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聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 1.聽 What is language?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淟anguage is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly. Arbitrary, in the sense that there is usually no intrinsic connection between a work (like 鈥渂ook鈥? and the object it refers to. This explains and is explained by the fact that different languages have different 鈥渂ooks鈥? 鈥渂ook鈥?in English, 鈥渓ivre鈥?in French, 鈥渟hu鈥?in Chinese. It is symbolic, because words are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely, people use the sounds or vocal forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to. It is vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak (and listen) before they write (and read) also indicates that language is primarily vocal, rather than written. The term 鈥渉uman鈥?in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 2. What are design features of language?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淒esign features鈥?here refer to the defining properties of human language that tell the difference between human language and any system of animal communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement, cultural transmission and interchangeability

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 3.聽 What is arbitrariness?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 By 鈥渁rbitrariness鈥? we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like 鈥渂ang鈥? 鈥渃rash鈥? 鈥渞oar鈥? which are motivated in a certain sense. Secondly, some compounds (words compounded to be one word) are not entirely arbitrary either. 鈥淭ype鈥?and 鈥渨rite鈥?are opaque or unmotivated words, while 鈥渢ype-writer鈥?is less so, or more transparent or motivated than the words that make it. So we can say 鈥渁rbitrariness鈥?is a matter of degree.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 4.聽 What is duality?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Linguists refer 鈥渄uality鈥?(of structure) to the fact that in all languages so far investigated, one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (such as morphemes, words etc.); at the second, lower level, it is seen as a sequence of segments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al., language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. This is important for the workings of language. A small number of semantic units (words), and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of sentences!). Duality makes it possible for a person to talk about anything within his knowledge. No animal communication system enjoys this duality.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 5.聽 What is productivity?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences in one鈥檚 native language, including those that has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation. No one has ever said or heard 鈥淎 red-eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel bed with an African gibbon鈥? but he can say it when necessary, and he can understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though, productivity never goes outside the language, thus also called 鈥渞ule-bound creativity鈥?(by N.Chomsky).

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 6.聽 What is displacement?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淒isplacement鈥? as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In other words, one can refer to real and unreal things, things of the past, of the present, of the future. Language itself can be talked about too. When a man, for example, is crying to a woman, about something, it might be something that had occurred, or something that is occurring, or something that is to occur. When a dog is barking, however, you can decide it is barking for something or at someone that exists now and there. It couldn鈥檛 be bow-wowing sorrowfully for a bone to be lost. The bee鈥檚 system, nonetheless, has a small share of 鈥渄isplacement鈥? but it is an unspeakable tiny share.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 7.聽 What is cultural transmission?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 This means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, but that the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. It is true that the capacity for language in human beings (N. Chomsky called it 鈥渓anguage acquisition device鈥? or LAD) has a genetic basis, but the particular language a person learns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dog鈥檚 barking system. If a human being is brought up in isolation he cannot acquire language. The Wolf Child reared by the pack of wolves turned out to speak the wolf鈥檚 roaring 鈥渢ongue鈥?when he was saved. He learned thereafter, with no small difficulty, the ABC of a certain human language.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 8.聽 What is interchangeability?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. Though some people suggest that there is sex differentiation in the actual language use, in other words, men and women may say different things, yet in principle there is no sound, or word or sentence that a man can utter and a woman cannot, or vice versa. On the other hand, a person can be the speaker while the other person is the listener and as the turn moves on to the listener, he can be the speaker and the first speaker is to listen. It is turn-taking that makes social communication possible and acceptable. Some male birds, however, utter some calls which females do not (or cannot). When a dog barks, all the neighboring dogs bark. Then people around can hardly tell which dog (dogs) is (are) 鈥渟peaking鈥?and which listening.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 9.聽 Why do linguists say language is human specific?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 First of all, human language has six 鈥渄esign features鈥?which animal communication systems do not have, at least not in the true sense of them. Secondly, linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Washoe, a female chimpanzee, was brought up like a human child by Beatnice and Alan Gardner. She was taught 鈥淎merican sign Language鈥? and learned a little that made the teachers happy but did mot make the linguistics circle happy, for few believed in teaching chimpanzees. Thirdly, a human child reared among animals cannot speak a human language, not even when he is taken back and taught to do so.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 10.聽 What functions does language have?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Language has at least seven functions: phatic, directive, Informative, interrogative, expressive, evocative and performative. According to Wang Gang (1988,p.11), language has three main functions: a tool of communication, a tool whereby people learn about the world, and a tool by which people learn about the world, and a tool by which people create art . M .A. K. Halliday, representative of the London school, recognizes three 鈥淢acro-Functions鈥? ideational, interpersonal and textual.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 11.聽 What is the phatic function?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The 鈥減hatic function鈥?refers to language being used for setting up a certain atmosphere or maintaining social contacts(rather than for exchanging information or ideas). Greetings, farewells, and comments on the weather in English and on clothing in Chinese all serve this function. Much of the phatic language (e.g. 鈥淗ow are you?鈥?鈥淔ine, thanks.鈥? is insincere if taken literally, but it is important. If you don't say 鈥淗ello鈥?to a friend you meet, or if you don鈥檛 answer his 鈥淗i鈥? you ruin your friendship.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 12.聽 What is the directive function?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The 鈥渄irective function鈥?means that language may be used to get the hearer to do something. Most imperative sentences perform this function, e. g., 鈥淭ell me the result when you finish.鈥?Other syntactic structures or sentences of other sorts can, according to J. Austin and J. Searle鈥檚 鈥淚ndirect speech act theory鈥?at least, serve the purpose of direction too, e.g., 鈥淚f I were you, I would have blushed to the bottom of my ears!鈥?/p>

