devil什么意思英语语言学概论笔记

2021年1月19日发(作者：intelligence是什么意思)
《英语语言学概论》重、难点提示



Questions & Answers on Key Points of Linguistics
《英语语言学概论》重、难点问与答

1.1.



What is language?
―
Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. It is a
system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly.
Arbitrary, in the sense that there is usually no intrinsic connection between a work (like
―book‖) and the object it refers to. This explains and is explained by the fact that different
languages have different ―books‖: ―book‖ in English, ―livre‖ in French, in Japanese, in
Chinese, ―check‖ in Korean. It is symbolic, because words are associated with objects,
actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely, people use the sounds or vocal
forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to. It is vocal, because sound or speech is the
primary medium for all human languages, developed or ―new‖. 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.

1.2.



What are design features of language?
―Design features‖ here refer
to the defining
定义

properties
内容

of human language that
tell the difference between human language and any system of animal communication.
They are arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement, cultural transmission and
interchangeability
1.3.



What is arbitrariness?
By ―arbitrariness‖, we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds
(see I .1). A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a
pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely seem to be
some sound-
meaning association, if we think of echo words, like ―bang‖, ―crash‖, ―roar‖,
which are motivated in a certain sense. Secondly, some compounds (words compounded
to be one word) are not entirely arbitrary eith
er. ―Type‖ and ―write‖ are opaque or
unmotivated words, while ―type
-
writer‖ is less so, or more transparent or motivated than
the words that make it. So we can say ―arbitrariness‖ is a matter of degree.


is duality?
Linguists refer ―duality‖ (of s
tructure) to the fact that in all languages so far investigated,
one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is
analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (such as morphemes, words etc.);
at the second, lower level, it is seen as a sequence of segments which lack any meaning
in themselves, but which combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al.
(p.6), language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of
meaning. This is important for the workings of language. A small number of semantic units
(words), and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite
number of sentences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of
sentences!). Duality makes it possible for a person to talk about anything within his
knowledge. No animal communication system enjoys this duality, or even approaches this
honor.

is productivity?
Productivity refers to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number
of sentences in one’s native language, including those that has never heard before, but
that are appropriate to the speaking situation
. No one has ever said or heard ―A red
-eyed
elephant is dancing on the small hotel b
ed with an African gibbon‖, but he can say it when
necessary, and he can understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity,
though, productivity never goes outside the language, thus also called ―rule
-bound
creativity‖ (by y).


is displacement?
―Displacement‖, as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact
that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In
other words, one can refer to real and unreal things, things of the past, of the present, of
the future. Language itself can be talked about too. When a man, for example, is crying to
a woman, about something, it might be something that had occurred, or something that is
occurring, or something that is to occur. When a dog is barking, however, you can decide
it is barking for something or at someone that exists now and there. It couldn’t be bow
wowing sorrowfully for dome lost love or a bone to be
lost. The bee’s system, nonetheless,
has a small share of ―displacement‖, but it is an unspeakable tiny share.


is cultural transmission?
This means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation,
but that the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. It is
true that the capacity for language in human beings (N. Chomsky called it ―language
acquisition device‖, or LAD) has a genetic basis, but the particular language a person
learns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dog’s ba
rking system. If
a human being is brought up in isolation he cannot acquire language. The Wolf Child
reared by the pack of wolves turned out to speak the wolf’s roaring ―tongue‖ when he was
saved. He learned thereafter, with no small difficulty, the ABC of a certain human language.

is interchangeability?
(1)



Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a
receiver of messages. We can say, and on other occasions can receive and understand,
for example, ―Please do something to make me happy.‖ Though some people (including
me) suggest that there is sex differentiation in the actual language use, in other words,
men and women may say different things, yet in principle there is no sound, or word or
sentence that a man can utter and a woman cannot, or vice versa. On the other hand, a
person can be the speaker while the other person is the listener and as the turn moves on
to the listener, he can be the speaker and the first speaker is to listen. It is turn-taking that
makes social communication possible and acceptable.
(2)



