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《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版
Chapter 1
Introduction
练习题
参考答案
1. 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,
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
that is, a
theory
without the support
of data can hardly claim validity, and data
without being explained by some
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
”
byrditsspeechusers
whentorecothe
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)
Arbitrariness
Language 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.
Language 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.
Language 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.
Language can be used to refer to things
which are present or not present, real or imagined
matters in the past, present, or
future, or in far-away places. In other words,
language can be used
to refer to contexts
removed from the immediate situations of the
speaker. This is what
“
displacement
”
means.
5)
Cultural
transmission
While 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
expressive function, and
the social function.
denied, and in some cases even
verified.
history.
”
descriptive
function,
the
The descriptive function is
the function to convey factual information, which
can be asserted or
For example:
“
Chinais a large country with a long
The expressive
function supplies information about the
user
and values. For
example:
The social function
serves to
’
s
feelings, preferences, prejudices,
“
I will never
go-shoppingwindow with her.
”
establish and
maintain social relations between
people.
”
. For
example:
“
We are your firm
supporters.
Chapter 2
Speech Sounds
1.
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.
答：
The
transcription with letter-
symbols
3. Explain with
examples how broad transcription and narrow
transcription differ?
transcription
latter,
i.e.
the
normally used in
dictionaries and
teaching
textbooks
for
general
needed
only is
called
broad
transcription.
This is the
purposes. The
study of
transcription with letter-
symbols
together
with
the
diacritics
is
called
narrow
and used
by the
phoneticians
in
their
transcription.
This is the transcription
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
[hel
θ
]. As a
matter of fact, the sound [l] in all these four
sound
and [bild],
occurring at the
end of
a word
or
the sound
θ
], its
pronunciat
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]
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
combination
[hel
θ
], the
sound [l] is followed by the English dental sound
[
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 [hel
θ
].
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
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
affricate
2)
voiceless labiodental fricative
3)
voiced
alveolar stop
4)
front, close, short
5)
back, semi-
open, long
6)
voiceless bilabial stop
that
is
often used in the
classification of vowels is the shape of the lips.
In English, all the front vowels
1) [ t
]
2) [ l ]
答：
A. (1) [?]
(2) [ f ]
3)
[?]
(3) [d ]
4)
[w]
(4)[?]
5) [?]
(5) [
?:]
6) [?]
(6) [p]
B. (1)
voiceless alveolar stop
(3)
voiceless palatal affricate
(2) voiced alveolar liquid
(4) voiced bilabial glide
(5) back, close,
short
(6) front,
open
7.
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, 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 featureonsonantof
th
eatcfollows 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
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
–
signature,
resign
–
resignation,
phlegm
–
phlegmatic, paradigm
–
paradigmatic
will
include
the phoneme
/g/,
which
will be
deleted
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
Morphology
1.
Divide the following
words into their
separate morphemes by placing a
“
+
”
between each
morpheme and the next:
a. microfile
e.
telecommunication
b.
bedraggled
f.
forefather
c.
announcement
g.
psychophysics
d.
predigestion
h.
mechanist
答：
a.
micro + file
b. be + draggle
+ ed
c. announce +
ment
d. pre + digest +
ion
e. tele + communicate +
ion
f. fore +
father
g. psycho +
physics
h. mechan +
ist
2. 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.
suffix: -or
meaning: the person or thing performing
the action
stem type: added
to verbs
examples:
actor,
“
one who
acts in stage plays, motion pictures,
etc.
who translate
s
”
答：
(1) suffix:
-able
meaning:
something can be done or is
possible
stem
type:
added to
verbs
examples:
acceptable,
“
can be accepted
”
respectable,
“
can be
respected
”
(2) suffix:
-ly
meaning:
functional
stem
type:
added to
adjectives
examples:
freely.
“
adverbial form
of
‘
free
’
”
quickly,
“
adverbial form of
'quick'
”.
(3) suffix:
-ee
meaning:
the
person receiving the action
stem type:
added
to verbs
examples:
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-
translator,
”
meaning:
“
without; not
”
”
asexual,
“
without sex or sex
organs
stem type: added to
adjectives
examples:
asymmetric,
“
lacking symmetry
”
答：
(1) prefix:
dis-
meaning:
showing
an opposite
stem
type:
added to verbs or
nouns
examples :
disapprove,
“
do not approve
”
dishonesty,
“
lack of honesty
”.
(2)
prefix:
anti-
meaning:
against,
opposed to
stem
type:
added to nouns or
adjectives
examples
:
antinuclear,
“
opposing the use of atomic
weapons and power
antisocial,
“
opposedor harmful to the laws and customs of an
organized
community.
”
(3)
prefix:
counter-
meaning:
the
opposite of
stem
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.
The branches of the trees are moving
back and forth.
答：
(1) the third person
singular
(2)
the past tense
(3)
the present
perfect
(4)
the
present progressive
5.
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, discoverability
c)
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 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
element
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 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
Det
N
c) The
blinding
Det
d) This
cloth
Det
N
A
V
N
Adv
snowstorm
N
soft.
