Linguistics

QUSTIONS & ANSWERS

2017-2018

“KEEP IT SECRET KEEP IT SAFE”

Hussain Kamel Thursday, April 26, 2018

 1

QUSTIONS

Q. 1. Below are incorrect statements. Provide the correct ones as you have studied
in the course of linguistics.
1. A connector is word such as that introducing a complement phrase.
(Complementizer )
2. The lexical relation in which two or more words have very closely related meanings is
hyponymy. (Synonymy).
3. Public self-image that the speaker attains is called pragmatics. (Face).
4. Ties or connections that exist within texts represent coherence. (Cohesion )
5. Ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs that we think of as words carry the function that we use
them for. (Content )
6. A phrase such as with a dog, consisting of an adverb plus a noun phrase.( A preposition plus a
noun phrase) .
7. Words with opposite meanings along a scale (i.e. big-small) are ungradable antonyms
(Gradable antonyms).
8. In comparative reconstruction, the choice of older versus newer forms on the basis of
commonly observed types of sound change is majority principle (Natural development
principle)
9. The form of English in use since 1700 is Old English (Modern English)
10. Differences resulting from change over a period of time represent synchronic variation
(diachronic variation).
11. A diagram with branches showing the hierarchical organization of structures is deep
structure. (A tree diagram).
12. The meaning conveyed by the literal use of words is described as associative meaning
(Conceptual meaning).
13. What a speaker assumes to be true or known to the audience is negative face (positive).
14. Be clear, brief, and orderly represent relevance maxim (Manner maxim).
15. In comparative reconstruction, the choice of older versus newer forms on the basis of
commonly observed types of sound change is majority principle (natural).
 2

Q.2. Write the most suitable answer to the following:

1. The structure of individual sentences after the application of movement
rules to deep structure.
a. surface structure
b. phrase structure rules
c. complement phrase
d. deep structure
2. Basic elements such as "human" included as plus (+ human) or minus (-
human), used in analysis of the components of word meaning.
a. referential meaning
b. lexical relations
c. semantic features
d. associative meaning
3. The study of language in use by analyzing the occurrence and frequency of
forms in a large collection of texts typically stored in a computer.
a. associative meaning
b. lexical relations
c. corpus linguistics
d. referential meaning
4. A conventional knowledge structure that exists in memory.
a. script
b. cohesion
c. schema
d. hedges
e. social gender
5. A set of sounds with phonetic features in common, such as /p/, /t/ and
/k/ in English, which are all voiceless stops.
a. majority principle
b. comparative reconstruction
c. sound loss
d. natural class
 3

6. Rules that are used to move constituents in structures derived from

phrase structure rules. They have a special rewrite arrow.
a. phrase structure rules
b. complement phrase
c. movement rules
d. lexical rules
7. Antonyms in which the meaning of one is the reverse action of the other
(i.e. dress-undress).
a. homophones
b. co-hyponyms
c. reversives
d. prototype
8. The semantic role of the noun phrase identifying where an entity moves
from (i.e. The boy ran from THE HOUSE).
a. goal
b. theme
c. agent
d. source
9. Where we physically find the text
a. physical context
b. spatial deixis
c. linguistic context
d. positive face
10. A set of rules which define the possible sentences in a language is:
a. deep structure
b. generative grammar
c. tree diagram
d. movement rules
11. The semantic role of the noun phrase identifying where an entity moves to
(ie. The boy walked to THE WINDOW).
a. goal
a. theme
b. agent
c. source
 4

12. Showing consideration/awareness for someone else's face

a. negative face
b. positive face
b. politeness
c. pragmatics.
13. Co-text surrounding words and phrases is called
a. physical context
b. positive face
c. negative context
c. linguistic context
14. The main reason why speakers use indirect speech acts is
d. to be polite
a. to be on record
b. to be clear
c. to be impolite
15. A sound change involving the addition of a sound to the beginning of a
word (e.g. spiritus --> espı´ritu).
a. metathesis
b. epenthesis
c. prosthesis
d. sound loss
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
 5

Q. 3. Answer either A or B.

A. What are the functional and lexical morphemes in the following sentence?
When he arrived in the morning, the old man had an umbrella and a large plastic
bag full of books.
ANSWERS:

1. Functional morphemes: When, he, ed, in, the, the, an, and, a, of.
2. Lexical morphemes: arrive, morning, old, man, had, umbrella, large, plastic,
bag, full, books.

