6.3　考研真題與典型題詳解

I. Fill in the blanks.

1．_____ transcription should transcribe all the possible speech sounds, including the minute shades. （北二外2004研）

【答案】Narrow

【解析】當我們用復雜的符號精確地標記語音所有可能的細小變化時，我們稱之為“嚴式轉寫”。

2．_____ refers to the change of a sound as a result of the influence of an adjacent sound. （中山大學2005研）

【答案】Assimilation

【解析】同化指一個音具有了鄰近音的一部分或者全部特征的這一過程，包括鼻化、齒化、鄂化。

3．Stress refers to the degree of _____ used in producing a syllable. （中山大學2006研）

【答案】force

【解析】重音指在音節發音時所用的力度。

4．The different members of a phoneme, sounds which are phonetically different but do not make one word different from another in meaning, are _____. （北二外2009研）

【答案】allophones

【解析】同一個音位在不同語音環境中的實現方式被稱為該音位的音位變體。因為變體是互補分布的，而且發音相似。

5．In English, the two words cut and gut differ only in their initial sounds and the two sounds are two different _____ and the two words are a _____ pair. （北二外2010研）

【答案】phonemes; minimal

【解析】/k/、/g/在cut和gut是兩個不同的音位，這兩個詞，除了出現在同一位置上的一個音外，其余的音都一樣，因此這兩個詞就構成了一個最小的對立體。

6 Phonetic similarity means that the _____ of a phoneme must bear some phonetic resemblance. （中山大學2011年研）

【答案】allophones

【解析】語音相似性指的是承擔一些語音的相似的音位變體。

7．In phonological analysis the words fail-veil are distinguishable simply because of the two phonemes/f/-/v/. This is an example for illustrating _____.

【答案】minimal pairs

【解析】如果有兩個詞，它們除了出現在同一位置上的一個音外，其余的音都一樣，那么這兩個詞就構成了一個最小的對立體，所以fail-veil是最小對立體。

II. Multiple Choice

1．Which of the following is true of an allophone? （對外經貿2005研）

A. A phone can be the allophone of all English vowel phonemes.

B. There are no restrictions on the distribution of an allophone.

C. There is no possibility of an allophone becoming a phoneme.

D. An allophone changes the meaning of the word.

【答案】C

【解析】音素是語音學研究的一個基本單位，是人類的發音器官所能發出的最小語音片段，音位是一組語音特征的抽象集合體，并不是所有的因素都是音位。音位變體必須互補分布，且不會改變詞義。

2．Which of the following is not a minimal pair? （對外經貿2006研）

A. /li:f/ /fi:l/

B. /sip/ /zip/

C. /sai/ /sei/

D. /keit/ /feit/

【答案】A

【解析】根據最小對立體的定義，只有A不符合，因為A中有兩處音不同。

3．A sound which is capable of distinguishing one word or one shape of word from another in a given language is a _____. （北二外2003研)

A. allophone

B. phone

C. phoneme

【答案】C

【解析】音位是音系學研究的一個基本單位，是一組語音特征的抽象集合體，具有區別意義的作用。

4．Which of the following CANNOT be considered as minimal pair? （大連外國語學院2008研）

A. /ai/-/Ci/

B. /p/-/b/

C. /s/-/θ/

【答案】A

【解析】能夠用一個音區別意義的兩個詞叫做最小的對立體。A需要兩個音來區分，不是最小對立體。

5．_____ is one of the suprasegmental features.

A. Voicing

B. Stop

C. Deletion

D. Tone

【答案】D

【解析】超音段特征包括音節，重音，聲調和語調。

6．The most recognizable differences between American English and British English are in _____ and vocabulary.

