《新编语言学教程》课后答案

新编简明英语语言学教程第2版学习指南答案Study Guide for New Concise English Linguistics Tutorial 2nd Edition AnswersIntroductionThe New Concise English Linguistics Tutorial 2nd Edition is a comprehensive guide to the study of the English language. This study guide provides answers to the exercises and questions found in the textbook, helping students to better understand the concepts and theories discussed in each chapter.Chapter 1: Introduction to Linguistics1.1 What is Linguistics?Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure, including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.1.2 What are the subfields of Linguistics?The subfields of linguistics include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.1.3 What is the difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar?Prescriptive grammar is concerned with rules for what is considered "correct" language use, while descriptive grammar describes how language is actually used by speakers.Chapter 2: Phonetics and Phonology2.1 What is phonetics?Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, including their production, transmission, and reception.2.2 What is phonology?Phonology is the study of the sound system of a language, including the patterns and rules that govern the pronunciation of words.2.3 What is the difference between consonants and vowels?Consonants are speech sounds that are produced with some degree of obstruction in the vocal tract, while vowels are speech sounds that are produced without obstruction.Chapter 3: Morphology3.1 What is morphology?Morphology is the study of the structure of words and how words are formed from smaller units called morphemes.3.2 What are free and bound morphemes?Free morphemes can stand alone as words, while bound morphemes must be attached to other morphemes to form a complete word.3.3 What is the difference between inflectional and derivational morphemes?Inflectional morphemes modify the grammatical function of a word (e.g., tense, number), while derivational morphemes create new words or change the meaning of existing words.Chapter 4: Syntax4.1 What is syntax?Syntax is the study of the structure of sentences and how words are combined to create meaningful phrases and sentences.4.2 What is the difference between phrases and clauses?Phrases are groups of words that function as a single unit within a sentence, while clauses are larger structures that contain a subject and a predicate.4.3 What is the difference between syntax and semantics?Syntax deals with the structure of language, while semantics is concerned with the meaning of language.Chapter 5: Semantics and Pragmatics5.1 What is semantics?Semantics is the study of meaning in language, including how words and sentences convey meaning.5.2 What is pragmatics?Pragmatics is the study of how context influences the interpretation of language, including the social and cultural factors that affect communication.5.3 What are speech acts?Speech acts are actions that are performed through speech, such as making a request or giving an order.ConclusionThis study guide provides answers to the exercises and questions found in the New Concise English Linguistics Tutorial 2nd Edition, helping students to deepen their understanding of the core concepts and theories in the study of English linguistics. By using this guide, students can enhance their knowledge andskills in the field of linguistics and improve their overall comprehension of the English language.。

第二部分章节题库第1章导论I.Fill in the blanks.1.In Saussure’s view,the relationship between signifier(sound image)andsignified(concept)is_____.（北二外2003研）【答案】arbitrary【解析】索绪尔认为符号的形式或声音与其意义之间没有逻辑联系，所以两者之间的关系是任意的。

2.Human languages enable their users to symbolize objects,events and concepts which are not present(in time and space)at the moment of communication.This quality is labeled as_____.（北二外2003研）【答案】displacement【解析】移位性是指人类语言可以让使用者在交际时用语言符号代表时间和空间上不可及的物体、事件和观点。

3._____refers to the role language plays in communication(e.g.to express ideas, attitudes)or in particular social situations(e.g.Religious,legal).（北二外2016研）【答案】Function【解析】本题考查语言学中对“语言的功能”的定义。

功能指的是语言在沟通中（例如表达观点、态度）或在特定社交场合（如宗教、法律）中所起的作用。

4.The features that define our human languages can be called_____features.（北二外2006研）【答案】design【解析】人类语言区别于其他动物交流系统的特点是语言的区别特征，是人类语言特有的特征。

《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版练习题参考答案Chapter 1 Introduction1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language.答： Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. 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 hypotheses 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 being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.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 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) semantics: 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 referred to as “traditional grammar.” Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar inseveral basic ways.Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.Second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, notthe written. Traditional grammarians, on the 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 diachronic? Why?答： In modem linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoypriority 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 place in its historical development.5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speechrather than to writing?答： Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for 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” byits 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 written. 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 linguists, 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 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 at 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, i.e., elements of language are combined 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 different 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 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 possible 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 or the basic 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 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 has a genetic basis, i.e., we were all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.9. What are the major functions of language? Think of your own examples for illustration.答： Three main functions are often recognized of language: the descriptive function, the expressive function, and the social function. The descriptive function is the function to convey factual information, which can be asserted or denied, and in some cases even verified. Fore xample: “China is a large country with a long history.”The expressive function supplies information about the user’s feelings, preferences, prejudices, and values. For example: “I will never go window-shopping with her.”The social function serves to establish and maintain social relations between people. . For example: “We are your firm supporters.”Chapter 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 to 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 narrowtranscription differ?答： The transcription with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. The latter, i.e. the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called narrow transcription. This 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 four words leaf [li:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], and health [helθ]. As a matter of fact, the sound [l] in all these four sound combinations differs slightly. The [l] in [li:f], occurring before a vowel, is called a dear [l], and no diacritic is needed to indicate it; the [1] in [fi:l] and [bild], occurring at the end of a word or before another consonant, is pronounced differently from the clear [1] as in “leaf”. It is called dark [?] and in narrow transc ription thediacritic [?] is used to indicate it. Then in the sound combination [helθ], the sound [l] is followed by the English dental sound [θ], its pronunciation is somewhat affected by the dental sound that follows it. It is thus called a dental [l], and in narrow transcription thediacritic [、] is used to indicate it. It is transcribed as [helθ].Another example is the consonant [p]. We all know that [p] is pronounced differently in the two words pit and spit. In the word pit, the sound [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 small raised “h” is used to show aspiration, thus pit 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 manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. In terms of 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. 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, i.e. the openness of the mouth. Accordingly, we classify 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 front vowels and the central vowels are unfounded vowels, i. e., without rounding the lips, 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 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) [p]B. (1) voiceless alveolar stop (2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate (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 concerned with the same aspect of language –– the speech sounds. But while both are related to the study of sounds,, they differ 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 each 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. Because 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 produce during linguistic communication are all phones. A phoneme is 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 example, 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 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 assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy” tendency may become regularized as rules of language.We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, i.e., it does 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. For 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 is that within a word, the nasal [n] assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it. We know that in English the prefix in- can be added to ma adjective to make the meaning of the word negative, e.g. discreet – indiscreet, correct – incorrect. But the [n] sound in the prefix in- is not always pronounced as an alveolar nasal. It is soin the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, i.e. [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, i.e. [?]; this is because the consonantthat follows it is [k], which is a velar stop. So we can see that while pronouncing the sound [n], we are “copying” a feature of the consonant that follows it.Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. We have noticed that in the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound 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 representation 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 English 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: 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 meaning inalmost every language, especially in a language like English. Whenspoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have differentmeanings.Chapter 3 Morphology1. Divide the following words into their separate morphemes by placing a“ ” between each morpheme and the next:a. microfile e. telecommunicationb. bedraggled f. forefatherc. announcement g. psychophysicsd. predigestion h. mechanist答：a. micro file b. be draggle edc. announce mentd. pre digest ione. tele communicate ionf. fore fatherg. psycho physics h. mechan ist2. Think of three morpheme suffixes, give their meaning, and specify thetypes of stem they may be suffixed to. Give at least two examples ofeach.Model: -orsuffix: -ormeaning: the person or thing performing the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: actor, “one who acts in stage plays, motionpictures, etc.” translator, “one who translates”答：(1) suffix: -ablemeaning: something can be done or is possiblestem type: added to verbsexamples: acceptable, “can be accepted”respectable, “can be respected”(2) suffix: -lymeaning: functionalstem type: added to adjectivesexamples: freely. “adverbial form of ‘free’ ”qu ickly, “adverbial form of 'quick' ”.(3) suffix: -eemeaning: the person receiving the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: employee, “one who works in a company”interviewee, “one who is interviewed”3. Think of three morpheme prefixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem they may be prefixed to. Give at least two examples of each.Model: a-prefix: a-meaning: “without; not”stem type: added to adjectivesexamples: asymmetric, “lacking symmetry” asexual, “without sex or sex organs”答：(1) prefix: dis-meaning: showing an oppositestem type: added to verbs or nounsexamples : disapprove, “do not approve”dishonesty, “lack of honesty”.