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 13.聽 What is the informative function?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Language serves an 鈥渋nformational function鈥?when used to tell something, characterized by the use of declarative sentences. Informative statements are often labelled as true (truth) or false (falsehood). According to P. Grice鈥檚 鈥淐ooperative Principle鈥? one ought not to violate the 鈥淢axim of Quality鈥? when he is informing at all.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 14.聽 What is the interrogative function?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 When language is used to obtain information, it serves an 鈥渋nterrogative function鈥? This includes all questions that expect replies, statements, imperatives etc., according to the 鈥渋ndirect speech act theory鈥? may have this function as well, e.g., 鈥淚鈥檇 like to know you better.鈥?This may bring forth a lot of personal information. Note that rhetorical questions make an exception, since they demand no answer, at least not the reader鈥檚/listener鈥檚 answer.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 15.聽 What is the expressive function?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The 鈥渆xpressive function鈥?is the use of language to reveal something about the feelings or attitudes of the speaker. Subconscious emotional ejaculations are good examples, like 鈥淕ood heavens!鈥?鈥淢y God!鈥?Sentences like 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry about the delay鈥?can serve as good examples too, though in a subtle way. While language is used for the informative function to pass judgment on the truth or falsehood of statements, language used for the expressive function evaluates, appraises or asserts the speaker鈥檚 own attitudes.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 16.聽 What is the evocative function?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The 鈥渆vocative function鈥?is the use of language to create certain feelings in the hearer. Its aim is , for example, to amuse, startle, antagonize, soothe, worry or please. Jokes(not practical jokes, though) are supposed to amuse or entertain the listener; advertising to urge customers to purchase certain commodities; propaganda to influence public opinion. Obviously, the expressive and the evocative functions often go together, i.e., you may express, for example, your personal feelings about a political issue but end up by evoking the same feeling in, or imposing it on, your listener. That鈥檚 also the case with the other way round.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 17.聽 What is the performative function?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 This means people speak to 鈥渄o things鈥?or perform actions. On certain occasions the utterance itself as an action is more important than what words or sounds constitute the uttered sentence. The judge鈥檚 imprisonment sentence, the president鈥檚 war or independence declaration, etc., are performatives.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 18.聽 What is linguistics?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淟inguistics鈥?is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one society, but the language of all human beings. A linguist, though, does not have to know and use a large number of languages, but to investigate how each language is constructed. He is also concerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect, from class to class, how it changes from century to century, how children acquire their mother tongue, and perhaps how a person learns or should learn a foreign language. In short, linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all human languages are constructed and operate as systems of communication in their societies or communities.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 19.聽 What makes linguistics a science?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Since linguistics is the scientific study of language, it ought to base itself upon the systematic, investigation of language data which aims at discovering the true nature of language and its underlying system. To make sense of the data, a linguist usually has conceived some hypotheses about the language structure, to be checked against the observed or observable facts. In order to make his analysis scientific, a linguist is usually guided by four principles: exhaustiveness, consistency, and objectivity. Exhaustiveness means he should gather all the materials relevant to the study and give them an adequate explanation, in spite of the complicatedness. He is to leave no linguistic 鈥渟tone鈥?unturned. Consistency means there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement. Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity in the analysis when it is possible. Objectivity implies that since some people may be subjective in the study, a linguist should be (or sound at least) objective, matter-of-face, faithful to reality, so that his work constitutes part of the linguistics research.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 20.聽 What are the major branches of linguistics?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics. But a linguist sometimes is able to deal with only one aspect of language at a time, thus the arise of various branches: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, psycholinguistics etc.
21.聽What are synchronic and diachronic studies?
The description of a language at some point of time (as if it stopped developing) is a synchrony study (synchrony). The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study (diachronic). An essay entitled 鈥淥n the Use of THE鈥? for example, may be synchronic, if the author does not recall the past of THE, and it may also be diachronic if he claims to cover a large range or period of time wherein THE has undergone tremendous alteration.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 22.聽 What is speech and what is writing?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 No one needs the repetition of the general principle of linguistic analysis, namely, the primacy of speech over writing. Speech is primary, because it existed long long before writing systems came into being. Genetically children learn to speak before learning to write. Secondly, written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds: individual sounds, as in English and French as in Japanese. In contrast to speech, spoken form of language, writing as written codes, gives language new scope and use that speech does not have. Firstly, messages can be carried through space so that people can write to each other. Secondly, messages can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly, oral messages are readily subject to distortion, either intentional or unintentional, while written messages allow and encourage repeated unalterable reading. Most modern linguistic analysis is focused on speech, different from grammarians of the last century and theretofore.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 23.聽 What are the differences between the descriptive and the prescriptive approaches?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A linguistic study is 鈥渄escriptive鈥?if it only describes and analyses the facts of language, and 鈥減rescriptive鈥?if it tries to lay down rules for 鈥渃orrect鈥?language behavior. Linguistic studies before this century were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were based on 鈥渉igh鈥?(literary or religious) written records. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive, however. It (the latter) believes that whatever occurs in natural speech (hesitation, incomplete utterance, misunderstanding, etc.) should be described in the analysis, and not be marked as incorrect, abnormal, corrupt, or lousy. These, with changes in vocabulary and structures, need to be explained also.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 24. What is the difference between langue and parole?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 F. de Saussure refers 鈥渓angue鈥?to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and refers 鈥減arole鈥?to the actual or actualized language, or the realization of langue. Langue is abstract, parole specific to the speaking situation; langue not actually spoken by an individual, parole always a naturally occurring event; langue relatively stable and systematic, parole is a mass of confused facts, thus not suitable for systematic investigation. What a linguist ought to do, according to Saussure, is to abstract langue from instances of parole, i.e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make than the subject of linguistics. The langue-parole distinction is of great importance, which casts great influence on later linguists.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 25.聽 What is the difference between competence and performance?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 According to N. Chomsky, 鈥渃ompetence鈥?is the ideal language user鈥檚 knowledge of the rules of his language, and 鈥減erformance鈥?is the actual realization of this knowledge in utterances. The former enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speaker鈥檚 competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. So a speaker鈥檚 performance does not always match or equal his supposed competence. Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. In other words, they should discover what an ideal speaker knows of his native language. Chomsky鈥檚 competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as, though similar to, F. de Saussure鈥檚 langue-parole distinction. Langue is a social product, and a set of conventions for a community, while competence is deemed as a property of the mind of each individual. Sussure looks at language more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than N. Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 26.聽 What is linguistic potential? What is actual linguistic behaviour?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 These two terms, or the potential-behavior distinction, were made by M. A. K. Halliday in the 1960s, from a functional point of view. There is a wide range of things a speaker can do in his culture, and similarly there are many things he can say, for example, to many people, on many topics. What he actually says (i.e. his 鈥渁ctual linguistic behavior鈥? on a certain occasion to a certain person is what he has chosen from many possible injustice items, each of which he could have said (linguistic potential).

