Homework answers / question archive / Summer II (2022) Final Essay During this online course, you will briefly study and analyze different sub-domain of linguistics – at the word level (morphology), at the sentence level (syntax) & at the sound level (phonetics & phonology), among others

Summer II (2022) Final Essay During this online course, you will briefly study and analyze different sub-domain of linguistics – at the word level (morphology), at the sentence level (syntax) & at the sound level (phonetics & phonology), among others

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Summer II (2022)
Final Essay
During this online course, you will briefly study and analyze different sub-domain of
linguistics – at the word level (morphology), at the sentence level (syntax) & at the sound level
(phonetics & phonology), among others. As for your final essay, you are required to choose
one question per section research it further. Please follow the instructions regarding formatting
and references provided in your course syllabus.
SECTION I: PHONOLOGY & MORPHOLOGY
a. Why do you think it is difficult for people to learn the phonotactics of another language? That
is, why do people use “repair” strategies or substitutions rather than just pronouncing the
foreign word the way it is pronounced by native speakers of the foreign language?
b. Adult speakers of one language usually find it difficult to produce the sounds of a foreign
language that are not present in their native language. There are numerous reasons for this,
including the fact that adults lose articulatory flexibility after long years of producing only the
speech sounds of their own language. Research and find other possible explanations.
c. Some people describe morphology as the study of how words are built up; others describe it
as the study of how words are broken down. What assumptions does each of these two
descriptions make about how words are stored in our mental lexicons? Based on what you
know so far and on further research on the topic, is one of these descriptions more or less
accurate? Why do you think so?
SECTION II: SYNTAX & LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
a. Currently our grammar does not account for subject-verb agreement. That is, it would assign
both like and likes to the syntactic category TV, and then the grammar would incorrectly
predict that *We likes and *She like are sentences. Discuss how you could modify our grammar
to exclude these ungrammatical strings. Would you have to make up new syntactic categories?
Which phrase structure rules would you have to change?
b. Interview a proficient non-native speaker of your language. Find out where and when your
speaker learned your native language. Also ask your speaker how motivated he or she was in
learning the language and why. Then listen carefully to your speaker: do you find features in
his or her speech that could be attributed to transfer? Think about pronunciation (phonology),
grammar (syntax and morphology), word choice (lexicon), intonation, and appropriateness.
Does your speaker speak your language at a level that you would expect, considering his or
her language-learning background? Why or why not?
c. In chapter 8 – Language Acquisition, the author provides a concise and informative summary
of six different hypothesis that attempt to account for how children acquire language: (1)
innateness hypothesis, (2) imitation theory, (3) reinforcement theory, (4) active construction
of a grammar theory, (5) connectionist theories & (6) social interaction theory. Which one do
you think explains best first language acquisition? Select the one you think explains best first
language acquisition and research it further. Bring arguments that would support your chosen
hypothesis.
SECTION III LANGUAGE VARIATION, IDENTITY & CULTURE
a. How might evaluations we make about language as “good” or “bad” help to preserve and
perpetuate social stereotypes and biases?
b. Consider the following two examples and tell us about standard and nonstandard features? Are
they defined on linguistic or social grounds? Support your answer with informed arguments
from scholarly articles.
o At the turn of the century, the form ‘ain’t’ was prestigious among many upper-middleclass English speakers in southern England. Today, however, its use is considered nonstandard or at best appropriate only for casual conversation.
o In the United States “dropped r’s” in words like car, father, and bark are perceived as
features of nonstandard speech. In Britain, however, “dropped r’s” are characteristic of
Received Pronunciation and are thus considered part of the prestige dialect.
c. If you live in the United States, which dialect area does your community fall into? Are the
descriptions given for that area, in section 10.3, accurate for the dialect you hear around you?
Which things are inaccurate? Remember, these are rather broad generalizations, and every
individual has his own idiolect.
d. Based on what you have read in this file and your own experiences, why do you think that
identity is so changeable or context-dependent? How much control do you think speakers have
over how their identity is perceived? What kinds of things can speakers manipulate to affect
this perception? Give examples and provide informed arguments (based on research).
SECTION IV SEMANTIC & PRAGMATIC
a. We are taught at a young age not to lie. Nevertheless, there are many times that someone might
choose to break Grice’s maxim of quality to serve a particular purpose. What are some reasons
that one might have for doing so?
o Considering how many reasons there are to say things that are untrue, and considering
how often the maxim of quality must therefore be violated, what evidence do we have
that it exists in the first place?
o Is there a difference between breaking Grice’s maxim of quality and lying? If so, what
is the difference? If not, why not? (It is acceptable to argue on behalf of both sides, but be sure
that your answer is clear and well-justified/informed.)
b. Take the list of words (8) that follow and find 5 participants. As you read each word out to
them individually, ask them to say the first associated word that comes into their minds. Record
their responses and answer the questions that follow (list of words: picture, blind, carrot,
holiday, puppy, chair, pig, watermelon).
o Analyze each response in terms of the semantic relations (for example, synonymy,
autonomy, hyponymy or collocation).
o Take note of where people provided some sort of value judgment, and whether or not
it was positive or negative (for example, for hamburger they might have answered with
yummy/convenience or tasteless/overweight).
o What do you think the responses tell us about people?
c. Think of experiences in which something that you or someone else said was reported out of
context. How did this out-of-context report change the meaning of what was said? Why do
people often choose to use quotations out of context? What is gained by this practice? What is
lost?