Phone: the different versions of the abstract unit – phoneme
Phoneme: the mean-distinguishing sound in a language, placed in slash marksAllophone: a set of phones, all of which are versions of one phoneme
Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution and minimal pair.
Phonemic contrast----different or distinctive phonemes are in phonemic contrast, e.g. /b/ and /p/ in [ bt ] and [pt].
Complementary distribution----allophones of the same phoneme are in complementary distribution. They do not distinguish meaning. They occur in different phonetic contexts, e.g. dark [l] & clear [l], aspirated [p] & unaspirated [p].
Minimal pair Minimal pair----when two different forms are identical (the same) in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sound combinations are said to form a minimal pair, e.g. beat, bit, bet, bat, boot, but, bait, bite, boat.Some rules of phonology Sequential rules Assimilation rule Deletion rule
Assimilation rule----assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar, e.g. the prefix in is pronounced differently when in different phonetic contexts: indiscreet alveolar [n] inconceivable velar [] input bilabial []Assimilation in Mandarin 好啊 hao wa 海啊 hai ya 看啊 kan na 唱啊 chang 跳啊 tiao wa ……
If a word begins with a [l] or a [r], then the next sound must be a vowel.
If three consonants should cluster together at the beginning of a word, the combination should obey the following three rules, e.g. spring, strict, square, splendid, scream. a) the first phoneme must be /s/,
b) the second phoneme must be /p/ or /t/ or /k/, c) the third phoneme must be /l/ or /r/ or /w/.
* [ ] never occurs in initial position in English and standard Chinese,but it does occur in some dialects, e.g. in Cantonese: “牛肉，我， 俄语……”
Sequential rules ---- the rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language, e.g. in English, “k b i I” might possibly form blik, klib, bilk, kilb.
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Phone A phone---- a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. Phones do not necessarily distinguish meaning, some do, some don’t, e.g. [ bt ] & [ bt ], [spt] & [spt].Phoneme A phoneme---- is a phonological unit; it is a unit of distinctive value; an abstract unit, not a particular sound, but it is represented by a certain phone in certain phonetic context, e.g. the phoneme /p/ can be represented differently in [pt], [tp] and [spt].Allophone Allophones ---- the phones that can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments.
Deletion rule---- it tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented, e.g. design, paradigm, there is no [g] sound; but the [g] sound is pronounced in their corresponding forms signature, designation, paradigmatic.
Syllable (what is syllable?) Ancient Greek: a unit of speech sound consisting of a vowel or a vowel with one or more than one consonant. Dictionary: word or part of a word which contains a vowel sound or consonant acting as a vowel. The syllable consists of three parts: the ONSET, the PEAK, the CODA, e.g. [mn]. The peak is the essential part. It is usually formed by a vowel. But [l], [n] and [m] might also function as peaks as in “ apple, hidden, communism”.
Exercises: Think of the utterance in different intonations: “Those who bought quickly made a profit.”
c) It can make a certain part of a sentence especially prominent by placing nucleus on it, e.g. Jack came yesterday by train.d) Its attitudinal functions.
Tone Tones are pitch variations,which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. English is not a tone language, but Chinese is. ma 妈 (level)
ma 麻 (the second rise) ma 马 (the third rise) ma 骂 (the fourth fall)Intonation When pitch, stress and length variations are tied to the sentence rather than to the word, they are collectively known as intonation. English has three types of intonation that are most frequently used: falling tone (matter of fact statement) rising tone (doubts or question) the fall-rise tone (implied message) For instance, “That’s not the book he wants.”Grammatical functions of intonations
----Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, esp. in English.a) It may indicate different sentence types by pitch direction.
b) It may impose different structures on the sentence by dividing it into different intonation units, e.g. “John didn’t come because of Marry”
Within one intonation unit, it means: John came, but it had nothing to do with Marry. With two intonation units, it means: Marry was the reason why John didn’t come.
Sentence stress----the relative force given to the components of a sentence. Generally, nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals and demonstrative pronouns are stressed. Other categories like articles, person pronouns, auxiliary verbs prepositions and conjunctions are usually not stressed. Note: for pragmatic reason, this rule is not always right, e.g. we may stress any part in the following sentences. He is driving my car.
My mother bought me a new skirt yesterday.
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Suprasegmental features----the phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments ( larger than phoneme):Stress: word stress and sentence stressWord stress The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning, e.g. a shift in stress in English may change the part of speech of a word:
verb: import; increase; rebel; record … noun: import; increase; rebel; record … Similar alteration of stress also occurs between a compound noun and a phrase consisting of the same elements: compound: blackbird; greenhouse; hotdog… noun phrase: black bird; green house; hot dog… The meaning-distinctive role played by word stress is also manifested in the combinations of -ing forms and nouns:modifier: dining-room; readingroom; sleepingbag…doer: sleeping baby; swimming fish; flying plane…
Falling tone ---- matter-of-fact statement, downright assertion, commands. Rising tone ----politeness, encouragement, pleading.
Note: these can only be very general indications. The specific attitudinal meaning of an intonation pattern must be interpreted within a context.
Summary:
Features that are found over a segment or a sequence of two or more segments are called suprasegmental features.These features are distinctive features.Stress Stress is the perceived prominence of one or more syllabic elements over others in a word. Stress is a relative notion. Only words that are composed of two or more syllables have stress. If a word has three or more syllables, there is a primary stress and a secondary stress. In some languages word stress is fixed, i.e. on a certain syllable. In English, word stress is unpredictable.Intonation When we speak, we change the pitch of our voice to express ideas. Intonation is the variation of pitch to distinguish utterance meaning. The same sentence uttered with different intonation may express different attitude of the speaker. In English, there are three basic intonation patterns: fall, rise, fall-rise.Tone Tone is the variation of pitch to distinguish words. The same sequence of segments can be different words if uttered with different tones. Chinese is a typical tone language.
Discovering phonemes
Distinctive and non-distinctive features
Features that distinguish meaning are called distinctive features, and features do not, non-distinctive features.Distinctive features in one language may be non-distinctive in another.
本章重点：Phonology is a major branch of linguistics. It is the study of the sound systems of languages and of the general properties of sound systems.
The differences between phonetics and phonology
Phonetics is regarded as the linguistic study to identify and describe the characteristics of all the speech sounds that occur in all human languages, whereas phonology is the description of the sound systems and patterns of individual languages. Phonetics provides the means for phonological description. And in a sense, phonology is really the application of phonetics to the process of communication in a particular language or languages. Phonetics is the study of the production, perception, and physical properties of speech sounds; phonology attempts to account for how they are combined, organized, and convey meaning in particular languages.Speaker’s mind---------mouth---------- ear-------- listener’s mind
Contrastive distribution – phonemes If sounds appear in the same environment, they are said to be in contrastive distribution. Typical contrastive distribution of sounds is found in minimal pairs and minimal sets. A minimal pair consists of two words that differ by only one sound in the same position. Minimal sets are more than two words that are distinguished by one segment in the same position. The overwhelming majority of the consonants and vowels represented by the English phonetic alphabet are in contrastive distribution. Some sounds can hardly be found in contrastive distribution in English. However, these sounds are distinctive in terms of phonetic features. Therefore, they are separate phonemes. Complementary distribution – allophones Sounds that are not found in the same position are said to be in complementary distribution. If segments are in complementary distribution and share a number of features, they are allophones of the same phoneme. Free variation If segments appear in the same position but the mutual substitution does not result in change of meaning, they are said to be in free variation.
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Phonology phonetics
How do you find a phoneme?
You know something is a phoneme if it is a distinctive sound in the language
How do you find the sounds distinctive?
What is minimal pair?
Phone
Two phones never occur in the same environment -------complementary distributionTwo phones can occur in the same environment-------free variation
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Actual sound
/ phoneme/ ----------------------abstract
/t/ ---------------------phoneme
Phonetics-----the study of speech soundsPhonology-----the study of sounds systemsPhoneme vs. phone/ allophone
If you have two words which are exactly identical with respect to sounds except for one sound, and the different sounds are at the same position, and the two words have different meanings, then you have a minimal pair.
If you find a minimal pair, you know the sounds are distinctive
A phoneme is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. The different phones representing a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called its allophones (音位变体)
The definitions of phone, phoneme, allophone, minimal pair and free variation, theories on phoneme, phonemic contrast and complementary distribution, feature on phonetic similarity and distinction; assimilation rule, deletion rule, suprasegmetnal features (syllables, stress, tone, intonation, pitch, etc.)
Phonetics Phonology Sounds of language functioning of sounds as part of a language Parole, speech act language, language system Universal language-specific Concrete abstract Phone [ ] phoneme / /
Although both are related to the study of sounds, phonetics studies the production, transmission, and reception of sounds while phonology focuses on the linguistic patterns of speech sounds and how they are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.A phone is A phoneme is
One of many possible sounds in the languages of the world A distinctive unit in the sound system of a particular languageThe smallest identifiable unit found in a stream of speech A minimal unit that serves to distinguish between meanings of words
Pronounced in a defined way Pronounced in one or more ways, depending on the number of allophonesRepresented between brackets by convention Represented between slashed by conventionExample: , [l] Example: /b/, /l/
Although we generalize some rules for word stress, it should be born in mind that sometimes the exceptions may well make one give up the ideal of rules.
20. compare the two terms: morpheme and allomorph, distinctive features and semantic features
A phoneme is further analyzable because it consists of a set of simultaneous distinctive features. It is just because of its distinctive features that a phoneme is capable of distinguishing meaning. The features that a phoneme possesses, making it different from other phonemes, are its distinctive features. On the analogy of distinctive features in phonology, some linguists suggest that there are semantic features. The meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. 21. give the phonetic features of each of the following sounds: [l], [v], [e], [u:]
14. the phonology or pronunciation of a specific regional dialect is called_____15. ___________is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds
16. phones which never occur in the same phonetic environment are said to be in_____17. A bound grammatical morpheme is called_____
18. the word formation process, _______is exemplified by the word “brunch”
19. the IPA chart contains a set of _____ for the purpose of transcribing the minute difference between variations of the same sound
Accent, acoustic phonetics, complementary distribution, inflectional morpheme, blending, diacritics
10. for each of the following words transcribe phonetically and account for the allomorphs of the past tense morpheme: waited, waved, waded, wiped11. illustrate assimilation with two examples.12. describe the initial sounds of the following words: toe, chin, thank, goat, moon13. what are the terms used to describe the word-formation processes of the following words?Vaseline, carelessness, football, car-phone, AIDS
Answers: 10. /id/ (/d/ would merge with another alveolar plosive if not separated by a vowel) /d/ (voiced /v/ is followed by voiced /d/) /t/ ( voiceless /p/ is followed by voiceless /t/)
11. assimilation is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighbouring sounds
12. voiceless alveolar stop, voiceless palato-alveolar stop, voiceless dental fricative, voiced velar stop, voiced bilabial nasal.
