《新编语言学教程》练习参考答案

练习参考答案 说 明 应许多教师和学生的要求，我们编写了本教科书每章后面的习题答案。 但是，有两点必须说明一下。第一，对术语的定义或解释，多是以本书相关章 节为依据，所以会有些局限性。好在目前市场上有多种语言学词典，大家可参 考其他定义和解释。第二，对开放式问答题的回答，多为提示性的，而且也是 基于本书内容做的基本回答，往往显得过于简略。一方面，本书是入门性的教 程，对诸多问题的讨论仍欠深入；另一方面，每章后面附的参考书，可以告诉 读者到哪里去查找相关信息，加深对某个问题的了解。总之， 这里提供的答 案是参考性的，绝不是唯一的，更不是穷尽一切的。充其量，它只能给教师和 同学提供一点点方便而已。如发现不当之处，敬请指教。 编者 1 1. Define the following terms briefly. (1) linguistics: the scientific or systematic study of language. (2) language: a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communica- tion. (3) arbitrariness: the absence of similarity between the form of a linguistic sign and what it relates to in reality, e.g. the word dog does not look like a dog. (4) duality: the way meaningless elements of language at one level (sounds and letters) combine to form meaningful units (words) at another level. (5) competence: knowledge of the grammar of a language as a formal abstrac- tion and distinct from the behavior of actual language use, i.e. performance. (6) performance: Chomsky’s term for actual language behavior as distinct from the knowledge that underlies it, or competence. (7) stylistics: the study of how literary effects can be related to linguistic features. (8) phatic communion: Language is used to establish an atmosphere or main- tain social contact between the speaker and the hearer. (9) functionalism: the study of the forms of language in reference to their social function in communication. (10) formalism: the study of the abstract forms of language and their internal re- lations. (11) synchronic linguistics: the study of language and speech as they are used at a given moment and not in terms of how they have evolved over time. (12) diachronic linguistics: the study of linguistic change over time in contrast to looking at language as it is used at a given moment. 2. No, language is human-specific. Human language has seven design features, in- cluding arbitrariness, duality, productivity, interchangeability, displacement, spe- cialization and cultural transmission. These features are found utterly lacking in dogs’ or pigs’ noises and thus set human language apart from animal cry systems. 3. Arbitrariness refers to the fact that there is no logical or intrinsic connection be- Chapter 1 Introduction 2 tween a particular sound and the meaning it is associated with. For example, for the same animal dog, in English we call it /d0g/, in Chinese as “gou”, but “yilu” in Japanese; it barks wow wow in English but wang wang in Chinese. Of course, ono- matopoetic words such as “quack-quack” and “bang” are exceptions, but words like these are relatively few compared with the total number of words in a lan- guage. 4. A human baby does not speak any language at birth. What language the baby is going to speak is determined by the culture he is born into. A Chinese baby born and brought up in London by an English family will speak English, while an Eng- lish child brought up in Beijing by a Chinese aunt will speak Chinese. That is to say, language cannot be transmitted through heredity. It is culturally transmitted. 5. Firstly, linguistics describes languages and does not lay down rules of correctness while traditional grammar emphasizes correctness. Secondly, linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, while traditional grammar emphasizes the prior- ity of the written language. Thirdly, traditional grammar is based on Latin and it tries to impose the Latin categories and structures on other languages, while lin- guistics describes each language on its own merits. 6. A descriptive approach attempts to tell what is in the language while the prescrip- tive approach tells people what should be in the language. Most modern linguis- tics is descriptive, whereas traditional grammars are prescriptive. 7. Synchronic linguistics studies language at one particular time while diachronic linguistics studies language developments through time. Synchronic linguistics focuses on the state of language at any point in history while diachronic linguis- tics focuses on the differences in two or more than two states of language over decades or centuries. 8. No, human language has the design feature of specialization. It refers to the fact that man does not have a total physical involvement in the act of communication. For example, a mother can tell a story to her child while slicing up a cake. Howev- er, wolves can only respond to a stimulus and is totally involved physically in the communication process. Thus, a wolf cannot have a language similar to man’s, even though it could express a thousand different emotions. Besides, the aspect of productivity also distinguishes human language from wolf ’s postures. 