英语语言学考研问答题及参考答案

Whatarethemajordifferencesbetweenphonologyandphonetics?Theydifferintheirapproachandfocus.Phoneticsisofageneralnature;itisinterestedinallthespeechsoundsusedinallhumanlanguages:howtheyareproduced,howtheydifferfromeachother,whatphoneticfeaturestheypossess,howtheycanbeclassified.Phonology,ontheotherhand,isinterestedinthesystemofsoundsofaparticularlanguage;itaimstodiscoverhowspeechsoundsinalanguageformpatternsandhowthesesoundsareusedtoconveymeaninginlinguisticcommunication.WhatarethemainfeaturesoftheEnglishcompounds?Orthographicallyacompoundcanbewrittenasoneword,twoseparatewordswithorwithoutahypheninbetween.Syntactically,thepartofspeechofacompoundisdeterminedbythelastelement.Semantically,themeaningofacompoundisidiomatic,notcalculablefromthemeaningsofallitscomponents.Phonetically,thewordstressofacompoundusuallyfallsonthefirstelement.Discussthetypesofmorphemeswithexamples.Freemorphemes:Theyaretheindependentunitsofmeaningandcanbeusedfreelyallbythemselves,forexample,“book-”intheword“bookish”.Boundmorphemes:Theyarethosethatcannotbeusedindependentlybuthavetobecombinedwithothermorphemes,eitherfreeorbound,toformawordsuchas“-ish”in“bookish”.Boundmorphemescanbesubdividedintorootsandaffixes.Arootisseenaspartofaword;itcanneverstandbyitselfalthoughithasaclearanddefinitemeaning,suchas“gene-”intheword“generate”.Affixesareoftwotypes:inflectionalandderivational.Inflectionalmorphemesmanifestvariousgrammaticalrelationsorgrammaticalcategoriessuchas“-s”intheword“books”toindicatepluralityofnouns.Derivationalaffixesareaddedtoanexistingformtocreateawordsuchas“mis-”intheword“misinform”.Derivationalaffixescanalsobedividedintoprefixesandsuffixes.Prefixesoccuratthebeginningofawordsuchas“dis-”intheword“dislike”,whilesuffixesoccurattheendofawordsuchas“-less”intheword“friendless”.Whatarethemajortypesofsentences?Illustratethemwithexamples.Traditionally,therearethreemajortypesofsentences.Theyaresimplesentence,coordinate(compound)sentence,andcomplexsentence.Asimplesentenceconsistsofasingleclausewhichcontainsasubjectandapredicateandstandsaloneasitsownsentence,forexample:Johnreadsextensively.Acoordinatesentencecontainstwoclausesjoinedbyalinkingwordthatiscalledcoordinatingconjunction,suchasand,but,or.Forexample:Johnisreadingalinguisticbook,andMaryispreparingforherhistoryexam.Acomplexsentencecontainstwo,ormore,clauses,oneofwhichisincorporatedintotheother.Thetwoclausesinacomplexsentencedonothaveequalstatus,oneissubordinatetotheother.Forexample:BeforeJohngaveheralecture,Maryshowednointerestinlinguistics.Aretheelementsinasentencelinearlystructured?Why?No.Languageisbothlinearlyandhierarchicallystructured.Whenasentenceisutteredorwrittendown,thewordsofthesentenceareproducedoneafteranotherinasequence.Acloserexaminationofasentenceshowsthatasentenceisnotcomposedofsequenceofwordsarrangedinasimplelinearorderwithoneaddingontoanotherfollowingasimplearithmeticlogic.Infact,sentencesarealsohierarchicallystructured.Theyareorganizedbygroupingtogetherwordsofthesamesyntacticcategory,suchasnounphrase(NP)orverbphrase(VP).Howdoyoudistinguishbetweenentailmentandpresuppositionintermsoftruthvalues?Entailmentisarelationofinclusion.SupposetherearetwosentencesXandY:X:HehasbeentoFrance.Y:HehasbeentoEurope.Intermsoftruthvalues,ifXistrue,Yisnecessarilytrue,e.g.IfhehasbeentoFrance,hemusthavebeentoEurope.IfXisfalse,Ymaybetrueorfalse,e.g.IfhehasnotbeentoFrance,hemaystillhavebeentoEuropeorhehasnotbeentoEurope.IfYistrue,Xmaybetrueorfalse,e.g.IfhehasbeentoEurope,hemayormaynothavebeentoFrance.IfYisfalse,Xisfalse,e.g.IfhehasnotbeentoEurope,hecannothavebeentoFrance.ThereforeweconcludethatXentailsYorYisanentailmentofX.Thetruthconditionsthatweusetojudgepresuppositionisasfollows:SupposetherearetwosentencesXandYX:John'sbikeneedsrepairing.Y:Johnhasabike.IfXistrue,Ymustbetrue,e.g.IfJohn'sbikeneedsrepairing,Johnmusthaveabike.IfXisfalse,Yisstilltrue,e.g.IfJohn'sbikedoesnotneedrepairing,Johnstillhasabike.IfYistrue,Xiseithertrueorfalse,e.g.IfJohnhasabike,itmayormaynotneedrepairing.IfYisfalse,notruthvaluecanbesaidaboutX,e.g.IfJohndoesnothaveabike,nothingcanbesaidaboutwhetherhisbikeneedsrepairingornot.Therefore,XpresupposesY,orYisapresuppositionofX.Howaresemanticsandpragmaticsdifferentfromeachother?Traditionalsemanticsstudiedmeaning,butthemeaningoflanguagewasconsideredassomethingintrinsic,andinherent,i.e.apropertyattachedtolanguageitself.Therefore,meaningsofwords,meaningsofsentenceswereallstudiedinanisolatedmanner,detachedfromthecontextinwhichtheywereused.Pragmaticsstudiesmeaningnotinisolation,butincontext.Theessentialdistinctionbetweensemanticsandpragmaticsiswhetherthecontextofuseisconsideredinthestudyofmeaning.Ifitisnotconsidered,thestudyisrestrictedtotheareaoftraditionalsemantics;ifitisconsidered,thestudyisbeingcarriedoutintheareaofpragmatics.Howdoesasentencedifferfromanutterance?Asentenceisagrammaticalconcept.Itusuallyconsistsofasubjectandpredicate.Anutteranceistheunitofcommunication.Itisthesmallestlinguisticunitthathasacommunicativevalue.Ifweregardasentenceaswhatpeopleactuallyutterinthecourseofco