B. In what ways are these expressions structurally ambiguous?

1. Small boys and girls are playing hide and seek .
2. The parents of the bride and groom were waiting outside.
ANSWERS:

1. Small boys and girls are playing hide and seek .

This sentence is structurally ambiguous because it can have two deep
structures:
a. The small boy and small girls are playing hide and seek.
b. The small boys and all the girls are playing hide and seek.
2. The parents of the bride and groom were waiting outside.
This sentence is structurally ambiguous because it can have two deep
structures:
a. The parents of the bride and the parents of the groom were waiting outside.
b. The parents of the bride and the groom (without his parents) were waiting
outside.
 6

Q.4. Are these underlined words best described as examples of polysemy or

metonymy?
1. I had to park on the shoulder of the road.
2. Yes, I love those. I ate a whole box on Sunday!
3. The bookstore has some new titles in linguistics.
4. Computer chips created an important new technology.
5. I’m going to sue your ass!

ANSWERS: Q.4.

1. Metonymy
2. Polysemy
3. Metonymy
4. Metonymy
5. Polysemy
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Q.5. What is one obvious presupposition of a speaker who says:

1. Your clock isn’t working.

2. Where did he find the money?
3. We regret buying that car.
4. The king of France is bald.
5. You brother is late.
ANSWERS: Q.5.

1. You have a clock.

2. You found the money?
3. We bought the car.
4. France has a king.
5. You have a brother.
 7

Q.6. Answer the following:

A. What are the anaphoric expressions in this sentence?
Dr. Foster gave Andy some medicine after he told her about his headaches and she
advised him to take the pills three times a day until the pain went away.

ANSWERS: A.

- he , her, his, she, him, the pills, the pain.

B. What are the allomorphs of the morpheme “plural” in this set of English
words ,choose FIVE?
1. criteria
2. dogs
3. oxen
4. deer
5. judges
6. stimuli
ANSWERS: B.

1. criteria:ia
2. dogs: s
3. oxen: en
4. deer: zero
5. judges: es
6. stimuli: i
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
 8

Q. 7. Using information from the phrase structure rules presented in the

textbook, write the phrase structure rules of the following sentence:
John believed that Mary knew that Cathy helped you.

ANSWER: Q. 7.

S = NP+VP
NP=N
VP= V+CP
CP=C+S
S=NP+VP
NP=N
VP= V+CP
CP= C+S
S=NP+VP
VP= V+NP
NP=
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
 9

Q.8. Answer the following:

A. When interacting with a child, a type of simplified speech is adopted. This
is called caregiver speech. Write five characteristics to this type.

ANSWER: A.

Caregiver speech is characterized by the following:

1. Frequent use of questions
2. Simplified lexicon
3. Phonological reduction
4. Higher pitch- extra loudness
5. Stressed intonation
6. Simple sentences
7. A lot of repetition
B. 1. What are the two types of language learning motivation?

ANSWER : B. 1.

1. Instrumental Motivation is the way of learning a language

in order to achieve another goal, such as completing a
school graduation requirement or being able to read
scientific publications, but not really for social purposes.
2. Integrative Motivation is the technique of wanting to learn
L2 for social purposes, in order to take part in the social life
of a community using that language.
B. 2. What are the three types of communicative competence?

ANSWER : B. 2.
1. Grammatical Competence is the accurate use of words and
structures.
2. Sociolinguistic Competence is the ability to use appropriate
language.
3. Strategic Competence is the ability to organize a message
effectively
 10

Q.9. Show the basic difference between five of the following:

ANSWERS:
1. Foreign language VS Second Language:

a. Foreign language is a language that is not generally spoken in the surrounding

community.
b. Second language is a language that is spoken in the surrounding community.

2. Learning VS Acquisition:

a. Acquisition is defined as the gradual development of ability in a language by

using it naturally in communicative situations.
b. Learning is a more conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the features
of a language in an institutional setting.

