Unit 3 The Units of English 教学提示VIP

Unit 3 The Units of EnglishCheck your understandingState whether each of the following statements is True or False.1. All words in English have a hierarchical structure. F Note: Mon-morphemic words do not.2. Clipping is one of the three most important devices of word-formation in English. F Note: The three most important devices are affixation, compounding (or composition) and conversion (or functional shift). 3. Idioms in English are modifiable in some grammatical ways. T4. The presence of constructions is unique to English. F5. Every English sentence has a subject. F Note: Imperative sentences do not have any subject. In-Class Activities1ASK:(1) What is the infix used in the above language data? “-um-“(2) What is the verb form in Bontoc for “to be poor”, given that pusi means “poor”? “pumusi”2. ASK:(1) What is the Samoan for: (a) “they travel” (b) “he sings” respectively? (a) savavali (b) pese(2) Formulate a morphological rule regarding how to form the plural verb form from the singular verb form in Samoan. Duplicate the penultimate syllable.3. ASK:(1) Which other affixes are there in English that function as markers of negation? dis-, non-, a-, in-, il-, im-, ir- (2) What pattern underlies the use of un- in the data above?Positive terms can have negative morphemes added to them, as in “happy-unhappy”, but semantically negative ones rarely do, because un- is deprecatory as well as negative.(3) Why are “ungood” and “unbig” not found in English, although George Orwell coined “ungood” in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four? Do you think they are accidental gaps in the lexicon of English? There already exist words that correspond to “ungood” and “unbig”. It is not accidental. This is what is technically called lexical blocking.(4) Read the following extract from Lewis Carrolls Through the Looking-Glass. How do you think Humpty Dumpty would explain the word “un-birthday” to Alice?“Un-birthday” means some day that is not ones birthday. (5) The fact that un- can be both a verb prefix and an adjective prefix may explain the occurrence of the ambiguous word “unlockable”. Can you imagine two situations corresponding to the two senses of the word? Can you give more examples like “unlockable”? Imagine you are inside a room and you want some privacy. You would be unhappy to find the door is unlockable “not able to be locked.” Now imagine you are inside a locked room trying to get out. You would be very relieved to find that the door is unlockable “able to be unlocked.” These two meanings correspond to two different structures, as follows: Adjective Adjective un- Adjective Verb -able Verb -able un- Verb lock lock In the first structure the verb “lock” combines with the suffix able to form the adjective lockable (“able to be locked”). Then the prefix un-, meaning “not,” combines with the derived adjective to form a new adjective unlockable (“not able to be locked”). In the second case, the prefix un- combines with the verb lock to form a derived verb, unlock. Then the derived verb combines with the suffix able to form unlockable, “able to be unlocked.” Other examples are unbuttonalbe, unzippable, and unlatchable.4. ASK:(1) How are the verbs in Column A different from those in Column B? Verbs in Column A are transitive while those in Column B are generally intransitive. (2) Can we use “able to be X-ed” to paraphrase “perishable”?No. “Perish” is intransitive.(3) A further complication with -able is that in words like “unthinkable”, the suffix means more than “able to be X-ed”. Why? Can you think of more words of this type? unbreakable, presentable, readable, questionable, payable, washable. (4) Now, lets look at another complication. None of the following words are permitted. What does this suggest about the use of the suffix “-able”? “-able” are not attached to nouns, adjectives, or prepositions.5. ASK:(1) Note the contrast between list A and List B. Can you think of any reason that can explain why the set of words on List B are impossible words in English? Verbs on List B are intransitive. (2) How are the re- words on List C and List D different from those on List A? Words on List C are made up of re- +adjectives. In the words on List D, “re-” means “back” instead of “again”.(3) Some re- prefixed words may mean more than the simple addition of the meaning of re- and the meaning of its base. For example, “rewrite” means “write something again, especially in a different or improved form”. Can you give more examples like “rewrite”? rebuild, rethink, retry, retell, reorganize, reconsider, reform, etc.6. ASK:(1) Can you give some examples that you consider to be chunks? Omit.(2) Read the following spoken data of a Chinese student. Can you point out the chunks used in it? Can you classify them into some types? It is the most unforgettable birthday um that I and I can not forget it for forever. Um it it was when I was a freshman. It is the first year um I left my family and spend my birthday alone. Um I remember clearly um that day I strode gloomily at campus along for a long time um. And um um I I felt very I I felt I felt very gloomy because no one, um no one except my parents um remember my birthday and, and, wan and wanted to um and wanted to stay with me for my birthday. Um um I did, I did not went back I did not go back to the dormitory um until um until seven oclock in the evening. Um the light, the light in the dormitory was off. Obviously, um there was no there was nobody staying in the dormitory. Um but now um it may it it seemed um it seemed that it doesnt matter. Um And I open the door um and I found except darkness there was nothing. Suddenly a song “Happy birthday to you” sound. I felt, I felt very astonished. Then, the light was turned on. Some familiar faces um um full of full of sweet smiles towards me. Um they were my dorm they were my dorm mates Yes, they still remembered um my birthday, my birthday. And in fact they have they indeed prepared for it two years ago. They bought er a very beautiful cake for me, and that night um we sang, we danced and and had that delicious cake. I felt very happy, and and later I I made a call to my parents that told them that I has spent a very unforgettable birthday with my roommates.verbal: went/go back; turn(ed) on; prepare for; make a call toadjectival: full ofprepositional: at campus (it should be “on campus”, though); for a long time; in the evening; in factclausal: it seemed that .; it doesnt matter7. The notion of subject may be classified into three types: grammatical subject (the major nominal part corresponding to the predicate), logical subject (the doer or executor of the action concerned), and psychological subject (the first major component of the sentence, like a nominal phrase, an adverbial phrase, or a prepositional phrase). For instance, a. John (grammatical subject, psychological subject, logical subject) robbed the City Bank last night. b. The City Bank (grammatical subject, psychological subject) was robbed by John (logical subject) last night. c. Last night (psychological subject) John (grammatical subject, logical subject) robbed the City Bank. Analyze the following newspaper headlines from the Washington Post (July 21-24, 2006) in terms of the effect of subject type selection.