英语语言学

Questions and Exercises Chapter l Invitations to Linguistics l. Define the following terms. design features function synchronic diachronic prescriptive descriptive arbitrariness duality displacement phatic communion metalanguage macrolinguistics competence performance language Parole 2.Consult at least four introductory linguistics textbooks (not dictionaries), and copy the definition of "language" that each gives. After carefully comparing the definitions, write a paper discussing which points recur and explaining the significance of the similarities and differences among the definitions 3. Can you think of some words in English which are onomatopoeic? 4. Do you think that onomatopoeia indicates a non-arbitrary relationship between form and meaning? 5. A story by Robert Louis Stevenson contains the sentence "As the night fell,the wind rose. " Could this be expressed as “As the wind rose, the night fell? “If not, why? Does this indicate a degree of non-arbitrariness about word order? (Bolinger, 1981:15) 6. Does the traffic light system have duality? Can you explain by drawing a simple graph? 7.The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the creativity of language. Can you write a recursive sentence following the example in section l . 3 . 3 ? 8.Communication can take many forms, such as sign, speech, body language and facial expression. Do body language and facial expression share or lack the distinctive properties of human language? 9. Do you agree with the view that no language is especially simple? 10 .What do you think of Bertrand Russell’s observation of the dog language; "No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest" ? Are you familiar with any type of ways animals communicate among themselves and with human beings? 11 Can you mention some typical expressions of phatic communion in Chinese? There is the dialogue between Ms.P and Ms.Q.on p.14.When someone sneezes violently, do you say anything of the nature of phatic communion? Have you noticed your parents or grand-parents say something special on such an occasion? 12. There are many expressions in language which are metalingual or self-reflexives, namely, talking about talk and think about thinking, for instance. to be honest, to make a long story short ,come to think of it, on second thought , can you collect a few more to make a list of these expressions? When do we use them most often? 13. Comment on the following prescriptive rules. Do you think they are acceptable? (A) It is I. (B) It is me. You should say A instead of B because "be" should be followed by the nominative case, not the accusative according to the rules in Latin. (A) Who did you speak to? (B) Whom did you speak to? You should say B instead of A. (A) I haven 't done anything. (B) I haven't done nothing. B is wrong because two negatives make a positive. 14. The prescriptivism in grammar rules has now shifted to prescriptions in choice of words. In the "guidelines on anti-sexist language" issued by the British sociological association, some guidelines are listed below. Do you think they are descriptive and prescriptive? What's your comment on them? (1) Do not use man to mean humanity in general. Use person, people, human being , men and women,humanity and humankind. (2) colored: This term is regarded as outdated in the UK and should be avoided as it is generally viewed as offensive to many black people. (3) civilized: This term can still carry racist overtones which derive from a colonialist: perception of the world.It is often associated with social Darwinist thought and is full of implicit value judgments and ignorance of the history of the non-industrialized world. 15 'why is the distinction between competence and performance important in linguistics?Do you think the line can be neatly drawn between them? How do you like the concept communicative competence? 16. Which branch of linguistics do you think will develop rapidly in China and why? 17. The following are some well-known ambiguous sentences in syntactic studies of language. Can you disambiguate them? The chicken is too hot to eat . Flying planes can be dangerous . 18. There are many reasons for the discrepancy between competence and performance in normal language users. Can you think of some of them? 19. What do these two quotes reveal about the different emphasis or perspectives of language studies? A human language is a system of remarkable complexity. To come to know a human language would be an extraordinary intellectual achievement for a creature not specifically designed to accomplish this task. A normal child acquires this knowledge on relatively slight exposure and without specific- training. He can then quite effortlessly make use of- an intricate structure of specific rules and guiding principles to convey his thoughts and feelings to others,. . . Thus language is a mirror of mind in a deep and significant sense. It is a product of human intelligence, created anew in each individual by operations that lie far beyond-the