3. Positive transfer VS Negative transfer :

a. Positive transfer means benefitting from an L1 rule in L2 which has it.

b. Negative transfer (interference) means using an L1 rule in L2 that isn’t found
in it.
4. Cohesion VS Coherence :

a. Cohesion is the grammatical and/or lexical relationships between the different

elements of a text.
b. Coherence is the relationships which link the meanings of utterances in a
discourse or of the sentences in a text.

5. Physical Context VS Linguistics context:

a. Physical Context is a set of elements though which meaning is clarified; it can

be manifested through the situation in which an utterance is said or written.
b. Linguistics context or Co-text: it is a set of other words surrounding a
particular word in a given string of words.

6. Free morphemes VS bound morphemes:

a. Free morphemes are the morphemes that can stand alone with meaning.
b. Bound morphemes are the morphemes that cannot stand alone unless
attached to another morpheme.
 11

Q.10. Young children acquire the language through several stages. Summarize all
these stages.

ANSWER:

There are five stages as follows:

1. Cooing

Children start in the first weeks cooing and gurgling, playing with sounds.
Their abilities are constrained by physiological limitations. They start
producing sequences of vowel-like sounds- high vowels [i] and [u].
2. Babbling

This stages starts with acquiring different vowels and consonants ba-ba-ba
and ga-ga-ga, at the age 9-10 months- intonation patterns and combination
of ba-ba-ba-da-da, nasal sounds also appear ma-ma-ma and so on.

3. The one-word stage

It begins in the age of 12-18 months. Children acquire recognizable single-
unit utterances, single terms are uttered for everyday objects “milk”,
“cookie”, “cat”, “cup”, and “spoon” [pun], holophrastic (wasa = what's that)

4. The two-word stage

This stage starts at the age after two years in which vocabulary moves
beyond 50 words. Children produce utterances ‘baby chair’, ‘mommy eat’,
interpretation depends on context. The child does not only produce speech,
but receives feedback confirming that the utterance worked as a
contribution to the interaction.

5. Telegraphic speech
This begins at two and a half years. The child produces „multiple-word‟
speech. The child has already developed sentence-building capacity & can
get the word order correct („cat drink milk‟, „daddy go bye-bye’) A number of
grammatical inflections begin to appear. Simple prepositions (in, on) are
also used ad vocabulary is expanding rapidly.
 12

Q. 11. You have studied semantics, pragmatics and discourse analysis as

linguistic subfields that deal with meaning. In a five paragraph essay, explain in
what way each of these subfields studies meaning.
Semantics, pragmatics and discourse analysis all deal with the study of meaning of language.
These three subfields of linguistics investigate the meaning differently. Semantics studies the
conceptual meaning inside a given language. Pragmatics, on the other hand, is concerned with
meaning when a context is involved. Discourse analysis analyzes meaning beyond the level of
the sentence.

Semantics is the study of meaning represented by the conceptual meaning inside the
language. This meaning could be analyzed through literal meaning of concept, through the
semantic roles of words, through features that stipulate the use of a given word or through the
lexical relations among words such as synonymy, metonymy and so on.

Unlike semantics, pragmatics investigates the meaning of language in context, meaning that
context of situation determines the precise meaning of the speaker’s intended message through
the pragmatic domains. These pragmatic domains are diexes which mean referring to time,
place and person through the use of language; presupposition which means taking some
meaning for granted in special contexts; speech acts are defined as the action which is
accomplished by the power of words and face notion which is the public self-image of the
speaker. All these domains can affect the intention of the speaker.

As far as discourse analysis is concerned, it is usually defined as the analysis of language

beyond the sentence which is typically concerned with the study of language in text and
conversation. Basic ideas in the written language are represented by text analysis, i.e., the
structure of discourse which includes: cohesion, coherence and speech events. As for
conversation analysis, the aspects are turn-taking, the cooperative principle, hedges, implicature,
background knowledge and schemas and scripts.