13. invention, derivation, compounding, clipping and compounding, acronym
5. 6. 7. 8. 9. FFFFT
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the phrase French literature teacher constitutes a case of lexical ambiguitysyntax is made up of one morpheme.
artificial satellite is a case of loanblending. (P102 by Hu)
a single phoneme may represent a single morpheme, so they are identicalderivational affixes often change the lexical meaning
Exercises from our school:1. Complementary distribution2. what is articulatory phonetics, explain the primacy of speech over writing, 3. divide the following words into morphemes. For each morpheme, identify the type (lexical or grammatical, free or bound, prefix or suffix, inflectional or derivational), where applicable.1) restate2) strongest4. what is illustrated with the following pronunciations?1) cap [kap] can 2) tent, tenth
answer: 1) restate={re}+{state}
{re}=grammatical, bound, prefix,derivational{state}=lexical, free3) strongest={strong}+{SUP}{strong}=lexical, free
{SUP}=grammatical, bound, suffix, inflectional1) nasalization 2) dentalization
they are examples of regressive assimilation (逆同化) Page 60 by Hu
Supplementary Exercises Chapter 2：Phonology
I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:1. Voicing is a phonological feature that distinguishes meaning in both Chinese and English. 2. If two phonetically similar sounds occur in the same environments and they distinguish meaning, they are said to be in complementary distribution. 3. A phone is a phonetic unit that distinguishes meaning. 4. English is a tone language while Chinese is not. 5. In linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. 6. In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. 7. Articulatory phonetics tries to describe the physical properties of the stream of sounds which a speaker issues with the help of a machine called spectrograph.
[l] voiced alveolar lateral; [v] voiced labiodental fricative; [e] central front lax ungrounded vowel; [u:] high back tense rounded vowel
22. Is stress a phonological property? Why?
Stress is one of suprasegmental features which are the phonological properties of such units as the syllable, the word, and the sentence. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. Word stress plays the meaning-distinctive role.
23. Affricates consist of a stop followed immediately afterwards by a fricative at the same place of articulation24. the assimilation rule doesn’t account for the varying pronunciation of the alveolar nasal [n] in some sound combinations
25. prefixes not only modify the meaning of a stem but also change the part of speech of the original wordT F F
26. in what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not?
A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for another results in a change of meaning. If it does, the two sounds then represent different phonemes
27. what kind of evidence could be used to argue that action and package each contain two morphemes: {act}+ {ion} and {pack}+ {age}?
(hint: a morpheme can appear independently in other words.)Answers: {act} occurs in act, actor, active, react {ion} occurs in construction, projection,, inflection, rejection {pack} occurs in pack, packs, packed, packing, packer {age} occurs in wreckage, baggage, breakage
28. a(n)_____ is the base form of a word that cannot further be analyzed without total loss of identity
29. in the production of _____sounds, such as [p], the upper and the lower lips are brought together to create obstruction.
30. ______is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighbouring sound.
31. all syllables must have a ____ but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda. ( 核心，节首辅音，结尾音节) （page 69 by Hu）
Root, bilabial, assimilation, nucleus32. compare phonology and phonetics.
33. account for the difference in articulation in each of the following pairs of words: coast ghost, boast most
the words coast and ghost are distinguished by the fact that the initial segment is voiceless in the case of the former and voiced in the case of the latter. Boast and most are distinguished by the manner of articulation of the initial segment, /b/ being bilabial, /m/ being nasal.
34. what are the two major media of communication? Of the two, which one is primary and whyWhat are three branches of phonetics? How do they contribute to the study of speech sounds.Explain with examples how broad transcription and narrow transcription differWhat criteria are used to classify the English vowels?
Give the phonetic symbol for each of the following sound descriptionsGive the phonetic features of each of the following sounds
What is a minimal pair and what is a minimal set? Why is it important to identify the minimal set in a language?Explain with examples the sequential rule, the assimilation rule, and the deletion rule.
What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying meaning?
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III. There are four choices following each of the statements below. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:
35. Of all the speech organs, the _______ is/ are the most flexible.A. mouth B. lips C. tongue D. vocal cords
36.The sounds produced without the vocal cords vibrating are ____ sounds. A. voiceless B. voiced C. vowel D. consonantal
28. The rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular lan¬guage are called s ____ rules. 29. The transcription of speech sounds with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription while the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called n_________ transcription. 30. When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as i_________. 31. P___________ is a discipline which studies the system of sounds of a particular language and how sounds are combined into meaningful units to effect linguistic communication. 32. The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important cavities: the pharyngeal cavity, the o_______ cavity and the nasal cavity. 33. T_______ are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords and which can distinguish meaning just like phonemes. 34. Depending on the context in which stress is considered, there are two kinds of stress: word stress and s_________ stress.
21. A ____ refers to a strong puff of air stream in the production of speech sounds. 22. A___________ phonetics describes the way our speech organs work to produce the speech sounds and how they differ.
23. The four sounds /p/,/b/,/m/ and /w/ have one feature in common, i.e, they are all b_______ sounds.
24. Of all the speech organs, the t ____ is the most flexible, and is responsible for varieties of articulation than any other. 25. English consonants can be classified in terms of manner of articulation or in terms of p_______ of articulation. 26. When the obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, the speech sound produced with the obstruction audibly released and the air passing out again is called a s________. 27. S_________ features are the phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments. They include stress, tone, intonation, etc.
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II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:
15. Phones are the sounds that can distinguish meaning.
16. Phonology is concerned with how the sounds can be classified into different categories.
17. A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for another results in a change of meaning.
18. When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a phonemic contrast. 19. The rules governing the phonological patterning are language specific.
20. Distinctive features of sound segments can be found running over a sequence of two or more phonemic segments.
8. The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important areas: the throat, the mouth and the chest. 9. Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing.
10. English consonants can be classified in terms of place of articulation and the part of the tongue that is raised the highest.
11. According to the manner of articulation, some of the types into which the consonants can be classified are stops, fricatives, bilabial and alveolar.
12. Vowel sounds can be differentiated by a number of factors: the position of tongue in the mouth, the openness of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the length of the vowels.
13. According to the shape of the lips, vowels can be classified into close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels and open vowels.
14. Any sound produced by a human being is a phoneme.
37.__________ is a voiced alveolar stop.
A. /z/ C. /k/
B. /d/D./b/
A. phonetic components B. immediate constituents C. suprasegmental features D. semantic features
43. A(n) ___________ is a unit that is of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit, a collection of distinctive phonetic features. A. phone B. sound C. allophone D. phoneme 44. The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the ____ of that phoneme.
A. phones B. sounds C. phonemes D. allophones
Suggested answers to supplementary exercisesIV. Define the terms below:
45. phonology: Phonology studies the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.
46. phoneme: The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme; it is a unit of distinctive value. But it is an abstract unit. To be exact, a phoneme is not a sound; it is a collection of distinctive phonetic features.
47. allophone: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme.
IV. Define the terms below:45. phonology 46. phoneme 47.allophone 48. international phonetic alphabet 49. intonation 50. phonetics 51. auditory phonetics52. acoustic phonetics 53. phone 54. phonemic contrast 55. tone 56. minimal pair
V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give ex¬amples for illustration if necessary:57. Of the two media of language, why do you think speech is more basic than writing?58. What are the criteria that a linguist uses in classifying vowels?
59. What are the major differences between phonology and phonetics?
60. Illustrate with examples how suprasegmental features can affect meaning.61. In what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not?
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42. Distinctive features can be found running over a sequence of two or more phonemic segments. The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called ____________.
40. The sound /f/ is _________________. A. voiced palatal affricate B. voiced alveolar stop C. voiceless velar fricative D. voiceless labiodental fricative
41. A ____ vowel is one that is produced with the front part of the tongue maintaining the highest position. A. back B. centralC. front D. middle
39. Since /p/ and /b/ are phonetically similar, occur in the same environments and they can distinguish meaning, they are said to be ___________. A. in phonemic contrast B. in complementary distribution C. the allophones D. minimal pair
38. The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones ____________. A. identical B. same C. exactly alike D. similar
Chapter 3 Morphology
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V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give ex¬amples for illustration if necessary:57. Of the two media of language, why do you think speech is more basic than writing?1) In linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing.
2) In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed.
3) Speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later at school.
58. What are the criteria that a linguist uses in classifying vowels?1) Vowels may be distinguished as front, central and back in terms of the position of the tongue in the mouth.2) According to how wide our mouth is opened, we classify the vowels into four groups: close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, and open vowels.
3) According to the shape of the lips, vowels are divided into rounded vowels and unrounded vowels.4) The English vowels can also be classified into long vowels and short vowels according to the length of the sound.
59. What are the major differences between phonology and phonetics?
They differ in their approach and focus. Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified. Phonology, on the other hand, is interested in the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.
60. Illustrate with examples how suprasegmental features can affect meaning.1) The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning, such as `import and im`port. The similar alternation of stress also occurs between a compound noun and a phrase consisting of the same elements. A phonological feature of the English compounds, is that the stress of the word always falls on the first element and the second element receives secondary stress, for example: `blackbird is a particular kind of bird, which is not necessarily black, but a black `bird is a bird that is black.2) The more important words such as nouns, verbs adjectives , adverbs,etc are pronounced with greater force and made more prominent. But to give special emphasis to a certain notion, a word in sentence that is usually unstressed can be stressed to achieve different effect. Take the sentence “He is driving my car.” for example. To emphasize the fact that the car he is driving is not his, or yours, but mine, the speaker can stress the possessive pronoun my, which under normal circumstances is not stressed.
3) English has four basic types of intonation, known as the four tones: When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings. Generally speaking, the falling tone indicates that what is said is a straight-forward, matter-of-fact statement, the rising tone often makes a question of what is said, and the fall-rise tone often indicates that there is an implied message in what is said.61. In what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not?
A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for another results in a change of meaning. If it does, the two sounds then represent different phonemes.
48. international phonetic alphabet: It is a standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription.
49. intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation.
50. phonetics: Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world' s languages
51. auditory phonetics: It studies the speech sounds from the hearer's point of view. It studies how the sounds are perceived by the hear¬er.
52. acoustic phonetics: It studies the speech sounds by looking at the sound waves. It studies the physical means by which speech sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.
53. phone : Phones can be simply defined as the speech sounds we use when speaking a language. A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning.
54. phonemic contrast: Phonemic contrast refers to the relation between two phonemes. If two phonemes can occur in the same environment and distinguish meaning, they are in phonemic contrast.
55. tone: Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords.
56. minimal pair: When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair.
Morphology refers to the study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.形态学是对词
的内部结构以及构词规则的研究
Open class words----content words of a language to which we can regularly add new words, such as nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs开放类是语言中的实词，我们可以添加新词到这些词中，例如名词，形容词，动词，副词
Morpheme ['mɔ:fi:m] --the minimal unit of meaning. 词数是最小的一席单位.
Prefix ['pri:fiks] ---- morphemes that occur only before others, e.g.un-, dis, anti-, ir-, etc.前缀是只出现在其他词素之前Suffix ['sʌfɪks] ---- morphemes that occur only after others, e.g. -ful, -er, -ish, -ness, -able, -tive, tion, etc. 后缀只出现其他
词素之后单独使用的词素
Compounds Noun compounds
daybreak (N+V) playboy (V+N) haircut (N+V) callgirl (V+N) windmill (N+N) Verb compounds
brainwash (N+V) lipread (N+V) babysit(N+V) Adjective compounds
maneating (N+Ving) heartfelt (N+Ved) dutyfree (N+adj.) Preposition compounds into (P+P)
throughout (P+P)
Some points about compounds When the two words are in the same grammatical category, the compound will be in this category, e.g. postbox, landlady, icy-cold, blue-black… When the two words fall into different categories, the class of the second or final word will be the grammatical category of the compound, e.g. head-strong, pickpocket… Compounds have different stress patterns from the non-compounded word sequence, e.g. red coat, green house… The meaning of a compound is not always the sum of the meanings of its parts.
