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一、Explain-the-fllowing-terms

1． Linguistic relativity

【答案】 This is one of two points in Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It states that similarity between languages is relative , the greater their structural differentiation is , the more diverse their conceptualization of the world is. For example, not every language has the same set of words for the colors ; in Spanish there is no word that corresponds to the English meaning of “blue”.

2． Coarticulation

Coarticulation refers to the phenomenon of sounds continually show the influence of their 【答案】

neighbors. For example , as in lamb , when a is followed by m , the velum will begin to lower itself during the articulation of a so that it is ready for the following nasal. When such simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved, we call the process coarticulation. If the sound becomes more like the following sound, it is known as anticipatory coarticulation. If the sound displays the influence of the preceding sound, it is preservative coarticulation.

3． Broad and narrow transcription

【答案】 Broad and narrow transcription: In broad transcription, one letter symbol is used for one sound. In narrow transcription , there are diacritics added to the one letter symbols to show the finer differences between sounds.

4． Semantic field

【答案】 It is the organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relationship to one another. For example, kinship terms such as father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt belong to a semantic field whose relevant features include generation , sex , membership of the father's or mother's side of the family.

5． CMC

【答案】 It is computer-mediated communication , distinguished by its focus on language and language use in computer networked environments, and by its use of methods of discourse analysis to address that focus.

6． IC analysis

【答案】 IC analysis: IC analysis （immediate constituent analysis） refers to the analysis of a sentence in terms of its immediate constituents---word groups （or phrases ） , which are in turn analyzed into the immediate constituents of their own , and the process goes on until the ultimate constituents are reached. In practice, for the sake of convenience, we usually stop at the level of word.

7． Foregrounding

【答案】 This term is meant for what is unusual, attractive, unconventional, salient. In literature, foregrounding is often achieved through unconventional expressions which attract the readers9 attention. The main manifestations of foregrounding are deviation and parallelism.

8． Endocentric construction

【答案】 Endocentric construction : An endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent, or approaching equivalence, to that of one or more of its constituents, i.e. a word or a group of words , which serves as a definable center , or head. Hence an endocentric construction is also known as a headed construction. Noun phrases like “Lovely Lucy” are typical endocentric constructions.

二、Essay-question

9． What are the unique features of Halliday’s systemic linguistics?

【答案】 Halliday‟s Systemic Grammar is different from other linguistic theories in the following aspects. First, it attaches great importance to the sociological aspects of language.

Secondly , it views language as a form of doing rather than a form of knowing. It distinguishes linguistic behavior potential from actual linguistic behavior.

Thirdly , it gives a relatively high priority to description of the characteristics of particular languages and particular varieties of languages.

Fourthly , it explains a number of aspects of language in terms of dines （i.e. ungrammatical —>more unusual —> less unusual—>less usual —> grammatical）.

Fifthly , it seeks verification of its hypotheses by means of observation from texts and by means of statistical techniques.

Lastly , it has as its central category the category of the system.

10．Discuss sense, denotation and reference, using Chinese examples to illustrate your points.是古月壮麟《语言学教程》中的概念）

【答案】 Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic expression. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in. For example , the word “狗” in Chinese is given the definition of “哺乳动物，种类很多，听觉嗅觉都很敏锐， 善于看守门户，有的可以训练成军犬、警犬” .This does not refer to any particular dog that exists in the real world, but applies to any animal that meets the features described in the definition. So this is the sense of the word dog.

Reference means what a linguistic expression refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience. If we say “这只

we must be talking about a certain dog existing in the situation; the word “狗” here refers to 狗真可爱”，

a dog known to both the speaker and the hearer. This is the reference of the word “ 狗” in this particular situation.

Denotation refers to the relationship between an expression and its extension. The term extension of an expression is the set of things which could be possibly be the referent of that expression. So the extension of the word “狗” is “所有种类的狗” .Thus, the relationship between the word “狗” and “所

有种类的狗” is denotation, that is，the word “狗” denotes “ 所有种类的狗”.

Furthermore , the differences between the three terms are discussed as follows.

Sense and reference are two different but related aspects of meaning. Two expressions may refer to the same referent but have different senses. For example, in sentences “1949 年 10 月 1 日，毛泽东在天安门城楼上宣布： 今天，中华人民共和国成立了! ” and “1949年10月1日，那位伟大的领袖在天安门城楼上宣布：今天，中 华人民共和国成立了! ”，expressions “毛泽东” and “那位伟大的领袖” refer to the same person （have the same referent） but with different senses. There is also another difference between sense and reference. To some extent, all words have senses，but not every word has a referent. Some words like “和”，“但是”，“假如”，“的” do not refer to an^hing. Therefore, the meaning if an expression will arise both from its sense and its reference.

Both reference and denotation refer to the relationship between a linguistic expression and the world , but there are also differences. Denotation refers to the relationship between a linguistic expression and a set of possible referents of that expression in the world; while reference is used for the relationship between a linguistic expression and a particular entity in the world. For example , in the sentence “一只云鹊飞进了房间”，the expression “一只云鹊” refers to the lark in that particular situation , while denotes to the whole class 66 ^99 . Another difference is that denotation is a stable relationship in a language which is not dependent on any one use of a word. Reference, on the other hand is a moment by moment relationship: what entity somebody refers to by using the word “云雀” depends on the situation.

11．Which of the following sentences are ambiguous? If you know how, use tree diagrams to show how these sentences are ambiguous.

（1）The children put the toy in tile box.

（2）The professor‟s appointment was shocking.

（3）No smoking section is available.

（4）Jack refused to change his decision. 【答案】

Therefore ,

it could be clear that the sentence is ambiguous.

Thus , this sentence is ambiguous.