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
76
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
distinguish
解析
演讲者指出按逻辑理据方式给词下定义分为两步,一步是确定一个属的概念,根据句(9)可知,另一步是确定事物区别与同一属中其他相似事物的特性,即属差,故答案为distinguish。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/u8iO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Asimplifiedlanguagederivedfromtwoormorelanguagesiscalledapidgin.Itisacontactlanguagedevelopedandusedbypeop
Thatmanisanaggressivecreaturewillhardlybedisputed.Withtheexceptionofcertainrodents,noothervertebratehabituall
Wesometimesthinkhumansareuniquelyvulnerabletoanxiety,butstressseemstoaffecttheimmunedefensesofloweranimalsto
A、afreeand[airparliamentaryelectionB、nationalstabilityandsecurityC、tilefightagainstdragtradeD、tilefightagainst
ThetradeandinvestmentrelationshipbetweentheEuropeanUnionandtheUnitedStatesisthemostimportantintheworld.Despi
TheDoubleNatureofLiteraryTranslationⅠ.IntroductionNewtendency:combinationoftwotheoriesⅡ.Translationi
Accordingtothepassage,rickshawsareused,inKolkatamainlyforthefollowingpurposesEXPECT______.Whichofthefollowin
A、theEgyptiansthoughtitwasOKtoapproachmilitaryvessels.B、theshipwasacivilianvesselandcausedmisunderstanding.C、
OfalltheAmericanPresidents,whosepresidentialtermisthelongest?
ThesearetoughtimesforWal-Mart,America’sbiggestretailer.Longaccusedofwreckingsmall-townAmericaandcondemnedforth
随机试题
对于____材料磁粉探伤无法应用。
《大学衍义补》
患者,女性,46岁,20年前分娩时曾有过1次癫痫发作史,之后每年仅发作1~2次,因此未坚持规律服药。今日下班回家途中突然意识丧失,四肢抽搐,牙关紧闭,心率增快,血压升高,瞳孔散大。持续20秒后,肌肉开始出现强直和松弛交替。目前护士应该立即为患者提供的护理措
难溶于水而易溶于氯仿的成分是
已知某项目设备采购的计划值与实际值如下表所示,则其设备、工器具价格指数为()。
按照《建筑法》的相关规定,下列表述正确的是( )。
到达某一游览点后,有个别旅游者希望不按规定的线路游览而希望自由游览或摄影时,若环境许可,可满足其要求。()
重返北京白云悠悠,人世悠悠。朱自清离开北京整整五年,想不到如今又回来了。举目无亲,只好先住在朝阳门边一位朋友的家里。他在北大读了四年书,虽也玩过几回西山,但多在城圈子里呆着,始终没到过清华,对它很是陌生。清华设在北京西北部的清
摩擦性失业是劳动者正常流动或生产中不可避免的摩擦造成的短期、局部性失业。根据以上定义,以下属于摩擦性失业的是()。
音信号频带较窄,所以数字语音的码率较低。下面关于数字语音的叙述中,错误的是
最新回复
(
0
)