Formation of new words
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Morphological rules The rules that govern the formation of words, e.g. the “un- + ----” rule. unfair unthinkable unacceptable… Compounding is another way to form new words, e.g. landlady rainbow undertake…
lexical meaning, 粘着词素是很大程度是语法标记，表示时态，数，格等的概念，他们被附加到词或词素上，但不会改变自己的句法范畴，Derivational morphemes----affix (suffix, infix, prefix) + root
Inflectional morphemes Noun+ -’s, -s [possessive所有格; plural['pluərəl] 复数] Verb+ -s, -ing, -ed, -en [present singular单数形式; present participle['pɑ:tɪ,sɪpəl分词; past tense过去式, past participle] Adj+ -er, -est [comparative [kəm'pærətiv] 比较; superlative[sʊ'pɜ:lətɪv] 最高级的]
Inflectional[ɪn'flekʃən] morphemes---- the morphemes which are for the most part purely grammatical markers, signifying such concepts as tense, number, case and so on; they never change their syntactic category, never add any
Derivational[di'rivəʃən] morphemes---- the morphemes which change the category, or grammatical class of words, e.g. modern---modernize, length---lengthen, fool---foolish, etc. 派生词是改变词素的类别或语类
Bound morpheme----is one that may appear with at least one other morpheme. They can not stand by themselves, such as “-s” in “dogs”, “al” in “national”, “dis-” in “disclose”, 粘着语素是可能会一个语素出现至少一个，他们不能单独出现
Free morpheme----is one that may constitute a word (free form) by itself, such as bed, tree, sing, dance, etc. 自由词素是能
Closed class words----grammatical or functional words, such as conjunction[kən'dʒʌŋkʃən], preposition[,prepə'ziʃən] and pronouns.封闭性词类是语法性或功能性的词，例如连词，冠词，介词，代词
articles,
Supplementary Exercises Chapter 3：Morphology
I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:
1. Morphology studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.2.Words are the smallest meaningful units of language.
3. Just as a phoneme is the basic unit in the study of phonology, so is a morpheme the basic unit in the study of morphology.
4. The smallest meaningful units that can be used freely all by themselves are free morphemes.
1. Inflection: it is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect and case. 2. Derivation Derivation forms a word by adding an affix to a free morpheme. Since derivation can apply more than once, it is possible to create a derived word with a number of affixes. For example, if we add affixes to the word friend, we can form befriend, friendly, unfriendly, friendliness, unfriendliness, etc. This process of adding more than one affix to a free morpheme is termed complex derivation. Derivation is also constrained by phonological factors. Some English suffixes also change the word stress.3. Compounding Compounding is another common way to form words. It is the combination of free morphemes. The majority of English compounds are the combination of words from the three classes – nouns, verbs and adjectives – and fall into the three classes. In compounds, the rightmost morpheme determines the part of speech of the word. The meaning of compounds is not always the sum of meaning of the components.4. Conversion (invention) Conversion is the process putting an existing word of one class into another class. Conversion is usually found in words containing one morpheme.5. Clipping (abbreviations) front, back, front and back Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one or more syllables. Clipped words are initially used in spoken English on informal occasions. Some clipped words have become widely accepted, and are used even in formal styles. For example, the words bus (omnibus), vet (veterinarian), gym (gymnasium), fridge (refrigerator) and fax (facsimile) are rarely used in their complete form.6. Blending Blending is a process that creates new words by putting together non-morphemic parts of existing words. For example, smog (smoke + frog), brunch (a meal in the middle of morning, replacing both breakfast and lunch), motel (motor + hotel). There is also an interesting word in the textbook for junior middle school students – “plike” (a kind of machine that is like both a plane and a bike).7. Back-formation Back-formation is the process that creates a new word by dropping a real or supposed suffix. For example, the word televise is back-formed from television. Originally, the word television is formed by putting the prefix tele- (far) to the root vision (viewing). At the same time, there is a suffix –sion in English indicating nouns. Then people consider the –sion in the word television as that suffix and drop it to form the verb televise.8.Acronyms Acronyms are formed by putting together the initial letters of all words in a phrase or title. Acronyms can be read as a word and are usually longer than abbreviations, which are read letter by letter. This type of word formation is common in names of organizations and scientific terminology.9.Eponyms Eponyms are words that originate from proper names of individuals or places. For example, the word sandwich is a common noun originating from the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who put his food between two slices of bread so that he could eat while gambling.10. Coinage Coinage is a process of inventing words not based on existing morphemes. This way of word formation is especially common in cases where industry requires a word for a new product. For example, Kodak and Coca-cola.11. Borrowing: English in its development has managed to widen its vocabulary by Borrowing words from other languages . Greek, Latin, French, Arabic and other languages have all played an active role in this process, such as “atom, electricity” from Greek, “cancer, tumour” from Latin, “violin, pizza” from Italian.12. Onomatopoeia: it is a way of creating words by imitating the sounds of the outside world.
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26. The meaning carried by the inflectional morpheme is _______. A. lexical B. morphemic C. grammatical D. semantic
27. Bound morphemes are those that ___________. A. have to be used independently
B. can not be combined with other morphemes C. can either be free or bound
D. have to be combined with other morphemes.
25. _________ is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.
A. Syntax B.GrammarC. Morphology D. Morpheme
III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement: 21. The morpheme “vision” in the common word “television” is a(n) ______. A. bound morpheme B. bound form C. inflectional morpheme D. free morpheme
22. The compound word “bookstore” is the place where books are sold. This indicates that the meaning of a compound __________.
A. is the sum total of the meaning of its components
B. can always be worked out by looking at the meanings of morphemesC. is the same as the meaning of a free phrase.D. None of the above.
23. The part of speech of the compounds is generally determined by the part of speech of __________. A. the first element B. the second element
C. either the first or the second elementD. both the first and the second elements.
24. _______ are those that cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word. A. Free morphemes B. Bound morphemes C. Bound words D. Words
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5. Bound morphemes include two types: roots and affixes.
6. Inflectional morphemes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as number, tense, degree, and case.
7. The existing form to which a derivational affix can be added is called a stem, which can be a bound root, a free morpheme, or a derived form itself.
8. Prefixes usually modify the part of speech of the original word, not the meaning of it.
9. There are rules that govern which affix can be added to what type of stem to form a new word. Therefore, words formed according to the morphological rules are acceptable words.
10. Phonetically, the stress of a compound always falls on the first element, while the second element receives secondary stress.
II. Fill in each blank below with one word which begins with the letter given: 11. M ____ is the smallest meaningful unit of language.
12. The affix “-ish” in the word boyish conveys a g____ meaning.
13. B___________ morphemes are those that cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word.
14. Affixes are of two types: inflectional affixes and d__________ affixes.15. D________ affixes are added to an existing form to create words.
16. A s______ is added to the end of stems to modify the meaning of the original word and it may case change its part of speech.
17. C__________ is the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to create new words.
18. The rules that govern which affix can be added to what type of stem to form a new word are called m___________ rules.
19. In terms of morphemic analysis, d_______________ can be viewed as the addition of affixes to stems to form new words.
20. A s______ can be a bound root, a free morpheme, or a derived form itself to which a derivational affix can be added.
Suggested answers to supplementary exercises Chapter 3 MorphologyI. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False: l.T 2.F 3.T 4.T 5.T 6.T 7.T 8.F 9.F 10.T
II. II. Fill in each blank below with one word which begins with the letter given: 11. Morpheme 12. grammatical 13. Bound 14. derivative 15.Derivative 16. suffix 17. Compounding 18. morphological 19. derivation 20. stem
III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement: 2l.D 22.D 23.B 24.B 25.C 26. C 27. D 28. A 29. B 30. C IV. Define the following terms:
31. Morphology: Morphology is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.
32. inflectional morphology: The inflectional morphology studies the inflections
33. derivational morphology: Derivational morphology is the study of word- formation. 34. Morpheme: It is the smallest meaningful unit of language.
35. free morpheme: Free morphemes are the morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves or in combination with oth¬er morphemes.
36. bound morpheme: Bound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used indepen¬dently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word.
37. Root: A root is often seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself al¬though it bears clear, definite meaning; it must be combined with another root or an affix to form a word.
38. Affix: Affixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational. Inflectional affixes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories, while derivational affixes are added to an existing form to create a word.
39. Prefix: Prefixes occur at the begin¬ning of a word . Prefixes modify the meaning of the stem, but they usually do not change the part of speech of the original word.
40. Suffix: Suffixes are added to the end of the stems; they modify the meaning of the original word and in many cases change its part of speech.
41. Derivation: Derivation is a process of word formation by which derivative affixes are added to an existing form to create a word.
42. Compounding: Compounding can be viewed as the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to create new words.
V. Anwser the following questions:
43. What are the main features of the English compounds?
Orthographically a compound can be written as one word, two separate words with or without a hyphen in between. Syntactically, the part of speech of a compound is determined by the last element. Semantically, the meaning of a compound is idiomatic, not calcu¬lable from the meanings of all its components. Phonetically, the word stress of a compound usually falls on the first element.44. Discuss the types of morphemes with examples.
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IV. Define the following terms: 31. morphology 32. inflectional morphology 33. derivational morphology 34. morpheme 35. free morpheme 36. bound morpheme 37. root 38. affix 39. prefix 40. suffix 41. derivation 42. Compounding V. Answer the following questions:
43. What are the main features of the English compounds? 44. Discuss the types of morphemes with examples.
28. ____ modify the meaning of the stem, but usually do not change the part of speech of the original word. A. Prefixes B. Suffixes C. Roots D. Affixes
29. _________ are often thought to be the smallest meaningful units of language by the linguists. A. Words B. Morphemes C. Phonemes D. Sentences30. “-s” in the word “books” is _______. A. a derivative affix B. a stem C. an inflectional affix D. a root
Structural ambiguity Structural ambiguity is one or more string(s) of words has/have more than one meaning. For example, the sentence Tom said he would come yesterday can be interpreted in different ways. Word order Different arrangements of the same words have different meanings. For example, with the words Tom, love and Mary, we may say Tom loves Mary or Mary loves Tom. Grammatical relations Native speakers know what element relates to what other element directly or indirectly. For example, in The boats are not big enough and We don’t have enough boats, the word enough is related to different words in the two sentences. Recursion The same rule can be used repeatedly to create infinite sentences. For example, I know that you are happy. He knows that I know that you are happy. She knows that he knows that I know that you are happy. Sentence relatedness Sentences may be structurally variant but semantically related. Syntactic categories A syntactic category is a class of words or phrases that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality. For example, consider the following sentences: The child found the knife. A policeman found the knife. The man who just left here found the knife. He found the knife. All the italicized parts belong to the same syntactic category called noun phrase (NP). The noun phrases in these sentences function as subject. The knife, also a noun phrase, functions as object. Traditional grammar
Free morphemes: They are the independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves, for example, “book-” in the word “bookish”.
