英语语言学第1-3章课后练习题答案
语言学教程课后习题答案第一章资料(最新整理)
Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics1. Define the following terms:design feature: the distinctive features of human language that essentially make human language distinguishable from languages of animals.function: the role language plays in communication (e.g. to express ideas, attitudes) or in particular social situations (e.g. religious, legal).synchronic: said of an approach that studies language at a theoretical ‘point’ in time.diachronic: said of the study of development of language and languages over time. prescriptive: to make authoritarian statement about the correctness of a particular use of language.descriptive: to make an objective and systematic account of the patterns and use of a language or variety.arbitrariness: the absence of any physical correspondence between linguistic signals and the entities to which they refer.duality: the structural organization of language into two abstract levels: meaningful units (e.g. words) and meaningless segments (e.g. sounds, letters).displacement: the ability of language to refer to contexts removed from the speaker’s immediate situation.phatic communion: said of talk used to establish atmosphere or maintain social contact.metalanguage: a language used for talking about language.macrolinguistics: a broad conception of linguistic enquiry, including psychological, cultural, etc.competence: unconscious knowledge of the system of grammatical rules in a language.performance: the language actually used by people in speaking or writing.langue: the language system shared by a “speech community”.parole: the concrete utterances of a speaker.2. Consult at least four introductory linguistics textbooks (not dictionaries), and copy the definitions of “language” that each gives. After carefully comparing the definitions, write a paper discussing which points recur and explaining the significance of the similarities and differences among the definitions.ANSWER:All the definitions should not exclude the description of design features that have been mentioned in this course book. Also it will be better if other design features, say, interchangeability or cultural transmission is included. But it seems impossible to give an unimpeachable definition on language, because the facets people want to emphasize are seldom unanimous. To compare several definitions can make you realize where the argument is.3. Can you think of some words in English which are onomatopoeic?ANSWERS:creak: the sound made by a badly oiled door when it opens.cuckoo: the call of cuckoo.bang: a sudden loud noise.roar: a deep loud continuing sound.buzz: a noise of buzzing.hiss: a hissing sound.neigh: the long and loud cry that a horse makes.mew: the noise that a gull makes.bleat: the sound made by a sheep, goat or calf.4. Do you think that onomatopoeia indicates a non-arbitrary relationship between form and meaning?ANSWER:4. No matter you say "Yes" or "No", you cannot deny that onomatopoeia needs arbitrariness. Before we feel a word is onomatopoeic we should first know which sound the word imitates. Just as what is said in Chapter One, in order to imitate the noise of flying mosquitoes, there are many choices like "murmurous" and "murderous". They both bear more or less resemblance to the genuine natural sound, but "murmurous" is fortunately chosen to mean the noise while "murderous" is chosen to mean something quite different. They are arbitrary as signifiers.5. A story by Robert Louis Stevenson contains the sentence “As the night fell, the wind rose.” Could this be expressed as “As the wind rose, the night fell?” If not, why? Does this indicate a degree of non-arbitrariness about word order? (Bolinger, 1981: 15)5. Yes. It is a case in point to illustrate non-arbitrariness about word order. When the two parts interchange, the focus and the meaning of the sentence is forced to change, because clauses occurring in linear sequence without time indicators will be taken as matching the actual sequence of happening. The writer’s original intention is distorted, and we can feel it effortlessly by reading. That is why systemic-functionalists and American functionalists think language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level.6. Does the traffic light system have duality? Can you explain by drawing a simple graph?6. Traffic light does not have duality. Obviously, it is not a double-level system. There is only one-to-one relationship between signs and meaning but the meaning units cannot be divided into smaller meaningless elements further. So the traffic light only has the primary level and lacks the secondary level like animals’ calls.ANSWER:Red→stopGreen→goYellow→get ready to go or stop7. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the creativity of language. Can you write a recursive sentence following the example in section 1.3.3.ANSWER:Today I encountered an old friend who was my classmate when I was in elementary school where there was an apple orchard in which we slid to select ripe apples that…8. Communication can take many forms, such as sign, speech, body language and facial expression. Do body language and facial expression share or lack the distinctive properties of human language?ANSWER:On a whole, body language and facial expression lack most of the distinctive properties of human language such as duality, displacement, creativity and so on. Body language exhibits arbitrariness a little bit. For instance, nod means "OK/YES" for us but in Arabian world it is equal to saying "NO". Some facial expressions have non-arbitrariness because they are instinctive such as the cry and laugh of a newborn infant.9. Do you agree with the view that no language is especially simple?ANSWER:Yes. All human languages are complicated systems of communication. It is decided by their shared design features.10. What do you think of Bertrand Russell’s observation of the dog language: “No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest”? Are you familiar with any type of ways animals communicate among themselves and with human beings? ANSWER:When gazelles sense potential danger, for example, they flee and thereby signal to other gazellesin the vicinity that danger is lurking. A dog signals its wish to be let inside the house by barking and signals the possibility that it might bite momentarily by displaying its fangs.11.Can you mention some typical expressions of phatic communion in Chinese? There is the dialog between Ms. P and Ms. Q. in section 1.5.5. When someone sneezes violently, do you say anything of the nature of phatic communion? Have you noticed your parents or grandparents say something special on such an occasion?Some of the typical phatic expressions in Chinese are: 吃了吗？家里都好吧？这是去哪里啊？最近都挺好的？ANSWER:If someone is sneezing violently, maybe you parents and grandparents may say: “Are you ok?”, “Do you need to see a doctor?”, “Do you need some water?”, “Do you need a handkerchief?”, “Do you have a cold?” or something like these to show their concerns.12．There are many expressions in language which are metalingual or self-reflexives, namely, talking about talk and think about thinking, for instance, to be honest, to make a long story short, come to think of it, on second thought, can you collect a few more to make a list of these expressions? When do we use them most often?ANSWER:To tell the truth, frankly speaking, as a matter of fact, to be precise, in other words, that is to saySuch expressions are used most frequently when we want to expatiate the meaning of former clauses in anther way in argumentation.13. Comment on the following prescriptive rules. Do you think they are acceptable?(A) It is I.(B) It is me.You should say A instead of B because “be” should be followed by the nominative case, not the accusative according to the rules in Latin.(A) Who did you speak to?(B) Whom did you speak to?You should say B instead of A.(A) I haven't done anything.(B) I haven't done nothing.B is wrong because two negatives make a positive.ANSWER:(1) the Latin rule is not universal. In English, me is informal and I is felt to be very formal.(2) Whom is used in formal speech and in writing; who is more acceptable in informal speech.(3) Language does not have to follow logic reasoning. Here two negative only make a more emphatic negative. This sentence is not acceptable in Standard English not because it is illogical, but because language changes and rejects this usage now.14. The prescriptivism in grammar rules has now shifted to prescriptions in choice of words. In the “guidelines on anti-sexist language” issued by the British sociological association, someguidelines are listed below. Do you think they are descriptive and prescriptive? What’s your comment on them?(1) Do not use man to mean humanity in general. Use person, people, human beings, men and women, humanity and humankind.(2) colored: This term is regarded as outdated in the UK and should be avoided as it is generally viewed as offensive to many black people.(3) civilized: This term can still carry racist overtones which derive from a colonialist perception of the world. It is often associated with social Darwinist thought and is full of implicit value judgments and ignorance of the history of the non-industrialized world.ANSWER:They are undoubtedly descriptive. Guidelines are not rules that can determine whether a sentence is right or not. The guidelines advise you to avoid the use of particular words that are grammatically correct but offensive to some certain groups. Actually, they describe the way anti-sexist advocators speak and write.15. Why is the distinction between competence and performance an important one in linguistics? Do you think the line can be neatly drawn between them? How do you like the concept “communicative competence”?ANSWER:This is proposed by Chomsky in his formalist linguistic theories. It is sometimes hard to draw a strict line. Some researchers in applied linguistics think communicative competence may be a more revealing concept in language teaching than the purely theoretical pair—competence and performance.16. Which branch of linguistics do you think will develop rapidly in China and why?It is up to you to decide after you have gone through the whole book. At this stage, we suggest all branches of linguistics have the potential to flourish.17. The following are some well-known ambiguous sentences in syntactic studies of language. Can you disambiguate them?The chicken is too hot to eat.Flying planes can be dangerous.ANSWER:The chicken is too hot to eat.The chicken meat is too hot, so it cannot be eaten at the moment.The chicken feels so hot (maybe after some intense aerobic exercises) that it cannot start eating and needs to calm down first.Flying planes can be dangerous.The ambiguity comes from "flying planes". It can be deciphered as "the planes that is flying" or "to fly planes".18. There are many reasons for the discrepancy between competence and performance in normal language users. Can you think of some of them?ANSWEREthnic background, socioeconomic status, region of the country, and physical state (such as intoxication, fatigue, distraction, illness) vary from individual to individual.19. What do these two quotes reveal about the different emphasis or perspectives of language studies?(1) A human language is a system of remarkable complexity. To come to know a human language would be an extraordinary intellectual achievement for a creature not specifically designed to accomplish this task. A normal child acquires this knowledge on relatively slight exposure and without specific training. He can then quite effortlessly make use of an intricate structure of specific rules and guiding principles to convey his thoughts and feelings to others, ... Thus language is a mirror of mind in a deep and significant sense. It is a product of human intelligence, created anew in each individual by operations that lie far beyond the reach of will or consciousness.(Noam Chomsky: Reflections on Language. 1975: 4)(2) It is fairly obvious that language is used to serve a variety of different needs, but until we examine its grammar there is no clear reason for classifying its uses in any particular way. However, when we examine the meaning potential of language itself, we find that the vast numbers of options embodied in it combine into a very few relatively independent “networks”; and these networks of options correspond to certain basic functions of language. This enables us to give an account of the different functions of language that is relevant to the general understanding of linguistic structure rather than to any particular psychological or sociological investigation. (M. A. K. Halliday, 1970: 142)ANSWER:The first quote shows children’s inborn ability of acquiring the knowledge of intricate structure of specific rules. It implies that the language user's underlying knowledge about the system of rules is the valuable object of study for linguists. The second attaches great importance to the functions of language. It regards the use of language as the choice of needed function. The meaning of language can be completely included by a few “networks” which is directly related to basic functions of language. It indicates the necessity to study the functions of language.20. You may be familiar with the following proverbs. How do you perceive them according to the arbitrariness and conventionality of language?The proof of the pudding is in the eating.Let sleeping dogs lie.You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.Rome was not built in a day.When in Rome, do as the Romans do.All roads lead to Rome.ANSWER:20. Arbitrariness and conventionality derive from the choice of the subject matter. For example, in the “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” The word “pudding” is selected arbitrarily, for we can use another word such as cheese instead of pudding without changing the associative meaning of the proverb. On the other hand, once such links between particular words and associativemeaning are fixed, it becomes a matter of conventionality.21. Give examples of situations in which a usage generally considered non-standard (e.g. ain’t) would be acceptable, even appropriate.ANSWER21. In the talks between intimate friends, one may say “gimme that!” instead of “give me that!” and “wachya doin’?” instead of “what are you doing?” and this list may go on.22. The following are some book titles of linguistics. Can you judge the diachronic and diachronic orientation just from the titles?English Examined: Two centuries of Comment on the Mother-Tongue.Protean Shape: A Study in Eighteenth-century Vocabulary and Usage.Pejorative Sense Development in English.The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation.Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular.ANSWER22. Synchronic:Protean Shape: A Study in Eighteenth-century Vocabulary and Usage.The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation.Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular.Diachronic:English Examined: Two centuries of Comment on the Mother-Tongue.Pejorative Sense Development in English。
语言学答案Chapter1-3
Chapter 1 -3Chapter 1 Introduction1. Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. In order to discover the nature and rules of the underlying language system, the linguists has to collect and observe language facts first, which are found to display some similarities, and generalizations are made about them; then he formulates some hypotheses about the language structure. The hypotheses thus formed have to be checked repeatedly against the observed facts to fully prove their validity. In linguistics, as in any other discipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation, that is, a theory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data without being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.2. The major branches of linguistics are:(1) phonetics: it studies the sounds used in linguistic communication;(2) phonology: it studies how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning incommunication;(3) morphology: it studies the way in which linguistic symbols representing sounds are arrangedand combined to form words;(4) syntax: it studies the rules which govern how words are combined to form grammaticallypermissible sentences in languages;(5) semantics: it studies meaning conveyed by language;(6) pragmatics: it studies the meaning in the context of language use.3. The general approach thus traditionally formed to the study of language over the years is roughly referred to as “t raditional gramma r.” Modern linguistics differs from traditional g rammar in several basic ways.Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.Second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the other hand, tended to emphasize, maybe over-emphasize, the importance of the written word, partly because of its permanence.Then, modem linguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a Latin-based framework.4. In modem linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic one. Because people believed that unless the various states of a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development.5. Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for some obvious reasons. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system of any langu age is always “invented” by its users to record speech when the need arises. Even in today's world there are still many languages that can only be spoken but not written.Then in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. And also, speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later when he goes to school. For modern linguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised” record of speech. Thus their data for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regard as authentic.6. Saussure's distinction and Chomsky's are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.7. First of all, language is a system, i.e., elements of language are combined according to rules.Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for.Third, language is vocal because the primary medium for all languages is sound.Fourth, language is human-specific, i. e., it is very different from the communication systems other forms of life possess.Chapter 2 Phonology1. Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication.Of the two media of language, speech is more primary than writing, for reasons, please refer to the answer to the fifth problem in the last chapter.2. V oicing is a quality of speech sounds and a feature of all vowels and some consonants in English. It is caused by the vibration of the vocal cords.3. The transcription with letter-symbols only called broad transcription. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. The latter, i.e. the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called narrow transcription. This is the transcription needed and used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds. With the help of the diacritics they can faithfully represent as much of the fine details as it is necessary for their purpose.In broad transcription, the symbol [l] is used for the sounds [l] in the four words leaf [li:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], and health [helθ]. As a matter of fact, the sound [l] in all these four sound combinations differs slightly. The [l] in [li:f], occurring before a vowel, is called a dear [l], and no diacritic is needed to indicate it; the [1] in [fi:l] and [bild], occurring at the end of a word or before another consonant, is pronounced differe ntly from the clear [1] as in “leaf”. It is called dark [ɫ] and in narrow transcription the diacritic [˜] is used to indicate it. Then in the sound combination [helθ], the sound [l] is followed by the English dental sound [θ], its pronunciation is somewhat affected by the dental sound that follows it. It is thus called a dental [l], and in narrow transcription the diacritic [、] is used to indicate it. It is transcribed as [helθ].Another example is the consonant [p]. We all know that [p] is pronounced differently in the two words pit and spit. In the word pit, the sound [p] is pronounced with a strong puff of air, but inspit the puff of air is withheld to some extent. In the case of pit, the [p] sound is said to be aspirated and in the case of spit, the [p] sound is unaspirated. This difference is not shown in broad transcription, but in narrow transc ription, a small raised “h” is used to show aspiration, thus pit is transcribed as [p hɪt] and spit is transcribed as [spɪt].4. English consonants can be classified in two ways: one is in terms of manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. In terms of manner of articulation the English consonants can be classified into the following types: stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids, nasals and glides. In terms of place of articulation, it can be classified into following types: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal.5. V owels may be distinguished as front, central, and back according to which part of the tongue is held highest. To further distinguish members of each group, we need to apply another criterion, i.e. the openness of the mouth. Accordingly, we classify the vowels into four groups: close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, and open vowels. A third criterion that is often used in the classification of vowels is the shape of the lips. In English, all the front vowels and the central vowels are unfounded vowels, i. e., without rounding the lips, and all the back vowels, with the exception of [a:], are rounded. It should be noted that some front vowels can be pronounced with rounded lips.6. (1) [ʤ] (2) [ f ] (3) [d ](4) [ ɪ] (5) [ɔ:] (6) [p](1) voiced alveolar stop (2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate (4) voiced bilabial glide(5) back, close, short (6) front, open7. (1) Both phonology and phonetics are concerned with the same aspect of language ––the speech sounds. But while both are related to the study of sounds,, they differ in their approach and focus. Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified, etc. Phonology, on the other hand, aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.(2) A phonologist will be more interested in it. Because one of the tasks of the phonologists is to find out rule that governs the distribution of [l] and [ɫ], [p h] and [p].8. A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. A phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme. For example, the phoneme /l/ in English can be realized as dark [ɫ], clear [l], etc. which are allophones of the phoneme /l/.9. Rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called sequentialrules.There are many such sequential rules in English. For example, if a word begins with a [l] or a [r], then the next sound must be a vowel. That is why [lbik] [lkbi] are impossible combinations in English. They have violated the restrictions on the sequencing of phonemes.The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy” t endency may become regularized as rules of language.We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, i.e., it does not distinguish meaning. But this does not mean that vowels in English are never nasalized in actual pronunciation; in fact they are nasalized in certain phonetic contexts. For example, the [i:] sound is nasalized in words like bean, green, team, and scream. This is because in all these sound combinations the [i:] sound is followed by a nasal [n] or [m].The assimilation rule also accounts for the varying pronunciation of the alveolar nasal [n] in some sound combinations. The rule is that within a word, the nasal [n] assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it. We know that in English the prefix in- can be added to ma adjective to make the meaning of the word negative, e.g. discreet –indiscreet, correct –incorrect. But the [n] sound in the prefix in- is not always pronounced as an alveolar nasal. It is so in the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, i.e. [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, i.e. [ŋ]; this is because the consonant that follows it is [k], which is a velar stop. So we can see that while pronouncing the sound [n], we are “copying” a feature of the consonant that follows it.Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. We have noticed that in the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound although it is represented in spelling by the letter g. But in their corresponding forms signature, designation, and paradigmatic, the [g] represented by the letter g is pronounced. The rule can be stated as: Delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. Given the rule, the phonemic representation of the stems in sign – signature, resign – resignation, phlegm –phlegmatic, paradigm –paradigmatic will include the phoneme /g/, which will be deleted according to the regular rule if no suffix is added.10. The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features. The main suprasegmental features include stress, intonation, and tone. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. There are two kinds of stress: word stress and sentence stress. For example, a shift of stress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun, to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged. Tones are pitch variations which can distinguish meaning just like phonemes.Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings.Chapter 3 Morphology1. a. micro + file b. be + draggle + edc. announce + mentd. pre + digest + ione. tele + communicate + ionf. fore + fatherg. psycho + physics h. mechan + ist2. (1) suffix: -ablemeaning: something can be done or is possiblestem type: added to verbsexamples: acceptable, “can be accepted”respectable, “can be respected”(2) suffix: -lymeaning: functionalstem type: added to adjectivesexamples: freely. “adverbial form of…fr ee‟”quickly, “adverbial form of 'quick' ”.(3) suffix: -eemeaning: the person receiving the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: employee, “one who works in a company”interviewee, “one who is interviewed”3. (1) prefix: dis-meaning: showing an oppositestem type: added to verbs or nounsexamples : disapprove, “do not approve”dishonesty, “lack of honesty”.(2) prefix: anti-meaning: against, opposed tostem type: added to nouns or adjectivesexamples : antinuclear, “opposing the use of atomic weapons and power”antisocial, “opposed or harmful to the laws and customs of an organizedcommunity. ”(3) prefix: counter-meaning: the opposite ofstem type: added to nouns or adjectives.examples: counterproductive, “producing resu lts opposite to those intended”counteract, “act against and reduce the force or effect of (sth.) ”4. (1) the third person singular(2) the past tense(3) the present perfect(4) the present progressive。
语言学教程课后习题与答案第一章
Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics1. Define the following terms:design feature: the distinctive features of human language that essentially make human language distinguishable from languages of animals.function: the role language plays in communication . to express ideas, attitudes) or in particular social situations . religious, legal).synchronic: said of an approach that studies language at a theoretical ‘point’ in time.diachronic: said of the study of development of language and languages over time. prescriptive: to make authoritarian statement about the correctness of a particular use of language.descriptive: to make an objective and systematic account of the patterns and use of a language or variety.arbitrariness: the absence of any physical correspondence between linguistic signals and the entities to which they refer.duality: the structural organization of language into two abstract levels: meaningful units . words) and meaningless segments . sounds, letters).displacement: the ability of language to refer to contexts removed from the speaker’s immediate situation.phatic communion: said of talk used to establish atmosphere or maintain social contact.metalanguage: a language used for talking about language.macrolinguistics: a broad conception of linguistic enquiry, including psychological, cultural, etc.competence: unconscious knowledge of the system of grammatical rules in a language.performance: the language actually used by people in speaking or writing.langue: the langu age system shared by a “speech community”.parole: the concrete utterances of a speaker.2. Consult at least four introductory linguistics textbooks (not dictionaries), and copy the definitions of “language” that each gives. After carefully comparing the definitions, write a paper discussing which points recur and explaining the significance of the similarities and differences among the definitions.ANSWER:All the definitions should not exclude the description of design features that have been mentioned in this course book. Also it will be better if other design features, say, interchangeability or cultural transmission is included. But it seems impossible to give an unimpeachable definition on language, because the facets people want to emphasize are seldom unanimous. To compare several definitions can make you realize where the argument is.3. Can you think of some words in English which are onomatopoeicANSWERS:creak: the sound made by a badly oiled door when it opens.cuckoo: the call of cuckoo.bang: a sudden loud noise.roar: a deep loud continuing sound.buzz: a noise of buzzing.hiss: a hissing sound.neigh: the long and loud cry that a horse makes.mew: the noise that a gull makes.bleat: the sound made by a sheep, goat or calf.4. Do you think that onomatopoeia indicates a non-arbitrary relationship between form and meaningANSWER:4. No matter you say "Yes" or "No", you cannot deny that onomatopoeia needs arbitrariness. Before we feel a word is onomatopoeic we should first know which sound the word imitates. Just as what is said in Chapter One, in order to imitate the noise of flying mosquitoes, there are many choices like "murmurous" and "murderous". They both bear more or less resemblance to the genuine natural sound, but "murmurous" is fortunately chosen to mean the noise while "murderous" is chosen to mean something quite different. They are arbitrary as signifiers.5. A story by Robert Louis Stevenson contains the sentence “As the night fell, the wind rose.” Could this be expressed as “As the wind rose, the night fell” If not, why Does this indicate a degree of non-arbitrariness about word order (Bolinger, 1981: 15)5. Yes. It is a case in point to illustrate non-arbitrariness about word order. Whenthe two parts interchange, the focus and the meaning of the sentence is forced to change, because clauses occurring in linear sequence without time indicators will be taken as matching the actual sequence of happening. The writer’s original intention is distorted, and we can feel it effortlessly by reading. That is why systemic-functionalists and American functionalists think language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level.6. Does the traffic light system have duality Can you explain by drawing a simple graph6. Traffic light does not have duality. Obviously, it is not a double-level system. There is only one-to-one relationship between signs and meaning but the meaning units cannot be divided into smaller meaningless elements further. So the traffic light only has the primary level and lacks the secondary level like animals’ calls.ANSWER:Red→stopGreen→goYellow→get ready to go or stop7. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the creativity of language. Can you write a recursive sentence following the example in section 1.3.3.ANSWER:Today I encountered an old friend who was my classmate when I was in elementary school where there was an apple orchard in which we slid to select ripe apples that…8. Communication can take many forms, such as sign, speech, body language and facial expression. Do body language and facial expression share or lack the distinctive properties of human languageANSWER:On a whole, body language and facial expression lack most of the distinctive properties of human language such as duality, displacement, creativity and so on. Body language exhibits arbitrariness a little bit. For instance, nod means "OK/YES" for us but in Arabian world it is equal to saying "NO". Some facial expressions have non-arbitrariness because they are instinctive such as the cry and laugh of a newborn infant.9. Do you agree with the view that no language is especially simpleANSWER:Yes. All human languages are complicated systems of communication. It is decided by their shared design features.10. What do you think of Bertrand Russell’s observation of the dog language: “No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest” Are you familiar with any type of ways animals communicate amongthemselves and with human beingsANSWER:When gazelles sense potential danger, for example, they flee and thereby signal to other gazelles in the vicinity that danger is lurking. A dog signals its wish to be let inside the house by barking and signals the possibility that it might bite momentarily by displaying its fangs.you mention some typical expressions of phatic communion in Chinese There is the dialog between Ms. P and Ms. Q. in section When someone sneezes violently, do you say anything of the nature of phatic communion Have you noticed your parents or grandparents say something special on such an occasionSome of the typical phatic expressions in Chinese are: 吃了吗家里都好吧这是去哪里啊最近都挺好的ANSWER:If someone is sneezing violently, maybe you parents and grandparents may say: “Are you ok”, “Do you need to see a doctor”, “Do you need some water”, “Do you need a handkerchief”, “Do you have a cold” or something like these to show their concerns.12．There are many expressions in language which are metalingual or self-reflexives, namely, talking about talk and think about thinking, for instance, to be honest, to make a long story short, come to think of it, on second thought, can you collect a few more to make a list of these expressions When do we use them most often ANSWER:To tell the truth, frankly speaking, as a matter of fact, to be precise, in other words, that is to saySuch expressions are used most frequently when we want to expatiate the meaning of former clauses in anther way in argumentation.13. Comment on the following prescriptive rules. Do you think they are acceptable(A) It is I.(B) It is me.You should say A instead of B because “be” should be followed by the nominative case, not the accusative according to the rules in Latin.(A) Who did you speak to(B) Whom did you speak toYou should say B instead of A.(A) I haven't done anything.(B) I haven't done nothing.B is wrong because two negatives make a positive.ANSWER:(1) the Latin rule is not universal. In English, me is informal and I is felt to be very formal.(2) Whom is used in formal speech and in writing; who is more acceptable in informal speech.(3) Language does not have to follow logic reasoning. Here two negative only makea more emphatic negative. This sentence is not acceptable in Standard English not because it is illogical, but because language changes and rejects this usage now.14. The prescriptivism in grammar rules has now shifted to prescriptions in choice of words. In the “guidelines on anti-sexist language” issued by the British sociological association, some guidelines are listed below. Do you think they are descriptive and prescriptive What’s your comment on them(1) Do not use man to mean humanity in general. Use person, people, human beings, men and women, humanity and humankind.