新编简明英语语言学教程chapter 1 Introduction

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新编简明英语语言学教程第二版练习试题参考答案解析

新编简明英语语言学教程第二版练习试题参考答案解析

新编简明英语语言学教程第二版练习试题参考答案解析(总26页)--本页仅作为文档封面,使用时请直接删除即可----内页可以根据需求调整合适字体及大小--《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 thanto 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 viewof 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 invest igation 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 apsychological 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, ., 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 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, ., 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 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: 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 for general purposes. The latter, . the transcription with letter-symbols together withthe 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 diff erently 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 somewha t 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 [pht] and spit is transcribed as [spt].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, . 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 are 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 ofarticulation. This “sloppy” tendency may become regularized as rules of language.We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, ., 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 adjectiveto make the meaning of the word negative, . 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, . [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, . []; 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 isrepresented 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 ofstem 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 sex organs”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”a ntisocial, “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 oppo site 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 . 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 categoryCategory 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 withinformation 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 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).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 of a 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 of this approach was . 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 thehearer.” This theory, somewhat clos e 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, ., 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。

新编简明英语语言学教程 by zhang.

新编简明英语语言学教程  by zhang.

新编简明英语语言学教程A N E W C O N C I S E C O U R S E O N L I N G U I S T I C S F O R S T U D E N T S O FE N G L I S HH a p p y N a t i o n a l D a yC o n t e n t s•12 Chapters / 4 Parts•Part 1 Chapter 1 (The general introduction about linguistics, to give an answer about what is linguistics and what is language, and some of their characteristics.)•Part 2 Chapter 2/3/4/5/6 (It mainly introduces the differentbranches .[brɑ:ntʃ]分支of linguistics such as Phonetics[fəu‘netik]语音学, Phonology(fəˈnɒlədʒi]音系学, Morphology[mɔ:ˈfɒlədʒi]形态学, Syntax[ˈsɪntaks]句法学, [siˈmæntiks]语义学, Pragmatics.[præɡˈmætiks]语用学。

)•Part 3 Chapter 7/8/9 (This part mainly discusses the development of language and the relationship between language and society or culture.)•Part 4 Chapter 10/11/12 (This part is about the learning of language, how could a person get the ability of speaking one language, of course, no matter it is first language or second language, there must be quite a strong relationship with the brain of us.)C h a p t e r O n e I n t r o d u c t i o nL i n g u i s t i c s• 1. What is linguistics (definition)?• 2. Its scope [skəup]范围and some distinctions that are important?W h a t i s l i n g u i s t i c s(d e f i n i t i o n)?•The scientific study of language.•To answer the questions such as:•What is language?•How does language work?•How does language change?•What do all languages have in common?H o w t o s t u d y a n d w h a t t o s t u d y?•By systematic[sɪstəˈmatɪk]有系统的,有规则的investigation of linguistic data语言材料,with reference to关于some theories, to find the nature种类and rules underlying 基础的language system. •linguistics studies languages in general, not any particular language.T h e s c o p e a n d s o m e d i s t i n c t i o n s o f l i n g u i s t i c s•Branches of linguistics: (page 2-3)•Phonetics语音学,Phonology音系学, Morphology形态学, Syntax句法学, Semantics语义学, Pragmatics语用学。

新编简明英语语言学教程第2版学习指南答案

新编简明英语语言学教程第2版学习指南答案

新编简明英语语言学教程第2版学习指南答案Study Guide for New Concise English Linguistics Tutorial 2nd Edition AnswersIntroductionThe New Concise English Linguistics Tutorial 2nd Edition is a comprehensive guide to the study of the English language. This study guide provides answers to the exercises and questions found in the textbook, helping students to better understand the concepts and theories discussed in each chapter.Chapter 1: Introduction to Linguistics1.1 What is Linguistics?Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure, including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.1.2 What are the subfields of Linguistics?The subfields of linguistics include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.1.3 What is the difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar?Prescriptive grammar is concerned with rules for what is considered "correct" language use, while descriptive grammar describes how language is actually used by speakers.Chapter 2: Phonetics and Phonology2.1 What is phonetics?Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, including their production, transmission, and reception.2.2 What is phonology?Phonology is the study of the sound system of a language, including the patterns and rules that govern the pronunciation of words.2.3 What is the difference between consonants and vowels?Consonants are speech sounds that are produced with some degree of obstruction in the vocal tract, while vowels are speech sounds that are produced without obstruction.Chapter 3: Morphology3.1 What is morphology?Morphology is the study of the structure of words and how words are formed from smaller units called morphemes.3.2 What are free and bound morphemes?Free morphemes can stand alone as words, while bound morphemes must be attached to other morphemes to form a complete word.3.3 What is the difference between inflectional and derivational morphemes?Inflectional morphemes modify the grammatical function of a word (e.g., tense, number), while derivational morphemes create new words or change the meaning of existing words.Chapter 4: Syntax4.1 What is syntax?Syntax is the study of the structure of sentences and how words are combined to create meaningful phrases and sentences.4.2 What is the difference between phrases and clauses?Phrases are groups of words that function as a single unit within a sentence, while clauses are larger structures that contain a subject and a predicate.4.3 What is the difference between syntax and semantics?Syntax deals with the structure of language, while semantics is concerned with the meaning of language.Chapter 5: Semantics and Pragmatics5.1 What is semantics?Semantics is the study of meaning in language, including how words and sentences convey meaning.5.2 What is pragmatics?Pragmatics is the study of how context influences the interpretation of language, including the social and cultural factors that affect communication.5.3 What are speech acts?Speech acts are actions that are performed through speech, such as making a request or giving an order.ConclusionThis study guide provides answers to the exercises and questions found in the New Concise English Linguistics Tutorial 2nd Edition, helping students to deepen their understanding of the core concepts and theories in the study of English linguistics. By using this guide, students can enhance their knowledge andskills in the field of linguistics and improve their overall comprehension of the English language.。

