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Answer each question in no more than one page

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• Answer each question in no more than one page.

• Do not include the questions in your answer (that would give you more space). You may, however, copy-and-paste the examples if you need to.

• For assignments of this course, your responses can be relatively short, but they have to be self-contained texts. That is, they should read more like articles than exam responses.

• Just basic/regular formatting is enough for the assignments, i.e. 11 or 12 pt font size; single, 1.5 or double spacing; 1 or 1 ¼ inch margin; no title page; include your name and student ID.

• The required materials might be helpful. However, I do not accept any quotes from these chapters.

• Submit PDF via Moodle.

1. Go to wals.info, click the “Feature” tab (near top left).
   Find a feature that distinguishes English and Chinese (either Mandarin or Cantonese -- your choice). That is, the feature should put the two languages into separate categories (e.g. English main verbs inflect for the number of the subject, Cantonese does not. Now of course you cannot use this example any more.)
   Cite the code and name of the feature as in WALS, explain the difference in general and give your own examples to illustrate the difference between the two languages.

2. The sentences/languages below can be classified into four types in terms of the word choice in expressing ‘I am hungry’. Your task is to (i) explain the types you can find and the differences across the four types, and (ii) show, with examples, where English, Cantonese and Mandarin belong to in your classification.
   Ignore the inflectional morphology for this exercise: Because all the examples have the first person singular (“I” or “me”) as the subject. Also, you do not have to search for external sources. Just focus on the 9 sentences given here.

 

 

(1) ja goloden
1sg hungry-masc [Russian]

“I am hungry.”

(2) Jeg r hungrig
1sg be hungry [Swedish]
“I am hungry.”

(3) mujhe bhuukh lagii hai
1sg hunger on be-3sg [Hindi]

“I am hungry.”

(4) Jeg er sulten
1sg be hungry [Danish]
“I am hungry.”

 

(5) Jestem glodny
be-1sg hungry-masc-sg [Polish]

“I am hungry.”

(6) Ek is honger
1sg be hungry [Afrikaans]
“I am hungry.”

(7) 'ana jauCaan
1sg hungry [Arabic]

“I am hungry.”

(8) ehes vagyok
hungry be-1sg [Hungarian]
“I am hungry.”

(9) Ta ocras orm
be-3sg hunger on-me [Irish]

“I am hungry.”

Abbreviations:

1sg first person singular pronoun

3sg third person singular pronoun

be-1sg the form of ‘be’ for first person singular subject (equiv. of English ‘am’)

sg singular form
masc masculine form

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