Week 5

Question 1

Grammar

Answer 1

The analysis of the structure of phrases and sentences

Question 2

Prescriptive grammar

Answer 2

A set of rules designed to give instructions about the “correct” or “proper” way to speak/write.

Question 3

Descriptive grammar

Answer 3

Observations of how language is actually used.

An objective description of a speaker’s knowledge of a language (competence), based on their use of language (performance).

Question 4

Mental grammar

Answer 4

The knowledge of these rules and patterns that a native speaker of the language has, i.e. the mental representation of grammar.

Question 5

Psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Answer 5

The question of how linguistic knowledge is represented is the domain of psycho- and neurolinguistics.

Psycholinguistics combines psychology and linguistics to gain a deeper understanding of human language.

Neurolinguistics examines the connection between the brain and language.

Question 6

Prescriptive standards

Answer 6

Multiple negatives were commonly used by speakers of standard Old and Middle English.

However, today most consider such constructions highly informal and English grammar instructors discourage the use of these.

Prescriptive standards may therefore change over time. This shows that such standards are not set, and are instead governed by societal opinion.

Question 7

Double negatives in French

Answer 7

They are a part of standard French.

Question 8

Parts of speech (lexical categories)

Answer 8

1. Nouns
2. Adjectives
3. Verbs
4. Adverbs
5. Prepositions
6. Determiners
7. Conjunctions

Question 9

Free morphemes consist of…

Answer 9

1. Lexical (open class; nouns, verbs)
2. Functional (closed class; article, pronouns, prepositions)

Question 10

Proper nouns

Answer 10

Proper nouns have unique referents (like Cathy), and they don’t combine with a determiner.

Question 11

Embedding

Answer 11

A constituent may contain a constituent of the same category.

We saw John’s car today.
We saw John’s best friend’s car today.

Question 12

Functions

Answer 12

Subject, direct object, indirect object, complement of preposition.

Complement of preposition = Mary bought a present for___.

Question 13

What kind of verb does a basic sentence structure have?

Answer 13

These are sentences with transitive verbs, ones that occur with a direct object.

You saw that man.
You bought the tickets.
They chased a burglar.

Question 14

Evidence for the VP as a unit

Answer 14

Then an active sentence passive. In the passive sentence, both the verb and the DO remain (now as the subject), while the subject is only optionally present.

We saw that man.
That man was seen (by them).

Another test:
You bought the tickets and Mary did so too.

Note that did so too replaces bought the tickets, suggesting that the latter forms a constituent.

Question 15

Movement

Answer 15

Constituents may occur in places that don’t correspond to their basic/original position.

Declarative: They will go to Spain.
Interrogative: Will they go to Spain?

Question 16

The basic word order of English sentences

Answer 16

SVO

Question 17

Six different word orders can be predicted:

Answer 17

1. SOV (Turkish, Latin)
2. SVO (English)
3. VSO (Classical Arabic)
4. VOS (Austronesian languages)
5. OVS (rare)
6. OSV (rare)

Question 18

Case marking

Answer 18

Some languages signal the different syntactic functions of amps by means of case marking.

Question 19

Case, number, gender appear in…

Answer 19

Inflectional
1. New forms of same word
2. No change in word class

Question 20

Paradigms normally don’t have…

Answer 20

They normally don’t have any gaps. All inflected forms are available for all words of the right class.

Question 21

Adjunct, disjunct, conjunct

Answer 21

Provides meaning related to time, manner or place.

We left at noon.
He arrived yesterday.
He lost his dog in the woods.
She sings like an angel.

Disjunct: opinions, attitude (honestly, literally, fortunately, to be honest).

Conjunct: linking words (because, furthermore, moreover, then).

Question 22

Typology

Answer 22

The study of languages based on their common structural features.

Question 23

Grammatical gender

Answer 23

Classification of nouns that affect agreement with other parts of speech, often based on masculine, feminine and neuter.

Question 24

Constituent analysis

Answer 24

Constituent analysis breaks sentences down into their parts (constituents) to study their relationships and roles within the sentence structure.

Question 25

Recursion

Answer 25

A structure where a sentence can be nested within another, as in “John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped you”.

Question 26

Do-insertion

Answer 26

The insertion of the auxiliary “do” in questions and negatives in the present or past tense.

Statement: She likes pizza.
Question with Do-Insertion: Does she like pizza?

Statement: They enjoyed the party.
Negative with Do-Insertion: They did not enjoy the party.

Question 27

What does Chomsky’s definition of “Competence” include?

Answer 27

Competence is the knowledge speakers have of their language, allowing them to produce well-formed structures without conscious thought.

Question 28

Difference descriptivism and prescriptivism

Answer 28

Prescriptive = Rules about “correct” language use.

Descriptive = Observations of how language is actually used.