Bound morphemes: They are those that cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word such as “-ish” in “bookish”. Bound morphemes can be subdivided into roots and affixes. A root is seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself although it has a clear and definite meaning, such as “gene-” in the word “generate”. Affixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational. Inflectional morphemes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as “-s” in the word “books” to indicate plurality of nouns. Derivational affixes are added to an existing form to create a word such as “mis-” in the word “misinform”. Derivational affixes can also be divided into prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes occur at the beginning of a word such as “dis- ” in the word “dislike”, while suffixes occur at the end of a word such as “-less” in the word “friendlessChapter 4 SyntaxWhat is syntax? ----a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences. The term syntax is from the ancient Greek word syntaxis, which literally means “arrangement” or “setting out together”. Traditionally, it refers to the branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence. Syntax is a branch of linguistics that analyzes the structure of sentences. What is a sentence? Syntax is the analysis of sentence structure. A sentence is a sequence of words arranged in a certain order in accordance with grammatical rules. A sequence can be either well-formed or ill-formed. Native speakers of a language know intuitively what strings of words are grammatical and what are ungrammatical.Types of sentences
Simple sentence: consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence.
Coordinate (Compound) sentence: contains two clauses joined by a linking word called coordinating conjunctions, such as “and”, “but”, “or”…
Complex sentence: contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the otherEmbedded clauseßà matrix clause Knowledge of sentence structure
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Transformational-generative (TG) grammar
Background and the goal of TG grammar Chomsky (1957) – grammar is the knowledge of native speakers. Adequacy of observation Adequacy of description Adequacy of explanation Writing a TG grammar means working out two sets of rules – phrase structure rules and transformation rules – which are followed by speakers of the language. TG grammar must account for all and only grammatical sentences. Syntactic categories Noun Phrase (NP) Verb Phrase (VP) Sentence (S) Determiner (Det) Adjective (Adj) Pronoun (Pro) Verb (V) Auxiliary Verb (Aux) Prepositional Phrase (PP) Adverb (Adv) Phrase structure (PS) rules
Structural grammar arose out of an attempt to deviate from traditional grammar. It deals with the inter-relationships of different grammatical units. In the concern of structural grammar, words are not just independent grammatical units, but are inter-related to one another. Form class Form class is a wider concept than part of speech in traditional grammar. Linguistic units which can appear in the same slot are said to be in the same form class. For example, a(n), the, my, that, every, etc. can be placed before nouns in English sentences. These words fall into one form class. These linguistic units are observed to have the same distribution. Immediate constituent (IC) analysis Structural grammar is characterized by a top-down process of analysis. A sentence is seen as a constituent structure. All the components of the sentences are its constituents. A sentence can be cut into sections. Each section is its immediate constituent. Then each section can be further cut into constituents. This on-going cutting is termed immediate constituent analysis. Examples: Old men and women: old | men and women, old || men | and women The ||| little || girl | speaks || French. In this way, sentence structure is analyzed not only horizontally but also vertically. In other words, IC analysis can account for the linearity and the hierarchy of sentence structure. I will suggest | that this || in itself reflects ||| a particular ideology |||| about gender ||||| that deserves to be re-examined. Two advantages of IC analysis: It can analyze some ambiguities. It shows linearity and hierarchy of one sentence.
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Structural grammar
In traditional grammar, a sentence is considered a sequence of words which are classified into parts of speech. Sentences are analyzed in terms of grammatical functions of words: subjects, objects, verbs (predicates), predicatives, … Compulsory elements of a sentence: subject, verb, object, complement, adverbial… Nouns: number, case, gender… Verbs: tense, aspect, voice… Adjectives and adverbs: comparative and superlative degrees Agreement in number/person/gender Parsing: trying to make detailed analysis in structure
forms.
Systematic-functional grammar
The three meta-functions of languageIdeational functionInterpersonal functionTextual function
The transitivity system of languageElementsProcessParticipantsCircumstances
Categorization of realityDoing – material process
Processes involving physical actions: walking, running, throwing, kicking, wrapping, etc.Actor, goal and circumstanceBeing – relational process
Processes representing a relation being set up between two separate entities.Be (identifying), have (attributive)
Carrier/possessor and attribute/possessedSensing – mental process
Processes of sensing, including feeling, thinking, perceiving, imagining, wanting, liking, etc.Senser and phenomenon
Less central types of linguistic process
Background and the goal of systemic-functional grammarM. A. K. Halliday
Language is a system of meaning potential and a network of meaning as choices.Meaning determines form, not vice versa. Meaning is realized through forms.
The goal of systemic-functional grammar is to see how function and meaning are realized through
S → NP VP(Det) (Adj) N NP →{Pro VP → (Aux) V (NP) (PP) PP → P NP Tree diagrams (omit) Recursion and the infiniteness of language S contains NP and VP and that S may be a constituent of NP and VP. NP and VP can be mutually inclusive. If phrasal categories appear on both sides of the arrow in phrase structure rules, the rules are recursive. Recursive rules can be applied again and again, and the phrase structure can grow endlessly. Sub-categorization of the lexicon. The process of putting words of the same lexical category into smaller classes according to their syntactic characteristics is called sub-categorization. Transformational rules (T-rules) Particle movement T-rule John turned the machine off. John turned off the machine. Replacement T-rule John beat Tom. He beat Tom. The house needs repairing (to be repaired). Insertion T-rule A fish is swimming in the pond. There is a fish swimming in the pond. Deletion T-rule They came in and (they) sat down. Copying T-rule He is coming, isn’t he? He has finished his homework, hasn’t he? Reflexivization T-rule I wash me (myself). TG grammar accounts for the mental process of our speaking.
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Phrase categories and their structures Phrase categories----the syntactic units that are built around a certain word category are called phrase
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The criteria on which categories are determined Meaning Inflection Distribution Note: The most reliable criterion of determining a word’s category is its distribution.
Word-level categories Major lexical categories: N, V, Adj, Prep. Minor Lexical categories: Det, Deg, Qual, Auxi, Conj.
Categories Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb. The most central categories to the syntactic study are the word-level categories (traditionally, parts of speech)
Criteria on good grammar Observational adequacy Descriptive adequacy Explanatory adequacy The ultimate goal for any theory is to explain. TG differs from traditional grammar in that it not only aims at language description, but also its explanation.
Chomsky is much more interested in the similarities (language universals) between languages rather than their differences. Linguists should attempt to find a grammatical framework which will be suitable for all languages; Linguists should concentrate on the elements and constructions that are available to all languages rather than on elements that actually occur in all languages. There are likely to be universal constraints on the ways linguistic elements are combined Chomsky proposed that the grammars of all human languages share a common framework (Universal Grammar).
Transformational Generative Grammar (TG) Norm. Chomsky, the most influential linguist in 20th century, some important works: (1957) Syntactic Structure; (1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax; (1981) Lectures on Government and Binding; (1986) Barriers (1993) A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory; (1995) The Minimalist Program; (1998) The Minimalist Inquiry……
Verbal processes – saying something Sayer and receiver Behavioural processes – active conscious processes Behaver and range Existential processes – existence of an entity Existent Mood and modality Mood expresses the speaker’s attitude and serves for interpersonal function. It is a syntactic constituent made up of the subject and the finite. Modality is the degree of certainty or frequency expressed by the grammatical forms of finite. It can be categorized by modalization and modulation. Theme and rheme Theme is the given information, while rheme is the new information. Examples: John | is my friend. He | should have replied to my letter.
categories, such as NP(N), VP(V), AP(A), PP(P). The structure: specifier + head + complement Head---- the word around which a phrase is formed Specifier---- the words on the left side of the heads Complement---- the words on the right side of the heads
Modifiers ---- Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of heads.Sentences (the S rule) S NP VP ( Page 52 figure 4—3)
S NP infl VP (page 52 figure 4—4) Many linguists believe that sentences, like other phrases, also have their own heads. Infl is an abstract category inflection (dubbed ‘Infl’) as their heads, which indicates the sentence’s tense and agreement. Infl realized by a tense label (page 53 figure 4—5)Infl realized by an auxiliary (page 53 figure 4—6)
Complements ---- Complements themselves can be a phrase, they provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head, e.g. a story about a sentimental girl; There can be no complement, one complement, or more than one complement in a phrase, e.g. appear, break, put…; a sentence-like construction may also function as a complement such as in “I believed that she was innocent. I doubt if she will come. They are keen for you to show up.” That/if /for are complementizers, the clauses introduced by complementizers are complement clause.
Specifiers ---- Semantically, specifiers make more precise the meaning of the head; syntactically, they typically mark a phrase boundary. Specifiers can be determiners as in NP, qulifiers as in VP and degree words as in AP.
Phrase elements Specifier Head Complement
Coordination rule Coordination structures-----the structures that are formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and, or, etc.----Coordination has four important properties: no limit on the number of coordinated categories before the conjunction; a category at any level can be coordinated; the categories must be of the same type; the category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.
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X’ Theory (page 47 figure 4—2) XP (Specifier)X’ X’ X(complement)
The XP rule (page 47 figure 4--1)
Note: The phrase structure rules can be summed up as XP rule shown in the diagram, in which X stands for N, V, A or P.
Phrase structure rules The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule, such as: NP (Det) + N +(PP)……e.g. those people, the fish on the plate, pretty girls. VP (Qual) + V + (NP)……e.g. always play games, finish assignments. AP (Deg) + A + (PP)……very handsome, very pessimistic, familiar with, very close to PP (Deg) + P + (NP)……on the shelf, in the boat, quite near the station.
Auxiliary movement (inversion) (page 56 figure 4—9)
Do insertion (page 57 figure 4—10,11,12)
Do insertion---- Insert interrogative do into an empty Infl position.
These sentences may originate as: You can speak what languages. You can talk about what.
What language can you
Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the beginning of the sentence. (page 60 figure 4—15,16)
speak
?
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Wh-movement Consider the derivation of the following sentences: What languages can you speak? What can you talk about?
D-structure and S-structure
Two levels of syntactic representation of a sentence structure:One that exists before movement takes place
The other that occurs after movement takes placeFormal linguistic exploration:
D-structure: phrase structure rules + lexiconSentence at the level of D-structure
The application of syntactic movement rules transforms a sentence from D-structure level to S-structure level
Transformational-generative line of analysis
The organization of the syntactic component (page 58 figure 4—14)
Surface structure----corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations; it is that of the sentence as it is pronounced or written.
Deep structure----formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head’s sub-categorization properties; it contains all the units and relationships that are necessary for interpreting the meaning of the sentence.
Structurally similar sentences might be very different in their meanings, for they have quite different deep structures. Consider one more sentence: Flying planes can be dangerous. It can mean either that if you fly planes you are engaged in a dangerous activity or Planes that are flying are dangerous.
Deep structure & surface structure Consider the following pair of sentences: John is easy to please. John is eager to please.
Auxiliary movement (inversion) Inversion Move Infl to the left of the subject NP. Inversion (revised) Move Infl to C. (page 54 figure 4—7)
Transformations Auxiliary movement (inversion) Do insertion Deep structure & surface structure Wh-movement Move α and constraints on transformations
What can you
talk about ?
Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the specifier position under CP. (Revised)(page 61 figure 4—17)
Chapter 4：Syntax
I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:
1. Syntax is a subfied of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language, including the combination of morphemes into words.
2.Grammatical sentences are formed following a set of syntactic rules.
3. Sentences are composed of sequence of words arranged in a simple linear order, with one adding onto another following a simple arithmetic logic.
4.Universally found in the grammars of all human languages, syntactic rules that comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speak¬er are known as linguistic competence.
5. The syntactic rules of any language are finite in number, but there is no limit to the number of sentences native speakers of that language are able to produce and comprehend.