Some male birds, however, utter some calls, which females do not (or cannot?),
and certain kinds of fish have similar haps mentionable. When a dog barks, all the
neighboring dogs bark. Then people around can hardly tell which dog (dogs) is (are0
―speaking‖ and which listening.


do linguists say language is human specific?
First of all, human language has six ―design features‖ which animal communication
systems do not have, at least not in the true sense of them (see I .2-
8). Let’s borrow C. F.
Hocket’s Chart that compares human language with some animals’ systems, from Wang
Gang (1998,p.8).
Secondly, linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak
a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Beatnice and Alan Gardner
brought up Washoe, a female chimpanzee, like a human child. She was taught ―American
sign Language‖, and learned a little that made the teachers happy but did mot make the
linguistics circle happy, for few believed in teaching chimpanzees.
Thirdly, a human child reared among animals cannot speak a human language, not even
when he is taken back and taught to lo to so (see the ―Wolf Child‖in I.7)


functions does language have?
Language has at least seven functions: phatic, directive, Informative, interrogative,
expressive, evocative and per formative. According to Wang Gang (1988,p.11), language
has three main functions: a tool of communication, a tool whereby people learn about the
world, and a tool by which people learn about the world, and a tool by which people create
art. M .A. ay, representative of the London school, recognizes three
―Macro
-
Functions‖: ideational, interpersonal and textual (see! 11
-17;see HU Zhuanglin et
al., pp10-13, pp394-396).

1.



11What is the phatic function?
The ―phatic function‖ refers to language being used for setting up a certain atmosphere or
maintaining social contacts (rather than for exchanging information or ideas). Greetings,
farewells, and comments on the weather in English and on clothing in Chinese all serve
this function. Much of the phatic language (e.g. ―How are you?‖ ―Fine, thanks.‖) Is
insincere if taken literally, but it is important. If you don't say ―Hello‖ to a friend you
meet, or
if you don’t answer his ―Hi‖, you ruin your friendship.


1.12.



What is the directive function?
The ―directive function‖ means that language may be used to get the hearer to do
something. Most imperative sentences perform this function, e.g.
, ―Tell me the result when
you finish.‖ Other syntactic structures or sentences of other sorts can, according to
and ’s ―indirect speech act theory‖(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp271
-278)
at least, serve the purpose of direction too, e.g., ―I
f I were you, I would have blushed to the
bottom of my ears!‖


is the informative function?
Language serves an ―informational function‖ when used to tell something, characterized
by the use of declarative sentences. Informative statements are often labeled as true
(truth) or false (falsehood). According to P
.Grice’s ―Cooperative Principle‖(see Hu
Zhuanglin et al., pp282-
283), one ought not to violate the ―Maxim of Quality‖, when he is
informing at all.

is the interrogative function?
Whe
n language is used to obtain information, it serves an ―interrogative function‖. This
includes all questions that expect replies, statements, imperatives etc., according to the
―indirect speech act theory‖, may have this function as well, e.g., ―I’d like t
o know you
better.‖ This may bring forth a lot of personal information. Note that rhetorical questions
make an exception, since they demand no answer, at least not the reader’s/listener’s
answer.

is the expressive function?
The ―expressive function‖ is the use of language to reveal something about the feelings or
attitudes of the speaker. Subconscious emotional ejaculations are good examples, like
―Good heavens!‖ ―My God!‖ Sentences like ―I’m sorry about the delay‖ can serve as good
examples too, though in a subtle way. While language is used for the informative function
to pass judgment on the truth or falsehood of statements, language used for the
expressive function evaluates, appraises or asserts the speaker’s own attitudes.


