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1、英语语言学概论重、难点问与答 languages, developed or new.1.1. What is language?/zLanguage is system of arbitrary vocalsymbols used for humancommunication. It is a system, sincelinguistic elements are arrangedsystematically, rather than randomly.Arbitrary, in the sense that there isusually no intrinsic connection
2、betweena work (like book ) and the object itrefers to. This explains and is explainedby the fact that different languageshave different “books : book inEnglish, “livre in French, in Japanese,in Chinese, “check“ in Korean. It issymbolic, because words areassociated with objects, actions, ideasetc. by
3、 nothing but convention. Namely,people use the sounds or vocal formsto symbolize what they wish to refer to.It is vocal, because sound or speech isWriting systems came much later thanthe spoken forms. The fact that smallchildren learn and can only learn tospeak (and listen) before they write(and rea
4、d) also indicates that languageis primarily vocal rather than written.The term “human“ in the definition ismeant to specify that language ishuman specific.1.2. What are design features oflanguage?“Design features“ here refer to thedefining properties of human languagethat tell the difference between
5、 humanlanguage and any system of animalcommunication. They are arbitrariness,duality, productivity, displacement,cultural transmission andinterchangeabilitythe primary medium for all human1.3.What is arbitrariness?By arbitrariness” , we mean there isno logical connection betweenmeanings and sounds (
6、see 1.1). A dogmight be a pig if only the first personor group of persons had used it for apig. Language is therefore largelyarbitrary. But language is notabsolutely seem to be somesound-meaning association, if we thinkof echo words, like “bang , crash,roar , which are motivated in acertain sense. S
7、econdly, somecompounds (words compounded to beone word) are not entirely arbitraryeither. Type and write” areopaque or unmotivated words, while“type-writer“ is less so, or moretransparent or motivated than thewords that make it. So we can say“arbitrariness“ is a matter of degree.Linguists refer “dua
8、lity” (of structure)to the fact that in all languages so farinvestigated, one finds two levels ofstructure or patterning. At the first,higher level, language is analyzed interms of combinations of meaningfulunits (such as morphemes, words etc.);at the second, lower level, it is seen as asequence of
9、segments which lack anymeaning in themselves, but whichcombine to form units of meaning.According to Hu Zhanglin et al. (p.6)zlanguage is a system of two sets ofstructures, one of sounds and the otherof meaning. This is important for theworkings of language. A small numberof semantic units (words),
10、and theseunits of meaning can be arranged andrearranged into an infinite number ofsentences (note that we havedictionaries of words, but no dictionarylAW hat is duality?of sentences!). Duality makes itpossible for a person to talk aboutN.Chomsky).anything within his knowledge. Noanimal communication
11、 system enjoysthis duality, or even approaches thishonor.1.5. What is productivity?Productivity refers to the ability to theability to construct and understand anindefinitely large number of sentencesin one s native language, includingthose that has never heard before, butthat are appropriate to the
12、 speakingsituation. No one has ever said orheard A red-eyed elephant is dancingon the small hotel bed with an Africangibbon” , but he can say it whennecessary, and he can understand it inright register. Different from artisticcreativity, though, productivity nevergoes outside the language, thus also
13、called “rule-bound creativity1 (by1.6. What is displacement?“Displacement” , as one of the designfeatures of the human language, refersto the fact that one can talk aboutthings that are not present, as easily ashe does things present In other words,one can refer to real and unreal things,things of t
14、he past, of the present, of thefuture. Language itself can be talkedabout too. When a man, for example, iscrying to a woman, about something, itmight be something that had occurred,or something that is occurring, orsomething that is to occur. When a dogis barking, however, you can decide it isbarkin
15、g for something or at someonethat exists now and there. It couldn tbe bow wowing sorrowfully for domelost love or a bone to belost. Thebee s system, nonetheless, has a smallshare of “displacement” , but it is anunspeakable tiny share.1.7. What is cultural transmission?This means that language is not
16、biologically transmitted fromgeneration to generation, but that thedetails of the linguistic system must belearned anew by each speaker. It is truethat the capacity for language inhuman beings (N. Chomsky called itlanguage acquisition device” , orLAD) has a genetic basis； but theparticular language
17、a person learns tospeak is a cultural one other than agenetic one like the dog s barkingsystem. If a human being is brought upin isolation he cannot acquire language.The Wolf Child reared by the pack ofwolves turned out to speak the wolf sroaring “tongue“ when he was saved.He learned thereafter, wit
18、h no smalldifficulty, the ABC of a certain humanlanguage.1.8. What is interchangeability?(1) Interchangeability means thatany human being can be both aproducer and a receiver of messages.We can say, and on other occasions canreceive and understand, for example,“Please do something to make mehappy. T
19、hough some people(including me) suggest that there is sexdifferentiation in the actual languageuse, in other words, men and womenmay say different things, yet inprinciple there is no sound, or word orsentence that a man can utter and awoman cannot, or vice versa. On theother hand, a person can be th
20、espeaker while the other person is thelistener and as the turn moves on tothe listener, he can be the speaker andthe first speaker is to listen. It isturn-taking that makes socialcommunication possible andacceptable.(2) Some male birds, however,utter some calls, which females do not(or cannot?), and
21、 certain kinds of fishhave similar haps mentionable. When adog barks, all the neighboring dogsbark. Then people around can hardlytell which dog (dogs) is (areO“speaking“ and which listening.1.9. Why do linguists say language ishuman specific?First of all, human language has six“design features“ whic
22、h animalcommunication systems do not have,at least not in the true sense of them(see 1.2-8). Letz s borrow C. F.Hocket s Chart that compares humanlanguage with some animals systems,from Wang Gang (1998,p.8).Secondly, linguists have done a lottrying to teach animals such aschimpanzees to speak a huma
23、nlanguage but have achieved nothinginspiring. Beatnice and Alan Gardnerbrought up Washoe, a femalechimpanzee, like a human child. Shewas taught “American signLanguage1 , and learned a little thatmade the teachers happy but did motmake the linguistics circle happy, forfew believed in teaching chimpan
24、zees.Thirdly, a human child reared amonganimals cannot speak a humanlanguage, not even when he is takenback and taught to Io to so (see theWolf Child0 in 1.7)l.lO. What functions does languagehave?Language has at least seven functions:phatiq directive, Informative,interrogative, expressive, evocativ
25、e andper formative. According to WangGang (1988,p.11), language has threemain functions: a tool ofcommunication, a tool whereby peoplelearn about the world, and a tool bywhich people learn about the world；and a tool by which people create art.M .A. K.Halliday, representative of theLondon school, rec
26、ognizes three“Macro-Functions” : ideational,interpersonal and textual (see!ll-17;see HU Zhuanglin et al., pplO-13,pp394-396).1. IlW hat is the phatic function?The “phatic function“ refers tolanguage being used for setting up acertain atmosphere or maintainingsocial contacts (rather than forexchangin
27、g information or ideas).Greetings, farewell and comments onthe weather in English and on clothingin Chinese all serve this function. Muchof the phatic language (e.g. How areyou? Fine, thanks/7 ) Is insincere iftaken literally, but it is important. If youdont say Hello“ to a friend youmeet, or if you
28、 don t answer his“Hi , you ruin your friendship.1.12. What is the directivefunction?The directive function“ means thatlanguage may be used to get thehearer to do something. Mostimperative sentences perform thisfunction, e.g., “Tell me the result whenyou finish. Other syntactic structuresor sentences
29、 of other sorts can,according to J.Austin and J.Searle7 s“indirect speech act theory” (see HuZhuanglin et al., pp271-278) at least,serve the purpose of direction too, e.g.zIf I were you, I would have blushed tothe bottom of my ears!1.13. What is the informative function?Language serves an informatio
30、nalfunction“ when used to tell something,characterized by the use of declarativesentences. Informative statements areoften labeled as true (truth) or false(falsehood). According to P.Grice sCooperative Principle7 (see HuZhuanglin et al., pp282-283)z oneought not to violate the “Maxim ofQuality” , wh
31、en he is informing at all.1.14. What is the interrogative function?When language is used to obtaininformation, it serves aninterrogative function” . Thisincludes all questions that expectreplies, statements, imperatives etc.,according to the “indirect speech acttheory” , may have this function as we
32、ll,e.g., T d like to know you better/1This may bring forth a lot of personalinformation. Note that rhetoricalquestions make an exception, sincethey demand no answer, at least notthe reader s/listenerz s answer.1.15. What is the expressive function?The “expressive function is the useof language to re
33、veal something aboutthe feelings or attitudes of the speaker.Subconscious emotional ejaculationsare good examples, like “Goodheavens! My God!” Sentences likeY m sorry about the delay” canserve as good examples too, though ina subtle way. While language is usedfor the informative function to passjudg
34、ment on the truth or falsehood ofstatements, language used for theexpressive function evaluates,appraises or asserts the speaker sown attitudes.1.16. What is the evocative function?The “evocative function“ is the use oflanguage to create certain feelings inthe hearer. Its aim is, for example, toamus
35、e, startle, antagonize； soothe,worry or please. Jokes (not practicaljokes, though) are supposed to amuseor entertain the listener; advertising tourge customers to purchase certaincommodities; propaganda to influencepublic opinion. Obviously, theexpressive and the evocative functionsoften go together
36、, i.e.z you may express,for example, your personal feelingsabout a political issue but end up byevoking the same feeling in, orimposing it on, your listener. That salso the case with the other way round.1.17. What is the per formative function?This means people speak to dothings“ or perform actions.
