Linguistics 1

Student’s Workbook
2023

Dra. Natalia S. Gallina

 Language
Activities
1. Which forms are possible words of English? Justify your answers

a. Mbood

b. Frall

c. Coofp

d. Sproke

2. Which word is grammatical in English?

a. Internetes

b. Sandwichs

c. Facebooks

3. What properties of language do 1) and 2) reveal?

a. Creativity

b. Mutability

c. Productivity

d. Systematicity (presence of systematic constraints)

e. Parity

4. True or false. Correct the false statements

a. Human beings are not particularly specialized for language use.

b. Speech organs have dual functions.

c. There are universal features of language.

d. Any living language is constantly undergoing change.

e. Grammatical knowledge is subconscious for most native speakers.

 f. Languages place no limits to the creativity of their users.

g. Parity means that all languages are equally e cient to their users.

h. The properties of language are generality, inequality, universality and mutability.

i. Language is a meaning making system.

j. The forms and functions of language are interrelated.

k. Human languages are exible and allow to express new meanings.

l. Language is a highly complex system.

m. All languages are structured in exactly the same way.

n. Languages are systems.

o. Languages have a hierarchical structure.

p. Languages identify discrete entities.

q. Languages are organized around an in nite set of principles.

r. There is a logical relationship between signi ed and signi er.

s. The meaning of a sentence can be fully interpreted in isolation.

t. Language variation among speakers is linked to personal identity

u. All languages are equally e cient to their users

v. There are better varieties of a language

w. The ability to produce grammatical sentences is called linguistic competence.

x. To be communicatively e ective, linguistic competence is not enough.

y. The eld of linguistics is homogenous.

z. Human language is rule-governed.

4. Discuss in pairs.

a. Is language species speci c? Support your answer

b. Why are creativity and the presence of systematic constrains two necessary
conditions for language? What would happen if creativity were not constrained?
What would happen is there were too many constrains?

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5. Circle the correct option

- The property of arbitrariness refers to

a. the absence of connections between di erent units of language

b. the absence of logical connections between form and meaning

c. the absence of vertical relationships of equivalence between linguistic forms

- The world’s many languages are

a. conventional, non-arbitrary, open, discrete and dual

b. conventional, dual, discrete and arbitrary

c. do not have an e ect on speaker’s perception of reality

- One of the most fundamental claims of modern Linguistics is that all grammars

a. change over time and there are no limits to language change

b. change over time within certain limits

c. change over time their underlying universal features

6. Answer in full

- What is language?

- What are the components of a grammar?

- How are human beings specialized for language?

- Which are the de ning characteristics of language?

7. Match


1. Morphology
5. Linguistic competence

2. Creativity
6. Language

3. Phonetics
7. Phonology

4. Syntax
8. Semantics

9. Linguistics

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 a. The linguistic knowledge that enables f. The study of meaning in human
the speaker of a language to produce languages

and understand an unlimited number of

familiar and novel utterances
g. The various phenomena pertaining to
the form and organization of sentences

b. A human communication system that

is distinguished by mutual understanding h. A characteristic of human languages
or political boundaries
that allows novel and innovative
responses to new experiences and
c. The study of the inventory and situations

structure of the sounds of language

i. The study of the elements and

d. The system of categories and rules principles that determine how sounds
involved in the creation and interpretation pattern in a particular language

of words

e. The study of how language is

organized and used

8. De ne the following key concepts

1. Language properties

2. Creativity

3. Generality

4. Parity

5. Universality

6. Mutability

7. Inaccessibility

8. Variability

9. Reliance on context

10. Modularity

11. Constituency

12. Discreteness

13. Specialization for language

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 9. Complete the chart with the following speech functions: (one is repeated) 

- To provide nasal resonance
- To produce vibrations

- To articulate vowels and consonants

- To supply air 

- To provide place of articulation for
some consonants

Chart 1: Dual functions of speech organs

Organ Survival function Speech function

Lungs To exchange CO2 and
oxygen
Vocal cords To create a seal over the
passage to lugs
Tongue To move food to teeth and
back into throat
Teeth To break up food
Lips To seal the oral cavity
Nose To assist in breathing

10. De ne the following modules of language

1. Phonology:

2. Morphology:

3. Syntax:

4. Semantics:

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 Linguistics
Activities
1. Answer

1. What is linguistics

2. Who is a linguist?

3. How are the following words related “linguistics”, “linguist” and “linguistic”?

4. Which are the two main approaches to the study of language?

5. How do they di er in terms of a)object of study, b)data, c)units of analysis,

d)methodology e)objectives?