(2) colored: This term is regarded as outdated in the UK and should be avoided as it is generally viewed as offensive to many black people.(3) civilized: This term can still carry racist overtones which derive from a colonialist perception of the world. It is often associated with social Darwinist thought and is full of implicit value judgments and ignorance of the history of the non-industrialized world.ANSWER:They are undoubtedly descriptive. Guidelines are not rules that can determine whether a sentence is right or not. The guidelines advise you to avoid the use of particular words that are grammatically correct but offensive to some certain groups. Actually, they describe the way anti-sexist advocators speak and write.15. Why is the distinction between competence and performance an important one in linguistics Do you think the line can be neatly drawn between them How do you like the concept “communicative competence”ANSWER:This is proposed by Chomsky in his formalist linguistic theories. It is sometimes hard to draw a strict line. Some researchers in applied linguistics think communicative competence may be a more revealing concept in language teaching than the purely theoretical pair—competence and performance.16. Which branch of linguistics do you think will develop rapidly in China and why It is up to you to decide after you have gone through the whole book. At this stage, we suggest all branches of linguistics have the potential to flourish.17. The following are some well-known ambiguous sentences in syntactic studies of language. Can you disambiguate themThe chicken is too hot to eat.Flying planes can be dangerous.ANSWER:The chicken is too hot to eat.The chicken meat is too hot, so it cannot be eaten at the moment.The chicken feels so hot (maybe after some intense aerobic exercises) that it cannot start eating and needs to calm down first.Flying planes can be dangerous.The ambiguity comes from "flying planes". It can be deciphered as "the planes that is flying" or "to fly planes".18. There are many reasons for the discrepancy between competence and performance in normal language users. Can you think of some of themANSWEREthnic background, socioeconomic status, region of the country, and physical state (such as intoxication, fatigue, distraction, illness) vary from individual to individual.19. What do these two quotes reveal about the different emphasis or perspectives of language studies(1) A human language is a system of remarkable complexity. To come to know a human language would be an extraordinary intellectual achievement for a creature not specifically designed to accomplish this task. A normal child acquires this knowledge on relatively slight exposure and without specific training. He can then quite effortlessly make use of an intricate structure of specific rules and guiding principles to convey his thoughts and feelings to others, ... Thus language is a mirror of mind in a deep and significant sense. It is a product of human intelligence, created anew in each individual by operations that lie far beyond the reach of will or consciousness.(Noam Chomsky: Reflections on Language. 1975: 4)(2) It is fairly obvious that language is used to serve a variety of different needs, but until we examine its grammar there is no clear reason for classifying its uses in any particular way. However, when we examine the meaning potential of language itself, we find that the vast numbers of options embodied in it combine into a very few relatively independent “networks”; and these networks of options correspond to certain basic functions of language. This enables us to give an account of the different functions of language that is relevant to the general understanding of linguistic structure rather than to any particular psychological or sociological investigation.(M. A. K. Halliday, 1970: 142)ANSWER:The first quote shows children’s inborn ability of acquiring the knowledge of intricate structure of specific rules. It implies that the language user's underlying knowledge about the system of rules is the valuable object of study for linguists. The second attaches great importance to the functions of language. It regards the use of language as the choice of needed function. The meaning of language can be completely included by a few “networks” which is directly related to basic functions of language. It indicates the necessity to study the functions of language.20. You may be familiar with the following proverbs. How do you perceive them according to the arbitrariness and conventionality of languageThe proof of the pudding is in the eating.Let sleeping dogs lie.You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.Rome was not built in a day.When in Rome, do as the Romans do.All roads lead to Rome.ANSWER:20. Arbitrariness and conventionality derive from the choice of the subject matter. For example, in the “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” The word “pudding” is selected arbitrarily, for we can use another word such as cheese instead of pudding without changing the associative meaning of the proverb. On the other hand, once such links between particular words and associative meaning are fixed, it becomes a matter of conventionality.21. Give examples of situations in which a usage generally considered non-standard . ain’t) would be acceptable, even appropriate.ANSWER21. In the talks between intimate friends, one may say “gimme that!” instead of “give me that!” and “wachya doin’” instead of “what are you doing” and this list may go on.22. The following are some book titles of linguistics. Can you judge the diachronic and diachronic orientation just from the titlesEnglish Examined: Two centuries of Comment on the Mother-Tongue.Protean Shape: A Study in Eighteenth-century Vocabulary and Usage.Pejorative Sense Development in English.The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation.Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular.ANSWER22. Synchronic:Protean Shape: A Study in Eighteenth-century Vocabulary and Usage.The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation.Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Diachronic:English Examined: Two centuries of Comment on the Mother-Tongue.Pejorative Sense Development in English。
《语言学》前三章部分答案
Chapter I IntroductionIII. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement.3l.C 32.D 33.C 34.D 35.B 36.A 37.C 38.B 39.A 40.DIV. Define the following terms:41. Linguistics: Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.42. Phonology: The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology.43. Syntax: The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax. .44. Pragmatics: The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics.45. Psycholinguistics: The study of language with reference to the workings of mind is called psycholinguistics.46. Language: Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.47. Phonetics: The study of sounds which are used in linguistic communication is called phonetics.48. Morphology: The study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words is called morphology.49. Semantics: The study of meaning in language is called semantics.50. Sociolinguistics: The study of language with reference to society is called sociolinguistics.51. Applied linguistics: In a narrow sense, applied linguistics refers to the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and learning, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages. In a broad sense, it refers to the application of linguistic findings to the solution of practical problems such as the recovery of speech ability.52. Arbitrariness: It is one of the design features of language. It means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds53. Productivity: Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the con-struction and interpretation of new signals by its users.54. Displacement: Displacement means that language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker55. Duality: The duality nature of language means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds and the other of meanings.56. Design features: Design features refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication57. Competence: Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user's knowledge of the rules of his language,58. Performance: performance is the actual realization of the knowl-edge of the rules in linguistic communication.59. langue : Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community; Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow; Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently 60. Parole: Parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use; parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules; parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary:61. Language is generally defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Explain it in detail.First of all, language is a system, because elements of language are combined according to rules. Secondly, language is arbitrary because there is no intrinsic connection between form and meaning, or between the sign and what it stands for. Different languages have different words for the same object in the world. This fact is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language. This also explains the symbolic nature of language: words are just symbols; they are associated with objects, actions, ideas, etc. by convention . Thirdly, language is vocal because the primary medium is sound for all languages, no matter how well - developed their writing systems are.The term "human" in the definition indicates that language is possessed by human beings only and is very different from the communication systems of other living creatures. The term "communication" means that language makes it possible for its users to talk to each other and fulfill their communicative needs.62. What are the design features of human language? Illustrate them with examples.1) ArbitrarinessAs mentioned earlier, the arbitrary property of language means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. For instance, there is no necessary relationship between the word elephant and the animal it symbolizes. In addition, different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages, and even within the same language, the same sound does not refer to the same thing. However, language is not entirely arbitrary. There are words which are created in the imitation of sounds by sounds, such as crash, bang in English. Besides, some compound words are also not entirely arbitrary. But the non-arbitrary words are quite limited in number. The arbitrary nature of language makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions.2) ProductivityLanguage is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. This is why they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences that they have never said or heard before. They can send messages which no one else has ever sent before.Productivity is unique to human language. Most animal communication systems appear to be highly restricted with respect to the number of different signals that their users can send and receive.3) DualityThe duality nature of language means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds and the other of meanings. At the lower or the basic level, there is the structure of sounds, which are meaningless, discrete, individual sounds. But the sounds of language can be combined according to rules into units of meaning such as morphemes and words, which, at the higher level, can be arranged into sentences. This duality of structure or double articulation of language enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge. No animal communication system has duality or even comes near to possessing it.4) DisplacementDisplacement means that language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. Animal calls are mainly uttered in response to immediate changes of situation.5) Cultural transmissionHuman beings were born with the ability to acquire language, but the details of any language are not genetically transmitted or passed down by instinct. They have to be taught and learned, but animal call systems are genetically transmitted.63. How is modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?Traditional gram-mar is prescriptive; it is based on "high "(religious, literary) written language. It sets grammatical rules and imposes the rules on language users. But Modern linguistics is descriptive; It collects authentic, and mainly spoken language data and then it studies and describes the data in an objective and scientific way.64. How do you understand the distinction between a synchronic study and a diachronic study?The description of a language at some point in time is a Synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. A synchronic study of language describes a language as it is at some particular point in time, while a diachronic study of language is the study of the historical development of language over a period of time.65. Why does modern linguistics regard the spoken form of language as primary, not the written?First, the spoken form is prior to the writ-ten form and most writing systems are derived from the spoken form of language.Second, the spoken form plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed and it serves a wider range of purposesFinally, the spoken form is the medium through which we acquire our mother tongue.66. What are the major distinctions between langue and parole?The distinction between langue, and parole was made by the famous linguist Ferdinand de Saussure early this century. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow while parole is the concrete use of the conventionsand the application of the rules. Langue is abstract; it is not the language people actually use, but parole is concrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events. Langue is relatively stable; it does not change frequently; while parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.67. How do you understand competence and performance?American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950’s proposed the distinction between competence and performance. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language. This internalized set of rules enables the language user to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. According to Chomsky, performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. Although the speaker’s knowledge of his mother tongue is perfect, his performances may have mistakes because of social and psychological factors such as stress, embarrassment, etc.. Chomsky believes that what linguists should study is the competence, which is systematic, not the performance, which is too haphazard. 68. Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole seems similar to Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance. What do you think are their major differences?Although Saussure’s distinction and Chomsky’s are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a mater of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of vies and to him, competence is a property of the mind of each individual. 69. Do you think human language is entirely arbitrary? Why?Language is arbitrary in nature, it is not entirely arbitrary, because there are a limited number of words whose connections between forms and meanings can be logically explained to a certain extent, for example, the onomatopoeia, words which are coined on the basis of imitation of sounds by sounds such as bang, crash,etc.. Take compounds for another example. The two elements “photo” and “copy” in “photocopy” are non-motivated, but the compound is not arbitrary.Chapter 2：PhonologyIV. Define the terms below:45. phonology: Phonology studies the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.46. phoneme: The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme; it is a unit of distinctive value. But it is an abstract unit. To be exact, a phoneme is not a sound; it is a collection of distinctive phonetic features.47. allophone: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme.48. international phonetic alphabet: It is a standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription.49. intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation.50. phonetics: Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; itis concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world' s languages51. auditory phonetics: It studies the speech sounds from the hearer's point of view. It studies how the sounds are perceived by the hear-er.52. acoustic phonetics: It studies the speech sounds by looking at the sound waves. It studies the physical means by which speech sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.53. phone : Phones can be simply defined as the speech sounds we use when speakinga language. A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning.54. phonemic contrast: Phonemic contrast refers to the relation between two phonemes. If two phonemes can occur in the same environment and distinguish meaning, they are in phonemic contrast.55. tone: Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords.56. minimal pair: When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair.V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give ex-amples for illustration if necessary:57. Of the two media of language, why do you think speech is more basic than writing?1) In linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing.2) In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed.3) Speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later at school.58. What are the criteria that a linguist uses in classifying vowels?1) Vowels may be distinguished as front, central and back in terms of the position of the tongue in the mouth.2) According to how wide our mouth is opened, we classify the vowels into four groups: close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, and open vowels.3) According to the shape of the lips, vowels are divided into rounded vowels and unrounded vowels.4) The English vowels can also be classified into long vowels and short vowels according to the length of the sound.59. What are the major differences between phonology and phonetics?They differ in their approach and focus. Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified. Phonology, on the other hand, is interested in the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.60. Illustrate with examples how suprasegmental features can affect meaning.1) The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning, such as `import and import. 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 notion, a word in sentence that is usually unstressed can be stressed to achieve different effect. 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.3) English has four basic types of intonation, known as the four tones: When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings. Generally speaking, the falling tone indicates that what is said is a straight-forward, matter-of-fact statement, the rising tone often makes a question of what is said, and the fall-rise tone often indicates that there is an implied message in what is said.61. In what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not?A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for other results in a change of meaning. If it does, the two sounds then represent different phonemes.Chapter 3：MorphologyIV. Define the following terms:31. Morphology: Morphology is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.32. inflectional morphology: The inflectional morphology studies the inflections33. derivational morphology: Derivational morphology is the study of word- formation.34. Morpheme: It is the smallest meaningful unit of language.35. free morpheme: Free morphemes are the morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves or in combination with oth-er morphemes.36. bound morpheme: Bound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used indepen-dently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word.37. Root: A root is often seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself al-though it bears clear, definite meaning; it must be combined with another root or an affix to form a word.38. Affix: Affixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational. Inflectional affixes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories, while derivationalaffixes are added to an existing form to create a word.39. Prefix: Prefixes occur at the beginning of a word . Prefixes modify the meaning of the stem, but they usually do not change the part of speech of the original word.40. Suffix: Suffixes are added to the end of the stems; they modify the meaning of the original word and in many cases change its part of speech.41. Derivation: Derivation is a process of word formation by which derivative affixes are added to an existing form to create a word.42. Compounding: Compounding can be viewed as the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to create new words.V. Anwser the following questions:43. What are the main features of the English compounds?Orthographically a compound can be written as one word, two separate words with or without a hyphen in between. Syntactically, the part of speech of a compound is determined by the last element. Semantically, the meaning of a compound is idiomatic, not calcu-lable from the meanings of all its components. Phonetically, the word stress of a compound usually falls on the first element.44. Discuss the types of morphemes with examples.Free morphemes: They are the independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by the mselves, for example, “book-” in the word “bookish”.Bound morphemes: They are those that cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word such as “-ish” in “bookish”. Bound morphemes can be subdivided into roots and affixes. A root is seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself although it has a clear and definite meaning, such as “gene-” in the word “generate”. Affixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational. Inflectional morphemes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as “-s” in the word “books” to indicate plurality of nouns. Derivational affixes are added to an existing form to create a word such as “mis-” in the word “misinform”. Derivational affixes can also be divided into prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes occur at the beginning of a word such as “dis- ” in the word “dislike”, while suffixes occur at the end of a word such as “-less” in the word “friendless”.。
新编简明英语语言学教程第二版课后参考答案
新编简明英语语言学教程第二版课后参考答案《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版练习题参考答案Chapter 1 Introduction1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language.答： Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. In order to discover the nature and rules of the underlying language system, the linguists has to collect and observe language facts first, which are found to display some similarities, and generalizations are made about them; then he formulates some hypotheses about the language structure. The hypotheses thus formed have to be checked repeatedly against the observed facts to fully prove their validity. In linguistics, as in any other discipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation, that is, atheory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data without being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.2. What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study? 答： The major branches of linguistics are: (1) phonetics: it studies the sounds used in linguistic communication;(2) phonology: it studies how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication;(3) morphology: it studies the way in which linguistic symbols representing sounds are arranged and combined to form words;(4) syntax: it studies the rules which govern how words are combined to form grammatically permissible sentences in languages;(5) semantics: it studies meaning conveyed by language;(6) pragmatics: it studies the meaning in the context of language use.3. In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar?答：The general approach thus traditionally formed to the study of language over the years is roughly referred to as “traditional grammar.”Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in several basic ways.Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive. Second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the other hand, tended to emphasize, maybe over-emphasize, the importance of the written word, partly because of its permanence.Then, modem linguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a Latin-basedframework.4. Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic? Why?答： In modem linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic one. Because people believed that unless the various states of a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development.5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing?答： Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for some obvious reasons. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system of any language is always“invented” by its users to record speech when the need arises. Even in today's world there are still many languages that can only be spoken but not written. Then in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. And also, speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later when he goes to school. For modern linguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised” record of speech. Thus their data for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regard as authentic.6. How is Saussure's distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomsky's distinction between competence and performance?答： Saussure's distinction and Chomsky'sare very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.7. What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of language?答： First of all, language is a system, i.e., elements of language are combined according to rules.Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for.Third, language is vocal because the primary medium for all languages is sound. Fourth, language is human-specific, i. e., it is very different from the communication systems other forms of life possess.8. What are the main features of human language that have been specified by C. Hockett to show that it is essentially different from animal communication system? 答：The main features of human language are termed design features. They include:1) ArbitrarinessLanguage is arbitrary. This means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. A good example is the fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages.2) ProductivityLanguage is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. This is why they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences they have never heard before.3) DualityLanguage consists of two sets ofstructures, or two levels. At the lower or the basic level there is a structure of sounds, which are meaningless by themselves. But the sounds of language can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning, which are found at the higher level of the system.4) DisplacementLanguage can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. This is what “displacement” means.5) Cultural transmissionWhile human capacity for language has a genetic basis, i.e., we were all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taughtand learned.9. What are the major functions of language? Think of your own examples for illustration. 答：Three main functions are often recognized of language: the descriptive function, the expressive function, and the social function.The descriptive function is the function to convey factual information, which can be asserted or denied, and in some cases even verified. For example: “China is a large country with a long history.”The expressive function supplies information about the user’s feelings, preferences, prejudices, and values. For e xample: “I will never go window-shopping with her.”The social function serves to establish and maintain social relations between people. . For example: “We are your firm supporters.”Chapter 2 Speech Sounds1. What are the two major media of linguistic communication? Of the two, which one is primary and why?答： Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication.Of the two media of language, speech is more primary than writing, for reasons, please refer to the answer to the fifth problem in the last chapter.2. What is voicing and how is it caused? 答： Voicing is a quality of speech sounds and a feature of all vowels and some consonants in English. It is caused by the vibration of the vocal cords.3. Explain with examples how broad transcription and narrow transcription differ?答： The transcription with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks forgeneral purposes. The latter, i.e. the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called narrow transcription. This is the transcription needed and used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds. With the help of the diacritics they can faithfully represent as much of the fine details as it is necessary for their purpose.In broad transcription, the symbol [l] is used for the sounds [l] in the four words leaf [li:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], and health [helθ]. As a matter of fact, the sound [l] in all these four sound combinations differs slightly. The [l] in [li:f], occurring before a vowel, is called a dear [l], and no diacritic is needed to indicate it; the [1] in [fi:l] and [bild], occurring at the end of a word or before another consonant, is pronounced differently from the clear [1] as in “leaf”. It is called dark [?] and in narrowtranscription the diacritic [?] is used to indicate it. Then in the sound combination [helθ], the sound [l] is followed by the English dental sound [θ], its pronunciation is somewhat affected by the dental sound that follows it. It is thus called a dental [l], and in narrow transcription the diacritic [、] is used to indicate it. It is transcribed as [helθ]. Another example is the consonant [p]. We all know that [p] is pronounced differently in the two words pit and spit. In the word pit, the sound [p] is pronounced with a strong puff of air, but in spit the puff of air is withheld to some extent. In the case of pit, the [p] sound is said to be aspirated and in the case of spit, the [p] sound is unaspirated. This difference is not shown in broad transcription, but in narrow transcription, a small raised “h” is used to show aspiration, thus pit is transcribed as [ph?t] and spit is transcribed as [sp?t].4. How are the English consonants classified?答： English consonants can be classified in two ways: one is in terms of manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. In terms of manner of articulation the English consonants can be classified into the following types: stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids, nasals and glides. In terms of place of articulation, it can be classified into following types: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal.5. What criteria are used to classify the English vowels?答： Vowels may be distinguished as front, central, and back according to which part of the tongue is held highest. To further distinguish members of each group, we need to apply another criterion, i.e. the openness of the mouth. Accordingly, we classify the vowels into four groups: closevowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, and open vowels. A third criterion that is often used in the classification of vowelsis the shape of the lips. In English, all the front vowels and the central vowels are unfounded vowels, i. e., without rounding the lips, and all the back vowels, with the exception of [a:], are rounded. It should be noted that some front vowels can be pronounced with rounded lips.6. A. Give the phonetic symbol for each of the following sound descriptions:1) voiced palatal affricate2) voiceless labiodental fricative3) voiced alveolar stop4) front, close, short5) back, semi-open, long6) voiceless bilabial stopB. Give the phonetic features of each of the following sounds:1) [ t ] 2) [ l ] 3) [?] 4) [w] 5) [?] 6) [?]答：A. (1) [?] (2) [ f ] (3) [d ] (4)[ ? ] (5) [ ?:] (6) [p]B. (1) voiceless alveolar stop(2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate(4) voiced bilabial glide(5) back, close, short(6) front, open7. How do phonetics and phonology differ intheir focus of study? Who do you think willbe more interested in the difference between,say, [l] and [?], [ph] and [p], a phoneticianor a phonologist? Why?答： (1) Both phonology and phonetics are concerned with the same aspect of language–– the speech sounds. But while both arerelated to the study of sounds,, they differin their approach and focus. Phonetics is ofa general nature; it is interested in all thespeech sounds used in all human languages:how they are produced, how they differ fromeach other, what phonetic features theypossess, how they can be classified, etc. Phonology, on the other hand, aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.(2) A phonologist will be more interested in it. Because one of the tasks of the phonologists is to find out rule that governs the distribution of [l] and [?], [ph] and [p].8. What is a phone? How is it different froma phoneme? How are allophones related to a phoneme?答： A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. A phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environmentsare called the allophones of that phoneme. For example, the phoneme /l/ in English can be realized as dark [?], clear [l], etc. which are allophones of the phoneme /l/. 9. Explain with examples the sequential rule, the assimilation rule, and the deletion rule.答： Rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called sequential rules.There are many such sequential rules in English. For example, if a word begins with a [l] or a [r], then the next sound must be a vowel. That is why [lbik] [lkbi] are impossible combinations in English. They have violated the restrictions on the sequencing of phonemes.The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part,caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy” tendency may become regularized as rules of language.We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, i.e., it does not distinguish meaning. But this does not mean that vowels in English are never nasalized in actual pronunciation; in fact they are nasalized in certain phonetic contexts. For example, the [i:] sound is nasalized in words like bean, green, team, and scream. This is because in all these sound combinations the [i:] sound is followed by a nasal [n] or [m].The assimilation rule also accounts for the varying pronunciation of the alveolar nasal [n] in some sound combinations. The rule is that within a word, the nasal [n] assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that followsit. We know that in English the prefix in- can be added to ma adjective to make the meaning of the word negative, e.g. discreet –indiscreet, correct –incorrect. But the [n] sound in the prefix in- is not always pronounced as an alveolar nasal. It is so in the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, i.e. [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, i.e. [?]; this is because the consonant that follows it is [k], which is a velar stop. So we can see that while pronouncing the sound [n], we are “copying” a feature of the consonant that follows it.Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. We have noticed that in the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound although it is represented in spelling by the letter g. But in their corresponding formssignature, designation, and paradigmatic, the [g] represented by the letter g is pronounced. The rule can be stated as: Delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. Given the rule, the phonemic representation of the stems in sign –signature, resign –resignation, phlegm –phlegmatic, paradigm –paradigmatic will include the phoneme /g/, which will be deleted according to the regular rule if no suffix is added.10. What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying meaning? 答：The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features. The main suprasegmental features include stress, intonation, and tone. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. There are two kinds of stress: word stress and sentence stress. For example, a shift ofstress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun, to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged. Tones are pitch variations which can distinguish meaning just like phonemes.Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings.Chapter 3 Morphology1. Divide the following words into their separate morphemes by placing a “+” between each morpheme and the next:a. microfile e. telecommunicationb. bedraggled f. forefatherc. announcement g. psychophysicsd. predigestion h. mechanist答：a. micro + file b. be + draggle + edc. announce + mentd. pre + digest + ione. tele + communicate + ionf. fore + fatherg. psycho + physics h. mechan + ist2. Think of three morpheme suffixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem they may be suffixed to. Give at least two examples of each.Model: -orsuffix: -ormeaning: the person or thing performing the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: actor, “one who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, etc.” translator, “one who translates”答：(1) suffix: -ablemeaning: something can be done oris possiblestem type: added to verbsexamples: acceptable, “can be accepted”respectable, “can be respected”(2) suffix: -lymeaning: functionalstem type: added to adjectivesexamples: freely. “adverbial formof ‘free’ ”quickly, “adverbial formof 'quick' ”.(3) suffix: -eemeaning: the person receiving theactionstem type: added to verbsexamples: employee, “one who worksin a company”interviewee, “one who isinterviewed”3. Think of three morpheme prefixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem they may be prefixed to. Give at least two examples of each.Model: a-prefix: a-meaning: “without; not”stem type: added to adjectives examples: asymmetric, “lacking symmetry” asexual, “without sex or sex organs”答：(1) prefix: dis-meaning: showing an oppositestem type: added to verbs or nouns exam ples : disapprove, “do not approve”dishonesty, “lack of honesty”.(2) prefix: anti-meaning: against, opposed tostem type: added to nouns oradjectivesexamples : antinuclear, “opposing the use of atomic weapons and power”antisocial, “opposed or harmful to the laws and customs of an organized community. ”(3) prefix: counter-meaning: the opposite ofstem type: added to nouns or adjectives.examples: counterproductive, “producing results opposite to those intended”counteract, “act against and reduce the force or effect of (sth.) ”4. The italicized part in each of the following sentences is an inflectional morpheme. Study each inflectional morpheme carefully and point out its grammatical meaning.Sue moves in high-society circles in London.A traffic warden asked John to move his car.The club has moved to Friday, February 22nd.The branches of the trees are moving back and forth.答：(1) the third person singular(2) the past tense(3) the present perfect(4) the present progressive5. Determine whether the words in each of the following groups are related to one another by processes of inflection or derivation.a) go, goes, going, goneb) discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable, discoverabilityc) inventor, inventor’s, inventors, inventors’d) democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize答：(略)6. The following sentences contain both derivational and inflectional affixes. Underline all of the derivational affixes and circle the inflectional affixes.a) The farmer’s cows escaped.b) It was raining.c) Those socks are inexpensive.d) Jim needs the newer copy.e) The strongest rower continued.f) She quickly closed the book.g) The alphabetization went well.答：(略)Chapter 4 Syntax1. What is syntax?Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.2. What is phrase structure rule?The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements (i.e.specifiers, heads, and complements) that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule.The phrase structural rule for NP, VP, AP, and PP can be written as follows:NP → (Det) N (PP) ...VP → (Qual) V (NP) ...AP → (Deg) A (PP) ...PP → (Deg) P (NP) ...We can formulate a single general phrasal structural rule in which X stands for the head N, V, A or P.The XP rule: XP →(specifier) X (complement)3. What is category? How to determine a word's category?Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb. To determine a word's category, three criteria are usually employed, namelymeaning, inflection and distribution.若详细回答，则要加上：Word categories often bear some relationship with its meaning. The meanings associated with nouns and verbs can be elaborated in various ways. The property or attribute of the entities denoted by nouns can be elaborated by adjectives. For example, when we say that pretty lady, we are attributing the property ‘pretty’ to the lady designated by the noun. Similarly, the properties and attributes of the actions, sensations and states designated by verbs can typically be denoted by adverbs. For example, in Jenny left quietly the adverb quietly indicates the manner of Jenny's leaving.The second criterion to determine a word's category is inflection. Words of different categories take different inflections. Such nouns as boy and desk take the plural affix -s. Verbs such as workand help take past tense affix -ed and progressive affix -ing. And adjectives like quiet and clever take comparative affix -er and superlative affix -est. Although inflection is very helpful in determining a word's category, it does not always suffice. Some words do not take inflections. For example, nouns like moisture, fog, do not usually take plural suffix -s and adjectives like frequent, intelligent do not take comparative and superlative affixes -er and -est.The last and more reliable criterion of determining a word's category is its distribution. That is what type of elements can co-occur with a certain word. For example, nouns can typically appear with a determiner like the girl and a card, verbs with an auxiliary such as should stay and will go, and adjectives with a degree word such as very cool and too bright.A word's distributional factstogether with information about its meaning and inflectional capabilities help identify its syntactic category.4. What is coordinate structure and what properties does it have?The structure formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction is called coordinate structures.It has (或写Conjunction exhibits) four important properties:1) There is no limit on the number ofcoordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction.2) A category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated.3) Coordinated categories must be of the same type.4) The category type of the coordinatephrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.5. What elements does a phrase contain and what role does each element play?A phrase usually contains the following elements: head, specifier and complement. Sometimes it also contains another kind of element termed modifier.The role each element can play:Head:Head is the word around which a phrase is formed.Specifier:Specifier has both special semanticand syntactic roles. Semantically, ithelps to make more precise the meaningof the head. Syntactically, ittypically marks a phrase boundary.Complement:Complements are themselves phrasesand provide information aboutentities and locations whoseexistence is implied by the meaning ofthe head.Modifier:Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of the heads.6. What is deep structure and what is surface structure?There are two levels of syntactic structure. The first, formed by the XP rulein accordance with the head's subcategorization properties, is called deep structure (or D-structure). The second, corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations, is called surface structure (or S-structure).（以下几题只作初步的的成分划分，未画树形图, 仅供参考）7. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences.a) The old lady got off the bus carefully.Det A N V P Det NAdvb) The car suddenly crashed onto the river bank.Det N Adv V P Det Nc) The blinding snowstorm might delay the opening of the schools.Det A N Aux V Det N P Det Nd) This cloth feels quite soft.Det N V Deg A8. The following phrases include a head, acomplement, and a specifier. Draw theappropriate tree structure for each.a) rich in mineralsXP(AP) → head (rich) A + complement (in minerals) PPb) often read detective storiesXP(VP) → specifier (often) Qual + head (read) V + complement (detective stories) NPc) the argument against the proposalsXP(NP) → specifier (the) Det + head(argument) N + complement (against the proposals) PPd) already above the windowXP(VP) →specifier (already) Deg +d) The apple might hit the man.S → NP (The apple) + Infl (might) + VP (hit the man)e) He often reads detective stories.S → NP (He) + VP (often reads detective stories)9. The following sentences containmodifiers of various types. For each sentence, first identify the modifier(s), then draw the tree structures.（斜体的为名词的修饰语，划底线的为动词的修饰语）a) A crippled passenger landed the airplane with extreme caution.b) A huge moon hung in the black sky.c) The man examined his car carefully yesterday.d) A wooden hut near the lake collapsed in the storm.10. The following sentences all containconjoined categories. Draw a treestructure for each of the sentences. （划底线的为并列的范畴）a) Jim has washed the dirty shirts and pants.b) Helen put on her clothes and went out.c) Mary is fond of literature but tired of statistics.11. The following sentences all containembedded clauses that function as complements of a verb, an adjective, a preposition or a noun. Draw a tree structure for each sentence.a) You know that I hate war.b) Gerry believes the fact that Anna flunked the English exam.c) Chris was happy that his father bought him a Rolls-Royce.d) The children argued over whether bats had wings.12. Each of the following sentences containsa relative clause. Draw the deep structureand the surface structure trees for each of these sentences.a) The essay that he wrote was excellent.b) Herbert bought a house that she lovedc) The girl whom he adores majors in linguistics.13. The derivations of the followingsentences involve the inversion。
《语言学》前三章部分答案
Chapter I IntroductionIII. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement.3l.C 32.D 33.C 34.D 35.B 36.A 37.C 38.B 39.A 40.DIV. Define the following terms:41. Linguistics: Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.42. Phonology: The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology.43. Syntax: The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax. .44. Pragmatics: The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics.45. Psycholinguistics: The study of language with reference to the workings of mind is called psycholinguistics.46. Language: Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.47. Phonetics: The study of sounds which are used in linguistic communication is called phonetics.48. Morphology: The study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words is called morphology.49. Semantics: The study of meaning in language is called semantics.50. Sociolinguistics: The study of language with reference to society is called sociolinguistics.51. Applied linguistics: In a narrow sense, applied linguistics refers to the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and learning, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages. In a broad sense, it refers to the application of linguistic findings to the solution of practical problems such as the recovery of speech ability.52. Arbitrariness: It is one of the design features of language. It means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds53. Productivity: Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the con-struction and interpretation of new signals by its users.54. Displacement: Displacement means that language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker55. Duality: The duality nature of language means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds and the other of meanings.56. Design features: Design features refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication57. Competence: Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user's knowledge of the rules of his language,58. Performance: performance is the actual realization of the knowl-edge of the rules in linguistic communication.59. langue : Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community; Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow; Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently 60. Parole: Parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use; parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules; parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary:61. Language is generally defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Explain it in detail.First of all, language is a system, because elements of language are combined according to rules. Secondly, language is arbitrary because there is no intrinsic connection between form and meaning, or between the sign and what it stands for. Different languages have different words for the same object in the world. This fact is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language. This also explains the symbolic nature of language: words are just symbols; they are associated with objects, actions, ideas, etc. by convention . Thirdly, language is vocal because the primary medium is sound for all languages, no matter how well - developed their writing systems are.The term "human" in the definition indicates that language is possessed by human beings only and is very different from the communication systems of other living creatures. The term "communication" means that language makes it possible for its users to talk to each other and fulfill their communicative needs.62. What are the design features of human language? Illustrate them with examples.1) ArbitrarinessAs mentioned earlier, the arbitrary property of language means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. For instance, there is no necessary relationship between the word elephant and the animal it symbolizes. In addition, different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages, and even within the same language, the same sound does not refer to the same thing. However, language is not entirely arbitrary. There are words which are created in the imitation of sounds by sounds, such as crash, bang in English. Besides, some compound words are also not entirely arbitrary. But the non-arbitrary words are quite limited in number. The arbitrary nature of language makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions.2) ProductivityLanguage is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. This is why they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences that they have never said or heard before. They can send messages which no one else has ever sent before.Productivity is unique to human language. Most animal communication systems appear to be highly restricted with respect to the number of different signals that their users can send and receive.3) DualityThe duality nature of language means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds and the other of meanings. At the lower or the basic level, there is the structure of sounds, which are meaningless, discrete, individual sounds. But the sounds of language can be combined according to rules into units of meaning such as morphemes and words, which, at the higher level, can be arranged into sentences. This duality of structure or double articulation of language enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge. No animal communication system has duality or even comes near to possessing it.4) DisplacementDisplacement means that language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. Animal calls are mainly uttered in response to immediate changes of situation.5) Cultural transmissionHuman beings were born with the ability to acquire language, but the details of any language are not genetically transmitted or passed down by instinct. They have to be taught and learned, but animal call systems are genetically transmitted.63. How is modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?Traditional gram-mar is prescriptive; it is based on "high "(religious, literary) written language. It sets grammatical rules and imposes the rules on language users. But Modern linguistics is descriptive; It collects authentic, and mainly spoken language data and then it studies and describes the data in an objective and scientific way.64. How do you understand the distinction between a synchronic study and a diachronic study?The description of a language at some point in time is a Synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. A synchronic study of language describes a language as it is at some particular point in time, while a diachronic study of language is the study of the historical development of language over a period of time.65. Why does modern linguistics regard the spoken form of language as primary, not the written?First, the spoken form is prior to the writ-ten form and most writing systems are derived from the spoken form of language.Second, the spoken form plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed and it serves a wider range of purposesFinally, the spoken form is the medium through which we acquire our mother tongue.66. What are the major distinctions between langue and parole?The distinction between langue, and parole was made by the famous linguist Ferdinand de Saussure early this century. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow while parole is the concrete use of the conventionsand the application of the rules. Langue is abstract; it is not the language people actually use, but parole is concrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events. Langue is relatively stable; it does not change frequently; while parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.67. How do you understand competence and performance?American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950’s proposed the distinction between competence and performance. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language. This internalized set of rules enables the language user to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. According to Chomsky, performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. Although the speaker’s knowledge of his mother tongue is perfect, his performances may have mistakes because of social and psychological factors such as stress, embarrassment, etc.. Chomsky believes that what linguists should study is the competence, which is systematic, not the performance, which is too haphazard. 68. Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole seems similar to Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance. What do you think are their major differences?Although Saussure’s distinction and Chomsky’s are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a mater of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of vies and to him, competence is a property of the mind of each individual. 69. Do you think human language is entirely arbitrary? Why?Language is arbitrary in nature, it is not entirely arbitrary, because there are a limited number of words whose connections between forms and meanings can be logically explained to a certain extent, for example, the onomatopoeia, words which are coined on the basis of imitation of sounds by sounds such as bang, crash,etc.. Take compounds for another example. The two elements “photo” and “copy” in “photocopy” are non-motivated, but the compound is not arbitrary.Chapter 2：PhonologyIV. Define the terms below:45. phonology: Phonology studies the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.46. phoneme: The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme; it is a unit of distinctive value. But it is an abstract unit. To be exact, a phoneme is not a sound; it is a collection of distinctive phonetic features.47. allophone: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme.48. international phonetic alphabet: It is a standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription.49. intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation.50. phonetics: Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; itis concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world' s languages51. auditory phonetics: It studies the speech sounds from the hearer's point of view. It studies how the sounds are perceived by the hear-er.52. acoustic phonetics: It studies the speech sounds by looking at the sound waves. It studies the physical means by which speech sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.53. phone : Phones can be simply defined as the speech sounds we use when speakinga language. A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning.54. phonemic contrast: Phonemic contrast refers to the relation between two phonemes. If two phonemes can occur in the same environment and distinguish meaning, they are in phonemic contrast.55. tone: Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords.56. minimal pair: When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair.V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give ex-amples for illustration if necessary:57. Of the two media of language, why do you think speech is more basic than writing?1) In linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing.2) In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed.3) Speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later at school.58. What are the criteria that a linguist uses in classifying vowels?1) Vowels may be distinguished as front, central and back in terms of the position of the tongue in the mouth.2) According to how wide our mouth is opened, we classify the vowels into four groups: close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, and open vowels.3) According to the shape of the lips, vowels are divided into rounded vowels and unrounded vowels.4) The English vowels can also be classified into long vowels and short vowels according to the length of the sound.59. What are the major differences between phonology and phonetics?They differ in their approach and focus. Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified. Phonology, on the other hand, is interested in the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.60. Illustrate with examples how suprasegmental features can affect meaning.1) The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning, such as `import and import. 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 notion, a word in sentence that is usually unstressed can be stressed to achieve different effect. 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.3) English has four basic types of intonation, known as the four tones: When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings. Generally speaking, the falling tone indicates that what is said is a straight-forward, matter-of-fact statement, the rising tone often makes a question of what is said, and the fall-rise tone often indicates that there is an implied message in what is said.61. In what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not?A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for other results in a change of meaning. If it does, the two sounds then represent different phonemes.Chapter 3：MorphologyIV. Define the following terms:31. Morphology: Morphology is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.32. inflectional morphology: The inflectional morphology studies the inflections33. derivational morphology: Derivational morphology is the study of word- formation.34. Morpheme: It is the smallest meaningful unit of language.35. free morpheme: Free morphemes are the morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves or in combination with oth-er morphemes.36. bound morpheme: Bound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used indepen-dently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word.37. Root: A root is often seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself al-though it bears clear, definite meaning; it must be combined with another root or an affix to form a word.38. Affix: Affixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational. Inflectional affixes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories, while derivationalaffixes are added to an existing form to create a word.39. Prefix: Prefixes occur at the beginning of a word . Prefixes modify the meaning of the stem, but they usually do not change the part of speech of the original word.40. Suffix: Suffixes are added to the end of the stems; they modify the meaning of the original word and in many cases change its part of speech.41. Derivation: Derivation is a process of word formation by which derivative affixes are added to an existing form to create a word.42. Compounding: Compounding can be viewed as the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to create new words.V. Anwser the following questions:43. What are the main features of the English compounds?Orthographically a compound can be written as one word, two separate words with or without a hyphen in between. Syntactically, the part of speech of a compound is determined by the last element. Semantically, the meaning of a compound is idiomatic, not calcu-lable from the meanings of all its components. Phonetically, the word stress of a compound usually falls on the first element.44. Discuss the types of morphemes with examples.Free morphemes: They are the independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by the mselves, for example, “book-” in the word “bookish”.Bound morphemes: They are those that cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word such as “-ish” in “bookish”. Bound morphemes can be subdivided into roots and affixes. A root is seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself although it has a clear and definite meaning, such as “gene-” in the word “generate”. Affixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational. Inflectional morphemes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as “-s” in the word “books” to indicate plurality of nouns. Derivational affixes are added to an existing form to create a word such as “mis-” in the word “misinform”. Derivational affixes can also be divided into prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes occur at the beginning of a word such as “dis- ” in the word “dislike”, while suffixes occur at the end of a word such as “-less” in the word “friendless”.。
语言学教程课后习题答案第一章
语言学教程课后习题答案第一章Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics1. Define the following terms:design feature: the distinctive features of human language that essentially make human language distinguishable from languages of animals.function: the role language plays in communication (e.g. to express ideas, attitudes) or in particular social situations (e.g. religious, legal).synchronic: said of an approach that studies language at a theoreti cal ‘point’ in time.diachronic: said of the study of development of language and languages over time. prescriptive: to make authoritarian statement about the correctness of a particular use of language.descriptive: to make an objective and systematic account of the patterns and use of a language or variety.arbitrariness: the absence of any physical correspondence between linguistic signals and the entities to which they refer.duality: the structural organization of language into two abstract levels: meaningful units (e.g. words) and meaningless segments (e.g. sounds, letters).displa cement: the ability of language to refer to contexts removed from the speaker’s immediate situation.phatic communion: said of talk used to establish atmosphere or maintain social contact.metalanguage: a language used for talking about language.macrolinguistics: a broad conception of linguistic enquiry, including psychological, cultural, etc.competence: unconscious knowledge of the system ofgrammatical rules in a language.performance: the language actually used by people in speaking or writing.l angue: the language system shared by a “speech community”.parole: the concrete utterances of a speaker.2. Consult at least four introductory linguistics textbooks (not dictionaries), and copy the definitions of “language” that each gives. After careful ly comparing the definitions, write a paper discussing which points recur and explaining the significance of the similarities and differencesamong the definitions.ANSWER:All the definitions should not exclude the description of design features that have been mentioned in this course book. Also it will be better if other design features, say, interchangeability or cultural transmission is included. But it seems impossible to give an unimpeachable definition on language, because the facets people want to emphasize are seldom unanimous. To compare several definitions can make you realize where the argument is.3. Can you think of some words in English which are onomatopoeic?ANSWERS:creak: the sound made by a badly oiled door when it opens.cuckoo: the call of cuckoo.bang: a sudden loud noise.roar: a deep loud continuing sound.buzz: a noise of buzzing.hiss: a hissing sound.neigh: the long and loud cry that a horse makes.mew: the noise that a gull makes.bleat: the sound made by a sheep, goat or calf.4. Do you think that onomatopoeia indicates a non-arbitrary relationship between form and meaning?ANSWER:4. No matter you say "Yes" or "No", you cannot deny that onomatopoeia needs arbitrariness. Before we feel a word is onomatopoeic we should first know which sound the word imitates. Just as what is said in Chapter One, in order to imitate the noise of flying mosquitoes, there are many choices like "murmurous" and "murderous". They both bear more or less resemblance to the genuine natural sound, but "murmurous" is fortunately chosen to mean the noise while "murderous" is chosen to mean something quite different. They are arbitrary as signifiers.5. A story by Robert Louis Stevenson contains the sentence “As the night fell, the wind rose.” Could this be expressed as “As the wind rose, the night fell?” If not, why? Does this indicatea degree of non-arbitrariness about word order? (Bolinger, 1981:15)5. Yes. It is a case in point to illustrate non-arbitrariness about word order. When the two parts interchange, the focus and the meaning of the sentence is forced to change, because clauses occurring in linear sequence without time indicators will be taken as matching the actual s equence of happening. The writer’s original intention is distorted, and we c an feel it effortlessly by reading. That is why systemic-functionalists and American functionalists think language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level.6. Does the traffic light system have duality? Can you explain by drawing a simple graph?6. Traffic light does not have duality. Obviously, it is not adouble-level system. There is only one-to-one relationship between signs and meaning but the meaning units cannot be divided into smaller meaningless elements further. So the traffic light only has the primary level and lacks the secondary level like animals’ calls.ANSWER:Red→stopGreen→goYellow→get ready to go or stop7. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the creativity of language. Can you write a recursive sentence following the example in section 1.3.3.ANSWER:Today I encountered an old friend who was my classmate when I was in elementary school where there was an apple orchard in which we sl id to select ripe apples that…8. Communication can take many forms, such as sign, speech, body language and facial expression. Do body language and facial expression share or lack the distinctive properties of human language?ANSWER:On a whole, body language and facial expression lack most of the distinctive properties of human language such as duality, displacement, creativity and so on. Body language exhibits arbitrariness a little bit. For instance, nod means "OK/YES" for us but in Arabian world it is equal to saying "NO". Some facial expressions have non-arbitrariness because they are instinctive such as the cry and laugh of a newborn infant.9. Do you agree with the view that no language is especially simple?ANSWER:Yes. All human languages are complicated systems of communication. It is decided by their shared design features.10. What do you think of Bertrand Russell’s observation of the dog language: “No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but hon est”? Are you familiar with any type of ways animals communicate among themselves and with human beings? ANSWER:When gazelles sense potential danger, for example, they flee and thereby signal to other gazelles in the vicinity that danger is lurking. A dog signals its wish to be let inside the house by barking and signals the possibility that it might bite momentarily by displaying its fangs.11.Can you mention some typical expressions of phatic communion in Chinese? There is the dialog between Ms. P and Ms. Q. in section 1.5.5. When someone sneezes violently, do you say anything of the nature of phatic communion? Have you noticed your parents or grandparents say something special on such an occasion?Some of the typical phatic expressions in Chinese are: 吃了吗？家里都好吧？这是去哪里啊？最近都挺好的？ANSWER:If someone is sneezing violently, ma ybe you parents and grandparents may say: “Are you ok?”, “Do you need to see a doctor?”, “Do you need some water?”, “Do you need a handkerchief?”, “Do you have a cold?” or something like t hese to show their concerns.12．There are many expressions in language which are metalingual or self-reflexives, namely, talking about talk and think about thinking, for instance, to be honest, to make a longstory short, come to think of it, on second thought, can you collect a few more to make a list of these expressions? When do we use them most often?ANSWER:To tell the truth, frankly speaking, as a matter of fact, to be precise, in other words, that is to say Such expressions are used most frequently when we want to expatiate the meaning of former clauses in anther way in argumentation.13. Comment on the following prescriptive rules. Do you think they are acceptable?(A) It is I.(B) It is me.You should say A instead of B because “be” should be followed by the nominative case, not the accusative according to the rules in Latin.(A) Who did you speak to?(B) Whom did you speak to?You should say B instead of A.(A) I haven't done anything.(B) I haven't done nothing.B is wrong because two negatives make a positive.ANSWER:(1) the Latin rule is not universal. In English, me is informal and I is felt to be very formal.