第四章练习答案.doc

语言学概论第四章第2-6题练习答案1. Define the following terms: syntax co-occurrence construction constituent endocentric exocentric coordination subordination category agreement embedding recursiveness grammatical subject &logical subject cohesionAnswer 1.syntax: the study of the rules governing the ways different constituents are combined to form sentences in a language, or the study of the interrelationships between elements in sentence structures.co-occurrence: It means that words of different sets of clauses may permit, or require, the occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence. For instance, what can precede a noun (dog) is usually the determiners and adjectives, and what can follow it when it takes the position of subject will be predicators such as bark, bite, run, etc. In short, co-occurrence is the syntactic environment in which a construction, with its relevant elements, can appear grammatically and conventionally. Thus relations of co-occurrence partly belong to syntagmatic relations, partly to paradigmatic relations.construction: it refers to any syntactic construct which is assigned one or more conventional functions in a language, together with whatever is linguistically conventionalized about its contribution to the meaning or use construct contains. It can be further divided into the external and internal properties. Take sentence The boy kicked the ball as an example, we will determine the external syntax as an independent clause, while NP (“the boy”), VP (“kicked”) and NP (“the ball”) will be assigned respectively to the different elements in this clause.constituent: Constituent is a term used in structural sentence analysis for every linguistic unit, which is a part of a larger linguistic unit. Several constituents together form a construction: for example, in the sentence The boy ate the apple, S (A), the boy (B), ate the apple(C), each part is a constituent. Constituents can be joined together with other constituents to form larger units. If two constituents, in the case of the example above, B (the boy) and C (ate the apple), are joined to form a hierarchically higher constituent A (“S”, here a sentence), then B and C are said to be immediate constituents of A.endocentric: Endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of one or more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable Centre or Head. In the phrase two pretty girls, girls is the Centre or Head of this phrase or word group. exocentric: Exocentric construction refers to a group of syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group as a whole, that is, there is no definable Centre or Head inside the group. Exocentric construction usually includes basic sentence, prepositional phrase, predicate (verb + object) construction, and connective (be + complement) construction. In the sentence The boy smiled, neither constituent can substitute for the sentence structure as a whole. coordination: A common syntactic pattern in English and other languages is formed by grouping together two or more categories of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and, but or or. This phenomenon is known as coordination. In the construction the lady or the tiger, both NPs the lady and the tiger have equivalent syntactic status, each of the separate constituents can stand for the original construction functionally.subordination: Subordination refers to the process or result of linking linguistic units so that they have different syntactic status, one being dependent upon the other, and usually a constituent of the other. Thus the subordinate constituents are words which modify the Head. Consequently, they can be called modifiers. In the phrase swimming in the lake, swimming is the head and in the lake are the words modifying the head. category: The term category in some approaches refers to classes and functions in its narrow sense, e.g., noun, verb, subject, predicate, noun phrase, verb phrase, etc. More specifically, it refers to the defining properties of these general units: the categories of the noun, for example, include number, gender, case and countability; and of the verb, for example, tense, aspect, voice, and so on.agreement: Agreement (or concord) may be defined as the requirement that the forms of two or more words of specific word classes that stand in specific syntactic relationship with one another shall also be characterized by the same paradigmatically marked category (or categories). For instance, the syntactic relationship between this pen and it in the following dialogue: -Whose is this pen? -Oh, its the one I lost. embedding: Embedding refers to the means by which one clause is included in another clause in syntactic subordination. E.g., I saw the man who had visited you last year.recursiveness: it mainly means that a phrasal constituent can be embedded within (i.e., be dominated by) another constituent having the same category, but it can be used to any means to extend any constituent. Together with openness, recursiveness is the core of creativity of language. For example, “I met a man who had a son whose wife sold cookies that she had baked in her kitchen that was fully equipped with electrical appliances that were new”.grammatical subject & logical subject: Grammatical and logical subjects are two terms accounting for the case of subject in passive voice. Take the sentences