Psych/Ling 347, Aut 2000

EXAM I ANSWER KEY

Part A.

1.

dis    bound

regard    free content

ing    bound inflectional

the    free functional

un    bound

seem    freee contet

li    bound derivational

ness    bound derivational

of    free functional

cost    free content

li    bound derivational

er    bound derivational

elect    free content

tion    bound derivational

s    bound inflectional

is    free function

fool    free content

ish    bound derivational

2.

(a) high, low and front, back

(b)

phone: acoustically different speech sounds

phonemes: psychologically different speech sounds

allophones: different phones that are perceived to be the same phoneme

3.

(a)

Sumeria (3000-4000 BC)

Eqypt (3000 BC)

China (1000 BC)

Mexico (AD 100)

(b)

ancient Chinese: motivated logographic

modern Chinese: arbitrary (unmotivated) logographic

ancient Sumerian: originally motivated logographic, evolved to an unmotivated   logographic

(c)

Egyptian, motivated logographic --> Egyptian, mixture of motivated logographic and syllabic --> Phoenician, syllabic --> Greek, alphabetc (phonetic) --> Romans, alphabetic

4.

(a) lungs and larynx = source; supralaryngeal tract = filter

(b) plot should have energy at frequencies of 250, 500, 750, etc., and no where else

(c) formant frequencies are the frequencies that get through the supralaryngeal tract with the most amplitude; they determine vowel quality

(d) any complex waveform can be decomposed into a series of sine waves, each with its own amplitude, frequency, and phase

5. Ben = agent, bug = patient (theme), he = agent, it = theme, cat = instrument, bug = experiencer (or any other plausible role)

Part B

1.

(a)

Million Years Ago; Species; Biological Change; Cultural change; language?

3.5:  Australopithecus; bipedalism and erect posture; mobility; no language?

2.0; Homo habilus; 25% increase in brain size; crude tools; none?

1.5; Homo erectus; 100% increase in brain size; sophisticated tools; migration around world; Protolanguage?

0.3;  Homo sapiens; 20% increase in brain size; descent of larynx; development of muscles that control breathing; dramatic and continuing change; human language

(b)

protolanguage: noncompositional, 2-level system (sound --> meaning), finite # of utterances; language: compositional, 3-level system (sound --> sentences --> meaning), infinite # of novel utterances possible

(c) Halliday suggested that the development of language within an individual member of our species recapitulates the development of language within our species as a whole.

2.

If # ... [voiceless]#, use /t/

If # ... [voiced]#, use /d/

unless # ... [ stop, alveolar]#, then use /^d/

3.

(a) grammatical

(b) ungrammatical

(c) grammatical

Extra credit: licorice