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1、1. What are the categories of lexical meaning?Lexical meaning includes: a) referential meaning (also denotative meaning). b) Associative meanings. Referential meaning is the central meaning and it is more stable and universal. Associative meanings are meanings are meanings that hinge on referential
2、meaning, which are less stable and more culture-specific.Types of associative meanings: connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collective meaning2. What are the components of metaphor?There are two positions on the function of metaphors: a) the classical view sees
3、 metaphora rhetorical device; b) another view holds metaphor a cognitive device. Metaphors一 spossible precisely because there are metaphors in a person s conceptual systems.All metaphors are composed of two domains: target domain (also tenor) and source domain (vehicle).3. How does transformational
4、grammar account for sentence- relatedness?1) According to Chomsky, a grammar as the tacit shared knowledge of all speakers is asystem of finite rules by which an infinite number of sentences can be generated. He attempts to account for this aspect of syntax by postulating that deep structures and su
5、rface structures.2) Deep structures are the basic structures generated by phrase structure rules.3) Surface structures are derived structures, the structures of sentences that we actually speak. Surface structures are derived from deep structures through transformational rules which include replacem
6、ent, insertion, deletion and coping, etc.4. On what basis do linguists regard human language as species-specific (unique to humans)?Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Many philosophers and linguists believe that language is unique to man. Language is a huma
7、n trait that sets us apart from other living creatures. They spell out a number of features of language which are not found in animal communication systems. These features: creativity, duality, arbitrariness, displacement, cultural transmission, interchangeability and reflexivity. These are universa
8、l features possessed by all human languages. Although some animal communication systems possess, to a very limited degree, one or another of these features except creativity and duality, none is found to have all the features. On this basis linguists tend to conclude that human languages are qualita
9、tively different form animal communication systems.5. What part of syntax can phrase structure rules account for and what they cannot?Phrase structure rules are rules that specify the constituents of syntactic categories. These rules are part of speakers syntactic knowledge, which govern the constru
10、ction of sentences.There are a lot of part of syntactic knowledge, including structural ambiguity (which strings of words have more than one meaning), words order (different arrangements of the same words have different meanings), grammatical relations (what element relates to what other element dir
11、ectly or indirectly), recursion (the repeated use of the same rules to create infinite sentences), sentence relatedness (sentences may be structurally variant but semantically related), and syntactic categories (a class of words or phrases that can substitute for one another without loss of grammati
12、cality) etc. Phrase structure rules can account for structural ambiguity, word order, grammatical relations, recursion, and syntactic categories; but they cannot account for sentence relatedness.6. How do sociolinguists classify the varieties of English?The term variety is the label given to the for
13、m of a language used by any group of speakers or used in a particular field. A variety is characterized by the basic lexicon, phonology, syntax shared by members of the group. Varieties of a language are of four types: the standard variety, regional dialects, sociolects and registers.A regional dial
14、ect is a variety of a language spoken by people living in an area. The English language has many regional dialects. British English, American English, Australian English.Indian English, South African English, etc. are all regional varieties of the language. One dialect is distinctive from another ph
15、onologically, lexically and grammatically.7. What are the functions of supra-segmental features?The phonetic features, distinctive or non-distinctive, that we have discussed so far may be properties of single segments. In this section we will look at features that are found over a segment or sequenc
16、e of two or more segments, which are called suprasegmental features. These features are also distinctive features. They are found in such units of syllables, words, phrases and sentences. The most widely found suprasegmental features are stress, intonation and tone.Stress is defined as the perceived
