新編簡明英語語言學教程第二版練習題參考答案

1、新編簡明英語語言學教程第二版 練習題 參考答案Chapter 1 Introduction1. Howdo you interpret the following definition of linguistics:Linguistics is thescientific study of language.答： Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure

2、. In order to discover the nature and rules of the underlying language system, the linguists has to collect and observe language facts first, which are found to display some similarities, and generalizations are made about them; then he formulates some hypotheses about the language structure. The hy

3、potheses thus formed have to be checked repeatedly against the observed facts to fully prove their validity. In linguistics, as in any other discipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation, that is, a theory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data without b

4、eing explained bysome theory remain a muddled mass ofthings.2. What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study?答： The major branches of linguistics are:(1) phonetics: it studies the sounds used in linguistic communication;(2) phonology: it studies how sounds are put together

5、 and used to convey meaning in communication;(3) morphology: it studies the way in which linguistic symbols representing sounds are arranged and combined to form words;(4) syntax: it studies the rules which govern how words are combined to form grammatically permissible sentences in languages;(5) se

6、mantics: it studies meaning conveyed by language;(6) pragmatics: it studies the meaning in the context of language use.3. In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar?答： The general approach thus traditionally formed to the study of language over the years is roughly re

7、ferred to as“ traditional grammar.” Modern linguisticsdiffers from traditional grammar in several basic ways.Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.Second, modemlinguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the

8、 other hand, tended to emphasize, maybe over-emphasize, the importance of the written word, partly because of its permanence.Then, modem linguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a Latin-based framework.4. Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or di

9、achronic? Why?答： In modem linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic one. Because people believed that unless the various states of a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken pla

10、ce in its historical development.5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority tospeech rather than towriting?答： Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary mediumof human language for

11、 some obvious reasons. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system of any language is always “ invented ” by its users to record speech when the need arises. Even in today's world there are still many languages that can only be spoken but not wr

12、itten. Then in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. And also, speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later when he goes to school. For modern ling

13、uists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is only the“revised ” record of speech.Thus their data for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regard as authentic.6. How is Saussure's distinction between langue and

14、 parole similar to Chomsky's distinction between competence and performance?答： Saussure's distinction and Chomsky's are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions, and Chomsky looks a

15、t language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.7. What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of language?答： First of all, language is a system, ., elements of language are comb

16、ined according to rules.Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for.Third, language is vocal because the primary medium for all languages is sound. Fourth, language is human-specific, i. e., it is very di

17、fferent from the communication systems other forms of life possess.8. What are the main features of human language that have been specified by C. Hockett to show that it is essentially different from animal communication system?答： The main features of human language are termed design features. They

18、include:1) ArbitrarinessLanguage is arbitrary. This means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. A good example is the fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages.2) ProductivityLanguage is productive or creative in that it makes p

19、ossible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. This is why they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences they have never heard before.3) DualityLanguage consists of two sets of structures, or two levels. At the lower orthe basi

20、c level there is a structure of sounds, which are meaningless by themselves. But the sounds of language can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning, which are found at the higher level of the system.4) DisplacementLanguage can be used to refer to things which are present or

21、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. This is what“ displacement ” means.5) Cultural transmissionWhile human capacity for language h

22、as a genetic basis, ., we were all born with the abilityto acquirelanguage,the detailsof any language system arenotgenetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.9. What arethe majorfunctionsof language?Think of your own examplesforillustration.答： Three main functions are often r

23、ecognized of language: the descriptive function, the expressive function, and the social function.The descriptive function is the function to convey factual information, which canbe asserted or denied, and in some cases even verified. For example:“ China is alarge country with a long history. ”The e

24、xpressive function supplies information about the user s feelings, preferences, prejudices, and values. For example: “ I will never go win dow-shopping with her. ”The social function serves to establish and maintain social relations between people. . For example:“ We are your firm supporters. ”Chapt

25、er 2 Speech Sounds1. What are the two major media of linguistic communication? Of the two, which one is primary and why?答： Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication.Of the two media of language, speech is more primary than writing,for reasons,please refer to the answer t

26、o the fifth problem in the last chapter.2. What is voicing and how is it caused?答： Voicing is a quality of speech sounds and a feature of all vowels and some consonants in English. It is caused by the vibration of the vocal cords.3. Explain with examples how broad transcription and narrow transcript

27、ion differ?答： The transcription with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription.Thisis the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks forgeneral purposes. The latter, . the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called narrow transcription. T

28、his is the transcription needed and used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds. With the help of the diacritics they can faithfully represent as much of the fine details as it is necessary for their purpose.In broad transcription, the symbol l is used for the sounds l in the fourwords

29、leaf li:f, feel fi:l, build bild, and health hel0 . As a matter offact, the sound l in all these four sound combinations differs slightly. Thelin li:f, occurring before a vowel, is called a dear l, and no diacritic is neededto indicate it; the 1 in fi:l and bild, another consonant, is pronounced dif

30、ferently is called dark ? and in narrow transcription it. Then in the sound combination hel 0 ,occurring at the end of a word or before from the clear 1 as i n “ leaf ” . It the diacritic ? is used to indicate the sound l is followed by the Englishdental sound 0 , its pronunciation is somewhat affec

31、ted by the dental sound that follows it. It is thus called a dental l, and in narrow transcription the diacritic、is used to indicate it. It is transcribed as hel0 .Another example is the consonant p. We all know that p is pronounceddifferently in the two words pit and spit. In the word pit, the soun

32、d p is pronounced with a strong puff of air, but in spit the puff of air is withheld to some extent.In the case of pit, the p sound is said to be aspirated and in the case of spit,the p sound is unaspirated. This difference is not shown in broad transcription, but in narrow transcription, a smallrai

33、sed“ h” is used to show aspiration, thuspit is transcribed as ph?t and spit is transcribed as sp?t.4. How are the English consonants classified?答： English consonants can be classified in two ways: one is in terms of mannerof articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. In terms o

34、f manner of articulation the English consonants can be classified into the following types: stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids, nasals and glides. In terms of place of articulation, it can be classified into following types: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal.5.

