考试科目:883语言学基础
1. Define each of the following terms.(本题20分)
(1) Suprasegmental
(2) rime (rhyme)
(3) cranberry morpheme
(4) phrasal category
(5) mental lexicon
(6) genetic relation
(7) paraphrase
(8) implicature
(9) synecdoche
(10) syllabus
2. For each natural class of sounds listed below, state the phonetic feature(s) that they all share. (本题10分)
(1) [t] [p] [k] [q] [ʔ]
(2) [i] [ɪ] [æ] [e] [ə]
(3) [ɱ] [ŋ] [ɲ] [n] [ɳ]
(4) [j] [w] [l] [r] [m]
(5) [z] [ʐ] [ʒ] [ð] [v]
3. In Southern Kongo, a Bantu language spoken in Angola, the non-palatal consonants [t, s, z ]are in complementary distribution with their palatal counterparts [ c, ʃ, ʒ ] , as shown in the following words : (本题 10 分)
(1) state the distribution of the palatals and the non-palatals, and (2) formulate one phonological rule and derive all the surface palatals with the rule formulated, using the word ʒima “to stretch” for illustrating the derivation.
4. The English word unlockable has two different lexical meanings, i. e. “not able to lock” and “able to be unlocked”. The semantic ambiguity of the word comes from structural ambiguity. Give the meaning corresponding to the morphemic structure of the word in your analysis. Draw two tree diagrams to show the difference between the two structures. Lable the nodes in the tree diagram with proper categories. (本题10分)
5. Syntactic analysis.(本题 14 分)
The following are two declarative-question pairs, as given in (la, lb) and (2a, 2b).
(la) The boy who is sleeping was dreaming.
(lb) Was the boy who is sleeping dreaming?
(2a) The boy who is sleeping was dreaming.
(2b) Is the boy who sleeping was dreaming?
Draw a tree diagram for sentence (la) and sentence (lb) respectively. Then answer the questions.
Question 1: What syntactic mechanism(s) operate(s) to derive the structure of sentence (lb) from the structure of sentence (la) ?
Question 2: Why sentence (2b) is ungrammatical?
6. Semantic properties of words are not directly observable. Their existence must be inferred from linguistic evidence. One source of such evidence is “slips of the tongue” that speakers of a language produce. Consider the following unintentional word substitutions that some English speakers have actually produced. Name the semantic properties shared by or related in the intended word and its substitution in each pair of the utterances.(本题 8 分)
Intended utterances
Actual utterances (slips of the tongue)
7. Identify the thematic roles in each of the sentences given below.(本题 8 分)
a. The door opened.
b. The key opened the door.
c. The boy opened the door with the key.
8. Answer the following questions.(本题20分)
(1) How do you understand “performative” and “constative” ?(8 分)
(2) How do you distinguish “error” from “mistake” ?(6 分)
(3) What is a social dialect?(6 分)
9. Analyze the conversations below as required.(本题 30 分)
9a. Analyze the following mini-talk in light of the cooperative principle.(本题 10 分)
A: Have you had your lunch?
B: I have been unwell for the whole morning.
9b. Find the deixis in the following dialogue and analyze them into different groups according to their function in the linguistic interaction.(本题20分)
(1) Debby: Go anywhere today?
(2) Dan: Yes, we went down to Como. Up by bus, and back by hydrofoil.
(3) Debby: Anything to see there?
(4) Dan: Perhaps not the most interesting of Italian towns, but it’s worth the trip.
(5) Debby: I might do that next Saturday.
(6) Jane: What do you mean when you say perhaps not the most interesting of Italian towns? (7) Jack: He means certainly not the most interesting...
(8) Dan: Just trying to be polite...
10. State ONE of the two topics given below. (Minimally 200 words)(本题20分)
(1) Grammatically judgments are made on the basis of linguistics knowledge.
(2) The difference among “locutionary meaning”, “illocutionary meaning” and “perlocutionary meaning.”
1. (1) suprasegmental concerned with those aspects of sound features that involve more than single sound segments. The principal suprasegmental are syllable, stress, tone, and intonation.
(2) typically, a syllable consists of onset (consonant preceding the rhyme) and rhyme which consists of nucleus or peak (vowel or syllabic consonant) and coda (consonant following peak). For example,the English syllable may be represented as (((C) C) C) V ((((C) C) C) C).
(3) In linguistic morphology, a cranberry morpheme (or fossilized term) is a type of bound morpheme that cannot be assigned an independent meaning or grammatical function, but nonetheless serves to distinguish one word from the other. For example, ceive in receive.
(4) Phrasal category refers to syntactic units that are built around a certain word category, and its category is determined by the word category around which the phrase is built.
