Modern_Linguistics
Modern Linguistics
Chapter 1 Introduction
1、Explain the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguistics investigates not any particular language, but languages in general. Linguistic study is scientific because it is based on the systematic investigation of authentic language data. No serious linguistic conclusion is reached until after the linguist has done the following three things:
1.observing the way language is actually used
2.formulating some hypotheses
3.testing these hypotheses against linguistic acts to prove their validity
2、What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study?
Phonetics – How speech sounds are produced and classified
Phonology – How sounds form systems and function to convey meaning
Morphology – How morpheme are combined to form words.
Syntax – How morphemes and words are combined to form sentences.
Semantics – The study of meaning (in abstraction).
Pragmatics – The study of meaning in context of use.
Sociolinguistics – the study of language with reference to society.
Psycholinguistics – the study of language with reference to the workings of the mind.
Applied Linguistics –The application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and learning
3、In modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic? Why?
Modern linguistics is mainly synchronic, focusing on the present-day language. Unless the various states of a language are successfully studied, it will not be possible to describe language from a diachronic point of view.
4、Which enjoys priority in modern linguistics, speech or writing?
Speech enjoys priority over writing in modern linguistic study for the following reasons:
1.Speech precedes writing in terms of evolution.
2. A larger amount of communication is carried out in speech than in writing.
3.Speech is the form in which infants acquire their native language.
5、How is Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance?
1.Both Saussure and Chomsky make the distinction between the abstract language system and the actual use of language. Saussure defines langue as the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole (as) the realization of langue in actual use. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user‘s knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance (as) the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.
2.Both made the distinction in order to single out one aspect of language for serious study. Both think that what linguists should do is to study the abstract language system rather than the actual use of language and to discover the rules governing the actual use of language.
3.While Saussure‘s distinction and Chomsky‘s are very similar, they differ at least in one aspect. That
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.
6、What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of language.
Language is a rule-governed system.
Language is basically vocal.
Language is arbitrary.
Language is used for human communication.
7、What features of human language have been specified by C. Hockett to show that it is essentially different from any animal communication system
1.Arbitrariness – a sign of sophistication only humans are capable of.
2.Creativity – animals are quite limited in the messages they are able to send.
3.Duality – a feature totally lacking in any animal communication
4.Displacement – no animal can ―talk‖ about things removed from the immediate situation.
5.Cultural transmission – details of human language system are taught and learned while animals are born with the capacity to send out certain signals as a means of limited communication.
8.Why is language not entirely arbitrary?
Because there are words in every language that imitate natural sounds, such as crash, bang in English. Besides, some compound words are also not entirely arbitrary. These words can not be made freely.
9.Why is language culturally transmitted and why are animal call systems genetically transmitted
Because the details of any language are not genetically transmitted, instead they have to be taught and learned. It is passed on from one generation to another through teaching and learning rather than by instinct. In contrast, animals are born with the capacity to produce the set of calls peculiar to their species, so animal call systems are genetically transmitted.
https://www.sodocs.net/doc/5415785744.html,nguage has the design feature of duality. Why?
The duality nature of language means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of structures, or two levels, one of sounds and the other of meanings. At the lower or the basic level, there is the structure of sounds, which are meaningless. At the higher level, the units can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences.
11.Why is productivity unique to language?
Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. The users can send messages which no one else has ever sent before.
12.What does the displacement feature of language stem?
Displacement means that 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.
13.How is modern linguistic different from traditional grammar?
―high‖(religious, literary) written language. It sets models for language users to follow. But modern linguistics is descriptive; its investigations are based on authentic and mainly spoken language data. It is supposed to be scientific and objective and the task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use, whether it is ―correct‖ or not.
14.What is the distinction between a synchronic study and a diachronic study?
Language exists in time and changes through time. The description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. It studies the historical development of language over a period.
15.Why does modern linguistic regard the spoken form of language as primary?
Speech and writing are the two major media of communication. Modern linguistics regards the spoken form of language as primary, but not the written form, because the spoken form of language as primary, but not the written form, because the spoken from is prior to the written form and most writing systems are derived from the spoken from of language.
16.What do langue and parole mean respectively?
Langue and parole are French words. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow while parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules.
17.How does Chomsky define competence and performance respectively?
Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user‘s knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.
Chapter 2 Phonology
1.What are the three branches of phonetics? How do they contribute to the study of speech sounds?