17、 prominence (comparative loudness) of one or more syllable elements over others in a word. This definition implies that stress is a relative notion. Intonation: when we speak, we change the pitch of our voice to express ideas. The same sentence uttered with different intonation may express different
18、 attitude of the speaker. In English, there are three basic intonation patterns: fall, rise and fall-rise. Tone is the variation of pitch at the word level to distinguish words. The same sequence of segments can be different words if uttered with different tones. English is not a tone language. Chin
19、ese is a typical tone language.Intonation and stress generally occur simultaneously in utterance. When intonation contour falls on a syllable, the nucleus is stressed and the vowel is naturally lengthened a bit. In the meantime, there is a little pause after the syllable. This simultaneous functioni
20、ng of the features serves to highlight the information focus, or to eliminate ambiguity (double interpretations of the same phrase or sentence).8. What are aspects of syntactic knowledge?Syntactic knowledge is the knowing of which strings of words are grammatical and which are not. In addition, it i
21、ncludes: 1) structural ambiguity 2) word order 3) grammatical relations 4) recursion 5) sentence relatedness 6) syntactic categories.9. The advantages and disadvantages of componential analysis?1st, it is a breakthrough in the formal representation of meaning. Once formally represented, meaning comp
22、onents can be seen. 2nd, it reveals the impreciseness of the terminology in the traditional approach to meaning analysis. Looking at the semantic formula of man and woman again you can see that it is not true that the total meaning of one word contrasts with that of the other. It is merely in one se
23、mantic feature that the two words contrast. When we look at the semantic formulae of man and father, we find that all the semantic features of man are included in the semantic formula of father. Then we reach a different conclusion from common sense in regard to the relation between man and father.
24、Is this contradictory? The answer is No. The obvious fact that man includes father is derived from the perspective of reference. Componential analysis examines the components of sense. The more semantic features a word has, the narrower its reference it is.The limitations of componential analysis ar
25、e also apparent. It cannot be applied to the analysis of all lexicon, merely to words within the same semantic field. It is controversial whether semantic features are universal primes of word meanings in all language.Nevertheless, CA is so far a most influential approach in the structural analysis
26、of lexical meaning.11. Why is linguistics a vast field of study?Linguistics is a broad field of study, because language is a complicated entity with many layers and facets. There are a number of divisions of linguistics, which can be put into two categories. 1) Intra-disciplinary divisions: the stud
27、y of language in general is often termed general linguistics. It is based on the view that language as a system is composed of three aspects: sound, structure and meaning. 2) Inter-disciplinary divisions. a) Sociology deals with language and culture. b) Psycholinguistics deals with the relation betw
28、een language and mind c) applied linguistics is concerned with the application of linguistic theories and descriptions in other fields. All above three belong to sociolinguistics.12. How is linguistics different from traditional grammar?1) Traditional grammar is prescriptive and modern linguistics i
29、s descriptive.2) Traditional grammatical categories are merely based on European language linguistic studies all languages.3) Traditional grammar lacks a theoretical framework, while modern linguistics theoretically rather than pedagogically oriented.13. How are speech sounds described?The study of
30、speech sounds is phonetics which includes 3 parts: 1) articulatory phonetics 2) acoustic phonetics 3) auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics is the primary concern in linguistics, in which speech sound is described within 3 sides:The description of consonants: a) place of articulation b) manners
31、 of articulation voicing d) aspirationbutisc)The description of vowels: a) monophthongs b) diphthongs c) lip rounding d) tensity14. Difference between linguistic competence and communicative competence1) Linguists like Chomsky who are not concerned with language use propose the term linguistic compe
32、tence to account for a speaker s knowledge of his or her language.2) Sociolinguists like Dell Hymes propose communicative competence as the most general term to account for both the tacit knowledge of language and the ability to use it.According to Hymes, there are 4 parameters that underlie a speak
33、ers communicativecompetence, namely the ability to judge: a) whether sth is possible. b) feasible c) appropriate 4) done.15. How are words decomposed into their constituents1) Words are composed of one or more than one morphemes.2) Morphemes are the smallest meaningful unit of language.3) Morphemes