A
V
P
Det
N
V
might
P
Aux
Det
V
Adv
river
bank.
b) The
car
suddenly
crashed onto
the
N
of
the
schools.
delay
the
opening
Det
N
P
Det
N
feels
quite
Deg
（以下
8-12
题只作初步的的成分划分，未画树形图
structure for each.
a) rich
in minerals
XP(AP)
→
head (rich) A + complement
(in minerals) PP
,
仅供参考）
8.
The following
phrases include a head, a complement, and a
specifier. Draw the appropriate tree
b) often read detective
stories
XP(VP)
→
specifier (often) Qual + head (read) V +
complement (detective stories) NP
c)
the argument against the proposals
XP(NP)
→
specifier (the) Det + head (argument) N +
complement (against the proposals) PP
d) already above the window
XP(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.
语从句）
（划底线的为补
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 loved
c) 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
Semantics
1. What
are the major views concerning the study of
meaning?
答：
(1)
The naming theory proposed by the ancient Greek
scholar Plato. According to this theory,
the linguistic forms or symbols, in
other words, the words used in a language are
simply labels of
the objects they stand
for. So words are just names or labels for
things.
(2)
The conceptualist view has been held by
some philosophers and linguists from ancient
times. This view holds that there is no
direct link between a linguistic form and what it
refers to (i.
e., between language and
the real world); rather, in the interpretation of
meaning they are linked
through the
mediation of concepts in the mind.
(3)
The
contextualist view held that meaning should be
studied in terms of situation, use,
context
––
elements closely linked
with language behaviour. The representative of
this
approach was J.R. Firth, famous
British linguist.
(4)
Behaviorists attempted to define the
meaning of a language form as the
“
situationin
which the speaker utters it and the
response it calls forth in the hearer.
, 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
This theory
”
more than one
meaning. This is what we call polysemy, and such a
word is called a polysemic
word. There
are many polysemic words in English, The fact is
the more commonly used a word is,
the
more likely it has acquired more than one
meaning.
(3)
Hyponymy refers to the sense relation
between a more general, more inclusive word and a
more
specific word. The word which is
more general in meaning is called the
superordinate, and the more
specific
words are called its hyponyms. Hyponyms of the
same superordinate are co-hyponyms to
each other. Hyponymy is a relation of
inclusion; in terms of meaning, the superordinate
includes all
its hyponyms.
Examples
（略）
4.
How can words
opposite in meaning be classified? To which
category does each of the following
pairs of antonyms belong?
no
rth/southvacant/occupiedliterate/illiterate
above/below
doctor/patient
wide/narrow
poor/rich
father/daughter
答：
They can be
gradable antonyms, complementary antonyms and
relational opposite
Gradable antonyms:
literate/illiterate
poor/rich
wide /narrow
Complementary antonyms:
vacant/occupied
Relational opposite: north/south,
doctor/patient, father/daughter,
above/below
5. Identify the relations
between the following pairs of
sentences:
Tom's wife is pregnant.
My sister will soon be
divorced'
Tom has a wife.
My sister is a married
woman.
He likes seafood,
They are going to have
another baby.
He likes crabs.
They have a child.
答：
“
Tom's wife is
pregnant
”
presupposes
“
Tom has a wife.
”
“
My
sister will soon be divorced
”
presupposes
“
My sister is a married
woman.
“
He likes
seafood
”
is
entailed by
“
He
likes crabs.
”
“
They are going to have another baby
”
presupposes
“
They have a
child.
”
6. In
what way is componential
analysis
similar to the analysis of phonemes into
distinctive
features?
答：
They both base on the
belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected
into meaning
components.
7.
What is
grammaticality? What might make a grammatically
meaningful sentence
semantically
meaningless?
答：
Grammaticality refers to the grammatical well-
formedness of a sentence. The violation of
the selectional restrictions, i.e.,
constrains on what lexical items can go with what
others, might
make a grammatically
meaningless.
8. Try to
analyze the following sentences in terms of
predication analysis:
The
man sells ice-cream.
Is the
baby sleeping?
It is
snowing.
The tree grows
well.
答：
The man
sells ice-cream.
MAN, ICE-
CREAM (SELL)
Is the baby
sleeping?
BABY
(SLEEP)
It is
snowing.
(SNOW)
”
The tree grows
well.
TREE (GROW)
Chapter 6
PRAGMATICS
1.
What does pragmatics study? How does it differ
from traditional semantics?
答：
Generally speaking,
pragmatics is the study of meaning in the context.
It studies meaning in a
dynamic way and
as a process. In order to have a successful
communication, the speaker and
hearer
must take the context into their consideration so
as to effect the right meaning and intention.
The development and establishment
pragmatics in 1960s and 1970s resulted mainly from
the
expansion of the study semantics.
However, it is different from the traditional
semantics. The major
difference between
them lies in that pragmatics studies meaning in a
dynamic way, while semantics
studies
meaning in a static way. Pragmatics takes context
into consideration while semantics does
not. Pragmatics takes care of the
aspect of meaning that is not accounted
for by semantics.
