[英语考试]英语语言学实用教程课后习题答案参考.docVIP

英语语言学实用教程教学提示 Unit 1 Some Preliminaries about LanguageCheck your understandingState whether each of the following statements is True or False.(1) There is universal agreement about the origin of language. F(2) Pet dogs can speak human languages. F(3) All human infants can speak some language. FNote: All normal human infants can learn to speak some language.(4) By creativity we mean the creative use of language as often practiced by poets. F Note: By creativity we mean that we can always create and understand new sentences never used before.(5) With different cultures there will be different languages. F Note: Some cultures can share the same language.(6) Not all uses of language are meant to convey new information. T Note: Example: language used for phatic communion is not meant to convey new information. In-Class Activities1. ASK: (1) What does “language” mean in each of the contexts?a. a natural language; language in particular.b. a human-specific tool for communication; language in general.c. individual style of language use.d. a metaphorical way of referring to bees system of communication.(2) Is there any other context in which the use of the word means something else? Yes. Example: language for the computer like C+2. ASK:(1) What if there were no language? Omit.(2) What if there were only one language the world over? Omit.(3) What can we learn from this Bible story? Language is powerful as a tool of human communication.3. ASK:(1) Do you think the two statements are equally probable, and if not, why not? (a) is more likely than (b), because the word as the basic unit of meaning that can occur independently in language is finite in number, whereas the sentence as composed of words, though almost infinite in number, is made possible by our knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We can always produce and understand sentences that we never come across before. In that sense, no sentence is really new.(2) In what context do we make the second statement? When we focus our attention on the meaning of a sentence or when we are concerned with the form of a sentence as found in a language class.4. ASK:(1) Are there onomatopoeic words in Chinese? Yes. e.g. “哗啦”、“扑通”、“喀嚓”.(2) Does the existence of onomatopoeic words overthrow the claim that language is arbitrary? No. Onomatopoeic words account for a very limited percentage in the vocabulary of a language.5. ASK:(1) Can one really invent a language of ones own? No. (2) If not, why?A language comes into being and use by convention or agreement among its speakers.6. ASK:(1) Is there any basic flaw in this experiment? The process is not strictly controlled. There may have been some coincidence. The sample size is too small for the experiment to be valid. (2) Do you think we really can answer the question about the beginning of language? No, at least in the present condition where/when we cannot perform experiments on the human brain, the key organ of speech.7. ASK:(1) Can you identify the most likely order (from least to most advanced) of these samples? CBA(2) What features in each childs utterances can you use as evidence to support your ordering? Child A: good syntax except for improper question form. Child B: visible development of syntax; overgeneralization Child C: Not much syntax; two-word utterances; telegraphic sentences (sentences that contain only content words but lack function words)8. ASK:(1) It is often assumed that children imitate adults in the course of language acquisition. Can imitation account for the above production on the part of the child? Not wholly. There is counter evidence against the assumption, like the overgeneralization “go-ed” for “went”.(2) What distinguishes the childs production from that of the adult? Overgeneralization of “-ed” for the past tense as shown by “holded”. 9. ASK:(1) How do adults reinforce the process of childrens acquisition as exemplified here? They use explicit correction.(2) Do children know what they are doing wrongly? Not exactly. (3) Do the adults succeed in their reinforcement? Not always, at least.(4) How should we treat the “mistakes” that children make while acquiring their mother tongue? We may ignore them sometimes, although some amount of reinforcement may turn out to be helpful. 10. ASK:(1) Do children learn through structured or simplified input, as suggested? Not always. There is evidence for both sides. (2) Can you offer some examples illustrating, representing the way adults talk to infants?Omit.Note: Motherese is characterized by shorter sentences, higher pitch, exaggerated intonation, higher proportion of content words to function words, simple syntax, more interrogatives and imperatives, more repetitions. Yet it is not syntactically simpler. Rather, it may include syntactically complex sentences such as questions: Do you want your juice now? Embedded sentences: Mommy thinks you should sleep now. Imperatives: Pat the dog gently! Negatives with tag questions: We dont want to hurt him, do we? Indeed, it is fortunate that motherese is not syntactically restricted. If it were, children might not have sufficient information to extract the rules of their language.11. ASK(1) What measures do you suggest for protecting dialects as well as languages? Omit.