(a) In Iraq, Military Forgot Lessons of Vietnam (psychological)(b) Evacuation Rules Separate N.Va. Friends (grammatical)(c) Woods Is Closely Followed At British (logical, grammatical)8. ASK: (1) Can you write the public signs in complete forms?You may push the button and wait for the signal of walk.You must use caution when the ground is wet.(2) What rules are there when we write elliptical English newspaper headlines? a. Omit auxiliary or linking verb BE; b. Omit determiners; c. Omit indefinite nouns of person. d. Omit There Be.Task 3: Study Questions1. Point out the word-formation process that applies to each of the following words:Affixation: worsen endearmentConversion: dust (v.) plane (v.)Compounding: laptop airsick daughter-in-lawBack-formation: edit televise peddle swindle (swindler) Shortening: tec (detective) prof (professor) bike (bicycle)Blending: brunch urinalysis (urine + analysis) fantabulous (fantasy + fabulous)Initialism: WTO (World Trade Organization)Acronym: laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association)Coinage (in the forms of invention and eponymwords derived from proper names): Xerox nylon jumbo (name of an elephant brought to the United States by P. T. Barnum)2. How are the open-class words and the closed-class words different from each other?Open-class words: (1) large in number;(2) easy to expand;(3) mainly nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.Closed-class words:(1) small in number;(2) stable;(3) basically pronouns, prepositions, function words, etc.3. What are the inflectional morphemes in the following phrases? (a) the governments policies s; -s(b) the latest news -est (c) Isnt it snowing! -ing(d) two frightened cows -ed; -s4. Suppose a speaker of English invents the following italicized English words as a joke: “theyre always causing a commotion. I tell them not to commote, but they insist on being big commoters.” What process of word creation does this example illustrate, and why? What do the new words mean? It is a process of back-formation. “Commote” means the act of causing disorder and “commoter” means someone who causes disorder.5. Count the function words in the following passage excerpted from Stephen Cranes The Red Badge of Courage (p.1).The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors. It cast its eyes upon the roads, which were growing from long troughs of liquid mud to proper thoroughfares. A river, amber- tinted in the shadow of its banks, purled at the armys feet; and at night, when the stream had become of a sorrowful blackness, one could see across it the red, eyelike gleam of hostile campfires set in the low brows of distant hills. Note: Function words are those that have little semantic content of their own and chiefly indicate grammatical relationships. Common function words include prepositions, conjunctions, articles, etc. They are also called “form words” or “functors”.6. Which of the following contain verb phrase idioms? For each idiom, provide a paraphrase with one word instead of the idiom. (1) a. John went in for stamp collecting. likeb. Jane went in for a check-up.(2) a. John came down with the guns.b. Jane came down with the flu. contracted(3) a. John came up with the guns.b. Jane came up with a brilliant idea. got(4) a. That music doesnt exactly turn me on. excitedb. Jane didnt turn on the tap.(5) a. John passed over the house. b. The president passed over the peace proposal. disregarded (6) a. John ran after dinner. b. John ran after Jane. pursued7. In English, some intransitive verbs can be converted into a special type of transitive verbs called causative verbs. Here are some examples. Can you give more examples? halt, alter, end8. The distinction between auxiliary verbs and main verbs is a basic one in English. Auxiliary verbs are fronted to form questions whereas main verbs cannot be fronted in this fashion. The following sentences illustrate three additional differences between main verbs and auxiliary verbs. What are these differences? placement of “not”; contraction possible; tag questions; etc.9. Count the number of clauses in the following paragraphs and categorize them into different types.The amount of stress a person can withstand depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities. Others lose heart at the first signs of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between “flight and fight” and in more primitive days the choices made the difference between life and death. The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but however little the stress, it involves the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered. Such serious conditions as high blood pressure and heart diseases have established links with stress. Since we cannot remove stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we need to find ways to deal with it.(1) a person can withstand(2) The amount of stress depends very much on the individual(3) Some people are not afraid of stress(4) such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities(5) Others lose heart at the first signs of unusual difficulties(6) When exposed to stress(7) (When exposed to stress,) in whatever form(8) we react both chemically and physically(9) In fact we make choice between “flight and fight”(10) in more primitive days the choices made the difference between life and death(11) we meet today(12) The crises are unlikely to be so extreme(13) however little the stress(14) it involves the same response(15) when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress(16) It is . that.(17) health becomes endan