(2) prefix: anti-meaning: against, opposed tostem type: added to nouns or adjectivesexamples : antinuclear, “opposing the use of atomic weapons and power”antisocial, “opposed or harmful to the laws and customs of an organized community. ”(3) prefix: counter-meaning: the opposite ofstem type: added to nouns or adjectives.examples: counterproductive, “prod ucing results opposite to those intended”counteract, “act against and reduce the force oreffect of (sth.) ”4. The italicized part in each of the following sentences is an inflectional morpheme. Study each inflectional morpheme carefully and point out its grammatical meaning.Sue moves in high-society circles in London.A traffic warden asked John to move his car.The club has moved to Friday, February 22nd.The branches of the trees are moving back and forth.答：(1) the third person singular(2) the past tense(3) the present perfect(4) the present progressive5. Determine whether the words in each of the following groups are related to one another by processes of inflection or derivation.a) go, goes, going, goneb) discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable, discoverabilityc) inventor, inventor’s, inventors, inventors’d) democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize答：(略)6. The following sentences contain both derivational and inflectional affixes. Underline all of the derivational affixes and circle the inflectional affixes.a) The farmer’s cows escaped.b) It was raining.c) Those socks are inexpensive.d) Jim needs the newer copy.e) The strongest rower continued.f) She quickly closed the book.g) The alphabetization went well.答：(略)Chapter 4 Syntax1. What is syntax?Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.2. What is phrase structure rule?The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements(i.e. specifiers, heads, and complements) that make up a phrase iscalled a phrase structure rule.The phrase structural rule for NP, VP, AP, and PP can be written as follows:NP → (Det) N (PP) ...VP → (Qual) V (NP) ...AP → (Deg) A (PP) ...PP → (Deg) P (NP) ...The general phrasal structural rule ( X stands for the head N, V, A or P):The XP rule: XP → (specifier) X (complement)3. What is category? How to determine a word's category?Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.To determine a word's category, three criteria are usually employed, namely meaning, inflection and distribution. A word's distributionalfacts together with information about its meaning and inflectional capabilities help identify its syntactic category.4. What is coordinate structure and what properties does it have?The structure formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction is called coordinate structures. Conjunction exhibits four important properties:1) There is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction.2) A category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated.3) Coordinated categories must be of the same type.4) The category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.5. What elements does a phrase contain and what role does each element play?A phrase usually contains the following elements: head, specifier and complement. Sometimes it also contains another kind of element termed modifier.The role of each elementHead:Head is the word around which a phrase is formed.Specifier:Specifier has both special semantic and syntactic roles. Semantically,it helps to make more precise the meaning of the head. Syntactically, it typically marks a phrase boundary.Complement:Complements are themselves phrases and provide information aboutentities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.Modifier:Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of the heads.6. What is deep structure and what is surface structure?There are two levels of syntactic structure. The first, formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head's subcategorization properties, is called deep structure (or D-structure). The second, corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations, is called surface structure (or S-structure).7. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences. a) The old lady got off the bus carefully.Det A N V P Det N Advb) The car suddenly crashed onto the river bank.Det N Adv V P Det Nc) The blinding snowstorm might delay the opening of the schools.Det A N Aux V Det N P Det Nd) This cloth feels quite soft.Det N V Deg A（以下8-12题只作初步的的成分划分，未画树形图, 仅供参考）8. The following phrases include a head, a complement, and a specifier. Draw the appropriate tree structure for each.a) rich in mineralsXP(AP) → head (rich) A complement (in minerals) PPb) often read detective storiesXP(VP) → specifier (often) Qual head (read) V complement (detective stories) NPc) the argument against the proposalsXP(NP) → specifier (the) Det head (argument) N complement (against the proposals) PPd) already above the windowXP(VP) → specifier (already) Deg head (above) P complement (the window) NP9. The following sentences contain modifiers of various types. For each sentence, first identify the modifier(s), then draw the tree structures.（划底线的为动词的修饰语，斜体的为名词的修饰语）a) A crippled passenger landed the airplane with extreme caution.b) A huge moon hung in the black sky.c) The man examined his car carefully yesterday.d) A wooden hut near the lake collapsed in the storm.10. The following sentences all contain conjoined categories. Draw a tree structure for each of the sentences. （划底线的为并列的范畴）a) Jim has washed the dirty shirts and pants.b) Helen put on her clothes and went out.c) Mary is fond of literature but tired of statistics.11. The following sentences all contain embedded clauses that function as complements of a verb, an adjective, a preposition or a noun. Draw a tree structure for each sentence. （划底线的为补语从句）a) You know that I hate war.b) Gerry believes the fact that Anna flunked the English exam.c) Chris was happy that his father bought him a Rolls-Royce.d) The children argued over whether bats had wings.12. Each of the following sentences contains a relative clause. Draw the deep structure and the surface structure trees for each of these sentences. （划底线的为关系从句）a) The essay that he wrote was excellent.b) Herbert bought a house that she lovedc) The girl whom he adores majors in linguistics.13. The derivations of the following sentences involve the inversion transformation. Give the deep structure and the surface structure of each of these sentences.a) Would you come tomorrow? (surface structure)you would come tomorrow (deep structure)b) What did Helen bring to the party? (surface structure)Helen brought what to the party (deep structure)c) Who broke the window? (surface structure)who broke the window (deep structure)Chapter 5 Semantics1. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning?答：(1) The naming theory proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.(2) The conceptualist view has been held by some philosophers and linguists from ancient times. This view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i. e., between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.(3) The contextualist view held that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context –– elements closely linked with language behaviour. The representative of this approach was J.R. Firth, famous British linguist.(4) Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” This theory, somewhat close to contextualism, is linked with psychological interest.2. What are the major types of synonyms in English?答： The major types of synonyms are dialectal synonyms, stylistic synonyms, emotive or evaluative synonyms, collocational synonyms, and semantically different synonyms.Examples（略）3. Explain with examples “homonymy”, “polysemy”, and “hyponymy”.答：(1) Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.。

《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版练习题参考答案Chapter 1 Introduction1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language.答：Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. 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 hypotheses 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 being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.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 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 formgrammatically permissible sentences in languages;(5) semantics: 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 referred to as “traditional grammar.”Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in several basic ways.Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.Second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the 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 diachronic? 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 place in its historical development.5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing?答：Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of humanlanguage for some obvious reasons. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speec h 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 written. 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 linguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is o nly 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 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 at 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, i.e., elements of language are combined 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 different 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 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 possible 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 or the basic 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 not present, real orimagined 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 spe aker. This is what “displacement” means.5) Cultural transmissionWhile human capacity for language has a genetic basis, i.e., we were all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.9. What are the major functions of language? Think of your own examples for illustration. 答：Three main functions are often recognized of language: the descriptive function, the expressive function, and the social function.The descriptive function is the function to convey factual information, which can be asserted or denied, and in some cases even verified. For example: “China is a large country with a long history.”The expressive function supplies information about the user’s feelings, preferences, prejudices, and values. For example: “I will never go window-shopping with her.”The social function serves to establish and maintain social relations between people. . For example: “We are your firm supporters.”Chapter 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 to 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 transcription differ?答：The transcription with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. The latter, i.e. the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called narrow transcription. This 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 four words leaf [li:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], and health [helθ]. As a matter of fact, the sound [l] in all these four sound combinations differs slightly. The [l] in [li:f], occurring before a vowel, is called a dear [l], and no diacritic is needed to indicate it; the [1] in [fi:l] and [bild], occurring at the end of a word or before another consonant, is pronounced differently from the clear [1] as in “leaf”. It is called dark [?] and in narrow transcription the diacritic [?] is used to indicate it. Then in the sound combination [helθ], the sound [l] is followed by the English dental sound [θ], its pronunciation is somewhat affected 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 [helθ].Another example is the consonant [p]. We all know that [p] is pronounced differently in the two words pit and spit. In the word pit, the sound [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 small raised “h” is used to show aspiration, thus pit 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 manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. In terms of 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. 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, i.e. the openness of the mouth. Accordingly, we classify 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 front vowels and the central vowels are unfounded vowels, i.e., without rounding the lips, and all the back vowels, with the exception of [a:], arerounded. 