(2) Do you think that someday people all over the world will speak only one language, or someday no dialect will exist? Omit. 12. ASK:Are there any universals that you think all languages share but are not mentioned here?E.g. All languages have internal structures. All languages have numericals. ExercisesTask 3: Study Questions1. What do you think is essential to the emergence of language? The existence of social activities; the need to express diverse ideas, emotions, etc.; the need to communicate ideas to distant places; etc.2. Can our pets learn human languages? Why or why not?No. They are genetically not endowed with the capacity.3. What role does body language play in language communication? Omit.4. Naturally occurring “experiments” with so-called “wolf-children”, “bear-children”, “Mowgli” or “monkey-children” and other such feral youngsters have been widely reported for hundreds of years. None of these children could speak or understand speech and, indeed, most efforts to teach them language ended in failure. How would you account for the failure?The language acquisition device has to be triggered before a certain age (that of puberty). Sufficient expose to a language environment at the right time is essential to language acquisition.5. The following are some instances of using English for communication. What specific function does each use of English serve in the following pictures? Informative (in the form of commanding) Directive (Advertising in the form of requesting)Directive (Persuading in the form of threatening) Directive (Recruiting)6Iconicity of language is an aspect of language where form echoes meaning. Onomatopoeia, also known as “sound symbolism”, is one type of iconicity. Some researchers have found other evidence of iconicity. For example, words beginning with the sound combination sl- in English often have an unpleasant sense, as in slithering, slimy, slugs. Here are some questions:a. Is the “unpleasant” sense actually true of all, or even most, words beginning with sl- in English? No. e.g. slight.b. Are there any other sounds or sound combinations that you associate with particular meanings? Gliding: slide, slip, slippery; Rolling: tumble, crumble, stumblec. How about the vowel sounds in words that identify near-to-speaker concepts (this, near, here) versus far-from-speaker concepts (that, far, there)? What is the difference? Is it a general pattern distinguishing terms for things that are near versus far in English? What about the case in Chinese?Front vowels for near-speaker concepts; central or back vowels for far-from-speaker concepts. There seems to be a similar kind of pattern in Chinese. C.f. 近 jin /远 yuan；这 zhe /那 na7. In many of the worlds languages there are so-called nursery names for parents. In English, for example, corresponding to the word mother is the nursery name mama, and for father one finds dada and papa. There is remarkable similarity across different languages in the form of these nursery names for parents. For example, in Chinese and Navajo ma corresponds to English mama. Why do you think that this is the case?Bilabials are learned and produced first because they are the easiest.8. a. What are some of the changes which appear to have taken place in the childs ability to use English during that period? Like the basically proper use of interrogatives and the correct use of inflection. b. What do these changes suggest about the order of language acquisition?Complete sentences are acquired later than elliptical ones. Inflection is acquired at a late stage. Unit 2 The Sounds of EnglishCheck your understandingState whether each of the following statements is True or False.1. i: and i are allophones of the same phoneme. F2. Not all English phonemes have allophones. T Note: /N/ and /j/ occur in one single position and therefore do not have allophones.3. The same set of vowels is used in all languages. F4. All syllables must contain at least one vowel. F Note: Some syllables may contain no vowels. They may, instead, employ some syllabic consonant, as in people and muscle.5. The marking of word stress is arbitrary for the most part in English. F6. English is a tone language. F Note: Chinese is a tone language. In-Class Activities1. ASK: (1) What is the phonetic environment of t in pit? i_#(2) Are the following pairs of words minimal pairs? (a) desk vs. task No. (b) leave vs. Leak Yes. ( li:v vs. li:k ) 2. ASK: (1) Characterize how the allophones of the phoneme /k/ are complementarily distributed. kh in initial position; kafter /s/; k in final position. (2) Is there any other way of charactering the complementary distribution of clear l and dark ? l before vowels; elsewhere. 3. ASK: (1) What distinctive feature makes /f/ and /v/ different? voiced(2) Can you specify the distinctive features for the following phonemes? (a) /F/ fricative + voiceless + palatal (b) /k/ velar+voiceless+plosive (c) /n/ nasal+voiced +alveolar4. ASK:(1) Are r and l in complementary distribution? In what environment does each occur?Yes. r occurs before vowels; l occurs after vowels.(2) Do they occur in any minimal pairs? No. (3) Suppose r and l are allophones of one phoneme. State the rule that can derive the allophonic forms. r is lateralized when it occurs after vowels. 5. ASK: (1) Can you give more examples of assimilation? compatriot, sing(2) Can you find any exceptions? input, unbeatable, Canberra(3) What phonetic segments condition this change? The consonant immediately after the vowel.Note 2) tai should be tay.6. ASK: (1) Can you give more examples of free variation? advertisement dv:tismnt dv:tizmnt association 9susieiFn 9suFieiFn (2) Why do you think such a phenomenon exists in a language like English? Individual variation is responsible for this phenomenon.7. ASK:(1) Which sound is deleted in “sign”, “design”, and “resign”? g(2) Can you offer other examples of deletion? paradigm (atic), condemn(ation)(3) Can you give some words that involve total deletion? plumb, plumber; climb, climbing(4) Are there any other types of deletion in English? debt, know8. ASK:(1) Can you think of a phonetic description of the regular pattern in these expressions? They all start with a front, high vowel and follow up with a mid or low vowel. (2) Can you think of any possible explanation for the observed pattern? i involves the least degree of mouth opening while the mid or low vowels necessitate bigger opening. There is an increase of mouth opening in pronouncing the whole word, which is symbolic in meaning. 