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Some interesting recent research by a team from MRC Applied Psychology Unit

游客2023-11-21  38
问题      Some interesting recent research by a team from MRC Applied Psychology Unit at Cambridge analysed the sound structure of a large number of first names, and found some interesting differences between men and women. It seems the sexes do not sound the same. The claims are of course limited by the size of their sample--1,667 entries taken from a dictionary of English first names--but the claims they make can easily be checked against our intuitions, and they seem very plausible:
     -- Female first names tend to be longer than males, in terms of the number of syllables they contain. Males are much more likely to have a monosyllabic first name (Bob, Jim Fred, Frank, John), and much less likely to have a name of three or more syllables (Christopher, Nicholas). By contrast, there are few monosyllabic female names in the list (Ann, Joan, May) , and many of them are trisyllabic or more ( Katherine, Elizabeth, Amanda).
     -- 95% of male names have a first syllable which is strongly stressed, whereas only 75% of female names show this pattern. It is not difficult to think of female names which begin with an unstressed syllable (Patricia, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Michelle), but male names are few and far between (Jerome, Dementrius). In fact, none of the popular British male names in top-2-1ists from the past 75 years has had an unstressed initial syllable--and only three American names.
     -- The stressed syllables of female names tend to make much more use of the high front vowel / I/, such as Lisa, Tina, Celia, Maxine, and the archetypal Fifi and Mimi. Male names in /I/ are far less common (Steve, Keith, Peter).
     -- Female pet names tend to be longer than male. A dissyllabic pet name could be either male or female, but a monosyllabic one is much more likely to be male. Jackie could be either sex, but Jack is male. Several other pairs share this expectancy, such as Bill /Billie and Bob/Bollie.
     -- Female names are much more likely to end in a vowel, as with Linda, Judy, Deborah, Barbara. If not a vowel, the last sound will very likely be a continuant, especially a nasal (Jean, Kathleen, Sharon, Ann). By contrast, plosives are much more likely to be found in male endings (Bob, David, Dick, Jack).
     It is of course difficult, perhaps impossible, to explain these trends. Could the sound-symbolic associations of /I/, such as smallness and brightness, explain the bias of that vowel? Can we relate the trend towards use of an initial stressed syllable to greater masculine aggressiveness? One thing is sure: it is much more difficult to generalize safely about female names. Popular male names are used much more predictably. There are several male names which have appeared on every list of the top 20 names in recent times (e. g. John, David), but no one female name appears on all lists. People are much readier to be inventive and different with female names. [br] According to the passage, which of the following statements about female names is true?
选项 A、A dissyllabic pet name is much more likely to be female.
B、Female names tend to end with a plosive.
C、There is less predictability about popular female names than about male names.
D、There is no one female name on the list of the most popular names.
答案 C
解析 根据第五、六、七段可知A、B、D都是不正确的，最后一段说流行的男性名字可预测性更强，由此可知此题选C。
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