语言学导论（第二版）参考答案 Chapters 1-3

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AnswerstoSelf-studyActivities

Chapter1Preliminaries

1.

Languageisasystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.

Arbitrarinessreferstothefactthatthereisnologicalorintrinsicconnectionbetweenmeaningsandsounds,orbetweenthethingssignifiedandthewordsusedtosignifythem—betweenthesignifiedandthesignifier.

Duality:Languagehasatleasttwolevelsofstructure:minimalmeaninglessunitsandlarger,meaningfulunits.

Linguisticsisthescientificstudyoflanguage.

Phoneticsisthescientificstudyofspeechsounds.Itstudieshowspeechsoundsarearticulated,transmitted,andreceived.

Phonologyisthestudyofhowspeechsoundsfunctioninalanguage.

Syntaxisthestudyofsentencestructure.Itdealswiththecombinationofwordsintophrases,clauses,andsentences.

Semanticsisabranchoflinguisticsthatisconcernedwiththestudyofmeaninginallitsformalaspects.

Pragmaticscanbedefinedasthestudyoflanguageinuse.Itdealswithhowspeakersuselanguageinwaysthatcannotbepredictedfromlinguisticknowledgealoneandhowlistenersarriveattheintendedmeaningofspeakers.

Discourseanalysisisthestudyoftherelationshipbetweenlanguageandthecontextsinwhichlanguageisused.

Sociolinguisticsisthestudyoflanguageinrelationtosociety:Howsocialfactorsinfluencethestructureanduseoflanguage.

Psycholinguisticsisthestudyofconnectionsbetweenlanguageandmind:thementalstructuresandprocesseswhichareinvolvedintheacquisition,comprehension,andproductionoflanguage.

Stylisticsisthestudyofstyleinlanguage.

Corpuslinguisticsisanapproachtolinguisticdescriptionbasedonlargecollectionsoftextsknownascorpora.

2.No,dognoisesaregenerallynotconsideredlanguage.Whiledogscancommunicatewitheachother,theircommunicationsystemlacksseveralkeyfeaturesofhumanlanguage,suchas:

Arbitrariness:Dogbarksdon’tinherentlymean“danger”or“attention.”Themeaningislearnedthroughassociation.

Duality:Dogvocalizationsdon’thavedistinctunitsthatcombinetocreatenewmeanings.

Syntax:Dogbarksdon’thavecomplexrulesfororderorcombination.

Productivity:Dogscannotreadilycreatenew“words”or“expressions”beyondtheirlimitedrepertoire.

3.

Dualityofpatterning:Humanlanguagehasseparatelevelsofsoundandmeaning.Arbitrariness:Inhumanlanguage,thereisnologicalorintrinsicconnectionbetweenmeaningsandsounds,orbetweenthethingssignifiedandthewordsusedtosignifythem.

Productivity:Humanscancreatenewandinfinitesentenceswithafinitesetofwords.

Displacement:Humanscanrefertothingsnotpresentintheimmediateenvironment.

4.

Systematic:Languageissystematicbecauseitfollowsrulesandpatterns,bothinitsstructure(syntax)anditssoundsystem(phonology).

Symbolic:Languageissymbolicbecausewordsandlinguisticsignsrepresentmeaning,buttheconnectionbetweenthesignifierandthesignifiedisarbitrary.

Social:Languageissocialbecauseitisasharedsystemusedbyacommunityofspeakers,anditsuseisinfluencedbysocialfactorssuchasculture,status,andrelationships.

DeSaussureisconsideredthefatherofmodernlinguisticsbecauseheintroducedkeyconceptslikethearbitrarinessofthesignandthedistinctionbetweenthesignifier(sound)andthesignified(meaning).Helaidthefoundationforstructurallinguisticsandsemioticswithhisconceptsofthesign,signifier,andsignified.Hisideasrevolutionizedthestudyoflanguage,influencingfieldssuchasphonology,syntax,andsemantics.

