Exercise 1 I. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences: 1. A symbol consists of two parts: a concrete and the which it conveys. 2. By saying language is we mean we can't give a sound reason why such a form is pronounced in this way rather than in that way, and why a particular meaning should be indicated by this form rather than by that form. 3. Language has two levels. They are level and level. 4. Human languages have such design features as _,, _,. 5. Language is a because every language consists of a set of rules which underlie people's actual speech or writing. 6. By saying language is we mean that every language contains an infinite number of sentences, which, however, are generated by a small set of rules and a finite set of words. II. True or false questions: 1. Every language contains a finite number of sentences; however, it has an infinite set of words and a large set of rules, so language is creative. 2. Language is primarily speech, and not the written form. 3. In theory, the length of sentences is limited. 4. Change is not natural {or living languages and such a change is a sign of corruption and decay. 5. The relationship between the sounds and their meanings is arbitrary. 6. According to Chomsky, language refers to the system of a language. 7. Linguistic symbols are a kind of visual symbols, which include vocal symbols. 8. Linguistic symbols are produced by human speech organs. 9. Every language has two levels: grammatically- meaningless and soundmeaningful. 10. Such features of language as being creative, vocal, and arbitrary can differentiate human languages from animal communicative systems. III. Explain the following terms: 1. design feature 2. productivity 3. arbitrariness 4. symbol 5. discreteness 6. displacement 7. duality of structure 8. cultural transmission 9. interchangeability IV. Answer the following questions: 1. What is language? 2. What are the design features of language? 3. Why do we say language is a system? 4. According to Halliday, what are the initial functions of children's language? And what are the three functional components of adult language?
Exercise 2 I. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences: 1. According to John Lyons, deals with language in general and is concerned with one particular language. 2. In de Saussure's term, refers to the system of language and refers to the speaker's speech. 3. is the science that deals with the sound system. 4. Syntax studies two kinds of rules: and. 5. According to Chomsky, is "the speaker-hearer' s knowledge of his language", while is "the actual use of language in concrete situations". 6. Langue or competence is and not directly observed, while parole or performance is and directly observable. 7. The scientific method involves four stages:,, and. 8. is the father of modern linguistics. 9. The study of a language is concerned with a "state" of a language at a particular point of time. 10. A relation refers to the sequential characteristic of speech. 11. knowledge is a native speaker's intuition about the sounds and sound patterns of his language. 12. knowledge is a native speaker's intuition about how a word is formed. 13. knowledge is a native speaker's intuition about whether a sentence is grammatical or not. 14. knowledge is a native speaker's intuition about the meaning of language, including meaning of words and meaning of sentences. 15. is the study of speech sounds of all human languages. 16. examines word formation and the internal structure of words.' 17. is concerned with how words are combined to form phrases and how phrases are combined by rules to form sentences. 18. is the study of the meaning of words and sentences. 19. A study is concerned with the historical development of a language over a period of time. 20. A relation is a relation between a linguistic element in an utterance and linguistic elements outside that utterance, but belonging to the same sub-system of the language. II. True or false questions: 1. General linguistics aims at developing a theory that describes the rules of a particular language. 2. English linguistics is a kind of descriptive linguistics. 3. Competence is more concrete than performance. 4. Descriptive linguistics attempts to establish a theory which accounts for
the rules of language in general. 5. Langue is more abstract than parole and therefore is not directly observable. 6. General linguistics deals with the whole human language. 7. All the English words are not symbolic. 8. All sounds produced by human speech organs are linguistic symbols. 9. Language is arbitrary, which means that any individual speaker has the freedom to determine the pronunciation of a word. 10. Descriptive linguistics studies one specific language. 11. Some languages are primitive and some languages are advanced. 12. Morphological knowledge is a native speaker's intuition about how a sentence is formed. 13. Phonetics is the science that deals with the sound system. 14. A diachronic study of a language is concerned with a state of a language at a particular point of time. III. Explain the differences between each of the following pairs: 1. general linguistics and descriptive linguistics 2. synchronic linguistics and diachronic linguistics 3. theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics 4. microlinguistics and macrolinguistics 5. langue and parole 6. competence and performance 7. speech and writing 8. linguistic behaviour potential and actual linguistic behavior 9. syntagmatic relation and paradigmatic relation 10. verbal communication and non-verbal communication IV. Answer the following questions: 1. How does John Lyons classify linguistics? 2. Explain the three principles by which the linguist is guided: consistency, adequacy and simplicity. 3. What are the sub-branches of linguistics within the language system?