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 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) [p]B. (1) voiceless alveolar stop (2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate (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 concerned with the same aspect of language ––the speech sounds. But while both are related to the study of sounds,, they differ 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 differfrom each 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. Because 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 toa phoneme?答：A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. A phoneme is 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 example, 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 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 assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of asequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy” tendency may become regularized as rules of language.We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, i.e., it does 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. For 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 is that within a word, the nasal [n] assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it. We know that in English the prefix in- can be added to ma adjective to make the meaning of the word negative, e.g. discreet – indiscreet, correct – incorrect. But the [n] sound in the prefix in- is not always pronounced as an alveolar nasal. It is so in the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, i.e. [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, i.e. [?]; this is because the consonant that follows it is [k], which is a velar stop. So we can see that while pronouncing the sound [n], we are “copying” a feature of the c onsonant that follows it.Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. We have noticed that in the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound although it is represented in spelling by the letterg. 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 representation 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 English 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: 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 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. microfile e. telecommunicationb. bedraggled f. forefatherc. announcement g. psychophysicsd. predigestion h. mechanist答：a. micro + file b. be + draggle + edc. announce + mentd. pre + digest + ione. tele + communicate + ionf. fore + fatherg. psycho + physics h. mechan + ist2. Think of three morpheme suffixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem 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: -ablemeaning: something can be done or is possiblestem type: added to verbsexamples: acceptable, “can be accepted”respectable, “can be respected”(2) suffix: -lymeaning: functionalstem type: added to adjectivesexamples: freely. “adverbial form of ‘free’ ”quickly, “adverbial form of 'quick' ”.(3) suffix: -eemeaning: the person receiving the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: employee, “one who works in a company”interviewee, “one who is interviewed”3. Think of three morpheme prefixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem they may be prefixed to. Give at least two examples of each.Model: a-prefix: a-meaning: “without; not”stem type: added to adjectivesexamples: asymmetric, “lacking symmetry” asexual, “without sex or sex organs”答：(1) prefix: dis-meaning: showing an oppositestem type: added to verbs or nounsexamples : disapprove, “do not approve”dishonesty, “lack of honesty”.(2) prefix: anti-meaning: against, opposed tostem type: added to nouns or adjectivesexamples : antinuclear, “opposing the use of atomic weapons and power”antisocial, “opposed or harmful to the laws and customs of an organized community. ”(3) prefix: counter-meaning: the opposite ofstem type: added to nouns or adjectives.examples: counterproductive, “producing results opposite to those intended”counteract, “act against and reduce the force or effect of (sth.) ”4. The italicized part in each of the following sentences is an inflectional morpheme. Study each inflectional morpheme carefully and point out its grammatical meaning.Sue moves in high-society circles in London.A traffic warden asked John to move his car.The club has moved to Friday, February 22nd.The branches of the trees are moving back and forth.答：(1) the third person singular(2) the past tense(3) the present perfect(4) the present progressive5. Determine whether the words in each of the following groups are related to one another by processes of inflection or derivation.a) go, goes, going, goneb) discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable, discoverabilityc) inventor, inventor’s, inventors, inventors’d) democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize答：(略)6. The following sentences contain both derivational and inflectional affixes. Underline all of the derivational affixes and circle the inflectional affixes.a) The farmer’s cows escaped.b) It was raining.c) Those socks are inexpensive.d) Jim needs the newer copy.e) The strongest rower continued.f) She quickly closed the book.g) The alphabetization went well.答：(略)Chapter 4 Syntax1. What is syntax?Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.2. What is phrase structure rule?The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements (i.e. specifiers, heads, and complements) that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule. The phrase structural rule for NP, VP, AP, and PP can be written as follows: NP →(Det) N (PP) ...VP →(Qual) V (NP) ...AP →(Deg) A (PP) ...PP →(Deg) P (NP) ...The general phrasal structural rule ( X stands for the head N, V, A or P):The XP rule: XP →(specifier) X (complement)3. What is category? How to determine a word's category?Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.T o determine a word's category, three criteria are usually employed, namely meaning, inflection and distribution. A word's distributional facts together with information about its meaning and inflectional capabilities help identify its syntactic category.4. What is coordinate structure and what properties does it have?The structure formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction is called coordinate structures.Conjunction exhibits four important properties:1) There is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction.2) A category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated.3) Coordinated categories must be of the same type.4) The category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.5. What elements does a phrase contain and what role does each element play?A phrase usually contains the following elements: head, specifier and complement. Sometimes it also contains another kind of element termed modifier.The role of each elementHead:Head is the word around which a phrase is formed.Specifier:Specifier has both special semantic and syntactic roles. Semantically, it helps to make more precise the meaning of the head. Syntactically, it typically marks a phrase boundary.Complement:Complements are themselves phrases and provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.Modifier:Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of the heads.6. What is deep structure and what is surface structure?There are two levels of syntactic structure. The first, formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head's subcategorization properties, is called deep structure (or D-structure).The second, corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations, is called surface structure (or S-structure).7. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences. a) The old lady got off the bus carefully.Det A N V P Det N Advb) The car suddenly crashed onto the river bank.Det N Adv V P Det Nc) The blinding snowstorm might delay the opening of the schools.Det A N Aux V Det N P Det Nd) This cloth feels quite soft.Det N V Deg A（以下8-12题只作初步的的成分划分，未画树形图, 仅供参考）8. The following phrases include a head, a complement, and a specifier. Draw the appropriate tree structure for each.a) rich in mineralsXP(AP) →head (rich) A + complement (in minerals) PPb) often read detective storiesXP(VP) →specifier (often) Qual + head (read) V + complement (detective stories) NPc) the argument against the proposalsXP(NP) →specifier (the) Det + head (argument) N + complement (against the proposals) PPd) already above the windowXP(VP) →specifier (already) Deg + head (above) P + complement (the window) NP 9. The following sentences contain modifiers of various types. For each sentence, first identify the modifier(s), then draw the tree structures.（划底线的为动词的修饰语，斜体的为名词的修饰语）a) A crippled passenger landed the airplane with extreme caution.b) A huge moon hung in the black sky.c) The man examined his car carefully yesterday.d) A wooden hut near the lake collapsed in the storm.10. The following sentences all contain conjoined categories. Draw a tree structure for each of the sentences. （划底线的为并列的范畴）a) Jim has washed the dirty shirts and pants.b) Helen put on her clothes and went out.c) Mary is fond of literature but tired of statistics.11. The following sentences all contain embedded clauses that function as complements of a verb, an adjective, a preposition or a noun. Draw a tree structure for each sentence. （划底线的为补语从句）a) You know that I hate war.b) Gerry believes the fact that Anna flunked the English exam.c) Chris was happy that his father bought him a Rolls-Royce.d) The children argued over whether bats had wings.12. Each of the following sentences contains a relative clause. Draw the deep structureand the surface structure trees for each of these sentences. （划底线的为关系从句）a) The essay that he wrote was excellent.b) Herbert bought a house that she lovedc) The girl whom he adores majors in linguistics.13. The derivations of the following sentences involve the inversion transformation. Give the deep structure and the surface structure of each of these sentences.a) Would you come tomorrow? (surface structure)you would come tomorrow (deep structure)b) What did Helen bring to the party? (surface structure)Helen brought what to the party (deep structure)c) Who broke the window? (surface structure)who broke the window (deep structure)Chapter 5 Semantics1. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning?答：(1) The naming theory proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.(2) The conceptualist view has been held by some philosophers and linguists from ancient times. This view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i. e., between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretationof meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.(3) The contextualist view held that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context –– elements closely linked with language behaviour. The representative of this approach was J.R. Firth, famous British linguist.(4) Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” This theory, somewhat close to contextualism, is linked with psychological interest.2. What are the major types of synonyms in English?答：The major types of synonyms are dialectal synonyms, stylistic synonyms, emotive or evaluative synonyms, collocational synonyms, and semantically different synonyms.Examples（略）3. Explain with examples “homonymy”, “polysemy”, and “hyponymy”.答：(1) Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.When two words are identical in sound, they are homophones.When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are complete homonyms (2) While different words may have the same or similar meaning, the same one word may have more than one meaning. This is what we call polysemy, and such a word is called a polysemic word. There are many polysemic words in English, The fact is the more commonly used a word is, the more likely it has acquired more than one meaning. (3) Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word。

