SOAS, University of London Examination for Undergraduate students ~ May/June 2014 GENERAL LINGUISTICS 152900069 This paper is suitable for current students and all re-entry candidates Time Allowed: THREE hours The marks for this paper constitute 80% of the total marks for this course Permitted materials/equipment None stationery/equipment required None Instructions: Answer THREE questions. You must answer ONE question from Part A and ONE question from Part B. You can choose to answer your THIRD question from either Part Aor Part B. Please write in BLACK ink only and write as clearly as possible. Candidates are advised that the marking of illegible scripts is at the discretion of the examiner. Turn over when instructed 114Part A 1. Review the notion of arbitrariness, and explain its importance in defining human language. Provide relevant examples —and counterexamples - to support your answer. 2. Consider the following data in Kuna, spoken in Panama (Murchison 2007). Answer the questions below. a. anuagunne “Leat fish’ b. beuagunne “you eat fish’ cc. weuagunne d. anmaruagunne ‘we eat fish’ e. bemaruagunne ‘you all eat fish’ £ wemaruagunne “they eat fish’ g. anogopgunne “eat coconut’ h, anuagunnsa “Late fish’ i List as many Kuna morphemes as you can. ii How would you say ‘they all eat coconut’ in Kuna? iii What is the order of morphemes in a Kuna word (in terms of noun, plural marker, etc.)? Justify your answer 3. Examine the following data in Pintupi (Australian) and answer the questions below. Note that primary stress is indicated with an acute accent on the vowel i.e. a, and secondary stress is indicated with a grave accent on the vowel ie. @ a. pana earth’ b. tidtaya ‘many’ c. mélawana “through from behind” d._ palinkalatu “we (sat) on the hill” e. témulimpatjanku ‘our relation’ f. {iliniqulampatu “the fire for our benefit flared up” i Determine the rules for the assignment of stress in Pintupi. Justify your answer. ji Indicate the stressed syllables in the following word by marking them with the correct accents. kuranluluimpatura ‘the first one who is our relation’ 2/44, Languages are said to have a ‘preferred basic word order’. Explain this notion in typology; discuss its implications for grammar, providing illustrative examples to support your answer. 5. Answer the following questions about the ‘Great Vowel Shift’. Provide relevant examples. i When did it occur? i What language(s) did it affect? ili Which vowels were affected and how? iv What sort of change was it? 6. Discuss the ‘critical period hypothesis and its implications for linguistic theory. PartB 1. Write the set of rules that would generate all and only the sentences in the following list: a. The boys are washing, b. The boys are washing themselves. c. The boy with blue eyes is washing himself 2. Examine the following data and answer the questions below: Latin ‘Maori ‘Japanese Near speaker | hic ‘this nei here" teenel ‘this’ kono ‘this Near listener | iste ‘that’ naa there’ —_teenaa ‘that’ sono ‘that’ Away from _| ille ‘yon’ raa‘yonder’ tera ‘yon’ ano ‘yon’ both i Define the notion of ‘deixis’ in semantics/pragmatics. ii Say what type of deixis is exemplified in the data, Justify your answer. 3. Consider the notion of politeness in pragmatics, i Explain the 6 maxims of politeness. ji Say to which maxim the examples below refer to. a. Could you be a dear and fetch my suit from the dry cleaner's? b. Ifyou can fetch my suit from the dry cleaner’s for me, I'l put up that shelf you've been asking me to fix. ©. I'm so stupid, | forgot to fetch my suit from the dry cleaner’s. Could you possibly do it you're passing that way? d. | know you'd like me to look my best for the wedding, so could you fetch my suit from the dry cleaner’s for me? 3/4@. If you can fetch my suit from the dry cleaner's I'l be a real credit to you when we visit your parents. You've much better at remembering things than | am, so could you possibly fetch my ew suit from the oleaner's? 4. Discuss the types of social variation that can be found amongst a speech community. Provide illustrative examples for languages of your choice. 5. Explain how Creoles and Mixed Languages differ. Support your answer with relevant examples, Note: For students registered for a degree, this paper is part of an examination counting towards a degree award of the University of London. For other students taking this paper, the final mark awarded may count towards a non-degree School qualification, provided that the student is registered for such a qualification. Examinations are governed by School © SOAS, University of London, 2014 4/4