6.2　课后习题详解

1．What is the test used for determining phonemes in a language?

【答案】If we substitute one sound for another in a word and we get a change of meaning, then the two sounds must be phonemes.

2．Which of the following words would be treated as minimal pairs?

Pat, pen, more, heat, tape, bun, fat, ban, chain, tale, bell, far, meal, vote, bet, pit, heel

【答案】Pat- fat; pat- pit; heat - heel; tape - tale; bun- ban; fat - far; bell- bet; meal - heel.

3．How does an allophone differ from a phoneme?

【答案】Substituting phonemes changes meaning and sound; substituting allophones only changes sound.

4．What’s the difference between an open and a closed syllable?

【答案】An open syllable ends with a vowel whereas a closed syllable ends with a consonant (as coda).

5．Which segments are most likely to be affectively to be affected by elision in the pronunciation of the following words?

(i) postman  (ii) government  (iii) sandwich  (iv) pumpkin

【答案】(i) /t/ (ii) /n/ (iii) /d/ (iv) /p/.