《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版练习题参考答案Chapter 1 Introduction1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language.答： Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. 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 hypotheses 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 being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.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 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) semantics: 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 referred to as “traditional grammar.” Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in several basic ways.Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive. Second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the 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 diachronic? 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 place in its historical development.5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing?答： Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for some obvious reasons. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speec h 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 written. 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 linguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is o nly 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 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 at 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, i.e., elements of language are combined 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 different 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 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 possible 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 or the basic 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 unitsof meaning, which are found at the higher level of the system.4) DisplacementLanguage can be used to refer to things which are present or 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 spe aker. This is what “displacement” means.5) Cultural transmissionWhile human capacity for language has a genetic basis, i.e., we were all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.9. What are the major functions of language? Think of your own examples for illustration.答： Three main functions are often recognized of language: the descriptive function, the expressive function, and the social function.The descriptive function is the function to convey factual information, which can be asserted or denied, and in some cases even verified. For example: “China is a large country with a long history.”The expressive function supplies information about the user’s feelings, preferences, prejudices, and values. For example: “I will never go window-shopping with her.”The social function serves to establish and maintain social relations between people. . For example: “We are your firm supporters.”Chapter 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 to 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 transcription differ? 答： The transcription with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. The latter, i.e. the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called narrow transcription. This 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 four words leaf [li:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], and health [helθ]. As a matter of fact, the sound [l] in all these four sound combinations differs slightly. The [l] in [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], occurring at the end of a word or before another consonant, is pronounced differently from the clear [1] as in “leaf”. It is called dark [?] and in narrow transcription the diacritic [?] is used to indicate it. Then in the sound combination [helθ], the sound [l] is followed by the English dental sound [θ], its pronunciation is somewhat affected 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 [helθ].Another example is the consonant [p]. We all know that [p] is pronounced differently in the two words pit and spit. In the word pit, the sound [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 small raised “h” is used to show aspiration, thus pit 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 manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. In terms of 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. 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, i.e. the openness of the mouth. Accordingly, we classify 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 front vowels and the central vowels are unfounded vowels, i. e., without rounding the lips, 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 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) [p]B. (1) voiceless alveolar stop (2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate (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 concerned with the same aspect of language –– the speech sounds. But while both are related to the study of sounds,, they differ 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 each 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. Because 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 produce during linguistic communication are all phones. A phoneme is 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 example, 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 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 assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy” tendency may become regularized as rules of language.We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, i.e., it does 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. For 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 is that within a word, thenasal [n] assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it. We know that in English the prefix in- can be added to ma adjective to make the meaning of the word negative, e.g. discreet – indiscreet, correct – incorrect. But the [n] sound in the prefix in- is not always pronounced as an alveolar nasal. It is so in the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, i.e. [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, i.e. [?]; this is because the consonant that follows it is [k], which is a velar stop. So we can see that while pronouncing the sound [n], we are “copying”a feature of the consonant that follows it.Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. We have noticed that in the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound 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 representation 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 English 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: 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 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. microfile e. telecommunicationb. bedraggled f. forefatherc. announcement g. psychophysicsd. predigestion h. mechanist答：a. micro + file b. be + draggle + edc. announce + mentd. pre + digest + ione. tele + communicate + ionf. fore + fatherg. psycho + physics h. mechan + ist2. Think of three morpheme suffixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem 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: -ablemeaning: something can be done or is possiblestem type: added to verbsexamples: acceptable, “can be accepted”respectable, “can be respected”(2) suffix: -lymeaning: functionalstem type: added to adjectivesexamples: freely. “adverbial form of ‘free’ ”quickly, “adverbial form of 'quick' ”.(3) suffix: -eemeaning: the person receiving the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: employee, “one who works in a company”interviewee, “one who is interviewed”3. Think of three morpheme prefixes, give their meaning, and specify the types ofstem they may be prefixed to. Give at least two examples of each.Model: a-prefix: a-meaning: “without; not”stem type: added to adjectivesexamples: asymmetric, “lacking symmetry” asexual, “without sex or sexorgans”答：(1) prefix: dis-meaning: showing an oppositestem type: added to verbs or nounsexamples : disapprove, “do not approve”dishonesty, “lack of honesty”.(2) prefix: anti-meaning: against, opposed tostem type: added to nouns or adjectivesexamples : antinuclear, “opposing the use of atomic weapons and power”antisocial, “opposed or harmful to the laws and customs of anorganized community. ”(3) prefix: counter-meaning: the opposite ofstem type: added to nouns or adjectives.examples: counterproductive, “producing results opposite to those intended”counteract, “act against and reduce the force or effect of (st h.) ”4. The italicized part in each of the following sentences is an inflectional morpheme. Study each inflectional morpheme carefully and point out its grammatical meaning. Sue moves in high-society circles in London.A traffic warden asked John to move his car.The club has moved to Friday, February 22nd.The branches of the trees are moving back and forth.答：(1) the third person singular(2) the past tense(3) the present perfect(4) the present progressive5. Determine whether the words in each of the following groups are related to one another by processes of inflection or derivation.a) go, goes, going, goneb) discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable, discoverabilityc) inventor, inventor’s, inventors, inventors’d) democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize答：(略)6. The following sentences contain both derivational and inflectional affixes. Underline all of the derivational affixes and circle the inflectional affixes.a) The farmer’s cows escaped.b) It was raining.c) Those socks are inexpensive.d) Jim needs the newer copy.e) The strongest rower continued.f) She quickly closed the book.g) The alphabetization went well.答：(略)Chapter 4 Syntax1. What is syntax?Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.2. What is phrase structure rule?The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements (i.e. specifiers, heads, and complements) that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule.The phrase structural rule for NP, VP, AP, and PP can be written as follows:NP → (Det) N (PP) ...VP → (Qual) V (NP) ...AP → (Deg) A (PP) ...PP → (Deg) P (NP) ...The general phrasal structural rule ( X stands for the head N, V, A or P):The XP rule: XP → (specifier) X (complement)3. What is category? How to determine a word's category?Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb. To determine a word's category, three criteria are usually employed, namely meaning, inflection and distribution. A word's distributional facts together with information about its meaning and inflectional capabilities help identify its syntactic category.4. What is coordinate structure and what properties does it have?The structure formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction is called coordinate structures.Conjunction exhibits four important properties:1) There is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction.2) A category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated.3) Coordinated categories must be of the same type.4) The category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.5. What elements does a phrase contain and what role does each element play?A phrase usually contains the following elements: head, specifier and complement. Sometimes it also contains another kind of element termed modifier.The role of each elementHead:Head is the word around which a phrase is formed.Specifier:Specifier has both special semantic and syntactic roles. Semantically, it helps to make more precise the meaning of the head. Syntactically, it typically marks a phrase boundary.Complement:Complements are themselves phrases and provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.Modifier:Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of the heads.6. What is deep structure and what is surface structure?There are two levels of syntactic structure. The first, formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head's subcategorization properties, is called deep structure (or D-structure). The second, corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations, is called surface structure (or S-structure).7. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences. a) The old lady got off the bus carefully.Det A N V P Det N Advb) The car suddenly crashed onto the river bank.Det N Adv V P Det Nc) The blinding snowstorm might delay the opening of the schools.Det A N Aux V Det N P Det Nd) This cloth feels quite soft.Det N V Deg A（以下8-12题只作初步的的成分划分，未画树形图, 仅供参考）8. The following phrases include a head, a complement, and a specifier. Draw the appropriate tree structure for each.a) rich in mineralsXP(AP) → head (rich) A + complement (in minerals) PPb) often read detective storiesXP(VP) → specifier (often) Qual + head (read) V + complement (detective stories) NPc) the argument against the proposalsXP(NP) →specifier (the) Det + head (argument) N + complement (against the proposals) PPd) already above the windowXP(VP) → specifier (already) Deg + head (above) P + complement (the window) NP 9. The following sentences contain modifiers of various types. For each sentence, first identify the modifier(s), then draw the tree structures.