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 27. In what way do language, competence and linguistic potential agree? In what way do they differ? And their counterparts?
聽聽聽 Langue, competence and linguistic potential have some similar features, but they are innately different. Langue is a social product, and a set of speaking conventions; competence is a property or attribute of each ideal speaker鈥檚 mind; linguistic potential is all the linguistic corpus or repertoire available from which the speaker chooses items for the actual utterance situation. In other words, langue is invisible but reliable abstract system. Competence means 鈥渒nowing鈥? and linguistic potential a set of possibilities for 鈥渄oing鈥?or 鈥減erforming actions鈥? They are similar in that they all refer to the constant underlying the utterances that constitute what Saussure, Chomsky and Halliday respectively called parole, performance and actual linguistic behavior. Parole, performance and actual linguistic behavior enjoy more similarities than differences.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 28. What is phonetics?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淧honetics鈥?is the science which studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription, speech sounds may be studied in different ways, thus by three different branches of phonetics. (1) Articulatory phonetics; the branch of phonetics that examines the way in which a speech sound is produced to discover which vocal organs are involved and how they coordinate in the process. (2) Auditory phonetics, the branch of phonetic research from the hearer鈥檚 point of view, looking into the impression which a speech sound makes on the hearer as mediated by the ear, the auditory nerve and the brain. (3) Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, as transmitted between mouth and ear. Most phoneticians, however, are interested in articulatory phonetics.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 29.聽 How are the vocal organs formed?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The vocal organs or speech organs, are organs of the human body whose secondary use is in the production of speech sounds. The vocal organs can be considered as consisting of three parts; the initiator of the air-stream, the producer of voice and the resonating cavities.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 30.聽 What is place of articulation?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 It refers to the place in the mouth where, for example, the obstruction occurs, resulting in the utterance of a consonant. Whatever sound is pronounced, at least some vocal organs will get involved, e.g. lips, hard palate etc., so a consonant may be one of the following (1) bilabial: [p, b, m]; (2)聽 ]; (4) alveolar:[t, d, l, n, s, z]; (5)?, ?labiodental: [f, v]; (3) dental:[ retroflex; (6) palato-alveolar:[聽 ]; (7) palatal:[j]; (8) velar[ k, g]; (9) uvular; (10) glottal:[h]. Some sounds involve the simultaneous use of two places of articulation. For example, the English [w] has both an approximation of the two lips and that two lips and that of the tongue and the soft palate, and may be termed 鈥渓abial-velar鈥?

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 31.聽 What is the manner of articulation?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The 鈥渕anner of articulation鈥?literally means the way a sound is articulated. At a given place of articulation, the airstream may be obstructed in various ways, resulting in various manners of articulation, are the following: (1) plosive:[p, b, t, d, k, g]; (2) nasal:[m, n,]; (3) trill; (4) tap or flap; (5) lateral:[l]; (6) fricative:[f, v, s, z]; (7) approximant:[w, j]; (8) affricate:[聽 ].

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 32.聽 What is IPA? When did it come into being ?聽
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The IPA, abbreviation of 鈥淚nternational Phonetic Alphabet鈥? is a compromise system making use of symbols of all sources, including diacritics indicating length, stress and intonation, indicating phonetic variation. Ever since it was developed in 1888, IPA has undergone a number of revisions.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 33.聽 What is narrow transcription and what is broad transcription?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 In handbook of phonetics, Henry Sweet made a distinction between 鈥渘arrow鈥?and 鈥渂road鈥?transcriptions, which he called 鈥淣arrow Romic鈥? The former was meant to symbolize all the possible speech sounds, including even the most minute shades of pronunciation while Broad Romic or transcription was intended to indicate only those sounds capable of distinguishing one word from another in a given language.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 34.聽 What is phonology? What is difference between phonetics and phonology?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淧honology鈥?is the study of sound systems- the invention of distinctive speech sounds that occur in a language and the patterns wherein they fall. Minimal pair, phonemes, allophones, free variation, complementary distribution, etc., are all to be investigated by a phonologist. Phonetics is the branch of linguistics studying the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. A phonetist is mainly interested in the physical properties of the speech sounds, whereas a phonologist studies what he believes are meaningful sounds related with their semantic features, morphological features, and the way they are conceived and printed in the depth of the mind phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce sounds which from meaningful utterances, to recognize a foreign 鈥渁ccent鈥? to make up new words, to add the appropriate phonetic segments to from plurals and past tenses, to know what is and what is not a sound in one鈥檚 language.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 35.聽 What is a phone? What is a phoneme? What is an allophone?聽
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A 鈥減hone鈥?is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. When we hear the following words pronounced: [pit], [tip], [spit], etc., the similar phones we have heard are [p] for one thing, and three different [p]s, readily making possible the 鈥渘arrow transcription or diacritics鈥? Phones may and may not distinguish meaning. A 鈥減honeme鈥?is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. As an abstract unit, a phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. For example, the phoneme[p] is represented differently in [pit], [tip] and [spit]. The phones representing a phoneme are called its 鈥渁llophones鈥? i.e., the different (i.e., phones) but do not make one word so phonetically different as to create a new word or a new meaning thereof. So the different [p] s in the above words are the allophones of the same phoneme [p]. How a phoneme is represented by a phone, or which allophone is to be used, is determined by the phonetic context in which it occurs. But the choice of an allophone is not random. In most cases it is rule-governed; these rules are to be found out by a phonologist.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 36. What are minimal pairs?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 When two different phonetic forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the string, the two forms (i. e., word) are supposed to form a 鈥渕inimal pair鈥? e.g., 鈥減ill鈥?and 鈥渂ill鈥? 鈥減ill鈥?and 鈥渢ill鈥? 鈥渢ill鈥?and 鈥渄ill鈥? 鈥渢ill鈥?and 鈥渒ill鈥? etc. All these words together constitute a minimal set. They are identical in form except for the initial consonants. There are many minimal pairs in English, which makes it relatively easy to know what are English phonemes. It is of great importance to find the minimal pairs when a phonologist is dealing with the sound system of an unknown language.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 37.聽聽聽 What is free variation?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 If two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast; namely, if the substitution of one for the other does not generate a new word form but merely a different pronunciation of the same word, the two sounds then are said to be in 鈥渇ree variation鈥? The plosives, for example, may not be exploded when they occur before another plosive or a nasal (e. g., act, apt, good morning). The minute distinctions may, if necessary, be transcribed in diacritics. These unexploded and exploded plosives are in free variation. Sounds in free variation should be assigned to the same phoneme.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 38.聽聽聽 What is complementary distribution?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 When two sounds never occur in the same environment, they are in 鈥渃omplementary distribution鈥? For example, the aspirated English plosives never occur after [s], and the unsaturated ones never occur initially. Sounds in complementary distribution may be assigned to the same phoneme. The allophones of [l], for example, are also in complementary distribution. The clear [l] occurs only before a vowel, the voiceless equivalent of [l] occurs only after a voiceless consonant, such as in the words 鈥減lease鈥? 鈥渂utler鈥? 鈥渃lear鈥? etc., and the dark [l] occurs only after a vowel or as a syllabic sound after a consonant, such as in the words 鈥渇eel鈥? 鈥渉elp鈥? 鈥渕iddle鈥? etc.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 39.聽 What is the assimilation rule? What is the deletion rule?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The 鈥渁ssimilation rule鈥?assimilates one segment to another by 鈥渃opying鈥?a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones more similar. This rule accounts for the raring pronunciation of the nasal [n] that occurs within a word. The rule is that within a word the nasal consonant[n] assumes the same place of articulation as the following consonant. The negative prefix 鈥渋n-鈥?serves as a good example. It may be pronounced as [in], [i] or [im] when occurring in different phonetic contexts: e. g., indiscrete-[聽聽聽 ] (alveolar) inconceivable-[聽聽聽 ](velar) input-[鈥榠mput] (bilabial)聽
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The 鈥渄eletion rule鈥?tells us when a sound is to be deleted although is orthographically represented. While the letter 鈥済鈥?is mute in 鈥渟ign鈥? 鈥渄esign鈥?and 鈥減aradigm鈥? it is pronounced in their corresponding derivatives: 鈥渟ignature鈥? 鈥渄esignation鈥?and 鈥減aradigmatic鈥? The rule then can be stated as: delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. This accounts for some of the seeming irregularities of the English spelling.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 40.聽 What is suprasegmental phonology? What are suprasegmental features?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淪uprasegmental phonology鈥?refers to the study of phonological properties of linguistic units larger than the segment called phoneme, such as syllable, length and pitch, stress, intonation.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 41.聽 What is morphology?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淢orphology鈥?is the branch of grammar that studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed. It is generally divided into two fields: inflectional morphology and lexical/derivational morphology.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 42.聽 What is inflection/inflexion?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淚nflection鈥?is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect, and case, which does not change the grammatical class of the items to which they are attached.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 43.聽 What is a morpheme? What is an allomorph?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The 鈥渕orpheme鈥?is the smallest unit in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit which cannot be divided without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. The word 鈥渂oxes鈥? for example, has two morphemes: 鈥渂ox鈥?and 鈥?es鈥? neither of which permits further division or analysis if we don鈥檛 wish to sacrifice meaning. Therefore a morpheme is considered the minimal unit of meaning. Allomorphs, like allophones vs. phones, are the alternate shapes (and thus phonetic forms) of the same morphemes. Some morphemes, though, have no more than one invariable form in all contexts, such as 鈥渄og鈥? 鈥渃at鈥? etc. The variants of the plurality 鈥?s鈥?make the allomorphs thereof in the following examples: map-maps, mouse-mice, sheep-sheep etc.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 44.聽 What is a free morpheme? What is a bound morpheme?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A 鈥渇ree morpheme鈥?is a morpheme that constitutes a word by itself, such as 鈥榖ed鈥? 鈥渢ree鈥? etc. A 鈥渂ound morpheme鈥?is one that appears with at least another morpheme, such as 鈥?s鈥?in 鈥渂eds鈥? 鈥?al鈥?in 鈥渘ational鈥?and so on. All monomorphemic words are free morphemes. Those polymorphemic words are either compounds (combination of two or more free morphemes) or derivatives (word derived from free morphemes).

