新编简明英语语言学教程戴炜栋第1-3章课后练习题答案

of phonemes.

The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighboring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy” tendency may become regularized as rules of language. We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, i.e., it does not distinguish meaning. But this does not mean that vowels in English are never nasalized in actual pronunciation; in fact they are nasalized in certain phonetic contexts. For example, the [i:] sound is nasalized in words like bean, green, team, and scream. This is because in all these sound combinations the [i:] sound is followed by a nasal [n] or [m].

The assimilation rule also accounts for the varying pronunciation of the alveolar nasal [n] in some sound combinations. The rule is that within a word, the nasal [n] assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it. We know that in English the prefix in- can be added to ma adjective to make the meaning of the word negative, e.g. discreet – indiscreet, correct – incorrect. But the [n] sound in the prefix in- is not always pronounced as an alveolar nasal. It is so in the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, i.e. [d], is an alveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronounced as a velar nasal, i.e. [?]; this is because the consonant that follows it is [k], which is a velar stop. So we can see that while pronouncing the sound [n], we are “copying” a feature of the consonant that follows it.

Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. We have noticed that in the

pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound although it is represented in spelling by the letter g. But in their corresponding forms signature, designation, and paradigmatic, the [g] represented by the letter g is pronounced. The rule can be stated as: Delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. Given the rule, the phonemic representation of the stems in sign – signature, resign – resignation, phlegm – phlegmatic, paradigm – paradigmatic will include the phoneme /g/, which will be deleted according to the regular rule if no suffix is added.

10. What are supra-segmental features? How do the major supra-segmental features of English function in conveying

meaning?

答： The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called supra-segmental features. The main supra-segmental features include stress, intonation, and tone. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. There are two kinds of stress: word stress and sentence stress. For example, a shift of stress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun, to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged. Tones are pitch variations which can distinguish meaning just like phonemes.

Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings.

Chapter 3 Morphology

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1. Divide the following words into their separate morphemes by placing a “+” between each morpheme and the next: a. microfile e. telecommunication b. bedraggled f. forefather c. announcement g. psychophysics

d. predigestion h. mechanist

答：a. micro + file b. be + draggle + ed c. announce + ment d. pre + digest + ion e. tele + communicate + ion f. fore + father g. psycho + physics h. mechan + ist

2. Think of three morpheme suffixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem they may be suffixed to. Give at least two examples of each. Model: -or

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suffix: -or

meaning: the person or thing performing the action stem type: added to verbs

examples: actor, “one who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, etc.” translator, “one who translates” 答：(1) suffix: -able

meaning: something can be done or is possible stem type: added to verbs

examples: acceptable, “can be accepted” respectable, “can be respected” (2) suffix: -ly meaning: functional stem type: added to adjectives

examples: freely. “adverbial form of ?free? ” quickly, “adverbial form of 'quick' ”.

(3) suffix: -ee

meaning: the person receiving the action stem type: added to verbs

examples: employee, “one who works in a company” interviewee, “one who is interviewed”

3. Think of three morpheme prefixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of stem they may be prefixed to. Give at least two examples of each. Model: a- prefix: a-

meaning: “without; not” stem type: added to adjectives

examples: asymmetric, “lacking symmetry” asexual, “without sex or sex organs” 答：(1) prefix: dis-

meaning: showing an opposite stem type: added to verbs or nouns examples : disapprove, “do not approve” dishonesty, “lack of honesty”.

(2) prefix: anti-

meaning: against, opposed to stem type: added to nouns or adjectives

examples : antinuclear, “opposing the use of atomic weapons and power”

antisocial, “opposed or harmful to the laws and customs of an organized community. ”

(3) prefix: counter- meaning: the opposite of

stem type: added to nouns or adjectives.

examples: counterproductive, “producing results opposite to those intended” counteract, “act against and reduce the force or effect of (sth.) ”

4. The italicized part in each of the following sentences is an inflectional morpheme. Study each inflectional morpheme

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carefully and point out its grammatical meaning. Sue moves in high-society circles in London. A traffic warden asked John to move his car. The club has moved to Friday, February 22nd. The branches of the trees are moving back and forth. 答：(1) the third person singular

(2) the past tense (3) the present perfect (4) the present progressive

5. Determine whether the words in each of the following groups are related to one another by processes of inflection or derivation.

a) go, goes, going, gone

b) discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable, discoverability c) inventor, inventor?s, inventors, inventors? d) democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize 答：(略)

6. The following sentences contain both derivational and inflectional affixes. Underline all of the derivational affixes and

circle the inflectional affixes. a) The farmer?s cows escaped. b) It was raining.

c) Those socks are inexpensive. d) Jim needs the newer copy. e) The strongest rower continued. f) She quickly closed the book. g) The alphabetization went well. 答：(略)

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