3 Chapter 2 The Sounds of Language 1. Define each of the following terms briefly. (1) articulator: the tongue, lips, and velum, which change the shape of the vocal tract to produce different speech sounds. (2) assimilation: a phonological process whereby a sound becomes phonetically similar (or identical) to a neighboring sound, e.g. a vowel becomes [+nasal] when followed by a [+nasal] consonant. (3) consonant: a speech sound produced by partial or complete closure of part of the vocal tract, thus obstructing the airflow and creating audible friction. Consonants are described in terms of voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation. (4) elision: the leaving out of a sound or sounds in speech. (5) intonation: the variation in pitch and stress which gives beat and rhythm to the tune the voice plays in ordinary speech. (6) phoneme: the abstract element of a sound, identified as being distinctive in a particular language. (7) phonetics: the study of linguistic speech sounds, how they are produced, how they are perceived, and their physical properties. (8) phonology: the study of the abstract systems underlying the sounds of lan- guage. (9) stress: the prominence given to certain sounds in speech. (10) voicing: the vibration in the larynx caused by air from the lungs passing through the vocal cords when they are partly closed; speech sounds are said to be either voiced or voiceless. (11) voiceless: When the vocal cords are spread apart, the airstream from the lungs is not obstructed at the space between vocal cords and passes freely. The sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless sounds. (12) vowel: a speech sound produced without significant constriction of the air flowing through the oral cavity. 2. Minimal pair test or substitution test. Minimal pair test or substitution test is to see whether substituting one sound for 4 another results in a different word. If it does, the two sounds represent different phonemes. For example, as to the English word bear, if we substitute p for b, we get the word pear, the two are different words. Then /b/ and /p/ represent differ- ent phonemes. Other examples are chunk/junk, ban/bin, bet/beat, fine/vine, side/ site, etc. 3. Take the word big for example, in the word big /big/, /b/ is the onset, /i/ is the nucleus and /g/ is the coda. The difference between open syllables and closed syl- lables is whether the words have codas. If there are codas, they are closed syllables, such as pig, hat and at; if not, they are open syllables, such as do, I, tea and key. 4. (1) stop, consonant (2) back, rounded, vowel 5. (1) voiceless / voiced (2) bilabial / labiodental (3) close / semi-open (4) stop / nasal (5) alveolar / palatal (6) alveolar / dental (1) kit/git, bucker/bugger, bag/back (2) mark/nark, smack/snack, sum/sun (3) best/vest, ober/over, lib/live (4) bore/more, abate/amate, mob/mom (5) pat/fat, apt/aft (AmE), harp (BrE)/half 7. (1) The stresses are placed on the second syllable except for “promise”. We may easily conclude that the verbs usually are stressed on the second syllable. (2) Syllable representations of the words: collide [k2#laid] elect [i#lekt] consider [k2n#sid2] Chapter 3 Morphology 1. Define the following terms briefly. (1) morphology: the study of the structure of words. 5 (2) morpheme: the smallest unit of language that carries meaning or serves a grammatical function. (3) free morpheme: a morpheme that can stand alone as a word. (4) bound morpheme: a morpheme that can not stand alone as a word, e.g. -ment (as in establishment), and -er (as in painter). (5) morph: the smallest meaningful phonetic segments of an utterance on the level of parole. (6) allomorph: a phonetic form in which a morpheme is realized, e.g. -s, -es, and -en are all allomorphs (in writing) of the plural morpheme. (7) derivation: the formation of new words by adding affixes to other words or morphemes in morphology and word formation. (8) clipping: the process by which parts of a word of more than one syllable have been cut off, and reduced to a shorter form. (9) acronym: words which are composed of the first letter of a series of words and are pronounced as single words. Examples: NATO, radar and yuppy. (10) initialism: Some new words are composed of the first letters of a series of words and pronounced by saying each letter in them. Such words are called initialism. (11) blending: A single new word can be formed by