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Language and Linguistics - Summer Reassessment (Coursework) 2017

 

This assignment consists of four exercises, with the weightings indicated.  The word-limit for the whole assignment is 3,000 words (excluding the question titles and bibliography).

 

Exercise 1 (20%)

 

In non-standard colloquial English, we sometimes hear sentences like:

 

a) %It was me what done it

b) %I’ve broke my leg

c) %I seen him yesterday

d) %Someone’s took my pen

e) %I was bit by a dog

f) %Tom come over last week

g) %You’ve ate it all up

 

Give the counterpart of each sentence in Standard English and comment on the relationship between inflectional forms and functions of the verbs in these examples. Is there any pattern to these ‘errors’?

 

Exercise 2 (30%)

 

Use appropriate tests to determine the syntactic category of the underlined words in the following examples (Verb, Noun or Adjective)

 

Mary is intent on getting the job

We enjoyed the dancing 

We enjoy elegant dancing

We enjoy dancing elegantly

We enjoyed the dancing immensely

The painting hangs on the wall

The painting of the chapel took several months

Joe remembers painting the picture

The lesson was very interesting

The teacher succeeded in interesting the students

Sue was congratulated for her beautiful singing

The comments were unflattering

 

 

LG212 – Page 2

 

Exercise 3 (20%)

 

Identify the reasons for the ungrammaticality (or oddness) of the following sentences:

 

a) *Tom has left yet

b) *This book is unlikely to read

c) *Sue dare insult her boss

d) *The workers collapsed the building

e) *The house has demolished

f) *Tom wrote the poem that I read it

g) *How got Sam promoted?

 

Exercise 4 (30%)

 

The phrase let the cat out of the bag can have an idiomatic interpretation ‘reveal a secret’. Which of the following sentences allow this idiomatic interpretation? What do these judgements tell us about the structure and derivation of the sentences?

 

a) The cat was let out of the bag

b) The cat was eager to be let out of the bag

c) The cat was bound to be let out of the bag

d) The cat tends to be let out of the bag

e) We didn’t expect the cat to be let out of the bag

f) The cat wasn’t expected to be let out of the bag

g) The cat expected to be let out of the bag

h) We didn’t ask the cat to be let out of the bag

i) We didn’t ask for the cat to be let out of the bag

j) I remember the cat being let out of the bag

k) The cat remembers being let out of the bag

l) The cat is often easy to let out of the bag

 

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