(5) Mental lexicon is defined as a mental dictionary that contains information regarding a word’ s meaning, pronunciation, syntactic characteristics, and so on. Mental lexicon is a construct used in linguistics and psycholinguistics to refer to individual speakers’ lexical, or word, representations.
(6) Genetic relation is the usual term for the relationship which exists between languages that belong to the same language family.
(7) A paraphrase is a restatement of the meaning of a text or passage using other words.
(8) Proposed by Grice, implicature refers to a type of implied meaning, which is deduced on the basis of the conventional meaning of words together with the context, under the guidance of the Cooperative Principal and its maxims.
(9) Synecdoche is a type of metonymy. The name of a part of an object is used to talk about the whole thing, and vice versa. E.g. The legs could hardly keep up with the tanks. A Daniel came to judgment.
(10) A syllabus is an outline and summary of topics to be covered in an education or training course. It is descriptive (unlike the prescriptive or specific curriculum). A syllabus is often either set out by an exam board, or prepared by the professor who supervises or controls the course quality. It may be provided in paper form or online.
2. 考点提示: 本题考查每组语音的共同特点。
参考答案:
(1) Stop/plosives
(2) Unrounded/vowels
(3) Nasals
(4) Approximants
(5) Fricatives
3. 考点提示: 考查音位学中的互补分布及音系规则。在该语言中,非腭音[t, s, z]分布在字母o,a,u,w,e之前,而相应的腭音[c, ʃ, ʒ]分布在字母i之前。因此我们的音系规则可以写为[-palatal]→[+palatal]/-_____i, 此规则读作:当非腭音后面为字母i时,此非腭音将转化为相应的腭音。因此在单词ʒima中,非腭音z因为在字母i前面而变成了相应的腭音。
参考答案:
(1) The non-palatals [ t, s, z] appear before letters including o, a, u, w and e,while the palatals appear before the letter i. (3 points)
(2) Since the non-palatals [ t,s, z] occur in most cases,we can say that the non-palatals [t, s,z]are the basic form and the palatals are derived from it. So the palatals [c, ʃ, ʒ] are the surface forms. The phonological rule can be represented as follows :[ -palatal]→[+ palatal]/___ i, which can be read:The non-palatal sound will become its corresponding palatal when it appears before the letter i. (4 points)
In the word ʒima: /zɪma/
ʒ (palatalization)
ʒima Output
With the rule applied, we can get the word ʒima. (3 points)
4. 考点提示: 本题考查单词的结构分析。
Unlockable可以有两种意思:un+lock→unlock+able→unlockable 或者 lock+able→
lockable, un+lockable→unlockable.
参考答案:
(1) able to be unlockable
(2) not able to lock
5. 考点提示: 本题考查句子结构以及树形图的画法。由(1a)生成(1b)是由转换生成语法中的中心语移位,也就是助动词移位生成的。在句子(2b)中,助动词is 是从句who is sleeping 的中心语, 因此将is 移到the boy 之前所生成的句子是错误的。
参考答案:
Question1:The movement of the auxiliary verb in the sentence, that is, was, helps to derive the structure of sentence (1b) from structure of sentence (1a). According to the XP rule, the auxiliary is the head of a sentence which takes a VP category as its complement on the right and an NP, the subject as its specifier on the left. Therefore, the movement of the head, that is,was, derives the structure of sentence(lb). (4 points)
Question 2: In the sentence (2a) The boy who is sleeping was dreaming, the auxiliary should be was. The word is is only the auxiliary in the clause who is sleeping. Therefore, when the auxiliary is is moved, it can only be moved to the front of the specifierwho, not to the very beginning of the whole sentence. From the perspective of head movement, the sentence (2b) Is the boy who sleeping wasdreaming? is ungrammatical. (4 points)
6. 考点提示: 本题考查词的语义特征。在这些口误中,真正使用的词与原词在语义上都有很大的关联性。nose和neck都是身体部位; gums和tongues都是口腔的部分; late,early以及young都是时间的表达方式;dachshund和Volkswagen都与德国相关;color和race都是马的重要特征;alimony和rent都与金钱相关;dog和cat同属于动物。
参考答案: Nose and neck are “parts of the body” ; (1 point) gums and tongues are “parts of the mouth”; (1 point) late,early and young are all related to “time” ; (2 points) dachshund and Volkswagen are both “German” (1 point) color and race are both features of a “horse”; (1 point) alimony and rent are both related to u money;(1 point) both dog and cat are kinds of “animal”. (1 point)
7. 考点提示: 本题考查题元角色。题元角色主要是动词所表示的活动或事件中的相对恒定的参与者角色。在a句中,the door处于客体(theme)的角色;在b句中,如key处于工具(instrument) 的角色,the door 处于受事(patient)的角色;在c句中,the boy 处于施事(agent)的角色,the key处于工具(instrument)的角色,the door 处于受事(patient)的角色。
参考答案:
In sentence a, the thematic role of the door is theme. (2 points)
In sentence b, the thematic role of the key is instrument, and the thematic role of the door is patient. In sentence c, the thematic role of the boy is agent, that of the door is patient, and that of the key is instrument. (3 points)
8. (1)考点提示: 本题考查对施为句和叙事句的理解。
解题思路: 首先解释施为句和叙事句的概念,然后再举例加以证明。
参考答案:
