2.3　考研真题与典型题详解

I. Fill in the blanks.

1．The sound [b] can be described with “______, bilabial, stop”. (北二外2004研)

【答案】voiced

【解析】/b/是双唇音，爆破音，浊音。

2．Consonant articulations are relatively easy to feel and as a result are most conveniently described in terms of ______ and manner of articulation.(北二外2004研)

【答案】place

【解析】辅音根据发音方式和发音部位进行分类。

3．______ are produced by constricting or obstructing the vocal tract at some place to divert, impede, or completely shut off the flow of air in the oral cavity.(中山大学2006研)

【答案】consonants

【解析】发音时，声道的某些部位受到压缩或阻碍后，使得气流在口腔里转向、受阻或完全被阻塞而产生的音叫做辅音。

4．Consonant articulations are relatively easy to feel, and as a result are most conveniently described in terms of place and ______ of articulation.(北二外2008研)

【答案】manner

【解析】辅音根据发音方式和发音部位进行分类。

5．The sound [k] can be described with “voiceless, ______, stop”. (北二外2003研)

【答案】velar

【解析】/k/是清音，软腭音，爆破音。

6．______ refers to the change of a sound as a result of the influence of an adjacent sound. (中山大学2005研)

【答案】assimilation

【解析】同化指一个音具有了邻近音的一部分或者全部特征的这一过程，包括鼻化、齿化、鄂化。

7．Stress refers to the degree of ______ used in producing a syllable.(中山大学2006研)

【答案】force

【解析】重音指在音节发音时所用的力度。

8．In phonological analysis the words fail-veil are distinguishable simply because of the two phonemes/f/-/v/. This is an example for illustrating ______.

【答案】Minimal pairs

【解析】如果有两个词，它们除了出现在同一位置上的一个音外，其余的音都一样，那么这两个词就构成了一个最小的对立体，所以fail-veil是最小对立体。

9．In English there are a number of ______, which are produced by moving from one vowel position to another through intervening positions.

【答案】Diphthongs

【解析】如果在发音时通过舌头的一次运动，由第一个单元音滑向第二个单元音，这样产生的音的组合就叫做双元音。

10．The different members of a phoneme, sounds which are phonetically different but do not make one word different from another in meaning, are ______.

【答案】Allophones

【解析】同一个音位在不同语音环境中的实现方式被称为该音位的音位变体。因为变体是互补分布的，而且发音相似。

11．Phonetic similarity means that the ______ of a phoneme must bear some phonetic resemblance. (中山大学2011研)

【答案】allophones

【解析】语音的相似性指一个音位的音位变体必须具备某些语音相似性。

II. Multiple Choice

1．All syllables contain a ______. (北二外2004研)

A. nucleus

B. coda

C. onset

【答案】A

【解析】一般的音节由节首、节核和节尾构成，一个音节中可以没有节首或节尾，但一定有节核。

2．Of the three cavities. ______ is the most variable and active in amplifying and modifying speech sounds. (北二外2004研)

A. nasal cavity

B. pharynx cavity

C. oral cavity

【答案】C

【解析】在三大发音器官中，气流在口腔中受挤或转向从而产生不同的声音。

3．Of the consonants /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /m/, /z/ and /g/, which has the features of voiceless and velar? (对外经贸2005研)

A. /k/

B. /p/

C. /g/

D. /t/

【答案】A

【解析】/k/是清音，软腭音，爆破音；/t/是齿龈音，爆破音，清音；/g/是浊音，软腭音，爆破音，/p/是双唇音，爆破音，轻音。

4．The consonant (s) in the word “smile” can be described as_____. (对外经贸2006研)

A. voiceless; oral; alveolar; fricative

B. voiceless; nasal; bilabial; liquid

C. voiced; oral; alveolar; plosive

D. voiced; oral; bilabial; fricative

【答案】A

【解析】/s/是清音，摩擦音，齿龈音。

5．The vowel ______ is a low back vowel. (西安外国语学院2006研)

A. /i:/

B. /u/

C. /e/

D. /a/

【答案】D

【解析】/a/是低元音，后元音，紧音。

6．The categories of consonant are NOT established on the basis of ______. (大连外国语学院2008研)

A. manners of articulation

B. place of articulation

C. narrow transcription

【答案】C

【解析】划分辅音的两个根据是发音位置和发音方式。

7．Point out which item does not fall under the same category as the rest, and explain the reason in ONE sentence. (南京大学2008研)