is the evocative function?
The ―evocative function‖ is the use of language to create certain feelings in the hearer. Its
aim is, for example, to amuse, startle, antagonize, soothe, worry or please. Jokes (not
practical jokes, though) are supposed to amuse or entertain the listener; advertising to
urge customers to purchase certain commodities; propaganda to influence public opinion.
Obviously, the expressive and the evocative functions often go together, i.e., you may
express, for example, your personal feelings about a political issue but end up by evoking
the same feeling in, or imposing it on, your listener. That’s also the case with the other way
round.

is the per formative function?
This means people speak to ―do things‖ or perform actions. On certa
in occasions the
utterance itself as an action is more important than what words or sounds constitute the
uttered sentence. When asked if a third Yangtze Bridge ought to be built in Wuhan, the
mayor may say, ―OK‖, which means more than speech, and more tha
n an average social
individual may do for the construction. The judge’s imprisonment sentence, the
president’s war or independence declaration, etc., are per formatives as well (see
’s speech Act Theory, Hu Zhuanglin, 271
-278).

is linguistics?
―Linguistics‖ is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one
society, but also the language of all human beings. A linguist, though, does not have to
know and use a large number of languages, but to investigate how each language is
constructed. He is also concerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect, from
class to class, how it changes from century to century, how children acquire their mother
tongue, and perhaps how a person learns or should learn a foreign language. In short,
linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all human languages are constructed
and operate as systems of communication in their societies or communities (see Hu
Zhuanglin et al., pp20-22)

makes linguistics a science?
Since linguistics is the scientific study of language, it ought to base itself upon the
systematic, investigation of language data, which aims at discovering the true nature of
language and its underlying system. To make sense of the data, a linguist usually has
conceived some hypotheses about the language structure, to be checked against the
observed or observable facts. In order to make his analysis scientific, a linguist is usually
guided by four principles: exhaustiveness, consistency, and objectivity. Exhaustiveness
means he should gather all the materials relevant to the study and give them an adequate
explanation, in spite of the complicatedness. He is to leave no linguistic ―stone‖ unturned.
Consistency means there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total
statement. Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity in the analysis when it is
possible. Objectivity implies that since some people may be subjective in the study, a
linguist should be (or sound at least) objective, matter-of-face, faithful to reality, so that his
work constitutes part of the linguistics research.

are the major branches of linguistics?
The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics ( Zhuanglin et
al., 1988;Wang Gang, 1988). But a linguist sometimes is able to deal with only one aspect
of language at a time, thus the arise of various branches: phonetics, phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, pragmatics,
psycholinguistics, lexicology, lexicography, etymology, etc.

are synchronic and diachronic studies?
The description of a language at some point of time (as if it stopped developing) is a
synchrony study (synchrony). The description of a language as it changes through time is
a diachronic study (diachronic). An essay entitled ―On the Use of THE‖, for example, may
be synchronic, if the author does not recall the past of THE, and it may also be diachronic
if he claims to cover a large range or period of time wherein THE has undergone
tremendous alteration (see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp25-27).

is speech and what is writing?
(1)



No one needs the repetition of the general principle of linguistic analysis, namely,
the primacy of speech over writing. Speech is primary; because it existed long long before
writing systems came into being. Genetically children learn to speak before learning to
write. Secondly, written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds:
individual sounds, as in English and French as in Japanese.
(2)



In contrast to speech, spoken form of language, writing as written codes, gives
language new scope and use that speech does not have. Firstly, messages can be carried
through space so that people can write to each other. Secondly, messages can be carried
through time thereby, so that people of our time can be carried through time thereby, so
that people of our time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly,
oral messages are readily subject to distortion, either intentional or unintentional (causing
misunderstanding or malentendu), while written messages allow and encourage repeated
unalterable reading.
(3)



Most modern linguistic analysis is focused on speech, different from
grammarians of the last century and theretofore.

