Reference no: EM133059173
QXL 4411 Foundations Of Linguistics - Bangor University
Assessment: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics & Pragmatics
Instructions
There are three sections in this assessment: Structure;Meaning and Sound.You must answer questions from all three sections.
Morphology and Syntax
Choose two of the topics and write an 800 word essay +/- 10% on each.
Syntax
1. Simplifying slightly, what we hear when listening to an utterance, produce when making an utterance or see when an utterance is written down is a sequence of words and part of our implicit linguistic knowledge is that these words belong to different Parts of Speech (POS). However, linguists have argued that in addition to knowledge of POS, speakers of a language also have knowledge of more abstract categories or phrases above the level of the word. Give some arguments as to why linguists feel the need to do this.
2. It is common amongst non-linguists to define the major parts of speech in terms of their meaning. So a noun might be described as the name of a general person, place, thing or idea; a verb might be described as an action; a word that modifies a noun is an adjective and a preposition takes a noun complement/object and conveys a spatial or temporal meaning. Discuss some of the problems with this simple meaning-based approach and propose an alternative. You may, if you wish, concentrate on one particular part of speech.
Morphology
1. All languages may add affixes to free-standing, pronounceableroots to build new words. Discussthis claim using examples from different languages.
2. Morphologists have proposed that languages can be classified as belonging to a number of different types, such as ‘agglutinative' or ‘analytical'. Describe such a system of classification, giving examples. To what extent do languages fall neatly into such a system? Using examples, argue for or against.
Semantics and Pragmatics
Choose two of the topics and write an 800 word essay +/- 10% on each. Any questions should be addressed to Christopher Shank.
1. [SEMANTICS] Compare and contrast the Classical Theory of categories/concepts with the more recent Prototype Theory. Each theory works well for some examples and less well with others. You should discuss these in your answer. Please use plenty of your own examples.
2. [SEMANTICS] On the level of meaning, words relate to each other in multiple ways showing similarity (such as synonyms), hierarchy (such as hyponyms), and difference (such as various kinds of antonyms). And sentences can contradict or entail each other logically. Discuss such meaning relations on word and sentence level using appropriate terminology and suitable examples.
3. [PRAGMATICS] In your own words, and using your own examples, discuss the notion of ‘indirect speech acts' in relation to politeness. Feel free to take a cross-cultural approach to this question.
4. [PRAGMATICS] Language is notoriously underspecified - there are gaps in meanings everywhere, and we fill these in by background knowledge and inferences. According to Sperber& Wilson (1986), relevance explains these processes sufficiently. Discuss and critically explore this idea using lots of examples. Note: You don't need in-depth knowledge of Relevance Theory; it suffices for this assignment if you have grasped the main ideas as discussed in the lecture, with some background reading.
5. [SEMANTICS and PRAGMATICS] There is no clear boundary between the fields of semantics and pragmatics. Discuss phenomena (such as different types of ‘implied meaning') where the two fields are close together and merge into each other or overlap, based on plenty of examples.
Phonetics and Phonology
Instructions
You must answer BOTH questions including all the parts of question 2.
You are allowed to consult notes and books but your work must be your own - you must not consult with anyone else.
Any problems or queries should be directed to Kelly Webb-Davies.
1. Greek speakers learning English
To address this question, refer to the blackboard excerpt taken from the following article:
Arvaniti, A. (2007) "Greek phonetics: The state of the art." Journal of Greek linguistics 8(1), 97-208.
If a speaker of Standard Greek wanted to learn English, they would have to learn some sounds that do not exist in their native language. Choose five sounds of English that you think may be especially difficult for a native speaker of Greek. Describe the sounds in terms of place of articulation, manner of articulation and voicing (for consonants) or tongue height, tongue backness and lip rounding (for vowels). Then explain by using examples why you think these sounds of English may be especially difficult for a Greek speaker. (500 words)
2. Georgian
Georgian is the main language spoken in Georgia (the country). Consider the following data, containing ‘clear' [l] (an alveolar lateral) and ‘dark' [l'] (which is velarised). (The transcriptions have been simplified somewhat for this exercise).
note: 
chnage these symbols
[sαxl'fi] ‘at home'
[zαrαli] ‘loss'
[pεpεl'α] ‘butterfly'
[εrthxεl'] ‘once'
[tshεtshxli] ‘fire'
[εαmαzαd] ‘prettily'
[lεl'c'] ‘goal'
[klεbα] ‘reduce'
[xεli] ‘hand'
[kαl'α] ‘tin'
[xc'l'c'] ‘however'
[kbil'i] ‘tooth'
[vxlεtfh ] ‘I split'
[tshc'li] ‘wife'
[l'xεnα] ‘joy' [zαrαli] ‘loss'
Based on the dataset presented above, are [l] and [l'] separate phonemes, or allophones of the same phoneme?
If you decide that they are separate phonemes, explain how you can determine this from the data.
If you decide that they are allophones, explain: i) how you can determine this from the data and ii) in which environments the allophones occur.
Based on your analysis above, pick the most appropriate surface forms from each set of two transcriptions
1. ‘nut' a. [kαkαli] b. [kαkαl'i]
2. ‘dialect' a. [kilc'] b. [kil'c']
3. ‘once' a. [εrthxεl] b. [εrthxεl']
4. ‘siege' a. [αlqα] b. [αl'qα]
What is the surface form of the word for "nut"?
What is the surface form of the word for "dialect"?
What is the surface form of the word for "once"?
What is the surface form of the word for "siege"?
Attachment:- Foundations Of Linguistics.rar