A. /f/

B. /z/

C. /ʒ/

D. /k/

(Focus on manner of articulation)

【答案】D

【解析】A、B、C都是摩擦音，但D是爆破音。

8．Which of the following is not a minimal pair? (对外经贸2006研)

A. (li:f) (fi:l)

B. (sip sip) (zip)

C. (sai) (sei)

D. (keit) (feit)

【答案】A

【解析】能够用一个音区别意义的两个词叫做最小的对立体。A需要两个音来区分，不是最小对立体。

9．In a syllable, a vowel often serves as ______ (大连外国语学院2008研)

A. Peak or Nucleus

B. Onset

C. Coda

【答案】A

【解析】在音节中，节核通常由元音来担当。

10．Classification of English speech sounds in terms of manner of articulation involves the following EXCEPT

A. fricatives

B. lateral

C. affricates

D. bilabial

【答案】D

【解析】bilabial是根据发音部位划分的。

11．The most recognizable differences between American English and British English are in __ and vocabulary.

A. usage

B. grammar

C. pronunciation

D. structure

【答案】C

【解析】英音和美音最大的区别就是发音和词汇，比如发音方面，美音有儿化音。

12．Which one is different from the others according to places of articulation?

A. [n]

B. [m]

C. [b]

D. [p]

【答案】A

【解析】[m],[b], [p]都是双唇音，[n]是齿龈音。

13．Which branch of phonetics concerns the production of speech sounds?

A. Acoustic phonetics.

B. Articulatory phonetics.

C. Auditory phonetics.

D. Neither of them.

【答案】B

【解析】发音语言学研究语音的发生。

III. True or False

1．When the vocal folds are apart, the air can pass through easily and the sound produced is said to be voiced. (大连外国语学院2008研)

【答案】F

【解析】在发音过程中，发音时声带不振动，这样所发出的音叫做清音。

2．Of the three cavities, pharynx cavity is the most variable and active in amplifying and modifying speech sounds. (北二外2007研)

【答案】F

【解析】在三大发音腔中，口腔是在发音中最灵活的。

3．English consonants can be classified into two categories: voiced and voiceless consonants. (对外经贸2006研)

【答案】T

【解析】英语辅音可分为清辅音和浊辅音。

4．Bilabial consonant is produced when the obstruction is partial and the air is forced through a narrow passage. (对外经贸2006研)

【答案】F

【解析】双唇音是由上唇和下唇接触，使语流受阻而构成的一种辅音。

5．The sound segments are grouped into consonants and vowels. (大连外国语学院2008研)

【答案】T

【解析】音段可分为元音和辅音。

6．Uvular is made with the back of the tongue and the uvula. (大连外国语学院2008研)

【答案】T

【解析】小舌音是由舌后部与小舌共同作用产生的音。

7．A syllable can be divided into two parts, the NUCLEUS and the CODA. (大连外国语学院2008研)

【答案】F

【解析】音节中必不可少的就是结核，即元音,节首和节尾可有可无。

8．Auditory phonetics studies how sounds are perceived by the speaker. (清华2001研)

【答案】F

【解析】感知语音学(或听觉语音学)研究语音的感知。

9．The last sound of “top” can be articulated as an unreleased or released plosive. These different realizations of the same phoneme are not in complementary distribution.

【答案】T

【解析】如果两个音素出现在一个相同的语音环境中，且不区别意义，这两个音素可被看作自由变体。

10．The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communications are all phonemes.

【答案】F

【解析】我们所听见和说出的声音并不总是音位，有可能是音素，只有那些能区别意义的才是音位。

11．Two sounds are in free variation when they occur in the same environment and do not contrast, namely, the substitution of one for the other does not produce a different word, but merely a different pronunciation.

【答案】T

【解析】自由变体是指两个音素出现在一个相同的语音环境中，并不区别意义，即用一个音素替换另一个音素不产生新词，只产生同一个词的不同读音。

IV. Explain the following terms.

1．Glottal Stop (四川大学2006研)

【答案】Glottal Stop: Vocal tract is composed of oral cavity, nasal cavity and pharynx. When the vocal folds are totally closed, no air can pass between them. The result of this gesture is the glottal stop.

2．Voiceless (西安交大2008研)

【答案】When the vocal folds are apart, the air can pass through easily and the sound produced is said to be voiceless. For example, consonants (p, s, t) are produced this way, so they are voiceless consonants. “Voiceless” is defined in contrast with “voiced”. Consonants (b, z, d) are voiced consonants.