Exercise 3 I. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences: 1. Phonetics has three sub-branches: phonetics, phonetics and phonetics. 2. The vocal tract can be divided into two parts: the and the. 3. A consonant is a speech sound in which the air-stream from the lungs is either, or, or where the opening is so narrow that the air escapes with. A vowel is usually produced with of the vocal cords. 4. phonetics is concerned with how a sound is produced by the vocal organs. 5. phonetics deals with how a sound is transmitted from the speaker's mouth to the listener's ears. 6. phonetics investigates how a sound is perceived by the listener. 7. According to the position of the velum, consonants are divided into and. 8. The production of a stop consists of three stages: stage, stage and stage. 9. The of the soft palate causes the production of oral consonants while the of the soft palate brings about the production of nasal consonants. 10. In English, there are nasal consonants. They are [,, ]. 11. According to the presence or absence of vocal-cord vibration, the English consonants can be classified into two groups: and. 12. In terms of lip rounding, vowels are classified into and. 13. The space between the vocal cords is called. 14. When the vocal cords are spread apart, the air-stream is not blocked at the glottis and it passes freely into the vocal tract without vocal-cord vibration. The sounds produced in this way are called. 15. When the vocal cords are nearly touching each other but not completely closed, the air-stream passing through the glottis has to cause vibration. The sounds made in this way are called. 16. Stops can be divided into two types: and. 17. According to the state of the velum, vowels are divided into and. 18. In English, nasal vowels occur only before and oral vowels before or at the end of words. 19. In English, all the back vowels except and. 20. In terms of, vowels can be classified into front, central, back, high, mid and low vowels. II. True or false questions: 1. Phonology is the study of speech sounds of all human languages.
2. Acoustic phonetics is concerned with how a sound is produced by the vocal organs. 3. All consonants are produced with vocal-cord vibration. 4. The spelling of words is not a reliable means of describing the English sounds. 5. There are 72 symbols for consonants and 25 for vowels in English. 6. Bilabials are different from alveolars in terms of manner of articulation. 7. When two articulators are brought together to form a complete closure which is followed by a sudden release, the sounds are called affricates. 8. [z] is an oral voiced post-alveolar fricative. 9. In terms of tension of the muscles at pharynx, vowels are grouped into tense vowels and lax vowels. 10. All the back vowels are rounded vowels. 11. Triphthongs are produced by a glide from one vowel to another rapidly and continuously. 12. [e] may be marked with [-high], [+low], [+front], [-back], [-rounded] and [-tense]. III. Explain the following terms: 1. articulatory phonetics 2. acoustic phonetics 3. auditory phonetics 4. consonant 5. vowel 6. bilabials 7. affricates 8. glottis 9. rounded vowels 10. diphthongs 11. triphthongs 12. lax vowels IV. Answer the following questions: l. How are consonants classified in terms of different criteria? 2. How are vowels classified in terms of different criteria? 3. What are the three sub-branches of phonetics? How do they differ from each other? 4. What are the commonly used phonetic features for consonants and vowels respectively?
