首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Motivation for Words Motivation deals with the connection between name and sense. Basically, there are three motivations for wor
Motivation for Words Motivation deals with the connection between name and sense. Basically, there are three motivations for wor
admin
2012-06-24
45
问题
Motivation for Words
Motivation deals with the connection between name and sense. Basically, there are three motivations for words: I. Onomatopoeic motivation—defining the principle of motivation by (1) ’
—primary onomatopoeia: the (2)______of sound
by sound
—(3) ______ onomatopoeia; association of sound
with senses
e. g. -ump suggests (4)______.
II. (5)______motivation—defining motivation by
mental association. It is closely connected with figures of speech:
—(6)______:containing an implied comparison
—metonymy: naming something by its attributes
—synecdoche:the (7)______of a part for a whole
or vice versa III. Logical motivation—defining a concept by logic.
There are two (8)______ involved in giving a
definition: the first is to identify the genus and the second
is to (9)______ the item being defined from other
similar species in the same genus.
There may be factors leading to the loss of motivation. They are change in morphological structure and change in (10)______.
Motivation for Words
Good morning. Today’s lecture is about the motivation for words. First, what is motivation? Motivation deals with the connection between name and sense. In the previous lecture, we have mentioned two rival schools of thought: one school is the Naturalists, who believed that there was an intrinsic connection between sound and sense; the other school is the Conventionalists, who held that the connection between sound and sense was purely a matter of tradition and convention.
The first motivation is the onomatopoeic motivation. The word onomatopoeic is derived from the Greek word onomatopoeia, which means " word-making". (1) Onomatopoeic motivation means defining the principle of motivation by sound. The sounds of such words as cuckoo, ding-dong, buzz, seem to be appropriate to their senses. But it has to be pointed out that onomatopoeic words constitute only a small part of the vocabulary. According to Stephen Ullmann, onomatopoeic formation can be divided into primary onomatopoeia and secondary onomatopoeia. (2) Primary onomatopoeia means the imitation of sound by sound. Here the sound is truly an "echo to the sense". Terms like crack, growl, hum, roar, squeak, whiz and a great many fall into this category. (3) Secondary onomatopoeia means that certain sounds and sound-sequences are associated with certain senses in an expressive relationship. In this form, the sounds evoke a movement, as in such words; quiver, wriggle, slither. The sound may also evoke some physical or moral quality, usually unfavorable. For example, gloom, slimy, sloppy, sloth.
Some of these onomatopoeic terms have certain elements in common. For example, the sound /sn/may express three types of experiences. They are, first, "breath-noise" as in sniff, snuff, snore, snort, second, "quick separation or movement" as in snip, snap, snatch, and thirdf "creeping" as in snake, snail, sneak. Final groups have similar functions. For example, the combination of -are at the end of a word suggests "big light or noise" as in blare, flare, glare, stare; (4) the combination of -ump at the end of a word suggests "heavy fall" as in dump, crump, plump, slump, thump.
Another interesting feature of onomatopoeic patterns is that they often work by vowel alternation. By substituting one vowel for another, one can express different noises. For example; snip—snap, sniff-—snuff, flip—-flap—flop. Closely connected to this tendency are reduplicated words and phrases, such as wishy—washy, tit—tat, tick—tock, click—clack. It should be noted that many onomatopoeic forms are based on alternations of not vowels but of initial consonants, such as higgledy—piggledy, helter—skelter, namby—pamby, roly—poly, etc.
The second motivation is semantic motivation. (5) Semantic motivation means that motivation is based on semantic factors. It is a kind of mental association. When we speak of the bonnet of a car, a coat of paint, or when we speak of potatoes cooked in their jackets, these expressions are motivated by the similarity between the garments and the objects referred to. In the same way, when.we say the cloth for the clergy, town and gown for town and university, there is semantic motivation due to the fact that the garments in question are closely associated with the persons they designate. Both types of expressions are figurative: the former are metaphoric and the latter are metonymic. We can see that semantic motivation is closely connected with figures of speech. Here I’ll name three of them. First, metaphor. (6) Metaphor is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison. For example: " he has a heart of stone" , " The curtain of night has fallen. " Another figure of speech is metonymy. It is a device in which we name something by one of its attributes, as in crown for king, the turf for horse-racing, the White House for the US President. Similar to metonymy is (7) synecdoche, which means the substitution of a part for a whole or a whole for a part, as in bread for food, the army for a soldier, etc.