35、What criteria are used to classify the English vowels?答： Vowels may be distinguished as front, central, and back according to which part of the tongue is held highest. To further distinguish members of each group, we need to apply another criterion, . the openness of the mouth. Accordingly, we class

36、ify the vowels into four groups: close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, and open vowels. A third criterion that is often used in the classification of vowels is the shape of the lips.In English, all the frontvowels and the centralvowels are unfounded vowels, i. e., without rounding the l

37、ips,and all the back vowels,with the exception of a:, are rounded. It should be noted that some front vowels can be pronounced with rounded lips.6. A. Give the phonetic symbol for each of the following sound descriptions:1) voiced palatal affricate2) voiceless labiodental fricative3) voiced alveolar

38、 stop4) front, close, short5) back, semi-open, long6) voiceless bilabial stopB. Give the phonetic features of each of the following sounds:1) t 2) l 3) ? 4) w 5) ? 6) ?答： A. (1) ? (2) f (3) d (4) ? (5) ?: (6) pB. (1) voiceless alveolar stop (2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate (

39、4) voiced bilabial glide(5) back, close, short (6) front, open7. 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 ?, ph and p, a phonetician or a phonologist? Why?答： (1) Both phonology and phonetics are conc

40、erned with the same aspect of language the speech sounds. But while both are related to the study of sounds, theydiffer in their approach and focus. Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ from ea

41、ch other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified, etc. Phonology, on the other hand, aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.(2) A phonologist will be more interested in it. Be

42、cause one of the tasks of the phonologists is to find out rule that governs the distribution of l and ?, ph and p.8. What is a phone? How is it different from a phoneme? How are allophones related to a phoneme?答： A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produceduring ling

43、uistic communication are all phones. A phonemeis not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme. For e

44、xample, the phoneme /l/ in English can be realized as dark ?, clear l, etc. which are allophones of the phoneme /l/.9. Explain with examples the sequential rule, the assimilation rule, and the deletion rule.答： Rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called sequential

45、 rules.There are many such sequential rules in English. For example, if a word begins with a l or a r, then the next sound must be a vowel. That is why lbik lkbi are impossible combinations in English. They have violated the restrictions on the sequencing of phonemes.The assimilation rule assimilate

46、s one sound to another by “ copying ” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar.Assimilationofneighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatoryor physiologicalprocesses. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy ” tendency m

47、ay become regularized as rules of language.We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, ., itdoes not distinguish meaning. But this does not mean that vowels in English are never nasalized in actual pronunciation; in fact they are nasalized in certain phonetic contexts. Fo

48、r example, the i: sound is nasalized in words like bean, green, team, and scream. This is because in all these sound combinations the i: sound is followed by a nasal n or m.The assimilation rule also accounts for the varying pronunciation of the alveolar nasal n in some sound combinations. The rule

49、is that within a word, thenasal n assumes the same place of articulation as the consonantthat follows it.Weknow that in English the prefix in- can be added to maadjective to make the meaning of the word negative, . discreet- indiscreet, correct - incorrect. But the nsound in the prefix in- is not al

50、ways pronounced as an alveolar nasal. It is so in the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, . d, is an alveolar stop, but the n sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, ?; this is because the consonant that follows it is k, which is a velar stop.So we can

51、 see that while pronouncing the sound n, we are“ copying ” a featureof the consonant that follows it.Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. Wehave noticed that in the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no g s

52、ound although it is represented in spelling by the letter g. But in their corresponding forms signature, designation, and paradigmatic, the g represented by the letter g is pronounced. The rule can be stated as: Delete a g when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. Given the rule, the phonemic r

53、epresentation of the stems in sign - signature, resign - resignation, phlegm - phlegmatic, paradigm paradigmatic will include the phoneme /g/, which will be deleted according to the regular rule if no suffix is added.10. What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of E

54、nglish function in conveying meaning?答： The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features. The main suprasegmental features include stress, intonation, and tone. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. There are two kinds of stress:

55、word stress and sentence stress. For example, a shift of stress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun, to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged. Tones are pitch variations which can distinguish meaning just like phonemes.Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of

56、meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings.Chapter 3 Morphology1. Divide the following words into their separate morphemes by placing a“ +”between each morpheme and the next:a. microf

57、ile e. telecommunicationb. bedraggled f. forefatherc. announcement g. psychophysicsd. predigestion h. mechanist答： a. micro + fileb. be + draggle + edc. announce + mentd. pre + digest + ione. tele + communicate + ion f. fore + fatherg. psycho + physicsh. mechan + ist2. Think of three morpheme suffixe

58、s, give their meaning, and specify the types ofstem they may be suffixed to. Give at least two examples of each.Model: -orsuffix: -ormeaning: the person or thing performing the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: actor,“ one who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, etc.translator, “ one who translates ”答： (1) suffix: -abletype:meaning: something can be done or is possibleste