Exercise 4 I. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences: 1. English phonology investigates the of English. It's different from English phonetics, which is concerned with that occur in the English language. English phonology studies the abstract aspects: and. 2. A phoneme is defined as a unit in the system of a language. 3. Two forms are a minimal pair when they meet three conditions: 1) they are different in, 2) they differ only in one, 3) the different sounds occur in the same in the strings. When a group of words meet all the three conditions, they are called a. 4. There are three types of distribution:, and. 5. If two or more sounds can occur in the same environment and the substitution of one sound for another brings about a change of meaning, they are in 6. If two or more sounds never appear in the same environment, they are said to be in. 7. If two sounds can occur in the same environment and the substitution of one sound for the other does not cause a change of meaning, then they are said to be in. 8. The features are the features that can contrast words. 9. features are used to describe phonemes, while features are used to describe their allophones. 10. The distinctive features which can only have an effect on one sound segment are called features. 11. The distinctive features that can affect more than one sound segment and can also contrast meaning are called features. There are three kinds of them:, and. 12. The position of can bring about a change of meaning in a word. 13. languages are languages that use pitch to contrast meaning at word level, whereas languages are languages that use pitch to distinguish different meanings at phrase level or sentence level. 14. refers to the phonetic boundary features that may mark grammatical units such as word and clause. 15. If we are interested in the phonetic units of a word, the resulting transcription is ; if we are only interested in its distinctive features, the resulting transcription is. 16. The function of phonological rules is to change a transcription into its transcription. II. True or false questions: 1. A phoneme is an abstract element in the sound system of a language while
allophones are variants of a single abstract element. 2. The sounds that are in contrastive distribution are different phonemes. 3. In general, a set of distinctive features that define and characterize a phoneme is much larger than a set of phonetic features that characterizes any one of its allophones. 4. Two plosives cannot go together at the beginning of words. 5. Only short vowels/i/, /e/, /u/ and /a:/ can precede final/ŋ/. 6. Short vowels/e/, /æ/, / ʌ / and/ ɔ / do not occur finally. 7. All vowels can occur initially except/u/and/ uə /. 8. The sounds that are in free variation are allophones of the same phoneme. 9. The sounds that are in complementarydistribution and also phonetically similar are allophones of the same phoneme. 10. All languages have sequential constraints. 11. English is a tone language. 12. No word begins with more than three consonant phonemes and no word ends with more than three consonant phonemes. 13. All consonant phonemes can occur initially and all consonant phonemes can occur finally. 14. If the initial sound is an affricate, the next sound must be a vowel. 15. Chinese is an intonation language. 16. Phonetic transcriptions include all the linguistically relevant features of sounds; phonemic transcriptions only record distinctive qualities of sounds which can differentiate the meanings of words. 17. A phoneme is defined as a minimal meaningful unit in the sound system of a language. 18. The two words 'bit~ and 'bought~ form a minimal pair. 19. Allophones are the realizations of phonemes in general. 20. Phones are the realizations of a specific phoneme. 21. If two or more sounds can occur in the same environment and the substitution of one sound for another brings about a change of meaning, they are in free variation. 22. If two or more sounds never appear in the same environment, they are said to be in contrastive distribution. 23. If two sounds can occur in the same environment and the substitution of one sound for the other does not cause a change of meaning, then they are said to be in complementary distribution. 24. The phonemes/p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/do not form a natural class. 25. In English, the suprasegmental features include stress, tone and juncture. 26. A palatal plosive appears before or after a front vowel. III. Explain the following terms: 1. phonemes 2. allophones 3. phones 4. minimal pair 5. contrastive distribution 6. complementary distribution
7. free variation 8. distinctive features 9. suprasegmental features 10. tone languages 11. intonation languages 12. juncture IV. Answer the following questions: 1. What are the differences between English phonetics and English phonology? 2. Give examples to illustrate the relationship between phonemes, phones and allophones. 3. How can we decide a minimal pair or a minimal set? 4. Use examples to explain the three types of distribution. 5. What's the difference between segmental features and suprasegmental features? What are the suprasegmental features in English? 6. What's the difference between tone languages and intonation languages? 7. What's the difference between phonetic transcriptions and phonemic transcriptions?