1、Articulatory phonetics describes the way our speech organs work to produce the speech sounds and how they differ.
2、Auditory phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds, it studies the speech sounds from the hearer‘s point of view, and reaches the important conclusion that phonetic identity is only a theoretical ideal.
3、Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds, the way sounds travel from the speaker to the hear.
2.Where are the articulatory apparatus of a human being contained?
In the three cavities: pharyngeal cavity, oral cavity, and nasal cavity.
3.What is voicing and how is it caused?
Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing, which is a feature of all vowels and some consonants.
4.What is the function of nasal cavity? How does it perform this function?
To nasalize the sounds that are produced. It does this by closing the air passage connecting the oral and nasal cavities so that he air stream can only go through the nasal cavity.
5.Describe the various parts in the oral cavity which are involved in the production of speech sounds?
The various parts of the tongue: the tip, the front, the blade, and the back of the tongue; the uvula; the soft palate; the hard palate, the teeth ridge (alveolar); the upper and lower teeth; the lips. Of all, tongue is the most flexible, and is responsible for more varieties of articulation than any other.
6.Explain which examples how broad transcription and narrow transcription differ?
Broad transcription– one letter symbol for one sound.
Narrow transcription–a way to transcribe speech sounds. Narrow transcription is the transcription with letter –symbols together with the diacritics. Diacritics are added to show the finer differences between sounds.
7.How are the English consonants classified?
Two ways to classify consonants: by place of articulation and by manner of articulation.
For example, [p] is stop from the classification according to manner of articulation, and from the classification of place of articulation, [p] is a bilabial sound.
8.What criteria are used to classify the English vowels?
I.Position of the tongue. ( front vowel, central vowel, back vowel)
i.e., a front vowel is a vowel which is produced with the front part of the tongue that is held highest.
II.Openness of the mouth. (close vowels, semi-close vowels)
III.Length of the sound. (long vowel [I:] [u:], short vowel [I]
IV.Shape of the lips (rounded vowels and unrounded vowels) [a:] are rounded vowels.
https://www.sodocs.net/doc/5415785744.html,xity of the glottis.
9.Give the phonetic symbol for each of the following sound description:
1)V oiced palatal affricate: [d]
2)V oiceless labiodental fricative: [f]
3)V oiced alveolar stop: [d]
4)Front, close, short: [i]
5)Back, semi-open, long: [ ]
6)V oiceless, bilabial stop: [p]
Give the phonetic features of each of the following sounds:
1)[d]: voiced, alveolar, stop
2)[l ]: alveolar, liquid, lateral
3)[t ]: voiceless, palatal, affricate
4)[w]: glide, labial
5)[u ]: back, close, short
6)[? ]: front, open
10.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 [l ], [p] and [p ], a phonetician or phonetician or a
Phonetics: study of the phonic medium of language, it is the description of all speech sounds in the world‘s language and their fine differences.
Phonology: description of sound systems of particular languages and how sounds function to distinguish meaning and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.
For example the [t] sounds in the two English words stop an top are pronounced differently. The first one is what we call an unaspirated [t] and the second one an aspirated [th]. Phoneticians have recognized two quite distinct sounds for [t] in English; but if we consider these two sounds from the phonological point of view, we wound say these two sounds are fundamentally the same, since they have one and the same function in communication, in distinguishing between words and meanings.
A phonetician would be more interested in such differences because such differences will not cause the differences in meaning.
11.What is a phone? How is it different from a phoneme? How are allophones related to a phoneme? (31)
Phone – a speech sound we use when speaking a language, it is a phonetic unit or segment.
Phoneme – a collection of abstract sound features, a phonological unit.
Allophones – the different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme. ( actual realizations of a phoneme in different phonetic contexts).
E.g. the phoneme /l/ in English can be realized as dark [t], clear [l], etc, which are allophones of the phoneme /l/.
12.What is a minimal pair and what is a minimal set? Why is it important to identify the minimal set in a language?
Minimal pair refers to two sound combinations identical in every way except in one sound element that occurs in the same position. That is, minimal pairs are word forms that differ from each other only be one sound. pill and till, till and kill, kill and dill, and dill and gill. According, we can conclude that p, b, t, d, k, g are phonemes in English. Then all these sound combinations together constitute a minimal set, they are identical in form except for the initial consonant, this also applies to the vowels. The pronunciations of the following words are identical except for the vowel: beat, bit, bet, bat, ect.
By identifying the minimal pairs of the minimal set of a language, a philologist can identify its phonemes.
13.Explain with examples the sequential rule, the assimilation rule, and the deletion rule. Sequential rule– rule governing the combination of sounds in a particular language.
E.g. If a word begins with a [l] or a [r], then the next sound must be a vowel.
Assimilation rule– rule assimilating one sound similar to the following one by copying a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the tow phones similar.
E.g. impossible is the negative form of possible, as the [n] sound is assimilated to [m].）
Deletion rule–rule governing the deletion of a sound in a certain phonetic context although it is represented in spelling.
E.g. delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant.
14.What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying meaning?
phonological properties of such units as the syllable, the word and the sentences. The major suprasegmental features in English are stress (word stress and sentence stress) intonation and tone;
1、Stress: When a certain syllable of a word is stressed, it means that the syllable is pronounced with greater force than the other or others. The shift of stress changes the meaning or the part of speech of a word and the meaning of a sentence.
E.g. from n to v. import to import.
2、Intonation: pitch variation is known as intonation. More specific, when pitch, stress and length variations are tied to the sentence rather than to the word, they are collectively known as intonation. The three most frequently used intonations are the fall, the rise and the fall-rise. When spoken in different tone, the same sequence of words may have different meaning, e.g. the falling intonation conveys a straight-forward fact, the rising intonation indicates a question; and the fall-rise intonation always conveys some implication.
3、Tone: Tone refers to the pitch variation which is caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. It is an important feature for some languages, such as Chinese, it distinguishes meaning just like phonemes.
15.Explain the following terms, using one or two examples for illustration
1)Phoneme (05).
A phoneme is a phonological unit. It is an abstract notion instead of a concrete sound. A phoneme consists of a collection of features, and can be realized as different speech sounds in different phonetic contexts called allophones. E.g /l/ can be pronounced as clear [l] or darl [l] depending on where it occurs 2)Complementary distribution
When two sounds never occur in the same environment, they are in ―complementary distribution.‖ E.g. the aspirated English plosives never occur after [s], and the unsaturated ones never occur initially.
16.What is the basic difference between a consonant and a vowel?
The basic difference between a vowel and a consonant is that in the pronunciation of a vowel, the air stream from the lungs meets no obstruction of any kind in the throat, the nose, or the mouth, while in the pronunciation of a consonant, the air stream from the lungs is obstructed in one way or another.
17.How do you set up the allophones of the same phoneme?
Which allophone is to be used is determined by the phonetic context in which it occurs. But the choice of an allophone is not random or haphazard in most cases; it is rule-governed. One of the tasks of the phonologist is to find out these rules.
Chapter 3 Morphology
1.What is a morpheme? Dissect the following words into morphemes:
The smallest unit of meaning.
de-scrip-tion under-develop-ed photo-synthe-tic ana-tomy
radia-tion geo-graph-y phil-harmon-ic de-frost-ed
re-fresh-ment de-mobil-iz-ed con-duct-ing sup-press-ion
circum-spect dia-logue de-form-ed com-bina-tion
Free morpheme e.g. mate, sun, fame, like
Bound morpheme: roots and affixes
Roots e.g. fin-, spect-, -cide
Affixes: inflectional and derivational
Derivational: prefix and suffix
Inflectional affixes:-ing, -ed, -(e)s
Prefixes: un-, dis-, de, en-
Suffixes:-ly, -less, -tion, -ize
3.What are the main inflectional affixes in English? What grammatical meaning do they convey? -(e)s – plural number
-(e)s – third-person. singular. present tense
-(e)d – past tense
-ing – progressive aspect
-er – comparative degree
-est – superlative degree
-‘s – possessive case
4.Try to find out the meaning of the following roots in English and give two or three words that contain each of them.
1、Hydro – water e.g. hydraulic, dehydrate
2、Chron – time e.g. chronological, chronicle
3、Demo – people e.g. democracy, demography
4、Dur – lasting e.g. during, durable
5、Agr – farming e.g. agriculture, agrarian
6、Kilo – one thousand e.g. kilometer, kilogram
7、Nym – name e.g. pseudonym, antonym
8、Ped – foot e.g. centipede, impede
9、Rupt – breaking e.g. rupture, abrupt
10、Gress – movement e.g. progress, digress
11、Poly – various e.g. polygon, polyglot
12、Syn – identical e.g. synchronic, sympathy
5.State the morphological rules that govern the use of the given derivational affixes.
