Questions and Answers > College of Staten Island, CUNY - LING 201. TAKE COME TEST ONE.

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Take-Home Test 1 Due: Feb 28th by 11:59PM ______________________________________________________________________________ TYPE YOUR NAME HERE: Danielle Aylmer Instructions: • Please answer th ... e questions below. For multiple choice questions, you should highlight your chosen answer in RED font. For essay questions, you should just type your answer into the word document. • You can use your book. • Please complete, and then upload by 11:59PM, Thursday Feb 28th. Multiple Choice Questions: 1. Which of the following is an example of an unintentionally informative signal? [2 pt] a. A person saying “I have the flu today.” b. A person saying “I am from New York”. c. A person coughing and sneezing and exhibiting flu-like symptoms. d. A person crying. e. all of the above f. both (a) and (b) c. Both (c) and (d) 2. Which of the following is an example of using language as intentional communication? [2 pt] a. A person saying “I have the flu today.” b. A person saying “I am from New York.” c. A person coughing and sneezing and exhibiting flu-like symptoms. d. A person crying. e. all of the above f. both (a) and (b) c. Both (c) and (d) Take-Home Test 1 Due: Feb 28th by 11:59PM ______________________________________________________________________________ 3. When a person speaks they are often (if not always) sending both an intentionally communicative signal to the listener as well as an unintentionally informative signal. If someone were to say “I’m twenty four years old.” with a New York accent, the intentionally communicative signal would be “I am a person twenty four years of age.”….What would be the unintentionally informative message they also expressed? [2 pt] a. “I am a person who is twenty four years of age.” b. “I am a person who is from Los Angeles.” c. “I am a person who is from New York.” d. “I currently have the flu.” 4. The fact that I can say “There was a car accident on Victory Blvd. last night.” demonstrates that human language has what property? [2 pt] a. Displacement b. Arbitrariness c. Productivity d. Duality e. Cultural transmission f. None of the above 5. The word “Jim” in English has a meaning; it refers to a person named “Jim” (of course, the same pronunciation could also refer to a gymnasium, but forget about that for the moment). The word “Jim” can be broken down into smaller sounds, namely the “J” sound, the “i” sound, and the “m” sound. However, none of the sound parts have their own meaning… “J” all by itself is meaningless, and so are “i” and “m” on their own. The fact that “Jim” is meaningful but made up of meaningless parts is an example of what property that all human languages have? [2 pt] a. Displacement b. Arbitrariness c. Productivity d. Duality e. Cultural transmission f. None of the above Take-Home Test 1 Due: Feb 28th by 11:59PM ______________________________________________________________________________ 6. English has a word “water” (to refer the liquid substance) and a word “bird” (to refer to a kind of animal that usually has feathers and lays eggs). If I wanted to, I could create a new word by putting the two together: “waterbird”. Not only can I create this new word, but if I did, you would understand that it must refer to some kind of bird that has something to do with water (perhaps it lives near the water; perhaps it’s a kind of bird that swims). The fact that I can do this is an example of what property that all human languages (and no animal communication system) have? [2 pt] a. Displacement b. Arbitrariness c. Productivity d. Duality e. Cultural transmission f. None of the above 7. When a dog growls, this is an example of what property that all human languages have? [2 pt] a. Displacement b. Arbitrariness c. Productivity d. Duality e. Cultural transmission f. None of the above 8. Which of the following are examples of prescriptive statements (highlight all that apply in red font): [2 pt] a. “You should never say “aint’” b. “It’s bad to use double negatives like “I don’t have no money’” c. “Some people use double negatives like “I don’t have no money’” d. “You should always say “my brother and I” not “me and my brother’” e. “English speakers can be observed saying both things like “my brother and I” as well as “me and my brother’” f. “Dropping an ‘r’ at the end of a word is not proper English” Take-Home Test 1 Due: Feb 28th by 11:59PM ______________________________________________________________________________ 9. One of the main goals of science is to provide an understanding of what the world is actually like. Linguistics is the science of human language, and therefore linguistics must rely on which kind of approach to language? [2 pt] a. only a prescriptive approach b. only a descriptive approach 10. What does the following mean: *John calls man the. [2 pt] a. It means that *John calls man the. is a descriptively impossible or ungrammatical sentence of English. b. It means that *John calls man the. is a descriptively impossible or ungrammatical sentence of English, but it is prescriptively grammatical. c. It means that *John calls man the. is an unusual sentence of English, but it’s perfectly grammatical. d. None of the above 11. In the sentence “John called the man”, what part of speech is “called”? [2 pt] a. an article b. a noun c. a verb d. an adjective e. None of the above 12. In the sentence “John called the man”, what part of speech is “the”? [2 pt] a. an article b. a noun c. a verb d. an adjective e. None of the above Take-Home Test 1 Due: Feb 28th by 11:59PM ______________________________________________________________________________ 13. In the sentence “John called the man”, the words “John” and “man” belong to the same part of speech category. [2 pt] a. True, they’re both nouns b. True, they’re both adjectives c. False, one is a noun, and the other is an adjective d. False, one is a noun, and the other is an adverb 14-17. EXTRA-CREDIT QUESTIONS For each of the following sentences, 1) provide constituent analysis, and 2) provide a labeled and bracketed analysis. 14. She created a visual representation of underlying syntactic structure. [1 pt] a. constituent analysis: Noun phrase Verb Noun Phrase Prepositional phrase She created a visual representation of underlying syntactic structure b. (she=noun) (created=Verb) (a=article) (visual representation=object)(of=preposition) 15. The Greek writer Herodotus reported the story of an Egyptian pharaoh. [1 pt] a. Constituent analysis: Noun phrase Verb Noun Phrase Prepositional phrase The Greek writer Herodotus reported the story of an Egyptian pharaoh b. (The=article) (Greek writer Herodotus=noun) (reported=verb) (the=article) (story=object) (of=preposition) (an=article) (Egyptian pharaoh=noun) 16. An interesting development relevant to this controversy came about almost by accident. [1 pt] (an=article) (interesting development relevant to this controversy came about almost by accident=subject) 17. A well-established grammatical description of Latin is a useful guide for European languages. [1 pt] (A=article) (well-established grammatical description=object) (of=preposition) (Latin=subject) (is a= article) (useful guide for European languages=object) Take-Home Test 1 Due: Feb 28th by 11:59PM ______________________________________________________________________________ Essay Question: 18. Defining “language” One of the most important parts of the first week of class is making sure we distinguish “language” from “communication”. In our first blog post, many of you said something along the lines of “language is communication”. Although these two things are related, they are not the same thing. In this essay question, I would like you to discuss the following statement, and describe why it shows that language and communication must be separate things: Statement: Saying that “language is communication” is a lot like saying “a car is driving”. [4 pt] [Show More]

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