《新编语言学教程》课后答案

《新编语言学教程》课后答案 (1) semantics: the study of linguistic meaning. (2) truth-conditional semantics: an approach that knowing the meaning of the sentence is the same as knowing the conditions under which the sentence is true or false, and knowing the meaning of a word or expression is knowing the part that it plays in the truth or falsehood of the sentence containing it. (3) naming theory: the view that the meaning of an expression is what it refers to, or names. (4) behaviorist theory: the view that the meaning of a linguistic form is de,ned as observable behaviors which is an approach drawing on psychology. (5) use theory: the semantic theory according to which the meaning of an expression is determined by its use in communication and more generally, in social interaction. (6) sense: the inherent part of an expression‘s meaning, together with the context, determines its referent. For example, knowing the sense of a noun phrase such as the president of the United States in 2004 allows one to determine that George such as the president of the United States in 2004 allows one to determine that George (7) reference: (in semantics) the relationship between words and the things, actions, events and qualities they stand for. An example in English is the relationship between the word tree and the object ―tree‖ (referent) in the real world. (8) conceptual meaning: It means the meaning of words may be discussed in terms of what they denote or refer to, also called denotative or cognitive meaning. It is the essential and inextricable part of what language is and is widely regarded as the central factor in verbal communication. For instance, the conceptual meaning of ―he‖ in English is any male person or male animal. (9) connotative meaning: It is the communicative meaning that a word or a combination of words has by virtue of what it refers to, over its purely conceptual meaning. For example, the connotative meaning of ―woman‖ is emotional, frail, inconstant, irrational, etc. (10) semantic field: the organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relationship to one another. For example, kinship terms such as father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt belong to a semantic ,eld whose relevant features include generation, sex, membership of the father‘s or mother‘s side of family. (11) lexical gap: the absence of a word in a particular place in a semantic ,eld of a language. For instance, in English we have brother versus sister, son versus daughter, but no separate lexemes for ―male‖ and ―female‖ cousin. (12) componential analysis: (in semantics) an approach to the study of meaning which analyzes a word into a set of meaning components or semantic features. For example, the meaning of the English word boy may be shown as [+human][+male][-adult]. (13) semantic feature: the smallest units of meaning in a word. The meaning of word may be described as a combination of semantic components or features. For example, the feature [+male] is part of the meaning of father, and so is the feature [+adult], but other features are needed to make up the whole meaning of father. Often, semantic features are established by contrast and can be stated in terms of [+] and [-], e.g. woman has the semantic features [+human], [-male] and [+adult]. (14) synonym: the sense relations of equivalence of meaning between lexical items, e.g. small/little and dead/deceased. (15) antonym: the sense relation of various kinds of opposing meaning between lexical items, e.g. big/small, alive/dead and good/bad. (16) hyponymy: the sense relation between terms in a hierarchy, where a more particular term (the hyponym) is included in the more general one (the superordinate): X is a Y, e.g. a beech is a tree, a tree is a plant. (17) meronym: the sense relation between body and its parts which are not only sections of the body but de,ned in terms of speci,c functions. For example, the head is the part of the body which carries the most important sense organs, i.e. eyes, ears, nose and tongue. (18) semantic role: the way in which the referent of a noun phrase is involved in the situation described or represented by the clause, for example as agent, patient, or cause. (19) entailment: the relationship between two sentences where the truth of one (the second) is inferred from the truth of the other, e.g. Corday assassinated Marat and Marat is dead; if the ,rst is true, the second must be true. (20) presupposition: implicit assumptions about the world required to make an utterance meaningful or appropriate, e.g. ―some tea has already been taken‖ is a presupposition of ―Take some more tea!‖ 2. (1) He waited by the bank. a. He waited by the ,nancial institution which people can keep their money in or borrow from. b. He waited by the bank of the river. (2) Is he really that kind? a. Is he really that type of person? b. Is he really that kind-hearted? (3) We bought her dog biscuits. a. We bought dog biscuits for her. b. We bought biscuits for her dog. (4) He saw that gasoline can explode. a. He saw that gasoline container explode. b. He saw that gasoline may explode. (5) Fifty soldiers shot three wild foxes. a. Fifty soldiers shot three wild foxes in total. b. Each of the ,fty soldiers shot three wild foxes. (6) He saw her drawing pencils. a. He saw her pencils for drawing. b. He saw her drawing the picture of pencils. 3. (2) (4) (5) (8) are antonyms; (1) (3) (6) (7) are synonyms. 