6. In a complex sentence, the two clauses hold unequal status, one subordinating the other.
7. Constituents that can be substituted for one another without loss of grammaticality belong to the same syntactic category.
8. Minor lexical categories are open because these categories are not fixed and new members are allowed for.
9. In English syntactic analysis, four phrasal categories are commonly recognized and discussed, namely, noun phrase, verb phrase, infinitive phrase, and auxiliary phrase.
10. In English the subject usually precedes the verb and the direct object usually follows the verb.
11.What is actually internalized in the mind of a native speaker is a complete list of words and phrases rather than grammatical knowledge.
12. A noun phrase must contain a noun, but other elements are optional.
13. It is believed that phrase structure rules, with the insertion of the lexicon, generate sentences at the level of D-structure.
14. WH-movement is obligatory in English which changes a sentence from affirmative to interrogative.II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:
15. A s________ sentence consists of a single clause which contains a sub¬ject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence.
16. A s______ is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement, question or command.
17. A s______ may be a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence that usually precedes the predicate.
18. The part of a sentence which comprises a finite verb or a verb phrase and which says something about the subject is grammatically called p_________.
19. A c_________ sentence contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other.
20. In the complex sentence, the incorporated or subordinate clause is normally called an e_______ clause.21. Major lexical categories are o___ categories in the sense that new words are constantly added.22. XP can be written as (specifier) X (complement), X is called the_____.23. In a tree diagram, _____is the root of tree.
24. The information about a word’s complement is included in the head and termed________.
III. There are four given choices for each statement below. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement: 25. A sentence is considered ____ when it does not conform to the grammati¬cal knowledge in the mind of native speakers. A. right B. wrong C. grammatical D. ungrammatical
26. A __________ in the embedded clause refers to the introductory word that introduces the embedded clause. A. coordinator B. particle C. preposition D. subordinator 27. Phrase structure rules have ____ properties. A. recursive B. grammatical C. social D. functional
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Move α and constraints on transformations Inversion can move an auxiliary from the Infl to the nearest C position, but not to a more distant C position. No element may be removed from a coordinate structure.
VII. Construct a sentence that has the following sentences.SDet, A, N, V, P, Det, N
VIII. For each of the following sentences, supply three distinct surface structure sentences which may be regarded as derived from them:a. I told him to stop the car.b. He took his coat off.IX. Draw tree diagrams for each of the following entences. 1. Mary advised John to see the dentist.2. Mary promised John to see the dentist.3. A clever magician fooled the audience.4. The tower on the hill collapsed in the wind.5. They knew that the senator would win the election.6. The mouse ran up the rock.7. The mouse ate up the cheese.8. John gave Mary the book.9. John gave the book to Mary.10. John went to the supermarket.11. The man who came to see me last night is my brother.
VI. Given examples for word classes by using the words in the following sentence.Her dog always sleeps under the old tree.
28. Phrase structure rules allow us to better understand _____________. A. how words and phrases form sentences.
B. what constitutes the grammaticality of strings of words C. how people produce and recognize possible sentences D. All of the above.
29. Syntactic movement is dictated by rules traditionally called ________. A. transformational rulesB. generative rules
C. phrase structure rules D. x-bar theory
30. The theory of case condition accounts for the fact that __________. A. noun phrases appear only in subject and object positions. B. noun phrases can be used to modify another noun phrase C. noun phrase can be used in adverbial positions
D. noun phrase can be moved to any place if necessary. 31. The sentence structure is ________. A. only linear B. Only hierarchical C. complex D. both linear and hierarchical 32. The syntactic rules of any language are ____ in number. A. large B. small C. finite D. infinite
33. The ________ rules are the rules that group words and phrases to form grammatical sen¬tences. A. lexical B. morphological C. linguistic D. combinational
34._______ rules may change the syntactic representation of a sentence. A. Generative B. Transformational C. X-bar D. Phrase structure IV. Define the following terms:
35. syntax 36. Sentence 37. coordinate sentence 38. syntactic categories 39. grammatical relations 40. linguistic competence 41. transformational rules 42. D-structure
V. Answer the following questions:
43. What are the basic components of a sentence?
44. What are the major types of sentences? Illustrate them with examples. 45. Are the elements in a sentence linearly structured? Why?
46. What are the advantages of using tree diagrams in the analysis of sentence structures? 47. What is NP movement. Illustrate it with examples.
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Suggested answers to supplementary exercises IV. Define the following terms:
35. syntax: Syntax is a subfield of linguistics. It studies the sentence structure of language. It consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammatical sentences.
36. Sentence: A sentence is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement, question or command. Normally, a sentence consists of at least a subject and a predicate which contains a finite verb or a verb phrase.
37. coordinate sentence: A coordinate sentence contains two clauses joined by a linking word called coordinating conjunction, such as \"and\
38. syntactic categories: Apart from sentences and clauses, a syntactic category usually refers to a word (called a lexical category) or a phrase ( called a phrasal category) that performs a particular grammatical function. 39. grammatical relations: The structural and logical functional relations of constituents are called grammatical relations. The grammatical relations of a sentence concern the way each noun phrase in the sentence relates to the verb. In many cases, grammatical relations in fact refer to who does what to whom .
40. linguistic competence: Universally found in the grammars of all human languages, syntactic rules comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speaker known as linguistic competence.
41. Transformational rules: Transformational rules are the rules that transform one sentence type into another type.
42. D-structure: D- structure is the level of syntactic representation that exists before movement takes place. Phrase structure rules, with the insertion of the lexicon, generate sentences at the level of D-structure.V. Answer the following questions:
43. What are the basic components of a sentence?
Normally, a sentence consists of at least a subject and its predicate which contains a finite verb or a verb phrase.
44. What are the major types of sentences? Illustrate them with examples.
Traditionally, there are three major types of sentences. They are simple sentence, coordinate( compound) sentence, and complex sentence. A simple sentence consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence, for example: John reads extensively.
A coordinate sentence contains two clauses joined by a linking word that is called coordinating conjunction, such as \"and\
John is reading a linguistic book, and Mary is preparing for her history exam.
A complex sentence contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other. The two clauses in a complex sentence do not have equal status, one is subordinate to the other. For exam¬ple: Before John gave her a lecture, Mary showed no interest in lin¬guistics.45. Are the elements in a sentence linearly structured? Why?
No. Language is both linearly and hierarchically structured. When a sentence is uttered or written down, the words of the sentence are produced one after another in a sequence. A closer examination of a sentence shows that a sentence is not composed of sequence of words arranged in a simple linear order with one adding onto another following a simple arithmetic logic. In fact, sen¬tences are also hierarchically structured. They are orga¬nized by grouping together words of the same syntactic category, such as noun phrase (NP) or verb phrase (VP), as can be seen from the following tree diagram: S
NP
N
Det
Vt
VP
NP
N
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Det
12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. The candle on the desk blows in the wind.
She passed him the hammer and saw through the window. (2 tree diagrams)The boy saw the girl in the car. (2 tree diagrams)Flying planes can be dangerous. (2 tree diagrams)
Old men and women were more careful. (2 tree diagrams)The man in the room helps me every day.John is easy to please.John is eager to please.
Limitations:
1) Applicable to nouns only.
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Naming theory (Plato): Words are names or labels for things.
The linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for; words are just names or labels for things
What is meaning?---- Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning.
Some views concerning the study of meaning Naming theory (Plato) The conceptualist view Contextualism (Bloomfield) Behaviorism
Meaning is central to the study of communication. Classification of lexical meanings. Here are G. Leech’s seven types of meaning. ( British linguist) 1. Conceptual meaning (also called denotative or cognitive meaning) is the essential and inextricable part of what language is, and is widely regarded as the central factor in verbal communication. It means that the meaning of words may be discussed in terms of what they denote or refer to. 2. Connotative meaning – the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, embraces the properties of the referent, peripheral 3. Social meaning (stylistic meaning) – what is conveyed about the social circumstances of the use of a linguistic expression 4. Affective meaning (affected meaning)– what is communicated of the feeling or attitude of the speaker/writer towards what is referred to 5. Reflected meaning – what is communicated through association with another sense of the same expression Taboos 6. Collocative meaning – the associated meaning a word acquires in line with the meaning of words which tend to co-occur with it (2, 3, 4, 5, 6 can be together called associative meaning– meaning that hinges on referential meaning, less stable, more culture-specific )
7. Thematic meaning—what is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis.
The boy likes the music.
46. What are the advantages of using tree diagrams in the analysis of sentence structures?
The tree diagram can not only reveal a linear order, but also a hierarchical structure that groups words into structural constituents. It can, in addition, show the syntactic category of each structural constituent, thus it is believed to most truthfully illustrate the constituent relationship among linguistic elements. 47. What is NP movement. Illustrate it with examples.
NP movement in¬volves the movement of a noun phrase. NP-movement occurs when, for example, a sentence changes from the active voice to the passive voice: (A) The man beat the child.
(B). The child was beaten by the man.
B is the result of the movement of the noun phrases \"the man\" and \"the child\" from their original positions in (A) to new positions. That is, \"the man\" is postposed to the right and \"the child\" is preposed to the left.
Not all instances of NP-movement, however, are related to changing a sentence from the active voice to the passive voice. For example:
(C) It seems they are quite fit for the job. (D) They seem quite fit for the job.
These sentences are identical in meaning, but different in their superfi¬cial syntactic representations. It is believed that they have the same underly¬ing structure, but (27b) is the result of an NP movement.Chapter 5 Semantics Semantics----the study of language meaning. Semantics is defined as the study of meaning. However, it is not the only linguistic discipline that studies meaning. Semantics answers the question “what does this sentence mean”. In other words, it is the analysis of conventional meanings in words and sentences out of context.
2) There are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real world, e.g. ghost, dragon, unicorn, phenix…
3) There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects but abstract notions, e.g. joy, impulse, hatred…
Jill
S_________r--------s_________R
Lexical meaning Sense and reference are both concerned with the study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning. Sense---- is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in. Reference----what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience. Linguistic expressions stand in a relation to the world. There are two aspects of meaning. Reference is the relation by which a word picks out or identifies an entity in the world. But the referential theory fails to account for certain kinds of linguistic expression. Some words are meaningful, but they identify no entities in the real world, such as the words dragon, phoenix, unicorn, and mermaid. It is not possible for some words to find referent in the world, such as the words but, and, of, however, the, etc.
(the small letters r, sàspeech)(the capitalized letter R, Sàpractical events)
Behaviorism
Bloomfield based on contextualist view
Behaviorists define meaning of a language form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer Behaviorists attempted to define meaning as “the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”. The story of Jack and Jill:
Jack
The contextualism John Firth
The situational context: in a particular spatiotemporal situation
Linguistic context (co-text): the probability of a word’s co-occurrence or collocation with another word Meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context—elements closely linked with language behavior. Two types of contexts are recognized: Situational context: spatiotemporal situation Linguistic context: the probability of a word’s co-occurrence or collocation. For example, “black” in black hair & black coffee, or black sheep differs in meaning; “The president of the United States” can mean either the president or presidency in different situation.
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Words/phrases/sentences
Symbol/Form (words), signifier Referent à(signified, real object, reality) The symbol or form refers to the linguistic elements (words and phrases); The referent refers to the object in the world of experience; Thought or reference refers to concept. The symbol or a word signifies things by virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word in the minds of the speaker; and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word.
Ogden and Richards: semantic triangle
Thought/reference à concept or notion, mental image
The conceptualist view The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i.e. between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.