9. ASK:(1) What are likely positive effects of using alliteration? Use one of the poetic examples to illustrate. Coherence, connectedness, smoothness, consistency. Take “I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance” for example. The double alliteration involved helps to create a picture of smooth and coherent dance.(2) Is there a similar use of alliteration in Chinese? Yes, though less often. 花好月圆 is a good example.10. ASK:(1) What is the stylistic effect of rhyming? echoing, agreement, correspondence, etc. (2) Can you find more proverbs that involve internal rhyming?First thrive and then wive.Fancy passes beauty. ExercisesTask 3: Study Questions1.a. Does the string of sounds mean anything to you? If we want to talk really good, well have to invent vowels.b. What does the picture suggest to you about the role of consonants and vowels in English?Consonants are the backbones of syllables and words. 2. Some phonetic transcriptions below are English words, some are not existing words but are possible words or nonsense words, and others are definitely “foreign” or impossible because they violate English sequential constraints. Specify each of the a-e cases as illustrated. Word Possible Foreign ReasonExample:pa:k tif lkib a. a:f N must occur after a vowel.b. ski: skic.knait d.meij j must occur initially before a vowel.e.blaft 3. In English, the /i/ vowel becomes almost as long as /i:/ under certain conditions (written as /i:/ for convenience). Consider the examples listed below:a. List the phonemes that condition the change. voiced consonantsb. State the rule that seems involved.i is lengthened before a voiced consonant.Note: Start with the fact that the /i/ is basic and that short /i/ becomes long /i:/. The change from short /i/ to long /i:/ is phonologically determined; that is, the lengthening takes place in the presence of certain phonemes. A good strategy is to first list the phonemes to the right of long /i:/, then list those to the left. As an answer to (a), then, one would propose that /i/ become /i:/ whenever the phonemes to the right (/d, m, l, b, z, j, /) occur immediately after that vowel. This hypothesis looks promising because, in fact, the short variant /i/ never occurs before these segments. The next question is, what is it about the phonemes on the right that unify them as a class? One may find that these phonemes are all voiced (+voice), and, in fact, the short /i/ never lengthens before voiceless segments. Thus the answer to (b) is that the vowel /i/ is lengthened before (the natural class of) voiced consonants.4. The use of plural s in English has three different, but very regular, phonological alternatives. a. Can you work out the set of sounds which regularly precedes each of these alternatives?/s/ to words like ship, bat, book and cough; voiceless plosives voiceless/z/ to words like cab, lad, cave, rag and thing;after voiced consonants voiced/z/ to words like bus, bush, judge, church and maze.after /s/, /F/, /dV/, /z/b. What features does each of these sets have in common? palatal or alveolar+fricativec. Is there any pattern regarding the different pronunciations of the past tense marker? t after voiceless consonants except t; d after voiced consonants except d; id after t or d.d. Do you think that one of these phonological forms for ed is more basic, with the others being derived from it in a regular way? Which, and how? d is more basic. t after devoicing. id after epenthesis (i.e. addition of a sound).5. Below are three columns of words with different patterns of stress:a. How is stress distributed in each column? penultimate for A; last syllable for B; on the last syllable.b. In Column B, what kinds of vowels appear in the last syllable? How does the syllabic structure of Column C differ from A and B? In Column B, long vowels or diphthongs appear in the last syllable. The last syllable of the words in C ends in consonant clusters. Note For “usurp”, “r” may be pronounced as in /ju(:)z(r)p/.6. The following is a list of words that are spelt in a similar way:fuddy-duddy hocus-pocusnamby-pambyfuzzy-wuzzy hurly-burlyrazzle-dazzlehanky-pankylovey-doveyroly-polyhelter-skelter mumbo-jumbosuper-dupera. What similarity can you spot among the words listed? All pairs are the same except the initial consonants.b. What effects may such words have in common when they are put into use? Redundancy, repetitiveness, etc. 7. Write the phonetic transcription for each of the following words.Omit.8. Read the following words or phrases and point out the phonological processes that yield assimilation.(a) pat /pt/ pan /pn/ sat /st/ Sam /sm/ Nasalization rule: -nasal +nasal /_ +nasal(b) since /sins/ sink /sik/ hint /hint/ dink /dik/ Velarization rule: -velarl +velar /_ +velar(c) five pits /faifpits/ love to /lft / Devoicing rule: +voiced -voiceless /_ -voiceless9. a. Comment on the use of rhyme, alliteration, and assonance (that is, use of syllables with a common vowel, as in “come” - “love”) in this poem. How are th