combining two separate forms. Typically, blending is finished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of another word. For example, brunch is formed by the shortened forms of breakfast and lunch. (12) root: the morpheme that remains when all affixes are stripped from a com- plex word, e.g. system from un- + system + atic + ally. (13) stem: the base to which one or more affixes are attached to create a more complex form that may be another stem or a word. For example, book is the stem of bookish. (14) prefix: Affixes can be joined to the beginning of the root or stem, in which case they are called prefixes. (15) suffix: Affixes can be joined to the end of the root or stem, in which case they are called suffixes. 2. (3), (5), (7) 3. (1) simple: fly tree suite 6 (2) bound morpheme root fly / fly reuse re- use spiteful -ful spite preplan pre- plan desks -s desk triumphed -ed triumph suite / suite optionality -ality option untie un- tie delight de- light fastest -est fast prettier -ier pretty tree / tree justly -ly just deform de- form mistreat mis- treat dislike dis- like payment -ment pay disobey dis- obey premature pre- mature 4. (1) Column I: ablaut (vowel modification) Column II: suppletion Column III: stress modification (2) The process in the Column I is finished by changing the vowel of each word, while in Column II, the process is finished by changing vowel and consonant of each word. (3) Column I: awake/awoke bear/bore arise/arose blow/blew bite/bit hide/hid lie/lay know/knew foot/feet goose/geese tooth/teeth louse/lice Column II: bad/worse are/were many/more Column III: #combine/com#bine #compress/com#press 7 #conduct/con#duct #insert/in#sert #insult/in#sult #intern/in#tern 5. (1) Omitted. (2) Other examples: #rerun (n.) – re#run (v.) #contrast (n.) – con#trast (v.) #convert (n.) – con#vert (v.) #desert (n.) – de#sert (v.) #export (n.) – ex#port (v.) #increase (n.) – in#crease (v.) #conduct (n.) – con#duct (v.) #object (n.) – ob#ject (v.) #content (n.) – con#tent (v.) #protest (n.) – pro#test (v.) #insult (n.) – in#sult (v.) #produce (n.) – pro#duce (v.) When a word belongs to different word classes, the stress of the word will be sometimes placed on different syllables. When all the words above are stressed on the first syllables, they are nouns, but if they have the second syllables stressed, the words become verbs. 6. (1) It means “the inhabitant of”. (2) It means “the person who does”. (3) The morphological rule working here is “n. + -er –– n.”, and the last pho- neme of the noun, which the suffix -er is added to, should be a consonant. (4) The rule in (3) doesn’t work in the word discoverer because the last phoneme of discoverer is a vowel /2/. 7. (1) inflection (2) derivation (3) inflection (4) inflection (5) derivation Chapter 4 Syntax 1. Define the following terms briefly. (1) syntax: the term used to refer to the structure of sentences and to the study of sentence structure. (2) word class: a group of words which are similar in function; words which are grouped into word classes according to how they combine with other words, how they change their forms, etc. (3) prescriptive approach: This view regards grammar as a set of rules for the 8 “proper” use of a language, that’s to say, it tries to lay down rules to tell peo- ple how to use a language. (4) descriptive approach: the approach of linguistic studies, with which linguists collect samples of the language they are interested in and attempt to describe the regular structures of the language as they are used, not according to some view of how they should be used. (5) IC analysis: the approach to divide the sentence up into its immediate con- stituents by using binary cutting until obtaining its ultimate constituents. For example, the immediate constituents of “The man bought a car” are the man and bought a car. The immediate constituents of the man are the and man, and so on until no further cuts can be made. The ultimate constituents of “The man bought a car” at the word level are the, man, bought, a, and car. (6) structural analysis: a type of descriptive approach to study the distribution of linguistic forms in a language through such methods as the use of “test frames”. (7) immediate constituent: Linguistic units can be divided into small constitu- ents, which can be further analyzed into smaller constituents. This process continues until no further divisions are possible. The first division or units are known as immediate constituents. (8) ultimate constituent: Linguistic units can be divided into small