English 615: Modern English Linguistics

Last Homework
Due thursday Dec 18

Yu should know that I was neither lost nor walking slowly at the time of this interaction.

Young, probably undergraduate Student: Hey, are you lost?
Me: No.
Student: I can help you!
Me: thank you, I'm fine.
Student: There are stairs coming up.
Me: Yes, I know.
Student: Stop! There are the steps.
Me: (Not stopping as I went down the steps, I made no response... I continued to walk veering slightly to cut across the grass. We were now some distance apart.)
Student: (calling loudly) Hey, go to the right!
Me: (Under my breath): Right. Thanks.

First Language Acquisition
Part 2
Due Dec. 5 or Before

1. Here are the grammar rules for Keith, age 22 months:

• Africates are replaced by a stop at the same (or nearly same) place of articulation.
• Voiced africates are similarly replaced by a voiced stop at the same (or nearly same) place of articulation.
• The maximum syllable is CVN: that is, any consonant, any vowel and a syllable-final nasal.
• Words must begin with a stressed syllable.
• No inflectional affixes.
• No function words.

How would Keith say the following:

• Mommy's sock.
• I want vanela.
• The doggy drank my juice.
• Daddy voted for Obama.
• Keith's chair is blue!

2. Here are the grammar rules for Kurt, age 38 months.

• 'In' and "on' are the only function words. All other function words are represented by /a/.
• The present progressive is represented by -ing.
• All past tense is regularized.
• The maximum syllable is cvc.
• Kurt has 'consonant harmony': that is, In two syllable words, both syllable onsets must have the same place of articulation.
• While there may be voiced and voiceless fricatives, stops are all voiced.

How would Kurt say the following:

• The doggy is on the bed.
• Kurt ate breakfast.
• The kitty drank my juice.
• Don't splash the teacher.
• Mommy is working.

3. Here are some utterances by Krissie at 18months and their standard English equivalents. Phonologically, what is Krissie's maximum syllable and what substitutions or deletions occur in her speech? Note that different environments (perhaps different places in the word) may need to be accounted for separately. What morphemes does she delete?
1. kwisi miling Krissie is smiling
2. no pwitty Snow is pretty.
3. fwuffy lippaw fluffy slippers
4. dop gwamma. stop gramma.
5. gool big. The school is big.
6. bus gween the bus is green.
7. mommy sock. Mommy's sock.
8. Lowi bum. Lori bumped me.
9. Lad cookie. Last cookie.
10. Susie bin gwass! Susie spins the glass.

4. Using the rules you have made, determine how Krissie would say the following.

1. Smell the flowers.
2.Friday night.
3. The mouse is blue.
4. Ask Fred.
5. Don't run in the street.

#8: First Language Acquisition Homework part 1

Due Friday Dec 5 or Before

ALERT A boatload of very fancy jewelry has just been lifted from a local pawn shop. Your bosom pal, Madame Flambeaux, is accused of the crime. By some extremely quirky twist of fate (understood only by those who write homework questions), the only witnesses to the crime are a pair of twenty-month-old twin boys. The prosecutor reports that one twin (Freddy) said: 'Wady taked de diamonds.' The other twin (Frodo) reportedly said 'lady gun.'

You have been called as an expert witness. What can you tell poor Madame F about the legitimacy of this evidence? Is the prosecutor telling the truth in both cases, or are his data suspect? Be specific about what you think it each case and support your claims. Focus on the linguistic evidence not on your opinion about whether 20 month old children are to be believed. Is it possible that someone spent a long, anxious night teaching one or both of these kids what to say to the prosecutor? Explain.

Psycholinguistics: Speech errors

Due by December 1

• Utterance: what was actually said. (You should write them down as they occur; do not rely on your memory.
• Target: what did the speaker intend to say.
• Context: circumstances under which the error was made: who was speaking, what was going on etc.
• Level at which the error occurred. here are your choices:
  • propositional (environmentally mediated errors),
  • syntactic (usually a blend of two ways of saying the same thing), or a situation where words are misordered.
  • lexical (note if it was phonologically mediated, semantically mediated or both), (NOTE: if you say 'meditated' instead of Mediated' you lose a point... because that drives me crazy!)
  • morphological or
  • phonological (this is an error involving a segment or syllable. Note if it is a perseveration, anticipation or exchange of material (or something else).

Homework #7: Hawaiian and Dolittan
Due Friday, Oct 24

Hawaiian

Examine these data from Hawaiian and answer the questions.