（划底线的为动词的修饰语，斜体的为名词的修饰语）a) A crippled passenger landed the airplane with extreme caution.b) A huge moon hung in the black sky.c) The man examined his car carefully yesterday.d) A wooden hut near the lake collapsed in the storm.10. The following sentences all contain conjoined categories. Draw a tree structure for each of the sentences. （划底线的为并列的范畴）a) Jim has washed the dirty shirts and pants.b) Helen put on her clothes and went out.c) Mary is fond of literature but tired of statistics.11. The following sentences all contain embedded clauses that function as complements of a verb, an adjective, a preposition or a noun. Draw a tree structure for each sentence. （划底线的为补语从句）a) You know that I hate war.b) Gerry believes the fact that Anna flunked the English exam.c) Chris was happy that his father bought him a Rolls-Royce.d) The children argued over whether bats had wings.12. Each of the following sentences contains a relative clause. Draw the deep structure and the surface structure trees for each of these sentences. （划底线的为关系从句）a) The essay that he wrote was excellent.b) Herbert bought a house that she lovedc) The girl whom he adores majors in linguistics.13. The derivations of the following sentences involve the inversion transformation. Give the deep structure and the surface structure of each of these sentences. a) Would you come tomorrow? (surface structure)you would come tomorrow (deep structure)b) What did Helen bring to the party? (surface structure)Helen brought what to the party (deep structure)c) Who broke the window? (surface structure)who broke the window (deep structure)Chapter 5 Semantics1. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning?答：(1) The naming theory proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.(2) The conceptualist view has been held by some philosophers and linguists from ancient times. This view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i. e., between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.(3) The contextualist view held that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context –– elements closely linked with language behaviour. The representative of this approach was J.R. Firth, famous British linguist.(4) Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” This theory, somewhat close to contextualism, is linked with psychological interest.2. What are the major types of synonyms in English?答： The major types of synonyms are dialectal synonyms, stylistic synonyms, emotive or evaluative synonyms, collocational synonyms, and semantically different synonyms.Examples（略）3. Explain with examples “homonymy”, “polysemy”, and “hyponymy”.答：(1) Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. When two words are identical in sound, they are homophones.When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are complete homonyms (2) While different words may have the same or similar meaning, the same one word may have more than one meaning. This is what we call polysemy, and such a word is called a polysemic word. There are many polysemic words in English, The fact is the more commonly used a word is, the more likely it has acquired more than one meaning.(3) Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive。

《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版练习题参考答案Chapter 1 Introduction1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language.答： Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. 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 hypotheses 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 being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.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 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) semantics: 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 referred to as“traditional grammar.”Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in several basic ways.Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.Second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the 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 diachronic 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 place in its historical development.5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing答： Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for 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 written. 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 linguists, 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 parole similar to Chomsky's distinction between competence andperformance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 at 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 combined 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 different from the communication systems other forms of life possess.8. What are the main features of human language that have beenspecified 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 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 possible 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 or the basic level there is a structure of sounds, which are meaningless by themselves. But the sounds of languagecan 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 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 has a genetic basis, ., we were all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.9. What are the major functions of language Think of your own examples for illustration.答： Three main functions are often recognized of language: the descriptive function, the expressive function, and the social function.The descriptive function is the function to convey factualinformation, which can be asserted or denied, and in some cases even verified. For example: “China is a large country with a long history.”The expressive function supplies information about the user’s feelings, preferences, prejudices, and values. For example: “I will never go window-shoppi ng with her.”The social function serves to establish and maintain social relations between people. . For example: “We are your firm supporters.”Chapter 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 to 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 transcription differ答： The transcription with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. The latter, . the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called narrow transcription. This 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 four words leaf [li:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], and health [helθ]. As a matter of fact, the sound [l] in all these four sound combinations differs slightly. The [l] in [li:f], occurring before a vowel, is called a dear [l], and no diacritic is needed to indicate it; the [1] in [fi:l] and [bild], occurring at the end of a word or before anotherconsonant, is pronounced differently from the clear [1] as in “leaf”. It i s called dark [] and in narrow transcription the diacritic [] is used to indicate it. Then in the sound combination [helθ], the sound [l] is followed by the English dental sound [θ], its pronunciation is somewhat affected 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 [helθ].Another example is the consonant [p]. We all know that [p] is pronounced differently in the two words pit and spit. In the word pit, the sound [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 small raised “h” is used to show aspiration, thus pit is transcribed as [pht] and spit is transcribed as [spt].4. How are the English consonants classified答： English consonants can be classified in two ways: one is in terms of manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. In terms of manner of articulationthe 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. 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 classify 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 front vowels and the central vowels are unfounded vowels, i. e., without rounding the lips, 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 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) [p]B. (1) voiceless alveolar stop (2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate (4) voiced bilabial glide(5) back, close, short (6) front, open 7. How do phonetics and phonology differ in their focus of study Who do you think will be more interested in the differencebetween, say, [l] and [], [ph] and [p], a phonetician or a phonologist Why答： (1) Both phonology and phonetics are concerned with the same aspect of language –– the speech sounds. But while both are related to the study of sounds,, they differ 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 each 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. Because 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 produce during linguistic communication are all phones. A phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather itis 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 example, 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 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 assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease ofarticulation. This “sloppy” tendency may become regularized as rules of language.We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, ., it does 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. For 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 is that within a word, the nasal [n] assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it. We know that in English the prefix in- can be added to ma adjective to make the meaning of the word negative, . discreet –indiscreet, correct –incorrect. But the [n] sound in the prefix in- is not always 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 see that while pronouncing the sound [n], we are “copying” a feature of the consonant that follows it.Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. We have noticed that in the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound 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 representation 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 English function in conveying meaning答： The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features. The mainsuprasegmental features include stress, intonation, and tone. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. There are two kinds of stress: 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 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. microfile e. telecommunicationb. bedraggled f. forefatherc. announcement g. psychophysicsd. predigestion h. mechanist答：a. micro + file b. be + draggle + edc. announce + mentd. pre + digest + ione. tele + communicate + ionf. fore + fatherg. psycho + physics h. mechan + ist2. Think of three morpheme suffixes, give their meaning, andspecify the types of stem they may be suffixed to. Give at leasttwo 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: -ablemeaning: something can be done or is possiblestem type: added to verbsexamples: acceptable, “can be accepted”respectable, “can be respected”(2) suffix: -lymeaning: functionalstem type: added to adjectivesexamples: freely. “adverbial form of ‘free’ ”quickly, “adverbial form of 'quick' ”.(3) suffix: -eemeaning: the person receiving the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: employee, “one who works in a company”interviewee, “one who is interviewed”3. Think of three morpheme prefixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem they may be prefixed to. Give at least two examples of each.Model: a-prefix: a-meaning: “without; not”stem type: added to adjectivesexamples: asymmetric, “lacking symmetry” asexual, “without sex or sex organs”答：(1) prefix: dis-meaning: showing an oppositestem type: added to verbs or nounsexamples : disapprove, “do not approve”dishonesty, “lack of honesty”.(2) prefix: anti-meaning: against, opposed tostem type: added to nouns or adjectivesexamples : antinuclear, “opposing the use of atomic weapons and power”antisocial, “opposed or harmful to the lawsand customs of an organized community. ”(3) prefix: counter-meaning: the opposite ofstem type: added to nouns or adjectives.examples: counterproductive, “producing results opposite to those intended”count eract, “act against and reduce the force or effect of (sth.) ”4. The italicized part in each of the following sentences is an inflectional morpheme. Study each inflectional morpheme carefully and point out its grammatical meaning.Sue moves in high-society circles in London.A traffic warden asked John to move his car.The club has moved to Friday, February 22nd.The branches of the trees are moving back and forth.答：(1) the third person singular(2) the past tense(3) the present perfect(4) the present progressive5. Determine whether the words in each of the following groups are related to one another by processes of inflection or derivation.a) go, goes, going, goneb) discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable, discoverabilityc) inventor, inventor’s, inventors, inventors’d) democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize答：(略)6. The following sentences contain both derivational and inflectional affixes. Underline all of the derivational affixes and circle the inflectional affixes.a) The farmer’s cows escaped.b) It was raining.c) Those socks are inexpensive.d) Jim needs the newer copy.e) The strongest rower continued.f) She quickly closed the book.g) The alphabetization went well.