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一、Explain-the-fllowing-terms

1． Ferdinand de Saussure

【答案】 Ferdinand de Saussure is a Swiss linguist who is often described as “father of modem linguistics”. The great work , Course in General Linguistics , which was based on his lecture notes , marked the beginning of modem linguistics. Saussure^ idea on the arbitrary nature of sign , one the relational nature of linguistic units , on the distinction of langue and parole and of synchronic and diachronic linguistics, etc. pushed linguistics into a brand new stage.

2． Predication analysis

【答案】 Predication analysis is an important step in the analysis of sentential meaning. The predication is the common category shared by propositions, questions, commands, etc. Such analysis is to break down the sentence into its smaller constituents: argument and predicate. The predicate is the major or pivotal element governing the argument. The argument is the logical participant.

3． Speech community

【答案】 Speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language. Speech communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon , distinct social groups like high school students or hip-pop fans. In addition, online and other mediated communities, such as many internet forums, often constitute speech communities. Members of speech communities will often develop slang or jargon to serve the group's special purposes and priorities.

4． functional morpheme

【答案】 This is a subtype of free morphemes, which one consists largely of the functional words in language such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns, for example, “and, about when on , near, the” an so on.

5． Stylistics

【答案】 Stylistics is a branch of linguistics studies the features of situationally distinctive uses （varieties ） of language , and tries to establish principles capable of accounting for the particular choices made by individual and social groups in their use of language.

二、Short-answer-questions

6． How is the illocutionary act different from the perlocutionary act?

【答案】 An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker^ intention; it is the act performed

in saying something. Thus, if someone says “Morning”，we can ask questions like “What did he mean?” and the answer could be “He offered a greeting.”

A perlocutionary act, however, is the effect of the utterance. By telling somebody something the speaker may change the opinion of the hearer on something, or mislead him, or surprise him, or induce him to do something, and so on. Therefore，the perlocutionary act of the saying “Morning” could be to keep friendly relations with the hearer.

7． What is the relationship between tree diagrams and structural ambiguity?

【答案】 In a theory of syntax using tree diagrams （phrase markers ） to represent syntactic structure , the explanation of the phenomenon of structural ambiguity is straightforward : whereas an unambiguous sentence is associated with just one basic tree diagram, a structurally ambiguous sentence is associated with more than one basic tree diagram.

8． How would you describe this short exchange in terms of the actions performed by the speakers?

Carol : Are you coming to the party tonight?

Lara : I've got an exam tomorrow.

【答案】 In this short exchange, obviously Lara breaks the maxim of relation of CP by talking about something totally irrelevant with CaroFs question. However , we can understand her meaning perfectly. Lara is conveying an indirect meaning by giving out an utterance containing a conversational implicative. Her aim is to refuse Carol‟s invitation in a polite and less harsh manner.

9． Why do we say language is primarily vocal?

Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Language 【答案】

is primarily vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages, developed or 6'new, 5. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak （and listen ） before they write （and read） also indicates that language is primarily vocal , rather than written. The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.

三、Synthesis

10．Determine the historically accurate etymology of the first column, and underline the correct one the second or in the third column.

Column1 Column2 Column3

（a ） hangnail aching nail hanging nail （b ） female a male‟s companion little woman （c ） crayfish crawling fishcrab （d ） shamefaced face reflecting shamebound by shame （e ） Jordan almond imported almond garden almond （f ） sparrowgrass a genus of herbs bird nesting in grass

（g ） belfre bell tower bell

（h ） bridegroom a woman is just or a man isjust, or about

about to be married to be married

muskrat （Algonquian :musquash ） a large rat-like animal a large musk （i ）

deer

（j ） woodchuck （Algonquian : otchek） a north American goat a north American marmot

【答案】（a ） hangnail （alter , of agnail, angnail） aching nail,

（b ）female （ME : femel, femelle） a male‟s companion

（c ）crayfish （ME : crevis） crawling fish

（d ）shamefaced （alter , of shame fast） bound by shame

（e ）Jordan almond （ME : jordan almande） garden almond

（f ）spsrrowgrass （alter , of asparagus） a genus of herbs

（g ）belfre （ME : berfrey） bell tower

（h ）bridegroom （ME : bridegome） a man is just, or about to be married

（i ）muskrat （Algonquian : musquash） a large rat-like animal

（j ）woodehunk （Algonquian : otchek） a north American marmot

11．MORPHEME is defined as the smallest unit in terms of relationship between expression and content. Then is morpheme a grammatical concept or a semantic one? What is its relation to phoneme? Can a morpheme and a phoneme form an organic whole?

【答案】 As a matter of fact, morpheme is both a grammatical concept and a semantic one. for instance , we can recognize that English word-forms such as talks , talker , talked and talking must consist of one element talk , and a number of other elements such as -s , -er , -ed , -ing. All these elements are described as morphemes. The definition of morpheme is uthe smallest unit of language in terms of the relationship between expression and contenf, . We would say that the word reopened in the sentence The police reopened the investigation consists of three morphemes. One minimal unit of meaning is open, another minimal unit of meaning is re- （meaning again） , and a minimal unit of grammatical function is -ed （indicating past tense） . Therefore, we are in a position to conclude that those which can stand by themselves as single words , e.g. open , are semantic concepts , and those which cannot normally stand alone, but which are typically attached to another form, e.g. re-, -ist, -ed, -s , are grammatical concepts.

As we know , each one of the meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language is described as a phoneme. An essential property of a phoneme is that it functions contrastively. If we substitute one sound for another in a word and there is a change of meaning, then the two sounds represent different phonemes.

The relation between morpheme and phoneme is also of two fold feature , viz. one-to-one , one-to-more. As with the former type, one-to-one, re- is the kind of morpheme that always consists of two phonemesas for the latter type, one-to-more relation, a typical example would be the plural morpheme that follows a noun or a

verb. after a noun can be pronounced in three ways ,

viz. and as in locks, bags, and watches'

, after a verb can also be pronounced in three ways, viz. /s/, /z/, and/iz/, as in stops, drags, and catches.