LING 151 Revision

Don’t panic!

Announcement

152 (syntax) revision session Fri 11th June, 12:00, B80

Info about…

the official bits exam strategy content of the module sample multiple choice questions

The exam

June 16th, 2-5pm, Cartmel LT bring library card! rubric will explain what parts of the exam

you need to do; this depends on what modules you’ve taken (101, 151 + 152 and/or 153)

but basic structure of exam paper is…

Exam

part I: 151 mc questions part II: 151 essay questions part III: 152 (a) mc questions, (b) essay

questions part IV: 153 essay questions

Exam

part I mc questions N=35, focus on term 2 though term 1 not entirely ignored; exactly like Xmas test questions (use separate answer sheet; 152 mc questions in answer book); samples towards end of today’s session

part II essay questions choice of 6, no focus on term 2

Some friendly advice…

Read the rubric carefully

Know the numbers of the modules that you have done

Make sure you’re clear on which questions you’re supposed to answer

Some friendly advice…

Timing3 hour exam5 questions (4 if you don’t do LING 152)35 mins or 45 mins per questionEveryone does 3 essays, and either 1 or 2

multiple choice sectionsMultiple choice: 151 has 35 questions, 152

has 12 questions

Some friendly advice…

Read the question carefullyAnswer the question asked (don’t just write

everything you know about X)Just because there has been a lecture topic

on X you won’t have to write everything you can remember from the lecture – there will be a focus in the essay question that you must recognise if you are to get good marks

Some friendly advice…

Revision…should already be well underwayRead through lecture notes and seminar tasks

carefully Important: read the additional reading that

was suggested at the end of each lecture (especially the recommended chapters from ODK)

Content

Acquisition (L1, L2) Disorders Accents of English/Phonetics/Phonology Language change Grammar Meaning (semantics-pragmatics) Writing systems Language Families Language Endangerment

Acquisition

Innate vs Environmental theories of L1 acquisition

Stages of acquisition (one word stage, two word stage etc)

Processes in acquisition (speech errors, grammatical errors etc)

Critical Period Hypothesis Teaching of a second language Difficulties in teaching a second language

Language Disorders

Parts of the brain dealing with language Types of aphasia (Broca’s, Wernicke’s) Genie

Phonetics and Phonology

Articulation Parts of the vocal tract Movement of the tongue (for vowels and

consonants) Action of the Larynx Terminology

Place/Manner/Voicing Phonemes and allophones Transcription

Accents of English

The transcription of sounds in accents Distinctions betweens phonemes and

allophones How do we recognise and describe

phonological differences between accents?Systemic differencesRealisational differencesDistributional differences

Language change

fragments from Anglo-Saxon Chr, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, PDE language changes is continuous and affects all areas (phon, morph, lex, syntax, semantics)

attitudes to language change often negative attempts to regulate & fix language (Académie Française, Real Academia Española, attempts in England by Dryden, Swift, etc. “prescriptivism” generally to no avail, esp. in spoken language (consider in English split infinitives, double negatives, ain’t, etc.)

Language change cont. also: positive views, e.g. Darwinistic forms often

shortened over time (do not > don’t, want to > wanna) due to economy of effort/efficiency BUT: short forms often replaced with longer forms (Fr. (nous) chanterons ‘we will sing’ < Lat. cantare habemus, but cf. longer new Fr. form (nous) allons chanter

also: massive differences across languages unexpected if there were some ideal, maximally efficient system, which all languages gravitate towards (simplification in one area of grammar often leads to complication in another (OE case endings lost in ME, but less freedom in word order, which is a complication)

primary function of language: communication no evidence that some language are more suited to communicate ideas than others (pidgins excepted)

overall, languages don’t decline over time, but they don’t improve either

Grammar

morphology: morpheme, free v. bound, inflectional v. derivational, etc.

syntax: subject, predicate, verb, object, etc. (grammatical functions) v. N(oun), V(erb), A(djective), P(reposition), NP, VP, AP, PP, etc. (syntactic categories) trees

Meaning (semantics-pragmatics) componential analysis v. prototype-based

semantics componential analysis: stallion [+male] [+adult]

[+equine] useful to some extent but cf. bachelor [+human]

[+male] [+adult] [+unmarried] what about the Pope, a priest, an unmarried beggar, a man who has been engaged for 2 yrs? instead, we seem to have an idea of features that bachelors will typically tend to have (non-clergy, well-off, available, attractive, …) the higher the degree to which these features are present in a man, the more central he is to the ‘bachelor’ category

Meaning cont.

‘bachelor’:

Orlando

man engaged for 2 yrs

Pope

degree of prototypicality

Meaning cont.

pragmatics study of meaning in use meaning in use different from isolated meaning

enriched by features of the context (e.g. it the pc in Lonsdale Large LT)

signal meaning v. speaker meaning negotiating meaning between speaker and

hearer is governed by various constraints: conversational maxims (quantity, manner, etc. co-operative principle) and politeness (agreement, praise, etc. politeness principle)

Last part of term 2

writing systems (different kinds of, evolution, etc.)

language families (comparative linguistics, reconstruction, etc.)

endangerment (what causes it, why should we care, how can death be prevented, etc.)

see Andrew Wilson’s personal www page for some useful downloadable summaries of his lectures

MC Questions

some sample questions task: try to answer them, asking us any

questions you may have (on anything)

Good luck!

Kevin’s office hours: Mon 11-12, Weds 12-1

Willem’s office hours:Mon 1-2, Weds 1-2