1、2012 年厦门大学英语专业（语言学）真题试卷及答案与解析一、简答题1 In what way do we say language is arbitrary?(10 points)2 Please state what a morpheme is and how many types of morphemes there are in English.(10 points)3 What are meronymy and hyponymy respectively?(10 points)2012 年厦门大学英语专业（语言学）真题试卷答案与解析一、简答题1 【正确答案】 Language is
2、arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for, and between the sounds that people use and the objects to which these sounds refer, for instance, between the word “pen“ and the thing we write with.(4 points)This phenomenon expl
3、ains and is explained by the fact that different languages have different words for the same object, which is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language. Another good example is the fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages. It is only our ta
4、cit agreement of utterance and concept at work and not any innate relationship bound up in the utterance.(4 points)A typical example to illustrate the arbitrary of language is a famous quotation from Shakespeares play Romeo and Juliet; A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.(2 points)【试题解析】 考
5、查语言的任意性特征。语言的任意性特征是指语言符号的形式与所表示的意义之间没有天然的联系。语言符号的音义联系并非是本质的、必然的，而是由社会成员共同约定的。一种意义为什么要用这个声音形式，而不用那种声音形式，这中间没有什么道理可言，完全是偶然的、任意的。语言符号和客观事物之间没有必然联系。2 【正确答案】 Morpheme is the smallest unit of language in terms of the relationship between expression and content, a unit that cannot be divided into further s
6、maller units without destroying or drastically changing the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. For example, the word chairman is made up of chair and man, townhall of town and hall. Words like boys, checking and disappointment can likewise be further analyzed. They are made up of boy and
7、 -s, check and -ing, dis-, appoint and -ment. These smaller components are known as morphemes. But they themselves cannot be further analyzed.(4 points)Morphemes can be sub-classified into different types, depending on what criteria you attempt to follow. Morphemes can be classified into two types,
8、that is, free morphemes and bound morphemes, depending on whether they can occur alone.(2 points)Poly-morphemic words other than compounds may be divided into roots and affixes. Root is the base form of a word that cannot be further analyzed without destroying its meaning. Affix is a collective term
9、 for the type of morpheme that can be used only when added to another morpheme, so affix is naturally bound.(2 points)Furthermore, affixes can be divided into inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes. The former is to add a minute or delicate grammatical function to the stem; while the latt
10、er is very productive in making new words.(2 points)【试题解析】 考查语素的定义及分类。语素是最小的语言单位，不能再进一步划分为更小的单位而不破坏或彻底改变其词汇意义或语法意义。根据不同的标准，语素可以分为不同的类型。根据能否单独出现，可以把语素分为自由语素和粘着语素；除复合词以外的多语素词还可以再分为词根和词缀；词缀又可分为屈折词缀和派生词缀。3 【正确答案】 Meronymy refers to the phenomenon that a word means a part of another, such as neck/body, d
11、rawer/ desk.(3 points)Hyponymy is a matter of class membership which indicates a category to which the words all belong. The upper term in this sense relation, i. e. the class name, is called superordinate, and the lower terms, the members, hyponyms. A superordinate usually has several hyponyms, and
12、 these members of the same class are co-hyponyms.(3 points)Meronymy can be expressed by the pattern “X is a part of Y“ , whereas hyponymy is by the pattern “X is a kind of Y“. For example, head is a part of body, but not a kind of body, while potato is a kind of vegetable, but not a part of vegetable.(4 points)【试题解析】 考查部分一整体关系及上下义关系。部分一整体关系(meronymy)属于包含关系，各个部分恰当组合才能构成整体，若将它们分离开，则各自只具有自身功能，丧失构成整体的那部分作用，整体也不可称其为整体。该关系可用公式X is a part of Y 表示。上下义关系也是包含关系，但是是一种类和成员之间的关系，可用公式 X is a kind of Y 来表示，其中 Y 为 X 的上坐标词， X 为 Y 的下义词。