37、 On certainoccasions the utterance itself as anaction is more important than whatwords or sounds constitute the utteredsentence. When asked if a thirdYangtze Bridge ought to be built inWuhan, the mayor may say, O K,which means more than speech, andmore than an average social individualmay do for the
38、 construction. Thejudge s imprisonment sentence, thepresident s war or independencedeclaration, etc., are per formatives aswell (see J.Austin7 s speech Act Theory,Hu Zhuanglin, ecal.pp271-278).1.18. What is linguistics?“Linguistics“ is the scientific study oflanguage. It studies not just onelanguage
39、 of any one society, but alsothe language of all human beings. Alinguist, though, does not have toknow and use a large number oflanguages, but to investigate how eachlanguage is constructed. He is alsoconcerned with how a language variesfrom dialect to dialect, from class toclass, how it changes fro
40、m century tocentury, how children acquire theirmother tongue, and perhaps how aperson learns or should learn a foreignlanguage. In short, linguistics studiesthe general principles whereupon allhuman languages are constructed andoperate as systems of communicationin their societies or communities (se
41、eHu Zhuanglin et al” pp20-22)1.19.What makes linguistics a science?Since linguistics is the scientific studyof language, it ought to base itselfupon the systematic, investigation oflanguage data, which aims atdiscovering the true nature oflanguage and its underlying system. Tomake sense of the data,
42、 a linguistusually has conceived somehypotheses about the languagestructure, to be checked against theobserved or observable facts. In orderto make his analysis scientific, a linguistis usually guided by four principles:exhaustiveness, consistency, andobjectivity. Exhaustiveness means heshould gathe
43、r all the materials relevantthe study and give them an adequateexplanation, in spite of thecomplicatedness. He is to leave nolinguistic “stone“ unturned.Consistency means there should be nocontradiction between different partsof the total statement. Economy meansa linguist should pursue brevity in t
44、heanalysis when it is possible. Objectivityimplies that since some people may besubjective in the study, a linguistshould be (or sound at least) objective,matter-of-facez faithful to reality, sothat his work constitutes part of thelinguistics research.1.20. What are the major branches oflinguistics?
45、The study of language as a whole isoften called general linguistics (e.g.HuZhuanglin et aL, 1988;Wang Gang,1988). But a linguist sometimes is ableto deal with only one aspect oflanguage at a time, thus the arise ofvarious branches: phonetics,phonology, morphology, syntax,semantics, sociolinguistics,
46、 appliedlinguistics, pragmatics,psycholinguistics, lexicology,lexicography, etymology, etc.1.21. What are synchronic anddiachronic studies?The description of a language at somepoint of time (as if it stoppeddeveloping) is a synchrony study(synchrony). The description of alanguage as it changes throu
47、gh time isa diachronic study (diachronic). Anessay entitled On the Use of TH E,for example, may be synchronic, if theauthor does not recall the past of THE,and it may also be diachronic if heclaims to cover a large range or periodof time wherein THE has undergonetremendous alteration (see HuZhuangli
48、n et al., pp25-27).1.22. What is speech and what is writing?(1) No one needs the repetitionof the general principle of linguisticanalysis, namely, the primacy of speechover writing. Speech is primary;because it existed long long beforewriting systems came into being.Genetically children learn to spe
49、akbefore learning to write. Secondly,written forms just represent in this wayor that the speech sounds: individualsounds, as in English and French as inJapanese.(2) In contrast to speech, spokenform of language, writing as writtencodes, gives language new scope anduse that speech does not have. Firs
50、tly,messages can be carried through spaceso that people can write to each other.Secondly, messages can be carriedthrough time thereby, so that people ofour time can be carried through timethereby, so that people of our time canread Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, andEdgar A. Poe. Thirdly, oral messagesare
51、readily subject to distortion, eitherintentional or unintentional (causingmisunderstanding or malentendu),while written messages allow andencourage repeated unalterablereading.(3) Most modern linguisticanalysis is focused on speech, differentfrom grammarians of the last centuryand theretofore.1.23.W
52、hat are the differences betweenthe descriptive and the prescriptiveapproaches?A linguistic study is descriptive” if itonly describes and analyses the facts oflanguage, and Mprescriptive0 if it triesto lay down rules for “correct”language behavior. Linguistic studiesbefore this century were largelypr
53、escriptive because many earlygrammars were largely prescriptivebecause many early grammars werebased on high (literary or religious)written records. Modern linguistics ismostly descriptive, however. It (thelatter) believes that whatever occurs innatural speech (hesitation, incompleteutterance, misun
54、derstanding, etc.)should be described in the analysis,and not be marked as incorrectabnormal, corrupt or lousy. These, withchanges in vocabulary and structures,need to be explained also.1.24. What is the difference betweenlangue and parole?F. De Saussure refers Tangue“ to theabstract linguistic syst
55、em shared by allthe members of a speech communityand refers “parole“ to the actual oractualized language, or the realizationof langue. Langue is abstract, parolespecific to the speaking situation;langue not actually spoken by anindividual, parole always a naturallyoccurring event; langue relativelys
56、table and systematic, parole is a massof confused facts, thus not suitable forsystematic investigation. What alinguist ought to do, according toSaussure, is to abstract langue frominstances of parole, I. e. to discover theregularities governing all instances ofparole and make than the subject ofling
57、uistics. The langue-paroledistinction is of great importance,which casts great influence on laterlinguists.1.25. What is the difference betweencompetence and performance?(1) According to N. Chomsky,“competence“ is the ideal languageuser s knowledge of the rules of hislanguage, and “performance“ is t
58、heactual realization of this knowledge inutterances. The former enables a community, while competence isspeaker to produce and understand anindefinite number of sentences and torecognize grammatical mistakes andambiguities. A speaker s competenceis stable while his performance is ofteninfluenced by
59、psychological and socialfactors. So a speaker1 s performancedoes not always match or equal hissupposed competence.(2) Chomsky believes thatlinguists ought to study competence,rather than performance. In otherwords, they should discover what anideal speaker knows of his nativelanguage. Chomsky7 scomp
60、etence-performance distinction isnot exactly the same as, though similartoz F. de Saussure s langue-paroledistinction. Langue is a social product,and a set of conventions for adeemed as a property of the mind ofeach individual. Sussure looks atlanguage more from a sociological orsociolinguistic poin
61、t of view than N.Chomsky since the latter deals with hisissues psychologically orpsycholinguistically.1.26.What is linguistic potential? Whatis actual linguistic behavior?M. A. K. Halliday made these two terms,or the potential-behavior distinction, inthe 1960sz from a functional point ofview. There
62、is a wide range of things aspeaker can do in his culture, andsimilarly there are many things he cansay, for example, to many people, onmany topics. What he actually says (i.e.his actual linguistic behavior ) on acertain occasion to a certain person iswhat he has chosen from manypossible injustice it
63、ems, each of whichhe could have said (linguistic potential).1.27.In what way do language,competence and linguistic potentialagree? In what way do they differ? Andtheir counterparts?Langue, competence and linguisticpotential have some similar features,but they are innately different (see1.25). Langue
64、 is a social product, and aset of speaking conventions;competence is a property or attributeof each ideal speaker s mind;linguistic potential is all the linguisticcorpus or repertoire available fromwhich the speaker chooses items forthe actual utterance situation. In otherwords, langue is invisible
65、but reliableabstract system. Competence means“knowing” , and linguistic potential aset of possibilities for “doing orperforming actions” . They aresimilar in that they all refer to theconstant underlying the utterances thatconstitute what Saussure, Chomskyand Halliday respectively called parole,perf
66、ormance and actual linguisticbehavior. Paolez performance andactual linguistic behavior enjoy moresimilarities than differences.1.28.What is phonetics?“Phonetics is the science whichstudies the characteristics of humansound-making, especially those soundsused in speech, and provides methodsfor their
67、 description, classification andtranscription (see Hu Zhuanglin et al.,pp39-40), speech sounds may bestudied in different ways, thus by threedifferent branches of phonetics. (1)Articulatory phonetics; the branch ofphonetics that examines the way inwhich a speech sound is produced todiscover which vo
68、cal organs areinvolved and how they coordinate inthe process. (2) Auditory phonetics, thebranch of phonetic research from thehearer* s point of view, looking intothe impression which a speech soundmakes on the hearer as mediated bythe ear, the auditory nerve and thebrain. (3) Acoustic phonetics: the
69、 studyof the physical properties of speechsounds, as transmitted between mouthand ear.Most phoneticians, however, areinterested in articulator phonetics.1.29. How are the vocal organs formed?The vocal organs (see Figurel, HuZhuanglin et al., p41), or speech organs,are organs of the human body whoses
70、econdary use is in the production ofspeech sounds. The vocal organs canbe considered as consisting of threeparts; the initiator of the air-stream, theproducer of voice and the resonatingcavities.1.30. What is place of articulation?It refers to the place in the mouthwhere, for example, the obstructio
71、noccurs, resulting in the utterance of aconsonant. Whatever sound ispronounced, at least some vocalorgans will get involved. g. Lips, hardpalate etc.z so a consonant may be oneof the following (1) bilabial: p, bz m; (2)labiodental: f, v; (3) dental: J; (4)alveolar: t, d, I, n.s, z; (5) retroflex; (6
72、)palato-alveolar: J; (7) palatal: j; (8)velar kz gj; (9) uvular; (10) glottal: h.Some sounds involve the simultaneoususe of two places of articulation. Forexample, the English w has both anapproximation of the two lips andthose two lips and that of the tongue gliding vowels, e.g.fIJ.and the soft pal
73、ate, and may be termed“labial-velar.1.31. What is the manner of articulation?The “manner of articulation1 literallymeans the way a sound is articulated.At a given place of articulation, theairstreams may be obstructed invarious ways, resulting in variousmanners of articulation, are thefollowing: (1)
74、 plosive: p, b, t, d, k, g; (2)nasal: m, nJ; (3) trill; (4) tap or flap; (5)lateral: I; (6) fricative: fz v, s, z; (7)approximant: w, j; (8) affricate: 口 .1.32. How do phoneticians classifyvowels?Phoneticians, in spite of the difficulty,group vowels in 5 types: (1) long andshort vowels, e.g.Ji:,; (4
75、) rounded andunround vowele.g.i; (5) pure and1.33. What is IPA? When did it comeinto being ?The IPAZ abbreviation of InternationalPhonetic Alphabet” , is a compromisesystem making use of symbols of allsources, including diacritics indicatinglength, stress and intonation,indicating phonetic variation
76、. Eversince it was developed in 1888, IPA hasundergone a number of revisions.1.34. What is narrow transcription andwhat is broad transcription?In handbook of phonetics, Henry Sweetmade a distinction between “narrow”and “broad transcriptions, which hecalled HNarrow Romic” . The formerwas meant to sym
77、bolize all the possiblespeech sounds, including even themost minute shades of pronunciationwhile Broad Romic or transcription wasintended to indicate only those soundscapable of distinguishing one wordfrom another in a given language.1.35. What is phonology? What isdifference between phonetics andph
78、onology?(1) “Phonology is the study ofsound systems- the invention ofdistinctive speech sounds that occur ina language and the patterns whereinthey fall. Minimal pair, phonemes,allophones, free variation,complementary distribution, etc., areall to be investigated by a phonologist.(2) Phonetics, as d
79、iscussed in 1.28,is the branch of linguistics studying thecharacteristics of speech sounds andprovides methods for their description,classification and transcription. Aphonetist is mainly interested in thephysical properties of the speechsounds, whereas a phonologist studieswhat he believes are mean
80、ingfulsounds related with their semanticfeatures, morphological features, andthe way they are conceived and printedin the depth of the mind phonologicalknowledge permits a speaker toproduce sounds which frommeaningful utterances, to recognize aforeign “accent” , to make up newwords, to add the appro
81、priate phoneticsegments to from plurals and pasttenses, to know what is and what is nota sound in one s language.1.36. What is a phone? What is aphoneme? What is an allophone?(1) A phone is a phoneticunit or segment The speech sounds wehear and produce during linguisticcommunication are all phones.
82、Whenwe hear the following wordspronounced:pit/ tip, spit, etc., thesimilar phones we have heard are pfor one thing, and three differentpz szreadily making possible the Hnarrowtranscription or diacritics0 . Phonesmay and may not distinguish meaning.A “phoneme“ is a phonological unit;it is a unit that
83、 is of distinctive value. Asan abstract unit, a phoneme is not anyparticular sound, but rather it isrepresented or realized by a certainphone in a certain phonetic context.For example, the phonemep isrepresented differently in pit, tip andspit.(2) The phones representing aphoneme are called its “all
84、ophones,i. e., the different (i.e., phones) but donot make one word so phoneticallydifferent as to create a new word or anew meaning thereof. So thedifferentfp s in the above words arethe allophones of the samephonemep. How a phoneme isrepresented by a phone, or whichallophone is to be used, is dete
85、rminedby the phonetic context in which itoccurs. But the choice of an allophoneis not random. In most cases it isrule-governed; these rules are to befound out by a phonologist.1.37.What are minimal pairs?When two different phonetic formsare identical in every way except forone sound segment which oc
86、curs inthe same place in the string , the twoforms(i. e., word) are supposed to forma “minimal pair” , e.g., pill andbill ，pill and ，till anddill , till and kill , etc. Allthese words together constitute aminimal set. They are identical in formexcept for the initial consonants. Thereare many minimal
87、 pairs in English,which makes it relatively easy to knowwhat are English phonemes. It is ofgreat importance to find the minimalpairs when a phonologist is dealingwith the sound system of an unknownlanguage(see Hu Zhuanglin et al.,pp65-66).1.38. What is free variation?If two sounds occurring in the s
88、ameenvironment do not contrast; namely； ifthe substitution of one for the otherdoes not generate a new word formbut merely a different pronunciation ofthe same word, the two sounds thenare said to be in “free variation1 . Theplosives, for example, may not beexploded when they occur beforeanother plo
89、sive or a nasal (e. g” act, apt,distinctions may, if necessary, betranscribed in diacritics. Theseunexploded and exploded plosives arein free variation. Sounds in freevariation should be assigned to thesame phoneme.1.39. What is complementarydistribution?When two sounds never occur in thesame enviro
90、nment, they are incomplementary distribution . Forexample, the aspirated English plosivesnever occur afters, and theunsaturated ones never occur initially.Sounds in complementary distributionmay be assigned to the same phoneme.The allophones oflz for example, arealso in complementary distribution.Th
91、e clearl occurs only before a vowel,the voiceless equivalent ofl occursgood morning). The minute only after a voiceless consonant, suchas in the words “please, butler” , contexts: e. g., indiscrete- (alveolar)“clear” , etc., and the darkl occursonly after a vowel or as a syllabic soundafter a conson
92、ant, such as in the wordsfeel , help , middle , etc.1.40. What is the assimilation rule?What is the deletion rule?(1) The “assimilation rule“ assimilatesone segment to another by“copying a feature of a sequentialphoneme, thus making the two phonesmore similar. This rule accounts for theraring pronun
93、ciation of the nasalnthat occurs within a word. The rule isthat within a word the nasalconsonantn assumes the same placeof articulation as the followingconsonant. The negative prefixin- serves as a good example. Itmay be pronounced as in, orimwhen occurring in different phoneticinconceivable- (velar
94、)input- imput(bilabial)The “deletion rule“ tells us when asound is to be deleted although isorthographically represented. Whilethe letter g is mute in sign,design and paradigm , it ispronounced in their correspondingderivatives: signature,designation and paradigmatic.The rule then can be stated as:
95、delete ag when it occurs before a final nasalconsonant. This accounts for some ofthe seeming irregularities of theEnglish spelling (see DaiWeidong ,pp22-23).1.41. What is suprasegmentatphonology? What are suprasegmentatfeatures?Suprasegmentat phonology refersto the study of phonological propertiesof
96、 linguistic units larger than thesegment called phoneme, such assyllable, word and sentence.Hu Zhuanglin et a!., (p, 73) includesstress, length and pitch as what theysuppose to be principalsuprasegmental features / calling theconcurrent patterning of three“intonation . Dai Weidong(pp23-25)lists thre
97、e also, but they are stress, toneand intonation.1.42. What is morphology?“Morphology“ is the branch ofgrammar that studies the internalstructure of words, and the rules bywhich words are formed. It is generallydivided into two fields: inflectionalmorphology and lexical/derivationalmorphology.1.43. W
98、hat is inflection/inflexion?Inflection is the manifestation ofgrammatical relationships through theaddition of inflectional affixes, such asnumber, person, finiteness, aspect, andcase, which does not change thegrammatical class of the items to whichthey are attached.1,44. What is a morpheme? What is
99、 anallomorph?(1) The “morpheme“ is thesmallest unit in terms o f relationshipbetween expression and content, a unitwhich cannot be divided withoutdestroying or drastically altering themeaning, whether it is lexical orgrammatical. The word “boxes” , forexample, has two morphemes: boxand ” -es , neith
100、er of which permitsfurther division or analysis if we don twish to sacrifice meaning. Therefore amorpheme is considered the minimal“national“ and so on. AHunit of meaning.(2) AHomorphs, like allophonesvs. phones, are the alternate shapes(and thus phonetic forms) of the samemorphemes. Some morphemes,
101、though, have no more than oneinvariable form in all contexts, such asdog , cat , etc. The variants ofthe plurality -s make theallomorphs thereof in the followingexamples: map-maps, mouse-mice,sheep-sheep etc.1.45. What is a free morpheme? What isa bound morpheme?A free morpheme“ is a morphemethat co
102、nstitutes a word by itself, suchas bed： tree ,etc. A boundmorpheme is one that appears withat least another morpheme, such asmonomorphemic words are freemorphemes. Those polymorphemicwords are either compounds(combination of two or more freemorphemes )or derivatives (wordderived from free morphemes)
103、.1.46. What is a root ? What is a stem?What is an affix?A root is the base form of a wordthat cannot be further analyzedwithout total loss of identity. In otherwords, a root is that part of theword left when all the affixes areremoved. Internationalism is afour-morpheme derivative which keepsits fre
104、e morpheme “nation as itsroot when inter-： -a/ and-ism are taken away.A stem is any morpheme or -s in beds, -勿 in combination of morphemes to whichan affix can be added. It may be thesame as, and in other cases, differentfrom, a root. For example, in the wordfriends z friend“ is both the rootand the
105、 stem, but in the word“friendships z friendships“ is itsstem, “friend is its root Some words(i. e., compounds) have more than oneroot / e. g., “mailman zgirlfriend fect.An affix is the collective term forthe type o f formative that can be used,only when added to anothermorpheme(the root or stem). Af
106、fixesare lim ited in number in a language,and are generally classified into threesubtypes: prefix, suffix and infix, e. g. zmini- , / ect.(prefix); -ise , ect.(suffix).1.47. What are open classes? What areIn English, nouns, verbs, adjectives, andadverbs make up the largest part o f thevocabulary. Th
107、ey are open -classwords, since we can regularly addnew lexical entries to these classes. Theother syntactic categories are, for themost part, dosed classes, orclosed-class words. The number o fthem is hardly alterable, if they arechangeable at all.1.48. What is lexicon? What is word?What is lexeme?
108、What is vocabulary?Lexicon? Word? Lexeme? Vocabulary?“Lexicon” , in its most general sense,is synonymous with vocabulary. In itstechnical sense, however, lexicon dealswith the analysis and creation o f words,idioms and collocations, Word is aunit o f expression which has universalintuitive recogniti
109、on bydosed classes?native-speakers, whether it isexpressed in spoken or written form.This definition is perhaps a little vagueas there are different criteria withregard to its identification anddefinition. It seems that it is hard7 evenimpossible, to define wordlinguistically. Nonetheless it isunive
110、rsally agreed that the followingthree senses are involved in thedefinition of word , none of which,though, is expected to cope with all thesituations: (l)a physically definableunit / e. g.,it iz ” (phonological),“It is wonder (orthographic); (2) thecommon factor underlying a set offorms (see what is
111、 the common factorof checks , checked,checking ，etc.); (3) a grammaticalunit(look at (1) again; every word playsa grammatical part in the sentence).According to Leonard Bloomfield, aword is a minimum free form (compare:a sentence is a maximum free form,according to Bloomfield). There areother factor
112、s that may help us identifywords: (1) stability (no great change oforthographic features); (2)relativeuninterruptibility (we can hardly insertanything between two parts of a wordor between the letters), To make thecategory dearer we can subclassifywords into a few types: (1) variable andinvariable w
113、ords(e. g.mats, seldom-?);(2) grammatical and lexical words(e. g.to, in .etc, and table, chair, ect By“lexical words we mean the wordsthat carry a semantic content, e.g.fnouns, verbs, adjectives and manyadverbs; (3) closed-class andopen-class words(see 1.47).In order to reduce the ambiguity of thete
114、rm word fthe term “lexeme” ispostulated as the abtract unit whichrefers to the smallest unit in themeaning system of a language that canbe distinguished from other smallerunits. A lexeme can occur in manydifferent forms in actual spoken orwritten texts. For example, “write” isthe lexeme of the follo
115、wing words:“write, write” , wrote：writing, and written.“Vocabulary“ usually refers to allwords or lexical items a person hasacquired about technical or/anduntechnical things. So we encourageour students to enlarge theirvocabulary, “vocabulary“ is also usedto mean word list or glossary.1.49. What is
116、collocation?Collocation is a term used inlexicology by some linguists to refer tothe habitual co-occurrences ofindividual lexical items. For example,we can read a book;“correct“ can narrowly occur withbook which is supposed to havefaults, but no one can read amistake because with regard toco-occurre
117、nce these two words are notcollocates.1.50. What is syntax?“Syntax is the study o f the rulesgoverning the ways in which words,word groups and phrases arecombined to form sentences in alanguage, or the study of theinterrelationships between sententialelements.1.51, What is a sentence?L Bloomfield de
118、fines “sentence” asan independent linguistic form notincluded by some grammatical marksin any other linguistic from, i. e.z it isnot subordinated to a larger linguisticform, it is a structurally independentlinguistic form. It is also called amaximum free form.1.52. What are syntactic relations?Synta
119、ctic relations refer to theways in which words, word groups orphrases form sentences; hence threekinds of syntactic relations: positionalrelations, relations of substitutabilityand relations of co-occurrence,(1) Positional relation, or“word order , refers to the sequentialarrangement to words in a l
120、anguage. Itis a manifestation of a certain aspect ofwhat F. de Saussure called/syntagmatic relations , or of whatother linguists call horizontalrelations or “chain relations.(2) ,Relations ofsubstitutability“ refer to classes or setsof words substitutable for each othergrammatically in same sentence
121、structures. Saussure called themassociative relations. Other peoplecall themparadigmatic/vertical/choicerelations” .(3) By relations ofco-occurrence z one means thatwords of different sets of clauses maypermit or require the occurrence of aword of another set or class to form asentence or a particul
122、ar part of asentence. Thus relations ofco-occurrence partly belong tosyntagmatic relations and partly toparadigmatic relations.1.53. What is IC analysis? What areimmediate constituents(and ultimateconstituents)?IC analysis is a new approach ofsentence study that cuts a sentenceinto two(or more) segm
123、ents. This kindo f pure segmentation is simply dividinga sentence into its constituentelements without even knowing whatthey really are. What remain o f the firstcut are called immediateconstituents, and what are left at thefinal cut are called “ultimateconstituents . For example, John leftyesterday
124、“ can be thus segmented:Johnf left / 1 yesterday . We get twoimmediate constituents for the first cut(I), and they are John and leftyesterday. Further split(H)thissentence generates three “ultimateconstituents : John , Teft and“yesterday” .1.54. What are endocentric andexocentric constructons?Endoce
125、ntric construction is onewhose distribution is functionallyconstituents, i. e” a word or a group o fwords, which serves as a definable“centre or head. Usually nounphrases, verb phrases and adjectivephrases belong to endocentric typesbecause the constituent items aresubordinate to the head. Exocentri
126、cconstruction, opposite o fendocentric construction, refers to agroup o f syntactically related wordswhere none o f the words is functionallyequivalent to the group as whole ;thatis to say .there is no definable centre orhead inside the group. Exocentricconstruction usually includes basicsentence, p
127、repositional phrase,predicate(verb+object) construction,and connect/ve(be+complement)construction.1.55. What is a subject? A predicate? Anequivalent to that o f one or more o f itsobject?(1) In some language, an“subject refers to one o f the nounsin the nominative case, such aspater in the following
128、 example:pater fi/ium a m at” (put literally inEnglish: the father the son loves). InEnglish, a grammatical subjectrefers to a noun which can establishcorrespondence with the verb andwhich can be checked by atag-question test, e.g., “He is a goodcookC isnf the?).(2) A predicate refers to amajor cons
129、tituent o f sentence structurein a binary analysis in which allobligatory constituents other than thesubject are considered together, e.g., inthe sentence The monkey isjum ping / is jum ping is thepredicate.(3) Traditionally “object“ refersto the receiver or goal o f an action, andit is further clas
130、sified into two kinds:direct object and indirect object. Insome inflecting languages, an object ismarked by case labels: the /accusativecase for direct object, and thedative case for direct object, andthe “dative case for indirect to wordorderfafter the verb and preposition)and by inflectionsfofpron
131、ouns). E g , inthe sentence “John kissed me /me is the object. Modern linguistssuggest that an object refers to such anitem that it can become a subject inpassive transformation.1,56. What is category?The term category“ in someapproaches refers to classes andfunctions in its narrow sense, e.g., noun
132、,verb, subject, predicate, noun phrase,verb phrase, etc. More specifically itrefers to the defining properties o fthese general units: the categories o fthe noun, for example, include number,gender, case and countability ;and o fthe verb, for example, tense, aspect,voice, etc.1.57. What is number? W
133、hat is gender?What is case?(1) “Number“ is a grammaticalcategory used for the analysis o f wordclasses displaying such contrasts assingular, dual, plural, etc. In English,number is mainly observed in nouns,and there are only two forms: singularand plural. Number is also reflected inthe inflections o
134、 f pronouns and verbs.(2) “Gender displays suchcontrasts as masculine,“feminine , neuter” z or“animate and inanimate , etc.,for the analysis o f word classes. Whenreal-world entities, we naturalgender(the opposite is grammaticalgender).(3) Case identifies thesyntactic relationship between words ina
135、sentence. In Latin grammar, cases arebased on variations in themorphological forms o f the word, andare given the terms accusative,“nominative： dative .etc. InEnglish, the case category is realized inthree ways: by following a prepositionand by word order.1.58. What is concord? What isgovernment?Con
136、cord may be defined asrequirement that the forms o f two ormore words o f specific word classesthat stand in specific syntacticrelationship with one another shall beword items refer to the sex o f thecharacterized by the sameparadigmatically marked category orcategories, e.g., “man runs , menrun . G
137、overnment requires thatone word o f a particular class in a givensyntactic class shall exhibit the form o fa specific category. In English,government applies only to pronounsamong the variable words, that is,prepositions and verbs governparticular forms o f the paradigms o fpronouns according to the
138、ir syntacticrelation with them, e.g., 7 helpedhim; he helped me/1.59. What is a phrase? What is a clause?(1) A phrase is a singleelement o f structure containing morethan one word, and lacking thesubject-predicate structure typical o f“clauses” . Traditionally, it is seen aspart o f a structural hie
139、rachy, fallingbetween a clause and word, e.g., “thethree tallest girls (nominal phrase).There is now a tendency to make adistinction between word groups andphrases. A word group is anextension o f a word o f a particular classby way o f modification with its mainfeatures o f the class unchanged. Thu
140、swe have nominal group, verbal group,adverbial group, conjunction groupand preposition group.(2) A clause is group o fwords with its own subject andpredicate included in a largersubject-verb construction, namely, in asentence. Clauses can also be classifiedinto two kinds: finite and non-finiteclause
141、s, the latter referring to what aretraditionally called infinitive phrase,participle phrase and gerundial phrase.(For sentence , see 1.51.)1.60.What is conjoining? What isembedding? What is recursiveness?“Conjoining“ refers to a construction“He bought eggs and milk.”where one clause is co-ordinated
142、orconjoined with another, e. g., Johnbought a cat and his wife killed her.“Embedding refers to the process ofconstruction where one clause isincluded in the sentence (or mainclause) in syntactic subordination, eg,I saw the man who had killed achimpanzee/ By recursiveness” wemean that there is theore
143、tically no limitto the number of the embeddedclauses in a complex sentence. This istrue also with nominal and adverbialclauses, e.g., I saw the man who killeda cat who.a rat which.that./1.61. What is hypotactic relation? Whatis paratactic relation?“Hypotactic relation“ refers to aconstruction where
144、constituents arelinked by means of conjunction, e.g.“Paratactic relation“ refers toconstructions which are connected byjuxtaposition, punctuation orintonation, e. g., “He bought tea,coffee, eggs and milk” (pay attentionto the first three nouns connectedwithout and).1.62. What is semantics?“Semantics
145、“ refers to the study ofthe communication of meaningthrough language. Or simply, it is thestudy of meaning.1.63. What is meaning?Though it is difficult to define,“meaning“ has the followingmeaning: (1) an intrinsic property; (2)the connotation of a word; (3) thewords put after a dictionary entry; (4
146、)the position an object occupies in asystem; (5) what the symbol userand of the object/referent.actually refers to; (6) what the symboluser should refer to; (7) what thesymbol user believes he is referring to;(8) what the symbol interpreter refersto; (9) what the symbol interpreterbelieves it refers
147、 to; (10) what thesymbol interpreter believes the userrefers to. linguists argued about“meaning of meaning“ fiercely in theresult of realism,/,conceptualism/mentalism/, ,“mechanism , /contextualism/ ,“behaviorism , functionalism” , etc.(see Hu Zhuanglin et aLz ppl40-142).Mention ought to be made of
148、the“Semantic Triangle Theory” ofOgden & Richards. We use a word andthe listener knows what it refers tobecause, according to the theory, theyhave acquired the sameconcept/reference of the word used1.64.What is the difference betweenmeaning, concept, connotation, sense,implication, denotation, notati
149、on,reference, implicature and signification?(1) “Meaning refers to theassociation of language symbols withthe real word. (2) “Concept” or“notion is the impression of objectsin people s mind. (3) “connotation”is the implied meaning ,similar to“implication and implicature . (4)Sense is the lexical pos
150、ition inwhich a word finds itself. (5)Denotation” , like sense” , is notdirectly related with objects, but makesthe abstract assumption of the realworld. (6) Reference is theword-object relationship. (7)“Implicature” , in its narrow sense,refers to conversational implicatureachieved by intentionally
151、 violating oneof the four CP maxims (see 1.122-123).(8) “Signification” , in contrast with“value , mean the meaning ofsituation may not have anycommunicative value, like “What sthis?1.65. What is the Semantic/SemioticTriangle?Ogden and Richards presented theclassic “Semantic Triangle asmanifested in
152、 the following diagram, inwhich the symbol or formrefers to the linguistic elements (word,sentence, etc) the “referent refersto the object in the world of experience,and “thought or reference”refers to concept or notion. Thus, thesymbol a word signifies “things” byvirtue of the “concept” , associate
153、dwith the form of the word in the mindof the speaker of the language. The“concept thus considered ismeaning of the word.1.66. What is contextualism?Contextualism“ is based on thepresumption that one can derivemeaning from, or reduce it tozobservable context: the situationalcontext“ and the linguisti
154、ccontext” . Every utterance occurs in aparticular spatio-temporal situation, asthe following factors are related to thesituational context: (1) the speaker andthe hearer; (2) the actions they areperforming at the time; (3) variousexternal objects and events; (4) deicticfeatures.The “linguistic conte
155、xt0 is anotheraspect of contextualism. It considersthe probability of one word sco-occurrence or collocation withanother, which forms part of thesuch structural meaning./meaning, and an important factor incommunication.1.67.How many kinds of meaning didlinguists find and study?(1) C.C.Fries(1952) ma
156、kes atraditional distinction between lexicalmeaning and structural meaning. Theformer is expressed by thosemeaningful“ parts of speech, suchas nouns, verbs, adjectives, andadverbs, and is given in the dictionaryassociated with grammar. The latterexpresses the distinction between thesubject and the o
157、bject of a sentence,oppositions of definiteness, tense thenumber, and the difference betweenstatements, questions and requests. Ina word, “the total linguistic meaningof any utterance consists of the lexicalmeaning of the separate words plus(2) G. Leech(1981) categorizesseven kinds of meaning, five
158、of whichare brought under the associativemeaning” (see the following chart).(3) Different from the traditionaland the functional approach,F.R.Palmer(1981) and J.Lyons(1977)suggest we draw a distinction betweensentence meaning and utterancemeaning, the former being directlypredictable from the gramma
159、tical andlexical features of the sentence, whilethe latter includes all the various typesof meaning not necessarily associatedthereto.1.68.What is synonymy?“Synonymy“ is used to meansameness or close similarity ofmeaning. Dictionary makers(lexicographers) rely on the existenceof synonymy for their d
160、efinitions. Somesemanticians maintain, however； thatthere are no real synonyms, becausetwo or more words named synonymsare expected without exception todiffer from one another in one of thefollowing aspects:(1) In shades of meaning (e.g.,finish, complete, close, conclude,terminate； finalize, end； et
161、c.);(2) In stylistic meaning(see 1.67);(3) In emotive meaning(oraffective meaning, see 1.67);(4) In range of use (or collocativemeaning, see 1.67);(5) In British and AmericanEnglish usages eg, autumn (BrE), fall(AmE).Simeon Potter said, Language is likedress. We vary our dress to suit theoccasion. W
162、e do not appear at afriend s silver-wedding anniversary ingardening clothes, nor do we gopunting on the river in adinner-jacket/7 This means thelearning If synonyms is important toanyone that wishes to use his languagefreely and well.1.69. What is Antonymy? How manykinds of antonyms are there?The te
163、rm antonymy“ is used foroppositions of meaning; words thatstand opposite in meaning are called“antonyms” , or opposites, which fallin there categories-;l)gradableantonyms(e.g, good-bad);(2)complementary antonyms(e.g.zsingle-mar-ried); (3)relationalantonyms(e.g./ buy-sell).1.70. What is hyponymy? Wha
164、t is ahyponym? What is superordinate?“Hyponymy“ involves us in thenotion of meaning inclusion. It is amatter of class membership. That is tosay, when X id a kind of Y, the lowerterm X is the hyponym” , and theupper term Y is the “superordinate.Two or more hyponyms sharing thesame one superordinate a
165、re called“co-hyponyms” . For example,“flower“ is the superordinate oftulip ，“violet and rose ，which are the co-hyponyms of“flower.1.71. What is polysemy? What ishomonymy?“Polysemy“ refers to the semanticphenomenon that a word may havethan one meaning. For example,“negative” , means(l)a statementsayi
166、ng or meaning no ， (2)a refusalor denial, (3)one of the following wordsand expressions: no, not, nothing,never, not at allz etc. ,(4) a negativephotograph or film. But we cansometimes hardly tell if a form hasseveral meanings or it is a differentword taking this form; hence thedifference between pol
167、ysemy andhomonymy.1.72. What is entailment?“Entailment“ can be illustrated by thefollowing two sentences, with SentenceA entailing Sentence B:A: He married a blonde heiress.B: He married a blonde.In terms of truth value, the followingrelationships exist between these twosentences:(l) When A is true,
168、 B isnecessarily true;(2) When B is false,too;(3) when A is false, B may be true orfalse ;(4) When B is true, A may be trueor false. Entailment is basically asemantic relation or logical implication,but we have to assume co-reference ofHe in sentence A and sentence B,before we have A entail B.1.73.W
169、hat is presupposition?Similar to entailment,“presupposition is a semanticrelationship or logical connection. Theabove-mentioned “When phraseNo.l is also true with presupposition.For example:A: The girl he married was an heiress.B: He married a girl.But there is an important difference:Presupposition
170、 is not subject tonegation, i.e., when A is false, B is stilltrue. Other statements about the truthvalue in presupposition are:(l) When Bis true, A can either be true or false;(2)When B is false, A has no truth value atall. Presupposition does not have to befound between two propositions. Anexample
171、in point is : When did youstop beating your wife?” Thispresupposes that he has been beatinghis wife.1.74. What is componential analysis?Tomponential analysis7/ defines themeaning of a lexical element in termsof semantic components. For example,we may dip the following wordsMan , Woman , Boy andGiH“
172、so that we have only separateparts of them.Man: + Human+Adult+MaleWoman:+Human+Adult-MaleBoy:+Human-Adult+MaleGirk+Huamn-Adult-Male1.75. What is predication analysis? Whatis a one-place predicate? What is atwo-place predicate? What is ano-place predicate? What aredown-graded predications?(1) “Logica
173、l operatorm ake only one“Predication analysis* is a newapproach for sentential meaninganalysis. Predication“ is usuallyconsidered an important commoncategory shared by propositions,questions, commands； etc. Predicationis to break down the sentence intotheir smaller constituents: argument(logical par
174、ticipant) and predicate(relation element). The “predicate isthe major or pivotal element governingthe argument. We may now distinguisha /ztwo-place predicate7 (whichgoverns two arguments, e.g., subjectand object), a one-place predicate”(which governs one argument, i.e.rsubject) and a “no-place predi
175、cate/1that has simply no argument(no realsubject or object).1.76.What is a logical operator?kind of the “logical factors” or“logical means” , others being“definiteness , coreference ,“tense and time , sincepredication is not the whole of asentence or proposition. All thesefactors play a part in prep
176、ositionalactualization of the predication -th epining of a predication down a claimabout reality.(2) Example of logical operatorsare “not , and , o r，some,if , false , etc. The term logicaloperation7 1 reflects the fact that thesemeaning elements are often thought ofas performing operations, control
177、lingelements of the semantic system, so tospeak.1.77.Why is writing important? Why isspeech considered prior to writing?(l)Language can take the form ofspeech or writing, the former usingsound as medium and the latteremploying visual symbols. No onecould tell when mankind first spoke;nor could peopl
178、e tell when mankinddeveloped the first writing. A writingsystem consists of a graphemes pluscharacteristic features of their use,resulting in the diversion of the writingforms; word writing； syllabic writingand sound writing.(3) It is widely considered thatspeech is the primary medium, andwriting th
179、e secondary medium. But thiscomparative diminution does notmean that writing is unimportant. Withthe shot-lived memory and the finitecapacity of information storing, writingis used, partly for compensation andpartly for better communication. Wecounterpart so we turn to the writingand signing of an a
180、greement. Writingleads people to the acme of science,study and research, and to the ultimatejoy of literature1.78.What is a pictogram? What is anideogram?(1)A pictogram refers to aninscription representing the features ofa physical object The Hebrew and theChinese orthography still reflects tracesof
181、 their pictorial origin. For instance,the letter a (aleph) imitates thehead of an ox and the letter b (beth)imitates a horse. And wniun , m3,h。 and hundreds more of Chinesewords derived from, and still keep thepictorial resemblance to, the shapes ofthe things or objects.(2)The advantage of pictogram
182、s is thatcannot trust the negotiationthey can be easily understood byanyone. That explains why syllables they represent.international road signs andpublic-toilet signs make a wide use ofthem.(4) An “ideogram“ means anidea picture or idea writing. In order toexpress the attribute of an object orconce
183、pts associated with it, thepictogram s meaning had to beextended. For instance, a picture of thesun does not necessarily represent theobject itself, but connotes warmth,heat , light , daytime , etc. Inspite of its disadvantages, the laterform of ideograms turned out to belinguistic symbols, symbols
184、for thesounds of these objects. The process iscalled the Rebus Principle0indicating that writing is like a riddlecomposed of words or syllablesdepicted by symbols or pictures thatsuggest the sound of the words or1.79.What is word writing? What issound writing? What is syllabic writing?(l)Word writin
185、g refers to the writingsystem based on ideograms and/orpictograms, like Chinese (see 1.78).“Sound writing or alphabeticwriting , which dominates the world,derived form the Latin alphabet withmild adjustments. Most of theEuropean alphabets belong to thesound writing system, e.g., Spanish,German, Fren
186、ch, English, etc.(2) “Syllabic writing” is aword-syllabus writing, developed bythe Egyptians. Japanese is a typicalsyllabic-writing language, thoughderived from Chinese, a Sino-Tibetanlanguage. The Japanese modified theChinese characters they had borrowedfrom ancient China so that theJapanese syllab
187、les(to the number offifty) were each represented, either bywhat is called “hiragana“ or by whatis name “katakana.1.80. What is an alphabet? What is asyllabary?An alphabet“ refers to the letters orsigns representing speech sounds usedin writing a language , arranged in aconventional order. A syllabar
188、y”refers to a set or table or system ofwritten characters representingsyllables rather than individual sounds1.81. What is a grapheme? What isorthography?(1)A grapheme is the minimalconstructive unit in the writing systemof a language. The English grapheme Ais represented by A,a,a etc.spelling, spel
189、ling rules or attempts toimprove spelling.(4)1.82. What is reference?“Reference” , as far as writing isconcerned, means that in a soundwriting system the graphemes and thephonemes are expected to build upand to keep up co-reference. Forinstance, the Reference of the Englishgrapheme B generally is b
190、and thatof the grapheme X is ks” . Theproblem with reference is that morethan one phoneme can be representedby one single letter or grapheme. Thegrapheme O, for example, canrepresent its its differentcorresponding phonemes as in: so 口 ，money , together , sob .For reference used in the sense of“sense
191、 or meaning” , place referOrthography means correctback to 1.64.morpheme. Partial conversion1 is1.83.What is affixation, conversion andcompounding?(1) Affixation“ is the morphologicalprocess whereby grammatical of lexicalinformation is added to the base (rootor stem). It has been the oldest and them
192、ost productive word-formationmethod in the English language andsome other European languages.“Prefixation“ means addition of aprefix to make a new word, while“suffixation means adding a suffixto a word. The word “unfaithful” isresult of both prefixation andsuffixation.(2) “Conversion” (called someti
193、mes“full conversion0 ) is aword-formation process by which aword is altered from one part of speechinto another without the addition (oralso alteration when a word of oneword-class appears in a function whichis characteristic of another word-class,e.g., “ the wealthy” (=wealthypeople).(3) Compoundin
194、g“ is so complex aword-formation process as far asEnglish is concerned that there is noformal criterion that can be used forthe definition of itz though it may meansimply that two words or more cometogether used as one lexical item, like“dustbin.1.84.What is blending, abbreviationand back formation?
195、(1) Blending“ is a relatively complexform of compounding in which tworoots are blended by joining the initialpart of the first root and the final partdeletion) of any of the second root, or by joining theinitial parts of the two roots, e.g./smog-smoke+fog,boatel_*boat+hotel, etc.(2) Abbreviation0 1
196、also called insome cases “clipping” , means that aword that seems unnecessarily long isshortened, usually by clipping eitherthe front or the back part of it, e.g.,telephone-phone, professor-prof.,etc.Broadly speaking, abbreviationincludes acronyms that are made upfrom the first letters of the long n
197、ameof an organization, e.g., WorldBank一WB, European EconomicCommunity-*EEC, etc. Other examplesof acronyms can be found withterminologies, to be read like one word,e.g., radio detecting andranging-radar . Test of English as aForeign Language TOEFL 口 ，etc.(3) “Back-formation refers to anabnormal type
198、 of word-formationwhere a shorter word is derived bydetecting an imagined affix from alonger form already present in thelanguage. It is a special kind ofmetanalyais, combined with analogicalcreation (see 1.85), e.g.z editor-edit,enthusiasm-*enthuse, etc.1.85.What is analogical creation? Whatis borro
199、wing?The process of analogical creation” ,as one of the English tendencies inEnglish word-formation, refers to thephenomenon that a new word or a newphrase is coined by analogy between anewly created one and an existing one.For example, “marathon“ appearedat the First Olympic Games and byanalogy mod
200、ern English created suchwords as telethon” , MtalkthonM ,etc. Analogy may create singlewords(e.g.z sunrise-moonrise, earthrise,etc.; earthquake-starquake,youthquake, etc.) and phrases( e.g.,environmental pollution-soundpollution, air pollution, culturalpollution,etc.).“Borrowing means the Englishlan
201、guage borrowed words fromforeign languages； which fall in fourcategories: aliens, denizens,translation-loans and semanticborrowings.“Aliens are foreign loans that stillkeep their alien shapes, i. e.,morphological and phonologicalfeatures, eg, “elite , coup d爸tat,“coup省 ”,etc.(from French).“Deniens”
202、, also foreign words, havetransformed their foreign appearance,ie , they have been Angolcized (orAmericanized), e. g.z “get (a(a French loan), etc. Hybrids” arealso denizens, because they are wordsmade up of two parts both fromforeign soil, such as “sociology”( socio- from French and -logy fromGreek
203、).Translation-loans are wordsimported by way of translation, e. g.,“black humor“ from French( humornoir ), found object” formFrench ztoo ( object trouve ), etc.Finally, semantic borrowings haveacquired new meaning under theinfluence of language or languagesother than the source tongue. Forexample, g
204、ift mean the price of awife in Old English (450-1150AD),and after the semantic borrowing ofthe meaning of “gift or present” ofthe Scandinavian term gipt , itmeant and still means gift in theScandinavian borrowing), “theater”modern sense of itarticulation of another sound, so that1.86.What is assimil
205、ation, dissimilationand metathesis?(1) Assimilation refers tochange of a sound as the result of theinfluence of an adjacent sound, whichis called “contact or contiguous”assimilation. The assimilative processesat word in language could be explainedby the theory of least effort” ,ie, inspeaking we ten
206、d to exert as littleeffort as possible so that we do notwant to vary too often places ofarticulation in uttering a sequence ofsounds. Assimilation takes place inquick speech very often. In expressionssuch as immobile , illegal , etc.,the negative prefixes should be or havebeen “in- etymologically.(2
207、) “Dissimilation” , opposite ofassimilation, is the influence exercisedby one sound segment upon thethe sounds become less alike thanexpected. As there are twor sounds inthe Latin word “peregrines” , forinstance, the first segment had todissimilate into。, hence the Englishword “pilgrim.(3) “Metathes
208、is“ is a processinvolving an alteration in the sequenceof sounds. Metathesis had originallybeen a performance error, which wasoverlooked and accepted by thespeech community. For instance, theword bird was bird in OldEnglish. The word ask used to bepronounced ask in Old English, as stilloccurs in som
209、e English dialects.84. What is pragmatics?Pragmatics can be simply defined asthe study of language in use. It isconcerned with the study of meaningas communicated by a speaker (orwriter) and interpreted by a listener (orreader). It has； consequently, more todo with the analysis of what peoplemean by
210、 their utterances than what thewords or phrases in those utterancesmight mean by themselves.85. What is speech act theory?Speech act theory was proposed by J. L.Austin and has been developed by J. R.Searle. Basically, they believe thatlanguage is not only used to inform orto describe things, it is o
211、ften used todo things” , to perform acts. Austinsuggests three basic senses in which insaying something one is doingsomething and three kinds of acts areperformed simultaneously:1) Locutionary act: the utterance ofa sentence with determinate sense and2) Illocutionary act: the making of astatement of
212、fer, promise, etc, inuttering a sentence, by virtue of theconventional force associated with it;3) Perlocutionary act: the bringingabout of effects on the audience bymeans of uttering the sentence, sucheffects being special to thecircumstances.86. What s Searle s classification ofillocutionary acts?
