《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版_练习题_参考答案txt

新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版练习题参考答案

Chapter 1 Introduction

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、

Chapter 2 Phonology

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: 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、

Chapter 3 Morphology

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 progressive

Chapter 4 Syntax

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 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)、

Chapter 5 Semantics

1、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 of this 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、

Examples(略)

Chapter 6 PRAGMATICS

8、What are the four maxims of the CP? Try to give your own examples to show how flouting

these maxims gives rise to conversational implicature?

答: Cooperative Principle, abbreviated as CP、It goes as follows:

Make your conversational contribution such as required at the stage at which it occurs by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged、To be more specific, there are four maxims under this general principle:

(1) The maxim of quantity

①Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange)、

②Do not make your contribution more informative than is required、

(2) The maxim of quality

①Do not say what you believe to be false、

②Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence、

(3) The maxim of relation

Be relevant、

(4) The maxim of manner

①Avoid obscurity of expression、

②Avoid ambiguity、

③Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)、

④Be orderly、

9、What is pragmatic failure? Try to find instances of pragmatic failure in the English used by Chinese learners of English、

答: The technical term for breakdowns in the course of communication is pragmatic failure、Pragmatic failure occurs when the speaker fails to use language effectively to achieve a specific communication purpose, or when the hearer fails to recognize the intention or the illocutionary force of the speaker’s utterance in the context of communication、

Instances (略) (见教材p、89)

Chapter 7 Language Change

1、The vocabulary of English consists of native and also thousands of borrowed words、Look up the following words in a dictionary which provides the etymologies (history) of words、In each case speculate as to how the particular word came to be borrowed from a particular language、

a、size

b、skill

c、royal

d、ranch

e、robot

f、potato

g、astronaut h、emerald i、pagoda

j、khaki k、bulldoze 1、hoodlum

答:a、size (< old French)

b、skill (< old Norse)

c、royal (< old French < Latin)

d、ranch (< Spanish < French)

e、robot (< Czech < old Church Slavonic)

f、potato (< Spanish < Taino)

g、astronaut (< French)

h、emerald (< Middle English & old French)

i、pagoda (< Persian < Sanskrit)

j、khaki (< Hindi

k、bulldoze (< bull(Botany Bay Slang) < old English)

l、hoodlum (< German)

6、Give at least two examples showing the influence of American English on British English、答:(略)

Chapter 8 Language and Society

1、How is language related to society?

答: There are many indications of the inter-relationship between language and society、One of them is that while language is principally used to communicate meaning, it is also used to establish and maintain social relationships、This social function of language is embodied in the use of such utterances as “Good morning!”, “Hi!”, “How's your family?”, “Nice day today, isn't it?”、

Another indication is that users of the same language in a sense all speak differently、The kind of language each of them chooses to use is in part determined by his social background、And language, in its turn, reveals information about its speaker、When we speak, we cannot avoid giving clues to our listeners about ourselves、

Then to some extent, language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society、For example while there is only one word in English for “snow”, there are several in Eskimo、This is a reflection of the need for the Eskimos to make distinctions between various kinds of snow in their snowy living environment、As a social phenomenon language is closely related to the structure of the society in which it is used, and the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social、To a linguist, all language forms and accents are equally good as far as they can fulfill the communicative functions they are expected to fulfill、Therefore, judgments concerning the correctness and purity of linguistic varieties are social rather than linguistic、A case in point is the use of the postvocalic [r]、While in English accents without postvocalic [r] are considered to be more correct than accents with it, in New York city, accents with postvocalic [r] enjoys more prestige and are considered more correct than without it、

Chapter 9 Language and Culture

1、Try to sum up the relation between language and culture、Can you find similar relationship between local dialect and regional culture?

答: The relation between language and culture is dialectical、Every language is part of a culture、As such, it cannot but serve and reflect cultural needs、Within tile broad limits set by the specific needs of a culture, a language is free to make arbitrary selections of signified、That is to say, language is not a passive reflector of culture、Even assuming that culture is in many cases the first cause in the language-culture relationship, language as the effect in the first link of the causal chain will in turn be the cause in the next link, reinforcing and preserving beliefs and customs and conditioning their future course、We can find similar relationship between local dialect and regional culture、For example, in China, there are many local dialects and many regional operas、Those regional operas can only be performed in the local dialects; meanwhile those regional operas are part of local cultures、