2009年南京大学963英语语言学考研真题及参考答案

考试科目：英语语言学

I. Write the International Phonetic Alphabet for the following words. (12/150)

(1) attentive

【答案】attentive[ə'tentiv]

(2) deference

【答案】deference['defərəns]

(3) hypothesis

【答案】hypothesis[haɪ'pɔθisis]

(4) pathetic

【答案】pathetic: [pə'θetik]

(5) catastrophe

【答案】catastrophe: [kə'tæstrəfi]

(6) ascent

【答案】ascent: [ə'sent]

(7) subtlety

【答案】subtlety: ['sʌtlti]

(8) caveat

【答案】caveat: ['keviæt]

(9) frugal

【答案】frugal: ['fru:gl]

(10) influenza

【答案】influenza: [ɪnflu'enzə]

(11) languid

【答案】languid: ['læŋgwɪd]

(12) vehement

【答案】vehement: ['vi:imənt]

II. The following sentence is taken from Barack Obama’s Victory Speech. The underlined words are stressed by Obama. State the general rules of sentence stress and discuss whether the underlined words conform to these rules (e.g., which ones are generally stressed; which ones are normally not stressed but get stressed here; and which ones that are normally stressed but are not stressed here). (15/150)

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

【答案】In general situations, lexical words are normally stressed while grammatical words are unstressed. Those which mainly work for constructing groups, phrase, clause, clause complex, or even text are grammatical words, such as, conjunctions, prepositions, articles, and pronouns. And those which mainly work for referring to substance, action and quality, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are lexical words. Lexical words carry the main content of a language while grammatical ones serve to link together different content parts. Therefore, lexical words are also known as content words and grammatical ones as functional words.

In this passage, the verb doubts, wonders, questions, the noun America, things, dream, founders, power, democracy, the adjective: possible, alive, the adverb: still, all, fall into the category of lexical words and are generally stressed. The pronoun: anyone, our and your, are grammatical words which are not normally stressed but get stressed here, and the noun: place, time, tonight, answer, are lexical words that are normally stressed but are not stressed in this text.

（本题考查词的分类和重音，根据词性来判断是否应该重读。）

III. Read the following groups of words. For each group, point out the one that does not fit in the group and explain why. (Note: Focus on the meaning of the underlined part of each word). (20/150)

(1) animal, animate, animism, animosity

【答案】All the words in this group share the same prefix anim-, which often carries the meaning of life vigor, or being alive. The first three words obviously belong to this category. The word animosity means hatred and strong dislike, which does not fit in the group.

(2) missionary, ordinary, contemporary, elementary

【答案】The suffix –ary is usually used after nouns to form adjectives. It can be also used after nouns to refer to concrete people. In this group, only the first one is a noun referring to person, while the rest are all adjectives, carrying certain attributes.

(3) passionate, proportionate, differentiate, affectionate

【答案】The suffix –ate carries two senses, one referring to “make, lead to” by converting into verbs, the other referring to possess certain characteristics, usually in the form of adjectives. Hence, “differentiate” should be deleted from this group because it is different from other words in their word class.

(4) befriend, belittle, becalm, becloud

【答案】“Becloud” should not be covered in this group although there are all made verbs by adding the prefix be-. The prefix of “befriend, belittle, becalm” means “make or cause to be”, however, it means “decoration or cover” in “becloud”.

(5) dismiss, discomfort, disperse, dispel

【答案】“Discomfort” does not fit in this group. The prefix dis- indicates negation or oppositeness, such as dislike, disabled. But another sense has something to do with “get rid of, or remove from”, which can be identified in “dismiss, disperse, and dispel”.

(6) existent, dependent, detergent, confident

【答案】“Detergent” does not in accordance with the other three words. The suffix –ent makes “detergent” a noun. It originally means “the sate, the circumstance”. As we can see, “existent, dependent, confident” are all adjectives indicating “the state”, transformed through adding the suffix –ent.

(7) chatter, banker, lawyer, sawyer

【答案】Obviously, “chatter” does not fall into this category. The suffix –er is usually employed to make something become some professionals. “Banker, lawyer, sawyer” all refer to professionals in all walks of life. They are made human beings simply by adding the suffix –er.

(8) fishery, bribery, surgery, robbery

【答案】“Surgery” should not be placed in this group. The other three words “fishery, bribery, robbery” are all transformed from verbs into nouns by adding the suffix –ery.

(9) basic, critic, specific, idyllic

【答案】“Cirtic” does not go with the other three words. The suffix –ic has two functions: one is forming adjectives which indicate the state or attribute, the other is constituting nouns, usually in the form of human beings or subjects. “Critic” becomes a human being by adding the suffix, while “basic, specific, idyllic” form adjectives in the same way.