reach of will or consciousness. (Noam Chomsky : Reflections on Language 1975: 4) It is fairly obvious that language is used to serve a Variety of different needs, but until we examine its grammar there is no clear reason for classifying its uses in any particular way. However, when we examine the meaning potential of language itself, we find that the vast numbers of options embodied in it combine into a very few relatively independent "networks"; and these networks of options correspond to certain basic functions of language. This enables us to give an account of the different functions of language that is relevant to the general understanding of linguistic structure rather than particular psychological or sociological investigation(M.A.K) 20. You may be familiar with the following proverbs.-how do you Perceive them according to the arbitrariness and conventionality of language; The proof of the pudding is in the eating . Let sleeping dogs lie . You cant’t make a silk purse out of a sow' Rome was not built in a day. When in Rome, do as the Romans do . All roads lead to Rome. Give examples of situations in which a usage generally considered non- standard (e.g. ain't) would be acceptable, even appropriate. The following are some book titles of linguistics. Can you judge the synchronic or diachronic orientation just from the titles? English Examined : Two Centuries of Comment on the Mother-Tongue, Protean Shape : A Study in Eighteenth-century V ocabulary and Usage Pejorative Sense Development in English . The Categories and Types of present-day English Word-Formation. Language in the Inner City:Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Chapter 2 Speech Sounds 1. Define the following terms. phonetics articulatory phonology phonetics speech organs voicing International Phonetic Alphabet consonant vowel manner of articulation place of articulation Cardinal V owels sem卜vowel vowel glide coarticulation phoneme allophone assimilation Elsewhere Condition distinctive features syllable Maximal Onset Principle stress intonation tone Give the description of the following sound segments in English. 1 e 2 ? 3 ? 4 d 5 p 6 k 7 l 8 i 9 u : 10? Give the IPA symbols for the sounds that correspond to the descriptions below 1) voiceless labiodental fricative 2)' voiced postalveolar fricative 3) palatal approximant 4) voiceless glottal fricative 5) voiceless alveolar stop 6) high-mid front unrounded vowel 7) high central rounded vowel 8) low front rounded vowel 9) low-mid back rounded vowel i0) high back rounded tense vowel 4.Transcribe the following sentences into normal orthography. (此处音标不能有效扫描自行添加) 5. Discuss the following questions. 1)What organs are involved in speech production? 2) Why did George Bernard Shaw say he could spell the word fish as ghoti? 3) How is the description of consonants different from that of vowels? . 4) To what extent is phonology related to phonetics and how do they different?' 5) "Assimilation is oftcn used synonymously with coarticulation ” Discuss. . 6)(此处音标不能有效扫描自行添加) 6. In some dialects of English the following words have different vowels, as shown by the phonetic transcription.Based on these data, answer the questions that follow. (此处音标不能有效扫描自行添加) i) How may the classes of sounds that end the words in columns A and B be characterized? 2) How do the words in column C differ from those in columns A and B? 3)Are [AI] and [ai] in complementary distribution? Give your reasons 4)What are the phonetic transcriptions of (a) life and (b) lives? 5)What would the phonetic transcriptions of the following words be? a) trial (b) bike (c) lice (d) fly (e) mine 6) State the rule that will relate the phonemic representations to the phonetic transcriptions of the words given above. (Based on Fromkin, et al. 2003: 332) 7.The following words contain different forms of the negative prefix in- Group the data according to the variants and try to determine which kinds of base word take which kinds of prefix variant and what kind of mechanism is responsible for the variation. Formulate a rule and then test it against words that are formed in this way but are not mentioned here. irregular incomprehensible illiterate ingenious inoffensive inharmonic impenetrable illegal incompetent irresistible impossible irresponsible immobile illogical indifferent inconsistent innumerable inevitable 8(以下 内容 财务内部控制制度的内容财务内部控制制度的内容人员招聘与配置的内容项目成本控制的内容消防安全演练内容 包含音标无法扫描请自行添加) (以下内容因包含音标无法扫描自行添加哦) 9.Estuary English (EE) is a name given to the form(s) of English widely。 spoken in and around London and, more generally, in the southeast of England along the river Thames and its estuary. The websites below contain much information about this variety of English. Find out what EE is like. http : //www . phon. ucl. ac. uk/horre~estuary http : //www . ic. arizona.edu/~lsp~EstuaryEnglish. Html See also Gimson (2001 : Chapter 7) for some discussion on the changes of British English pronunciation. 