Speakers of English understand the meaning of a round triangle although there is no such graph. Sense is the relation by which words stand in human mind. It is mental representation, the association with something in the speaker’s or hearer’s mind. The study of meaning from the perspective of sense is called the representational approach.
Note: Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations; on the other hand, there are also occasions, when linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sense, e.g. the morning star and the evening star, rising sun in the morning and the sunset at dusk. Major sense relations Synonymy, Antonymy, Polysemy, Homonymy, Hyponymy
Gradable antonyms ----there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, …Complementary antonyms
Complementary antonyms ----the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female, … Antonymy is frequently utilized as a rhetorical resource in language use. Oxymoron and antithesis based on antonymy. Gradable antonyms may give rise to fuzziness.
Polysemy Polysemy----the same one word may have more than one meaning, e.g. “table” may mean: A piece of furniture All the people seated at a table The food that is put on a table A thin flat piece of stone, metal wood, etc. Orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc.
Homonymy Homonymy---- the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, e.g. different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. Homophone ---- when two words are identical in sound, e.g. rain-reign, night/knight, … Homogragh ---- when two words are identical in spelling, e.g. tear(n.)-tear(v.), lead(n.)-lead(v.), …
Gradable antonyms----there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, … Complementary antonyms----the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female, … Relational/ Reversal opposites----exhibits the reversal of the relationship between the two items, e.g. husband-wife, father-son, doctor-patient, buy-sell, let-rent, employer-employee, give-receive, above-below, … Gradable antonyms
Antonymy Antonyms are words which are opposite in meaning.
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Synonymy Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.
1) Dialectal synonyms---- synonyms used in different regional dialects, e.g. autumn - fall, biscuit - cracker, petrol – gasoline，lift/elevator, flat/apartment…
2) Stylistic synonyms----synonyms differing in style, e.g. kid, child, offspring; start, begin, commence; gentleman/guy…
3) Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning, e.g.collaborator- accomplice, attract/seduce4) Collocational synonyms, e.g. accuse…of, charge…with, rebuke…for; …5) Semantically different synonyms, e.g. amaze, astound,… Synonyms are frequently used in speaking and writing as a cohesive device. In order to avoid repetition the writer/speaker needs to use a synonym to replace a word in the previous co-text when he/she wants to continue to address that idea. The synonyms together function to create cohesion of the text.
Complete/full homonym---- when two words are identical in both sound and spelling, e.g. ball, bank, watch, scale, fast, … Note: Rhetorically, homonyms are often used as puns.
A polysemic word is the result of the evolution of the primary meaning of the word (the etymology of the word); while complete homonyms are often brought into being by coincidence.
Hyponymy Hyponymy----the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. Superordinate: the word which is more general in meaning. Hyponyms: the word which is more specific in meaning. Co-hyponyms: hyponyms of the same superordinate.Hyponymy Superordinate: flower Hyponyms: rose, tulip, lily, chrysanthemum, peony, narcissus, …
Superordinate: furniture
Hyponyms: bed, table, desk, dresser, wardrobe, sofa, …
This kind of vertical semantic relation links words in a hierarchical work.
X: This is my first visit to Beijing.Y: I have been to Beijing twice.
Entailment is a relation of inclusion. If X entails Y, then the meaning of X is included in Y. If X is true, Y is necessarily true; if X is false, Y may be true or false.X presupposes Y X: His bike needs repairing. Y: He has a bike.
Paul has given up smoking.
Paul once smoked.
If X is true, Y must be true; If X is false, Y is still true.
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X: Marry has been to Beijing.Y: Marry has been to China.
If X is true, Y is false; if X is false, Y is true.X entails Y X: John married a blond heiress. Y: John married a blond.
If X is true, Y is true; if X is false, Y is false.X is inconsistent with Y X: He is single. Y: He has a wife.
X: The boy killed the cat. Y: The cat was killed by the boy.
Sense relations between sentences (1) X is synonymous with Y (2) X is inconsistent with Y (3) X entails Y (4) X presupposes Y (5) X is a contradiction (6) X is semantically anomalousX is synonymous with Y X: He was a bachelor all his life. Y: He never got married all his life.
X is a contradiction *My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor. *The orphan’s parents are pretty well-off.X is semantically anomalous *The man is pregnant. *The table has bad intentions. *Sincerity shakes hands with the black apple.
Supplementary Exercises to Chapter 5 Semantics
I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:
1. Dialectal synonyms can often be found in different regional dialects such as British English and American English but cannot be found within the variety itself, for example, within British English or American English. 2. Sense is concerned with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience, while the reference deals with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.
3. Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations.
4. In semantics, meaning of language is considered as the intrinsic and inherent relation to the physical world of experience.
Predication analysis Tom smokes. TOM (SMOKE) The tree grows well. TREE (GROW) The kids like apples. KIDS (LIKE) APPLE I sent him a letter. I (SEND) HIM LETTER
Predication analysis 1) The meaning of a sentence is not to be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its component words, e.g “The dog bites the man” is semantically different from “The man bites the dog” though their components are exactly the same. 2) There are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical meaning and semantic meaning, e.g. *Green clouds are sleeping furiously. *Sincerity shook hands with the black apple. Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called selectional restrictions. Predication analysis---- a way to analyze sentence meaning (British G. Leech). Predication----the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. A predication consists of argument(s) and predicate. An argument is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal elements in a sentence. A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence. According to the number of arguments contained in a predication, we may classify the predications into the following types: One-place predication: smoke, grow, rise, run, … Two-place predication: like, love, save, bite, beat,… Three-place predication: give, sent, promise, call, … No-place predication: It is hot.
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Analysis of meaning : Componential analysis Predication analysis
Componential analysis Componential analysis---- a way to analyze lexical meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. For example, Man: [+HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE] Boy: [+HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE] Woman: [+HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE] Girl: [+HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE] Father: +HUMAN +MALE +ADULT →PARENT Daughter: +HUMAN –MALE 0ADULT ←PARENT
5. Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts.
6. Behaviourists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.
7. The meaning of a sentence is the sum total of the meanings of all its components.
8. Most languages have sets of lexical items similar in meaning but ranked differently according to their degree of formality.
9. “it is hot.” is a no-place predication because it contains no argument.
10. In grammatical analysis, the sentence is taken to be the basic unit, but in semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.
II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given: 11. S________ can be defined as the study of meaning.
12. The conceptualist view holds that there is no d______ link between a linguistic form and what it refers to.
13. R______ means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience. 14. Words that are close in meaning are called s________.
15. When two words are identical in sound, but different in spelling and meaning, they are called h__________. 16.R_________ opposites are pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the two items.
17. C ____ analysis is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be divided into meaning components.
18. Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called s________ restrictions, which are constraints on what lexical items can go with what others.
19. An a________ is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal element(s) in a sentence.
20. According to the n ____ theory of meaning, the words in a lan¬guage are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for.
III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement: 21. The naming theory is advanced by ________. A. Plato B. Bloomfield C. Geoffrey Leech D. Firth
22. “We shall know a word by the company it keeps.” This statement represents _______. A. the conceptualist view B. contexutalism C. the naming theory D.behaviourism 23. Which of the following is not true?
A. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. B. Sense is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form. C. Sense is abstract and de-contextualized.
D. Sense is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are not interested in. 24. “Can I borrow your bike?” _______ “ You have a bike.” A. is synonymous with B. is inconsistent with C. entails D. presupposes
25. ___________ is a way in which the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features.
A. Predication analysis B. Componential analysis C. Phonemic analysis D. Grammatical analysis 26. “alive” and “dead” are ______________. A. gradable antonyms B. relational opposites C. complementary antonyms D. None of the above
27. _________ deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.
A. Reference B. Concept C. Semantics D. Sense
28. ___________ refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form. A. Polysemy B. Synonymy C. Homonymy D. Hyponymy
29. Words that are close in meaning are called ______________. A. homonyms B. polysemy C. hyponyms D. synonyms
30. The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by _______. A. grammatical rules
31
35. Polysemy olysemy refers to the fact that the same one word may have more than one meaning.
36. Homonymy :Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different mean¬ings have the same form, i.e. , different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.
37. homophones :When two words are identical in sound, they are called homophones 38. homographs :When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.
39. complete homonyms.:When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are called complete homonyms.
40.Hyponymy :Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word.
41. Antonymy :Antonymy refers to the relation of oppositeness of meaning.
42. Componential analysis : Componential analysis is a way to analyze word meaning. It was pro¬posed by structural semanticists. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a -word can be divided into meaning components, which are called semantic features.
43.The grammatical meaning : The grammatical meaning of a sentence refers to its grammaticality, i.e. , its grammatical well-formedness . The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by the grammatical rules of the language.
44. predica¬tion :The predica¬tion is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.
45. ar¬gument : An ar¬gument is a logical participant in a predication. It is generally identical with the nominal element (s) in a sentence.
46. predicate : A predicate is something that is said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.
47. two-place predication : A two-place predication is one which con¬tains two arguments. Answer the following questions:
48. Why do we say that a meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components? The meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components because it cannot be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its constituent words. For example; (A) The dog bit the man. (B) The man bit the dog.
If the meaning of a sentence were the sum total of the meanings of all its components, then the above two sentences would have the same meaning. In fact they are different in meanings.
B. selectional restrictions C. semantic rules D. semantic features
IV. Define the following terms: 31. semantics 32. sense 33 . reference 34. synonymy 35. polysemy 36. homonymy 37. homophones 38. Homographs 39. complete homonyms 40. hyponymy 41.antonymy 42 componential analysis 43.grammatical meaning 44. predication 45. Argument 46. predicate 47. Two-place predication
V. Answer the following questions:
48. Why do we say that a meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components? 49. What is componential analysis? Illustrate it with examples.
50. How do you distinguish between entailment and presupposition in terms of truth values?
51. How do you account for such sense relations between sentences as synonymous relation, inconsistent relation in terms of truth values?
52. According to the way synonyms differ, how many groups can we classify synonyms into? Illustrate them with examples.
53. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning? How they differ? Suggested answers to supplementary exercises: IV. Define the following terms:
31. Semantics: Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning in language.
32. Sense: Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de -contextualised.
33. Reference: Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience 34. Synonymy :Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning.
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As we know, there are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical mean¬ing and semantic meaning. The grammatical meanings of “the dog” and “the man” in (A) are different from the grammatical meanings of “the dog” and “the man” in (B). The meaning of a sentence is the product of both lexical and grammatical meaning. It is the product of the meaning of the constituent words and of the grammatical constructions that relate one word syntagmatically to another.
49. What is componential analysis? Illustrate it with examples.
Componential analysis, pro¬posed by structural semanticists, is a way to analyze word meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be divided into meaning components, which are called semantic features. Plus and minus signs are used to indicate whether a certain semantic feature is present or absent in the meaning of a word, and these feature symbols are usually written in capitalized letters. For example, the word “man” is ana¬lyzed as consisting of the semantic features of [+ HUMAN, + ADULT, + ANIMATE, +MALE]
50. How do you distinguish between entailment and presupposition in terms of truth values? Entailment is a relation of inclusion. Suppose there are two sentences X and Y: X: He has been to France. Y: He has been to Europe.
In terms of truth values, if X is true, Y is necessarily true, e.g. If he has been to France, he must have been to Europe.
