臺北巿立師範學院

九十三學年度研究所碩士班入學考試試題

所　　別：英語教學系碩士班

科　　目：語言學概論

考試時間：九十分鐘

總 分：一百分

※ 注意：不必抄題，作答時請將試題題號及答案依照順序寫在答卷上。(於本試題紙上作答者，不予計分)

Note: All questions must be answered in English.

I. Define the following terms, first by presenting a formal definition and then by giving an example (40%; five points for each question)

1. Structure dependency

2. Regressive assimilation

3. Allomorph

4. Garden path sentence

5. Finite clause

6. Derivational morpheme

7. Recursion

8. Function word

II. Answer the following questions (60%; 10 points for each question).

1. Circle any deictic expression in the following sentences.

(a) We saw his uncle standing here.

(b) Last week, my troubles seemed so far away.

(c) The name of this band is “West Life.”

(d) These are the times that try men’s souls.

(e) That girl is sitting in front of her friends.

2. Discuss and compare the following language phenomena in society.

(a) Pidgins

(b) Creoles

3. Do the following two VPs have distinct constituent structures? Justify your

answer by testing the structures syntactically and drawing a separate tree diagram to represent the structure of each sentence.

The soldiers looked up the valley.

The soldiers looked up the code number.

4. Examine the following words.

spokesman, statesman, yachtswoman, salesclerk, talesman

Is the “s” underlined in the above words an infix in English? Provide detailed empirical arguments in support of your answer.

5. Write sentences according to the instructions below.

(a) Write an English sentence that makes a presupposition, and point out what the presupposition is. (4%)

(b) Write an English sentence that contains two coreferential Noun Phrases and underline the two coreferential NPs. (3%)

(c) Write an English sentence that has both (1) a literal meaning and (2) a metaphorical meaning, and explain each meaning. (3%)

6. Examine the following sentence.

Maria hit the bat with the marble.

(a) Discuss the lexical ambiguity contained in the sentence.

(b) Discuss the structural ambiguity contained in the sentence and draw separate tree diagrams to illustrate the ambiguity.