10.Here is the official IPA website. See what you can find there. http : www. arts. gla . ac. uk~ipa/ipa. Html 11. Based on your observation of Chinese students learning to speak English, discuss some of the typical phonetic and phonological difficulties they may encounter and make suggestions as to how you may help them tackle the problems. Make use of, as far as possible, what you have learned in this chapter . 12. The discussion of phonological processes and phonological rules in this chapter are all illustrated with English examples. Consider relevant facts in ' Chinese and see if they work in the same way Chapter 3 Lexicon 1.Define the following terms. morpheme compound inflection affix derivation root . allomorph stem bound morpheme free morpheme lexeme lexicon grammatical word lexical word closed-class . open_class blending loanword loanblend loanshift acronym loss back- formation assimilation dissimilation folk etymology 2.Complete the words with suitable negative prefixes. a. removable m. syllabic b. formal n. normal c. practicable -o. workable d. sensible p. written e. Tangible q. usual f. logical r. thinkable g. regular s. human h. proportionate t. relevant i. effective u. Editable j. elastic v. mobile k. ductive w. legal l. rational x. Discreet 3. MORPHEME is defined as the smallest unit in terms of relationship between Expression on and content. Then is morpheme a grammatical concept or a semantic one?what is its relation to phoneme? Can a morpherne and a phoneme form an organic whole? 4. Read the following paragraph and list all the function words you can find. (Include all forms of be as function words. ) Give the percentage of function words in this paragraph. She was a small woman9 0ld and wrinkled. When she started washing for us, she was already past seventy. Most Jewish women of her age were sickly, weak, broken in body. But this washwoman, small and thin as she was~ possessed a strength that came from generations of peasant ancestors. Mother would count out to her a bag of Laundry that had accumulated over several weeks. She would lift the heavy bag, load it on her narrow shoulders, and carry it the long way Home. 5. A free form which consists entirely of two or more lesser free forms. . .is a phrase. A free form which is not a phrase is a word. A word, then,. . .is a minimum free form" (Bloomfield, 1935: 178). Answer the following questions : a) The term“word" is ambiguous. what kind of words is Bloomfield's definition intended to cover? (b) Are there any traditionally recognized words of English (in the appropriate sense of“word") that fail to satisfy Bloomfield's definition? (c) what other criteria have been involved in the definition of the word ? 6. Find the sources of the following blends. In cases where the dictionary not provide the answer9 your own ingenuity will be your guide. (a)bash (b) smash (c) glimmer (d) flimmer (e) clash (f) flare (g) brunch (h) motel (i) transistor (j) medicare (k) workaholic (l) spam (m) telethon (n) aerobicise (o) chunnel (p) chortle (q) bit (r) modem (s) guestimate (t) threepeat Determine the historically accurate etymology of the words in the first column, and underline the correct one in the second or in the third column. Column l Column 2 Column 3 (a) hangnail aching nail hanging nail (b) female a male's companion little woman (c) crayfish crawling fish crab (d) shamefaced face reflecting shame bound by shame (e) Jordan almond imported almond garden almond (f sparrowgrass a genus of herbs bird nesting in grass (g) beltre bell tower bell (h) bridegroom a woman is just or a man is just, or about about to be married to be married (i) muskrat a large rat-like animal a large musk deer (Algonquian: musquash) (j) woodchuck a north American goat a north American (Algonquian: otchek) marmot Determine the original term from which the following' words were back formed. (a) asset (b) burgle (c) enthuse . (d) greed (e) hush (f) automate . (g) donate (h) escalate (i)homesick (i) peddle (k) diagnose (l)tuit (m)amusing (n)loaf (o)self-destruct (p) attrit (q)hairdress (r)emote (s) drowse (t) frivol Identify the immediate etymological source of the following words(for example, the immediate source of "meaning " is French,although the more remote source is Latin. ) (a) air (b) barbecue (c) bungalow ; *. (d) cola (e) gusto (f) babel (g) buffalo (h) cocoa (i)costume (j) ill (k) mule (1) decreed (m) revolution (n) benevolent (o) lie (p) topic (q) subject (r) theme (s) wind (t) datum 10.Classify the following words as loanwords (LW), loanblends(LB) loanshifts (LS) or loan translation (LT) Booby trap coconut loan-wordmonk firewater free verse war paint Yankee 11. If there are two affixes-ly ,one producing adjectives and the other attaching to adjectives to produce adverbs, can we find words with both of these affixes? 12. Make a list of nouns from the following words that -s can attach to. Epiphany foot hathouse kitchen ox phenomenon . region sheep tomato 13. Are there any affixes that attach (relatively) productively to verbs, contribute no or very specific meaning, and do not change category?