Exercise 5 I. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences: l. Semantically, morphemes can be grouped into and. 2. is a science that examines word formation and the internal structure of words. 3. A morpheme is defined as a unit in the system of a language. 4. Structurally, morphemes fall into two kinds: and. 5. The is the most important part of a word that carries the principal meaning. 6. are lexically dependent on roots and do not convey the fundamental meaning of words. 7. morphemes are those that can stand by themselves as individual words. 8. morphemes are never found alone as words, but are always joined with other morphemes. 9. In terms of position, we may divide affixes into, and. 10. According to function, we can classify affixes into and. 11. are related to morphemes in general, while are always related to a specific morpheme. 12. If two or more morphs are and also in distribution, they are said to be allomorphs of the same morpheme. 13. A morph that has form but no meaning is called a(n) morph while a morph that has meaning but no form is called a(n) morph. 14. There are two kinds of relations between the morphemes within a word: order and order. 15. In the IC Analysis of a word, the forms at the bottom of the tree-branch diagram are called, which are individual morphemes and therefore cannot be further divided into smaller parts. 16. All the forms in a tree-branch diagram, except the word itself at the top, are the of the word. 17. The constituents which are involved directly in forming a larger constituent are called the of the larger form. 18. rules are the rules that determine how morphemes are combined to form new words. 19. When a new word is formed by putting an affix to the base, the process involved is called. 20. Free morphemes can be further grouped into morphemes and morphemes. 21. Generally, affixation in English may be further divided into two types: and. 22. Some new words are created simply by changing their parts of speech. The
process involved is called. 23. If two or more separate words are conjoined to produce a form which is used as a single word, the combining process is known as. 24. is a process in which a compound is made by deleting and combining parts of two words. 25. refers to the process whereby a word is shortened without a change in the meaning and in the part of speech. 26. is the process by which words are formed by putting the initial letters of several words together. 27. By, we delete a suffix from an apparently complex form instead of adding a suffix. It may be regarded as the opposite case of suffixation. 28. Inflectional affixes serve to indicate grammatical relations, such as,,,, and. II. True or false questions: 1. A morpheme is not equated with a syllable. 2. A morpheme is a minimal distinctive unit in the grammatical system of a language. 3. Morphs are obtained on the basis of spelling forms of words. 4. All freemorphemes are roots. 5. IC Analysis is arbitrary segmentation. 6. All roots are not free morphemes. 7. When a new word is formed by putting an affix to the base, the process involved is called affixation. Here the term base refers to the root. 8. All bound morphemes are affixes. 9. In IC Analysis, divisions should conform to meaningful relationships. 10. Not all affixes are bound morphemes. 11. Inflectional affixes serve to create new words. 12. Derivational affixes serve to indicate grammatical relations. 13. If two or more minimal meaningful sequences of phonemes are identical in both form and meaning, then they are regarded as one morph. 14. When a new word is formed by putting an affix to the base, the process involved is called affixation. Here the term affix refers to both inflectional and derivational affix. 15. Inflectional affixes never cause a change in grammatical class. 16. In IC Analysis, divisions should be compatible with morphological rules. 17. Derivational affixes cause a change in grammatical class. 18. If two or more minimal meaningful sequences of phonemes are the same in meaning but different in forms, then there are as many morphs as there are forms. 19. If two or more minimal meaningful sequences of phonemes are the same in form but different in meanings, then they are regarded as one morph. 20. If two or more minimal meaningful sequences of phonemes are different both in form and in meaning, then there are as many morphs as there are different
forms and meanings. 21. -ing and -ed are both inflectional affixes. 22. If both inflectional and derivational affixes occur in the same word, derivational affixes always appear before inflectional affixes. 23. Phonemes are said to be minimal distinctive units in the sound system of a language. 24. Morphemes are defined as minimal meaningful units in the grammatical system of a language. 25. Phones are the realizations of a particular morpheme. 26. Morphs are the realizations of morphemes in general. 27. The word SARS (from severe acute respiratory syndrome) is form.ed by the process of acronymy. 28. Allophones are the realizations of a specific phone. 29. Some new words are created simply by changing their parts of speech. The process involved is called blending. 30. Allomorphs are the realizations of a particular morph. 31. Some new words are created simply, by changing their parts of speech. The process involved is called affixation. 32. If two or more separate words are conjoined to produce a form which is used as a single word, the combining process is known as blending. 33. Compounding is a process in which a compound is made by 'blending parts of two words. 34. Clipping refers to the process whereby a word is shortened without a change in the meaning and in the part of speech. 35. Acronymy is the process by which words are formed by putting the initial letters of several words together. 36. By prefixation, we delete a suffix from an apparently complex form instead of' adding a suffix. It may be regarded as the opposite case of suffixation. III. Explain the following terms. 1. morphemes, allomorphs, morphs 2. roots, affixes, free morphemes, bound morphemes 3. inflectional affixes, derivational affixes 4. empty morph, zero morph 5. IC Analysis 6. immediate constituents, ultimate constituents 7. morphological rules 8. word-formation process IV. Answer the following questions: 1. What is IC Analysis? 2. How are morphemes classified? 3. Explain the interrelations between semantic and structural classifications of morphemes.
4. What's the difference between an empty morph and a zero morph? 5. Explain the differences between inflectional and derivational affixes in terms of both function and position. 6. What are morphological rules? Give at least four rules with examples.
