22. A __________ is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement, question or command.
23. A __________ may be a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence that usually precedes the predicate.
24. The part of a sentence which comprises a finite verb or a verb phrase and which says something about the subject is grammatically called __________.
25. A __________ sentence contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other.
26. In the complex sentence, the incorporated or subordinate clause is normally called an __________ clause.
27. Major lexical categories are __________ categories in the sense that new words are constantly added.
28. __________ condition on case assignment states that a case assignor and a case recipient should stay adjacent to each other.
29. __________ are syntactic options of UG that allow general principles to operate in one way or another and contribute to significant linguistic variations between and among natural languages.
30. The theory of __________ condition explains the fact that noun phrases appear only in subject and object positions.
IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)
31. Syntax 32. IC analysis
33. Hierarchical structure 34. Trace theory
V. Answer the following questions. (20%)
35. What are endocentric construction and exocentric construction? （武汉大学，2004） 36. Distinguish the two possible meanings of ―more beautiful flowers‖ by means of IC analysis. （北京第二外国语大学，2004）
VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)
37. Draw a tree diagram according to the PS rules to show the deep structure of the sentence:
The student wrote a letter yesterday. Key: I.
1~5 DCDDD 6~10 ADDBA II.
11~15 TTTTF 16~20 FTFTT III.
21. simple 22. sentence 23. subject 24. predicate
25. complex 26. embedded 27. open 28. Adjacency 29. Parameters 30. Case IV.
31. Syntax: Syntax refers to the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences in a language, or simply, the study of the formation of sentences.
32. IC analysis: Immediate constituent analysis, IC analysis for short, refers to the analysis of a sentence in terms of its immediate constituents – word groups (phrases), which are in turn analyzed into the immediate constituents of their own, and the process goes on until the ultimate sake of convenience.
33. Hierarchical structure: It is the sentence structure that groups words into structural constituents and shows the syntactic category of each structural constituent, such as NP, VP and PP. 34. Trace theory: After the movement of an element in a sentence there will be a trace left in the original position. This is the notion trace in T-G grammar. It’s suggested that if we have the notion trace, all the necessary information for semantic interpretation may come from the surface structure. E.g. The passive Dams are built by beavers. differs from the active Beavers built dams. in implying that all dams are built by beavers. If we add a trace element represented by the letter t after built in the passive as Dams are built t by beavers, then the deep structure information that the word dams was originally the object of built is also captured by the surface structure. Trace theory proves to be not only theoretically significant but also empirically valid. V. 35.
An endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent, or approaching equivalence, to one of its constituents, which serves as the center, or head, of the whole. A typical example is the three small children with children as its head. The exocentric construction, opposite to the first type, is defined negatively as a construction whose distribution is not functionally equivalent to any of its constituents. Prepositional phrasal like on the shelf are typical examples of this type.
36.
(1) more | beautiful flowers (2) more beautiful | flowers
Chapter 5 Meaning
[Mainly taken from lxm1000w’s exercises. – icywarmtea]
I. Choose the best answer. (20%)
1. The naming theory is advanced by ________.
A. Plato B. Bloomfield C. Geoffrey Leech D. Firth
2. ―We shall know a word by the company it keeps.‖ This statement represents _______. A. the conceptualist view B. contexutalism C. the naming theory D. behaviorism
3. 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 decontextualized.
D. Sense is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are not interested in. 4. ―Can I borrow your bike?‖_______ ―You have a bike.‖ A. is synonymous with B. is inconsistent with
C. entails D. presupposes
5. ___________ 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
6. ―Alive‖ and ―dead‖ are ______________.
A. gradable antonyms B. relational antonyms
C. complementary antonyms D. None of the above
7. _________ deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.
A. Reference B. Concept C. Semantics D. Sense
8. ___________ refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form.
A. Polysemy B. Synonymy C. Homonymy D. Hyponymy 9. Words that are close in meaning are called ______________. A. homonyms B. polysemies C. hyponyms D. synonyms 10. The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by _______. A. grammatical rules B. selectional restrictions C. semantic rules D. semantic features
II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations. 14. In semantics, meaning of language is considered as the intrinsic and inherent relation to the physical world of experience.
15. Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts.
16. 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.
17. The meaning of a sentence is the sum total of the meanings of all its components.
18. Most languages have sets of lexical items similar in meaning but ranked differently
according to their degree of formality.
19. ―It is hot.‖ is a no-place predication because it contains no argument.
20. 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.
III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)
21. __________ can be defined as the study of meaning.
22. The conceptualist view holds that there is no __________ link between a linguistic form and what it refers to.
23. __________ 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. 24. Words that are close in meaning are called __________.
25. When two words are identical in sound, but different in spelling and meaning, they are called __________.
26. __________ opposites are pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the two items.
27. __________ analysis is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be divided into meaning components.
28. Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called __________ restrictions, which are constraints on what lexical items can go with what others.
29. A(n) __________ is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal element(s) in a sentence.
30. According to the __________ theory of meaning, the words in a lan?guage are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for.
IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)
31. Entailment 32. Proposition
33. Componential analysis 34. Reference
V. Answer the following questions. (20%)
35. What are the sense relations between the following groups of words?
Dogs, cats, pets, parrots; trunk, branches, tree, roots （青岛海洋大学，1999） 36. What are the three kinds of antonymy? （武汉大学，2004）
VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)
37. For each group of words given below, state what semantic property or properties are shared by the (a) words and the (b) words, and what semantic property or properties distinguish between the classes of (a) words and (b) words.
(1) a. bachelor, man, son, paperboy, pope, chief
b. bull, rooster, drake, ram
(2) a. table, stone, pencil, cup, house, ship, car b. milk, alcohol, rice, soup
(3) a. book, temple, mountain, road, tractor
b. idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear （青岛海洋大学，1999） Key:
I.
1~5 ABDDB 6~10 CACDA II.
11~15 FFTFT 16~20 TFTTT III.
21. Semantics 22. direct 23. Reference 24. synonyms 25. homophones 26. Relational 27. Componential 28. selectional
29. argument 30. naming IV.
31. Entailment: It is basically a semantic relation (or logical implication), and it can be clarified with the following sentences: a. Tom divorced Jane.
b. Jane was Tom’s wife.
In terms of truth value, the following relationships exist between these two sentences: when A is true, B must be also true; when B is false, A must also be false. When B is true, A may be true or false. Therefore we can say A entails B.
32. Proposition: It is the result of the abstraction of sentences, which are descriptions of states of affairs and which some writers see as a basic element of sentence meaning. For example, the two sentences ―Caesar invaded Gaul‖ and ―Gaul was invaded by Caesar‖ hold the same proposition. 33. Compositional analysis: It defines the meaning of a lexical element in terms of semantic components, or semantic features. For example, the meaning of the word boy may be analyzed into three components: HUMAN, YOUNG and MALE. Similarly girl may be analyzed into HUMAN, YOUNG and FEMALE.
34. Reference: It is what a linguistic form refers to in the real world; it is a matter of the relationship between the form and the reality. V. 35.
Hyponymy, metonymy or part-whole relationship 36.
(Omit.) VI. 37.
(1) The (a) words and (b) words are male.
The (a) words are human, while the (b) words are non-human. (2) The (a) words and (b) words are inanimate.