3．Minimal pairs (北航2008研；北二外2006研)

【答案】Minimal Pair are pairs of words which differ from each other only by one sound. For example, the English words bear and pear constitute a minimal pair as they differ in meaning and in their initial phonemes /b/ and /p/.

4．Phoneme (人大2006研；上海交大2007研)

【答案】Phoneme is a basic unit of phonological study, and it is an abstract collection of phonetic features which can distinguish meaning. For example, in English, /p/ is described as a phoneme.

5．Free variation (武汉大学2004研)

【答案】When two or more sounds occur in the same position without any apparent change of meaning, they are said to be in free variation. For example, the final consant of cup may not be released by some speakers so there is no audible sound at the end of this word. In this case, it is the same word pronounced in two different ways : (khʌph) and (kʌp┐). (The diacritic “┐”indicates “no audible release” in IPA symbols.)

6．Assimilation (武汉大学2008研；上海交大2005研)

【答案】The way that sounds belonging to one word or one syllable can cause changes in sounds belonging to neighboring words or syllables is called assimilation. For example, in “mink”, “n”, which is originally pronounced as /n/, will be velarized by the following “k”/k/, and therefore the word will be pronounced as /miŋk/

7．Suprasegmental features (中山大学2005研；南开大学2004研)

【答案】Suprasegmental features are those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segments. The principal suprasegmental features are stress, tone and intonation.

8．Syllable (四川大学2006研)

【答案】Syllable: These units, which are often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word, are called syllables. For example, the English word beautiful consists of three speech units: beau-ti-ful.

9．Complementary distribution

【答案】When two sounds never occur in the same environment, they are in complementary distribution. For example, the aspirated English stops never occur after (s), and the unaspirated ones never occur initially. Allophones of the same phoneme are usually in complementary distribution. The allophones of /p/, for instance, are also in complementary distribution. The unaspirated (p=) occurs after /s/, while the aspirated (ph) occurs in all other environments except after /s/.

V. Short answer questions

1．What is acoustic phonetics? (人大2003研)

【答案】Acoustic phonetics is a technical area of linguistics. It is the study of sound waves made by the human vocal organs for communication.

2．What are the three parts of the vocal organs ? (清华2001研)

【答案】The pharynx, the mouth and the nose are the three parts of the vocal organs.

3．Give the phonetic term for each of the following descriptions. (北二外2006研)

(1) the sound produced by the lower lip and the upper front teeth

(2) the sound produced with a complete closure in the mouth so that the air stream cannot escape through the mouth

【答案】(1) labiodental; (2) nasal

4．How are the vowels described usually? (北二外2009研)

【答案】Usually, the description of the vowels needs to fulfill four basic requirements:

(1) The height of tongue raising (high, mid, low);

(2) The position of the highest part of the tongue (front, central, back);

(3) The length or tenseness of the vowel (tense vs. lax or long vs. short);

(4) lip-rounding (rounded vs. unrounded).

5．What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying meaning?

【答案】A suprasegmental feature refers to the phonemic features that occur above the level of sound segment. The major suprasegmental features in English include word stress, sentence stress, tone, and intonation. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning.

For example, a shift of stress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged. Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phonemes. When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English.

6．What is assimilation? Is it similar to coarticulation? What dose it include?

【答案】Assimilation is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighbouring sound. It is often used synonymously with coarticulation. Nasalization, dentalization and velarization are all instances of assimilation. There are two possibilities of assimilation: if a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, it is regressive assimilation; the converse process, in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, is known as progressive assimilation.

7．In the African language Manika, the affix, the meaning of which is similar to that of the suffix-ing in English, has two phonetic forms, as shown in the data given below. You are required to

(1) give the two phonetic forms of the affix;

【答案】The two phonetic forms are: [ni] and [li].

(2) give the underlying form of the affix;

【答案】The underlying form is [ni].

(3) write a formal phonological rule to derive the underlying form of the affix to its phonetic forms, using the words [dumuni] “eating” and [sungoli] “sleeping” to illustrate the process of derivation. (南开大学2011研)

【答案】

[ni]→[ni]/[-vowel] _______

[ni]→[li]/[+vowel, -u] _______

In the word sungo, the last sound [o] is vowel so -ing form of the word is sungoli. While the last sound of the word dumu is [u], which is quite an exception, the -ing form of the word is dumuni.

