1. What are the two main divisions of lexical CA?
2. What’s the difference between a morpheme and a lexeme?
3. There are very few derivative affixes (派生词缀) in the Chinese word stock. Can you identify some Chinese words containing derivative affixes and translate these words into English?
4. Is modern Chinese more morphologically motivated than classical Chinese? If so, what do you think may be its cause?
5. Collect from commercial
advertisements some foreign trade names and their Chinese translations. Contrast the original names with their Chinese
translations and examine what
tendency the Chinese names show in terms of lexical
motivation.
6. Name a few familiar types of syntagmatic and paradigmatic semantic relationships.
7. Translate the following sentences into Chinese:
He did hard labor for three years.
He did hard work for three years.
She is not a little afraid of snakes.
She is not a bit afraid of snakes.
I have seen him through.
I have seen through him.
He is a medicine man.
He is a medical man.
8. What is a lexical field? How can we fill up a lexical gap in translation?
9. When specified in semantic features, roast and bake in English seem to mean the same thing (see the following):
- with water
- with fat
+ in oven
- contact with flame
O gentle
Do these two words really mean the same thing in English? If not, what other features can we resort to in order to distinguish their meanings?
10. Nida, in a lecture delivered to the graduate students of English at Nanjing University, asserts that “language facilitates thinking, but does not determine thinking.” Do you agree to his view? Why or why not?
11. The word “君子” was used to refer to an aristocrat or a man of high social position during the Western Zhou dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history (11th-5th centuries BC). Later it came to mean a man of high moral standard in contradistinction to a mean or morally inferior person. Comment on the English translations of the following Chinese phrases which contain the word “君子”:
|
gentlemen’s agreement |
君子协定 |
|
The friendship
between gentlemen appears indifferent, but is pure like water. |
君子之交淡如水。 |
|
A gentleman gets along
with others, but does not necessarily agree with them. |
君子和而不同。 |
|
The power and
influence of a gentleman will not last longer than five generations. |
君子之泽，五世而斩。(Mencius) |
|
A gentleman is always calm and contented, while an inferior man is full of anxieties. |
君子坦荡荡，小人长戚戚。 (The Analects of Confucius) |