4. charity: kindness, sympathy, church, helpful iron: strong, brave, hard, determined mole: traitor, betrayal, spy snow: pure, virgin, clean street: homeless, living hard, pitiable 5. (1) a. hoard b. scribble c. barn, method d. olfactory (2) a. acquire b. tell c. way d. smell (3) a. buy, win, steal. b. talk, tell c. road, way, path d. smell These words are less marked in their sets because they are more usual and tend to be used more frequently. They consist of only one morpheme and are easier to learn and remember than others. They are also often broader in meaning and cannot be described by using the name of another member ofthe same ,eld. 6. homophones: sea-see, break-brake; polysemies: sea, break, prayer, mature, trace, house homonyms: ear. 7. In a semantic ,eld, not all lexical items necessarily have the same status. The less marked members of the same semantic ,eld (1) are usually easier to learn and remember than more marked members; (2) consist of only one morpheme in contrast to more marked members; (3) cannot be described by using the name of another member of the same ,eld; (4) tend to be used more frequently than more marked terms; (5) broader in meaning than more marked members; (6) are not the result of the metaphorical usage of the name of another object or concept, but more marked are. 8. (1) a. bachelor, man, son, paperboy, pope, chief b. bull, rooster, drake, ram. The (a) and (b) words are male. The (a) words are human. The (b) words are animals. (2) a. ask, tell, say, talk, converse b. shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, holler The (a) and (b) words are realized by sounds. The (a) words are normal voice quality. The (b) words are produced by modifying one‘s normal voice quality. (3) a. walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim b. ,y, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang-glide The (a) and (b) words are sports (movement). The (a) words are sports without instruments. The (b) words are sports with instruments. (1) pragmatics: a branch of linguistics that studies language in use. (2) deixis: the marking of the orientation or position of entities and situations with respect to certain points of reference such as the place (here/there) and time (now/then) of utterance. (3) reference: (in semantics) the relationship between words and the things, actions, events, and qualities they stand for. (4) anaphora: a process where a word or phrase (anaphor) refers back to another word or phrase which was used earlier in a text or conversation. (5) presupposition: implicit assumptions about the world required to make an utterance meaningful or appropriate, e.g. ―some tea has already been taken‖ is a presupposition of ―Take some more tea!‖ (6) Speech Act Theory: The theory was proposed by J. L. Austin and has been developed by J. R. Searle. Basically, they believe that language is not only used to inform or to describe things, it is often used to ―do things‖, to perform acts. In saying ―Sorry‖, you are performing an act of apology. (7) indirect speech act: an utterance whose literal meaning (location) and intended meaning (illocution) are different. For example, Can you pass the salt? is literally a yes/no question but is usually uttered as a request or polite directive for action. (8) the Cooperative Principle: a principle proposed by the philosopher Paul Grice whereby those involved in communication assume that both parties will normally seek to cooperate with each other to establish agreed meaning. It is composed of 4 maxims: quality, quantity, relation and manner. (9) the Politeness Principle: politeness is regarded by most interlocutors as a means or strategy which is used by a speaker to achieve various purposes, such as saving face, establishing and maintaining harmonious social relations in conversation. This principle requires speakers to ―minimize the expression of impolite beliefs‖. It is composed of 6 maxims: Maxims of Tact, Generosity, Approbation, Modesty, Agreement and Sympathy. (10) conversational implicature: the use of conversational maxims in the Cooperative Principle to produce extra meaning during conversation. 2. Deictic expressions: I, now, you, that, here, tomorrow. 3. Anaphoric expressions: she, him, it. 4. (1) He bought the beer. (2) You have a watch. (3) We bought a car. 5. Direct acts: (1)/(5); Indirect acts: (2)/(3)/(4) 6. (a) The Maxim of Quality: (1) Do not say what you believe to be false; (2) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. (b) The Maxim of Quantity: (1) Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose of the exchange); (2) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. (c) The Maxim of Relation: Be relevant. (d) The Maxim of Manner: Be perspicuous (1) Avoid obscurity of expression; (2) Avoid ambiguity; (3) Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity); (4) Be orderly. 7. The speaker is particularly careful about the maxim of Agreement in PP. The response begins with ―well‖ rather than ―no‖ in order to minimize disagreement between the speaker and hearer. 8. It is an indirect speech act. Carol invites Lara to a party, but Lara wants to decline the invitation. To be polite, she doesn‘t choose a direct refusal, instead she says “I‘ve got an exam tomorrow‖ as a reasonable excuse to decline the invitation. In this way, she minimizes the expression of impolite beliefs, thus the utterance conforms to PP (1) discourse: a general term for examples of language use, i.e. language pro-duced as the result of an act of communication. It refers to the larger units of language such as paragraphs, conversations and interviews. (2) discourse analysis: the study of how sentences in written and spoken language form larger meaning units such as paragraphs, conversations and interviews. (3) given information: the information that the addresser believes is known to the addressee. (4) new information: the information that the addresser believes is not known to the addressee. (5) topic: the main center of attention in a sentence. (6) cohesion: the grammatical and/or lexical relationships between the different elements of a text. This may be the relationship between different sentences or different parts of a sentence. (7) coherence: the relationship that links the meanings of utterances in a discourse or of the sentences in a text. (8) discourse marker: the technical term for all the items that are used to help construct discourse, such as signifying the beginning or ending of a paragraph or a turn in conversation. They are commonly used in the initial position of an utterance and are syntactically detachable from a sentence, such as well, I mean, now, then, ,rst, second, ,nally. (9) adjacency pair: a set of two consecutive, ordered turns that ―go together‖ in a adjacency pair: a set of two consecutive, ordered turns that ―go together‖ in a acceptance, criticism/denial. (10) preference structure: in the conversations there can be several second parts related to one ,rst part, but they are not of equal status. The structural likelihood is called preference, and this likely structure is the preference structure that divides second parts into preferred and dispreferred. The former is the structurally expected and the latter unexpected. In answering the question “Have you got a light?