Example: -er This suffix is added to a verb to form a noun indicating the agent that carries out the action,
e.g. write – writer
1.-ant suffix added to a verb to form a noun indicating the agent e.g. assistant
2.-ment suffix added to a verb to form its corresponding noun e.g. development
3.sub- Prefix added to an adjective to form another adjective to indicate a lesser degree e.g.
substandard
4.-en Suffix added to an adjective to form a verb to indicate the acquisition of the quality
denoted by the adjective e.g. darken
5.en- Prefix added to an adjective to form a verb to indicate the acquisition of the quality
denoted by the adjective e. g. enrich
6.-ee Suffix added to a verb to form a noun indicating the recipient of the action denoted by
7.-ful Suffix added to a noun to form an adjective indicating the quality denoted by the noun
e.g. plentiful
8.-some Suffix added to a noun to form an adjective indicating the quality denoted by the noun
e.g. quarrelsome
9.-wise Suffix added to a noun to form an adverb meaning ―with regard to the area indicating
by the noun‖ e.g. careerwise
10.un- Prefix added to an adjective to indicate the absence of the quality indicated by the
adjective e.g. unemployed
6.What are the main features of the English compounds?
1、Orthographically a compound can be written as one word, two separate words with or without a hyphen in between. E.g. armchair, follow-up.
2、Syntactically, the part of speech of a compound is determined by the last element.
E.g. icy-cold, greenhouse
3、Semantically, the meaning of a compound is idiomatic, not calculable from the meanings of all its components.
e.g. a redcoat is not a coat at all, and neither a hotdog a dog.
4、Phonetically, the word stress of a compound usually falls on the first element, while the second element receives secondary stress.
e.g The same form ―running dog‖can possibly be pronounced in two differently ways. One way to pronounce it is to give the primary stress to the noun ―dog,‘ so that the fall occurs on this word and the –ing form receives secondary stress. ?running dog. Thus pronounced, the form means ―a dog that is running,‖ i.e. the action indicated by the –ing form is carried out by the noun that follows it. The other way is to put the primary stress on the first element ―running‖ so that the fall of the intonation occurs on the syllable ―run‖ and the word ―dog‖ receive secondary stress: running dog. In this case, ―running dog‖is actually a compound noun and it does not means a dog that is running, but metaphorically it refers to a person who follows another person obediently in his wrong doings.
7.Explain the formation and meaning of the following compounds:
Example: nightcap, noun formed by combining two nouns, meaning a drink one takes before going to bed
1.cat‘s paw -- noun formed by combining two nouns, meaning a person used by another
as a cool
2.tablecloth -- noun formed by combining two nouns, meaning a piece of cloth spread on
a table to cover it
3.green-eyed -- adjective formed by combining an adjective an an –ed from, meaning
jealous
4.green horn -- noun formed by combining an adjective and a noun, meaning a person not
experienced for a job or occupation
5.update -- verb formed by combining an adverb and a verb, meaning to bring
something up to date
6.jet lag -- noun formed by combining two nouns, meaning the feeling of fatigue
caused by traveling in a jet plane crossing different time zones
carry, or sell illicit goods‖
8.built-in -- adjective formed by combining a past participle with a preposition,
meaning ― made as an integral part‖
9.cockpit -- noun formed by joining two nouns, meaning the compartment in an
aircraft where the pilot or the crew sit
10.good-for-nothing adjective formed by joining an adjective, a preposition, and a pronoun,
meaning irresponsible or worthless
8.Explain the following terms, using one or two examples for illustration
1)Morphology
Morphology is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. Morphology is divided into two sub-branches, inflectional morphology and lexical or derivation morphology.
2)Morpheme
Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language. .e.g. re- is not a word, but it does carry meaning, thus re –s a morpheme
3)Free morpheme
Free morphemes are the morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves or in combination with other morphemes.
e.g. help, table, able
4)Bound morpheme
Bound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word. E.g. –er, -en, dis- bio-, -less, -sym.
5)Root
A root is often seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself although it bears clear, definite meaning; it must be combined with another root or an affix to form a word.
e.g. liter- in literal, and literature.
6）Affix
Affixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational. Inflectional affixes (inflectional morphemes) –ing,-ed manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as number, tense, degree, and case. Derivational affixes (derivational morphemes) are added to an existing form to create a word.
E.g. in-, -er. The existing form to which a derivational affix can be added is called a stem.