are the differences between the descriptive and the prescriptive approaches?
A linguistic study is ―descriptive‖ if it only describes and analyses the facts of language,
and ―prescriptive‖ if it tries to lay
down rules for
―correct‖ language behavior. Linguistic
studies before this century were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were
largely prescriptive because many early grammars were based on ―high‖ (literary or
religious) written records. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive, however. It (the latter)
believes that whatever occurs in natural speech (hesitation, incomplete utterance,
misunderstanding, etc.) should be described in the analysis, and not be marked as
incorrect, abnormal, corrupt, or lousy. These, with changes in vocabulary and structures,
need to be explained also.

is the difference between langue and parole?
F. De Saussure refers ―langue‖to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members
of a speech commun
ity and refers ―parole‖ to the actual or actualized language, or the
realization of langue. Langue is abstract, parole specific to the speaking situation; langue
not actually spoken by an individual, parole always a naturally occurring event; langue
relatively stable and systematic, parole is a mass of confused facts, thus not suitable for
systematic investigation. What a linguist ought to do, according to Saussure, is to abstract
langue from instances of parole, I. e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of
parole and make than the subject of linguistics. The langue-parole distinction is of great
importance, which casts great influence on later linguists.

is the difference between competence and performance?
(1)



According t
o N. Chomsky, ―competence‖ is the ideal language user’s knowledge
of the rules of his language, and ―performance‖ is the actual realization of this knowledge
in utterances. The former enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinite
number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A
speaker’s competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by
psychological and social factors. So a speaker’s performance does not always match or
equal his supposed competence.
(2)



Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than
performance. In other words, they should discover what an ideal speaker knows of his
native language.
(3)



Chomsky’s competence
-performance distinction is not exactly the same as,
though similar to, F. de Saussure’s langue
-parole distinction. Langue is a social product,
and a set of conventions for a community, while competence is deemed as a property of
the mind of each individual. Sussure looks at language more from a sociological or
sociolinguistic point of view than N. Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues
psychologically or psycholinguistically.

is linguistic potential? What is actual linguistic behavior?
M. A. K. Halliday made these two terms, or the potential-behavior distinction, in the 1960s,
from a functional point of view. There is a wide range of things a speaker can do in his
culture, and similarly there are many things he can say, for example, to many people, on
many topics. What he actual
ly says (i.e. his ―actual linguistic behavior‖) on a certain
occasion to a certain person is what he has chosen from many possible injustice items,
each of which he could have said (linguistic potential).

what way do language, competence and linguistic potential agree? In what way do
they differ? And their counterparts?
Langue, competence and linguistic potential have some similar features, but they are
innately different (see 1.25). Langue is a social product, and a set of speaking
conventions; co
mpetence is a property or attribute of each ideal speaker’s mind; linguistic
potential is all the linguistic corpus or repertoire available from which the speaker chooses
items for the actual utterance situation. In other words, langue is invisible but reliable
abstract system. Competence means ―knowing‖, and linguistic potential a set of
possibilities for ―doing‖ or ―performing actions‖. They are similar in that they all refer to the
constant underlying the utterances that constitute what Saussure, Chomsky and Halliday
respectively called parole, performance and actual linguistic behavior. Paole, performance
and actual linguistic behavior enjoy more similarities than differences.

is phonetics?
―Phonetics‖ is the science which studies the characte
ristics of human sound- making,
especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description,
classification and transcription (see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp39-40), speech sounds may be
studied in different ways, thus by three different branches of phonetics. (1) Articulatory
phonetics; the branch of phonetics that examines the way in which a speech sound is
produced to discover which vocal organs are involved and how they coordinate in the
process. (2) Auditory phonetics, the branch of p
honetic research from the hearer’s point of
view, looking into the impression which a speech sound makes on the hearer as mediated
by the ear, the auditory nerve and the brain. (3) Acoustic phonetics: the study of the
physical properties of speech sounds, as transmitted between mouth and ear.
Most phoneticians, however, are interested in articulator phonetics.