Therefore, all of the three linguistic subfields are concerned with meaning of the language.
However, semantics studies the meaning of single words, phrase and sentences inside the
language and co-text. Pragmatics deals with meaning when the speaker wants to convey some
message through the context of situation at the level of single utterances. Discourse analysis
deals with both semantic and pragmatic domains of meaning but beyond the level of single
sentence or utterances.
 13

Q. 12. Discourse Analysis is defined as the analysis of meaning beyond the level
of the sentence in the written and spoken language. In a five paragraph essay,
explain in what way discourse analysis deals with written and spoken versions of
language.
Discourse analysis is usually defined as the analysis of language beyond the sentence which is
typically concerned with the study of language in text and conversation. Basic ideas in the written
language are represented by text analysis, i.e., the structure of discourse which includes: cohesion,
coherence and speech events. As for conversation analysis, the aspects are turn-taking, the
cooperative principle, hedges, implicature, background knowledge and schemas and scripts.

Cohesion is the grammatical and/or lexical relationships between the different elements of a
text. The text is to be connected by cohesive ties for example, referring to the noun father as he
whenever it comes after the first mention. The second aspect is coherence; it is the relationships
which link the meanings of utterances in a discourse or of the sentences in a text. There are
certainly no cohesive ties within this fragment of discourse. Cohesion helps to create coherence
but does not entail coherence. Nevertheless, coherence can be made with/out cohesive ties/
devises. Speech events include interactions such as a conversation at a party or ordering a meal.
Any speech event comprises several components: Speech genre, interlocutors, the social distance,
topic of a conversation and Setting.

The basic structure of a conversation is composed of turns which mean that the speaker and the
hearer take TURNs when talking. One person speaks at one time, and the other listens, and then
they switch roles. Interlocutors take the turn through the end of a phrase, clause, or sentence, a
falling in intonation or a perceivable pause. Interlocutors are cooperative in constructing a
conversation. This is conveyed by “Gricean Maxims”, which are: the Quantity maxim: Make your
contribution as informative as is required, but not more, or less, than is required, the Quality
maxim: do not say that which u believe to be false or for which u lack adequate evidence, the
relation maxim: Be relevant and the Manner maxim: Be clear, brief and orderly.

Hedges, implicature, background knowledge, schemas and scripts can affect the discourse.
Hedges be defined as words or phrases used to indicate that we are not really sure that what we
are saying is sufficiently correct or complete. Implicature is an additional meaning conveyed by a
speaker adhering to the cooperative principle. Background knowledge is information that is not in
a text, but is used from memory by a reader to understand the text. Schema is a conventional
knowledge which exists in memory. Script is essentially a dynamic schema in which conventional
actions take place.

All in all, discourse can analyze written texts with special devices that are related to written
text and can analyze conversational with special conversational devices. These two types of texts
sometimes overlap to the extent that devices from both types can be used to analyze the
overlapping discourse.
 14

Q.13. You have studied semantics as a linguistic subfield which deals with
meaning. In a five-paragraph essay, explain in what way semantics studies
meaning.
Semantics is the study of meaning represented by the conceptual meaning
inside the language. This meaning could be analyzed through literal meaning of
concept, through the semantic roles of words, through features that stipulate the
use of a given word or through the lexical relations among words such as
synonymy, metonymy and so on.
Conceptual meaning covers those basic, essential components of meaning
that are conveyed by the literal use of words. It is used by dictionaries and
indicates the oddity of words, phrases and sentences. Semantic Roles can be
defined as another way to analyze meaning: words can be thought of in terms of
the ‘roles’ they fulfill in the situation described in a sentence instead of
containers. Semantic roles are: agent, theme, instrument, experiencer, location,
source and goal.
Meaning can be dealt with form point of view of Semantic Features are
procedures for analyzing conceptual meaning of a word into its crucial elements
or features. The features are like animate, human, female, and adult and so many
others which take plus when the features exists and minus when the feature does
not exist. According to these features, the oddity of word meaning is tackled.
Not only can words be treated as “containers” of meaning, or as fulfilling
“roles” in events, they can also have “relationships” with each other.
Characterizing the meaning of each word, not in terms of its component
features, but in terms of its relationship to other words is called Lexical
Relations. Such relations as synonymy: two or more words with very closely
related meanings are called synonyms or antonyms which mean when two forms
have opposite meaning.
All in all, meaning of language is analyzed differently through the use of
different theories and models. It can be analyzed through the components
features of the meaning, the role that the words play in given sentences or the
lexical relation among words inside the language.