The19th-centurylinguistswereinterestedinhistoricallinguisticsbecausetheywerefascinatedbytheevolutionoflanguagesovertimeandwantedtounderstandhowlanguageschange,diversify,andrelatetoeachother.Historicallinguisticsprovidedinsightsintotheoriginsoflanguagesandtherelationshipsbetweendifferentlanguagefamilies.Theysoughttounderstandtherelationshipsbetweenlanguagesandhowtheyevolvedovertime.Thishelpedthemtracetherootsoflanguagesandunderstandlanguagefamilies.

Teachingadogcommandswouldn’tbeconsideredteachingitlanguage.Whilethedoglearnsanassociationbetweenthewordandtheaction,itdoesn’tunderstandthemeaningofthewordoruseitcreatively.Thisissimpleconditioning,nottruelanguageacquisition.

Chapter2PhoneticsandPhonology

1.

1)Plosive 2)Affricate3)Approximant4)Fricative5)Nasal

2.

/n/isanasalsound,whilealltheothersareoralsounds,producedwiththeairstreamgoingoutthroughthemouth.

/ɡ/isavoicedconsonant,whilealltheothersarevoiceless.

/j/isaconsonant,whilealltheotherthreearevowels.

Hereisahintabouthowtoanswerquestionslikethis:Youaresupposedtodefinewhatthesubjects(vowels,inthiscase)areandthenclassifythemaccordingtocertaincriteria,fromthegeneraltothemorespecific.

Englishvowelsarespeechsoundsproducedwithnoobstructiontotheairstreamasitpassesfromthelarynxtothelips.

Accordingtotheircomplexity,Englishvowelscanfirstbeclassifiedintotwocategories:monophthongsanddiphthongs.Monophthongs,alsoknownassimpleorpurevowels,areproducedwiththetongueandlipsremainingrelativelystablethroughoutthearticulation.Bycontrast,diphthongs,alsoknownascompoundvowels,areproducedwiththetongue(andlips)movingfromonevowelpositiontoanother.TheeightdiphthongsinEnglishare:/eɪ/,/aɪ/,/ɔɪ/,/əʊ/,/aʊ/,/ɪə/,/eə/,and

/ʊə/.

Monophthongscanbefurtherclassifiedintodifferentsubcategoriesalongdifferentdimensions.Forexample,accordingtotongueadvancement(thatis,whichpartofthetongueisraisedclosesttothepalate)insound-making,monophthongscanbegroupedintofrontvowelssuchas/i:/,/ɪ/,/e/,and/æ/,centralvowelssuchas/ɜ:/,

/ə/,and/ʌ/,andbackvowelssuchas/u:/,/ʊ/,/ɔ:/,/ɑː/,and/ɒ/.

Studentsarereferredtotheanalysisof/mmm/inthischapter.Thesameistruewith

yes.

Hereisahintabouthowtoanswerquestionslikethis:Youcanfirstgivethedefinitionsofthethreekeytermswithexamplesandthenillustratetherelationsordifferencesamongthemwithexamples.

Aphoneisthesmallestperceptiblediscretesegmentofsoundinastreamofspeech.Forexample,inthewordtop,therearethreephones:[th],[ɒ],and[p=],whereasinthewordstop,therearefourphones:[s],[t=],[ɒ],and[p=].

Aphonemeisaphoneofdistinctivevalue,thatis,beingabletodistinguishdifferentwords.Thefactthattipanddiparedifferentwordsprovidesevidencethattheinitialphonesinthetwowordsaretwodifferentphonemes.

However,theinitialphoneintop,[th],andthesecondphoneinstop,[t=],aredifferentphones,butcannotbesaidtobetwodifferentphonemes.Thatisbecauseevenifstopispronouncedas[sthɒp=],itisstillregardedasthesameword,stop.