- Chapter 4 From Word to Text 1. Define the following terms. Syntax co-occurrence construction constituent endocentric exocentric subordination category coordinate agreement embedding recursiveness cohesion grammatical subject& logical subject 2.Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences (Hint;It may help to refer back to section 4.2.2) (a) The instructor told the students to study. (b) The customer requested for a cold beer. (c) The pilot landed the jet. (d) These dead trees must be removed. (e) That glass suddenly broke. 3.Put brackets around the immediate constituents in each sentence. Ex.((I)((rode)(back)))((when)((it)((was)(dark)))). (a) The boy was crying. (b) Shut the door. (c) Open the door quickly. (d) The happy teacher in that class was beaming away. (e) He bought an old car with his first pay cheque. 4. For each of the underlined constructions or word groups, do the following. -State whether it is headed or non-headed. -If headed, state its headword. -Name the type of constructions. Ex. His son will be keenly competing. Answer: headed, headword-competing; verbal group (a) Ducks quack (b) The ladder in the shed is long enough . (c) I saw a bridge damaged 'beyond repair. (d) Singing hymns is forbidden in some countries. (e) His handsome face appeared in the magazine. A lady of great beauty came out. (g) He enjoys climbing high mountains. (h) The man nodded patiently. (i) A man roused by the insult drew his sword. 5. In the pairs of sentences that follow, indicate with 'N" those that need not follow a particular order when they are joined by 'and". Indicate with "Y" those that need to be ordered. Aside from the examples below, in your opinion, which type is more relevant. --(a) The sun is shining. -----The wind is blowing. ---(b) Susie went to sleep. -----She had a dream. -----(c) John came in. ---He closed the door. ----(d) He came in. ----- John closed the door. (e) She felt embarrassed. She blushed. (D The sky is blue. The grass is green. -(g) He walked away. He got up. (h) He enjoyed the meal. He loved the pickles. 6.Combine the following pairs of sentences. Make the second sentence of each pair into a relative clause, and then embed it into the first. (a) The comet appears every twenty years. Dr. Okada discovered the comet. (b) Everyone respected the quarterback. The quarterback refused to give up. (c) The most valuable experiences were small ones. I had the experiences on my trip to Europe. (d) Children will probably become abusers of drugs or alcohol. Children's parents abuse alcohol. (e) Many nations are restricting emissions of noxious gases. The noxious gases threaten the atmosphere. 7.Use examples to illustrate different ways to extend syntactic constituents. 8. Mark the underlined parts of the sentences in Ex.4 A- 37 with the terms such as participial phrase, gerundial phrase, and so on. 9. Explain the main characteristics of subjects in English. Chapter 5 Meaning 1.Define the following terms. conceptual meaning denotation connotation reference Sense synonymy gradable antonymy complementary antonymy converse antonymy relational opposites hyponymy superordinate semantic component compositionality propositional logic proposition predicate logic logical connective 2 Read the following passage from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis_ Carroll, and discuss the meaning of mean in it. "Don't stand chattering to yourself like that," Humpty Dumpty said , looking at her for the first time, "but tell me your name and your business” "My name is Alice, but-" "It's a stupid name enough!" Humpty Dumpty interrupted impatiently."what does it mean?" “Must a name mean something?" Alice asked doubtfully. "Of course it must," Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh: my name means the shape I am-and a handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost. " 13. Analyse the poem below from the semantic point of view, taking a special ' account of sense relations. Coloured Dear White Fella You White Fella Couple things you should know- When you born, you pink When I born, I black When you grow up, you white When I grow up, I black When you go in sun ,you red When I go in sun ,I black When you cold, you blue When I cold, I black When you scared, you yellow When I scared, I black When You sick, you green When I sick, I black And when you die you grey And when I die-l still black And you have the check To call me coloured? 4, Do the following according the requirements. (a) Write out the synonyms of the following words: youth; automobile; remember; purchase; vacation; big (b) Give the antonyms of the following words,and point out in which aspect the two of each pair are opposite: dark, boy, hot, go (c) Provide two or more related meanings for the following: bright, to glare, a deposit, plane 5.Some people maintain that there are no true synonyms.if two words mean Really the same, one of them will definitely die out. An example often Quoted is the disuse of the word”wireless” which has been replaced by