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 45.聽 What is a root ? What is a stem? What is an affix?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A 鈥渞oot鈥?is the base form of a word that cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity. In other words, a 鈥渞oot鈥?is that part of the word left when all the affixes are removed. 鈥淚nternationalism鈥?is a four-morpheme derivative which keeps its free morpheme 鈥渘ation鈥?as its root when 鈥?inter-鈥? 鈥?al鈥?and 鈥?ism鈥?are taken away.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A 鈥渟tem鈥?is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an affix can be added. It may be the same as, and in other cases, different from, a root. For example, in the word 鈥渇riends鈥? 鈥渇riend鈥?is both the root and the stem, but in the word 鈥渇riendships鈥? 鈥渇riendships鈥?is its stem, 鈥渇riend鈥?is its root. Some words (i. e., compounds ) have more than one root ,e. g., 鈥渕ailman鈥?, 鈥済irlfriend鈥?,ect. An 鈥渁ffix鈥?is the collective term for the type of formative that can be used, only when added to another morpheme(the root or stem). Affixes are limited in number in a language, and are generally classified into three subtypes: prefix, suffix and infix, e. g. , 鈥渕ini-鈥? 鈥渦n-鈥? ect.(prefix); 鈥?ise鈥? 鈥?tion鈥? ect.(suffix).