are the vocal organs formed?
The vocal organs (see Figure1, Hu Zhuanglin et al., p41), or speech organs, are organs of
the human body whose secondary use is in the production of speech sounds. The vocal
organs can be considered as consisting of three parts; the initiator of the air-stream, the
producer of voice and the resonating cavities.

is place of articulation?
It refers to the place in the mouth where, for example, the obstruction occurs, resulting in
the utterance of a consonant. Whatever sound is pronounced, at least some vocal organs
will get involved. g. Lips, hard palate etc., so a consonant may be one of the following (1)
bilabial: [p, b, m]; (2) labiodental: [f, v]; (3) dental: [,]; (4) alveolar: [t, d, l, n.s, z]; (5)
retroflex; (6) palato-alveolar: [,]; (7) palatal: [j]; (8) velar [k, g,]; (9) uvular; (10) glottal: [h].
Some sounds involve the simultaneous use of two places of articulation. For example, the
English [w] has both an approximation of the two lips and those two lips and that of the
tongue and the soft palate, and may be termed ―labial
-
velar‖.


is the manner of articulation?
The ―manner of articulation‖ literally means the way a sound is articulated. At a given
place of articulation, the airstreams may be obstructed in various ways, resulting in
various manners of articulation, are the following: (1) plosive: [p, b, t, d, k, g]; (2) nasal: [m,
n,]; (3) trill; (4) tap or flap; (5) lateral: [l]; (6) fricative: [f, v, s, z]; (7) approximant: [w, j]; (8)
affricate: [].

do phoneticians classify vowels?
Phoneticians, in spite of the difficulty, group vowels in 5 types: (1) long and short vowels,
e.g.,[i:,]; (4) rounded and unround vowels,e.g.[,i]; (5) pure and gliding vowels, e.g.[I,].

is IPA? When did it come into being ?

The IPA, abbreviation of ―International Phonetic Alphabet‖, is a compromise system
making use of symbols of all sources, including diacritics indicating length, stress and
intonation, indicating phonetic variation. Ever since it was developed in 1888, IPA has
undergone a number of revisions.

is narrow transcription and what is broad transcription?
In handboo
k of phonetics, Henry Sweet made a distinction between ―narrow‖ and ―broad‖
transcriptions, which he called ―Narrow Romic‖. The former was meant to symbolize all
the possible speech sounds, including even the most minute shades of pronunciation
while Broad Romic or transcription was intended to indicate only those sounds capable of
distinguishing one word from another in a given language.

is phonology? What is difference between phonetics and phonology?
(1)



―Phonology‖ is the study of soun
d systems- the invention of distinctive speech
sounds that occur in a language and the patterns wherein they fall. Minimal pair,
phonemes, allophones, free variation, complementary distribution, etc., are all to be
investigated by a phonologist.
(2)



Phonetics, as discussed in I.28, is the branch of linguistics studying the
characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification
and transcription. A phonetist is mainly interested in the physical properties of the speech
sounds, whereas a phonologist studies what he believes are meaningful sounds related
with their semantic features, morphological features, and the way they are conceived and
printed in the depth of the mind phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce
sounds which from meaningful utterances, to recognize a foreign ―accent‖, to make up
new words, to add the appropriate phonetic segments to from plurals and past tenses, to
know what is and what is not a sound in one’s language.


is a phone? What is a phoneme? What is an allophone?

(1)



A ―phone‖ is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and
produce during linguistic communication are all phones. When we hear the following
words pronounced:[pit], [tip], [spit], etc., the similar phones we have heard are [p] for one
thing, and three different[p]’s, readily making possible the ―narrow transcription or
diacritics‖. Phones may and may not distinguish meaning. A ―phoneme‖ is a phonological
unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. As an abstract unit, a phoneme is not any
particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain
phonetic context. For example, the phoneme[p] is represented differently in [pit], [tip] and
[spit].
(2)



