语言学试题与答案(12)

胡壮麟

word "surprise," but they have very subtle differences in meaning. While amaze suggests confusion and bewilderment, "astound" implies difficulty in believing.

53. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning? How do they differ? One of the oldest was the naming theory, proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato, who believed that the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for. The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link

between a linguistic form and what it refers to. The form and the meaning are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. Contextualism is based on the

presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. Two kinds of context are recognized: the situational context and the

linguistic context.

For example, the meaning of the word "seal" in the sentence "The seal could not be found" can only be determined according to the context in which the sentence occurs:

The seal could not be found. The zoo keeper became worried.

( seal meaning an aquatic mammal)

The seal could not be found. The king became worried.

( seal meaning the king's stamp)

Behaviorism drew on behaviorist psychology when he tried to define the

meaning of linguistic forms. Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a

language form as "the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer".