语言学精华术语概念(英文版)

环球时代

英语专业考研

MTI

翻译硕士

专四专八

日语考研等

Linguistics - Terms

Metafuncion: The general roles language plays are termed metafunctions. Language

plays three metafunctions: 1. the ideational function, to identify things, to think, or to

record info; 2. the interpersonal function, to use it as a medium to communicate in a

community;

3.

the

textual

function,

to

organize

message

in

a

logical

way;

to

bring

units of language into unity.

Contractive distribution: sounds appearing in the same environment. a. minimal pairs:

two words differing by only one sound in the same position (e.g. sip, zip); b. minimal

sets: words distinguished by one segment in the same position (e.g. beat, bit, bet, bat).

Complementary distribution: allophones that are not found in the same position, but

share phonetic features

Free

variation:

if

segments

appear

in

the

same

position

but

the

mutual

substitution

does not result in change of meaning, they are said to be in free variation. Segments in

free variation are generally dialectal variation (e.g. economics).

Morpheme:

the

smallest

meaningful

unit

of

language

is

called

a

morpheme.

The

morpheme

can

be

classified

into

free

morphemes,

bound

morpheme

(inflectional

morpheme and derivational morphemes).

Allomorphs: a morpheme may be represented by different forms, called allomorphs.

(E.g. the prefix

：

in has four allomorphs as found in the words impossible, immoral,

irregular, irresistible.)

Inflectional

morphemes:

indicating

grammatical

categories

(e.g.

indicates

case

and

number of nouns, tense and aspect of verbs, and degree of adjectives and adverbs.)

Derivational

affixes:

Derivational

affixes

are

bound

morphemes

added

to

existing

forms

to

construct

new

words.

The

process

of

putting

affixes

to

existing

forms

to

create new words is called deviation.

Syntagmatic relations: chain relations, supported by TG grammar, regarding language

as

an

abstract

system,

analyzing

its

form;

It

is

a

method

of

analyzing

sentences

by

looking into their constituents and generalizing the pattern.

Paradigmatic relations: choice relations, supported by SF

grammar, emphasizing the

vertical

relations

in

order

to

explain

the

realization

of

the

function

of

language;

It

focuses on the language in use.

Transitivity: Transitivity is the syntactic structure as representation of experience. The

ideational

function

is

realized by the transitivity system of language.

It

is a type of

linguistic process which represents what exists and what is

going on around us and

环球时代

英语专业考研

MTI

翻译硕士

专四专八

日语考研等

inside us. The three main linguistic processes are termed material processes, relational

processes and mental processes.

Mood: The unique contribution by systematic-functional grammar is the observation

that

only

a

particular

element

of

syntactic

structure,

called

mood,

realizes

the

interaction between the speaker and hearer.

All

purposes

in

conversations

fall

into

two

fundamental

categories:

giving

or

demanding.

Giving

goods-and

services

is

offer;

giving

information

is

statement.

Demanding g&s is command; demanding information is question.

Mood is a syntactic constituent made up of the subject and the finite. The subject is

the first noun phrase in a statement. The finite is a verbal operator that expresses tense

or modal meaning as well as positive or negative form.

Modality:

Modality

expresses

the

semantic

space

between

yes

and

no.

It

can

be

categorized into

modalization and modulation. Modalization relates to how valid the

information is (probability, usuality); Modulation relates to how confident the speaker

can be in the eventual success of the speech act (obligation, inclination).

Reference: reference is one aspect of meaning and the relation by which a word picks

out

or

identifies

an

entity

in

the

world.

E.g.

London

refers

to

the

capital

of

Great

Britain. The word dog denotes a kind of domestic animal.

Sense: It is mental representation and the association with something in the speaker/

hear

’

s mind. E.g. when you hear the expression dog, you will naturally reflect on its

features in addition to the kind of animal as the referent of the expression.

Homonymy: Homonyms are words which have the same form but different meanings.

Homograph: same spelling, different meanings

Homophone: same pronunciation, different meanings

Full Homonym: same spelling and pronunciation, different meanings

Hyponymy:

Hyponymy

is

a

relation

of

inclusion.

Tiger,

lion,

elephant

and

dog

are

hyponyms of the word animal. Words like animal are called superordinates.

Componential analysis: The approach that analyzes word meaning by decomposing it

into

its

atomic

features

is

CA.

Advantages:

1.

It

is

a

breakthrough

in

the

formal

representation

of meaning. 2.

It

reveals

the impreciseness

of the terminology in

the

traditional

approach

to

meaning

analysis.

3.

It

examines

the

components

of

senses.

The more semantic features a word has, the narrower its reference is. Limitations: It

cannot

be

applied

to

the

analysis

of

all

lexicons,

merely

to

words

within

the

same

semantic field.