Exam #1 Questions

  1. from Kurt Salzinger, Pleasing Linuists: A Parable, JVLVB, 9, 725.
    And the linguist said, "Our truths are universal truths for from them we can generate all sentences particular and none of them impossible, except, of course, the non-sentences which speakers really say." As the trouble with actual speech is that it is too remote from people's competence for talking, the linguist continued, "People's behavior does not adhere to rules and meta-rules - only their competence does."
    As there is this seeming gap between knowledge of language and use of language, What does it mean to explain language? What must be accomplished if we are to do that?
  2. Imagine that an isolated group of the genus Homo erectus is discovered. They seem to communicate with combinations of brief utterances, perhaps just single words, and with gestures. Which of Hockett's features (stick to the 6 listed in your text) are most likely to be present? Justify your answer (always! this should go without saying!).
  3. Language is both symbolic and rule-governed. Which of Hockett's features support language as symbolic and which support language as rule-governed?
  4. If the modularity view is correct, what aspects of language are most likely to be specialized modules that operate without using general memory abilities? What aspects of language are most likely to depend more strongly on general cognitive abilities? (Justify, justify, justify!!)
  5. Currently the computer is viewed as an apt metaphor for the brain, with a focus on both as general-purpose problem-solving systems that encode, store, and retrieve information. Is this comparison based on a computational, representational, or implementational analysis? Explain. If you specified just one level of analysis, do you believe that computers can be compared to human memory at either of the other two levels? Why or why not?
  6. Is it possible to point to any particular word and identify it as the longest word in the English language? Explain.
  7. Draw a phrase structure tree for "George stayed after school with the teacher." Now extend the tree one level further by showing the morphemes that compose each word (where there is more than one in a single word). Should this tree diagram be considered as one kind of knowledge or two (syntactic and morphemic)? Explain.
  8. Using the diagrammed sentence above, compare and contrast how the meaning of the sentence would be explained in conceptual semantics and in cognitive grammar. Which one of the two views of meaning maintains the stronger distinction between syntax and semantics?
  9. Why are many linguists interested in discovering features that are universal across all languages?
  10. Test your understanding of relative clause formation by determining the main and subordinate sentences in the Ambiguity Example sentence 1b.
  11. Describe the structural ambiguity of the sentence, "The princess thought the shooting of the prince was terrible." If possible, illustrate your answer with tree diagrams.
  12. Let's say that you replicated Neely's 1977 experiment on semantic priming of lexical decisions, except that you had a group of people who had brain damage that affected their ability to perform a controlled shift of attention. Describe what aspects of the data would be the same as Neely's and what aspects would differ.
  13. Explain the limitations of left-branching, right-branching and center-embedded sentence structures under Baddeley's Model of Working Memory. What predictions can you make under this model of the sentence structures of relatively long utterances and the ease of comprehension (or production)?
  14. What data indicate that the spread of activation in a semantic network is an automatic process?
  15. Explain what is meant by codability. How is codability related to tests of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? Describe similarities and differences between codability and categorization.
  16. Point to some examples of cultural influences on language. Are these examples of linguistic determinism or linguistic relativism?

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Comments to author: David Bozak
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Revised: February 15, 2001
URL: http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~dab/310/classes/e1questions.html