The distinction between constative and performative utterance is made by J. L. Austin. Constatives refer to statements that either state or describe, and are verifiable; performatives, on the other hand,are sentences that do not state a fact or describe a situation, and are not verifiable. (4 points) When a person who is authorized to name a ship smashes a bottle of champagne against the stem of an unnamed ship, he is required by the convention, and says “I name this ship Elizabeth”, this ship is named. So this sentence, which is used to perform the act of naming, is a performative utterance. (2 points) In contrast,the utterance “I pour some liquid into the tube” said by a chemistry teacher in a demonstration of an experiment is not a performative. It is a description of what the speaker is doing at the time of speaking. The speaker cannot pour any liquid into a tube by simply uttering these words. He must accompany his words with the actual pouring. Otherwise one can accuse him of making a false statement. Sentences of this type are constatives. (2 points)
(2)考点提示: 本题考查教学法中错误与失误的区别。
参考答案:
Errors and mistakes are often differentiated. Errors usually arise from the learner’s lack of knowledge; it represents a lack of competence. In other words, the learner does not know the right form or is unable to use language correctly. Mistakes often occur when learners fail to perform their competence. In anther word, the learner has already learned the knowledge or skill but simply fails to function correctly due to lack of attention or other factors. In conclusion, errors have become a major subject in foreign language teaching. (2 points)
Errors can be classified from different perspectives. In terms of the source of errors, errors are often divided into interlingual errors and intralingual errors. The former (or transfer errors) occur when the learner misuses an item because it shares features with the item in the native language. For example, the learner uses some L1 features (phonological, lexical, etc.) rather than that of the target language. Intralingual errors (developmental errors are errors within the target language itself, such as overgeneralization, which arises when the learner applies a rule in a situation when the rule does not apply). (2 points)
In terms of the nature of errors, errors often fall into five types: omissions, additions, double marking, misformation and misordering.
From the above discussion, we can conclude that “speaked” and “writed” are errors of misformations, the wrong formation of simple past tense inflectional marks of “speak” and “write”which come from the intralingual factor, it is overgeneralization, while “spoked” and “wroted” are errors of double markings. (2 points)
(3) 考点提示: 本题考查方言的定义。
参考答案:
Social dialect refers to a dialect associated with a given demographic group (e.g. women versus men, older versus younger speakers , or members of different social classes ). Traditionally, the notion“dialect” is restricted to the kind of language showing variation in space. It is different from language in that it is considered a distinct entity, yet not distinct enough from other dialects of the language to be regarded as a different language. Today, the interpretation of “dialect” is multidimensional. It takes into account all variations arising from differences among users, namely, the space, the temporal factor and the social distance. (3 points )
Dialects which identify where a person is in terms of a social scale are called “social dialects”or “class dialects”, or “sociolects” for short. Since we often bind ourselves together in groups for some gain, security, worship, amusement, self-identification and other proposes we share in common,we tend to use the kind of language which is highly stratified in teams of social divisions, such as class, professional status, age and sex, which influence some usages in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. (3 points)
9 a.考点提示: 本题考查合作原则。从表面上来看,对话违反了合作原则中得数量准则和关联准则,B的回答略显过多并且看似与问题没有关系。但实际上基于二者的相互理解,A很容易推断出B是因为身体不舒服所以没有吃饭。所以实际上B遵守了数量和关联准则。
解题思路: 首先解释合作原则的概念以及四个准则,然后再根据对话进行分析。
参考答案:
In making a conversation, the participants must first of all be willing to cooperate; otherwise, it would not be possible for them to carry on the talk. This general principle is called the Cooperative Principle: “Make your conversational contribution such as is required, as the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.” To be more specific, there are four maxims under this general principle: the maxim of quantity, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation, and the maxim of manner. (2 points)
At the superficial level of this mini-talk, the second speaker violates the maxim of quantity, that is,make your contribution more informative than is required, as well as the maxim of Relation, which goes like be relevant. (4 points)
However, at the deeper level of the dialogue, speaker A can infer that speaker B did not have lunch at all for he has been unwell in the whole morning. Therefore, the implicature appears on account of the violation of cooperative principle. (4 points)
9 b.考点提示: 本题考查指示代词。指示包括人称指示(person deixis)、时间指示(time deixis)、空间指示(place/spatial deixis)及篇章指示(textual deixis)等。在本题中,人称指示词包括we, I, you, he;时间指示词包括 today, next Saturday;空间指示词包括 anywhere, Como, up, back, there;篇章指词包括 the, that。
