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一、Explain-the-fllowing-terms

1． MT

【答案】 It refers to machine translation, the use of machine （usually computers） to translate texts from one natural language to another

2． Hyponymy

Hyponymy. It refers to the sense relationship between a more general, more inclusive and 【答案】

a more specific word. The word which is more general in meaning is called the superordiante, and the more specific words are called its hyponyms. For example , the hyponymy relationship could be established between “animal” and “rabbit”.

3． Gradable antonym

【答案】 Gradable antonym. Gradable antonyms are antonyms that are gradable because there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair. For example, cold and warm constitute a pair of gradable antonyms.

4． IPA

【答案】 IPA is the abbreviation of International Phonetic Alphabet , which is devised by the International Phonetic Association in 1888. IPA is a set of symbols which can be used to represent the phones and phonemes of natural languages.

5． Performatives

【答案】 Performatives are sentences that do not state a fact or describe a state. They cannot be said to be true or false. The uttering of these sentences is, or is part of, the doing an action. The judge‟s imprisonment sentence, the president‟s war or independence declaration, etc., are performatives.

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． Paradigmatic relations

【答案】 Paradigmatic relation , Saussure originally called associative , is a relation holding between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in a structure , or between one element present and the others absent.

8． Prefix

【答案】 In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. Prefixes are bound morphemes （they cannot occur as independent words ） . While most languages employ both prefixes and suffixes, prefixes are less common. Some languages employ mostly suffixes and almost no prefixes at all. The use of prefixes has been found to correlate statistically with other linguistic features, such as a verb-object word order and the use of prepositions.

9． 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.

10．Language acquisition

【答案】 It refers to the gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situations.

二、Short-answer-questions

11．In English, the phonemeis pronounced differently in pat, spat, and tap, can you form a rule that can generalize this linguistic phenomenon?

【答案】 In English , there is a rule that a is unaspirated

after but aspirated in other places. So in pat , tap

is aspirated but unaspirated in spat since it is

after To bring out the phonetic difference , an aspirated sound is transcribed with a raised “h” after the symbol of the sound. So a

phonetic transcription for peak isand that for speak isSo are two different phones and are variants of the phonemeSuch variants of a phoneme are called allophones of the same phoneme. The allophones are said to be in complementary distribution because they never occur in the same context :

occurs after

while occurs in other places. We can present this rule as:

elsewhere

（note :

is the position in whichappears. ）

In addition, sometimes a phoneme may also have free variants. The final consonant of tap may not be released by some speakers so there is no audible sound at the end of this word. Such phenomenon is called free variation.

12．What is indirect language use? How is it explained in the light of the speech act theory?

【答案】 When a speaker is using indirect language , he is performing two speech acts simultaneously : one is the primary speech act and the other is the second speech act. The primary one is the speaker's goal of communication and the second one is the means by which he achieves his goal.

13．A number interesting word-formation processes can be discerned in the following examples. Can you identify what is going on in these?

（a ） The deceased‟s cremains were scattered over the hill.

（b ） He's always taking pills, either uppers or downers.

【答案】 The words “deceased” “upper” and “downer” have undergone a process of class shift. By shifting the word class one can change the meaning of a word from a concrete entity or notion to a process or attribution. This process of word formation is also known as zero-derivation, or conversion. In the sentences above, “deceased”，“upper” and “downer” are originally adjectives, meaning “dead”，“higher” and “lower” respectively; in the sentences above, however, they mean “dead people”，“a drug used as a stimulant.” and “a depressant or sedative drug”，which are nouns.

14．How well, in your opinion, does the word “communication ” represent the function of human language?

【答案】 We use language for an almost infinite number of purposes , from writing letters to gossiping with our friends , making speeches and talking to ourselves in the mirror. But the primary function of language is to transmit information and to convey commands, feelings and emotions. That is, language is a tool of communication. The term “communication” can be used to cover much of the function of language. This function can be further divided into more specific functions, such as phatic function/communion, directive function , informative function , interrogative function , expressive function , evocative function, performative function etc.

15．What is register? Use an example to illustrate your idea.

【答案】 There are many social constraints that come into play in controlling which variety from the linguistic repertoire of a speaker is to be used on a particular occasion. The type of language that is selected as appropriate to the type of situation is a register. The register is determined by three social variables : field of discourse, tenor of discourse, and mode of discourse. For example, an appropriate language to an academic lecture in a college should be formal and polite, which is called register.

16．How does modem language define “object ”？ Provide an example.

【答案】 In modem language, object is defined as such an item that it can become a subject in passive transformation. For example, in sentence tcThe lion chased the tourist,, ? “the tourisf” acts as the object. In the passive voiced sentence “The tourist was chased by the lion”，“the tourist” acts as the subject of the sentence.

三、Essay-question

17．What , in your view , makes a text a text , rather than a series of unconnected utterances? What are the implications of your answer for second language teaching?

【答案】 The factor to distinguish connected texts which make sense from those which do not is usually described as coherence. Coherence is traditionally described as the relationships that link the ideas in a text to create meaning for the readers, apart from cohesive devices. It should be noticed that cohesion by itself would not be sufficient to enable us to make sense of what read or hear; it is quite easy to create a highly cohesive text which has a lot of connections between the sentences, but which remains difficult to interpret. And coherence , as the invisible net of a text , performs a function of “connectedness” which makes the text interpretable to people.

Regarding the importance of coherence to a whole text, it seems necessary for a teacher of SFL to help students develop coherence in writing. Research has found that in their writing, ESL/EFL students focus almost exclusively on the word and sentence levels rather than the level of the whole discourse, that is , textual coherence. A pedagogical focus on coherence can shift students' attention from