新编简明英语语言学 第一章

新编简明英语语言学 第一章

What is linguistics?
---It is a scientific study because it is based on the systemetic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure.
> Modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians tended to emphasize the importance of the written word.
---Hall, 1968
语言是“人类利用约定俗成的任意性视听符号借以相互交流和影响的习惯体 系”。
---霍尔 , 1968
What is language?
From now on I will consider language to be a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.
synchronic and diachronic
>The description of a language at some point of time in history is a synchronic study.
对历史上某一时间点的语言状况 所作的研究是共时研究
>The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study.

《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.。

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, 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 languagefor 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'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, ., 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 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 beused 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, ., 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 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 win dow-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 for general purposes. The latter, . 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 [pht] and spit is transcribed as [spt].\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, . 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 stop,4) 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 phoneticfeatures 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 are 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, ., 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, . 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, . [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, . []; 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 + ed(c. 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 verbs|examples: 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 verbsexample s: acceptable, “can be accepted”respectable, “can be respected”(2) suffix: -lymeaning: functional)stem 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 sex organs”答:(1) prefix: dis-meaning: showing an opposite`stem 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, “op posed 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, gone`b) 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 Syntax》1. What is syntaxSyntax 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 ruleThe grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements . 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,3. What is category How to determine a word's categoryCategory 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.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 work and 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 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 haveThe 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 of coordinated categories that can appear prior to theconjunction.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 elementsbeing conjoined.5. What elements does a phrase contain and what role does each element playA 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 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 structureThere 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).(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 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 A8. 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) PP>d) already above the windowXP(VP) →specifier (already) Deg + head (above) P + complement (the window) NPd) 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 contain modifiers 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 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 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 contains a relative clause. Draw the deep structure and 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 following sentences involve the inversion transformation. Give the deep structure and the surface structure of each of these sentences. (斜体的为深层结构,普通字体的为表层结构)a) Would you come tomorrowyou would come tomorrowb) What did Helen bring to the partyHelen brought what to the partyc) Who broke the windowwho broke the window&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。

新编简明英语语言学教程后参考答案

新编简明英语语言学教程后参考答案

《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, 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 toconvey 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 thevarious 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'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?答:The main features of human language are termed design features. They include:1) ArbitrarinessLanguage is arbitrary. This means that there is no logicalconnection 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., wewere all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, 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 inthe 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 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 innarrow 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 de ntal 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: 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 acertain 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 [?], 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 theyare 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 i t. 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 sex organs”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, “produc ing 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.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.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 work and 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 notalways 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 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.It has (或写Conjunction exhibits) four important properties:1) There is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that canappear 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 thecategory 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 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 accordance with the head's subcategorization properties, is called deep structure (or D-structure). The second, corresponding to thefinal 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 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 A8. 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(thewindow)NP 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 contain modifiers 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 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 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 contains a relative clause. Draw the deep structure and 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 following sentences involve the inversion。

新编简明英语语言学教程第二版练习试题参考答案解析

新编简明英语语言学教程第二版练习试题参考答案解析

《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, speec h 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 o nly 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 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 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 unitsof 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 spe aker. 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 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: 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 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 neededto 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: 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.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 are 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, thenasal [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 ofstem 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 anorganized 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 (st h.) ”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 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).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) NP 9. 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 of a 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 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。

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Example:

男生做完头发:

甲:呀,剃头了? 乙:呵呵,剃了。 甲:真“瓜”。 乙:滚!
1.1.2 The Scope of Linguistics



Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics
语音学 音系学 词汇学 句法学 语义学 语音学
Writing: later developed

Langue vs. Parole (Saussure)

Langue: the abstract linguistic system shared by all members of the speech community.
Parole: the realization of langue in actual use.