The phones representing a phoneme are called its ―allophones‖, i. e., the
different (i.e., phones) but do not make one word so phonetically different as to create a
new word or a new meaning thereof. So the different[p]’s in the above words are the
allophones of the same phoneme[p]. How a phoneme is represented by a phone, or which
allophone is to be used, is determined by the phonetic context in which it occurs. But the
choice of an allophone is not random. In most cases it is rule-governed; these rules are to
be found out by a phonologist.

are minimal pairs?
When two different phonetic forms are identical in every way except for one sound
segment which occurs in the same place in the string , the two forms(i. e., word) are
supposed to form a
―minimal pair‖, e.g., ―pill‖ and ―bill‖, ―pill‖ and ―till‖, ―till‖ and ―dill‖, ―till‖
and ―kill‖, etc. All these words together constitute a minimal set. They are identical in form
except for the initial consonants. There are many minimal pairs in English, which makes it
relatively easy to know what are English phonemes. It is of great importance to find the
minimal pairs when a phonologist is dealing with the sound system of an unknown
language(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp65-66).

is free variation?
If two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast; namely, if the
substitution of one for the other does not generate a new word form but merely a different
pronunciation of the same word, the two sounds then are said to be in ―free variation‖. The
plosives, for example, may not be exploded when they occur before another plosive or a
nasal (e. g., act, apt, good morning). The minute distinctions may, if necessary, be
transcribed in diacritics. These unexploded and exploded plosives are in free variation.
Sounds in free variation should be assigned to the same phoneme.

is complementary distribution?
When two sounds never occur in the same environment, they are in ―complementary
distribution‖. For example, the aspirated English plo
sives never occur after[s], and the
unsaturated ones never occur initially. Sounds in complementary distribution may be
assigned to the same phoneme. The allophones of[l], for example, are also in
complementary distribution. The clear[l] occurs only before a vowel, the voiceless
equivalent of[l] occurs only after a voiceless consonant, such as in the words ―please‖,
―butler‖, ―clear‖, etc., and the dark[l] occurs only after a vowel or as a syllabic sound after a
consonant, such as in the words ―feel‖, ―help‖, ―middle‖, etc.


is the assimilation rule? What is the deletion rule?
(1) The ―assimilation rule‖ assimilates one segment to another by ―copying‖ a feature of a
sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones more similar. This rule accounts for the
raring pronunciation of the nasal[n] that occurs within a word. The rule is that within a word
the nasal consonant[n] assumes the same place of articulation as the following consonant.
The negative prefix ―in
-
― serves as a good example. It may be pron
ounced as [in],
or [im]
when occurring in different phonetic contexts: e. g., indiscrete-[

](alveolar)
inconceivable-[

](velar)
input-
[?imput](bilabial)

The “deletion rule” tells us when a sound is to be deleted although is orthographically
represent
ed. While the letter “g” is mute in “sign”, “design” and “paradigm”, it is
pronounced in their corresponding derivatives: “signature”, “designation” and
“paradigmatic”. The rule then can be stated as: delete a [g] when it occurs before a final
nasal consonant. This accounts for some of the seeming irregularities of the English
spelling (see Dai Weidong ,pp22-23).

is suprasegmental phonology? What are suprasegmental features?
“Suprasegmental phonology” refers to the study of phonological propertie
s of linguistic
units larger than the segment called phoneme, such as syllable, word and sentence.
Hu Zhuanglin et al.,(p,73) includes stress, length and pitch as what they suppose to be
“principal suprasegmental

features”, calling the concurrent patterning of three “intonation”.
Dai Weidong(pp23-25) lists three also, but they are stress, tone and intonation.

is morphology?
“Morphology” is the branch of grammar that studies the internal structure of words, and
the rules by which words are formed. It is generally divided into two fields: inflectional
morphology and lexical/derivational morphology.

is inflection/inflexion?
“Inflection” is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of
inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect, and case, which does not
change the grammatical class of the items to which they are attached.