解题思路: 首先介绍指示代词的定义以及分类,然后再结合对话进行分析。
参考答案:
Deixis involves linguistic forms that point at something from the speech situation. (2 points) Deixis can be classified into different types, including person deixis, time deixis space/special deixis, textual deixis, etc. (4 points)
The deixis in the dialogue are: we , I, you, he, today, next Saturday, anywhere, Como, up, back,there, the, that. (6 points) person deixis includes:we, I, you, he; (2 points) time deixis includes:today,next Saturday;(2 points) place deixis includes anywhere, Como, up, back, there;(2 points) textual deixis includes: the, that. (2 points)
10 (1) 考点提示: 本题考查合乎语法性判断与语言知识的关系。句子的语法性是指句子的合成必须符合本族语者头脑中的语法知识。语言知识是所有语法建构的核心。因此学习者判断句子是否符合语法的过程也是一个学习的过程。从本质上讲,一个人判断句子语法性的能力也就是他本人语言知识的不可分割的一部分。学习语言的过程也是习得句子语法性判断能力的过程。真正的语法性和语言知识在本质上是一致的。语法性是以语言知识的外在体现而表现出来的。因此,合乎语法性判断是建立在语言知识的基础之上的。
参考答案:
Grammaticality is the quality of a linguistic utterance of being grammatically well-formed. For native speakers of natural languages, grammaticality is a matter of linguistic intuition, the competence learned by language acquisition in childhood. The linguistic knowledge is at the center of all theoretical construction, so the person’s ability to perform the grammaticality evaluation implies a learning process.In an immanent perspective the function enabling linguistic individuals to judge grammaticality is actually part and parcel of their linguistic knowledge. (3 points)
Learning a language is the same as learning to arrive at the appropriate grammaticality values in the individualistic and embedded sense of constellation. The hard task of learning the language in the initial process provides the linguistic individualistic with all the concrete knowledge and principles required for a socially adapted use of language, that is, the reason for dealing with grammaticality of all. True grammaticality and linguistic knowledge are actually congruent. Grammaticality finds its manifestation as an externalization of linguistic knowledge, while linguistic knowledge as such has a purely internal status, a latency which can only be evidence through linguistic activity or a metadiscourse on language. (4 points)
First language learning consists of receiving all the necessary information on grammaticality by learning the grammatical patterns admitted in the language, that is, the utterances being observed given the untutored learning of language and extracting from them appropriate principle. At the same tune, the individual’s linguistic development represents a necessary dimension of variability in grammaticality evaluations, since linguistic knowledge can’t be postulated as necessarily and precisely shared in kind,organization, and extent between different linguistic individuals. Therefore, grammaticality judgments are made on the basis of linguistic knowledge. (3 points)
(2) 考点提示: 本题考查奥斯汀言语行为理论。
解题思路: 分别解释三种言语行为类别然后再举例说明。
参考答案:
According to Austin, there are three senses in which saying something may be understood as doing something:locutionary act, illocutionary act,perlocutionary act.
Locutionary act is the act of producing speech sounds, words or sentences. (2 points)
Illocutionary act is the act of making known the speaker’s purpose or the intended meaning: asking or answering a question, giving some information or an assurance or a warning, pronouncing sentence,making a request or an appointment or a criticism, making an identification or giving a description, and many others. Austin acknowledges that force or illocutionary force can be regarded as part of meaning,when the latter is used in a broad sense. But he thinks it is better to distinguish force from meaning, with the latter used in a narrow sense, or what we say the more constant, inherent side of meaning (studied in semantics). Thus interpreted, force may be said to be equivalent to speaker’s meaning, contextual meaning, or extra meaning (studied in pragmatics). (2 points)
Perlocutionary act is the consequential effect of a locution upon the hearer. By saying something the speaker may change the opinion of the hearer, misleading him, surprising him, or induce him to do something. Whether these effects are intended by the speaker, they can be regarded as part of the act performed by the speaker. This is what is called perlocutionary act. (2 points)
Take the sentence “You have left the door wide open”, for example. The locutionary act means a series of sounds. The illocutionary act performed by the speaker is that by making such an utterance he has expressed his intention of speaking, i.e. asking someone to close the door, or making a complaint,depending on the context. The perlocutionary act refers to the effect of the utterance. If the hearer gets the speaker’s message and sees that the speaker means to tell him to close the door, the speaker has successfully brought about the change in the real world he has intended to; then the perlocutionary act is successfully performed. (4 points )