Example:

甲:就是呀,我觉得她长得多漂亮呀!特别像ⅹⅹⅹ。 乙:哦,对了。听说ⅹⅹⅹ拍了一部新电视剧,你看 了吗? 甲:我也听说了,不过一直没找到什么地方能下载呀。 怎么?你下了? 乙:没有,不过男朋友给我带来了。 甲:你看看,你男朋友对你多好。我男朋友能有他一 半就好了。 乙:你男朋友也不错的,那次你感冒了看把他忙的! 甲:什么呀!我感冒还不是因为他!要不是陪他去买 电影票能感冒吗?乙:哦,那次你们看的什么电影? 甲:是ⅹⅹⅹ,没意思。不过主演ⅹⅹ还是很帅的。 乙:ⅹⅹ?哦,就是演ⅹⅹⅹⅹⅹ的那个吧! 甲:就是了,他其实演技一般,就是那双眼睛特别迷 人。
(2) Class attendance and participation 30%
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 What is Linguistics?


Linguistics is the scientific study of language. language----studying object scientific----studying method A person who studies linguistics is known as linguist.

Prescriptive vs. Descriptive

The nature of linguistics as a science determines its preoccupation with description instead of prescription.
Synchronic vs. Diachronic

Traditional grammar vs. Modern linguistics

Traditional grammar: prescriptive, written, Latin-based framework
Modern linguistics: descriptive, spoken, not necessarily Latin-based framework
Something students need to know

Duration of this course Ways to study this course Final test
Duration of this course
There are 2 teaching hours per week for about 17 weeks in one semester and we are going to cover at least 10 chapters.

Women have more teeth than men. Female students have more talent than male students in learning.

studying method--scientific



Observe and collect language facts. Generalization Formulate some hypotheses Check repeatedly against the observed facts to fully prove their validity.

Competence vs. Performance (Chomsky)

Competence: the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language.
Performance: the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.
Example:

乙:嗯,发型也很好的。我做头发的时候看到有个 人 也做的那个发型。 甲:是吗?你在哪里做的?那个发型很难的,我让我 男朋友也做一个! 乙:我在ⅹⅹ发屋做的。 甲:哦,就是ⅹⅹ边上那一家吧! 乙:是呀。那里有个男生可帅了,就是他会!甲:你 说的是长得像ⅹⅹⅹ的那个吧! 乙:嗯! 甲:我也注意他好久了,没想到手艺这么好。 乙:呀,我男朋友已经到了半天了,我下去接他了。 甲:好吧。拜拜。 乙:拜拜。
Ways to study this course
(3) It is advisable to understand linguistic theories, ideas or notions through examples instead of memorizing word by word without comprehension.

Synchronic:the description of a language at some point of time in history (modern linguistics).
Diachronic: the description of a language as it changes through time (historical development of language over a period of time)

Descriptive vs. prescriptive
Synchronic vs. diachronic Langue vs. parole Competence vs. performance



Prescriptive vs. Descriptive

Don't say X. People don't say X. The first is a prescriptive command, while the second is a descriptive statement. The distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how things are.
Text Books

戴炜栋,何兆熊主编.《新编简明英语语 言学教程》,上海外语教育出版社
Reference Books



胡壮麟主编.《语言学教程》,北京大学 出版社,2013,第四版(中文版) 刘润清,《西方语言学流派》外语教学 与研究出版社,1995 索绪尔,《普通语言学教程》,商务印 书馆
(4) Please review regularly what you have learned after class, and do additional exercises to strengthen the knowledge in your mind.
Final test
(1) Final Exam 70%
Linguistics
----Lecturer:陈润瑶
The Goals for this Course



To get a scientific view on language To understand some basic theories on linguistics. To understand the applications of the linguistic theories, especially in the field of language teaching & learning, cross-cultural communication, etc. To prepare for future research.
studying object--language

e. 在神圣而美好的结婚典礼上,新郎对新 娘庄严宣告“我爱你”。很显然,这里的 “我”和“你”分别指的是新郎和新娘,在 这样的场景下,我们会觉得这样的告白很浪 漫很温馨。

在恐怖片中,一个变态狂对被他绑架的 女受害人说:“我爱你”。
studying method--scientific
Example:

女生做完头发 甲:呀,你理发了! 乙:是呀,今天我男朋友来了。 甲:真漂亮! 乙:还可以吧,我不是很满意。 甲:相当不错,你留这种头发就很好看,我就不行了。 乙:不是呀,你可以试试的。 甲:我不行,我的脸太圆。 乙:说得也是,你为什么不试试瘦脸霜呢?挺好使。 甲:我试过了,也不行呀。 乙:那你用用ⅹⅹ的,听说效果还是不错的。 甲:那个牌子的小丽用过了,没什么效果的。 乙:小丽的脸型多漂亮呀!还用瘦脸霜干什么呀!


Prescriptive vs. Descriptive

Prescriptive: to lay down rules for “correct and standard” behavior in using language. (modern linguistics) Descriptive: to describe and analyze the language people actually use. (traditional grammar)
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