is a morpheme? What is an allomorph?
(1)



The “morpheme” is the smallest unit in terms of relationship betw
een expression
and content, a unit which cannot be divided without destroying or drastically altering the
meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. The word “boxes”, for example, has two
morphemes: “box” and “
-
es”, neither of which permits further div
ision or analysis if we
don?t wish to sacrifice meaning. Therefore a morpheme is considered the minimal unit of
meaning.
(2)



Allomorphs, like allophones vs. phones, are the alternate shapes (and thus
phonetic forms) of the same morphemes. Some morphemes, though, have no more than
one invariable form in all contexts, such as “dog”, “cat”, etc. The variants of the plurality
“
-
s” make the allomorphs thereof in the following examples: map
-maps, mouse-mice,
sheep-sheep etc.

is a free morpheme? What is a bound morpheme?
A “free morpheme” is a morpheme that constitutes a word by itself, such as ?bed”,
“tree” ,etc. A “bound morpheme” is one that appears with at least another morpheme,
such as “
-
s” in “beds” , “
-
al” in “national” and so on. All mono
morphemic words are free
morphemes. Those polymorphemic words are either compounds (combination of two or
more free morphemes )or derivatives (word derived from free morphemes).

is a root ? What is a stem? What is an affix?
A “root” is the base
form of a word that cannot be further analyzed without total loss of
identity. In other words, a “root” is that part of the word left when all the affixes are
removed. “Internationalism” is a four
-morpheme derivative which keeps its free morpheme
“nation” as its root when “ inter
-
”, “
-
al” and “
-
ism” are taken away.

A “stem” is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an affix can be added.
It may be the same as , and in other cases, different from, a root. For example, in the word
“friends” , “friend” is both the root and the stem, but in the word “friendships”, “friendships”
is its stem, “friend” is its root. Some words (i. e., compounds ) have more than one root ,e.
g., “mailman” , “girlfriend” ,ect.

An “affix” is the collective term for the type
of formative that can be used, only when added
to another morpheme(the root or stem). Affixes are limited in number in a language, and
are generally classified into three subtypes: prefix, suffix and infix, e. g. , “mini
-
”, “un
-
”,
ect.(prefix); “
-
ise”, “
-t
ion”, ect.(suffix).


are open classes? What are closed classes?
In English, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs make up the largest part of the
vocabulary. They are “open –class words”, since we can regularly add new lexical entries
to these classes. The other syntactic categories are, for the most part, closed classes, or
closed-class words. The number of them is hardly alterable, if they are changeable at all.

is lexicon? What is word? What is lexeme? What is vocabulary? Lexicon?
Word? Lexeme? Vocabulary?
“Lexicon”, in its most general sense, is synonymous with vocabulary. In its technical sense,
however, lexicon deals with the analysis and creation of words, idioms and collocations.
“Word” is a unit of expression which has universal
intuitive recognition by native-speakers,
whether it is expressed in spoken or written form. This definition is perhaps a little vague
as there are different criteria with regard to its identification and definition. It seems that it
is hard , even imposs
ible, to define “word” linguistically. Nonetheless it is universally
agreed that the following three senses are involved in the definition of “word”, none of
which, though, is expected to cope with all the situations: (1)a physically definable unit ,e.
g.,
[it iz ?w


](phonological), “It is wonder” (orthographic); (2) the common factor underlying
a set of forms (see what is the common factor of “checks”, “checked”, “checking ”, etc.); (3)
a grammatical unit(look at (1) again; every word plays a grammatical part in the sentence).
According to Leonard Bloomfield, a word is a minimum free form (compare: a sentence is
a maximum free form, according to Bloomfield ). There are other factors that may help us
identify words: (1) stability (no great change of orthographic features); (2)relative
uninterruptibility (we can hardly insert anything between two parts of a word or between
the letters). To make the category clearer we can subclassify words into a few types: (1)
variable and invariable words(e. g.,-mats, seldom-?); (2) grammatical and lexical words(e.
g. to, in ,etc., and table, chair, ect. By “lexical words” we mean the words that carry a
semantic content, e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives and many adverbs; (3) closed-class and
open-class words(see I.47).
In orde
r to reduce the ambiguity of the term “word” ,the term “lexeme” is postulated as the
abtract unit which refers to the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that can
be distinguished from other smaller units. A lexeme can occur in many different forms in
actual spoken or written texts. For example, “write” is the lexeme of the following words:
“write”, “write”, “wrote”, “writing”, and “written.”