Exercise 6 I. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences. l. Sentences can be studied in two ways:, we make structural descriptions of sentences to illustrate the parts of sentences and the relationships among them;, we examine the process by which sentences are generated by syntactic rules. 2. is a science that is concerned with how words are combined to form phrases and how phrases are combined by rules to form sentences. 3. The relation refers to the linear ordering of the words and the phrases within a sentence. 4. The relation is a kind of relation between linguistic forms in a sentence and linguistic forms outside the sentence. 5. The linguistic forms that have relations belong to the same. 6. Syntactic categories can be further divided into two groups: category, such as Noun and Verb; category, such as Sentence, Noun Phrase and Verb Phrase. 7. The relation shows us the inner layering of sentences. 8. In a hierarchical structure diagram of a sentence, there are three distinct levels or hierarchies: which is the highest; which is the lowest; which is in between. 9. In a hierarchical structure diagram of a sentence, the forms at the word-level are of the sentence; the forms at the word-level and the phrase-level are the of the sentence; the constituents connected by the two lines that are branching from the same point are called the of the form above that point. 10. The same phrase or sentence may have two or more interpretations depending on the hierarchical arrangement of its constituents. Such a case is called. 11. Each branching point in a phrase marker is called a. 12. TG Grammar claims that the static study of sentences is only concerned with one level of structure, i.e. structure, but the dynamic study of sentences deals with two levels of structure: both structure and structure. 13. TG Grammar has assumed that to generate sentences, we start with structures and then transform them into structures. 14. Deep structures are generated by rules, and surface structures are derived from their deep structures by rules. 15. A surface structure corresponds most closely to the of words as they are pronounced. 16. A deep structure corresponds most closely to the of words. 17. A surface structure is relatively concrete and gives the of a sentence as it is used in communication. 18. A deep structure is abstract and gives the of a sentence.
19. The constituent which is always present on the right side of the arrow in a PS rule is called a(n) constituent. 20. In the deep structure, verbs always take the form. That is to say, at the level of deep structure, the inflectional endings do not occur together with the verbs. They are separated from the verbs and are part of an phrase. 21. The verbs in verb phrases are called verbs; the other verbs are verbs. 22. In TG Grammar, an auxiliary phrase consists of four components:, verbs, the aspect and the aspect. 23. To generate the deep structure of an English sentence, we always start with the rule:. 24. All transformational rules perform three kinds of operations: the sentence elements; a new element to the phrase marker; an element from the phrase marker. 25. Some transformational rules are obligatory and many are optional. The T-rules have to be applied if we want to obtain well-formed sentences. 26. Technically speaking, a formalized T-rule consists of two parts: the structural and the structural. II. True or false questions: 1. Rearrangement of the words of a sentence yields either an ungrammatical sentence or a different sentence. 2. If the words or phrases in a sentence can be replaced by words and phrases outside the sentence and the resulting sentence is still grammatical, then we say the replacing forms and replaced forms have syntagmatic relations. 3. Morphology is a science that is concerned with how words are combined to form phrases and how phrases are combined by rules to form sentences. 4. Dynamically, we make structural descriptions of sentences to illustrate the parts of sentences and the relationships among them. 5. Statically, we examine the process by which sentences are generated by syntactic rules. 6. The substitutional relation refers to the linear ordering of the words and the phrases within a sentence. 7. The paradigmatic relation is a kind of relation between linguistic forms in a sentence and linguistic forms outside the sentence. 8. The hierarchical relation shows us the inner layering of sentences. 9. TG Grammar claims that the static study of sentences is only concerned with one level of structure, i.e. deep structure. 10. The dynamic study of sentences deals with two levels of structure: both surface structure and deep structure. 11. TG Grammar has assumed that to generate sentences, we start with surface structures and then transform them into deep structures. 12. A surface structure is pronounceable. 13. Deep structures are generated by deep structure rules.