Phonessuchas[th]and[t=]arenotofdistinctivevaluebutarevarietiesofthesamephoneme,appearingindifferentphoneticcontexts.Theyarecalledallophonesofthesamephoneme.Forexample,[th]and[t=]areallophonesofthephoneme/t/,thevoicelessalveolarplosive.

Chapter3Morphology

1.

Morphology:Morphologyisabranchoflinguisticsthatstudiestheinternalstructure,forms,andclassesofwords.

Freemorpheme:Morphemesthatcanstandalonearecalledfreemorphemes.Freemorphemescanbeclassifiedintolexicalmorphemesandfunctionalmorphemes.

Boundmorpheme:Morphemesthatmustbeattachedaspartsofawordaresaidtobebound.Boundmorphemesareactuallyaffixes.

Prefix:Aprefixisanaffixattachedbeforearootorastem.

Suffix:Asuffixisanaffixattachedafterarootorastem.

Morph:Amorphisaphysicalformrepresentingsomemorphemeinalanguage.Thatistosay,morphsarethephonological(spoken)ororthographic(written)formswhichrealizemorphemes,andtheyareminimalcarriersofmeaning.

Allomorph:Ifdifferentmorphsrepresentthesamemorpheme,theyaregroupedtogetherandtheyarecalledallomorphsofthatmorpheme.

Derivation:Derivationisaprocessofaddingderivationalmorphemestoformnewwords.Derivationalmorphemesformnewwordsintwoways.Oneischangingthemeaningofthestemtowhichtheyareattached.Theotherischangingtheword-classthatthestembelongsto.

Compounding:Compoundingisawayofbuildingnewwords.Thosewordscontaintwoormorewords,ormoreaccurately,twoormoreroots.

Conversion:Conversion(alsoknownaszeroderivation)canbedefinedasthederivationofanewwordwithoutanyovertmarking.Itistheformationofnewwordsbychangingtheirwordclasswithoutalteringtheirmorphologicalstructures.

Acronym:Acronymsarewordsformedbytakingtheinitiallettersfromthewordsinacompoundorphrase,whicharepronouncedaswords.

Initialism:Initialismsarewordsformedfromtheinitiallettersofwordsandpronouncedasletters.

Back-formation:Back-formationisconsideredasareversalprocessofsuffixation,throughwhichanewwordisformedbyremovinganimaginedsuffixfromanalreadyexistingform.Back-formationischaracterizedbythefactthatitinvolvestheshorteningofalongerwordbythesubtractionofamorpheme.

2.

Thefarmer’scowsescaped.

Itwasraining.

Thosesocksareinexpensive.

Jillneedsthenewercopy.

Fidohasabrokenleg.

Thestrongestrowerwon.

Thepitbullhasbittenthecyclist.

Shequicklyclosedthebook.

Thedramatizationwentwell.

Thedisputewaseventuallyresolvedafterprotractednegotiations.

3.

NATO:NorthAtlanticTreatyOrganization

WWW:WorldWideWeb

SOS:SaveOurShip

TOEFL:TestofEnglishasaForeignLanguage

RCEP:RegionalComprehensiveEconomicPartnership

UN:UnitedNations

GMT:GreenwichMeanTime

NSC:NationalSecurityCouncil

AM:antemeridiem

IBM:InternationalBusinessMachines

UNESCO:UnitedNationsEducational,ScientificandCulturalOrganization

asap:assoonaspossible

dink:doubleincome,nokids

FAQ:frequentlyaskedquestions

VAT:valueaddedtax

laser:lightamplificationbystimulatedemissionofradiation

radar:radiodetectionandranging

4.

brunch:breakfast+lunch

talkathon:talk+marathon

mingy:mean+stingy

comsat:communication+satellite

stagflation:stagnation+inflation

hi-fi:high+fidelity

heliport:helicopter+airport

smog:smoke+fog

chunnel:channel+tunnel

guesstimate:guess+estimate

breathalyzer:breath+analyzer

chortle:chuckleandsnort

5.

punk-rock:todancetopunk