EL1101E Exam 06-07 Sem2

Matriculation No.: __________________________ NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE Department of English Language and Literature Semester II: 2006/07 EL1101E: The Nature of Language April 2007

Time Allowed: 2 hours

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES 1.

This paper contains EIGHT (8) questions and comprises SIX (6) printed pages. Check that your paper is complete.

2.

Write your matriculation number in the space provided at the top of this page.

3.

Read carefully through the whole paper BEFORE beginning to answer any part of any question.

4.

Answer ALL questions. Write ONLY in the spaces provided. Write legibly and answer ONLY what is asked. There are penalties for contradictory answers and wrong answers to questions involving more than one choice.

5.

This is an Open Book examination.

Question 1

[12 marks]

2

[12 marks]

3

[12 marks]

4

[10 marks]

5

[10 marks]

6

[16 marks]

7

[12 marks]

8

[16 marks]

Mark Awarded

Marker

TOTAL …2/-

EL1101E: 2: 6 QUESTION ONE [12 marks] Consider the PS rule: VP  V {NP, PP, S} CIRCLE the letter (a, b, etc.) of the sentence(s) in which the VP does NOT follow the rule. a.

Jane likes tall men and short women.

b.

Samantha bought a new handbag for her mother.

c.

Henry shoved the soiled bedlinen into the broom cupboard.

d.

Rona and Ryan will be going to the party.

e.

Brenda painted her room a pale shade of green.

f.

Ivy heard that Jonas received the top mark.

g.

Thumper and Bambi are playing.

h.

Mary and Martha are best friends.

i.

Carina and her sister reside in California.

j.

Table soccer is a fun game.

QUESTION TWO [12 marks] CIRCLE the letter (a, b, etc.) of the statement(s) that describe(s) the sentence below: On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree. a.

The PP on the first day of Christmas is a coordinate structure.

b.

The NP the first day of Christmas is a recursive structure.

c.

The NP the first day of Christmas contains three modifiers.

d.

The VP in the given sentence contains three dependents.

e.

The NP a partridge in a pear tree and the PP in a pear tree are mother and daughter, respectively.

f.

The NP a partridge and the PP in a pear tree are sisters.

g.

The NP a pear tree is headed by the compound Noun pear tree.

h.

The Subject of the given sentence is the PP on the first day of Christmas.

i.

The verb in the given sentence is complex transitive.

j.

The verb in the given sentence is simple transitive.

…3/-

EL1101E: 3: 6 QUESTION THREE [12 marks] CIRCLE the letter (a, b, etc.) of the set(s) in which ALL the verbs are of the same syntactic type (e.g. ditransitive, link verb). a.

In 1492, Columbus sailed the oceans blue. Janine feeds her dog rice and curry. Jonathan adores a juicy bit of steak with potatoes.

b.

Nigel paints houses in his free time. She sells seashells by the seashore. Solomon had a little rice and curry last night.

c.

Michelle became a doctor in 1992. Harry hid himself in the broom cupboard. That old lady lives alone by the seaside.

d.

His aunt goes nuts all the time. Paul turned red in the face. The telephone line went dead.

e.

The class successfully classified the strange animal a marmoset. My best friend drives me crazy with his freaky behaviour. Sally considers her husband an absolute treasure.

QUESTION FOUR [10 marks] CIRCLE the letter (a, b, etc.) of the set(s) in which ALL the words share the exact same word-formation process(es) (e.g. blending, inflection, compounding). a.

dangling, haggling, fumbling, duckling

b.

zealot, chariot, patriot, compatriot

c.

womanizer, organizer, purifier, thickener

d.

meddler, peddler, actor, recorder, hanger

e.

transportation, imagination, lamentation, protestation

f.

chairperson, treehouse, bookshelf, goatherd

g.

UNESCO, UNICEF, OECD, AIDS

h.

infomercial, advertorial, urinanalysis, brunch

i.

comfortable, adjustable, capable, unmovable

j.

mistrustful, doubtful, painful, joyful …4/-

EL1101E: 4: 6 QUESTION FIVE [10 marks] Decide whether each statement below is true (T) or false (F) by writing T or F in the appropriate cell. Statement T/F 1.

