SOAS, University of London Examination for Undergraduate students — May 2013 GENERAL LINGUISTICS 15 290 0069, 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 Special 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 questions from either Part A or 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 Page 1 of 5Part A 1 Review the notion of duality of patterning, and explain what it means, Do you think that duality of patterning is a useful design feature to distinguish human and animal communication systems? Provide relevant examples to support your answer. Examine the data in a Hypothetical Language X and answer the questions below: Consider the status of [a] and [2]. a. [famut] ‘rowboat? j [fanro] “birth-bath’ b [puigan] ‘lollipop’ k [latuiki] ‘thighbone” © [dam] “down” 1 [feta] ‘yesterday’ d- [gay] “bog” m [fipola] “quiz” [wifteg] ‘window’ 1 [tfinma) ‘grie?™ f [mayan] ‘dictionary’ © [uanjanf] ‘door’ 9g [manfee] ‘no? P [visa] ‘to misinform’ h [igo] ‘timely’ 4 [yomsa] “goose’ i panto) ‘garrulous* [pants] ‘garrulous’ i Do {al and [e] belong to separate phonemes, or are they allophones of the same phoneme? Justify your answer. ji Based on your answer, rewrite the following words phonemically: a. [famu] ‘rowboat? b. [?igo] ‘timely’ c. [fanra] “birth-bath’ TURN OVER Page 2 of3 Consider the following data in Turkish (Altaic). Answer the questions below. deniz ‘an ocean denizin ‘of an ocean’ eve ‘to a house’. evden ‘from a house’ denizjikde ‘in a little ocean’ ede ‘in a hand’ elim ‘my hand" denize 'to an ocean’ evjiklerimizde ‘in our lttle houses’ eller ‘hands’ dishler ‘teeth’ dishiminiz ‘of our tooth’ dishleriminiz ‘of our teeth’ evjikden ‘from alittle house’ like ‘to a little hand ze7eacce wosg-x- List as many Turkish morphemes as you can. li Give the English translation for the Turkish form "dishjiklerden iii What is the order of morphemes in a Turkish word (in terms of noun, plural marker, etc.)? Justify your answer. 4 Explain how the following terms are used in morphological typology to classify languages. Provide examples. i Analytic ji Syntethic ili Polysynthetic, iv Agglutinative Vv Flective 5 Consider the sets of cognates in Archaic Romance languages below. Use the methods of historical linguistics to answer the following questions, Examine the sound correspondences of [I] and [r]. i Reconstruct the proto-form for each word. li Discuss why your hypothesis is better than other possible ones. Spanish Sardinian Roumanian Gloss a hilo filu fir ‘thread’ b riva riba ripa ‘bank’ ¢ tio riu ri ‘river dtiso rizu ris ‘augh’ 6 ‘Endangered’ or ‘dying’ languages receive some attention in the media from time to time. ‘Some people consider we might be better off with fewer languages, that in fact the diversity of languages can make communication difficult, and even, in some cases, cause conflicts. Discuss the reasons for preserving endangered languages, adopting a linguist’s point of view. TURN OVER Page 3 of 57 Explain what is the ‘language acquisition device’ and the implications this notion has for linguistic theory. 8 Choose a prominent linguist and discuss his/her contribution to Linguistics, PARTB 1. Discuss the process of Creolization and how does this differ from Pi 2 Discuss the meaning of the acronym SPEAKING and how it is used in the ethnography of a communicative event. 3 Provide phrase structure rules and tree diagrams for the following set of sentences. Justify your choice by explaining the constituency techniques you used. He will survive the operation. The savage dog chased the scared cat. ‘A small boat sailed up the river. Can you jump over the fence? apse 4 Discuss different experiments that show prototypes are psychologically real and how prototype theory can be used to explain polysemy. TURN OVER Page 4 of 55. Using Grice’s notion of the Co-operative Principle and the Maxims of Conversation, for each set of examples (a. b. c. d. e.) below: i ii Give a likely implicature of the reply. Explain which Maxim has been flouted and for what reason, a Student: Edinburgh is the capital of Spain isn't it sir? Teacher: Yes, and | suppose London is the capital of France as well. b Context: John has picked up Mary at Luton train station and is driving her to Lucy's house. John’ Where does Lucy live? Mary: Luton. a Husband: — When are you coming home? Wife: | will codify that question to my superiors and respond at such a time as an adequate answer is preparable. b Boyfriend: Do you love me? Girlfriend: | like aerobics, reading and chocolate. © Context: Harry was fined and sentenced to death in court. Paul How did Harry do in court today? Peter: ‘Oh, he got a fine. 6 Examine the sentences a. b. c. d. e. below. For each of them: i Identify the predicator and referring expressions and explain your choice. ii Create a Universe Discourse Model that includes all the entities in the sentences. ili Write logical formula expressing the propositions below. a John kicked the cat. b The cat scratched John. Mary and the cat do not like John d_ The cat did not sleep. @ Mary slept but John didn't. 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 regulations. © SOAS, University of London, 2013 Page $ of 5