constituents, which can be further analyzed into smaller constituents. This process con- tinues until no further divisions are possible. The final division or units are known as ultimate constituents. (9) constituent structural grammar: It refers to a grammar which analyzes sen- tences using only the idea of constituency, which reveals a hierarchy of struc- tural levels. (10) transformational grammar: a type of grammar which attempts to define and describe by a set of rules or principles all the grammatical sentences (without ungrammatical ones) of a language. (11) ideational function: the use of language as a means of giving structure to our experience of the real or imaginary world. (12) interpersonal function: the use of language for maintaining social roles and interacting with others. (13) textual function: to create written or spoken texts which cohere within them- selves and which fit the particular situation in which they are used. 2. Yes. As we know, morphology is the study of the internal structure, forms and 9 classes of words, while syntax focuses on the structure and ordering of compo- nents within a sentence. The major distinction between morphology and syntax is that the former is concerned with the internal composition of a word, while the latter is concerned with the combination of words. 3. (2) Instead of using the form “suggest somebody to do something”, we usually use “suggest + that-clause” or “suggest doing”, here we’d better substitute “advise” for “suggest” (4) The word “request” is a transitive verb which should take an object directly, so the word “for” should be omitted. (6) The word “donate” cannot be followed by double objects as “donate some- body something”. Instead we always use “donate something to somebody”. (10) The subject of the verb “write” is usually a human; an “article” cannot write itself. In this case the passive construction is normally used: The article was very well writen. (11) Usually we don’t use “be bored of something/somebody”, but “be bored with something/somebody” which means losing interest in somebody/something. (13) Here “myself” is a reflexive pronoun, which can’t be used as subject, and it should be replaced by “I”. (14) The word “surprise” is usually used as a transitive verb, so the expression “…surprise for you” is ungrammatical, and it can be replaced by “surprise somebody (with something)” or “I was surprised by your getting married.” (15) The word “sleep” is usually used as an intransitive verb, which can’t take an object. The cases of “sleep” being used as a transitive verb are semantically limited, as in “to sleep a good sleep” or “the room can sleep 3 people”. 4. It’s ungrammatical, because “us” is the objective case which can’t serve as the sub- ject, while “she” is the subjective case which can’t serve as the object. The sentence should be “We visit her on Sundays”. The personal pronouns “you” and “it” have the same form whether used as the subject or object. 5. (1) NP: A Guns “N” Roses concert, an arena, some 2500 fans, a full-fledged riot, A Guns “N” Roses concert at an arena , A Guns “N” Roses concert at an arena near ST. Louis ,The trouble, venue security, a camera, the front, the stage, the front of the stage. PP: at an arena, at an arena near ST. Louis, near ST. Louis, in disaster, near the front, of the stage, near the front of the stage. VP: staged a full-fledged riot, asked venue security, confiscate a camera. (2) N: Guns, Roses, concert, arena, ST. Louis, disaster, fans, riot, trouble, Axl 10 Rose, venue, security, camera, front, stage. Prep: at, near, in, of. V: end, stage, start, ask, confiscate, see. 6. (1) You mustn’t end a sentence with a preposition. You mustn’t split infinitives. 7. (i) (ii) 8. (1) a. Terry loves his wife and I love his wife, too. b. I love my wife as well as Terry loves his wife. (2) a. It’s yesterday that they said she would go. b. She would go yesterday as they said. (3) a. The governor is a street fighter who is dirty. b. The governor is a fighter in a dirty street. (4) a. The design has squares and circles, both of which are big. b. The design has big squares, and it also has some circles. (The sizes of the circles are not mentioned.) The mancar. S Art N Art N NP VP Adv Art N V NP Prep NP The dog bit the man in the car. S Art N Art N Prep NP NP VP Art N V NP P The dog bit the man in the car. 11 Chapter 5 Semantics 1. Define the following terms briefly. (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 defined as observable behaviors which is an approach drawing on psychology. (5) use theor