Chapter 1 Invitation to Linguistics
1. Does the traffic light system have duality, why?
2. Why is competence and performance an important distinction in linguistics? 3. In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar?
Chapter 2 Phonetics
1. How is the description of consonants different from that of vowels?
2. Why might a photographer ask the person she is photographing to say cheese? 3. Account for the difference in articulation in each of the following pairs of words:
coast ghost; ghost boast boast most; ghost mist;
Chapter 3 Phonology
1. which of the following would be phonologically acceptable as English words?
Thlite grawl dlesher shlink tritch sruck stwondle
2. Explain why somebody might choose to stress the following utterances as indicated by the
bold type:
a) John wanted to do this today. b) John wanted to do this today. c) John wanted to do this today.
Chapter 4 Morphology
1. “Morpheme” is defined as the smallest unit in terms of relationship between
expression and content. Then is morpheme a grammatical concept or a semantic one? What is its relation to phoneme?
2. Identify in the following sentence four bound morphemes. State the function of each and say whether each is derivational or inflectional.
The teacher’s brother considered the project impossible.
Chapter 5 Syntax
1. Why is it important to know the relations a sign has with others, such as syntaxgmatic and paradigmatic relations?
2. In what ways is IC analysis better than traditional parsing?
3. What are the problems in IC analysis?
4. Clarify the ambiguity in the following sentence by tree diagrams:
Old teachers and priests fear blackbirds.
Chapter 6 Semantics
1. Some people maintain that there are no true synonyms. If two words mean really the same, one
of them will definitely die out. An example often quoted is the disuse of the word “wireless”, which has been replaced by “radio”. Do you agree? In general what type of meaning we are talking about when we say two words are synonymous with each other?
2. For each of the following pairs of words, state the principal reason why they may not be
considered to be synonyms:
man boy toilet loo determined stubborn pavement sidewalk walk run
Chapter 7 Pragmantics
1. Consider the following dialogue between a man and his daughter. Try to explain the illocutionary force in each of the utterances.
[The daughter walks into the kitchen and takes so e popcorn.] Father: I thought you were practicing your violin. Daughter: I need to get the violin stand. Father: Is it under the popcorn?
2. If you ask somebody “Can you open the door?” he answered “Yes” but does not actually do it, what would be your reaction? Why? Try to see it in the light of speech act theory.
3. A is reading the newspaper. When B asks “What’s on television tonight?” he answers “Nothing.” What does A mean in normal situations? Think of two situations in which this interpretation of “Nothing” will be cancelled.
