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
68
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
Thebiographerhastodancebetweentwoshakypositionswithrespecttothesubject.Tooclosearelation,andthe’mitermaylo
THEMAGICOFEXERCISESupposetherewasapotionthatcouldkeepyoustrongandtrimasyouaged,whileprotectingyourheart
TheBritishreporterYvonneRidleyisthankfullynowhomewithhernine-year-olddaughter,Daisy,followingherreleasefromcap
Abouthalfoftheinfantandmaternaldeathsindevelopingcountriescouldbeavoidedifwomenhad【M1】______usedfamilyplannin
Tounderstandthemarketingconcept,itisonlynecessarytounderstandthedifferencebetweenmarketingandselling.Nottoom
TheDoubleNatureofLiteraryTranslationⅠ.IntroductionNewtendency:combinationoftwotheoriesⅡ.Translationi
TheDoubleNatureofLiteraryTranslationⅠ.IntroductionNewtendency:combinationoftwotheoriesⅡ.Translationi
IntroductiontoEnglishSynonymsEnglishhasthelargestvocabularyandthemostsynonymsofalllanguagesintheworld.This
A、Thestrikehasresultedinagreatlosstotheminingindustry.B、Afewreporterswereallowedtoapproachthemine.C、Halfth
随机试题
以奖励手段扩大人们行为选择的范围,激励人们向着政策主体希望的方向努力的政策是()
应与小儿腹股沟斜疝鉴别的疾病包括
急性乳腺炎的主要原因是
径赛的距离应从起点线的后沿量至终点线的后沿。()
近年来,公安工作的群众路线正在朝着()的方向发展,这就是在党的统一领导下,动员各社会组织自觉承担治安方面的责任义务,形成全社会的治安控制网络。
分层次教学是教育不公平的表现之一。()
甲、乙、丙、丁是四位天资极高的艺术家,他们分别是舞蹈家、画家、歌唱家和作家,尚不能确定其中每个人所从事的专业领域。已知:①有一天晚上,甲和丙出席歌唱家的首次演出。②画家曾为乙和作家画过肖像。③作家正准备写一本甲的传记,他所写的丁的传记是畅销书。④甲
设级数的部分和=__________.
OnFeb.2,2007,theUnitedNationsscientificpanelstudyingclimatechangedeclaredthattheevidenceofawanningtrendis
Themachinehasanenormousadvantage______itisequippedwithanautomaticcontrolsystem.
最新回复
(
0
)