1. kai uli \ deep blue sea

2. Kai Ula \ Red Sea

3. maka uli \ Black eye

4. noho nui \ big chair

5. kai nui \ big sea

6. Pihoihoi au \ I'm excited

7. 'olelo 'oe \ you talk

8. heluhelu au \ i read.

9. himeni au \ I sing

10. 'olelo o ia \ he talks

11. makemake au i ka puke \ I want the book.

12. makemake 'oe i ka pua \ you want the flower

13. 'ai 'oe i ke kalo \ you eat taro.

14. makemake au i ke kalo \ I want the taro.

15. noho au ma Waimea. \ I live in Waimea

16. noho 'oe ma ke kula. \ You live at the school.

1. What is the order of noun and adjective in Hawaiian?
2. What is the order of subject, object and verb?
3. To show location, does Hawaiian use prepositions or postpositions?
4. Given your answers to the preceding questions, would you call Hawaiian a head-initial or a head-final language? Explain.

Dolittan

1. zing ta zoo
The elephant sings.

2. silabun ta kodo
The monkeys dance.

3. sosa ta babu ta ra
The chicken eats the carrot.

4. mula zing ta fong
A cat sees the elephant.

5. mima ta sizoon ii jo
The rat hears beautiful songs.

6. labun ki ta sumu jo
The little monkey hears a flute.

7. mularan zoon kimi
A mouse enjoys a song.

8. mula ta siliki ta fong
The cat sees the birds.

9. sisosa ta labu
The chickens are being silly.

• What do these dolittan words (or parts of words) mean in English?
  • babu
  • fong
  • ii
  • jo
  • ki
  • kimi
  • kodo
  • labu
  • liki
  • mima
  • mula
  • -n
  • ra
  • si-
  • sosa
  • sumu
  • ta
  • zing
  • zoo
• What is the order of subject, verb and object?
• Name at least two other languages which also have this basic word order.
• What is the order of definite article (the), adjective and noun?
• Briefly discuss the use of definite and indefinite articles ("a" and "the") in Dolittan.
• What is interesting about the formation of the dolittan word for "mouse"? How would you translate it literally?
• How do you say "the rats see a beautiful dance" in Dolittan?
• What does the Dolittan sentence "sizing ta sosaran kimi" mean?

Homework #5 Phonology Problems

Sindhi

1. [p@nu] leaf
2. [v@dZu] opportunity
3. [Seki] suspicious
4. [g@do] dull
5. [d@ru] door
6. [ph@nu] snake hood
7. [t@ru] bottom
8. [kh@to] sour
9. [b@dZu] run
10. [b@nu] forest
11. [b@tSu] be safe
12. [dZ@dZu] judge
Data from Language Files copyright OSU press.

Italian

Consider the following data from Italian. Answer the questions that follow.
[N] is a velar nasal.

1. [tinta] dye
2. [tEnda] tent
3. [dansa] dance
4. [nero] black
5. [dZEnte] people
6. [sapone] soap
7. [tiNgo] I dye
8. [tENgo] I keep
9. [fuNgo] mushroom
10. [byaNka] white
11. [aNke] also
12. [faNgo] mud

Are there any minimal pairs? If so, what are they and what can you conclude to be true of Italian from those minimal pairs?

Are [n] and [N] different phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme?
Data from Language Files copyright OSU press.

Homework #4: Two Morphology Problems
Due Friday, October 3

Turkish

Examine the following data from Turkish and answer the questions that follow.
1. [deniz] an ocean
2. [elim] my hand
3. [denize] to an ocean
4. [eller] hands
5. [denizin] of an ocean
6. [diller] teeth
7. [eve] to a house
8. [dilimizin] of our tooth
9. [evden] from a house
10. [dillerimizin] of our teeth
11. [evcikden] from a little house
12. [elcike] to a little hand
13. [denizcikde] in a little ocean
14. [denizlerimizde] in our oceans
15. [elde] in a hand
16. [evciklerimizde] in our little houses

a. Give the Turkish morpheme that corresponds to each of the following translations:
hand
house
ocean
tooth
little
from
in
of
to
my
our
(plural marker)

b. What is the order of morphemes in a Turkish word (in terms of noun, plural marker, etc.)?

c. How would one say 'of our little hands' in Turkish?

Luiseo

Examine the following data from Luiseo, a Uto-Aztecan language of Southern California, and answer the questions that follow.