According to its position in the new word, affixes are divided into two kinds: prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes occur at the beginning of a word, it modify the meaning of stem, but usually do not change the part of speech of the original word, except be-, and en(m)-. Suffixes are added to the end of stems; they modify the meaning of the original word and in many cases change its part of speech.. e.g. large, enlarge, rich, enrich.
7）Derivation
Derivational affixes are added to an existing form to create a word. Derivation can be viewed as the addition of affixes to stems to form new words.
8）Compounding
Compounding is another popular and important way of forming new words in English. Compounding can be viewed as the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to create new words.
N+N – handbook, sunshine
A+N highway, easychair
V+N driveway
9.What are the two sub-branches of morphology? What does each of tem study?
Morphology is divided into two sub-branches; inflectional morphology and lexical or derivational morphology. The former studies the inflections and the latter the study of word-formation.
10.How do you distinguish a compound noun from a noun phrase?
There are various ways to classify the compound words. One of them is to look at the parts of speech of the component words. Words of various parts of speech can be combined to form compounds. E.g. noun+noun (handbook), adjective+noun (highway), verb+noun (driveaway)
Four features of compound.
11.Why is the meaning of a compound often idiomatic?
Semantically, the meaning of a compound is often idiomatic, not always being the sum total of the meanings of its components. For example, a greenhouse is not a house that is green.
12.What are inflectional and derivational affixes? What grammatical meanings do the main inflectional affixes in English convey?
Inflectional affixes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as number, tense, degree, and case.
e.g. –(e)s, indicating plurality of nouns.
-ing, indicating progressive aspect.
Derivational affixes are added to an existing form to create a word.
Chapter 4 Syntax
1、Define or explain the following terms:
1.Syntax
A subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language
2.Hierarchical structure
Sentences are organized by grouping words of the same syntactic category together, as noun phrase or verb phrase.
3.Syntactic category
A word or phrase that performs a particular grammatical function such as the subject or object
4.Grammatical relation
The structural and logical functional relations between every noun phrase and the verb in a sentence
5.Phrase structure rules
A rewrite rule that allows for the possible combinations of words to form phrases and sentences
6.X-bar theory
A general and highly abstract schema that collapses all phrase structure rules into a single format: X‘‘—(Spec) X (Compl)
7.S-structure
A level of syntactic representation after the operation of necessary syntactic movement
8.Universal Grammar
A system of linguistic knowledge which consists of some general principles and parameters about natural languages
2、Examine each of the following sentences and indicate if it is a simple, coordinate, or complex sentences;
1)Jane did it because she was asked to (complex)
2)The soldiers were warned to remain hidden and not to expose themselves. (simple)
3)David was never there, but his brother was. (coordinate)
4)She leads a tranquil life in the country. (simple)
5)Unless I hear from her, I won‘t leave this town. (complex)
3、Use the appropriate phrase structure rules to draw a labeled constituent structure tree diagram for each of the following sentences:
1）clever magician fooled the audience
S
NP VP
Det Adj N V NP
Det N
A clever magician fooled the audience
2）The tower on the hill collapsed in the wind.
S
NP VP
Det N PP V PP
P NP P NP
The tower on the hill collapsed in the wind
3）They knew that the senator would win the election.
S
NP VP
V S
They knew that the senator would win the election
4、For each of the following two sentences, raw a tree diagram of its underlying structure that will reveal the difference in the relationship between John/Mary and the verb “see”;
A: Mary advised john to see the dentist.
S
NP VP
V NP S
NP VP
Mary advised John John see the dentist
B: Mary advised john to see the dentist.
S
NP VP
V NP S
NP VP
Mary promised John Mary see the dentist
5、The formation of many sentences involves the operation of syntactic movement. The following sentences are believed to have derived from their D-structure representations. Show the D-structure for each of these sentences.
1)The leader of the majority party was severely criticized by the media.
2)The man threw the rake away in the yard.
The man threw away the rake in the yard.
3)Will the new shop owner hire her?
The new shop owner will hire her.
4)What can the robot do for us?
The robot can do what for us?
6、Draw on your linguistic knowledge of English an paraphrase each of the following sentences in two different ways to show how syntactic rules account for the ambiguity of sentences.
1)Smoking cigarettes can be nauseating.
A: Putting tobacco in rolled-up paper an then smoking it can make one feel sick.
B: A cigarette which gives out smoke can make one feel sick.
2)Tony is a dirty street fighter.