“Vocabulary” usually refers to all words or lexical items a person has acquired about
technical or/and untechnical things. So we encourage our students to enlarge their
vocabulary. “vocabulary” is also used to mean word list or glossary.


is collocation?
“Collocation” is a term used in lexicology by some linguists to refer to the habitual
co-occu
rrences of individual lexical items. For example, we can “read” a “book”; “correct”
can narrowly occur with “book” which is supposed to have faults, but no one can “read” a
“mistake” because with regard to co
-occurrence these two words are not collocates.

is syntax?
“Syntax” is the study of the rules governing the ways in which words, word groups and
phrases are combined to form sentences in a language, or the study of the
interrelationships between sentential elements.
is a sentence?
L
. Bloomfield defines “sentence” as an independent linguistic form not included by some
grammatical marks in any other linguistic from, i. e., it is not subordinated to a larger
linguistic form, it is a structurally independent linguistic form. It is also called a maximum
free form.

are syntactic relations?
“Syntactic relations” refer to the ways in which words, word groups or phrases form
sentences; hence three kinds of syntactic relations: positional relations, relations of
substitutability and relations of co- occurrence.
(1)



“Positional relation”, or “word order”, refers to the sequential arrangement to
words in a language. It is a manifestation of a certain aspect of what F
. de Saussure called
“syntagmatic relations”, or of what other linguists call “horizontal relations” or “chain
relations”.

(2)



“Relations of substitutability” refer to classes or sets of words substitutable for
each other grammatically in same sentence structures. Saussure called them “associative
relations”. Other people call them “paradigmatic/vertical/choice relations”.

(3)



By “relations of co
-
occurrence”, one means that words of different sets of
clauses may permit or require the occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a
sentence or a particular part of a sentence. Thus relations of co-occurrence partly belong
to syntagmatic relations and partly to paradigmatic relations.

is IC analysis? What are immediate constituents(and ultimate constituents)?
“IC analysis” is a new approach of
sentence study that cuts a sentence into two(or more)
segments. This kind of pure segmentation is simply dividing a sentence into its constituent
elements without even knowing what they really are . What remain of the first cut are
called “immediate constituents”, and what are left at the final cut are called “ultimate
constituents”. For example, “John left yesterday” can be thus segmented: “John| left | |
yesterday”. We get two immediate constituents for the first cut (|), and they are “John” and
“left yesterday”. Further split(||) this sentence generates three “ultimate constituents”:
“John”, “left ” and “yesterday”.


are endocentric and exocentric constructons?
“Endocentric construction” is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to t
hat of
one or more of its constituents, i. e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a
definable “centre” or “head”. Usually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases
belong to endocentric types because the constituent items are subordinate to the head.
“Exocentric construction”, opposite of endocentric construction, refers to a group of
syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group
as whole that is to say ,there is no definable centre or head inside the group. Exocentric
construction usually includes basic sentence, prepositional phrase, predicate(verb+object)
construction, and connective(be+complement) construction.

is a subject? A predicate? An object?
(1)



In some language, an “subject” refers to one of the nouns in the nominative
case, such as “pater” in the following example: “pater filium amat” (put literally in English:
the father the son loves). In English, a “grammatical subject” refers to a noun which can
establish correspondence with the verb and which can be checked by a tag- question test,
e.g., “He is a good cook(, isn?t he?).”