If X is false, Y may be true or false, e. g. If he has not been to France, he may still have been to Europe or he has not been to Europe. If Y is true, X may be true or false, e.g. If he has been to Europe, he may or may not have been to France.
If Y is false, X is false, e.g. If he has not been to Europe, he cannot have been to France. Therefore we conclude that X entails Y or Y is an entailment of X.
The truth conditions that we use to judge presupposition is as follows: Suppose there are two sentences X and Y X: John' s bike needs repairing. Y: John has a bike.
If X is true, Y must be true, e.g. If John' s bike needs repairing, John must have a bike.
If X is false, Y is still true, e. g. If John' s bike does not need repairing, John still has a bike. If Y is true, X is either true or false, e.g. If John has a bike, it may or may not need repairing. If Y is false, no truth value can be said about X, e.g. If John does not have a bike, nothing can be said about whether his bike needs repairing or not. Therefore, X presupposes Y, or Y is a presupposition of X.
51. How do you account for such sense relations between sentences as synonymous relation, inconsistent relation in terms of truth values?
In terms of truth condition, of the two sentences X and Y, if X is true, Y is true; if X is false, Y is false, therefore X is synonymous with Y
e.g. X; He was a bachelor all his life. Y: He never married all his life.
Of the two sentences X and Y, if X is true, Y is false; if X is false, Y is true, then we can say A is inconsistent with Y
e.g. X: John is married. Y: John is a bachelor.
52. According to the ways synonyms differ, how many groups can we classify synonyms into? Illustrate them with examples.
According to the ways synonyms differ, synonyms can be divided into the following groups.i. Dialectal synonyms
They are synonyms which are used in different regional dialects. British English and American English are the two major geographical varieties of the English language. For examples: British English American English autumn fall lift elevator
Then dialectal synonyms can also be found within British, or American English itself. For example, \"girl\" is called \"lass\" or \"lassie\" in Scottish dialect, and \"liquor\" is called \"whisky\" in Irish dialect. ii. Stylistic synonyms
They are synonyms which differ in style or degree of formality. Some of the stylistic synonyms tend to be more formal, others tend to be casual, and still oth¬ers are neutral in style. For example: old man, daddy, dad, father, male parent chap, pal, friend, companion
iii. Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning
They are the words that have the same meaning but express different emotions of the user. The emotions of the
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What are the differences between the two linguistic studies of meaning – semantics and pragmatics?
Semantics studies literal, structural or lexical meaning, while pragmatics studies non-literal, implicit, intended meaning, or speaker’s meaning. Semantics is context independent, decontextualized, while pragmatics is context dependent, contextualized. Semantics deals with what is said, while pragmatics deals with what is implicated or inferred.
What essentially distinguish semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered
If it is not, it is semantics.If it is, it is pragmatics.
Pragmatic analysis of meaning is first and foremost concerned with the study of what is communicated by a speaker/writer and interpreted by a listener/reader. Analysis of intentional meaning necessarily involves the interpretation of what people do through language in a particular context. Intended meaning may or may not be explicitly expressed. Pragmatic analysis also explores how listeners/readers make inferences about what is communicated.Some basic notions in Pragmatics Context Pragmatics vs. semantics Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning
Context Context---- a basic concept in the study of pragmatics. It is generally considered as constituted knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer, such as cultural background, situation(time, place, manner,
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Chapter 6 Pragmatics ---- the study of language in use or language communication; the study of the use of context to make inference about meaning. ---- the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.
user indicate the attitude or bias of the user toward what he is talking about . For exam¬ple, “collaborator” and “accomplice” are synonymous, sharing the meaning of \"a person who helps anotherheir evaluative meaning. The former means that a person who helps another in do¬ing something good, while the latter refers to a person who helps another in a criminal act. iv. Collocational synonyms
They are synonyms which differ in their collocation. For example, we can use accuse, charge, rebuke to say that someone has done something wrong or even criminal, but they are used with different preposi¬tions accuse. . . of, charge. . . with, rebuke. . .for. v. V. Semantically different synonyms
Semantically different synonyms refer to the synonyms that differ slight¬ly in what they mean. For example, \"amaze\" and \"astound\" are very close in meaning to the word \"surprise,\" but they have very subtle differences in meaning. While amaze suggests confusion and bewilderment, \" astound\" implies difficulty in believing. \" 53. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning? How do they differ?
One of the oldest was the naming theory, proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato, who believed that the words used in a language are taken to be la¬bels of the objects they stand for. The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a lin¬guistic form and what it refers to. The form and the meaning are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. Two kinds of context are recognized; the situational context and the linguistic context.
For example, the meaning of the word \"seal\" in the sentence \"The seal could not be found\" can only be determined ac¬cording to the context in which the sentence occurs: The seal could not be found. The zoo keeper became worried. (seal meaning an aquatic mammal)
The seal could not be found. The king became worried. (seal meaning the king's stamp)
Behaviorism drew on behaviorist psychology when he tried to define the meaning of linguistic forms. Behaviorists attempted to de¬fine the meaning of a language form as \" the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer\".
etc.), the relationship between the speaker and the hearer, etc.….
Austin’s new model of speech acts
----According to Austin’s new model, a speaker might be performing three acts simultaneously when speaking: locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. The locutionary act----an act of saying something,uttering words, phrases,clauses, i.e. an act of making
Some Examples of Performatives “I do” “I name this ship Elizabeth.” “I give and bequeath my watch to my brother.” “I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow.” “I declare the meeting open.”
Two types of utterances Constatives (叙述句) ---- statements that either state or describe, and are thus verifiable; Performatives (施为句) ---- sentences that do not state a fact or describe a state, and are not verifiable. Note: Sometimes they are easy to get confused, e.g.“It is raining outside” can be a constative, and also a performative, for by uttering such a sentence, we may not only state a fact, but involve in the act of informing someone about the rain.
Speech acts is a term derived from the work of the philosopher J. Austin (1962) and now used to refer to a theory which analyzes the role of utterances in relation to the behavior of the speaker and the hearer in interpersonal communication. It aims to answer the question “What do we do when using language?” In linguistic communication, people do not merely exchange information. They actually do something through talking or writing in various circumstances. Actions performed via speaking are called speech acts.
Note: The meaning of an utterance is based on the sentence meaning; it is the realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context; utterance meaning is richer than sentence meaning; it is identical with the purpose for which the speaker utters the sentence.
The dog is barking.
If we take it as a grammatical unit and consider it as a self-contained unit in isolation, then we treat it as a sentence.
If we take it as something a speaker utters in a certain situation with a certain purpose, then we are treating it as an utterance.
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Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning ---- Sentence meaning: Abstract and context-independent meaning; literal meaning of a sentence; having a dyadic relation as in: What does X mean?----utterance meaning: concrete and context-dependent meaning; intended meaning of a speaker; having a triadic relation as in: What did you mean by X? For example, “The bag is heavy” can mean a bag being heavy (sentence meaning); an indirect, polite request, asking the hearer to help him carry the bag; the speaker is declining someone’s request for help.
Pragmatics vs. semantics Semantics---- is the study of the literal meaning of a sentence (without taking context into consideration). Pragmatics---- the study of the intended meaning of a speaker (taking context into consideration), e.g. “Today is Sunday”, semantically, it means that today is the first day of the week; pragmatically, you can mean a lot by saying this, all depending on the context and the intention of the speaker, say, making a suggestion or giving an invitation…
a meaningful utterance (literal meaning of an utterance);
Note: Of the three acts, what speech act theory is most concerned with is the illocutionary act. It attempts to account for the ways by which speakers can mean more than what they say.
Analyze the illocutionary acts of the following conversation between a couple:----(the telephone rings)----H: That’ the phone. (1)
----W: I’m in the bathroom. (2)----H: Okay. (3) This seemingly incoherent conversation goes on successfully because the speakers understand each other’s illocutionary acts: (1) Making a request of his wife to go and answer the phone. (2) A refusal to comply with the request; issuing a request of her husband to answer the phone instead. (3) Accepting the wife’s refusal and accepting her request, meaning “all right, I’ll answer it.”Linguists are more concerned about or interested in illocutionary act.
The classification of illocutionary act made by American philosopher-linguist John Searle.Searle’s classification of speech acts (1969) Assertives/representatives(陈述) Directives(指令) Commissives(承诺) Expressives(表达) Declarations(宣布)
Assertives/representatives
---- Stating or describing, saying what the speaker believes to be true, e.g. I think the film is moving. I’m certain I have never seen the man before. I solemnly swear that he had got it. …
Directives
---- Trying to get the hearer to do something, e.g. I order you to leave right now. Open the window, please. Your money or your life! …
Commissives
---- Committing the speaker himself to some future course of action, e.g. I promise to come. I will bring you the book tomorrow without fail. …
Expressives
----Expressing the speaker’s psychological state about something, e.g.
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For example,“It is cold here.” Its locutionary act is the saying of it with its literal meaning the weather is clod here; Its illocutionary act can be a request of the hearer to shut the window; Its perlocutionary act can be the hearer’s shutting the window or his refusal to comply with the request. ----Analyze one more example: “You have left the door wide open.”
It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology. The illocutionary act----an act performed in saying something: in saying X, I was doing Y (the intention of the speaker while speaking). The perlocutionary act----an act performed as a result of saying something: by saying X and doing Y, I did Z.
It is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance.
Violation of maxim of quantity At a party a young man introduces himself by saying “I’m Robert Sampson from Leeds, 28, unmarried…”
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----A: Who was that lady I saw you with last night?----B: That was no lady, that was my wife.
----A: would you like to come to our party tonight?----B: I’m afraid I’m not feeling so well tonight.
Significance: it explains how it is possible for the speaker to convey more than is literary said.
CP is nearly always observed, while these maxims are not, which gives rise to “Conversational implicatures”, i.e. the language becomes indirect.Conversational implicature In real communication, however, speakers do not always observe these maxims strictly. These maxims can be violated for various reasons. When any of the maxims is blantantly violated, i.e. both the speaker and the hearer are aware of the violation, our language becomes indirect, then conversational implicature arises. Violation of Maxim of quality
----A: Would you like to go movie with me tonight?
----B: The final exam is approaching. I’m afraid I have to prepare for it.
Four maxims of CP The maxim of quality
----Do not say what you believe to be false.
----Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. The maxim of quantity
----Make your contribution as informative as required for the current purpose of the exchange.----Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. The maxim of relation
----Be relevant ( make your contribution relevant). The maxim of manner----Avoid obscurity of expression.----Avoid ambiguity.----Be brief.----Be orderly.
I’m sorry for being late. I apologize for the sufferings that the war has caused to your people. …
Declarations
----Bringing about an immediate change in the existing state or affairs, e.g. I now appoint you chairman of the committee. You are fired. I now declare the meeting open. … Note: (1) All the acts that belong to the same category share the same purpose but differ in their strength or force, e.g.
I guess / am sure / swear he is the murderer. Note: (2) In order to get someone open the door, we can choose one from a variety of the forms in below:
Could you open the door, please! Can you open the door!
Do you mind opening the door? Open the door! The door please!
Principle of conversation (Paul Grice) Cooperative principle (CP)---- According to Grice, in making conversation, there is a general principle which all participants are expected to observe. It goes as follows: Make your conversational contribution such as required at the stage at which it occurs by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.
“War is war.”“Girls are girls.”
----A: The hostess is an awful bore.
----B: The roses in the garden are beautiful, aren’t they?