答：(略)Chapter 4 Syntax1. What is syntaxSyntax is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.2. What is phrase structure ruleThe grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements . specifiers, heads, and complements) that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule.The phrase structural rule for NP, VP, AP, and PP can be writtenas follows:NP → (Det) N (PP) ...VP → (Qual) V (NP) ...AP → (Deg) A (PP) ...PP → (Deg) P (NP) ...The general phrasal structural rule ( X stands for the head N, V, A or P):The XP rule: XP → (specifier) X (complement)3. What is category How to determine a word's category Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.To determine a word's category, three criteria are usually employed, namely meaning, inflection and distribution. A word's distributional facts together with information about its meaning and inflectional capabilities help identify its syntactic category.4. What is coordinate structure and what properties does it haveThe structure formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction is called coordinate structures.Conjunction exhibits four important properties:1) There is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction.2) A category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated.3) Coordinated categories must be of the same type.4) The category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.5. What elements does a phrase contain and what role does each element playA phrase usually contains the following elements: head, specifier and complement. Sometimes it also contains another kind of element termed modifier.The role of each elementHead:Head is the word around which a phrase is formed.Specifier:Specifier has both special semantic and syntactic roles. Semantically, it helps to make more precise the meaning of the head. Syntactically, it typically marks a phrase boundary. Complement:Complements are themselves phrases and provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.Modifier:Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of the heads.6. What is deep structure and what is surface structure There are two levels of syntactic structure. The first, formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head's subcategorization properties, is called deep structure (or D-structure). The second, corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations, iscalled surface structure (or S-structure).7. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences.a) The old lady got off the bus carefully.Det A N V P Det N Advb) The car suddenly crashed onto the river bank.Det N Adv V P Det Nc) The blinding snowstorm might delay the opening ofthe schools.Det A N Aux V Det N PDet Nd) This cloth feels quite soft.Det N V Deg A（以下8-12题只作初步的的成分划分，未画树形图, 仅供参考）8. The following phrases include a head, a complement, and a specifier. Draw the appropriate tree structure for each.a) rich in mineralsXP(AP) → head (rich) A + complement (in minerals) PPb) often read detective storiesXP(VP) →specifier (often) Qual + head (read) V + complement (detective stories) NPc) the argument against the proposalsXP(NP) → specifier (the) Det + head (argument) N + complement (against the proposals) PPd) already above the windowXP(VP) → specifier (already) Deg + head (above) P + complement (the window) NP9. The following sentences contain modifiers of various types. For each sentence, first identify the modifier(s), then draw the tree structures.（划底线的为动词的修饰语，斜体的为名词的修饰语）a) A crippled passenger landed the airplane with extreme caution.b) A huge moon hung in the black sky.c) The man examined his car carefully yesterday.d) A wooden hut near the lake collapsed in the storm.10. The following sentences all contain conjoined categories. Draw a tree structure for each of the sentences. （划底线的为并列的范畴）a) Jim has washed the dirty shirts and pants.b) Helen put on her clothes and went out.c) Mary is fond of literature but tired of statistics.11. The following sentences all contain embedded clauses that function as complements of a verb, an adjective, a preposition or a noun. Draw a tree structure for each sentence. （划底线的为补语从句）a) You know that I hate war.b) Gerry believes the fact that Anna flunked the English exam.c) Chris was happy that his father bought him a Rolls-Royce.d) The children argued over whether bats had wings.12. Each of the following sentences contains a relative clause. Draw the deep structure and the surface structure trees for each of these sentences. （划底线的为关系从句）a) The essay that he wrote was excellent.b) Herbert bought a house that she lovedc) The girl whom he adores majors in linguistics.13. The derivations of the following sentences involve the inversion transformation. Give the deep structure and the surface structure of each of these sentences.a) Would you come tomorrow (surface structure)you would come tomorrow (deep structure)b) What did Helen bring to the party (surface structure) Helen brought what to the party (deep structure)c) Who broke the window (surface structure)who broke the window (deep structure)Chapter 5 Semantics1. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning 答：(1) The naming theory proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms orsymbols, in other words, the words used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.(2) The conceptualist view has been held by some philosophers and linguists from ancient times. This view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i. e., between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.(3) The contextualist view held that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context ––elements closely linked with language behaviour. The representative of this approach was . Firth, famous British linguist.(4) Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” This theory, somewhat close to contextualism, is linked with psychological interest.2. What are the major types of synonyms in English答： The major types of synonyms are dialectal synonyms,stylistic synonyms, emotive or evaluative synonyms, collocational synonyms, and semantically different synonyms. Examples（略）3. Explain with examples “homonymy”, “polysemy”, and “hyponymy”.答：(1) Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, ., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.When two words are identical in sound, they are homophones.When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are complete homonyms(2) While different words may have the same or similar meaning, the same one word may have more than one meaning. This is what we call polysemy, and such a word is called a polysemic word. There are many polysemic words in English, The fact is the more commonly used a word is, the more likely it has acquired more。

新编简明英语语言学答案【篇一：新编简明英语语言学教程第二版练习题参考答案】chapter 1 introduction1. how do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: linguistics is the scientific study of language.答： linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. 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 hypotheses 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 being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.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 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) semantics: 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 referred to as “traditional grammar.” modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in several basic ways.firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. traditional grammarians, on the 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 diachronic? 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 place in its historical development.5. for what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing?答： speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for 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 theneed arises. even in todays world there are still many languages that can only be spoken but not written. 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 linguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech whilewritten 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 saussures distinction between langue and parole similar to chomskys distinction between competence and performance?答： saussures distinction and chomskys 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 at 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, i.e., elements of language are combined 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 different 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 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 possible 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 or the basic 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 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 has a genetic basis, i.e., we were all born with theability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.9. what are the major functions of language? think of your own examples for illustration.答： three main functions are often recognized of language: the descriptive function, the expressive function, and the social function.the descriptive function is the function to convey factual information, which can be asserted or denied, and in some cases even verified. for example: “china is a large country with a long history.”the expressive function supplies information about the user’s feelings, preferences, prejudices, and values. for example: “i will never go window-shopping with her.”the social function serves to establish and maintain social relations between people. . for example: “we are your firm supporters.”chapter 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 to 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 transcription differ?答： the transcription with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription. this is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. the latter, i.e. the transcription with letter-symbols together withthe diacritics is called narrow transcription. this is the transcription needed and used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds. with the help of the diacritics theycan faithfully represent as much of the fine details as it is necessary for their purpose.another example is the consonant [p]. we all know that [p] is pronounced differently in the two words pit and spit. in the word pit, the sound [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 small raised “h” is used to show aspiration, thus pit is transc ribed 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 manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. in terms of 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. 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. tofurther distinguish members of each group, we need to applyanother criterion, i.e. the openness of the mouth. accordingly, we classify 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 front vowels and the central vowels are unfounded vowels, i. e., without rounding the lips, 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 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) [p]b. (1) voiceless alveolar stop (2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate(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 concerned with the same aspect of language –– the speech sounds. but while both are related to the study of sounds,, they differ 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 each 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. because 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 produce during linguistic communication are all phones. a phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it isrepresented 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 example, 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 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 assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. when we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. this “sloppy” tendency may become regularized as rules of language.we all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in english, i.e., it does 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. for 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 is that within a word, the nasal [n] assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it. we know that in english the prefix in- can be added to ma adjective to make the meaning of the word negative, e.g. discreet – indiscreet, correct – incorrect. but the [n] sound in the prefix in- is not always pronounced as an alveolar nasal. it is so in the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, i.e. [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, i.e. [?]; this