(10) outbound, outsell, outshine, outgrow

【答案】“Outbound” is not supposed to be in this group. The prefix out- originally has two meanings: one is “more than, surpass, excel”, the other is “outside, outdated”. Outbound which means going outside or abroad falls into the second category. The prefixes of other three words all indicate “surpass or more than”.

IV. Discuss why the following sentences are semantically ill-formed. In what contexts might they be used properly? (15/150)

(1) Interest is the best teacher.

【答案】This sentence could not make sense literally, since it makes a comparison between two totally different things by nature. Yet, in metaphorical sense, it is quite meaningful: “ since you have a strong interest in something, it will motivate you to seek more knowledge about it.”

(2) Boys will be boys.

【答案】This sentence is tautological, and in normal situations it is totally informative, violating quantity maxim. However, at a deeper level, the level of what is implicated, they are informative. For example, the boys broke the window when they were playing football. It may convey implicatures like “ Boys are naughty and mischievous by nature” .

(3) We did not get any advanced warning.

【答案】This is a double negative sentence, which conveys the assertive meaning, and it can indicate the speaker’s strong emotion or main point. However, it can be used by a boss, it could imply something: “ We have gotten advanced warning, but you seem ignore them and messed the chance” .

(本题主要考查语义学相关知识。)

V. Read the following two sentences collected from Chinese students’ compositions. Point out the problem they share. Give another instance that involves the same problem. Explain why such problem may occur in their writing. (15/150)

(1) In my father’s opinion, he thinks today’s students like me live a more comfortable life than he used to.

(2) Some students choose to live off Campus with reasonable reasons.

【答案】In both of the sentences, the Chinese students have made interlingual errors, which are caused by the learner’s native language or mother tongue. For example, in the above sentences, the students wrote “In my father’s opinion, he thinks…” and “…live off Campus”, the students translated Chinese “根据我父亲的观点，他认为…”and “…在校外住” directly into English.

Many Chinese students are likely to make the similar errors, for example, a Chinese learner of English writes “ I like jump water”  that is an incorrect English expression, and the correct one is “ I like diving” .

Such problems Chinese students make may be attributed to the influence of the mother tongue, namely the Chinese language or maybe or the strategies employed by the learner in language.

(本题主要考查在第二语言习得中，第二语言学习者出现的问题以及导致这些问题的原因。)

VI. Decide which of the following sentences are ambiguous when interpreted in isolation. Discuss the factors that lead to such ambiguity. In what contexts are those ambiguous ones unambiguous? (18/150)

(1) Visiting guests are boring.

(2) Mary’s father is a doctor.

(3) Pam asked the cop who Jack confronted.

(4) Academically poor male students and female students have greater difficulty finding jobs.

(5) Jack persuaded me not to accept their invitation.

(6) Dick didn’t fly the kite because it was a beautiful day.

【答案】All of the sentences are ambiguous when interpreted in isolation. A sentence is ambiguous if it has two or more paraphrases which are not themselves’ paraphrases of each other. There’re two major factors that lead to ambiguous sentences: lexical and structural. Lexical ambiguity is ambiguity attributable to that fact that some ambiguous words (homonymy, polysemy) contained in the sentence causes the whole sentence to be ambiguous, which illustrated by (2) and (4), in the sentence (2), the word “ doctor”  has two meanings:1.“医生” ; 2.“博士” ,and in sentence(4),the word “ poor” has two meanings:1.“贫穷的” ; 2.“可怜的” . Structural ambiguity is ambiguity that rests on two or more possibilities of relationship of modification among words contained in the sentence, sentence (1) and (3) are the examples of structural ambiguity。 For example, sentence (1) can be paraphrased: “It can be boring to visit guests.” or “ Guests who are visiting can be boring.”  However, in sentence (5) and (6), it is the different understanding of negative word, whether it is semi-negative or full-negative, this is the grammar factor leading to ambiguity. For example, in sentence (6), we can comprehend: “ Because it was a beautiful day, Dick didn’t fly the kite.”  or “ Not only because it was a beautiful day that Dick didn’t fly the kite.”  So in order to reduce or eliminate ambiguity, we have to put these sentences in concrete context, such as situational context and linguistic context, cultural backgrounds.

(本题主要考查歧义产生的原因。)

VII. Read the following sentences. Underline the word or structure in each sentence that triggers inference about the presupposed information. Give a proper name for the type of presupposition trigger used in each case. Decide which of the various triggers is/are likely to trigger cancellable presupposition and illustrate your answer with one or two examples. (20/150)

(1) Peter gave up smoking last month.