1. [nokaamay]
my son

2. [oki]
your house

3. [potaana]
his blanket

4. [ohuukapi]
your pipe

5. [otaana]
your blanket

6. [noki]
my house

7. [omkim]
your (pl.) houses

8. [nokaamayum]
my sons

9. [popeew]
his wife

10. [opeew]
your wife

11. [omtaana]
your (pl.) blanket

12. [amhuukapi]
our pipe

13. [pokaamay]
his son

14. [poki]
his house

15. [notaana]
my blanket

16. [pohuukapi]
his pipe

17. [nohuukapi]
my pipe

18. [okaamay]
your son

19. [pompeewum]
their wives

20. [pomki]
their house

21. [ampeewum]
our wives

22. [amhuukapim]
our pipes

23. [omtaanam]
your (pl.) blankets

24. [pomkaamay]
their son

Give the Luiseo morpheme that corresponds to each English translation. Note that the plural marker has two different forms; list them both.

• blanket
• house
• pipe
• son
• wife
• (plural marker) on nouns (don't confuse this with the plural forms of 'your')
• my
• your (singular)
• his
• our
• your (plural)
• their

You should have noticed two ways to pluralize a noun. That is, there are two forms that mean 'plural'. When there are two forms of the same morpheme, we call them 'allomorphs'. When you want to pluralize a Luiseo noun, how do you know which allomorph to use? You should be able to come up with two alternative solutions: one semantic and one based only on the form of the word.

Homework #3: Transcription

Homework #2: Segment Puzzles
Due Friday, September 19th

Practice

These are some riddles my eight year old likes and their answers spelled out in consonant features just like on the next homework. I've given you the vowels in phonetic transcription. Aren't we funny?

Remember that:

• we need not indicate spaces between words in transcription.
• A syllabic sound is one that literally takes a whole syllable: The difference between the pronunciations of 'lightning' and 'lightening' is the first has a regular /n/ and the second a syllabic /n/. The difference between 'free' and 'furry' is the first has a regular /r/ and the second a syllabic /r/.
• Puns and silliness are par for this course. So, pronounce the sounds you hear alounover and over until they make some sense... any kind of sense.

Question 1. What did the zookeeper use to unlock cages?

Answer:
[voiceless glottal fricative]
I
[voiced alveolar fricative]
[bilabial nasal]
schwa
[alveolar nasal]
[voiceless velar stop]
i

Question 2. Which is the rudest animal?

Answer:
schwa
[voiced velar stop]
u
[voiceless alveolar fricative]

Question 3. Why did the black cat cross the road?

answer:
[voiced bilabial stop]
i
[voiceless velar stop]
schwa
[voiced alveolar fricative]
[voiceless glottal fricative]
i
[voiced labio-velar glide]
schwa
>[voiced alveolar fricative]
[voiceless alveolar fricative]
[voiceless alveolar stop]
ej
[voiceless bilabial stop]
[syllabic voiced alveolar lateral]
[voiced alveolar stop]
[voiceless alveolar stop]
u
[voiced interdental fricative
schwa
[voiceless alveopalatal affricate]
I
[voiceless velar stop]
I
[alveolar nasal]

Homework #1

Part 1: Due September 1
Part 2 Due September 8 at dawn

Part 1: Data Gathering

Each of you has been given some language names. Please look up the following information pertaining to those languages. Even if you believe you know the answer, please verify by checking with a reliable source. For some of these languages, you will have to interpret a kind of writing with which you may not be familiar. It's like working out a puzzle. Give it a try. Do *not* simply try to copy the squiggles to recreate the writing system. The point here is to learn how the words in question are pronounced (as best you can) and work with that. It doesn't matter how they are written; the important thing is how they are pronounced. So, again, do *not* paste nonRoman characters into your answer. You should be able to say the word outloud. for each language, give the following infomration:

1. language name
2. Look up the translations for the following english words. To ensure you get the right meaning, look the word up 'both way's. for example, look up the word 'fire' on the English-foreign language side of the dictionary. Then, take that foreign word and look *it* up to varify that you have found the correct term. You are looking for a noun that means 'flame': not a verb that means 'to dismiss someone from a job' or the verb that means 'shoot'.
   • 'fish': (noun)
   • 'fire': (noun)
   • 'finger': (noun)
   • 'computer'
   • If you search sincerely and cannot find any of these words in your language either online or in Jerome, email me by the deadline and I'll get you a new language. If you find some of the words but not all, that's fine.
3. where is your language spoken?
4. How many people speak your language?

Email part one to me, pasted into the body of your email message.

YOu may wish to consult www.ethnologue.com for helpful information about numbers of speakers and language distribution.

Part 2: Analysis