Apart from onomatopoeic motivation and semantic motivation, there is also logical motivation. Logical motivation deals with the problem of defining a concept by means of logic. A definition has two forms. A common form of definition is " This means such and such." "Fat" means "having much flesh". Another form of definition is "This means the same as that" or "This is equivalent to that". "Fat" means "the same as obese". These two forms of definition show that a definition has two parts: the word being defined, and the definition that is being made. (8) Giving a definition involves two steps to be taken. One step is to identify the concept of a genus, that is, a class of things made up of two or more subordinate classes or species. (9) The other step is to identify the attributes distinguishing one species from other similar species in the same genus. A combination of these two approaches helps to define a concept. For example, in the 1950s, there appeared a new crisis gripping the minds of part of the American youth. These young people felt disturbance and anxiety about their personality development and adjustment. This crisis is called an identity crisis. The word "crisis" is a genus, which consists of two or more species, such as spiritual crisis, economic crisis, political crisis, etc. The expression "identity crisis" is used to distinguish itself from other crisis.
So far we have covered the three motivations for words; onomatopoeic motivation, semantic motivation, and logical motivation. However.it is not always easy to identify clearly the motivation for each word in our vocabulary. In such case, we may say the motivation is lost. There may be two factors which lead to loss of motivation. (10) One is a change in the morphological structure of a word. and the other factor.is change of meaning. In next lecture, we’ll discuss these two changes in detail. This is the end of today’s lecture. Thank you for your attention.
选项
答案
steps/procedures
解析
演讲者探讨的第三个理据是“logical motivation”,即逻辑理据,根据句(8)可知,按逻辑理据方式给词下定义分为两步,故答案为step/procedures。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/r8iO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
TheFutureofPCMarketThefirstDevelopersConferenceinChinamarksamajormilestoneforMicrosoft,becausethesuccesso
TheshortstoryTheMurderintheRueMorguewaswrittenby______.
Asimplifiedlanguagederivedfromtwoormorelanguagesiscalledapidgin.Itisacontactlanguagedevelopedandusedbypeop
A、TheyworrythattheIrishRepublic’sbudgetplanwillunderminethestabilityofEuropeanUnions.B、EUcountriesfearthatIri
WhichofthefollowingsportswasNOTinventedinBritain?
Peopledonotanalyzeeveryproblemtheymeet.Sometimestheytrytorememberasolutionfromthelasttimetheyhadasimilarp
ThesearetoughtimesforWal-Mart,America’sbiggestretailer.Longaccusedofwreckingsmall-townAmericaandcondemnedforth
PeoplearenowbuyingeverythingovertheWeb--notjustbooksandCDs.Onlineconsumersareforkingovercashtobuyfood,zoomi
PeoplearenowbuyingeverythingovertheWeb--notjustbooksandCDs.Onlineconsumersareforkingovercashtobuyfood,zoomi
HighRisk,HighRewardThesearetoughtimesforWal-Mart,America’sbiggestretailer.LongaccusedofimplementingAlwaysL
随机试题
西方国家大都市区市政体制改革的主要途径有【】
公式“=SUM(A1:A5)”求和的元素个数为【】
异烟肼比色法测定倍他米松磷酸钠注射液时,可应用的溶剂是
下列有关消防水泵接合器安装说法中,错误的是()。
下列选项中,导致公司资本成本上升的因素有()。
制作面包需要面粉、糖和酵母等原料,有时还要加入淀粉酶。下列说法错误的是()。
经济学家:有人主张对居民的住房开征房产税,其目的是抑制房价,或为地方政府开拓稳定的税源.或调节贫富差别。如果税收不是一门科学,如果税收没有自身运行的规律,那么,根据某些官员的意志而决定开征房产税就是可能的。房产税是财产税,只有我国的税务机关达到征收直接税和
2011--2014年,货物进出口总额增长率最高的年份是:
如图所示的电路中,电源电压保持不变。闭合电键S,当滑动变阻器的滑片P向右移动时,不变的是:
A、DemiMoorewasgreatlyinfluencedbyherparents.B、DemiMoorewasonceHollywood’shighest-paidactress.C、BruceWilliswasa
最新回复
(
0
)