Chapter2【练习答案】1.Why should students of English lexicology study the Indo-European Language Family?The Indo-European Language Family is one of the most important language families in the world. It is made up of most of the languages of Europe, the Near East and India. English belongs to this family and the other members of the Indo-European Language Family have different degrees of influence on English vocabulary. A knowledge of the Indo-European Language Family will help us understand English words better and use them more appropriately.2.Make a tree diagram to show the family relations of the modern language given below.Indo-European Language FamilyBalto-SlavicIndo-IranianCeltic Italian Hellenic GermanicRoumanian HindiBreton Spanish Greek EnglishLithuanian PersianScottishFrench SwedishPrussianIrishItalian GermanPolishPortuguese NorweigianSlavenian IcelandicRussian DanishBulgarian Dutch3.What are the fundamental differences between the vocabularies of the three periods of development? Do you think we can divide the historical development in other ways? Defend your argument.The vocabularies of the three periods differ greatly from one another. Old English has (1) a small vocabulary (50,00060,000), (2) a small number of borrowings from Latin and Scandinavian only and (3) the words full of endings. Middle English has (1) a comparatively large vocabulary, (2) a tremendous number of foreign words from French and Latin and (3) word endings leveled. Modern English has (1) a huge and heterogeneous vocabulary, (2) tremendous borrowings and (3) words with lost endings.Yes, we can divide the development in other ways, for example, Old English period can be called Anglo-Saxon period. And Middle English might start from 1066 the time of Norman Conquest. But in doing so, the logical continuation of the three phases of the original division is lost. 4.What characteristics of English make the English language heterogeneous?It is receptivity and adaptability of the English language that make it possible for English to borrow heavily from other major languages of the world, so that the English vocabulary eventually has become heterogeneous. 5.Account for the popularity of English in the present world from a linguistic perspective.The popularity of English lies in the fact that English is ready to borrow from other languages and to adapt itself to new situations and new developments, that it has accepted elements from all other major languages and that it has simple reflection and a relatively fixed word order. All these make the language comparatively easy to learn and to use. 6.Here is a text chosen from the Declaration of Independence. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of natures God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.Pick out all the words of Greek or Latin origin from the text and see of what origin are the words left. What insight does this exercise give you with reference to the borrowings from Greek and Latin?coursehuman eventsnecessarypeopledissolve political connected assume separateequal stationnatureentitledecentrespectopinionsrequiresdeclarecausesimpelseparationFrom the words picked out, we can see that most of the content words are either of Greek or Latin origin. What are left are mostly functional words. This shows that Greek and Latin play a very important part in the English vocabulary. 7.Give a brief account of the four phases of Latin borrowing with two or three examples.Latin borrowing can be divided into four phase: (1) Pre-Anglo-Saxon period, (2) Old English period, (3) Middle English period and (4) modern English period. Borrowings in the first period are mainly common words such as wall, wine, kettle and so on; words borrowed in the second period are mainly religious terms such as candle, nun, church; the third period saw words borrowed often via French such as frustrate, history, infancy and so on and in the four period words borrowed from Latin are usually abstract formal terms like status, nucleus, minimum. 8.Tell the different elements that make up the following hybrids.eventful Latin + Englishhydroplane Greek + Latinfalsehood Latin + Englishpacifist Latin + Greeksaxophone German + Greekheirloom French + Englishjoss house Portuguese + English television Greek + Latin9.Put the following French loan words into two groups, one being early borrowings and the other late ones.amateu