(2) Whom is used in formal speech and in writing; who is more acceptable in informal speech.(3) Language does not have to follow logic reasoning. Here two negative only make a more emphatic negative. This sentence is not acceptable in Standard English not because it is illogical, but because language changes and rejects this usage now.14. The prescriptivism in grammar rules has now shifted to prescriptions in choice of words. In the “guid elines on anti-sexist language” issued by the British sociological association, some guidelines are listed below. Do you think they are descriptive and prescrip tive? What’s your comment on them?(1) Do not use man to mean humanity in general. Use person, people, human beings, men and women, humanity and humankind.(2) colored: This term is regarded as outdated in the UK and should be avoided as it is generally viewed as offensive to many black people.(3) civilized: This term can still carry racist overtones which derive from a colonialist perception of the world. It is often associated with social Darwinist thought and is full of implicit valuejudgments and ignorance of the history of the non-industrialized world.ANSWER:They are undoubtedly descriptive. Guidelines are not rules that can determine whether a sentence is right or not. The guidelines advise you to avoid the use of particular words that are grammatically correct but offensive to some certain groups. Actually, they describe the way anti-sexist advocators speak and write.15. Why is the distinction between competence and performance an important one in linguistics? Do you think the line can be neatly drawn between them? How do you like the concept “communicative competence”?ANSWER:This is proposed by Chomsky in his formalist linguistictheories. It is sometimes hard to draw a strict line. Some researchers in applied linguistics think communicative competence may be a more revealing concept in language teaching than the purely theoretical pair—competence and performance.16. Which branch of linguistics do you think will develop rapidly in China and why?It is up to you to decide after you have gone through the whole book. At this stage, we suggest all branches of linguistics have the potential to flourish.17. The following are some well-known ambiguous sentences in syntactic studies of language. Can you disambiguate them?The chicken is too hot to eat.Flying planes can be dangerous.ANSWER:The chicken is too hot to eat.The chicken meat is too hot, so it cannot be eaten at the moment.The chicken feels so hot (maybe after some intense aerobic exercises) that it cannot start eating and needs to calm down first.Flying planes can be dangerous.The ambiguity comes from "flying planes". It can be deciphered as "the planes that is flying" or "to fly planes".18. There are many reasons for the discrepancy between competence and performance in normal language users. Can you think of some of them?ANSWEREthnic background, socioeconomic status, region of the country, and physical state (such as intoxication, fatigue,distraction, illness) vary from individual to individual.19. What do these two quotes reveal about the different emphasis or perspectives of language studies?(1) A human language is a system of remarkable complexity. To come to know a human language would be an extraordinary intellectual achievement for a creature not specifically designed to accomplish this task. A normal child acquires this knowledge on relatively slight exposure andwithout specific training. He can then quite effortlessly make use of an intricate structure of specific rules and guiding principles to convey his thoughts and feelings to others, ... Thus language is a mirror of mind in a deep and significant sense. It is a product of human intelligence, created anew in each individual by operations that lie far beyond the reach of will or consciousness.(Noam Chomsky: Reflections on Language. 1975: 4)(2) It is fairly obvious that language is used to serve a variety of different needs, but until we examine its grammar there is no clear reason for classifying its uses in any particular way. However, when we examine the meaning potential of language itself, we find that the vast numbers of options e mbodied in it combine into a very few relatively independent “networks”; and these networks of options correspond to certain basic functions of language. This enables us to give an account of the different functions of language that is relevant to the general understanding of linguistic structure rather than to any particular psychological or sociological investigation. (M. A. K. Halliday, 1970: 142)ANSWER:The first quote shows childre n’s inborn ability of acquiringthe knowledge of intricate structure of specific rules. It implies that the language user's underlying knowledge about the system of rules is the valuable object of study for linguists. The second attaches great importance to the functions of language. It regards the use of language as the choice of needed function. The meaning of language can be completely included by a few “networks” which is directly related to basic functions of language. It indicates the necessity to study the functions of language.20. You may be familiar with the following proverbs. How do you perceive them according to the arbitrariness and conventionality of language?The proof of the pudding is in the eating.Let sleeping dogs lie.You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.Rome was not built in a day.When in Rome, do as the Romans do.All roads lead to Rome.ANSWER:20. Arbitrariness and conventionality derive from the choice of the subject matter. For example, in the “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” The word “pudding” is selected arbitrarily, for w e can use another word such as cheese instead of pudding without changing the associative meaning of the proverb. On the other hand, once such links between particular words and associative meaning are fixed, it becomes a matter of conventionality.21. Give examples of situations in which a usage generally considered non-standard (e.g. ain’t) would be acceptable, even appropriate.ANSWER21. In the talks between intimate friends, one may say “gimme that!” instead of “give me that!” and “wachya doin’?” instead of “what are you doing?” and this list may go on.22. The following are some book titles of linguistics. Can you judge the diachronic and diachronic orientation just from the titles?English Examined: Two centuries of Comment on the Mother-Tongue.Protean Shape: A Study in Eighteenth-century V ocabulary and Usage.Pejorative Sense Development in English.The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation.Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular.ANSWER22. Synchronic:Protean Shape: A Study in Eighteenth-century V ocabulary and Usage.The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation.Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular.Diachronic:English Examined: Two centuries of Comment on the Mother-Tongue.Pejorative Sense Development in English。
《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版课后练习题答案
《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版练习题参考答案Chapter 1 Introduction1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language.答：Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. In order to discover the nature and rules of the underlying language system, the linguists has to collect and observe language facts first, which are found to display some similarities, and generalizations are made about them; then he formulates some hypotheses about the language structure. The hypotheses thus formed have to be checked repeatedly against the observed facts to fully prove their validity. In linguistics, as in any other discipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation, that is, a theory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data without being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.2. What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study?答：The major branches of linguistics are:(1) phonetics: it studies the sounds used in linguistic communication;(2) phonology: it studies how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication;(3) morphology: it studies the way in which linguistic symbols representing sounds are arranged and combined to form words;(4) syntax: it studies the rules which govern how words are combined to form grammatically permissible sentences in languages;(5) semantics: it studies meaning conveyed by language;(6) pragmatics: it studies the meaning in the context of language use.3. In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar?答：The general approach thus traditionally formed to the study of language over the years is roughly referred to as “traditional grammar.”Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in several basic ways.Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.Second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the other hand, tended to emphasize, maybe over-emphasize, the importance of the written word, partly because of its permanence.Then, modem linguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a Latin-based framework.4. Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic? Why?答：In modem linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic one. Because people believed that unless the various states of a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development.5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing? 答：Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for some obvious reasons. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system of any language is always “invented”by its users to record speech when the need arises. Even in today's world there are still many languagesthat can only be spoken but not written. Then in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. And also, speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later when he goes to school. For modern linguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised”record of speech. Thus their data for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regard as authentic.6. How is Saussure's distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomsky's distinction between competence and performance?答：Saussure's distinction and Chomsky's are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.7. What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of language?答：First of all, language is a system, i.e., elements of language are combined according to rules.Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for.Third, language is vocal because the primary medium for all languages is sound. Fourth, language is human-specific, i. e., it is very different from the communication systems other forms of life possess.8. What are the main features of human language that have been specified by C. Hockett toshow that it is essentially different from animal communication system?答：The main features of human language are termed design features. They include:1) ArbitrarinessLanguage is arbitrary. This means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. A good example is the fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages.2) ProductivityLanguage is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. This is why they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences they have never heard before.3) DualityLanguage consists of two sets of structures, or two levels. At the lower or the basic level there is a structure of sounds, which are meaningless by themselves. But the sounds of language can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning, which are found at the higher level of the system.4) DisplacementLanguage can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. This is what “displacement”means.5) Cultural transmissionWhile human capacity for language has a genetic basis, i.e., we were all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not geneticallytransmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.9. What are the major functions of language? Think of your own examples for illustration. 答：Three main functions are often recognized of language: the descriptive function, the expressive function, and the social function.The descriptive function is the function to convey factual information, which can be asserted or denied, and in some cases even verified. For example: “China is a large country with a long history.”The expressive function supplies information about the user’s feelings, preferences, prejudices, and values. For example: “I will never go window-shopping with her.”The social function serves to establish and maintain social relations between people. . For example: “We are your firm supporters.”Chapter 2 Speech Sounds1. What are the two major media of linguistic communication? Of the two, which one is primary and why?答：Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication.Of the two media of language, speech is more primary than writing, for reasons, please refer to the answer to the fifth problem in the last chapter.2. What is voicing and how is it caused?答：V oicing is a quality of speech sounds and a feature of all vowels and some consonants in English. It is caused by the vibration of the vocal cords.3. Explain with examples how broad transcription and narrow transcription differ?答：The transcription with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription. This is thetranscription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. The latter, i.e. the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called narrow transcription. This is the transcription needed and used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds. With the help of the diacritics they can faithfully represent as much of the fine details as it is necessary for their purpose.In broad transcription, the symbol [l] is used for the sounds [l] in the four words leaf [li:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], and health [helθ]. As a matter of fact, the sound [l] in all these four sound combinations differs slightly. The [l] in [li:f], occurring before a vowel, is called a dear [l], and no diacritic is needed to indicate it; the [1] in [fi:l] and [bild], occurring at the end of a word or before another consonant, is pronounced differently from the clear [1] as in “leaf”. It is called dark [?] and in narrow transcription the diacritic [?] is used to indicate it. Then in the sound combination [helθ], the sound [l] is followed by the English dental sound [θ], its pronunciation is somewhat affected by the dental sound that follows it. It is thus called a dental [l], and in narrow transcription the diacritic [、] is used to indicate it. It is transcribed as [helθ].Another example is the consonant [p]. We all know that [p] is pronounced differently in the two words pit and spit. In the word pit, the sound [p] is pronounced with a strong puff of air, but in spit the puff of air is withheld to some extent. In the case of pit, the [p] sound is said to be aspirated and in the case of spit, the [p] sound is unaspirated. This difference is not shown in broad transcription, but in narrow transcription, a small raised “h”is used to show aspiration, thus pit is transcribed as [ph?t] and spit is transcribed as [sp?t].4. How are the English consonants classified?答：English consonants can be classified in two ways: one is in terms of manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. In terms of manner of articulation the English consonants can be classified into the following types: stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids, nasals and glides. In terms of place of articulation, it can be classified into following types: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal.5. What criteria are used to classify the English vowels?答：V owels may be distinguished as front, central, and back according to which part of the tongue is held highest. To further distinguish members of each group, we need to apply another criterion, i.e. the openness of the mouth. Accordingly, we classify the vowels into four groups: close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, and open vowels. A third criterion that is often used in the classification of vowels is the shape of the lips. In English, all the front vowels and the central vowels are unfounded vowels, i. e., without rounding the lips, and all the back vowels, with the exception of [a:], are rounded. It should be noted that some front vowels can be pronounced with rounded lips.6. A. Give the phonetic symbol for each of the following sound descriptions:1) voiced palatal affricate2) voiceless labiodental fricative3) voiced alveolar stop4) front, close, short5) back, semi-open, long6) voiceless bilabial stopB. Give the phonetic features of each of the following sounds:1) [ t ] 2) [ l ] 3) [?] 4) [w] 5) [?] 6) [?]答：A. (1) [?] (2) [ f ] (3) [d ] (4) [ ? ] (5) [ ?:] (6) [p]B. (1) voiceless alveolar stop (2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate (4) voiced bilabial glide(5) back, close, short (6) front, open7. How do phonetics and phonology differ in their focus of study? Who do you think will be more interested in the difference between, say, [l] and [?], [ph] and [p], a phonetician or a phonologist? Why?答：(1) Both phonology and phonetics are concerned with the same aspect of language ––the speech sounds. But while both are related to the study of sounds,, they differ in their approach and focus. Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified, etc. Phonology, on the other hand, aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.(2) A phonologist will be more interested in it. Because one of the tasks of the phonologists is to find out rule that governs the distribution of [l] and [?], [ph] and [p].8. What is a phone? How is it different from a phoneme? How are allophones related to a phoneme?答：A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. A phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments arecalled the allophones of that phoneme. For example, the phoneme /l/ in English can be realized as dark [?], clear [l], etc. which are allophones of the phoneme /l/.9. Explain with examples the sequential rule, the assimilation rule, and the deletion rule. 答：Rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called sequential rules.There are many such sequential rules in English. For example, if a word begins with a [l] or a [r], then the next sound must be a vowel. That is why [lbik] [lkbi] are impossible combinations in English. They have violated the restrictions on the sequencing of phonemes.The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by “copying”a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy”tendency may become regularized as rules of language.We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, i.e., it does not distinguish meaning. But this does not mean that vowels in English are never nasalized in actual pronunciation; in fact they are nasalized in certain phonetic contexts. For example, the [i:] sound is nasalized in words like bean, green, team, and scream. This is because in all these sound combinations the [i:] sound is followed by a nasal [n] or [m].The assimilation rule also accounts for the varying pronunciation of the alveolar nasal [n] in some sound combinations. The rule is that within a word, the nasal [n] assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it. We know that in English the prefix in- can be added to ma adjective to make the meaning of the word negative, e.g.discreet –indiscreet, correct –incorrect. But the [n] sound in the prefix in- is not always pronounced as an alveolar nasal. It is so in the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, i.e. [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, i.e. [?]; this is because the consonant that follows it is [k], which is a velar stop. So we can see that while pronouncing the sound [n], we are “copying”a feature of the consonant that follows it.Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. We have noticed that in the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound although it is represented in spelling by the letter g. But in their corresponding forms signature, designation, and paradigmatic, the [g] represented by the letter g is pronounced. The rule can be stated as: Delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. Given the rule, the phonemic representation of the stems in sign –signature, resign –resignation, phlegm –phlegmatic, paradigm –paradigmatic will include the phoneme /g/, which will be deleted according to the regular rule if no suffix is added.10. What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying meaning?答：The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features. The main suprasegmental features include stress, intonation, and tone. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. There are two kinds of stress: word stress and sentence stress. For example, a shift of stress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun, to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged. Tones are pitch variations which can distinguish meaning just like phonemes.Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings.Chapter 3 Morphology1. Divide the following words into their separate morphemes by placing a “+”between each morpheme and the next:a. microfile e. telecommunicationb. bedraggled f. forefatherc. announcement g. psychophysicsd. predigestion h. mechanist答：a. micro + file b. be + draggle + edc. announce + mentd. pre + digest + ione. tele + communicate + ionf. fore + fatherg. psycho + physics h. mechan + ist2. Think of three morpheme suffixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem they may be suffixed to. Give at least two examples of each.Model: -orsuffix: -ormeaning: the person or thing performing the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: actor, “one who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, etc.”translator, “one who translates”答：(1) suffix: -ablemeaning: something can be done or is possiblestem type: added to verbsexamples: acceptable, “can be accepted”respectable, “can be respected”(2) suffix: -lymeaning: functionalstem type: added to adjectivesexamples: freely. “adverbial form of ‘free’”quickly, “adverbial form of 'quick' ”.(3) suffix: -eemeaning: the person receiving the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: employee, “one who works in a company”interviewee, “one who is interviewed”3. Think of three morpheme prefixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem they may be prefixed to. Give at least two examples of each.Model: a-prefix: a-meaning: “without; not”stem type: added to adjectivesexamples: asymmetric, “lacking symmetry”asexual, “without sex or sexorgans”答：(1) prefix: dis-meaning: showing an oppositestem type: added to verbs or nounsexamples : disapprove, “do not approve”dishonesty, “lack of honesty”.(2) prefix: anti-meaning: against, opposed tostem type: added to nouns or adjectivesexamples : antinuclear, “opposing the use of atomic weapons and power”antisocial, “opposed or harmful to the laws and customs of an organized community. ”(3) prefix: counter-meaning: the opposite ofstem type: added to nouns or adjectives.examples: counterproductive, “producing results opposite to those intended”counteract, “act against and reduce the force or effect of (sth.) ”4. The italicized part in each of the following sentences is an inflectional morpheme. Study each inflectional morpheme carefully and point out its grammatical meaning.Sue moves in high-society circles in London.A traffic warden asked John to move his car.The club has moved to Friday, February 22nd.The branches of the trees are moving back and forth.答：(1) the third person singular(2) the past tense(3) the present perfect(4) the present progressive5. Determine whether the words in each of the following groups are related to one another by processes of inflection or derivation.a) go, goes, going, goneb) discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable, discoverabilityc) inventor, inventor’s, inventors, inventors’d) democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize答：(略)6. The following sentences contain both derivational and inflectional affixes. Underline all of the derivational affixes and circle the inflectional affixes.a) The farmer’s cows escaped.b) It was raining.c) Those socks are inexpensive.d) Jim needs the newer copy.e) The strongest rower continued.f) She quickly closed the book.g) The alphabetization went well.答：(略)Chapter 4 Syntax1. What is syntax?Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.2. What is phrase structure rule?The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements (i.e. specifiers, heads, and complements) that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule.The phrase structural rule for NP, VP, AP, and PP can be written as follows:NP →(Det) N (PP) ...VP →(Qual) V (NP) ...AP →(Deg) A (PP) ...PP →(Deg) P (NP) ...The general phrasal structural rule ( X stands for the head N, V, A or P):The XP rule: XP →(specifier) X (complement)3. What is category? How to determine a word's category?Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.To determine a word's category, three criteria are usually employed, namely meaning, inflection and distribution. A word's distributional facts together with information about its meaning and inflectional capabilities help identify its syntactic category.4. What is coordinate structure and what properties does it have?The structure formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction is called coordinate structures.Conjunction exhibits four important properties:1) There is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction.2) A category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated.3) Coordinated categories must be of the same type.4) The category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.5. What elements does a phrase contain and what role does each element play?A phrase usually contains the following elements: head, specifier and complement. Sometimes it also contains another kind of element termed modifier.The role of each elementHead:Head is the word around which a phrase is formed.Specifier:Specifier has both special semantic and syntactic roles. Semantically, it helps to make more precise the meaning of the head. Syntactically, it typically marks a phrase boundary. Complement:Complements are themselves phrases and provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.Modifier:Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of the heads.6. What is deep structure and what is surface structure?There are two levels of syntactic structure. The first, formed by the XP rule in accordancewith the head's subcategorization properties, is called deep structure (or D-structure). The second, corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations, is called surface structure (or S-structure).7. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences. a) The old lady got off the bus carefully.Det A N V P Det N Advb) The car suddenly crashed onto the river bank.Det N Adv V P Det Nc) The blinding snowstorm might delay the opening of the schools.Det A N Aux V Det N P Det Nd) This cloth feels quite soft.Det N V Deg A（以下8-12题只作初步的的成分划分，未画树形图, 仅供参考）8. The following phrases include a head, a complement, and a specifier. Draw the appropriate tree structure for each.a) rich in mineralsXP(AP) →head (rich) A + complement (in minerals) PPb) often read detective storiesXP(VP) →specifier (often) Qual + head (read) V + complement (detective stories) NPc) the argument against the proposalsXP(NP) →specifier (the) Det + head (argument) N + complement (against the proposals) PPd) already above the windowXP(VP) →specifier (already) Deg + head (above) P + complement (the window) NP9. The following sentences contain modifiers of various types. For each sentence, first identify the modifier(s), then draw the tree structures.（划底线的为动词的修饰语，斜体的为名词的修饰语）a) A crippled passenger landed the airplane with extreme caution.b) A huge moon hung in the black sky.c) The man examined his car carefully yesterday.d) A wooden hut near the lake collapsed in the storm.10. The following sentences all contain conjoined categories. Draw a tree structure for each of the sentences. （划底线的为并列的范畴）a) Jim has washed the dirty shirts and pants.b) Helen put on her clothes and went out.c) Mary is fond of literature but tired of statistics.11. The following sentences all contain embedded clauses that function as complements ofa verb, an adjective, a preposition or a noun. Draw a tree structure for each sentence. （划底线的为补语从句）a) You know that I hate war.b) Gerry believes the fact that Anna flunked the English exam.c) Chris was happy that his father bought him a Rolls-Royce.d) The children argued over whether bats had wings.12. Each of the following sentences contains a relative clause. Draw the deep structure and the surface structure trees for each of these sentences. （划底线的为关系从句）a) The essay that he wrote was excellent.b) Herbert bought a house that she lovedc) The girl whom he adores majors in linguistics.13. The derivations of the following sentences involve the inversion transformation. Give the deep structure and the surface structure of each of these sentences.a) Would you come tomorrow? (surface structure)you would come tomorrow (deep structure)b) What did Helen bring to the party? (surface structure)Helen brought what to the party (deep structure)c) Who broke the window? (surface structure)who broke the window (deep structure)Chapter 5 Semantics1. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning?答：(1) The naming theory proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.(2) The conceptualist view has been held by some philosophers and linguists from ancient times. This view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i. e., between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.(3) The contextualist view held that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context ––elements closely linked with language behaviour. The representative ofthis approach was J.R. Firth, famous British linguist.(4) Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.”This theory, somewhat close to contextualism, is linked with psychological interest.2. What are the major types of synonyms in English?答：The major types of synonyms are dialectal synonyms, stylistic synonyms, emotive or evaluative synonyms, collocational synonyms, and semantically different synonyms.Examples（略）3. Explain with examples “homonymy”, “polysemy”, and “hyponymy”.答：(1) Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.When two words are identical in sound, they are homophones.When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are complete homonyms (2) While different words may have the same or similar meaning, the same one word may have more than one meaning. This is what we call polysemy, and such a word is called a polysemic word. There are many polysemic words in English, The fact is the more commonly used a word is, the more likely it has acquired more than one meaning.(3) Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. The word which is more general in meaning is called the superordinate, and the more specific words are called its hyponyms. Hyponyms of the same superordinate are co-hyponyms to each other. Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion; in terms of meaning, the superordinate includes all its hyponyms.。
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《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版第1-3章练习题参考答案Chapter 1 IntroductionP131. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language？答：Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. In order to discover the nature and rules of the underlying language system, the linguists has to collect and observe language facts first, which are found to display some similarities, and generalizations are made about them; then he formulates some hypotheses about the language structure. The hypotheses thus formed have to be checked repeatedly against the observed facts to fully prove their validity. In linguistics, as in any other discipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation, that is, a theory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data without being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.2. What are the major branches of linguistics What does each of them study答：The major branches of linguistics are:(1) phonetics: it studies the sounds used in linguistic communication;(2) phonology: it studies how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication;(3) morphology: it studies the way in which linguistic symbols representing sounds are arranged and combined to form words;(4) syntax: it studies the rules which govern how words are combined to form grammatically permissible sentences inlanguages;(5) semantics: it studies meaning conveyed by language;(6) pragmatics: it studies the meaning in the context of language use.3. In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar答：The general approach thus traditionally formed to the study of language over the years is roughly referred to as “t raditional gramma r.” Modern linguistics differs from traditional g rammar in several basic ways.Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.Second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the other hand, tended to emphasize, maybe over-emphasize, the importance of the written word, partly because of its permanence.Then, modem linguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a Latin-based framework.4. Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic Why答：In modem linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic one. Because people believed that unless the various states of a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development.5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing答：Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for some obvious reasons. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system of any langu age is always “invented” by its users to record spee ch when the need arises. Even in today's world there are still many languages that can only be spoken but not written. Then in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. And also, speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later when he goes to school. For modern linguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised” record of spe ech. Thus their data for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regard as authentic.6. How is Saussure's distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomsky's distinction between competence and performance答：Saussure's distinction and Chomsky's are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.7. What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of language答：First of all, language is a system, i.e., elements of language are combined according to rules.Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for.Third, language is vocal because the primary medium for all languages is sound.Fourth, language is human-specific, i. e., it is very different from the communication systems other forms of life possess.8. What are the main features of human language that have been specified by C. Hockett to show that it is essentially different from animal communication system（2．2语言的识别性特征）美国语言学家C. Hockett提出了人类语言的12种识别性特征，其中最重要的识别性特种有5种：即语言的任意性、创造性、二重性、移位性和文化传递性。