14. Surface structures are derived from their deep structures by TG rules. 15. A surface structure corresponds most closely to the linear arrangement of words as they are pronounced. 16. The constituent which is always present on the right side of the arrow in a PS rule is called an optional constituent. 17. A deep structure is not pronounceable. 18. The constituent which may be present or absent on the right side of the arrow in a PS rule, is called a compulsory constituent. 19. A deep structure corresponds most closely to the meaningful grouping of words. 20. A surface structure is relatively concrete. 21. In the deep structure, verbs always take the present form. 22. At the level of deep structure, the inflectional endings do not occur together with the verbs. They are separated from the verbs and are part of a noun phrase. 23. A surface structure gives the form of a sentence as it is used in communication. 24. A deep structure is abstract. 25. The verbs in verb phrases are called main verbs; the other verbs are minor verbs. 26. A deep structure gives the meaning of a sentence. 27. To generate the deep structure of an English sentence, we always start with the rule: S NP VP. 28 T-Passive must be applied before T-Reflexive. 29 T-Reflexive must be applied before T-Imperative. 30 T-Passive must be applied before T-Yes/No question. 31 T-Passive must be applied before T-Negation. 32 T-Affix is always applied finally. 33 T-Agent deletion must be applied after T-Passive. 34 T-Do insertion must be applied after T-Yes/No question. 35 T-Do insertion must be applied after T-Negation. 36 The basic order of T-rules for Wh-word questions is: the Wh-word insertion rule T-Yes/No question (T-Do insertion), the Wh-word switching rule T-Affix. 37. In the rule T-Affix, the term "affix" refers to the affixes of main verbs. 38. Some transformational rules are obligatory and many are optional. The optional T-rules have to be applied if we want to obtain well-formed sentences. 39. All transformational rules perform three kinds of operations: rearranging the sentence elements; adding a new element to the phrase marker; deleting an element from the phrase marker. Every single T-rule carries out all these three operations. III. Explain the following terms: 1. syntagmatic, paradigmatic and hierarchical relations
2. IC Analysis, labeled IC Analysis, phrase markers, and labeled bracketing 3. constituency and dependency 4. surface structures and deep structures 5. phrase structure rules 6. transformational rules 7. structural ambiguity IV. Answer the following questions: 1. What are the differences between surface structure and deep structure? 2. Illustrate the differences between PS rules and T-rules. 3. What's the order of generating sentences? Do we start with surface structures or with deep structures? How differently are they generated? 4. What's the difference between a compulsory constituent and an optional one? 5. What are the three syntactic relations? Illustrate them with examples.
Exercise 7 I. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences: 1. is the study of linguistic meaning: the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. 2. The meaning of a linguistic form is the person, object, abstract notion, event, or state which the word or sentence denotes. 3. The of a linguistic form has to do with its overtones of meaning, that is, what the linguistic form suggests. 4. There are three types of connotation which suggest the speaker's different attitudes: connotation, neutral connotation, and connotation. 5. Lexical semantics is concerned with meaning. 6. Following the theory of Componential Analysis, we define the meaning of a word as a set of or with the values: plus (+) or minus ( - ). 7. The relationship between the term on the higher level and terms on one level below is said to be. It is a kind of relationship between and. 8. The words that sound different but have the same or nearly the same meaning are called. The relationship between these words is called. 9. When a pair of words are opposite in meaning, they are. The relation between them is called. 10. The meaning of pairs of antonyms is characterized by relativity. 11. Different from complementary pairs, gradable pairs of antonyms have comparative and forms. 12. Semantic ambiguity can be divided into two types: ambiguity and ambiguity. 13. The semantic ambiguity which is caused by ambiguous words rather than by ambiguous structures is called ambiguity. 14. A word is if it has more than one meaning. 15. If sentences are syntactically well-formed but semantically ill-formed, they are known as semantically sentences. II. True or false questions: 1. Semantics is the study of lexical meaning. 2. Some words do not have negative connotations when they are used generally. Nevertheless, in some contexts, they may take on additional meaning. 3. The connotation of a word is language-specific. 4. The word "boy" is neutral in general without any negative sense. However, when a twenty-year-old white man calls a forty-year-old black man "boy", it obviously has a negative connotation reflecting the racist attitude of the speaker. 5. Some words or phrases always have negative associations. For example, the English word thirteen is always associated with bad luck. 6. An English word and a Chinese equivalent may have the same denotative
