument; Example;explain how)

(The more important words such as nouns, verbs adjectives, adverbs, etc. are pronounced with greater force and made more prominent. But to give special emphasis to a certain notion, a word in sentence that is usually unstressed can be stressed to achieve different effect.(argument) Take the sentence “He is driving MY car.” for example.To emphasize the fact that the car he is driving is not his, or yours, but mine, the speaker can stress the possessive pronoun “my”, which under normal circumstances is not stressed. (explain how)

⑵Pitch: (definition;argument; Example;explain how)

⑶Tone: Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of

vibration of the vocal cords.(definition;argument; Example;explain how)

⑷(definition;argument; Example;explain how)

⑸Intonation:When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the

word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation

The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning, such as `import and im`port. The similar alternation of stress also occurs between a compound noun and a phrase consisting of the same elements. A phonological feature of the English compounds, is that the stress of the word always falls on the first element and the second element receives secondary stress, for example:

`blackbird is a particular kind of bird, which is not necessarily black, but a black `bird is

a bird that is black.

2) The more important words such as nouns, verbs adjectives , adverbs,etc are pronounced with greater force and made more prominent. But to give special emphasis to a certain