8．Transcribe the following words into IPA symbols, with stress marking where necessary. (中山大学2011研)

Example：fin—/faɪnd/; beneath—/bɪ'niːθ/

(1) corpora

【答案】corpora—/’kɔ:pərə/

(2) sociologist

【答案】sociologist—/səusi’ɔlədʒist/

(3) chef

【答案】Chef—/ʃef/

(4) debris

【答案】debris—/də’bri:/

(5) nasal

【答案】nasal—/’neizəl/

(6). embedding

【答案】embedding—/im’bediŋ/

(7) antonymy

【答案】antonymy—/’æntɔnəmi/

(8) facial

【答案】facial—/’feiʃəl/

(9) annotated

【答案】annotated—/’ænəuteitid/

(10) phonetics

【答案】phonetics—/fəu’netiks/

9．In English, the phoneme/p/is pronounced differently in words such as pat, spat, or tap. Can you form a rule that can generalize this linguistic phenomenon？(南开大学2010研)

【答案】In English, there is a rule that /p/ is unaspirated after /s/ but aspirated in other places. So /p/ in pat, tap is aspirated but unaspirated in spat since it is after /s/. To bring out the phonetic difference, an aspirated sound is transcribed with a raised “h” after the symbol of the sound. So a phonetic transcription for peak is [ph i:k] and that for speak is [spi:k]. So [p, ph] are two different phones and are variants of the phoneme /p/. Such variants of a phoneme are called allophones of the same phoneme. The allophones are said to be in complementary distribution because they never occur in the same context: [p] occurs after [s] while [ph] occurs in other places. We can present this rule as:

In addition sometimes a phoneme may also have free variants. The final consonant of tap may not be realized by some speakers so there is no audible sound at the end of this word. Such phenomenon is called free variation.

10．What are the criteria used in phonetic description of vowels? (厦门大学2010研)

【答案】As the vowels cannot be described in the same way as the consonants, a system of cardinal vowels has been suggested to get out of this problem. The cardinal vowels are a set of vowel qualities arbitrarily defined, fixed and unchanging, intended to provide a frame of reference for the description of the actual vowels of existing languages. The cardinal vowels are abstract concept. The cardinal vowel diagram is a set of hypothetical positions for vowels used as reference points.

The description of English vowels needs to fulfill four basic requirements: (1) the height of tongue raising(high, middle or low); (2) the position of the highest part of the tongue (front, central , back); (3) the length or tenseness of the vowel(tense vs. lax or long vs. short); (4) lip—rounding (rounded vs. unrounded). For example,

[i:]: high, front, tense, unrounded vowel.

[u]: high, back, lax, rounded vowel.

VI. Essay questions

1．What are the differences between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds in terms of articulation?(南开大学2004研)

【答案】When the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless, consonants (p, s, t) are produced in this way; but when the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiced (b, z, d) are voiced consonants.

2．What are suprasegmental features? (西安外国语学院2006研)

【答案】Suprasegmental features refer to the phonological features above the sound segment level. They are the phonological properties of such units as the syllable, the word, and the sentence. The major suprasegmental features in English are syllable, stress, tone and intonation.

The syllable refers to the phonological unit that is composed of one or more phonemes. Every syllable has a nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The nucleus may be preceded by one or more consonants called the onset and followed by one or more consonants called the coda.

Stress refers to the degree of force used in producing a syllable. For words of more than one syllable, one is more stressed than the other. The more stressed syllable is the primary stress while the less stressed syllable is known as the secondary stress.

Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Different rates of vibration produce what is known as different frequencies, and in auditory terms as different pitches. Pitch variations may be distinctive like phoneme, that is, when they may contribute to distinguish between different words.

When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. When we speak, we change the pitch of our voice to express ideas. The same sentence uttered with different intonation may express different attitude of the speaker. In English, there are four intonation patterns: the falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rising tone, and the rise-fall tone.

3．In Chinese tone changes are used in the way that affects the meanings of individual words. (中山大学2011研)

【答案】Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phonemes; therefore, the tone is a suprasegmental feature. The meaning-distinctive function of the tone is especially important in what we call tone languages. English is not a tone language. Chinese is a typical tone language. It has four tones. The first tone is level (阴平), the second rise(阳平), the third fall rise (上声), and the fourth fall (去声). The role of the tone can be well illustrated by pronouncing the same sound combination such as [pa] in the four different tones and have different meanings:

(考查汉语为声调语言，在解释时一定要举例子说明声调是如何改变意义的。)