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一、Explain-the-fllowing-terms

1． 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.

2． distinctive features

a means of working out a set of phonological contrasts or oppositions to capture particular 【答案】

aspects of language sounds , first suggested by Roman Jacobson in the 1940s and then developed by numerous other people.

3． 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”.

4． 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.

5． Stem

A stem is a morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an inflectional affix can be 【答案】

added. For example, “friend-” in friends, and “friendship-” in friendships are both stems. The former shows that a stem can be equivalent to a root, whereas the latter shows that a stem may contain a root and a derivational affix.

6． Category

Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in 【答案】

a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.

7． Meaning shift

Meaning shift: In a narrow sense, meaning shift is used to refer to the change of meaning 【答案】

that has nothing to do with generalization or restriction such as broadening or narrowing of meaning.

8． basic level category

【答案】 Basic level category is the most economical level at which you can find the most relevant information. The information on our interactions with objects in the real world are stored at this level. It is at this level that we conjure up the general gestalt of the category.

二、Essay-question

9． Make comments upon the relationship between arbitrariness, convention, and motivation.

【答案】 Arbitrariness of language makes it potentially creative ; a conventionality of language makes a language be passed from generation to generation, and makes learning a language laborious. The link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of convention.

The terms motivation and constraint describe the extent to which the signified determines the signifies The form of the signifier of a generalized car or a traffic sign is determined by the convention that is accepted by the users of the code.

Motivated signs are iconic signs; they are characterized by a natural relation between signifier and signified. A portrait or a photograph is iconic , in that the signifier represents the appearance of the signified. The faithfulness or the accuracy of the representation —the degree to which the signified is re-presented in the signifier —is an inverse measure of how conventionalized it is. It is important to recognize that （i ） in signs of high motivation, the signified is the determining influence, and （ii ） in signs of low motivation, convention determines the form of the signifier. Therefore, convention plays a key role in our understanding of any sign. Convention serves as the social dimension of signs. We may not understand the unmotivated verbal sign for car the French use, but we understand the road signs in France in so far as they are iconic.

10．The British linguist F.R. Palmer argues that 44there is no absolute distinction between gradable antonyms and complementary antonyms. ” Do you believe so? Support your view with examples.

【答案】 I would prefer not to agree with this argument that there is no absolute distinction between gradable antonyms and complementary antonyms. The common way to distinguish gradable antonyms and complementary antonyms could be to see the forms they could occur: adjective gradable antonyms could be modified by “very”，and could have comparative forms and superlative forms; while the complementary counterparts could not. For example, we could say “very warm”, “warmer”, but we could not say “very absent ” or “more absent ” （absent here is opposed to present）.

The expressions with “very” or “more” modifying complementary antonyms are in fact not true comparatives and have a clear indication of either this one or the other one in the pair of complementary antonyms. For example, expression like “He is more dead than alive” actually means “It is more correct to say that he is dead than to say he is alive”. And this sentence could only be used when he is still alive; after all, we do not say someone is more dead than other.

11．What are the differences between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds in terms of articulation?

【答案】 When the vocal cords are spread apart , the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless, consonants are produced （p , s, t）

in this way; but when the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through , creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiced （b , z, d） are voiced consonants.

12．Describe the process of language perception, comprehension and production.

【答案】 From the perspective of psycholinguistic analysis, language use in terms of perception, comprehension and production follows a certain pattern which involves the coordination of various language centers.

When we speak , words are drawn from Wernicke's area and transferred to Broca's area , which determines the details of their forms and pronunciation. The appropriate instructions are then sent to the motor area which controls the vocal tract to physically articulate the words.

When we hear something and try to comprehend it , the stimulus from the auditory cortex is transmitted to Wernicke's area, where it is then interpreted.

When we perceive a visual image, a message is sent to the angular gyrus, where it is converted into a visual pattern.

13．What is linguistic relativity and why is it so important in linguistic studies?

【答案】 Linguistic relativity is one of the two points in Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which states that distinctions encoded in one language are unique to that language alone , and “there is no limit to the structural diversity of language”. Therefore, similarity between languages is relative, the greater their structural differentiation is, the more diverse their conceptualization of the world will be. For example, in English, the boundaries among the color spectrum are made in this way: red, orange, violet, blue, and yellow. In fact, these discriminations are arbitrary, and in other language the boundaries are indeed different. In neither Spanish, Italian nor Russian is there a word that corresponds to the English meaning of “blue”.

Linguistic relativity is important in linguistic studies because it recognizes the fact of linguistic diversity , which stands as the base which descriptive linguistics lies on. Linguistic diversity also triggers out the study of the linguistic similarity.

The study of the linguistic relativity has shed light on two important insights : there is nowadays recognition that language, as a code, reflects cultural and preoccupations and constrains the way people think.

三、Short-answer-questions

14．Write the international phonetic alphabet for the following words.

（1） hypothesis （2） academician （3）verbatim （4） technique

（5） capacity （6） standardize （7）guarantee （8） paradigm

（9） primarily （10） rhetoric （11）procedure （12） originate

【答案】（1）

（5）

（9） （6） （10） （2） （7） （11

） （3） （8） （12） （4）

15．Please explain the original idea in the speech act theory.

Motorist : My car needs new exhaust system.

Mechanic : I‟ll be busy with this other car all day.

【答案】 Speech act theory, originally proposed by Austin, is a philosophical explanation of the nature of linguistic communication.