语言学习题答案.docx

1、语言学习题答案1. Q: What is the scope of linguistics?The scope of linguistics can be illustrated as:1) General linguistics: the study of language as whole. It deals with the basic concepts, theories, descriptions, models and methods applicable in any linguistic study.2) Phonetics: the study of sounds used

2、in communication.3) Phonology: the study about how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication.4) Morphology: the study of the way in which symbols/morphemes are arranged to form words.5) Syntax: the study of the rules about the combination of words to form permisible sentenc

3、es.6) Semantics: the study of meaning.7) Pragmatics: the study of meaning in the context of use.And the Interdisciplinary branches.1) Sociolinguistics2) Psycholinguistics 2. Q: What makes modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in sev

4、eral basic ways: firstly, modern linguistics is descriptive, it describes the language as it is; while traditional grammar is prescriptive, it prescribes the way language should be used. Secondly, modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Then, modern linguistics di

5、ffers from traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a latin-based framework.3. Q: What is a phone? How is it different from a phoneme? How are allophones related to a phoneme?A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. A phoneme is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of dis

6、tinctive value. It is an abstract unit. It is not any particular sound.The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme.4. Q: Explain with examples the sequential rule, the assimilation rule and the deletion rule?1) Seque

7、ntial rules form the letters as “k, h ,l ,j” into all possible words in English. We might order them as: blik, klib, bilk, kilb. without other orders. So it indicates that there are rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language. One special sequential rule that2) Assimilation

8、rule: it assimilates one sound to another by copying a feather of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. For example: “illegal”, inlegal3) Deletion rule: It can be stated as: delete a g when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. for example: “designation”, the g represented by

9、 the letter “g” is pronounced, while in the word “sign”. /g/ sound is deleted, because it is followed by and ended with the nasal consonant /n/.5. Q: What are the major types of synonyms in English?There are five types of synonyms in English. They are dialectal synonyms-synonyms used in different re

10、gional dialects; stylistics synonyms synonyms differing in style; synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning; collocational synonyms; semantically different synonyms.6. Q: Explain with examples “Homonymy”, “Polysemy”, and “Hyponymy”?Homonymy (定义) . It includes homophones(定义) (piecep

11、eace) , homographs (定义) (bow v. bow n.) and complete homonyms (定义) (scale n.scale v.) . Polysemy means that the same one word may have more that one meaning. For example: “table”, has at least seven meanings.Hyponymy means that the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a mor

12、e specific word. For example: “furniture” is super-ordinate, its hyponyms are bed, table, desk, dresser, wardrobe, settee7. Q: How can words opposite in meaning be classified? To which category does each of the following pairs of antonyms belong? There are three types oppositions in meaning. They ar

13、e gradable antonyms, complementary antonyms and relational opposites. “northsouth”, “widenarrow” and “poorrich” belong to gradable antonyms; “vacantoccupied” and “literateilliterate” belong to complementary antonyms; “abovebelow”, “doctorpatient” and “fatherdaughter” belong to relational opposites.8

14、. Q: How are sentence meaning and utterance meaning related, and how do they differ?The meaning of a sentence is abstract, and de-contextualized, that of an utterance is concrete, and context-dependent. The meaning of an utterance is based on sentence meaning; it is the realization of the abstract m

15、eaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context.Difference: Sentence meaning includes locutionary act, but it doesnt include illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.9. Q: According to Austin, what are the three acts a person is possibly performing while making an u

16、tterance. Give an example?They are locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. For example: someone utters “you” “have” “door” “open”! The locutionary act expresses what the words literally mean. The illocutionary act expresses the speakers intention: asking someone to close the door. The hearer gets the speakers message and sees that the speaker means to tell him to close the