精彩书摘:
From this diagram，we can say that "horse is a hyponym of animal" or that ‘ant is a hyponym of insect'.We can also say that two or more terms which share the same superordinate （lugher-up） term are co-hyponyms. So，horse and dog are co-hyponyms， and the superordinate term is animal.
The relation of hyponymy captures the idea of'is a kind of'， as when you give the meaning of a word by saying "an asp is a kind of snake".lt is often the case that the only thing some people know about the meaning of a word in their language is that it is a hyponym of another term. That is， you may know notlung more about the meaning of asp other than that it is a kind of snake.
It is worth emphasizing that.it is not only words for‘things' that are hyponyms. Terms for actions， such as cut， punch， shoot and stab， can all be found as co-hyponyms of the superordinate term injure.
Prototypes
While the words canary， dove， duck， flamingo， parrot， pelican， robin， swal-low and thrush are all equally co-hyponyms of the superordinate bird， they are not all considered to be equally good exemplars of the category ‘bird'.For'many American English speakers， the best exemplar， or the prototype， of‘bird' is the robin.The concept of a prototype helps explain the mearung of certain words， like bird， not in terms of component features （e.g.‘has feathers'，‘has wings'）， but in terms of resemblance to the clearest exemplar. Thus， even native speakers of English nught wonder if ostrich and penguin should be hyponyms of bird （technically， they are）， but have no trouble deciding about sparrow or prgeon.The last two are much closer to the proto-type.
Given the category label furniture， we are quicker to recognize chair as an exemplar than bench or stool. Given clothing， people recognize shirts quicker than shoes，and given vegetable，they accept carrot before potato or tomato.lt is obvious that there is some general pattern to the categorization process involved in prototypes and that it determines our interpretation of word meaning. However， this is one area where individual experience results in variation in interpretation， as when people disagree about whether tomato is a fruit or a vegetable.
Homophony， homonymy and polysemy
There are three other， less well-known terms which are often used to describe relationships among words in a language. The first of these is homophony. When two or more different （written） forms have the same pronunciation，they are described as homophones. Some examples are bare - bear， meat-meet， ftour flower，pail-pale， sew-so.
The term homonymy is used when one form （written and spoken） has two or more unrelated meanings. Examples of homonyms are the pairs bank （of a river） - bank （financialinstitution）， bat （flying creature） - bat （used in sports）， race （contest of speed） - race （ethnic group）， pupll （at school）-pupil （in the eye） and mole （on skin） - mole （small animaI）.The temptation is to think that the two types of bank must be related in meaning.They are not. Homonyms are words which have quite separate meanings， but which have accidentally come to have exactly the same form.
Relatedness of meaning accompanying identical form is technically known as polysemy， which can be defined as one form （written or spoken）having multiple meanings which are all related by extension. Examples are the word head，used to refer to the object on top of your body， on top of a glass of beer， on top of a company or department; or foot （of person， of bed， of mountain），or run （person does，water does，colors do）.
The distinction between homonymy and polysemy is not always clear cut. However，one indication of the distinction can be found in the typical dictio-nary entry for words. If a word has multiple meanings （polysenuc）， then there will be a single entry，with a numbered list of the different meanings of the word.lf two words are treated as homonyms，they will typically have two separate entries.You could check in your dictionary and probably find that the different meanings of words like head， get， run， face and foot are treated as examples of polysemy， whereas mail， bank， sole and mole are treated as examples of homonymy.
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内容简介：
《语言研究》是一本专为语言学初学者编写的入门教材。全书共分二十一章。作者以科学、客观的态度把人类关于语言的研究做了一番详细、全面的介绍，几乎涉及语言研究的所有领域。有些领域甚至分得非常细，如构词法和形态学专辟两章，语法和句法专辟两章，语用学和话语分析也分两章介绍。全书的语言朴实易懂，没有用新奇的术语唬人。为便于读者学习，每章还配有许多思考题和习题。
该书介绍的语言研究涵盖传统语言学（如语言文字学、历史语言学）和现代西方语言学诸领域。但是作者不以流派分章节，重在介绍现代语言学，兼顾传统语言学；既注重知识的系统性，又顾及到内容的趣味性。例如，作者在论述语言的属性之后意犹未尽，又辟一章举数例说明人和动物之间在交际和学习语言方面的根本差异：灵长目动物黑猩猩虽然能理解一些极基本的符号，但是它们的交际能力与人类的语言能力不可同日而语。
目录：
王宗炎序
导读
Preface
Preface to second edition
1 The origins of language
2 The development of writing
3 The properties of language
4 Animals and human language
5 The sounds of language
6 The sound patterns of language
7 Words and word-formation processes
8 Morpology
9 Phrases and sentences:grammar
10 Syntax
11 Semantics
12 Pragmatics
13 Discourse analysis
14 Language and machines
15 Language and the brain
16 First language acquisition
17 Second language acquisition/learning
18 Sign language
19 Language history and change\
20 Language varieties
21 Language,society and culture
Appendix
References
Index
文库索引
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