34、can be categorized into 2 kinds. a) free morphemes( they constitute words by themselves) b) bound morphemes( they are never used independently)4) Bound morphemes include inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes.16. What are aspects of syntactic knowledge?Syntactic knowledge is the knowing o
35、f which strings of words are grammatical and whichare not. In addition, it includes: 1) structural ambiguity 2) word order 3) grammatical relations 4) recursion 5) sentence relatedness 6) syntactic categories.17. What are the two classes of phonetic features? What is the fundamental difference?The t
36、wo classes of phonetic features are distinctive features and non-distinctive features.Features that distinguish meaning are called distinctive features, in other words, those distinguishing phonemes.Non-distinctive features do not distinguish meanings, i.e. thefeatures belong to allophones. However,
37、 whether a phonetic feature is distinctive or non-distinctive varies from one language to another language.18. How do you account for the relation between phonetics and phonology?Phonology and phonetics are both concerned with the study of speech sounds, but the two differ in perspectives. Phonetics
38、, particularly articulatory phonetics, focuses on how speech sounds are produced, what phonetic features they have, and how to transcribe them. In phonetics, sound segments are assumed to be invariable; variations are overlooked.Phonology focuses on three fundamental questions. What sounds make up t
39、he list of sounds that can distinguish meaning in a particular language? What sounds vary in what ways in what context? What sounds can appear together in a sequence in a particular language?19. What are the components of communicative competence？According to Hedge, there are mainly five components
40、of communicative competence.They are linguistic competence, pragmatic competence, discourse competence, strategic competence, and fluency.1. Analyze the sentence in terms of type of process, mood structure, and theme and rheme:The academician will address the issue of the legitimacy of cloning at th
41、e conference.It is the verbal process. In this sentence, the sayer is the academician, the receivers are the people at the conference though it is not mentioned but we can infer it from the sentence. The verbiage is the issue of the legitimacy of cloning.This sentence is the realization of linguisti
42、c interaction, it is the giving of information. Itssyntactic form is statement. The subject is the academician, the finite is the verbal operator “ will ”.The constituent that stands for the starting-point for the message is termed theme; all the rest of the sentence is labeled rheme. In this senten
43、ce, the theme is the academician and “the issue of the legitimacy of cloning at the conference” is the rheme.2. Analyze the two English sound segments【K 】and 【Kh 】in terms of distribution andthe phonetic feature that distinguish them.1) Both are in complementary distribution. They are the allophones
44、 of the phoneme【K】.【K】 : fricative, voiceless, alveolar.【Kh】: elsewhere2) the phonetic feature that distinguish them is aspirationWhat are aspects of syntactic knowledge?Syntactic knowledge is the knowing of which strings of words are grammatical and whichare not. In addition, it includes: 1) struct
45、ural ambiguity 2) word order 3) grammatical relations 4) recursion 5) sentence relatedness 6) syntactic categories.3. Point out thesemantic problem of the sentence the orphan is staying with hisparentsThere are some sentences which sound grammatical but meaningless. The sentence theorphan is staying
46、 with his parents ” is just one example. This sentence is always false which is called contradiction. An orphan is a child whose parents are dead, or a child who has been deprived of parental care. The theme (the orphan) and the rheme (is staying with his parents) are incompatible.4. Analyze the cha
47、nge of feature concerning the liquids and nasals in flight, snow, smart, pray and generalize the rule.Liquids /l/ /r/ appear after a voiceless consonant /f/ and /p/ respectively, they are devoiced. Nasals /n/m/ appear after a voiceless consonant /s/, they are devoiced.Rule: Devoice a voiced consonan
48、t after a voiceless consonant.Or: When the English liquids, glides and the two anterior nasals appear after a voiceless consonant, it is devoiced. This rule can be expressed as follows: devoice a voiced consonant after a voiceless consonant ， that is, +voiced+consonantal -voiced / -voiced+consonanta
49、l-. The phonology /l/ /r/ belong to liquids, and /m/ /n/ belong to anterior nasals. All these four are voiced consonant, but in these words, they change to the voiceless, for they appear after voiceless consonants.6. Analyze the cooking term stew as a verb by way of componential analysis and mark the feature that you think is distinguisher.stew: +cook +hot +close dish +juice (+ juice: sem