A. usage

B. grammar

C. pronunciation

D. structure

【答案】C

【解析】英音和美音最大的區別就是發音和詞匯，比如發音方面，美音有兒化音。

III. True or False

1．In the sound writing system, the reference of the grapheme is the phoneme. （清華2001研）

【答案】T

【解析】字形是根據音位的表達寫出來的。

2．A phoneme in one language or one dialect may be an allophone in another language or dialect. （清華2001研）

【答案】T

【解析】同一個音位在不同語音環境中的實現方式被稱為該音位的音位變體。同一個音位在不同的語言中有不同的實現方式，所以在另一語言中是音位變體。

3．The speech sounds which are in complementary distribution are definitely allophones of the same phoneme. （北二外2010研）

【答案】F

【解析】音位變體要滿足兩個條件：互補分布和語音相似性。

4．Broad Transcription is intended to symbolize all the possible speech sounds, including the minute shades. （北二外2003研）

【答案】F

【解析】當我們用一套簡單的符號記音，試圖把一個詞與其他的詞區別開時，我們稱之為寬式轉寫，寬式轉寫不包括一些細小變化。

5．The initial sound of “peak” is aspirated while the second sound of “speak” is unaspirated. They are in free variation. （北二外2005研）

【答案】F

【解析】“peak”和 “speak”中的發音不同的“p”是同一個音位的音位變體，而不是自由對立體。

6．Phonetic similarity means that the allophones of a phoneme must bear some morphological resemblance. （大連外國語學院2008研）

【答案】F

【解析】語音相似性指一個音位的音位變體必須具有語音相似點。

7．The last sound of “top” can be articulated as an unreleased or released plosive. These different realizations of the same phoneme are not in complementary distribution. （北二外2007研）

【答案】T

【解析】如果兩個音素出現在一個相同的語音環境中，且不區別意義，這兩個音素可被看作自由變體。

8．The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communications are all phonemes. （對外經貿2006研）

【答案】F

【解析】我們所聽見和說出的聲音并不總是音位，有可能是音素，只有那些有區別意義的才是音位。

9．The last sound of “sit” can be articulated as an unreleased or released plosive. These different realizations of the same phoneme are not in complementary distribution. （北二外2009研）

【答案】T

【解析】這種情況下這兩個音素就可被視為自由變體。

10．The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by copying a feature of a sequential phoneme，thus making the two phones similar.

【答案】F

【解析】應該是兩個音或兩個音位同化。

11．Two sounds are in free variation when they occur in the same environment and do not contrast, namely, the substitution of one for the other does not produce a different word, but merely a different pronunciation.

【答案】T

【解析】自由變體是指兩個音素出現在一個相同的語音環境中，并不區別意義，即用一個音素替換另一個音素不產生新詞，只產生同一個詞的不同讀音。

IV. Explain the following terms

1．Assimilation （南開大學2010研；武漢大學2008研；上海交大2005研）

【答案】It is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound. It is often used synonymously with coarticulation. Nasalization, dentalization and, velarization are all instances of assimilation. There are two possibilities of assimilation: if a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, it is regressive assimilation; the converse process, in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, is known as progressive assimilation. For example, in “mink”, “n”, which is originally pronounced as /n/, will be velarized by the following “k”/k/, and therefore the word will be pronounced as / miNk/ .

2．Syllable （四川大學2006研）

【答案】Syllable: It refers to a unit of spoken language that is bigger than a speech sound. It consists of one or more vowel sounds alone or of a syllabic consonant alone or of either with one or more consonant sounds preceding or following.

3．Minimal pairs（武漢大學2005研；浙江大學2004研；四川大學2007研；上海交大2006研；北航2008研；北二外2006研）

【答案】The two words which are identical in every way except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in the string. For example, the English words bear and pear constitute a minimal pair as they differ in meaning and in their initial phonemes /b/ and /p/.

4．Coarticulation（武漢大學2008研；四川大學2006研；南開大學2007研）

【答案】Coarticulation refers to the phenomenon of sounds continually show the influence of their neighbors. For example, as in lamb, when a is followed by m, the velum will begin to lower itself during the articulation of a so that it is ready for the following nasal. When such simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved, we call the process coarticulation. If the sound becomes more like the following sound, it is known as anticipatory coarticulation. If the sound displays the influence of the preceding sound, it is preservative coarticulation.

5．Broad and narrow transcription（中山大學2006研）

【答案】Broad and narrow transcription: In broad transcription, one letter symbol is used for one sound. In narrow transcription, there are diacritics added to the one letter symbols to show the finer differences between sounds.