meaning but different connotations. 7. It is clear that the two opposite words man and woman as a whole contrast with each other, that is, each of the semantic features distinguishes man from woman. 8. Some semantic components are general, which can occur in a small number of words. 9. Some other semantic features are specific because they can appear in a large number of different words. 10. If A and B show a hyponymic relation in which A is a general term and B is a specific term, then B can be described as "a part of" Pt. 11. The meaning of a specific term is included in the meaning of its general term and the specific term is a part of the general term. 12. Sometimes a word can be used as a general term as well as a specific term. 13. Some words form a hierarchical structure of a hyponymic relation, which moves from general to specific. At the top of the hierarchical structure is the most general term and at the bottom are the most specific terms. The terms "general" and "specific" are relative terms. 14. There is variability across languages as to the exact nature of particular hyponymic relationships. 15. If two words A and B show part/whole relationship, and if A is a whole and B is a part, then B is "a part of" pt, but not B is "a kind of" A. 16. With the development of language, people can find a lot of perfect synonyms. 17. Some synonyms have the same denotative meaning but show differences in connotative meaning. 18. When we concentrate on the denotative meaning of words, we may find that words that appear to be synonymous at first glance are used to refer to slightly different sets of concepts or occur in different situations of use. 19. Some synonyms have the same meaning but different collations. 20. All the basic features of an antonymous pair of words contrast with each other. 21. Complementary pairs of words are mutually exclusive and complementary. 22. A complementary pair is characterized by relativity. 23. Relational opposites are also called non-gradable pairs of antonyms. 24. The meaning of gradable pairs of antonyms is characterized by relativity. 25. Different from complementary pairs, gradable pairs of antonyms have neither comparative nor superlative forms. 26. In a gradable pair of antonyms, the negative of one word is synonymous with the other. 27. In gradable pairs of antonyms, very often one is marked and the other unmarked. The unmarked member is more neutral than the marked one and is thus used in questions of degree. 28. The semantic ambiguity that is caused by ambiguous words rather than by ambiguous structures is called lexical ambiguity. 29. Sometimes two homonyms may be spelled the same, so this case is also called polysemy.
30. It's enough to get the meanings of individual words that make a sentence up in order to reach the meaning of the sentence. 31. The patient is the doer of an action and the agent is the target on which the action has influence. 32. The meaning of a sentence is much more than the sum of the meanings of the individual words in a sentence. 33. A recipient receives a physical object. 34. A temporal indicates the location of an action or state. 35. A locative is the time at which the action or state occurs. 36. Semantic roles and grammatical functions are quite different notions. 37. The notion of grammatical functions is independent of the notion of semantic roles. 38. Semantic roles do not appear to be constrained by grammatical functions. 39. If sentences are syntactically well-formed but semantically ill-formed, they are known as semantically logical sentences. III. Explain the following terms: 1. lexical semantics 2. sense 3. reference 4. concept 5. denotation 6. connotation 7. componential analysis 8. semantic field 9. hyponymy 10. synonymy 11. antonymy 12. lexical ambiguity 13. polysemy 14. homonymy 15. sentence semantics IV. Answer the following questions: 1. What's the criterion of John Lyons in classifying semantics into its sub-branches? And how does he classify semantics? 2. What are the essential factors for determining sentence meaning? 3. What is the difference between the theory of componential analysis and the theory of semantic theory in defining meaning of words? 4. What are the sense relations between sentences?
Exercise 8 I. Explain the following terms: 1. speech community 2. variety 3. accent and dialect 4. regional dialects 5. social dialects 6. idiolect 7. register 8. code-switching 9. code-mixing 10. bilingualism 11. diglossia 12. lingua francas 13. pidgins 14. creoles II. Questions for discussion: 1. What's the relationship between language and society? 2. What are the differences between sociolinguistics and sociology of language? 3. How does age influence language? 4. How does gender influence language'? 5. Explain the scales of formality and styles of speaking.
Exercise 9 I. Explain the following terms: 1. Innateness theory 2. The Prague School 3. The Copenhagen School 4. The American Structuralism 5. TG grammar 6. The London School II. Questions for discussion: 1. What do you know about signifier and signified, the sound image and the concept? 2. What is the contribution of the Prague school to linguistics? 3. What is the essence of FSP and CD? 4. What is American structuralism? 5. What are the characteristics of Transformational-Generative Grammar? 6. What do you know about Halliday's Systemic-Functional Grammar? 7. What do you know about the metafunctions of language?