胡壮麟语言学第三章课件.ppt

* * * * * * * * * * From the examples, one can see clearly that the plural meaning in English can be represented by the voiceless /s/, the voiced /z/, the vowel-consonant structure /iz/, the diphthong /ai/ found in the irregular form of /mais/, the nasal sound /n/ in /οksn/, the long vowel /i:/ in /ti:θ/ and the zero form /?/ of /∫i:p/ and others. Each would be said to be an ALLOMORPH of the plural morpheme. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * When one is faced with a set of nouns, such as boy and boys or a set of verbs, such as check, checks, checked, and checking, they are recognized as two words and four words respectively in the frequency count of a piece of writing or an utterance. However, they are each regarded as one word in a dictionary, as the two noun forms share the same root boy and all the four verb forms share the same root check. * * * * * * * (1) Words are the most stable of all linguistic units, in respect of their internal structure, that is, the constituent parts of a complex word have little potential for rearrangement, compared with the relative positional mobility of the constituents of sentences in the hierarchy. Take the word chairman for example. If the morphemes are rearranged as *manchair, it is an unacceptable word in English. But it is all right for us to rearrange the constituents in a sentence to a certain degree. ex. 3-4 The chairman looked at the audience. The audience looked at the chairman. (2) By uninterruptibility, we mean new elements are not to be inserted into a word even when there are several parts in a word. Nothing is to be inserted in between the three parts of the word disappointment: dis + appoint + ment. Nor is one allowed to use pauses between the parts of a word (*dis appoint ment). In contrast, one could add Jane in the coordinating subject of the following sentence. ex. 3-5 Paul, (Jane) and Rebecca are my classmates. In an extreme case, one could insert the adverb eve