A: Tony is a bad guy who likes to flight in the street
B: Tony is a sanitation worker who cleans dirty streets.
3)After a two-day debate, they finally decided on the helicopter.
A: After a two-day debate, they reached a final decision while they were on the helicopter
B: After a two-day debate, they finally decided to use the helicopter.
4)The man is too heavy to move.
A: The man is so overweight that it is difficult for him to move around by himself
B: The man is so overweight that it is difficult for others to remove him.
5)The little girl saw the big man with the telescope
A: The little girl saw the big man through her telescope.
B: The little girl saw the big man who carried his telescope.
7、Because languages have recursive properties, there is no limit to the potential length of sentences, and the set of sentences of any language is infinite. Give two examples to show the recursive properties of sentences.
1:
1)I love music.
2)You know that I love music
3)Everybody knows that you know that I love music
2:
1)The little girl saw the man with the telescope.
2)The little girl saw the man with the telescope which was purchased at a new shop
3)The little girl saw the man with the telescope which was purchased at the new shop whose owner was a good friend of the little girl.
Chapter 5 Semantics
1.What are the major views concerning the study of meaning?
1) The naming theory
The word used in a language is taken to be labels of the objects they stand for.
2) The conceptualist view
There is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to, they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.
3) The contextualist view
One can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. Two kinds: situational context and linguistic context.
Situational: Every utterance occurs in a particular spatiotemporal situation. Include: place and time of the utterance, the speaker and he hearer, the actions they are performing at the time and so on.
The linguistic context, sometimes known as co-text
E.g. The seal could not be found. The zoo keeper became worried.(seal meaning an aquatic mammal) The seal could not be found. The king became worried. (seal meaning the king‘s stamp)
4) The behaviorist view
Situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.
2.What is sense and what is reference? How are they related?
Sense refers to the inherent meaning of a linguistic form, it is a collection of all the features of linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. For example the sense of the word dog is a domesticated canine mammal, occurring in many breeds that show a great variety in size and form. It does not refer to any particular dog that exists in the real world, but applies to any animal that meets the features described in the definition.
Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience. If we say”the dog is barking,”We must be talking about a certain dog existent in the situation; the word “dog” refers to a dog known to both the speaker and hearer. This is the reference of the word “ in the particular situation.
It is matter of the relationship between form and the reality.
3.Explain with example “homonymy,”“polysemy,”, and “hyponymy.”
Homonymy refers to words identical in form (either in sound or in spelling, or in both) but different in meaning, (homophones, homographs, complete homonyms.) e.g. night-knight, lead v. – lead n., bank (a financial institution) –bank (side of a river)
Polysemy refers to words having more than one meaning have the same form, e.g. earth – our planet, the soil on its surface.
Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive words and a more specific word. E.g. furniture-table.
4.How can words opposite in meaning be classified? To which category does each of the following pairs of antonyms belong?
left/right far/near vacant/occupied father/daughter
North/south doctor/patient dark/bright ugly/beautiful
and Relational opposites.
5.Identify the relations between the following pairs of sentences;
Tom‘s wife is pregnant.
Tom has a wife
―Tom‘s wife is pregnant‖ presupposes ―Tom has a wife.‖
He likes swimming
He likes sports.
―He likes swimming‖ entails ―He likes sports.‖
My sister will soon be divorced.
My sister is a married woman.
―My sister will soon be divorced‖ presupposes ―My sister is a married women.‖
He speaks English.
He speaks a foreign language.
―He speaks English‖ entails ―He speaks a foreign language.‖
6.In what way is componential analysis similar to the analysis of phonemes into distinctive features?
In the light of componential analysis, the meaning of a word consists of a number of distinctive meaning features; the analysis breaks down the meaning of the word into these features; it is these different features that distinguish word meaning. Similarly, a phoneme is considered as a collection of distinctive sound features; a phoneme can be broken down into these distinctive sound features and it is these sound features that distinguish different sounds.
For example, ―man‖ and ―boy‖ share the features of +HUMAN, +MALE and +ANIMATE but differ in the feature of ADULT; [p] and [b] are both bilabial and plosive but they differ in the feature of voicing.
7.What is grammaticality? What might make a grammatically meaningful sentence semantically meaningless?
Grammaticality refers to the grammatical well-formedness of a sentence. A sentence may be
well-formed grammatically, i.e. it conforms to the grammatical rules of the language.
Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called selectional restrictions, i.e. constraints on what lexical items can go with what others. Some sentences may be grammatically
well-formed, i.e, they comply perfectly with the grammar rules of the language, yet they may not be semantically meaningful. The reason is that they contain words which are not supposed to go together, thus violating the selectional restrictions
e.g. green clouds are sleeping furiously.
The problem with the sentence is that no one has ever seen any green clouds, and clouds never sleep, still less sleep furiously. So in the sentence some selectional restrictions have been violated. This has led to the semantic –ill-formedness of the sentences.
8.Try to analyze the following sentences in terms of predication analysis.
1)The man sells ice-cream.
Two-place predication consisting of two argument: MAN and ICE-CREAM, and the predicate (SELL)
2)Is the baby sleeping?
One-place predication: BABY (SLEEP)
3)It is snowing.
No-place predication: (SHOW)
4)The tree grows well.
One –place predication: TREE (GROW).
9.Explain the following terms, using one or two examples for illustration.
1)Semantics
Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning in language and why particular utterances have the meanings they do. It is a technical term used to refer to the study of the communication of meaning through language.
2)Componential analysis
Componential analysis is a way to analyze word meaning. It was proposed by structural semanticists. This approach is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic feature.
3)Grammatical meaning
The grammatical meaning of a sentence refers to its grammaticality, i.e. its grammatical well-formedness. The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by the grammatical rules of the language.
4)Semantic meaning （见上7）
The semantic meaning of a sentence is governed by rules called selectional restrictions.
e.g. green clouds are sleeping
5)Predication
In semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is called prediction. The predication is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.
e.g. The tree grows well.
One –place predication: TREE (GROW).
10.How many kinds of contexts are recognized in contextualism? What are they? （见1）Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. Two kinds of context are recognized: the situational context and the linguistic context.
11.Why are complete synonyms rare?
Synonyms that are mutually substitutable under all circumstances are called complete synonyms. However, complete synonyms are rare. Because of their different origins, there are often subtle differences between these synonyms.
12.How many types of synonyms are there? What are they?
1) Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.
e.g. British English: autumn. American English: fall
2)Stylistic synonyms which differ in style. Start, begin, commence
4)Collocational synonyms.
Some synonyms differ in their collocation, i.e, in the words they go together with.
For example: charge with, accuse… of
5) Semantically different synonyms.
Differ slight in what the mean. E.g. amaze and surprise
13.What is the difference between polysemy and homonymy?
A polysemic word, i.e. a word with several meanings, is the result of the evolution of the primary meaning of the word, the various meanings of the word are related to some degree.
e.g. table: 1)a piece of furniture 2) all the people seated at a table
Complete homonymy are often brought into being by, coincidence.
14.What is the advantage of componential analysis?
There is one advantage of componential analysis. By specifying the semantic features of certain words, it will be possible to show how these words are related in meaning.
15.How many kinds of antonyms are there? What are they?
Antonym refers to the oppositeness of meaning. Words that are opposite in meaning are called antonyms.
There are three kinds.
Gradable antonyms: e.g. hot, cold
Complementary antonyms: e.g. alive, dead.
Relational opposites: doctor, patient
Chapter 6 Pragmatics
1、What does pragmatics study? How does it differ from traditional semantics?
Pragmatics studies how meaning is conveyed in the process of communication.
The basic difference between pragmatics and traditional semantics is that pragmatics considers meaning in context and traditionally semantics studies meaning in isolation from the context of use.
2、How is the notion of context interpreted?
Context is regarded as constituted by all kinds of knowledge assumed to be shared by the speaker and the hearer.
For example: the knowledge of the language used and the knowledge of the world, including the general knowledge about the world and the specific knowledge about he situation in which linguistic communication is taking place.
3、How are sentence meaning and utterance meaning related, and how do they differ? Sentence meaning refers to the intrinsic property of the sentence itself in terms of a predication. It is abstract and decontextualized.
Utterance meaning: if we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it become an utterance, and it should be considered in the situation in which it is actually uttered.
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. How it is to be understood depends on the context in which it is uttered and the purpose for which the speaker utters it.
Relationship: Utterance-meaning is based on sentence-meaning; the former is concrete and context-dependent and the latter is abstract and de-contextualized.
4、Try to think of contexts in which the following sentences can be used for other purposes than just stating facts:
1)The room is messy.
A mild criticism of someone who should have cleaned the room
2)I can‘t work under untidy circumstances.
A request to someone to tidy up the circumstances
3)It would be good if she had a green skirt on.
