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
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 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 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)
Chapter 4 Syntax 1. What is syntax?
Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences. 2. What is phrase structure rule?
The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements (i.e. specifiers, heads, and complements) that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule. The phrase structural rule for NP, VP, AP, and PP can be written as follows: NP → (Det) N (PP) ... VP → (Qual) V (NP) ... AP → (Deg) A (PP) ... PP → (Deg) P (NP) ...
The general phrasal structural rule ( X stands for the head N, V, A or P):
The XP rule: XP → (specifier) X (complement)
3. What is category? How to determine a word's category?
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.
To determine a word's category, three criteria are usually employed, namely meaning, inflection and distribution. A word's distributional facts together with information about its meaning and inflectional capabilities help identify its syntactic category. 4. What is coordinate structure and what properties does it have?
The structure formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction is called coordinate structures. Conjunction exhibits four important properties:
1) There is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction.
2) A category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated. 3) Coordinated categories must be of the same type.
4) The category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.
5. What elements does a phrase contain and what role does each element play?
A phrase usually contains the following elements: head, specifier and complement. Sometimes it also contains another kind of element termed modifier. The role of each element Head:
Head is the word around which a phrase is formed. Specifier:
Specifier has both special semantic and syntactic roles. Semantically, it helps to make more precise the meaning of the head. Syntactically, it typically marks a phrase boundary. Complement:
Complements are themselves phrases and provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head. Modifier:
Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of the heads. 6. What is deep structure and what is surface structure?
There are two levels of syntactic structure. The first, formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head's subcategorization properties, is called deep structure (or D-structure). The second, corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations, is called surface structure (or S-structure).
7. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences. a) The old lady got off the bus carefully.
Det A N V P Det N Adv b) The car suddenly crashed onto the river bank. Det N Adv V P Det N
c) The blinding snowstorm might delay the opening of the schools. Det A N Aux V Det N P Det N d) This cloth feels quite soft. Det N V Deg A
（以下8-12题只作初步的的成分划分，未画树形图, 仅供参考）
8. The following phrases include a head, a complement, and a specifier. Draw the appropriate tree structure for each. a) rich in minerals
XP(AP) → head (rich) A + complement (in minerals) PP b) often read detective stories
XP(VP) → specifier (often) Qual + head (read) V + complement (detective stories) NP c) the argument against the proposals
XP(NP) → specifier (the) Det + head (argument) N + complement (against the proposals) PP d) already above the window
XP(VP) → specifier (already) Deg + head (above) P + complement (the window) NP
9. The following sentences contain modifiers of various types. For each sentence, first identify the modifier(s), then draw the tree structures.（划底线的为动词的修饰语，斜体的为名词的修饰语）
a) A crippled passenger landed the airplane with extreme caution. b) A huge moon hung in the black sky.
c) The man examined his car carefully yesterday. d) A wooden hut near the lake collapsed in the storm.
10. The following sentences all contain conjoined categories. Draw a tree structure for each of the sentences. （划底线的为并列的范畴）
a) Jim has washed the dirty shirts and pants. b) Helen put on her clothes and went out.
c) Mary is fond of literature but tired of statistics.
11. The following sentences all contain embedded clauses that function as complements of a verb, an adjective, a preposition or a noun. Draw a tree structure for each sentence. （划底线的为补语从句）
a) You know that I hate war.
b) Gerry believes the fact that Anna flunked the English exam. c) Chris was happy that his father bought him a Rolls-Royce. d) The children argued over whether bats had wings.
12. Each of the following sentences contains a relative clause. Draw the deep structure and the surface structure trees for each of these sentences. （划底线的为关系从句） a) The essay that he wrote was excellent. b) Herbert bought a house that she loved c) The girl whom he adores majors in linguistics.
13. The derivations of the following sentences involve the inversion transformation. Give the deep structure and the surface structure of each of these sentences. a) Would you come tomorrow? (surface structure) you would come tomorrow (deep structure)
b) What did Helen bring to the party? (surface structure) Helen brought what to the party (deep structure) c) Who broke the window? (surface structure) who broke the window (deep structure)
Chapter 5 Semantics
1. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning?
答：(1) The naming theory proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.
(2) The conceptualist view has been held by some philosophers and linguists from ancient times. This 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.
(3) The contextualist view held that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context –– elements closely linked with language behaviour. The representative of this approach was J.R. Firth, famous British linguist.
(4) Behaviorists 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.” This theory, somewhat close to contextualism, is linked with psychological interest. 2. What are the major types of synonyms in English?
答： The major types of synonyms are dialectal synonyms, stylistic synonyms, emotive or evaluative synonyms, collocational synonyms, and semantically different synonyms. Examples（略）
3. Explain with examples “homonymy”, “polysemy”, and “hyponymy”.
答：(1) Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. When two words are identical in sound, they are homophones. When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.
When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are complete homonyms
(2) While different words may have the same or similar meaning, the same one word may have