Sasha burnt the roast entails The roast is burnt.

2.

The sentence They served meat at the meet-and-greet contains a pair of homophones.

3.

The words quay and key are homonyms.

4.

The sentences Millie found a large snake and Millie discovered a reptile entail each other.

5.

The word fear is a meronym of the word emotion.

6.

The sentence Marshall considers himself a genius involves both deixis and anaphora.

7.

Marie hid Jan’s birthday present entails Marie bought Jan a birthday present.

8.

If the word gleep includes the meaning dovine, then dovine is a superordinate of gleep.

9.

Cheap and expensive are relational antonyms.

10.

Debtor and creditor are complementary antonyms.

QUESTION SIX [16 marks] Decide whether each statement below is true (T) or false (F) by writing T or F in the appropriate cell.

Statement 1.

Sleeping and steeping form a minimal pair as do scheming and steaming.

2.

The first sound in the second syllable of the words cannot, freezing, barstool, needy and proving are alveolar.

3.

[p, b, m, f, v] are labial in IPA and [+labial +dental] in DF.

4.

[k, ɡ, ŋ] are velar plosives in IPA and [+stop -sonorant] in DF.

5.

To get from tacking [tækiŋ] to stripping [stripiŋ], we need to change the onset and the rime of the first syllable as well as the onset of the second syllable.

6.

The second syllables of haggling and dangling are identical.

7.

In terms of syllabification, haggling differs from dangling in that the first syllable of haggling lacks a coda.

8.

The second syllables of haggling and duckling rhyme.

T/F

…5/-

EL1101E: 5: 6 QUESTION SEVEN [12 marks] For this question, select the BEST answer. For exchanges A to D, CIRCLE the Gricean maxim flouted by the second speaker’s utterance. (i)

Exchange A Tristan: Would you like to come to Spain with me? Isolde: Is the Pope Catholic? Quantity

(ii)

(iii) Exchange C Receptionist: Customer: Quantity (iv) Exhange D Sales Clerk: Customer: Quantity

(vi)

Relation

Manner

Exchange B Veronica: Who was the guy you were with yesterday? Marge: Oh, just a guy. Quantity

(v)

Quality

Quality

Relation

Manner

Could I have your name, please? J-A-M-Y-Z S-M-Y-T-H-E Quality

Relation

Manner

Could I have your name, please, sir? B-E-N A-R-N-O-L-D Quality

Relation

Manner

In Exchange D above, the clerk gets annoyed with Ben Arnold for spelling his name. This is most likely because Arnold has threatened a.

the clerk’s positive face needs.

b.

the clerk’s negative face needs.

c.

the clerk’s positive and negative face needs.

The utterance Go ahead and kill yourself, see if I care would be perceived as impolite by the addressee because it threatens a.

the addressee’s positive face needs.

b.

the addressee’s negative face needs.

c.

the addressee’s positive and negative face needs.

…6/-

EL1101E: 6: 6 QUESTION EIGHT [16 marks] Consider sentences 1 to 3 below: 1. I heard his grandmother died this morning. 2. I heard the meeting was this morning. 3. I heard the announcement this morning. Sentence 1 is structurally ambiguous. It could mean (A) I heard this morning that his grandmother had died. OR (B) What I heard is that his grandmother died this morning. (a)

Which PS tree corresponds to meaning A? Tree A

(b)

Tree B

Neither

(CIRCLE ONE)

Which PS tree corresponds to meaning B? Tree A

Tree B

Neither

Tree A

(CIRCLE ONE) Tree B

S NP

S VP

V

NP S

NP

V VP

V (c)

NP

NP VP

NP

Tree B

Both

Neither

(CIRCLE ONE)

Which PS tree(s) would you choose to represent sentence 3? Tree A

(e)

S

Which PS tree(s) would you choose to represent sentence 2? Tree A

(d)

VP

Tree B

Both

Neither

(CIRCLE ONE)

Sentence 1 is structurally ambiguous because in meaning A, this morning functions as ________________________________ whereas in meaning B, it functions as ________________________________. –END OF PAPER –