“英语”词汇学复习题5

英语词汇学复习题(五)

I. Some of the following statements are true, and the others false. Mark your answer by writing T or F on your answer sheet. (10%)

1. The great majority of the basic word stock of the English language are native words, that is, words of Anglo-Saxon origin.

2. Suffixation is different from conversion in that it does not change the word-class of the base.

3. Words of a semantic field are synonymous.

4. Clipping involves the deletion of one or more syllables from a word, which is also available in its full form.

5. Content words have lexical meaning but no grammatical meaning.

6. A particular characteristic of componential analysis is that it attempts to treat components in terms of binary opposites.

7. A root is the basic unchangeable part of a word.

8. Many English words cannot be analyzed in terms of semantic features.

9. All words have antonyms.

10. The impact of context on meaning differs from one word to another and from one instance or passage to another.

II. The following are multiple-choice questions. Mark your answer by writing A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet. (20%)

11. The English language from ______ to the present is called Modern English.

(A) 450 (B) 1100

(C) 1500 (D) 1800

12. The sentence “John was fired for petty thieving.” Is stylistically ________.

(A) literal (B) colloquial

(C) archaic (D) neutral

13. Of the following words, _____ is an acronym.

(A) OPEC (B) CIA

(C) stylistic (D) affective

14. The definition of a word given in the dictionary is called its _____ meaning.

(A) connotative (B) denotative

(C) stylistic (D) affective

15. In terms of oppositeness of meaning, ________ is a pair of conversives.

(A) “deep” and “shallow”

(B) “present” and “absent”

(C) “love” and “hate”

(D) “above” and “below”

16. In the group of words “ride, run, walk, go, fly”, “go” is a ________.

(A) superordinate term (B) hyponym

(C) subordinate term (D) hyponymy

17. The word “success” used to mean “result, outcome”, now it means “a favorable outcome or result”. This is an example of __________ of meaning.

(A) elevation (B) degeneration

(C) extension (D) restriction

18. The language the early immigrants brought them to America was different from present English; the greatest difference lies in ________.

(A) spelling (B) pronunciation

(C) grammar (D) vocabulary

19. _________ serves as a typical example of euphemism.

(A) “Pious” meaning “hypocritically virtuous”

(B) “A mental hospital” referring to “a madhouse”

(C) “A landscape architect” meaning “a gardener”

(D) “Slow learners” referring to “underachievers”

20. Oxford English Dictionary is a ___________ dictionary.

(A) pocket (B) medium-size

(C) descriptive (D) prescriptive

III. Decide whether each of the following words is a A) simple word, B) compound word, C) derived word or D) shortened form. Mark your answer on the answer sheet. (10%)

21. acidhead 26. fashion

22. formal 27. recycle

23. preplant 28. honesty

24. lab 29. phone

25. ready 30. ashtray

IV. Explain the following terms with appropriate examples. Do it on the answer sheet. (10%)

31. back-formation

32. polysemy

V. Give a short answer to the following questions. Do it on the answer sheet. (30%) 33. What is the difference between a morpheme and a syllable? Illustrate your points with examples.

34. Explain conventionality and motivation. Give examples.

VI. Give a longer answer (150-200 words) to the following question. Do it on the answer sheet. (20%)

35. Context is very important for the understanding of word meaning. How is context

classified?

英语词汇学参考答案 (五)

I. Some of the following statements are true, and the others false. Mark your answer by writing T or F on your answer sheet. (10%)

1. T

2. F

3. F

4. T

5. F

6. T

7. T

8. T

9. F 10. T

II. The following are multiple-choice questions. Mark your answer by writing A, B, C, o r D on your answer sheet. (20%)

11. C 12. B 13. A 14. B 15. D

16. A 17. D 18. D 19.B 20. C

III. Decide whether each of the following words is a A) simple word, B) compound word,

C) derived word or D) shortened form. Mark your answer on the answer sheet. (10%)

21. B 26. A

22. C 27. C

23. C 28. C

24. D 29. D

25. A 30. B

IV. Explain the following terms with appropriate examples. Do it on the answer sheet. (10%)

31. Back-formation is a term used to refer to a type of word-formation by which a shorte r word is coined by the deletion of a supposed affix from a longer form already present in t he language. For example, the verb “resurrect” was formed from the noun “resurrection” b y removing the supposed derivative suffix “-ion”.

32. Polysemy is a common feature peculiar to all natural languages. There are words that have two or three senses, and the most commonly used ones can have as many as over a hundre d. However, when a word is first coined, it is always monosemic. But in the course of develo pment, the same symbol must be used to express more meanings, the result is polysemy. For ex ample, the word “fair” has various meanings; (of results) average, quite good”; (of attit ude, behaviour) just and honest; impartial”; (of the weather) clear and sunny”; ( of amou n t) satisfactory, abundant”, etc.

V. Give a short answer to the following questions. Do it on the answer sheet. (30%)

33. What is the difference between a morpheme and a syllable? Illustrate your points wit

h examples.

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit of a language, not divisible or an alyzable into smaller forms.

A morpheme is not identical with a syllable, since the latter had nothing to do with mea ning. A morpheme may be represented by one syllable, like boy and child, or by two or more s yllables, as in la·dy, croc·o·dile, and sal·a·man·der. Often the syllabic structure of a word and its morphemic structure do not correspond, as shown in the above examples where a morpheme is represented by more than one syllable. Another good example is the word disagre eable, which consists of five syllables as against three morphemes(dis+agree+able).

34. Explain conventionality and motivation. Give examples.

Most English words are conventional, arbitrary symbols; consequently, there is no intrin sic relation between the sound symbol and its sense. E.g. the thing called “house” in Engl ish, is called maison in French, 房子(fang zi) in Chinese, dom in Russian, and casa in Spani sh. A more convincing evidence of conventional and arbitrary nature of the connection betwee n sound symbol and meaning can be illustrated by a set of homophones, write, right and rite. They are pronounced the same but convey entirely different meanings.

Motivation refers to the connection between word symbol and its sense. The great majorit y of English words are nonmotivated, since they are conventional, arbitrary symbols. However, there is a small group of words that can be described as motivated.

Motivation can arise in three major ways: 1. Phonetic motivation: words phonetically mot ivated are called echoic or onomatopoeic words, whose pronunciation suggests the meaning. E.

g. woof of a dog, miaow of a cat; 2. Morphological motivation: A word is morphologically mot ivated when a direct connection can be observed between the morphemic structure of the word and its meaning. E.g. readable means “that can be read”, modernize means “ to make sth mo dern”; 3. Semantic motivation: refers to motivation based on semantic factors, it is a kind of mental association. E.g. a stony heart, the leg of a table, etc.

VI. Give a longer answer (150-200 words) to the following question. Do it on the answer sheet. (20%) welcome to https://www.360docs.net/doc/fd4979481.html,

35. Context is very important for the understanding of word meaning. How is context clas sified?

Context can be classified into two major types: linguistic context and extra-linguistic context/context of situation.

A. Linguistic context, which can further be divided into three types:

1) Lexical context: lexical context refers to the lexical items combined with a given po lysemous word. For instance, the verb make can be used in many different senses when it is c ombined with different lexical items, e.g.:

The regulations were made (enacted) to protect children.

We made (had) a good lunch before leaving.

The train was making(traveling at a speed of) 70 miles an hour.

2) Grammatical context: In grammatical context, the syntactic structure of the context d etermines various individual meanings of a polysemous word. Take the verb get for example; i ts meaning varies in different syntactical structures:

get+n.(meaning “to receive”): I got a letter today.

Get+adj. (meaning “to become”): He’s getting better.

Get+infinitive(meaning “to succeed in doing”): If I get to see him, I’ll tell him.

3) Verbal context in its broad sense: the verbal context, in its braodest sense, may cov er an entire passage, or even an entire book, and in some cases even the entire social or cu ltural setting.

B. Extra-linguistic context/Context of situation

Besides linguistic context, extra-linguistic context or context of situation also exerts

a considerable influence on word meaning. It includes:

1) The actual speech situation in which a word (or an utterance, or a speech event) occu rs. E.g. the word operation may mean “a surgical operation” in the sit uation of a hospital,

a strategic movement in the situation of military actions, or the way a machine works when related to mechanics.

2) The entire cultural background against which a word, or an utterance or a speech even t has to be set. E.g. the word peasant means totally different ideas in the western and Chin ese cultures.