‖, the reply ―Here you are‖ is preferred and ―Sorry, no, I don‘t smoke‖ is dispreferred. (11 presequence: the opening sequences that are used to set up some special potential actions, such as greetings before formal conversations. ―What are you doing tonight?‖ can be used as a presequence if it is followed by ―If nothing special, come over and have dinner with us please.‖ (12) critical discourse analysis: the analysis of language use directed at, and committed to, discovering the concealed ideological bias, injustice, inequality in the power relations among speakers and hearers. 2. In the study of discourse, cohesion refers to the grammatical and/or lexical relationships between the different parts of a text. This may be the relationship between different sentences or different parts of a sentence. It concerns the question of how sentences are explicitly linked together in a discourse by different kinds of overt devices. Such cohesive devices include reference, substitution, ellipses, conjunction and lexical cohesion. 5. It is not a coherent discourse. Although it has connection words such as a Ford a car and black –– Black, which look like cohesive devices, they refer to entirely different things. There is a total lack of internal relation among the sentences. A text can‘t be only based on super,cial connections between the words to pursue coherence; there must be some relationship that links the meanings of the sentences in a text, too. This text is not in line with our real experience of the way the world is. Thus, we can‘t make sense of it directly unless we are laborious to create meaningful connections which are not actually expressed by the words and sentences. So it‘s not a coherent discourse. 6. Coherence is the relationship that links the meanings of utterances in a discourse or of the sentences in a text. This extract is coherent. All the sentences (questions in fact) are organized around the topic ―interview‖, and they are arranged from the general to the more speci,c in a logical order so that the text is easy to follow. (1) sociolinguistics: the study of the relationship between language and society, that is, how social factors in,uence the structure and use of language. (2) standard language: the variety of a language which has the highest status in a community or nation and which is usually based on the speech and writing of educated native speakers of the language. (3) dialect: a language variety characteristic of a particular social group; dialects can be characteristic of regional, social, temporal, occupational or gender groups. (4) register: a language variety associated with a particular situation of use, e.g. baby talk and legal language. (5) pidgin: a variety of language that is not a native language of anyone, but is learned in contact situations. (6) creole: a language that begins as a pidgin and eventually becomes the ,rst language of a speech community through its being learned by children. (7) language planning: planning, usually by a government or government agency, concerning choice of national or of,cial language(s), ways of spreading the use of a language, spelling reforms, the addition of new words to the language, and other language problems. (8) diglossia: a situation when two distinct varieties of the same language are used, side by side, for two different sets of functions. (9) bilingualism: the use of at least two languages either by an individual or by a group of speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a nation. (10) code-switching: the movement back and forth between two languages or dialects within the same sentence or discourse. (11) taboo: a word or expression that is prohibited by the polite society from general use. (12) euphemism: a word or phrase that replaces a taboo word or is used to avoid reference to certain acts or subjects, e. g. ―powder room‖ for ―toilet‖. 2. Idiolects are varieties of a language used by individual speakers, with peculiarities of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. 3. A president who did not have an accent may refer to a president who speaks the standard language. The standard language is a particular variety of a language that is of,cially given a status higher than any other, and therefore a dominant or prestigious variety. The standard language is usually based on the speech and writing of educated native speakers of the language and is generally used in government documents, education, broadcasting and printing. A good president is expected to speak the prestigious variety of his language. 4. Language planning is usually done by a government or government agency which concerns the choice of national or of,cial language(s), ways of spreading the use of the language(s), spell reforms, the addition of new words to the language, and other language problems. In order to carry it out effectively, the of,cial attempt may concentrate on either the status of a language with regard to some other language or variety or its internal condition with a view to changing it. Language planning usually involves two aspects: status planning and corpus planning. Status planning changes the function of a language or a variety of a language and the right of those who use it. And corpus planning seeks to develop a variety of language or a language, usually to standardize it, that is, to provide it with the means for serving most language functions in society. Governments may take both sides into consideration. 