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 46.聽 What are open classes? What are closed classes?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 In English, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs make up the largest part of the vocabulary. They are 鈥渙pen-class words鈥? since we can regularly add new lexical entries to these classes. The other syntactic categories are, for the most part, closed classes, or closed-class words. The number of them is hardly alterable, if they are changeable at all.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 47. What is lexicon? What is word? What is lexeme? What is vocabulary? Lexicon? Word? Lexeme? Vocabulary?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淟exicon鈥? in its most general sense, is synonymous with vocabulary. In its technical sense, however, lexicon deals with the analysis and creation of words, idioms and collocations. 鈥淲ord鈥?is a unit of expression which has universal intuitive recognition by native-speakers, whether it is expressed in spoken or written form. This definition is perhaps a little vague as there are different criteria with regard to its identification and definition. It seems that it is hard, even impossible, to define 鈥渨ord鈥?linguistically. Nonetheless it is universally agreed that the following three senses are involved in the definition of 鈥渨ord鈥? none of which, though, is expected to cope with all the situations: (1) a physically definable unit, e.g. [it iz 鈥榳聽聽 ] (phonological), 鈥淚t is wonder鈥?(orthographic); (2) the common factor underlying a set of forms (see what is the common factor of 鈥渃hecks鈥? 鈥渃hecked鈥? 鈥渃hecking 鈥? etc.); (3) a grammatical unit (look at (1) again; every word plays a grammatical part in the sentence). According to Leonard Bloomfield, a word is a minimum free form (compare: a sentence is a maximum free form, according to Bloomfield). There are other factors that may help us identify words: (1) stability (no great change of orthographic features); (2) relative uninterruptibility (we can hardly insert anything between two parts of a word or between the letters). To make the category clearer we can subclassify words into a few types: (1) variable and invariable words; (2) grammatical and lexical words (e. g. to, in, etc., and table, chair, etc. By 鈥渓exical words鈥?we mean the words that carry a semantic content, e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives and many adverbs; (3) closed-class and open-class words. In order to reduce the ambiguity of the term 鈥渨ord鈥? the term 鈥渓exeme鈥?is postulated as the abstract unit which refers to the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that can be distinguished from other smaller units. A lexeme can occur in many different forms in actual spoken or written texts. For example, 鈥渨rite鈥?is the lexeme of the following words: 鈥渨rite鈥? 鈥渨rite鈥? 鈥渨rote鈥? 鈥渨riting鈥? and 鈥渨ritten.鈥?鈥淰ocabulary鈥?usually refers to all words or lexical items a person has acquired about technical or/and untechnical things. So we encourage our students to enlarge their vocabulary. 鈥渧ocabulary鈥?is also used to mean word list or glossary.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 48.聽 What is collocation?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淐ollocation鈥?is a term used in lexicology by some linguists to refer to the habitual co-occurrences of individual lexical items. For example, we can 鈥渞ead鈥?a 鈥渂ook鈥? 鈥渃orrect鈥?can narrowly occur with 鈥渂ook鈥?which is supposed to have faults, but no one can 鈥渞ead鈥?a 鈥渕istake鈥?because with regard to co-occurrence these two words are not collocates.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 49.聽 What is syntax?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淪yntax鈥?is the study of the rules governing the ways in which words, word groups and phrases are combined to form sentences in a language, or the study of the interrelationships between sentential elements.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 50.聽 What is a sentence?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 L. Bloomfield defines 鈥渟entence鈥?as an independent linguistic form not included by some grammatical marks in any other linguistic from, i. e., it is not subordinated to a larger linguistic form, it is a structurally independent linguistic form. It is also called a maximum free form.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 51.聽 What are syntactic relations?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淪yntactic relations鈥?refer to the ways in which words, word groups or phrases form sentences; hence three kinds of syntactic relations: positional relations, relations of substitutability and relations of co-occurrence. 鈥淧ositional relation鈥? or 鈥渨ord order鈥? refers to the sequential arrangement to words in a language. It is a manifestation of a certain aspect of what F. de Saussure called 鈥渟yntagmatic relations鈥? or of what other linguists call 鈥渉orizontal relations鈥?or 鈥渃hain relations鈥? 鈥淩elations of substitutability鈥?refer to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in same sentence structures. Saussure called them 鈥渁ssociative relations鈥? Other people call them 鈥減aradigmatic/vertical/choice relations鈥? By 鈥渞elations of co-occurrence鈥? one means that words of different sets of clauses may permit or require the occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence. Thus relations of co-occurrence partly belong to syntagmatic relations and partly to paradigmatic relations.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 52.聽 What is IC analysis? What are immediate constituents (and ultimate constituents)?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淚C analysis鈥?is a new approach of sentence study that cuts a sentence into two (or more) segments. This kind of pure segmentation is simply dividing a sentence into its constituent elements without even knowing what they really are. What remain of the first cut are called 鈥渋mmediate constituents鈥? and what are left at the final cut are called 鈥渦ltimate constituents鈥? For example, 鈥淛ohn left yesterday鈥?can be thus segmented: 鈥淛ohn| left | | yesterday鈥? We get two immediate constituents for the first cut (|), and they are 鈥淛ohn鈥?and 鈥渓eft yesterday鈥? Further split(||) this sentence generates three 鈥渦ltimate constituents鈥? 鈥淛ohn鈥? 鈥渓eft 鈥?and 鈥測esterday鈥?

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 53.聽 What are endocentric and exocentric constructions?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淓ndocentric construction鈥?is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of one or more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable 鈥渃entre鈥?or 鈥渉ead鈥? Usually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases belong to endocentric types because the constituent items are subordinate to the head. 鈥淓xocentric construction鈥? opposite of endocentric construction, refers to a group of syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group as whole; that is to say, there is no definable centre or head inside the group. Exocentric construction usually includes basic sentence, prepositional phrase, predicate (verb + object) construction, and connective (be + complement) construction.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 54.聽聽聽 What is a subject? A predicate? An object?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 In some language, an 鈥渟ubject鈥?refers to one of the nouns in the nominative case, such as 鈥減ater鈥?in the following example: 鈥減ater filium amat鈥?(put literally in English: the father the son loves). In English, a 鈥済rammatical subject鈥?refers to a noun which can establish correspondence with the verb and which can be checked by a tag-question test, e.g., 鈥淗e is a good cook, (isn鈥檛 he?).鈥?A 鈥減redicate鈥?refers to a major constituent of sentence structure in a binary analysis in which all obligatory constituents other than the subject are considered together. e.g., in the sentence 鈥淭he monkey is jumping 鈥? 鈥渋s jumping 鈥?is the predicate. Traditionally 鈥渙bject鈥?refers to the receiver or goal of an action, and it is further classified into two kinds: direct object and indirect object. In some inflecting languages, an object is marked by case labels: the 鈥渁ccusative case鈥?for direct object, and the 鈥渄ative case 鈥?for direct object, and the 鈥渄ative case鈥?for indirect to word order (after the verb and preposition) and by inflections (of pronouns). e.g., in the sentence 鈥淛ohn kissed me鈥? 鈥渕e鈥?is the object. Modern linguists suggest that an object refers to such an item that it can become a subject in passive transformation.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 55.聽 What is category?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The term 鈥渃ategory鈥?in some approaches refers to classes and functions in its narrow sense, e.g., noun, verb, subject, predicate, noun phrase, verb phrase, etc. More specifically it refers to the defining properties of these general units: the categories of the noun, for example, include number, gender, case and countability; and of the verb, for example, tense, aspect, voice, etc.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 56.聽 What is number? What is gender? What is case?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淣umber鈥?is a grammatical category used for the analysis of word classes displaying such contrasts as singular, dual, plural, etc. In English, number is mainly observed in nouns, and there are only two forms: singular and plural. Number is also reflected in the inflections of pronouns and verbs.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淕ender鈥?displays such contrasts as 鈥渕asculine鈥? 鈥渇eminine鈥? 鈥渘euter鈥? or 鈥渁nimate鈥?and 鈥渋nanimate鈥? etc., for the analysis of word classes. When word items refer to the sex of the real-world entities, we natural gender (the opposite is grammatical gender).
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淐ase鈥?identifies the syntactic relationship between words in a sentence. In Latin grammar, cases are based on variations in the morphological forms of the word, and are given the terms 鈥渁ccusative鈥? 鈥渘ominative鈥? 鈥渄ative鈥? etc. In English, the case category is realized in three ways: by following a preposition and by word order.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 57. What is concord? What is government?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淐oncord 鈥?may be defined as requirement that the forms of two or more words of specific word classes that stand in specific syntactic relationship with one another shall be characterized by the same paradigmatically marked category or categories, e.g., 鈥渕an runs鈥? 鈥渕en run鈥? 鈥淕overnment鈥?requires that one word of a particular class in a given syntactic class shall exhibit the form of a specific category. In English, government applies only to pronouns among the variable words, that is, prepositions and verbs govern particular forms of the paradigms of pronouns according to their syntactic relation with them, e.g., 鈥淚 helped him; he helped me.鈥?/p>