is because the consonant that follows it is [k], which is a velar stop. so we can see that while pronouncing the sound*n+, we are “copying” a feature of the consonant that follows it. deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. we have noticed that in the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound 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 representation 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 english 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: 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【篇二：新编简明英语语言学试卷精粹(10套卷)】>i. directions: read each of the following statements carefully. decidewhich one of the four choices best completes the statement and put the1、as modern linguistics aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, and not to lay down rules for correct linguistic behavior,it is said to be ___.a、 prescriptiveb、 sociolinguisticc、 descriptived、 psycholinguistic2、of all the speech organs, the ___ is/are the most flexible.a、 mouthb、 lipsc、 tongued、 vocal cordsa、 bound morphemeb、 bound formc、 inflectional morphemed、 free morpheme4、a ___ in the embedded clause refers to the introductory word thatintroduces the embedded clause.a、 coordinatorb、 particlec、 prepositiond、 subordinator主从连词5、can i borrow your bike? ___ you have a bike.a、 is synonymous withb、 is inconsistent withc、 entailsd、 presupposes6、the branch of linguistics that studies how context influences the way speakers interpret sentences is called ___.a、 semanticsb、 pragmaticsc、 sociolinguisticsd、 psycholinguistics7、grammatical changes may be explained, in part, as analogic changes, which are ___ or generalization泛化.a、 elaborationb、 simplification精简c、 external borrowingd、 internal borrowing8、___ refers to a marginal language of few lexical items and straightforward grammatical rules, used as a medium of communication.a、 lingua franca通用语b、 creolec、 pidgind、 standard language标准语言9、psychologists, neurologists and linguists have concluded that, in addition to the motor area which is responsible for physical articulation of utterances, three areas of the left brain are vital to language, namely, ___ .a、 brocas area, wernickes area and the angular gyrus角回b、 brocas area, wernickes area and cerebral cortexc、 brocas area, wernickes area and neuronsd、 brocas area, wernickes area and exners area10、according to krashen, ___ refers to the gradual and subconcious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations.a、 learningb、 competencec、 performanced、 acquisition第二部分非选择题ii. directions: fill in the blank in each of the following statements with one word, the first letter of which is already given as a clue. note that you are to fill in one word only, and you are not allowed to change the11、chomsky defines competence as the ideal users k of the rules of his language.12、the four sounds /p/,/b/,/m/ and /w/have one feature in common, i.e, they are all b .13、m is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.14、a s is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a completestatement, question or command.15、synonyms that are mutually substitutable under allcircumstances are called c synonyms.16、the illocutionary point of r is to commit the speaker tosomethings being the case, to the truth of what has been said.17、words are created outright to fit some purpose. such a method of enlarging the vocabulary is known as word c .18、wherever the standard language can use a contraction (he+is→hes), black english can d the form of be.19、the basic essentials of the first language are acquired in the short period from about age two to puberty, which is called the c period for first language acquisition.20、as a type of linguistic system in 12 learning, i is a product of l2 training, mother tongue intereference, overgeneralization of the target language rules, and learning and communicative strategies of the learner.iii. directions: judge whether each of the following statements is true orfalse. put a t for true or f for false in the brackets in front of eachstatement. if you think a statement is false, you must explain why you()21、in modern linguistic studies, the written form of language is given more emphasis than the spoken form for a number of reasons.()22、voicing is a phonological feature that distinguishes meaning in bothchinese and english.()23、the compound word bookstore is the place where books are sold. thisindicates that the meaning of a compound is the sum total of the meaningsof its components.()24、syntactic categories refer to sentences (s) and clauses (c) only.()25、dialectal synonyms can often be found in different regional dialectssuch as british english and american english but cannot be found withinthe variety itself, for example, within british english or americanenglish.()26、only when a maxim under cooperative principle is blatantly violatedand the hearer knows that it is being violated do conversationalimplicatures arise.()27、the territory in which the indo-european languages are mainly spokentoday also includes languages that are not indo-european.()28、in most bilingual communities, two languages have the same in speechsituations known as domains.()29、according to the strong version of the sapir-whorf hypothesis,speakers perceptions determine language and pattern their way of life.()30、all normal children have equal ability to acquire their firstlanguage.iv. directions: explain the following terms, using one or two examples for31、duality32、diachronic linguistics33、broad transcription34、morphological rules35、phrase structure rule36、relational opposites37、componential analysis38、context39、euphemism40、brain lateralization41、explain how the inventory of sounds can change, giving some examples inenglish for illustration.42、briefly discuss the individual factors which affect the acquisition of a second language.英语语言学试题（2）一、单项选择题(在每小题的四个备选答案中，选出一个正确答案，并将正确答案的序号填在题干的括号内。

Introduction[check your understanding]1. f Syntax and semantics each have their own strengths.2. f Pragmatics is also interested in how language use affects the language system.3. t4. f5. tIn-Class Activities1. ASK(1) Yes, he’s ing.(2) Yes. [No, he isn’t ing](3) His knowledge about whether Pat likes cognitive linguistics or not.2.(1) a. John is obviously not Hitler. There is only one Hitler in the world.b. Golf as an inanimate object can’t play a human being (John).c. It is a case of tautology that conveys no new information.d. “Idea” doesn’t have color and can’t sleep since it is inanimate. The whole sentence doesn’t make sense.(2) a. it can be used for munication in a context where John shares some personality with Hitler.b. when John is a poor player of golf.c. in a context where a certain boy has done something wrong (out of naughtiness).(3) when the sentence is used in poetry to personalize the word "idea".3.(1) a. In an entrance of a park.b. In the restroom of some public places like an airport.a. People are forbidden to bring dogs into the park.b. This place is for adults to change infant diapers.4. (1) Here the speaker wants to express his plaint that the couple are talking too loudly (and the implicit request for them to stop talking).(2) By saying so, the young man wants to convey their refusal to “my” request.The background knowledge we need is that since it is usually impolite to listen to other people’ private conversation, it is normal that “I” can’t hear a word (thus the couple can continue their talk).5.(1) This notice implies that all those who jump the red light are uncivilized, whatever the reason.(2)讲卫生的人不会随便吐痰。

《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版练习题参考答案Chapter 1 Introduction1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language.答： Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. 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 hypotheses 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 being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.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 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) semantics: 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 referred to as “traditional grammar.” Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in several basic ways.Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive. Second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the 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 diachronic? 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 place in its historical development.5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing?答： Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for some obvious reasons. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speec h 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 written. 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 linguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is o nly 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 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 at 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, i.e., elements of language are combined 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 different 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 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 possible 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 or the basic 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 unitsof meaning, which are found at the higher level of the system.4) DisplacementLanguage can be used to refer to things which are present or 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 spe aker. This is what “displacement” means.5) Cultural transmissionWhile human capacity for language has a genetic basis, i.e., we were all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.9. What are the major functions of language? Think of your own examples for illustration.答： Three main functions are often recognized of language: the descriptive function, the expressive function, and the social function.The descriptive function is the function to convey factual information, which can be asserted or denied, and in some cases even verified. For example: “China is a large country with a long history.”The expressive function supplies information about the user’s feelings, preferences, prejudices, and values. For example: “I will never go window-shopping with her.”The social function serves to establish and maintain social relations between people. . For example: “We are your firm supporters.”Chapter 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 to 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 transcription differ? 答： The transcription with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. The latter, i.e. the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called narrow transcription. This 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 four words leaf [li:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], and health [helθ]. As a matter of fact, the sound [l] in all these four sound combinations differs slightly. The [l] in [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], occurring at the end of a word or before another consonant, is pronounced differently from the clear [1] as in “leaf”. It is called dark [?] and in narrow transcription the diacritic [?] is used to indicate it. Then in the sound combination [helθ], the sound [l] is followed by the English dental sound [θ], its pronunciation is somewhat affected 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 [helθ].Another example is the consonant [p]. We all know that [p] is pronounced differently in the two words pit and spit. In the word pit, the sound [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 small raised “h” is used to show aspiration, thus pit 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 manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. In terms of 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. 