2. Why is the notion of context
essential in the pragmatic study of linguistic
communication?
答：
The notion of context is essential to the
pragmatic study of language. It is generally
considered
as constituted by the
knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer.
Various continents of shared
knowledge
have been identified, e.g. knowledge of the
language they use, knowledge of what has
been said before, knowledge about the
world in general, knowledge about the specific
situation in
which linguistic
communication is taking place, and knowledge about
each other. Context
determines the
speaker's use of language and also the heater's
interpretation of what is said to him.
Without such knowledge, linguistic
communication would
not be
possible, and without considering such knowledge,
linguistic communication cannot be
satisfactorily accounted for in a
pragmatic sense. Look at the following
sentences:
(1)
How did it go?
(2)
It is cold in
hem.
(3)
It was a
hot Christmas day so we went down to the beach in
the afternoon and had a good
time
swimming and surfing.
Sentence (1) might be used in a
conversation between two students talking about an
examination,
or two surgeons talking
about an operation, or in some other contexts; (2)
might be said by the
speaker to ask the
hearer to turn on the heater, or leave the place,
or to put on more clothes, or to
apologize for the poor condition of the
room, depending on the situation of context; (3)
makes sense
only ii the hearer has the
knowledge that Christmas falls in summer in the
southern hemisphere.
3.
How are sentence meaning and utterance meaning
related, and how do they differ?
答：
A sentence is a
grammatical concept, and the meaning of a sentence
is often studied as the
abstract,
intrinsic property of the sentence itself in terms
of predication. But if we think of a sentence
as what people actually utter in the
course of communication, it becomes an utterance,
and it should
be considered in the
situation in which it is actually uttered (or
used). So it is impossible to tell if
“
Thedog is barking
”
is a sentence or an
utterance. It can be either. It all depends on how
we look
at it and how we are going to
analyze it. If we take it as a grammatical unit
and consider it as a self-
contained
unit in isolation from context, then we are
treating it as a sentence. If we take it as
something a speaker utters in a certain
situation with a certain purpose, then we are
treating it as an
utterance.
Therefore, while the meaning of a
sentence is abstract, and decontextualized, that
of an utterance is
concrete, and
context-dependent. The meaning of an utterance is
based on sentence meaning; it is
the
realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence
in a real situation of communication, or simply
in a context. Now, take the sentence
meaning of the sentence results in the
one-place predication BAG (BEING HEAVY). Then a
pragmatic analysis of the utterance
meaning of the .sentence varies with the context
in which it is
uttered. For example, it
could be uttered by a speaker as a straightforward
statement, telling the
hearer that his bag is heavy. It could
also be intended by
the
speaker as an indirect, polite request, asking the
hearer to help him carry the bag. Another
possibility is
that the speaker is
declining someone's request for help. All these
are possible interpretations of the same
utte rance
“
My
bag is heavy
”
. How it is
to be understood depends on the context in which
it is uttered
and the purpose for which
the speaker utters it.
While
most utterances take the form of grammatically
complete sentences, some utterances
do
not, and some cannot even be restored to complete
sentences.
4.
Try to think of contexts in which the
following sentences can be used for other purposes
than just stating facts:
a)
The room is
messy.
b)
Oh, it
is raining!
c)
The music of the movie is good.
d)
You have been
keeping my notes for a whole week now.
答：
a) A father entered his
son
’
s room and found it is
very messy. Then when he said,
“
The room
is messy,
”
he
was blaming his son for not tidying it
up.
b) A son asked his
father to play with him o
utside. So
when the father said,
he
meant they couldn
’
t play outside.
“
The
“
Oh,
it
’
s
raining
”
c) Two persons just watched a movie and
had a discussion of it. One person
said,
of the movie is very
moving
”
, so
when the other person said,
of the
movie
“
Theis
musicgood
”
,
he meant he
didn't think the story of the movie was
good.
d) A person wanted his
notes back, so when he said,
whole week now
”
, he was demanding the return of his
notes.
5. According to
Austin, what are the three acts a person is
possibly performing while making an
utterance. Give an example.
答
：
According
to
Austin's
new
model,
a
speaker
might
be
performing
three
acts
“
you have been keeping my
notes for a
simultaneously
when speaking: locutionary act, illocutionary act,
and perlocutionary act.
A
locutionary act is the act of uttering words,
phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying
literal
meaning by means of
syntax, lexicon and phonology. An illocutionary
act is the act of expressing
the speaker
’
s intention; it is the act performed in
saying something. A perlocutionary act is
the
act performed
by or resulting from saying
something; it is the consequence of, or the
change
brought about by the
utterance; it is the act performed
example:
You have
left the door wide open.
The
locutionary act performed by the speaker is his
utterance of the words
“
door
”
,
“
open
”
, etc. thus
expressing what the words literally
mean.
The illocutionary act
performed by the speaker is that by making such an
utterance he has
expressed his
intention of speaking, i.e. asking someone to
close the door, or making a complaint,
by saying something. Let's look at
an
“
you
”
,