《语言学概论》期末考试

《语言学概论》期末考试 总结 初级经济法重点总结下载党员个人总结TXt高中句型全总结.doc高中句型全总结.doc理论力学知识点总结pdf Answer the following questions: 1.Can you elaborate with examples on the arbitrary nature of language? (20%) Arbitrariness is the result of the need to express and code a wide range of meanings. The speaker of a language, based upon the convention established in the speech community, associates linguistic signs with things and concepts. For example, there is no connection between the word apple and the fruit it signifies. It can equally be called pingguo in Chinese and pomme in French. 2.What do you think is the difference between langue and parole? Can you illustrate a bit? (20%) Langue is a system in that it has a large number of elements whereby meaning is created in the arrangements of its elements and the consequent relationships between these arranged elements. Parole means “speech”, which describes the individual, personal phenomenon of language as a series of speech acts made by a linguistic subject. Parole is the concrete use of the language, the actual utterances. It is an external manifestation of langue. It is the usage of the system, but not the system itself. 3.Language is built on relations. How can you account for the syntagmatic relations and paradigmatic relations? (20%) They are the basic linguistic relationships between linguistic elements in a language system. Syntagmatic refers to the rules that govern the order of words, such as grammar or poetic principles of sonority (洪亮). It is concerned with the chain of a sentence and the positioning of different elements in a sentence. Syntagmatic relationships are defined by the ability of elements to be combined horizontally (linearly), e.g. the relationship between She will arrive and today. A syntagma is a syntactic string of words that forms a part of some larger syntactic unit. Paradigmatic refers to distinctions among a category of words or objects, such as the different nouns that may occupy a given place in a sentence. It is concerned with different choices and the substitution. Paradigmatic relationships between linguistic elements can be established by use of the substitution test at the vertical level. In other words, Paradigmatic relations hold between an item and similar ones that can appear in the same position in a sequence. Paradigmatic relationships are based on the criteria of selection and distribution of linguistic elements, and are, for example, the basis for establishing the phoneme inventory of a language through the construction of minimal pairs,the replacement of sounds in an otherwise constant environment that leads to a difference in meaning. Elements which are related to each other paradigmatically can potentially occur in the same context but are mutually exclusive in an actual concrete context because they stand in opposition to one another. 4.What features do free morphemes and bound morphemes have? Illustrate them. (15%) Morphemes can be divided into free morphemes and bound morphemes according to whether they can be used independently as free forms or not. If a morpheme can constitute a word by itself, it is called a free morpheme. For example, the words big, huge, room are all free morpheme. If a morpheme has meaning only when connected with at least another morpheme, it is bound. For example, the words mini- in minibus, and –ful in mouthful 5.In how many ways are semantic relations represented? Illustrate them. (25%) Semantic relations include relations between words (lexical relations) and relationships between sentences (syntactical relations). 1) Semantic Field Semantic field refers to the organization of related lexemes into a system which shows their relationship to one another. If a lexeme is related with a number of other lexemes in that they all belong to a particular activity or area of specialist knowledge, then we may say they belong to the same semantic field. In other words, the semantic field theory holds that the vocabulary of a given language is not simply a listing of independent items, but is organized into areas, or fields, within which words interrelate and define each other in various ways 2) Synonymy and Antonymy Lexemes occur in sequence and the sense relations between lexemes are of several kinds. Synonymy Words or expressions with the same or similar meaning are said to be synonymous. In other words, synonyms are words or expressions that share common semantic features. The relation of synonymy does not apply to lexemes only. Simple expressions may have the same meaning as complex expressions. Antonymy Antonymy is the relationship of oppositeness of meaning. When two or more lexemes or expressions are “opposite”in meaning, they are said to be antonyms. Further study reveals, however, that antonyms are not really opposite in every aspect of their semantic features. They share all but one crucial semantic feature that happens to be present in one but absent in the other. 3) Meronymy and Hyponymy Meronymy (整体-部分关系) is a term used to describe a part-whole relationship between lexical items. Meronymy reflects hierarchical classifications in the lexicon. Hyponymy (下义词) is used to refer to a specific-general semantic relationship between lexical items. 4)Polysemy and Homonymy Polysemy: When a single lexeme has several meanings, it is called polysemic. Polysemy can be said to be the result from the change of meaning. Homonymy Homonymy refers to cases where lexemes with the same phonological or morphological shape have different meanings. Homonyms are unrelated sense of the same phonological word. In other words, homonyms may have identical pronunciation but do not share common semantic features. Very often, they may have different written forms as well. 5)Intersentential Semantic Relations Entailment An entailment refers to something that logically follows what is asserted in the utterance. Presupposition A presupposition in semantics refers to what is assumed by the speaker and/or assumed by him or her to be known to the hearer before he or she makes the utterance. Implicature In communicative practice, the speaker may use an utterance to imply further information. He or she may imply what he or she does not literally mean. Such information is called implication.