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 58.聽 What is a phrase? What is a clause?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A 鈥減hrase鈥?is a single element of structure containing more than one word, and lacking the subject-predicate structure typical of 鈥渃lauses鈥? Traditionally, it is seen as part of a structural hierarchy, falling between a clause and word, e.g., 鈥渢he three tallest girls鈥?(nominal phrase). There is now a tendency to make a distinction between word groups and phrases. A 鈥渨ord group鈥?is an extension of a word of a particular class by way of modification with its main features of the class unchanged. Thus we have nominal group, verbal group, adverbial group, conjunction group and preposition group.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A 鈥渃lause鈥?is group of words with its own subject and predicate included in a larger subject-verb construction, namely, in a sentence. Clauses can also be classified into two kinds: finite and non-finite clauses, the latter referring to what are traditionally called infinitive phrase, participle phrase and gerundial phrase.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 59.聽 What is conjoining? What is embedding? What is recursiveness?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淐onjoining鈥?refers to a construction where one clause is co-ordinated or conjoined with another, e. g., 鈥淛ohn bought a cat and his wife killed her.鈥?鈥淓mbedding鈥?refers to the process of construction where one clause is included in the sentence (or main clause) in syntactic subordination, e.g., 鈥淚 saw the man who had killed a chimpanzee.鈥?By 鈥渞ecursiveness鈥?we mean that there is theoretically no limit to the number of the embedded clauses in a complex sentence. This is true also with nominal and adverbial clauses, e.g., 鈥淚 saw the man who killed a cat who鈥 rat which鈥hat鈥︹€?/p>

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 60.聽 What is hypotactic relation? What is paratactic relation?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淗ypotactic relation鈥?refers to a construction where constituents are linked by means of conjunction, e.g. 鈥淗e bought eggs and milk.鈥?鈥淧aratactic relation鈥?refers to constructions which are connected by juxtaposition, punctuation or intonation, e. g., 鈥淗e bought tea, coffee, eggs and milk鈥?(pay attention to the first three nouns connected without 鈥渁nd鈥?.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 61. What is semantics?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淪emantics鈥?refers to the study of the communication of meaning through language. Or simply, it is the study of meaning.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 62.聽 What is meaning?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Though it is difficult to define, 鈥渕eaning鈥?has the following meaning: (1) an intrinsic property; (2) the connotation of a word; (3) the words put after a dictionary entry; (4) the position an object occupies in a system; (5) what the symbol user actually refers to; (6) what the symbol user should refer to; (7) what the symbol user believes he is referring to; (8) what the symbol interpreter refers to; (9) what the symbol interpreter believes it refers to; (10) what the symbol interpreter believes the user refers to鈥inguists argued about 鈥渕eaning of meaning鈥?fiercely in the result of 鈥渞ealism鈥? 鈥渃onceptualism/mentalism鈥? 鈥渕echanism鈥? 鈥渃ontextualism鈥? 鈥渂ehaviorism鈥? 鈥渇unctionalism鈥? etc. Mention ought to be made of the 鈥淪emantic Triangle Theory鈥?of Ogden & Richards. We use a word and the listener knows what it refers to because, according to the theory, they have acquired the same concept/reference of the word used and of the object/referent.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 63.聽 What is the difference聽 between meaning, concept, connotation, sense, implication, denotation, notation, reference, implicature and signification?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淢eaning鈥?refers to the association of language symbols with the real word. 鈥淐oncept鈥?or 鈥渘otion鈥?is the impression of objects in people鈥檚 mind. 鈥渃onnotation鈥?is the implied meaning, similar to 鈥渋mplication鈥?and 鈥渋mplicature鈥? 鈥淪ense鈥?is the lexical position in which a word finds itself. 鈥淒enotation鈥? like 鈥渟ense鈥? is not directly related with objects, but makes the abstract assumption of the real world. 鈥淩eference鈥?is the word-object relationship. 鈥淚mplicature鈥? in its narrow sense, refers to conversational implicature achieved by intentionally violating one of the four CP maxims. 鈥淪ignification鈥? in contrast with 鈥渧alue鈥? mean the meaning of situation may not have any communicative value, like 鈥淲hat鈥檚 this?鈥?/p>

