ENG 227 Final, Summer 2003

eee cpr OI jamckis oS CNTVERSID LIBKARY OF BEIRUT Summer 2003 English 227 introduction to Language Prof. Shaaban FINAL EXAMINATION (Two Hours) NAME: Answer the first two questions and any two of the remaining three questions. 1. Mark the following statements as TRUE or FALSE. (24 points) a. b. i 2. Match the UM cp oe ne ao op | Overgeneralization is a regular process in the acquisition of meaning. Chinese characters are an example of syllabic writing. The Phoenician alphabet was the first to represent both consonants and vowels in writing. In most languages, words and pronouns referring to males are the unmarked forms while words and pronouns referring to females are the marked forms. Nonstandard dialects (e.g. Black or Hispanic English) are considered by linguists to be deficient and inferior to standard language varieties (e.g. Standard American English). “Spelling pronunciation” refers to the spelling of words as they are pronounced as in “kwik” for “quick”. In first language situations, no one teaches children rules of grammar; they just “pick them up.” Homonyms can create structural rather than lexical ambiguity. terms on the left with the examples on the right. (20 points) Homophone 1. Japanese Katakana Latin alphabet 2. Greek, English, Italian Slang 3. in, on, at, with, the Function words 4. He saw that gasoline can explode. Closed class of baby words 5. libido, mother complex, aggression Lexical ambiguity 6. English and French writing systems Jargon 7. barf, split, dig, beat it Syllabic Writing 8. Lead (NY led (V) Alphabetic writing 9. mentally challenged, shoot, darn Euphemistic terms 10. no, bye bye, more, allgone ae perreren ~ UNIVER: . LEIBKGARY OF SEFROT 3. Explain briefly THREE of the following statements, and provide examples. (28 points) a. As long as there are topics that people do not feel comfortable talking about, euphemistic terms and expressions will continue to flourish. b. The attempts to create a politically correct language have been effective in some areas such as gender, handicaps, and ethnicity. c. The child appears to formulate his own linguistic generalizations and rules on the basis of the data he hears around him; his system gets modified as a result of mental development as well as exposure to further data. d. There appears to be a fixed order in the development of writing systems in different cultures around the world. 4. Illustrate with examples the discrepancies between letters and sounds in English, and suggest reasons for the existence of such discrepancies. (28 points) Dialect variation is normally motivated by two opposing factors: contact and separation. These two factors operate at two levels: geographical and social. Explain and give examples. (28 points) BONUS QUESTION 4 points Write out in standard orthography the utterances represented by the following transcriptions (American English Conversational style): a. [lematejjaebaut nensi] b. [plejnli sed lajf an basra sz @ najtmer] c. [ajdompraektas atnajt] d. [dZaek n 8a bojz Sudaf plejd]