a dog bit John and John was bitten by a dog as examples. Since the core object noun (John in this case) sits in the slot before the verb in the passive, it is called grammatical subject, for the original object noun phrase occupies the grammatical space before a verb, the space that a subject normally occupies; the core subject (a dog), now the object of a preposition (by a dog), is called a logical subject, since semantically the core subject still does what a subject normally does: it performs an action.cohesion: Cohesion refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a text. The cohesive devices usually include: conjunction, ellipsis, lexical collocation, lexical repetition, reference, substitution, and so on. In the following example, the cohesive device is “Reference”, that is, “it” refers back to the door: He couldnt open the door. It was locked tight. 2. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences (Hint: It may help to refer back to section 4.2.2) ex. S NP the boy VPsmiles (a) The instructor told the students to study. (b) The customer requested for a cold beer. (c) The pilot landed the jet. (d) These dead trees must be removed. (e) That glass suddenly broke. Answer 2. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences (Hint: It may help to refer back to section 4.2.2) (1) The instructor told the students to study. NP(det.+n.)+V+NP(det.+n.)+inf.(2) The customer requested for a cold beer. NP(det+n.)+V+PP(prep.+det.+adj.+n.)(3) The pilot landed the jet. NP(det+n)+V+NP(det+n.)(4) These dead trees must be removed. NP(det+adj.+n.)+mv(modal verb)+be(auxiliary verb)+Past Participle(5) That glass suddenly broke. NP(det+n)+adv.+V 3. Put brackets around the immediate constituents in each sentence. Ex. (I) (rode) (back) (when) (it) (was) (dark). (a) The boy was crying. (b) Shut the door. (c) Open the door quickly. (d) The happy teacher in that class was beaming away. (e) He bought an old car with his first pay cheque. Answer 3. Put brackets around the immediate constituents in each sentence.(a) (The) (boy) (was) (crying).(b) (Shut) (the) (door).(c) (Open) (the) (door) (quickly).(d) (The) (happy) (teacher) (in) (that) (class) (was) (beaming) (away). (e) (He) (bought) (an) (old) (car) (with) (his) (first) (pay) (cheque).4. For each of the underlined constructions or word groups, do the following: (1) State whether it is headed or non-headed. (2) If headed, state its headword. (3) Name the type of constructions. Ex. His son will be keenly competing. Answer: headed, headwordcompeting; verbal group (a) Ducks quack. (b) The ladder in the shed is long enough. (c) I saw a bridge damaged beyond repair. (d) Singing hymns is forbidden in some countries. (e) His handsome face appeared in the magazine. (f) A lady of great beauty came out. (g) He enjoys climbing high mountains. (h) The man nodded patiently. (i) A man roused by the insult drew his sword. Answer 4. For each of the underlined constructions or word groups, do the following: (1) State whether it is headed or non-headed. (2) If headed, state its headword. (3) Name the type of constructions. Ex. His son will be keenly competing. Answer: headed, headwordcompeting; verbal group (a) Ducks quack. (non-headed, independent clause)(b) The ladder in the shed is long enough. (non-headed, prepositional phrase)(c) I saw a bridge damaged beyond repair. (headed; headworddamaged; adjectival group)(d) Singing hymns is forbidden in some countries. (headed; headwordsinging; gerundial phrase)(e) His handsome face appeared in the magazine. (headed; headwordface; nominal group) (f) A lady of great beauty came out. (non-headed; prepositional phrase)(g) He enjoys climbing high mountains. (headed; headwordclimbing; gerundial phrase)(h)The man nodded patiently. (non-headed; a sentence)(i) A man roused by the insult drew his sword. (headed; headwordroused; adjectival phrase)5. In the pairs of sentences that follow, indicate with “N” those that need not follow a particular order when they are joined by “and”. Indicate with “Y” those that need to be ordered. Aside from the examples below, in your opinion, which type is more relevant. (a) The sun is shining. The wind is blowing. (b) Susie went to sleep. She had a dream. (c) John came in. He closed the door. (d) He came in. John closed the door. (e) She felt embarrassed. She blushed. (f) The sky is blue. The grass is green. (g) He walked away. He got up. (h) He enjoyed the meal. He loved the pickles. Answer 5. In the pairs of sentences that follow, indicate with “N” those that need not follow a particular order when they are joined by “and”. Indicate with “Y” those that need to be ordered. Aside from the examples below, in your opinion, which type is more relevant? (a) The sun is shining. The wind is blowing. N(b) Susie went to sleep. She had a dream. Y(c) John came in. He closed the door. Y(d) He came in. John closed the door. Y(e) She felt embarrassed. She blushed. Y(f) The sky is blue. The grass is green. N(g) He walked away. He got up. Y(h) He enjoyed the meal. He loved the pickles. N6. Combine the following pairs of sentences. Make the second sentence of each pair into a relative clause, and then embed it into the first. (1) The comet appears every twenty years. Dr. Okada discovered the comet. (2) Everyone respected the quarterback. The quarterback refused to give up. (3) The most valuable experiences were sma