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, i.e. the openness of the mouth. Accordingly, we classify 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 front vowels and the central vowels are unfounded vowels, i. e., without rounding the lips, 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 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) [p]B. (1) voiceless alveolar stop (2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate (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 concerned with the same aspect of language –– the speech sounds. But while both are related to the study of sounds,, they differ 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 each 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. Because 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 produce during linguistic communication are all phones. A phoneme is 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 example, 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 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 assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy” tendency may become regularized as rules of language.We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, i.e., it does 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. For 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 is that within a word, thenasal [n] assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it. We know that in English the prefix in- can be added to ma adjective to make the meaning of the word negative, e.g. discreet – indiscreet, correct – incorrect. But the [n] sound in the prefix in- is not always pronounced as an alveolar nasal. It is so in the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, i.e. [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, i.e. [?]; this is because the consonant that follows it is [k], which is a velar stop. So we can see that while pronouncing the sound [n], we are “copying”a feature of the consonant that follows it.Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. We have noticed that in the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound 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 representation 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 English 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: 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 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. microfile e. telecommunicationb. bedraggled f. forefatherc. announcement g. psychophysicsd. predigestion h. mechanist答：a. micro + file b. be + draggle + edc. announce + mentd. pre + digest + ione. tele + communicate + ionf. fore + fatherg. psycho + physics h. mechan + ist2. Think of three morpheme suffixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem 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: -ablemeaning: something can be done or is possiblestem type: added to verbsexamples: acceptable, “can be accepted”respectable, “can be respected”(2) suffix: -lymeaning: functionalstem type: added to adjectivesexamples: freely. “adverbial form of ‘free’ ”quickly, “adverbial form of 'quick' ”.(3) suffix: -eemeaning: the person receiving the actionstem type: added to verbsexamples: employee, “one who works in a company”interviewee, “one who is interviewed”3. Think of three morpheme prefixes, give their meaning, and specify the types ofstem they may be prefixed to. Give at least two examples of each.Model: a-prefix: a-meaning: “without; not”stem type: added to adjectivesexamples: asymmetric, “lacking symmetry” asexual, “without sex or sexorgans”答：(1) prefix: dis-meaning: showing an oppositestem type: added to verbs or nounsexamples : disapprove, “do not approve”dishonesty, “lack of honesty”.(2) prefix: anti-meaning: against, opposed tostem type: added to nouns or adjectivesexamples : antinuclear, “opposing the use of atomic weapons and power”antisocial, “opposed or harmful to the laws and customs of anorganized community. ”(3) prefix: counter-meaning: the opposite ofstem type: added to nouns or adjectives.examples: counterproductive, “producing results opposite to those intended”counteract, “act against and reduce the force or effect of (st h.) ”4. The italicized part in each of the following sentences is an inflectional morpheme. Study each inflectional morpheme carefully and point out its grammatical meaning. Sue moves in high-society circles in London.A traffic warden asked John to move his car.The club has moved to Friday, February 22nd.The branches of the trees are moving back and forth.答：(1) the third person singular(2) the past tense(3) the present perfect(4) the present progressive5. Determine whether the words in each of the following groups are related to one another by processes of inflection or derivation.a) go, goes, going, goneb) discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable, discoverabilityc) inventor, inventor’s, inventors, inventors’d) democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize答：(略)6. The following sentences contain both derivational and inflectional affixes. Underline all of the derivational affixes and circle the inflectional affixes.a) The farmer’s cows escaped.b) It was raining.c) Those socks are inexpensive.d) Jim needs the newer copy.e) The strongest rower continued.f) She quickly closed the book.g) The alphabetization went well.答：(略)Chapter 4 Syntax1. What is syntax?Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.2. What is phrase structure rule?The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements (i.e. specifiers, heads, and complements) that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule.The phrase structural rule for NP, VP, AP, and PP can be written as follows:NP → (Det) N (PP) ...VP → (Qual) V (NP) ...AP → (Deg) A (PP) ...PP → (Deg) P (NP) ...The general phrasal structural rule ( X stands for the head N, V, A or P):The XP rule: XP → (specifier) X (complement)3. What is category? How to determine a word's category?Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb. To determine a word's category, three criteria are usually employed, namely meaning, inflection and distribution. A word's distributional facts together with information about its meaning and inflectional capabilities help identify its syntactic category.4. What is coordinate structure and what properties does it have?The structure formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction is called coordinate structures.Conjunction exhibits four important properties:1) There is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction.2) A category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated.3) Coordinated categories must be of the same type.4) The category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.5. What elements does a phrase contain and what role does each element play?A phrase usually contains the following elements: head, specifier and complement. Sometimes it also contains another kind of element termed modifier.The role of each elementHead:Head is the word around which a phrase is formed.Specifier:Specifier has both special semantic and syntactic roles. Semantically, it helps to make more precise the meaning of the head. Syntactically, it typically marks a phrase boundary.Complement:Complements are themselves phrases and provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.Modifier:Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of the heads.6. What is deep structure and what is surface structure?There are two levels of syntactic structure. The first, formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head's subcategorization properties, is called deep structure (or D-structure). The second, corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations, is called surface structure (or S-structure).7. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences. a) The old lady got off the bus carefully.Det A N V P Det N Advb) The car suddenly crashed onto the river bank.Det N Adv V P Det Nc) The blinding snowstorm might delay the opening of the schools.Det A N Aux V Det N P Det Nd) This cloth feels quite soft.Det N V Deg A（以下8-12题只作初步的的成分划分，未画树形图, 仅供参考）8. The following phrases include a head, a complement, and a specifier. Draw the appropriate tree structure for each.a) rich in mineralsXP(AP) → head (rich) A + complement (in minerals) PPb) often read detective storiesXP(VP) → specifier (often) Qual + head (read) V + complement (detective stories) NPc) the argument against the proposalsXP(NP) →specifier (the) Det + head (argument) N + complement (against the proposals) PPd) already above the windowXP(VP) → specifier (already) Deg + head (above) P + complement (the window) NP 9. The following sentences contain modifiers of various types. For each sentence, first identify the modifier(s), then draw the tree structures.（划底线的为动词的修饰语，斜体的为名词的修饰语）a) A crippled passenger landed the airplane with extreme caution.b) A huge moon hung in the black sky.c) The man examined his car carefully yesterday.d) A wooden hut near the lake collapsed in the storm.10. The following sentences all contain conjoined categories. Draw a tree structure for each of the sentences. （划底线的为并列的范畴）a) Jim has washed the dirty shirts and pants.b) Helen put on her clothes and went out.c) Mary is fond of literature but tired of statistics.11. The following sentences all contain embedded clauses that function as complements of a verb, an adjective, a preposition or a noun. Draw a tree structure for each sentence. （划底线的为补语从句）a) You know that I hate war.b) Gerry believes the fact that Anna flunked the English exam.c) Chris was happy that his father bought him a Rolls-Royce.d) The children argued over whether bats had wings.12. Each of the following sentences contains a relative clause. Draw the deep structure and the surface structure trees for each of these sentences. （划底线的为关系从句）a) The essay that he wrote was excellent.b) Herbert bought a house that she lovedc) The girl whom he adores majors in linguistics.13. The derivations of the following sentences involve the inversion transformation. Give the deep structure and the surface structure of each of these sentences. a) Would you come tomorrow? (surface structure)you would come tomorrow (deep structure)b) What did Helen bring to the party? (surface structure)Helen brought what to the party (deep structure)c) Who broke the window? (surface structure)who broke the window (deep structure)Chapter 5 Semantics1. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning?答：(1) The naming theory proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.(2) The conceptualist view has been held by some philosophers and linguists from ancient times. This view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i. e., between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.(3) The contextualist view held that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context –– elements closely linked with language behaviour. The representative of this approach was J.R. Firth, famous British linguist.(4) Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” This theory, somewhat close to contextualism, is linked with psychological interest.2. What are the major types of synonyms in English?答： The major types of synonyms are dialectal synonyms, stylistic synonyms, emotive or evaluative synonyms, collocational synonyms, and semantically different synonyms.Examples（略）3. Explain with examples “homonymy”, “polysemy”, and “hyponymy”.答：(1) Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. When two words are identical in sound, they are homophones.When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are complete homonyms (2) While different words may have the same or similar meaning, the same one word may have more than one meaning. This is what we call polysemy, and such a word is called a polysemic word. There are many polysemic words in English, The fact is the more commonly used a word is, the more likely it has acquired more than one meaning.(3) Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive。

新编语言学教程chapter 1课后答案Introduction1. 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 communication.(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 abstraction 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) Aphetic communion: Language is used to establish an atmosphere or maintain 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 relations.(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, including arbitrariness, duality, productivity, interchangeability, displacement, specialization 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 between a particular sound and the meaning it is associated with. For example, for the same animal dog, in English we call it /do g/, in Chinese as “gou”, but “yilu” in Japanese; it barks wow wow in English but wang wang in Chinese. Of course,onomatopoetic 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 language.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 English 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 priority 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 linguisticsdescribes each language on its own merits.6. A descriptive approach attempts to tell what is in the language while the prescriptive approach tells people what should be in the language. Most modern linguistics 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 linguistics 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. However, 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 men, even though it could express a thousand different emotions. Besides, the aspect of productivity also distinguishes human language from wolf’s postures.。