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 64.聽 What is the Semantic/Semiotic Triangle?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ogden and Richards presented the classic 鈥淪emantic Triangle鈥?as manifested in the following diagram, in which the 鈥渟ymbol鈥?or 鈥渇orm鈥?refers to the linguistic elements (word, sentence, etc.), the 鈥渞eferent鈥?refers to the object in the world of experience, and 鈥渢hought鈥?or 鈥渞eference鈥?refers to concept or notion. Thus, the symbol a word signifies 鈥渢hings鈥?by virtue of the 鈥渃oncept鈥? associated with the form of the word in the mind of the speaker of the language. The 鈥渃oncept鈥?thus considered is meaning of the word.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 65.聽 What is contextualism?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淐ontextualism鈥?is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from, or reduce it to, observable context: the 鈥渟ituational context鈥?and the 鈥渓inguistic context鈥? Every utterance occurs in a particular spatial-temporal situation, as the following factors are related to the situational context: (1) the speaker and the hearer; (2) the actions they are performing at the time; (3) various external objects and events; (4) deictic features. The 鈥渓inguistic context鈥?is another aspect of contextualism. It considers the probability of one word鈥檚 co-occurrence or collocation with another, which forms part of the meaning, and an important factor in communication.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 66.聽 How many kinds of meaning did linguists find and study?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 C. C. Fries (1952) makes a traditional distinction between lexical meaning and structural meaning. The former is expressed by those 鈥渕eaningful鈥?parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and is given in the dictionary associated with grammar. The latter expresses the distinction between the subject and the object of a sentence, oppositions of definiteness, tense the number, and the difference between statements, questions and requests. In a word, 鈥渢he total linguistic meaning of any utterance consists of the lexical meaning of the separate words plus such structural meaning鈥︹€?br>聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 G. Leech (1981) categorizes seven kinds of meaning, five of which are brought under the 鈥渁ssociative meaning鈥? Different from the traditional and the functional approach, F. R. Palmer (1981) and J. Lyons (1977) suggest we draw a distinction between sentence meaning and utterance meaning, the former being directly predictable from the grammatical and lexical features of the sentence, while the latter includes all the various types of meaning not necessarily associated thereto.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 67.聽 What is synonymy?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淪ynonymy鈥?is used to mean sameness or close similarity of meaning. Dictionary makers (lexicographers) rely on the existence of synonymy for their definitions. Some semanticians maintain, however, that there are no real synonyms, because two or more words named synonyms are expected without exception to differ from one another in one of the following aspects: In shades of meaning (e.g., finish, complete, close, conclude, terminate, finalize, end, etc.); In stylistic meaning; In emotive meaning (or affective meaning); In range of use (or collocative meaning); In British and American English usages [e.g., autumn (BrE), fall (AmE)]. Simeon Potter said,鈥?Language is like dress. We vary our dress to suit the occasion. We do not appear at a friend鈥檚 silver-wedding anniversary in gardening clothes, nor do we go punting on the river in a dinner-jacket.鈥?This means the learning of synonyms is important to anyone that wishes to use his language freely and well.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 68.聽 What is Antonymy? How many kinds of antonyms are there?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The term 鈥渁ntonymy鈥?is used for oppositions of meaning; words that stand opposite in meaning are called 鈥渁ntonyms鈥? or opposites, which fall in there categories
1) gradable antonyms (e.g, good-bad); (2) complementary antonyms (e.g., single-married); (3) relational antonyms (e.g., buy-sell).

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 69.聽 What is hyponymy? What is a hyponym? What is superordinate?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淗yponymy鈥?involves us in the notion of meaning inclusion. It is a matter of class membership. That is to say, when X id a kind of Y, the lower term X is the 鈥渉yponym鈥? and the upper term Y is the 鈥渟uperordinate鈥? Two or more hyponyms sharing the same one superordinate are called 鈥渃o-hyponyms鈥? For example, 鈥渇lower鈥?is the superordinate of 鈥渢ulip鈥? 鈥渧iolet鈥?and 鈥渞ose鈥? which are the co-hyponyms of 鈥渇lower鈥?

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 70.聽 What is polysemy? What is homonymy?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淧olysemy鈥?refers to the semantic phenomenon that a word may have than one meaning. For example, 鈥渘egative鈥? means (1) a statement saying or meaning 鈥渘o鈥? (2) a refusal or denial, (3) one of the following words and expressions: no, not, nothing, never, not at all, etc., (4) a negative photograph or film. But we can sometimes hardly tell if a form has several meanings or it is a different word taking this form; hence the difference between polysemy and homonymy.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 71.聽 What is entailment?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淓ntailment鈥?can be illustrated by the following two sentences, with Sentence A entailing Sentence B:
A: He married a blonde heiress.
B: He married a blonde.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 In terms of truth value, the following relationships exist between these two sentences:(1) When A is true, B is necessarily true;(2) When B is false, too;(3) when A is false, B may be true or false; (4) When B is true, A may be true or false. Entailment is basically a semantic relation or logical implication, but we have to assume co-reference of 鈥淗e鈥?in sentence A and sentence B, before we have A entail B.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 72.聽 What is presupposition?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Similar to entailment, 鈥減resupposition鈥?is a semantic relationship or logical connection. The above-mentioned 鈥淲hen phrase No.1鈥漣s also true with presupposition. For example:
A: The girl he married was an heiress.
B: He married a girl.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 But there is an important difference: Presupposition is not subject to negation, i.e., when A is false, B is still true. Other statements about the truth value in presupposition are:(1) When B is true, A can either be true or false;(2) When B is false, A has no truth value at all. Presupposition does not have to be found between two propositions. An example in point is: 鈥?When did you stop beating your wife?鈥?This presupposes that he has been beating his wife.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 73.聽 What is componential analysis?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淐omponential analysis鈥?defines the meaning of a lexical element in terms of semantic components. For example, we may 鈥渃lip鈥?the following words 鈥淢an鈥? 鈥淲oman鈥? 鈥淏oy鈥?and 鈥淕irl鈥?so that we have only separate parts of them.
Man: + Human + Adult + Male
Woman: + Human + Adult -Male
Boy: +Human 鈥揂dult +Male
Girl: +Human 鈥揂dult 鈥揗ale

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 74.聽 What is predication analysis? What is a one-place predicate? What is a two-place predicate? What is a no-place predicate? What are down-graded predications?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淧redication analysis鈥?is a new approach for sentential meaning analysis. 鈥淧redication鈥?is usually considered an important common category shared by propositions, questions, commands, etc. Predication is to break down the sentence into their smaller constituents: argument (logical participant) and predicate (relation element). The 鈥減redicate鈥?is the major or pivotal element governing the argument. We may now distinguish a 鈥渢wo-place predicate鈥?(which governs two arguments, e.g., subject and object), a 鈥渙ne-place predicate鈥?(which governs one argument, i.e., subject) and a 鈥渘o-place predicate鈥?that has simply no argument (no real subject or object).

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 75.聽 What is a logical operator?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淟ogical operator 鈥?make only one kind of the 鈥渓ogical factors鈥?or 鈥渓ogical means鈥? others being 鈥渄efiniteness鈥? 鈥渃oreference鈥? 鈥渢ense鈥?and 鈥渢ime鈥? since predication is not the whole of a sentence or proposition. All these factors play a part in prepositional actualization of the predication ---the pining of a predication down a claim about reality. Example of logical operators are 鈥渘ot鈥? 鈥渁nd鈥? 鈥渙r鈥? 鈥渟ome鈥? 鈥渋f鈥? 鈥渇alse鈥? etc. The term 鈥渓ogical operation鈥?reflects the fact that these meaning elements are often thought of as performing operations, controlling elements of the semantic system, so to speak.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 76.聽 Why is writing important? Why is speech considered prior to writing?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Language can take the form of speech or writing, the former using sound as medium and the latter employing visual symbols. No one could tell when mankind first spoke; nor could people tell when mankind developed the first writing. A writing system consists of a graphemes plus characteristic features of their use, resulting in the diversion of the writing forms; word writing, syllabic writing and sound writing. It is widely considered that speech is the primary medium, and writing the secondary medium. But this comparative diminution does not mean that writing is unimportant. With the shot-lived memory and the finite capacity of information storing, writing is used, partly for compensation and partly for better communication. We cannot trust the negotiation counterpart so we turn to the writing and signing of an agreement. Writing leads people to the acme of science, study and research, and to the ultimate joy of literature