Supplementary Exercises
I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:
1. Both semantics and pragmatics study how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication
2. Pragmatics treats the meaning of language as something intrinsic and inherent.
3. It would be impossible to give an adequate description of meaning if the context of language use was left unconsidered.
4. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered.
5. The major difference between a sentence and an utterance is that a sentence is not uttered while an utterance is.
6. The meaning of a sentence is abstract, but context-dependent. 7. The meaning of an utterance is decontexualized, therefore stable. 8. Utterances always take the form of complete sentences
9. Speech act theory was originated with the British philosopher John Searle. 10. Speech act theory started in the late 50’s of the 20th century.
11. Austin made the distinction between a constative and a performative. 12. Perlocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention.
II. Fill in each blank below with one word which begins with the letter given:
13. P_________ is the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.14. What essentially distinguishes s_______ and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered.
15. The notion of c_________ is essential to the pragmatic study of language.
16. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes an u___________.
17. The meaning of a sentence is a_______, and decontexualized.
18. C________ were statements that either state or describe, and were thus verifiable.
19. P________ were sentences that did not state a fact or describe a state, and were not verifiable.
----A: What time is it?
----B: The postman has just arrived.Violation of maxim of manner
----A: Shall we get something for the kids?----B: Yes. But I veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M. 本章重点难点：Types of speech acts Locutionary speech act – the action of making the sentence Illocutionary speech act – the intentions Perlocutionary speech act – the effects Of these dimensions, the most important is the illocutionary act. In linguistic communication people respond to an illocutionary act of an utterance, because it is the meaning intended by the speaker. If a teacher says, “I have run out of chalk” in the process of lecturing, the act of saying is locutionary, the act of demanding for chalk is illocutionary, and the effect the utterance brings about – one of the students will go and get some chalk – is perlocutionary. In English, illocutionary acts are also given specific labels, such as request, warning, promise, invitation, compliment, complaint, apology, offer, refusal, etc. these specific labels name various speech functions.
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----A:When is Susan’s farewell party?----B:Sometime next month.Violation of maxim of relation
----A: How did the math exam go today, Jonnie?
----B: We had a basketball match with class 2 and we beat them.
20. A l_________ act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.
21. An i__________ act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention; it is the act performed in saying something.
22. A c_________ is commit the speaker himself to some future course of action. 23. An e________ is to express feelings or attitude towards an existing state.
24. There are four maxims under the cooperative principle: the maxim of q_______, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner.
III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement: 25. _________ does not study meaning in isolation, but in context. A. Pragmatics B. Semantics C. Sense relation D. Concept
26. The meaning of language was considered as something _______ in traditional semantics. A. contextual B. behaviouristic C. intrinsic D. logical
27. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning _________ is considered.
A. reference B. speech act C. practical usage D. context
28. A sentence is a _________ concept, and the meaning of a sentence is often studied in isolation. A. pragmatic B. grammatical C. mental D. conceptual
29. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes a(n) _________.
A. constative B. directive C. utterance D. expressive 30. Which of the following is true?
A. Utterances usually do not take the form of sentences.
B. Some utterances cannot be restored to complete sentences. C. No utterances can take the form of sentences.
D. All utterances can be restored to complete sentences. 31. Speech act theory did not come into being until __________. A. in the late 50’s of the 20the century B. in the early 1950’s C. in the late 1960’s
D. in the early 21st century.
32. __________ is the act performed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance. A. A locutionary act B. An illocutionary act C. A perlocutionary act D. A performative act
33. According to Searle, the illocutionary point of the representative is ______. A. to get the hearer to do something
B. to commit the speaker to something’s being the case C. to commit the speaker to some future course of action
D. to express the feelings or attitude towards an existing state of affairs.
34. All the acts that belong to the same category share the same purpose, but they differ __________. A. in their illocutionary acts. B. in their intentions expressed C. in their strength or force D. in their effect brought about
35. __________ is advanced by Paul Grice A. Cooperative Principle B. Politeness Principle
C. The General Principle of Universal Grammar D. Adjacency Principle
36. When any of the maxims under the cooperative principle is flouted, _______ might arise. A. impoliteness B. contradictions C. mutual understanding D. conversational implicatures IV. Define the terms below: 37. pragmatics 38. context 39. utterance meaning
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40. sentence meaning 41. constative 42. performative
43. locutionary act 44. illocutionary act 45. perlocutionary act 46.. Cooperative Principle
V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary: 47. How are semantics and pragmatics different from each other? 48. How does a sentence differ from an utterance?
49. How does a sentence meaning differ from an utterance meaning?
50. Discuss in detail the locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.
51. Searle classified illocutionary act into five categories. Discuss each of them in detail with examples. 52. What are the four maxims under the cooperative principle?
53. How does the flouting of the maxims give rise to conversational implicatures?
Suggested answers to supplementary exercises:IV. Define the terms below:
37. pragmatics: Pragmatics can be defined as the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.
38. Context: Generally speaking, it consists of the knowledge that is shared by the speak¬er and the hearer. The shared knowledge is of two types: the knowledge of the language they use, and the knowledge about the world, including the general knowledge about the world and the specific knowledge about the situ¬ation in which linguistic communication is taking place.
39. utterance meaning: the meaning of an utterance is concrete, and context-dependent. Utterance is based on sentence meaning; it is realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context.
40. sentence meaning: The meaning of a sentence is of¬ten considered as the abstract, intrinsic property of the sentence itself in terms of a predication.
41. Constative: Constatives were statements that either state or describe, and were verifi¬able ;
42. Performative: performatives, on the other hand, were sentences that did not state a fact or describe a state, and were not verifiable. Their function is to perform a particular speech act.
43. locutionary act: A locutionary act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonol¬ogy.
44. illocutionary act: An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker's intention; it is the act performed in saying something.
45. perlocutionary act: A perlocutionary act is the act per¬formed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance; it is the act performed by saying something.
46. Cooperative Principle: It is principle advanced by Paul Grice. It is a principle that guides our conversational behaviours. The content is : Make your conversational contribution such as is required at the stage at which it occurs by the accepted purpose or the talk exchange in which you are engaged.
V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary: 47. How are semantics and pragmatics different from each other?
Traditional semantics studied meaning, but the meaning of language was considered as something intrinsic, and inherent, i.e. a property attached to language itself. Therefore, meanings of words, meanings of sentences were all studied in an isolated manner, detached from the context in which they were used. Pragmatics studies meaning not in isolation, but in context. The essential distinction between semantics and pragmatics is whether the context of use is considered in the study of mean¬ing . If it is not considered, the study is restricted to the area of traditional semantics; if it is considered, the study is being carried out in the area of pragmatics. 48. How does a sentence differ from an utterance?
A sentence is a grammatical concept. It usually consists of a subject and predicate. An utterance is the unit of communication. It is the smallest linguistic unit that has a communicative value. If we regard a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes an utterance. Whether “Mary is beautiful.” is a sentence or an utterance de¬pends on how we look at it. If we regard it as a grammatical unit or a self-contained unit in isolation, then it is a sentence. If we look at it as something uttered in a certain situation with a certain purpose, then it is an utterance. Most utter¬ances take the form of complete sentences, but some utterances are not, and some cannot even be restored to complete sentences. 49. How does a sentence meaning differ from an utterance meaning?
A sentence meaning is of¬ten considered as the intrinsic property of the sentence itself in terms of a predication. It is abstract and independent of context. The meaning of an utterance is concrete, and context-dependent. The utterance meaning is based on sentence meaning; it is realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context. For example, “There is a dog at the door”. The speaker could utter it as a matter- of- fact state¬ment, telling the hearer that the dog is at the door. The speaker could use it as a warning, asking the hearer not to approach the door. There are other possibilities, too. So, the understanding of the utterance meaning of “There is a dog at the door” de¬pends on the context in which
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53. How does the flouting of the maxims give rise to conversational implicatures? A: Do you know where Mr. Smith lives? B: Somewhere in the southern suburbs of the city.
This is said when both A and B know that B does know Mr. Smith' s address. Thus B does not give enough information that is required, and he has flouted the maxim of quantity. Therefore, such conversational implica¬ture as \"I do not wish to tell you where Mr. Smith lives\" is produced.
The maxim of manner
1. Avoid obscurity of expression. 2. Avoid ambiguity.
3. Be brief ( avoid unnecessary prolixity) . 4. Be orderly.
The maxim of relation Be relevant.
The maxim of quality
1. Do not say what you believe to be false.
2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
it is uttered and the purpose for which the speaker utters it.
50. Discuss in detail the locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.
A locutionary act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonol¬ogy. An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker's intention; it is the act performed in saying something. A perlocutionary act is the act per¬formed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance; it is the act performed by saying something. For example: You have left the door wide open.
The locutionary act performed by the speaker is that he has uttered all the words \" you,' \" have,\" \" door,\" \" left,\" \" open,\" etc. and expressed what the word literally mean.
The illocutionary act performed by the speaker is that by making such an utterance, he has expressed his intention of asking the hearer to close the door.
The perlocutionary act refers to the effect of the utterance. If the hearer understands that the speaker intends him to close the door and closes the door, the speaker has successfully brought about the change in the real world he has intended to; then the perlocutiohary act is successfully per¬formed .
51. Searle classified illocutionary act into five categories. Discuss each of them in detail with examples. 1) representatives: representatives are used to state, to describe, to report, etc.. The illocutionary point of the representatives is to commit the speaker to something's being the case, to the truth of what has been said. For example: (I swear) I have never seen the man before. (I state) the earth is a globe.
2) directives: Directives are attempts by the speaker to get the hearer to do some¬thing. Inviting, suggesting, requesting, advising, warning, threatening, or¬dering are all specific instances of this class. For example: Open the window!
3) commissives: Commissives are those illocutionary acts whose point is to commit the speaker to some future course of action. When the speaker is speaking, he puts himself under obligation. For example: I promise to come. I will bring you the book tomorrow without fail.
4) expressives: The illocutionary point of expressives is to express the psychological state specified in the utterance. The speaker is expressing his feelings or attitude towards an existing state of affairs, e.g. apologizing, thanking, congratulating. For example: I'm sorry for the mess I have made.
5) declarations: Declarations have the characteristic that the successful performance of such an act brings about the correspondence between what is said and reality. For example: I now declare the meeting open.
52. What are the four maxims under the cooperative principle? The maxim of quantity
1. Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange) . 2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
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A: Would you like to come to our party tonight? B: I'm afraid I' m not feeling so well today.
This is said when both A and B know that B is not having any health problem that will prevent him from going to a party. Thus B is saying some¬thing that he himself knows to be false and he is violating the maxim of qual¬ity. The conversational implicature \" I do not want to go to your party tonight\" is then produced. A: The hostess is an awful bore. Don't you think? B: The roses in the garden are beautiful, aren't they?
This is said when both A and B know that it is entirely possible for B to make a comment on the hostess. Thus B is saying something irrelevant to what A has just said, and he has flouted the maxim of relation. The conver¬sational implicature \"I don't wish to talk about the hostess in such a rude manner\" is produced. A: Shall we get something for the kids? B: Yes. But I veto I - C - E - C - R - E - A - M.
This is said when both A and B know that B has no difficulty in pro¬nouncing the word \"ice-cream.\" Thus B has flouted the maxim of manner. The conversational implicature \"I don’t want the kids to know we are talking about ice-cream\" is then produced. b b s . k a oy a n. c o m
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