Matriculation Number __ 1 ro LT TTT LL | es NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE Department of English Language and Literature Semester 1: 2008/2009 EL 1101E: The Nature of Language November 2008 Time Allowed: 2 hours 1. This paper contains EIGHT (8) questions and comprises SIX (6) printed pages. Check that your paper is complete. 2, Write your matriculation number in the space provided at the top of this page 3. Read carefully through the whole paper BEFORE beginning to answer any part of any question. 4, Answer ALL questions. Write legibly and ONLY in the spaces provided. There are penalties for wrong answers to questions involving more than one choice. 5. This isan Open Book examination. —$—————————————————————— Question | — Mark Awarded Marker 1 [12 marks} 2 [12 marks} 3. [12 marks] 4° [12 marks} [16 marks} 6 [12 marks] 7 [12 marks] 8 [12 marks} TOTAL ondeELIIOIE: 2:6 QUESTION ONE [12 marks] Consider the rule NP > (Det) Adj N (PP) Cirele the letter (a, b, ete.) of the sentences in which ALL the relevant constituents are generated by this rule, a. The friendly people from that small village are excellent athletes, ‘Those hot-headed boys have taken up street fighting. ©. This elegant lady ordered these sandwiches for us d. Our new neighbours are extremely friendly. €. My younger sister is a great fan of that famous rock-star. f. The band from Nagasaki is currently working on a new album. g My best friend considers Madonna a musical revolutionary. h. That amazingly-gitted tribesman married a beautiful bride and lived happily. QUESTION TWO [12 marks] Cirele the letter (a, b, etc.) of ALL statements that accurately describe (1) and (2). (1) Yesterday all my troubles were so far away. (2) Yesterday was Thursday. a, Both sentences are examples of verdictive speech acts. b. Both sentences are examples of directive speech acts, ¢. Neither sentence is a commissive speech act. 4. Insentence (1), yesterday functions as Adjunct. ¢. Thursday and so far away function as Complements. f. The TOPIC of both sentences is yesterday. g- __ Inboth sentences, yesterday functions as Subject. h, Sentence (1) is a complex sentence. BleELILONE: 3: 6 QUESTION THREE [12 marks] Read the receipt below, and circle the letter (a, b, etc.) of ALL statements that accurately describe the words as they are used in the receipt, Everlasting Happiness Corner Shop Opening Hours: 9 amto5pm ‘| Received from Mrs Tan Lee Ling, in payment for a pair of stiletto shoes, | the amount of four hundred and fifty dollars. | We appreciate your custom, and look forward to your next visi a. The words shoes and dollars are derived words. b. We look forward to your next visit is an expressive speech act. The receipt contains an example of a representative speech act. d. The word opening functions as a Verb. € The words happiness, payment and received each contain a derivational suffix. {Corner Shop is a headed compound. g The receipt contains an example of a coordinated VP. h. Everlasting and opening share identical word-structure trees. QUESTION FOUR [12 marks] State whether the statements below are true (T) or false (F) by writing T or F in the relevant cell. Make sure your writing is legible. _ Statement TIF 1_| All vowels are [+sonorant]. 2 | The sounds in the set {z, v, n] share at least one distinctive feature (DF). 3. | Words that rhyme have different onsets. | 4 | The first syllable of the words kingly and cranky share the same coda. The articulation of (m, n, n] involves airflow through the mouth. 6 | The first syllable of seeding contains a voiceless onset, a high back vowel and a voiced coda AlELLIOIE: 4: 6 QUESTION FIVE [16 marks] ‘State whether the statements below are true (T) or false (F) by writing T or F in the relevant cell. Make sure your writing is legible! ‘Statement TIF 1 | The Japanese history professors arrived early is structurally ambiguous. 2.| Homophones cannot be minimal pairs. 3 | The sentence Dare to be fair is lexically ambiguous. 4 | Jenny is Mark’s tove entails Mark is Jenny’s moomin. We can thus conclude that fove and moomin are reciprocal antonyms. 5 | That is not a snarky sheep entails That is a neebly sheep. We can thus conclude that snarky and neebly are binary antonyms. 6 | The band was banned from playing contains a homonym. | 7 | The sentence The dish ran away with the spoon contains a superordinate and its hyponym. 8 | My brother is smarter than me shows that smart is a binary antonym. QUESTION SIX = [12 marks] ‘CiRCLE the letter (a, b, etc.) of ALL statements that accurately describe the traditional English children’s nursery rhyme belo Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker's man, Bake mea cake as fast as you can Pat it and roll it and mark it with *B? And put it in the oven for Baby and me. a. The nursery rhyme contains an example of an adjacency pair. b. The nursery rhyme contains no examples of deixis. c. The nursery rhyme contains at least one example of anaphora. d. The nursery rhyme contains at least one example of an expressive speech act. The nursery rhyme threatens the positive face needs of the baker’s man by not using the politeness formula please. The nursery rhyme threatens the negative face needs of the baker’s man by not using the politeness formula please. g The nursery rhyme contains at least one sequence clause relation. The nursery rhyme contains at least one example of recursion oSELMOIE: QUESTION SEVEN [12 marks] For the sentence sets below, circle the letter (a, b, etc.) of those sets where ALL the sentences in the set contain the same verb type a. My bonnie lies over the ocean. That boy looks very peculiar. The sea was very choppy last night. b. Solomon bought his mother a luxury apartment in Jamaica. The circus clowns offered every child in the audience an animal-shaped balloon. She bequeathed all her earthly possessions to her favourite charity. €. The teacher held the bunny rabbits tightly. The magistrate made his decision carefully. I burned that disgusting old coat of yours. d. Jason held his head high. Sheila and Stanley sold their caravan at a real-estate fair. Marilyn painted her bedroom bright pink. €. _ Farook spends his money wisely. We, the jury, find the accused not guilty Mira attends counselling sessions every week. f. My brother and his friends are planning a costume party. My favourite teacher retired last year. ‘The elves felt that James and the gigantic peach were very threatening.ELIIOLE: 6: 6 QUESTION EIGHT [12 marks] In some accents of English, the following pronunciations can be heard, Circle the letters (a,b, ete.) of ALL statements that apply to the data below. Remember, the statements you circle must apply to the whole data set. sneeze [snis] sneezing — [snizin] knead [nit] kneading — [nidin] dab [deep] dabbing — [daebin] spam — [spzem] spamming [spemin] stab [stzep] stabbing —_[staebin] a. Voiced consonants occur only between vowels. b, —_Voiceless consonants occur only word-finally. ¢. Voiceless plosives and fricatives occur only word-finally. d, —_ Nasals occur only in syllable onsets. e. These speakers devoice plosives and fricatives in the coda. f. These speakers devoice word-final plosives and fricatives. . These speakers do not pronounce voiced consonants at the end of a word. h. These speakers do not pronounce voiced sounds in simple words. -END OF PAPER ~