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 77.聽 What is a pictogram? What is an ideogram?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A 鈥減ictogram鈥?refers to an inscription representing the features of a physical object. The Hebrew and the Chinese orthography still reflects traces of their pictorial origin. For instance, the letter 鈥渁鈥?(aleph) imitates the head of an ox and the letter 鈥渂鈥?(beth) imitates a horse. And 鈥渘i煤鈥? 鈥渕菐鈥? 鈥渉菙鈥漚nd hundreds more of Chinese words derived from, and still keep the pictorial resemblance to, the shapes of the things or objects. The advantage of pictograms is that they can be easily understood by anyone. That explains why international road signs and public-toilet signs make a wide use of them.聽
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 An 鈥渋deogram鈥?means an idea picture or idea writing. In order to express the attribute of an object or concepts associated with it, the pictogram鈥檚 meaning had to be extended. For instance, a picture of the sun does not necessarily represent the object itself, but connotes 鈥渨armth鈥? 鈥渉eat鈥? 鈥渓ight鈥? 鈥渄aytime鈥? etc. In spite of its disadvantages, the later form of ideograms turned out to be linguistic symbols, symbols for the sounds of these objects. The process is called the 鈥淩ebus Principle鈥?indicating that writing is like a riddle composed of words or syllables depicted by symbols or pictures that suggest the sound of the words or syllables they represent.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 78.聽 What is word writing? What is sound writing? What is syllabic writing?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Word writing refers to the writing system based on ideograms and/or pictograms, like Chinese. 鈥淪ound writing 鈥?or 鈥渁lphabetic writing鈥? which dominates the world, derived form the Latin alphabet with mild adjustments. Most of the European alphabets belong to the sound writing system, e.g., Spanish, German, French, English, etc. 鈥淪yllabic writing鈥?is a word-syllabus writing, developed by the Egyptians. Japanese is a typical syllabic-writing language, though derived from Chinese, a Sino-Tibetan language. The Japanese modified the Chinese characters they had borrowed from ancient China so that the Japanese syllables (to the number of fifty) were each represented, either by what is called 鈥渉iragana鈥?or by what is name 鈥渒atakana鈥?

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 79.聽 What is a grapheme? What is orthography?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A 鈥済rapheme鈥?is the minimal constructive unit in the writing system of a language. The English grapheme A is represented by A,偽,a etc.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Orthography means correct spelling, spelling rules or attempts to improve spelling.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 80. What is affixation, conversion and compounding?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淎ffixation鈥?is the morphological process whereby grammatical of lexical information is added to the base (root or stem). It has been the oldest and the most productive word-formation method in the English language and some other European languages. 鈥淧refixation鈥?means addition of a prefix to make a new word, while 鈥渟uffixation鈥?means adding a suffix to a word. The word 鈥渦nfaithful鈥?is result of both prefixation and suffixation.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淐onversion鈥?(called sometimes 鈥渇ull conversion鈥? is a word-formation process by which a word is altered from one part of speech into another without the addition (or deletion) of any morpheme. 鈥淧artial conversion鈥?is also alteration when a word of one word-class appears in a function which is characteristic of another word-class, e.g., 鈥?the wealthy鈥?(=wealthy people).
鈥滳ompounding鈥?is so complex a word-formation process as far as English is concerned that there is no formal criterion that can be used for the definition of it, though it may mean simply that two words or more come together used as one lexical item, like 鈥渄ustbin鈥?

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 81.聽 What is blending, abbreviation and back formation?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淏lending鈥?is a relatively complex form of compounding in which two roots are blended by joining the initial part of the first root and the final part of the second root, or by joining the initial parts of the two roots, e.g., smog鈫抯moke+fog, boatel鈫抌oat + hotel, etc.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淎bbreviation鈥? also called in some cases 鈥渃lipping鈥? means that a word that seems unnecessarily long is shortened, usually by clipping either the front or the back part of it, e.g., telephone鈫抪hone, professor鈫抪rof., etc.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Broadly speaking, abbreviation includes acronyms that are made up from the first letters of the long name of an organization, e.g., World Bank鈫扺B, European Economic Community鈫扙EC, etc. Other examples of acronyms can be found with terminologies, to be read like one word, e.g., radio detecting and ranging鈫抮adar. Test of English as a Foreign Language鈫扵OEFL , etc.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淏ack-formation鈥?refers to an abnormal type of word-formation where a shorter word is derived by detecting an imagined affix from a longer form already present in the language. It is a special kind of metanalyais, combined with analogical creation, e.g., editor鈫抏dit, enthusiasm鈫抏nthuse, etc.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 82.聽 What is analogical creation? What is borrowing?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The process of 鈥渁nalogical creation鈥? as one of the English tendencies in English word-formation, refers to the phenomenon that a new word or a new phrase is coined by analogy between a newly created one and an existing one. For example, 鈥渕arathon鈥?appeared at the First Olympic Games and by analogy modern English created such words as 鈥渢elethon鈥? 鈥渢alkthon鈥? etc. Analogy may create single words (e.g., sunrise-moonrise, earthrise, etc.; earthquake-starquake, youthquake, etc.) and phrases (e.g., environmental pollution-sound pollution, air pollution, cultural pollution, etc.).
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淏orrowing鈥?means the English language borrowed words from foreign languages, which fall in four categories: aliens, denizens, translation-loans and semantic borrowings.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淎liens鈥?are foreign loans that still keep their alien shapes, i. e., morphological and phonological features, e.g., 鈥渆lite鈥? 鈥渃oup d茅tat鈥? 鈥渃oup茅鈥? etc.(from French). 鈥淒eniens鈥?, also foreign words, have transformed their foreign appearance, i.e., they have been Angolcized (or Americanized), e. g., 鈥済et鈥?(a Scandinavian borrowing), 鈥渢heater鈥?(a French loan), etc. 鈥淗ybrids鈥?are also denizens, because they are words made up of two parts both from foreign soil, such as 鈥渟ociology鈥?(鈥渟ocio-鈥?from French and 鈥搇ogy from Greek).
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淭ranslation-loans鈥?are words imported by way of translation, e. g., 鈥渂lack humor鈥?from French(鈥渉umor noir鈥?,