(2) What was the most unbelievable was that Jack won the game.

(3) Mary charged Tim with theft a year ago.

(4) Before I left Beijing last Friday, I had stayed there for 10 days.

(5) The teacher asked the students to rewrite their compositions on the importance of the Internet.

【答案】A presupposition trigger is a lexical item or linguistic construction which is responsible for the presupposition.

In the sentence (1), the verb phrase “ gave up”  triggers inference that Peter had been smoking.This type of presupposition trigger is called “ Change of state verbs” .

In the sentence (2),the cleft sentence “  What was the most unbelievable was that” , triggers inference about the presupposed information is that something great Jack had done. This type of presupposition trigger is called “ Cleft sentences” .

In the sentence(3),the verb “ charge”  triggers inference that Mary thinks theft is bad, and this kind of trigger is called “ Verbs of judging” .

In the sentence (4), the word “ Before”  triggers inference that I had stayed in Beijing for 10 days, and this kind of presupposition trigger is called “ Adverbial clauses of time” .

In the sentence(5), the verb “ rewrite”  triggers inference that the teacher had asked the students to write their compositions on the importance of the Internet before. This presupposition trigger belongs to “ iteratives” .

Types of presupposition triggers can trigger cancelable presupposition: Change of state verbs, and Verbs of judging, and Implicative verbs, for example, John stopped beating his wife and from this sentence we can know that John had been beating his wife. This is the case of Change of state verbs, and another Implicative example: I forgot to bring the book. This utterance implied that I ought to bring the books.

(本题主要考查预设和预设触发语的分类)

VIII. Study the following conversation from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Discuss it in terms of Grice’s Cooperative Principle. Is there any maxim that is being flouted? What conversational implicature is communicated by such deliberate breach? (15/150)

“What is his name?”

“Bingley.”

“Is he married or single?”

“Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”

【答案】The four maxims of the Cooperative Principles proposed by Grice are the maxim of quantity, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner.

In this conversation: A: “What is his name?” B: “Bingley.”, B obeys the maxim of quantity and quality, and in conversation: A: “Is he married or single?” B: “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure!. A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”, in the utterance B, “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure!” , the speaker is particularly careful about the maxim of quality, which rules that do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence; however, in the rest part of utterance B,”  A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”, the speaker violates the maxim of relations and quantity. The speaker tries to convey conversational implicatures and the hearer can comprehend them on the basis of previous information, so from this conversation, it implies that Bingley is not only single but also very rich, and he will be the sharp target for one of the speaker’s single daughters to get married with.

（本题主要考查格莱斯的合作原则以及由于违反合作原则产生的会话含义。）

IX. Read the following idioms and their explanations. Group them on the basis of some criterion that you think fit. State the criterion you use for the grouping. (20/150)

1．castles in the air: visionary unattainable schemes; daydreams

2．foot the bill: pay for something

3．tighten one’s belt: live on less money than the usual

4．throw the book at: charge or punish as severely as possible

5．bum the candle at both ends: go to bed late and get up early

6．shoot the breeze: have a casual conversation

7．turn the tables on: reverse one’s position relative to someone else, especially, by turning a position of disadvantage into one of advantage

8．play it by ear: decide how to deal with a situation as it develops rather than planning beforehand

9．pull one’s leg: deceive somebody playfully; tease somebody

【答案】The examples provided fall into the category of slang, which is a causal use of language that consists of expressive but nonstandard vocabulary, typically of arbitrary, flashy and often ephemeral coinages and figures of speech characterized by spontaneity and sometimes by raciness the central characteristic of slang comes from the motive for its use: a desire for novelty, for vivid emphasis, from membership in a particular group or class of people whose “community argot” may be in comprehensible for outsider, or for being up with the times or a little ahead.

As for some slang, we may identify their real meaning based on their literal meaning. However, more often than not, it is extremely difficult for us to figure out what it really means without related knowledge and culture background. I will classify the examples into two groups according to the degree of identificationality of the slang. The first group is the slang which we may identify its meaning; including “castles in the air, foot the bill, tighten one’s belt, throw the book at, and turn the tables on” we can detect their meanings simply by interpreting the literal words and making some associations. Although we cannot figure out the precise meaning of these items, we would not be hampered during the process of comprehension. The second group embodies the rest items, “bum the candle at both ends, shoot the breeze, play it by ear, and pull one’s leg” As for this group, the way for interpretation does not work here. If we tried to interpret them from the literal level, we may end up at a loss, having no idea what it really conveys. This is especially difficult for foreign learners who have no access to relevant knowledge or culture background.

（本题主要考查社会语言学的小分支——俚语的应用。考生可以从不同角度来分类和论证。）