6.3　考研真题与典型题详解

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】当我们用复杂的符号精确地标记语音所有可能的细小变化时，我们称之为“严式转写”。

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

【答案】Assimilation

【解析】同化指一个音具有了邻近音的一部分或者全部特征的这一过程，包括鼻化、齿化、鄂化。

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

【答案】force

【解析】重音指在音节发音时所用的力度。

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】同一个音位在不同语音环境中的实现方式被称为该音位的音位变体。因为变体是互补分布的，而且发音相似。

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是两个不同的音位，这两个词，除了出现在同一位置上的一个音外，其余的音都一样，因此这两个词就构成了一个最小的对立体。

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

【答案】allophones

【解析】语音相似性指的是承担一些语音的相似的音位变体。

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】如果有两个词，它们除了出现在同一位置上的一个音外，其余的音都一样，那么这两个词就构成了一个最小的对立体，所以fail-veil是最小对立体。

II. Multiple Choice

1．Which of the following is true of an allophone? （对外经贸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】音素是语音学研究的一个基本单位，是人类的发音器官所能发出的最小语音片段，音位是一组语音特征的抽象集合体，并不是所有的因素都是音位。音位变体必须互补分布，且不会改变词义。

2．Which of the following is not a minimal pair? （对外经贸2006研）

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

B. /sip/ /zip/

C. /sai/ /sei/

D. /keit/ /feit/

【答案】A

【解析】根据最小对立体的定义，只有A不符合，因为A中有两处音不同。

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】音位是音系学研究的一个基本单位，是一组语音特征的抽象集合体，具有区别意义的作用。

4．Which of the following CANNOT be considered as minimal pair? （大连外国语学院2008研）

A. /ai/-/Ci/

B. /p/-/b/

C. /s/-/θ/

【答案】A

【解析】能够用一个音区别意义的两个词叫做最小的对立体。A需要两个音来区分，不是最小对立体。

5．_____ is one of the suprasegmental features.

A. Voicing

B. Stop

C. Deletion

D. Tone

【答案】D

【解析】超音段特征包括音节，重音，声调和语调。

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】英音和美音最大的区别就是发音和词汇，比如发音方面，美音有儿化音。

III. True or False

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

【答案】T

【解析】字形是根据音位的表达写出来的。

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

【答案】T

【解析】同一个音位在不同语音环境中的实现方式被称为该音位的音位变体。同一个音位在不同的语言中有不同的实现方式，所以在另一语言中是音位变体。

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】音位变体要满足两个条件：互补分布和语音相似性。

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】当我们用一套简单的符号记音，试图把一个词与其他的词区别开时，我们称之为宽式转写，宽式转写不包括一些细小变化。

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”中的发音不同的“p”是同一个音位的音位变体，而不是自由对立体。

6．Phonetic similarity means that the allophones of a phoneme must bear some morphological resemblance. （大连外国语学院2008研）

【答案】F

【解析】语音相似性指一个音位的音位变体必须具有语音相似点。

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】如果两个音素出现在一个相同的语音环境中，且不区别意义，这两个音素可被看作自由变体。

8．The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communications are all phonemes. （对外经贸2006研）

【答案】F

【解析】我们所听见和说出的声音并不总是音位，有可能是音素，只有那些有区别意义的才是音位。

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】这种情况下这两个音素就可被视为自由变体。

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】应该是两个音或两个音位同化。

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】自由变体是指两个音素出现在一个相同的语音环境中，并不区别意义，即用一个音素替换另一个音素不产生新词，只产生同一个词的不同读音。

IV. Explain the following terms

1．Assimilation （南开大学2010研；武汉大学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 （四川大学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（武汉大学2005研；浙江大学2004研；四川大学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（武汉大学2008研；四川大学2006研；南开大学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（中山大学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（武汉大学2008研；南开大学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. （中山大学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.