6．Complementary distribution（武漢大學2008研；南開大學2007研）

【答案】When two sounds never occur in the same environment, they are in complementary distribution. For example, the aspirated English stops never occur after (s), and the unaspirated ones never occur initially. Allophones of the same phoneme are usually in complementary distribution. The allophones of /p/, for instance, are also in complementary distribution. The unaspirated(p=) occurs after /s/, while the aspirated(ph)occurs in all other environments except after /s/.

V. Short answer questions

1．Phoneme is the smallest meaningful unit of sound and morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in grammar. （中山大學2011年研）

【答案】A phoneme is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit. It is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. For example, the [P]sound in peak is called an aspirated [p], and the [p] sound in speak is an unaspirated [p]. Its distinctive features of a phoneme are capable of distinguishing meaning.

Morpheme is the smallest unit of language in terms of the relationship between expression and content, a unit that cannot be divided into further smaller units without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. For example, the word “tourists” contains three morphemes. There is one minimal unit of meaning, tour, another minimal unit of meaning -ist (meaning “person who does something”), and a minimal unit of grammatical function -s (indicating plural).

Therefore, phoneme is the smallest meaningful unit of sound and morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit grammar.

2．What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying meaning?

【答案】A suprasegmental feature refers to the phonemic features that occur above the level of sound segment. The major suprasegmental features in English include word stress, sentence stress, tone, and intonation. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning.

For example, a shift of stress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged. Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phonemes. When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English.

3．What is free variation?

【答案】Free variation is a linguistic term used both in phonology and sociolinguistics. In phonology，if two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast．For example，the substitution of one for the other does not generate a new word but merely a different pronunciation of the same word，the two sounds are said to be in “free variation”.

For instance，both either and direction are pronounced differently in British English and American English ithout changing their meaning，which are often caused by the regional differences.

4．What is assimilation? Is it similar to coarticulation? What dose it include?

【答案】Assimilation is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound. It is often used synonymously with coarticulation. Nasalization, dentalization and velarization are all instances of assimilation. There are two possibilities of assimilation: if a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, it is regressive assimilation; the converse process, in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, is known as progressive assimilation.

VI. Essay questions

1．What are phonemes，phones and allophones? Explain their relationship with examples from English or Chinese. （北外2005研）

【答案】A phoneme is a minimally distinctive set of sounds in a language that can signal a difference in meaning. It is an abstract phonological unit represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context.

A phone is an individual phonetic unit or segment that occurs in speech. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. Each of the set of phones which correspond to a single phoneme of a language is called an allophone.

Phonemes are placed between slant lines (/ /) and phones are placed between square brackets ([ ]). Allophones of the same phoneme generally occur in different contexts and never distinguish one word from another.

For example, when we pronounce the two words peak and speak, we are aware that the sound [p] is pronounced differently, in the word peak, the sound [p] is pronounced with a strong puff of air stream; but the same stop sound is pronounced slightly differently in the word speak, the puff of air is withheld a little. The [p] sound in peak is called an aspirated [ph ] and the [p] sound in speak is an unaspirated [p=].

There is a slight difference in the way they are pronounced, but such a difference does not give rise to difference in meaning. So /p/is a phoneme in the English sound system, and it can be realized differently as aspirated or unaspirated in different contexts. The phoneme /p/ in English can be realized as aspirated [ph ]  and unaspirated [p=], which are allophones of the phoneme /p/.

2．Briefly explain what phonetics and phonology are concerned with and what kind of relationships hold between the two. （北外2002研）

【答案】By definition, phonetics is the study of speech sounds, including the production of speech, while phonology is the study of the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables. Both phonetics and phonology are concerned with speech. Phonetics is the study of the production, perception, and physical properties of speech sounds; phonology attempts to account for how they are combined, organized, and convey meaning in particular languages. Phonetics is the study of actual sounds, that is, the analysis and modeling the speech signal; phonology is concerned with a more abstract description of speech sounds and tries to describe the regularities of sound patterns in different languages or within a language. In this sense, phonetics is concrete, while phonology is abstract. What phonetics studies is the speech sound, namely phone, what phonology studies is phoneme.