A mild way to express disagreement with someone who has complimented on a lady‘s appearance
5、According to Austin, what are the three acts a person is possibly performing while making an utterance. Give an example.
Locutionary 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.
Illocutionary act
An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker‘s intention; It is the act performed in saying something.
Perlocutionary act (effect of utterance)
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 by saying something.
E.g. You have left the door wide open (locutionary act)
Asking someone to close the door (illocutionary act)
If the hearer gets the speaker‘s message and sees that he speaker means to ask someone to close the door, the speaker has successfully brought about the change in the real world he has intended to; the perlocutionary act is successfully performed.
6、What are the five types of illocutionary speech acts Searle has specified? What is the illocutionary point of each type?
Representative – stating what the speaker believes to be true.
Directive – trying to get the hearer to do something.
Commissive – committing the speaker himself to some future action
Expressive – expressing feelings or attitude towards an existing state.
Declaration – bringing about immediate changes by saying something.
7、What are the four maxims of the Cooperative Principle (CP)? How does the violation of these maxims give rise to conversational implicatures?
Maxim of quantity:
（1）Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange).
Maxim of quality:
（1）Do not say what you believe to be false
（2）Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
Maxim of relation
（1）Be relevant.
Maxim of manner
（1）Avoid obscurity of expression
（2）Avoid ambiguity
（3）Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).
（4）Be orderly
Most of these violations of these maxims give rise to what Grice calls ―conversational implicatures‖. In other words, when we violate any of these maxims, our language becomes indirect. In this way, we can convey more than is literally said.
Example 1
A: The hostess is an awful bore. Don‘t you think?
B: The roses in the garden are beautiful, aren‘t they?
This is said when it is known to both A and B that it is entirely possible for B to make a comment on the hostess. Thus B is saying something irrelevant to What A has just said, and flouting the maxim of relation. The implicature produced is ―I don‘t wish to talk about the hostess in such a rude manner.‖Example 2
A: Shall we get something for the kids?
B: Yes. But I veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M
This is said when it is known to both A and B that B has no difficulty in pronouncing the word ―ice-cream‘. Thus B has flouted the maxim of manner. The implicature produced is ―I don‘t want the kids to know we are talking about ice-cream.‖
8.Why is the notion of context essential to pragmatics?
Without this shared knowledge, linguistic communication would be impossible, and without considering this knowledge, linguistic communication cannot be satisfactorily accounted for in a pragmatic sense. 9.How does a sentence become an utterance? (utterance meaning derived from)
If we regard 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.
10.What does the speech act theory aim to do?
It aims to answer the question ―what do we do when using language?‖
Chapter 7 Historical Linguistics
1)Historical linguistics
A subfield of linguistics that studies language change (or historical development of language)
2)Diachronic linguistics
A term used instead of historical linguistics to refer to the study of language change at various points in time and at various historical stages.
3)Old English
A major period in the history of English development that began in 449 and ended in 1100
4)The Great Vowel Shift
A series of systematic sound change in the history of English that involved seven long vowels and consequently led to one of the major discrepancies between English pronunciation and its spelling system
5)Apocope
The deletion of a word-final vowel segment
6)Epenthesis
The insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word
7)Blending
A way of forming a new word by combining parts of two other words
8)Semantic broadening
The process in which the meaning of word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier meaning
9)Protolanguage
The original (or ancestral) form of a language family which has ceased to exist
10)Language family
A group of historically (or genetically) related languages that have developed from a common ancestral language
11)Cognate
A word in one language which is similar in form and meaning to a word in another language because both languages have descended from a common source
12)Internal borrowing
The application of a rule from one part of the grammar to another part of the grammar by analogy to its earlier operation
2、Characterize the nature of language change.
All living languages change with time. Language change is not only universal in inevitable, but also systematic, extensive, ongoing, and gradual. Language change is a rule-governed behavior, involving all components of the grammar.
3、English has undergone tremendous changes since its Anglo-Saxon days. Identify the major periods in its historical development, and name major historical events that led to the transition from one period to the next.
Major periods: Old English (449-1100), Middle English (1100-1500), Modern English (1500-present). Historical Events: The old English period began with the invasion of the British Isles by English-speaking Anglo-Saxons from Europe, and ended with the arrival of Norman French invaders historically known as the Norman Conquest. The Middle English period is distinguished from the Old English period by the Norman Conquest and from the Modern English period as the result of the cultural influence of the European renaissance movement.