上外 语言学 问答题整理

1. What are the main features of human language?

A. arbitrariness: It means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds B. productivity: Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and

interpretation of new signals by its users.

C. duality: Language is a system, which consists of two sets of structures. At the lower level there is a

structure of sounds, which are meaningless by themselves. But they can be grouped and regrouped into a larger number of units of meaning, which are found at the higher level of the system. Then the units at the higher level can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences.

D. displacement: Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of

the speaker.

E. cultural transmission: While human capacity fro language has a genetic basis, the details of any

language system have to be taught and learned.

2. How are the English consonants classified? What are the phonemes in each category?

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.

a. Manner of articulation: stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids, nasals, glides. b. Place of articulation: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal c. Voicing: Stops VL VD Bilabial Labiodental Dental p b m w f v θ e Alveolar Palatal Velar t d s z (t∫) (dЗ) n l, r ∫ З t∫ dЗ j k g η Glottal h Fricatives VL VD Affricates VL Nasals Liquids Glides VD VD VD VD 3. How are the English vowels classified? What are the phonemes in each category?

A. According to the position of the tongue in the mouth: front, central, back B. According to openness of the mouth: close, semiclose, semiopen, open

C. According to the shape of the lips: rounded, unrounded

Front i: Close I Central Back u: υ Semi-close e З: Semi-open ? Open ɑ з Λ ): l) ɑ: 4. Explain with examples the sequential rule, the assimilation rule, and the deletion rule. 1. Sequential rule refers to the rule that governs the combination of sounds in a particular language.

For example, if a word begins with a [ l ] or a [ r ], then the next sound must be vowel.

2. Assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme,

thus making the two phones similar.

For example, the [ i: ] sound in words like bean, green, team, and scream. This is because in all these sound combination the [ i: ] sound is followed by a nasal [ n ] or [ m ].

3. Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. For example, in the pronunciation of the word sign, there is no [ g ] sound although it is represented in spelling by the letter g. while in its corresponding form signature, the [ g ] is pronounced. Because the deletion rule is at work: Delete a [ g ] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. 5. Explain with examples the main rules of word formation.

1. Derivation (派生): new words are formed from existing words or bases by affixation. “singer”from”sing” “writer”from”write”

2. Compounding: stringing words together ? “headstrong”, “without”

3. Coinage: a new word can be coined outright to fit some purpose?”walkman”,” Kodak” 4. Clipping: the abbreviation of longer words or phrases?expo—exposition Quake--earthquake

5. Blending: combining parts of other words. ?smog-smoke+fog; motel—motor+hotel 6. Acronym: derive from the initials of several words. ?IT—information technology

ISBN—international standard book number

7. Back-formation: new words can be coined already existing words by “subtracting” an affix thought to

be part of the old word. ?to beg (derived from beggar);

to baby-sit (derived from baby-sitter)

8. Functional shift: words may shift from one part of speech to another without the addition of affixes.

?N.-V. to bug; V.-N. a hold

9. Borrowing: when different cultures come into contact, words are often borrowed from one language

to another.?exit, beer

6. Draw the labeled tree diagrams of the two interpretations of the sentence The boy saw the man with a telescope.

1) The boy saw the man with a telescope.

Using the telescope, the boy saw the man. 2) The boy saw the man with a telescope.

The boy saw the man. The man had a telescope.

7. Explain with examples the major sense relations from a lexical perspective.

1. Synonymy (同义) refers to the sameness of close similarity of meaning. Eg. Dialectal synonyms: autumn—fall Stylistic synonyms: dad—daddy

2. Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning: accomlic? &collaborator Collocational synonyms: accuse…of—charge with Semantically different synonyms: amaze—astound

3. Polysemy(一词多义): The same one word may have more than one meaning Table: 1. a piece of furniture

2. the food that is put on a table 3. a level area, a plateau

4. Homonymy(不同词，意义或拼写一样): words have different meanings have the same form.

Different words are identical in sound or spelling.

Homophones: red/read Homographs: lead/i:/ /e/ Complete homonyms

5. Hyponymy: the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word.

Superordinate: flower. Hyponyms: rose Co-hyponyms Antonymy: word are opposite in meaning Gradable antonyms: old—young Complementary antonyms: alive—dead Relational opposites: teacher—pupil

8. What are the four maxims of the CP in pragmatics? Explain with examples how flouting these

maxims give rise to conversational implicature? 1. The maxim of quantity

1. make your contribution as informative as required.

2. do not make your contribution more informative than is required eg. A: When is Susan’s farewell party? B: Sometime next month.

The implicature that results is “I don’t wish to tell you when the party is going to be held”.

2. The maxim of quality

1. don’t say what you believe to be false

2. don’t say that for which you lack adequate evidence eg. A: Would you like to join us for the picnic on Sunday? B: I’m afraid I have got a class on Sunday. B’s implied message is “I don’t want to join you”. 3. The maxim of relation: Be relevant eg. A: How did the math exam go today?

B: We had a basketball match with the other class and we beat them. The implicature is “I don’t wish to talk about the math exam”. 4. The maxim of manner 1. avoid obscurity of expression 2. avoid ambiguity 3. be brief 4. be orderly

eg. A: Shall we get something for the kids? B: Yes, but I veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M.

The implicature is “I don’t want the kids to know we’re talking about setting them some icecream.”

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