213、Searle suggests five basic categories ofillocutionary acts:Assertives: sentences that committhe speaker to the truth of something.Typical cases are nI think the train ismoving and Im sure John has stolenthe book. The degree of commitmentvaries from statement to statement.The commitment is small in n
214、I guessreference;John has stolen the book but verystrong in I solemnly swear that Johnhas stolen the book.Directives: sentences by which thespeaker tries to get the hearer to dosomething. I beg you to give me somehelp and I order you to do it rightnow are both attempts to getsomething done by the he
215、arer. Amongthe verbs that fall into this groupare ask； plead； entreat；command； or advise.Commissives: sentences thatcommit the speaker to some futureaction. Promises and offers arecharacteristic of these acts.Interestingly, warning is also acommissive, as in If you dothat again, Ill hit you，because
216、italso commits the speaker to doingsomething.Expressives: sentences that expresssomething. Verbs typically used for thiscategory are thank, congratulate,apologize, welcome, deplore.Declaratives: sentences that bringabout immediate change in existingstate of affairs. As soon as an employersays to an
217、employee You are fired,the employee loses his job. Verbs oftenused for declarations are name,christen, nominate, point, ordeclare.87. What is the cooperative principle?H.P. Grice (1975) believes that theremust be some mechanisms governingthe production and comprehension ofthese utterances. He sugges
218、ts thatthere is a set or assumptions guidingthe conduct of conversation. This iswhat he calls the Cooperative Principle.He formulates the principle and itsthe speakers psychological state aboutmaxims as follows:Make your contribution such as is(i) avoid obscurity;required, at the stage at which it o
219、ccurs,by the accepted purpose or direction ofthe exchange in which you areengaged.The Maxim of QualityTry to make your contribution onethat is true, specifically(i) do not say what you believe tobe false;(ii) do not say that for which youlack adequate evidence.The Maxim of Quantity(i) Make your cont
220、ribution asinformative as is required for thecurrent purpose of the exchange;(ii) do not make your contributionmore informative than is required.The Maxim of RelevanceMake your contribution relevant.The Maxim of Manner(ii) avoid ambiguity;(iii) be brief;(iv) be orderly.88. What is applied linguistic
221、s?In the broadest sense, appliedLinguistics refers to the study oflanguage and linguistics in relation topractical problems, such aslexicography, translation, speechpathology, etc. Applied linguistics usesinformation from sociology,psychology, anthropology, andinformation theory as well as fromlingu
222、istics in order to develop its owntheoretical models of language andlanguage use, and then uses thisinformation and theory in practicalareas such as syllabus design, speechtherapy, language planning, machineBe perspicuous and specific: translation, various facets ofcommunication research, and manyot
223、hers.In the narrow sense, applied linguisticsrefers to the study of second /foreignlanguage learning and teaching. Itserves as a mediating area whichinterprets the results of linguistictheories and makes them user-friendlyto the language teacher and learner.89. What is Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?The Sap
224、ir-Whorf theory, named afterthe American linguists Edward Sapirand Benjamin Lee Whorf, is a veryinfluential but controversial theoryconcerning the relationship betweenlanguage, thought and culture. Whatthis hypothesis suggests is like this: ourlanguage helps mould our way ofthinking and, consequentl
225、y, differentlanguages may probably express ourunique ways of understanding theworld. Following this argument, twoimportant points could be captured inthis theory. On the one hand, languagemay determine our thinking patterns;on the other, similarity betweenlanguages is relative, the greater theirstru
226、ctural differentiation is, the morediverse their conceptualization of theworld will be. For this reason, thishypothesis has alternatively beenreferred to as Linguistic Determinismand Linguistic Relativity. Nowadays,few people would possibly tend toaccept the original form of this theorycompletely. C
227、onsequently, twoversions of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesishave been developed, a strong versionand a weak version. The strong versionof the theory refers to the claim theoriginal hypothesis suggests,emphasizing the decisive role oflanguage as the shaper of our thinkingpatterns. The weak version of thish
228、ypothesis, however, is a modified typeof its original theory, suggesting thatthere is a correlation betweenlanguage, culture and thought but thecross-cultural differences thusproduced in our ways of thinking arerelative, rather than categorical.90. What is sociolinguistics?Sociolinguistics studies r
229、elationshipsbetween language and various aspectsof society. One major focus ofsociolinguistics is the study oflanguage variation, that is, the wayslanguage differs across social settings.91. What are language varieties anddialects?Language variety is a broad term thatcan be applied to any language s
230、ystem.For example, entire languages such asEnglish, Japanese, Flemish, andMalaysian can be referred to aslanguage varieties. Language varietiesalso (and perhaps more commonly)refer to different forms of the samelanguage. Such varieties are oftencalled dialects. Dialects of a languagemay be associate
231、d with differentgeographical regions, for example,Michigan, Mississippi, or Los Angeles,as well as with various social groupsdefined by socioeconomic class,culture, and/or ethnicity. Thus, wespeak of regional dialects and socialdialects.92. What are pidgins and creoles?Two sorts of language varietie
232、s that donot fit typical language or dialectdefinitions are pidgins and creoles.These interesting varieties evolve asthe result of contact between multiplelanguages. Pidgins, for example,features.develop when speakers from differentlanguages need a common languagefor communication, such as for trade
233、.Circumstances may not allow speakersto select one of their own languages asa lingua franca； or common language,so speakers create a system that blendsvarious parts of their differentlanguages. We often refer to thesemixed language systems, or pidgins, asEnglish-based, Portuguese-based, andso forth
234、to indicate what language hassupplied the bulk of the vocabulary tothe pidgin. Examples of English-basedpidgins include Tok Pisin, spoken inPapua New Guinea, and CameroonPidgin, spoken in Cameroon, Africa.These and other pidgins differ fromnormal language varieties in thatthey are simplified in thei
235、rphonological, lexical, and structuralPidgins are usually auxiliary languages;that is, pidgin speakers tend to havesome other language as their mothertongue and typically use pidgins forother social functions. Often when theoriginal need for the pidgin disappears,so does the pidgin. In some cases,ho
236、wever, the role of the pidgin greatlyexpands as a speech communityacquires the pidgin as its primarylanguage. When this occurs, the pidginturns into something elsea creole.Structurally, creoles (e.g. theFrench-based Haitian Creole, theEnglish-based Jamaican creole, andmany others) are distinguished
237、frompidgins by their larger vocabularies andmore complex grammatical patterns.93. What stages do children gothrough in acquiring a language?If you have ever been around babies,you have undoubtedly noticed thatthey begin vocalizing1 right away.However, it is not until later that theirutterances begin
238、 to reflect clearerlinguistic features. At about six weeks,for example, babies begin cooingvowel sounds. Later, at roughly sixmonths, children sound even morelanguage-like as they begin babblingstreams of consonants and vowels withpatterned syllable structure (e.g.babababa) as well as with intonatio
239、nfeatures of the language being learned.Thus, some of children* s babbles maysound a little like real sentencesbecause of their melodies, or prosody.Around one year, children reach amajor milestone- the first word, or theone word stage. Although children* searly words may not sound exactly likeadult
240、 words (e.g. baban for bottle),they nonetheless have real meaning forchildren. Early vocabularies tend toconsist of concrete words describingthings, people, and actions in thechild s immediate environment (e.g.kitty, daddy, juice/ mommy/go), as well as social interactive words(e.g. hi, bye). Childre
241、n, s utterancesat this time are often calledholophrases because a single wordmay represent the meaning of an entireadult sentence. For example, doggie?with a rising intonation might mean Isthat a dog?nAs one might predict, the next majorstage of language development is thetwo-word stage, beginning r
242、oughlyaround two years old. Here childrenbegin to express relationships throughlanguage (e.g. mommy shoe/ babysleep/ teddy bed/ kick ball) as wellas reflect awareness of basic syntacticstructures in their language. Forexample, a child who says kick ballshows understanding, albeitunconscious, that ve
243、rbs (e.g. kick) gobefore direct object nouns (e.g. balT)in English.In their next stage of development,children begin to combine three ormore words in sentences. Thismulti-word milestone is often calledthe telegraphic stage because theutterances children produce during thistime sound like telegrams.
244、Considerthe following telegraphic sentences:Katie walk school/ Jeremy needthat/ Cathy build two house. Whatdo you notice is missing from thesesentences? Children during this stagetend to leave out function words, suchas prepositions (e.g. the to in the firstsentence), determiners, and auxiliaryperso
245、n singular -s on need and theplural -s on house). These omittedfunction words and affixes are knownas grammatical morphemes.Over the next several years, childrengradually add in other pieces of thelanguage, such as grammaticalmorphemes, and their sentencesbecome longer and more complex.They begin, f
246、or example, to producefull questions and negative statements,as well as sentences with multipleclauses. Amazingly, by the timechildren are four or five years old, theyhave mastered most of the sounds andstructural patterns of their language. Ifyou know any kindergartners, youknow that their language is quitedeveloped!verbs, as well as affixes (e.g. the third