5. A pidgin is a special language variety that mixes or blends languages and it is used by people who speak different languages for restricted purposes such as trading. Pidgin arose from a blending of several languages such as Chinese dialects and English. Typically pidgins have a limited vocabulary and a much reduced grammatical structure characterized by the loss of in,ections, gender and case. When a pidgin has become the primary language of a speech community, and is acquired by the children of that speech community as their native language, it is said to have become a creole. The structure of the original pidgin is expanded to enable it to ful,ll its new functions. The vocabulary is vastly enriched, and new syntactic-semantic concepts developed. Notable examples of creole are the English-based creole of Haiti. 6. There are many euphemisms for toilet, such as WC, powder room, Men‘s room, Ladies‘ room, Gentlemen, bathroom, restroom and so on. In many cultures, people avoid referring to this place by ―toilet‖ or ―lavatory‖ because they are unpleasant to the ear. The use of euphemisms re,ects social attitudes or social customs. We choose the words or expressions of euphemism because they are more polite or pleasant to use without embarrassing others. 7. There are two possible reasons. One reason is that women are usually more status-conscious than men and they are aware of their lower status in society and as a result, they may use more standard speech forms in their attempt to claim equality or even achieve a higher social status. The other reason might be attrib-uted to the education. Women are educated to behave ―like a lady‖ when they are little girls, and such education may in,uence their speech as well. (The answers are quite open) (1) psycholinguistics: the study of the relation between language and mind: the mental structures and processes which are involved in the acquisition, comprehension and production of language. (2) language production: the process involved in creating and expressing meaning through language, such as the four successive stages provided by Levelt (1989): conceptualization, formulation, articulation and self-regulation. (3) language comprehension: From a psycholinguistic point of view, we store a great deal of information about the properties of the language, and retrieve this information when we understand language. Besides, language comprehension can be treated in four levels: sound, word, sentence and text comprehensions. (4) Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: It refers to the view that the language system could in,uence or even determine one‘s thought, and a particular language imposes particular ideas of nature or beliefs of one‘s culture. (5) linguistic determinism: One‘s language structure determines his cognitive structure. That is, learning a language may change the way a person thinks or perceives the objective world. (6) linguistic relativity: As one‘s language influences one‘s cognitive system, speakers of different languages perceive the world differently. 2. Psycholinguistics is the study of psychological aspects of language; it usually investigates the psychological states and mental activities associated with the use of language. Most problems in psycholinguistics are comparatively more concrete, involving the study of language acquisition especially in children and linguistic performance such as producing and comprehending utterances or sentences among adults. However, theoretical linguistics is more objective. It usually investigates the existing phenomena about languages and its investigations are usually carried out in the branches of microlinguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Psycholinguistics is an interdisciplinary study of language and psychology, with structural linguistics and cognitive psychology as itsroots while theoretical linguistics solely focuses on aspects of language. 3. (1) The correct form is ―They swam across the lake‖, which is caused by exchange. (2) The correct form is ―The spy was bound and gagged‖ , which is caused by exchange. (3) The correct form is ―I will see you in the park‖, which originates from substitution. 4. The slip-of-the-tongue phenomenon described above can be explained by the parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach in word comprehension. The PDP approach holds that people use several separate and parallel processes at the same time to understand spoken or written language. In the slip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, people have already conceptualized his/her idea (thought), but can not ,nd a proper word to express the idea. This shows that thought precedes language. According to linguistic determinism, language shapes one‘s thought. If there isn‘t language, there should be no thought. Thus, this phenomenon goes against linguistic determinism and shows that thought can exist with or without language. 5. The fact mentioned here ,ies at the face of linguistic determinism which says that one‘s language structure determines one‘s cognitive structure. That‘s to say, a particular language can not shape one‘s world view. Language changes along social changes. And social changes can lead to the changes of people‘s view. At the same time, one‘s world view can affect a particular language. For example, Xiaojie was used to refer to the daughter of rich and important families before 1949. Then, since 1949, great changes have taken place in China. The world view of Chinese people has changed radically but the language has changed little. During the Cultural Revolution, Xiaojie became very much culturally loaded — young women not belonging to ?the revolutionary rank‘ and people not to be politically trusted. After 1979, it gradually became popular again, and now it has taken on a derogatory meaning (hooker). As it is mentioned above, it is social changes that shape one‘s world view, and it is cognitive structure that affects language.