2. Circle the correct option

- Formalist linguists are concerned with

a. the study of linguistic forms in association with their communicative function

b. the study of linguistic forms and their internal relations

c. the study of abstract forms and their social functions

- According to Chomsky, universality means

a. that all grammars are alike in basic ways.

b. that there are principles and properties which are shared by a few languages.

c. that grammatical knowledge is subconscious.

- The long-term goal of formalist linguists is

a. to describe individual languages

b. to describe the de ning characteristics of human languages

c. to describe the process of language change over time

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 - Functionalists

a. are interested in language variation

b. are interested in the innate properties of language

c. are interested in none of the previous issues

- Functionalists argue that

a. languages are structured to make di erent kinds of meanings

b. languages are structured to perform multiple functions in society

c. both are correct

2. True or false. Be ready to justify you choice.

a. Diachronic linguistic studies are concerned with the state of a language at any one
time.

b. Paradigmatic relationships concern the combination of linguistic components on a

horizontal axis.

c. Saussure´s concept of parole refers to actual instances of language use.

d. Chomsky´s concept of competence refers to abstract grammatical knowledge that

speakers have.

e. A linguist is someone who speaks a lot of languages.

f. Michael Halliday argues that language is a semiotic system which is structured to

make di erent kinds of meanings simultaneously.

g. Native speakers are able to produce a nite number of utterances in their language.

h. Chomsky studied language as a mental system.

i. All languages have the property of discreteness. Yet, what is discrete varies among
languages.

j. A generative grammar is a system of rules capable of forming a potentially in nite

set of sentences.

k. Linguistics is a prescriptive discipline which instructs language users about how to

use language.

l. A grammatical sentence is one that speakers judge to be possible in their

language.

m. Linguistics takes for its data only a few manifestations of human language,
speci cally, what is considered to be linguistically correct.

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 n. Linguistics has established multiple connections with other disciplines.

3. De ne the following terms

1. Langue

2. Parole

3. Value (of a linguistic sign)

4. Syntagmatic relations

5. Paradigmatic relations

6. Diachronic studies

7. Synchronic studies

4. Answer the questions and complete the chart

Approach Formalism Functionalism

What is language?
What data is used
for language
study?
What are the
objetives?
What are its
advantages?
What are its
disadvantages?
Who are the main
representatives?

5. Do some research and be ready to discuss in class

a. What is Systemic Functional Linguistics?

b. What does the principle of linguistic relativity state?

c. Which other sciences interact with contemporary Linguistics?

d. Who are the most relevant present-day linguists?

e. What can a language teacher gain from the study of Linguistics?

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 Phonetics
Activities
1. Answer

1. What is the object of study of phonetics?

2. Which approaches are available in this eld?

3. What is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)? What is it useful for?

4. How are consonant sounds di erent from vowel sounds?

5. What is a syllable?

6. What is a feature?

2. Look at the charts and complete

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 Consonant articulation

- Consonants are made of ______________ which are the smallest units of analysis of
phonetic structure. They combine to make up a segment.

- Places of articulation: each point at which the airstream can be modi ed to produce
a di erent sound. See the horizontal axis of the chart in the following page. Some of
them are: __________________________________________________________________

- Manner of articulation: the various con gurations produced by positioning the lips
the tongue, velum and glotis. See the vertical axis of the chart in the following page.
Some of them are:__________________________________________________________

• Voicing: voiced sounds are produced by the ____________ of the vocal cords whereas
voiceless sounds are not. Some examples of voiced sounds are:__________________

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 Vowel articulation

- Vowel articulations are not as easy to feel as consonant articulations. Vowels are
classi ed in relation to the position of the tongue and the shape of the lips.

- Height of the tongue: ___________________________________. See the vertical axis in

the chart.

- Position of the tongue: _______________________________. See the horizontal axis in

the chart.

- Lips: rounded or unrounded. E.g._______________________________

3. How many segments are there in the following words?

a. At

b. Math

c. Cure

d. Mailbox

e. Psychology

f. Knowledge

g. Awesome

4. Is the rst sound of the following words voiced or voiceless?

a. Thought

b. Though

c. Form

d. View

e. Zoom

f. Silk

5. For each pair of sounds, state whether they have the same of di erent place of
articulation?

a. [s] [l]

b. [k] [n]

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c. [p] [b]

d. [m] [n]

6. Provide the IPA symbol that corresponds to the following articulatory

descriptions. Which are three criteria used for the following descriptions?

a. Voiceless bilabial stop

b. Voiceless velar stop

c. Voiced dental fricative

d. Voice liquid alveolar

e. Voiceless palatal a ricate

f. Open front spread

g. Round high back

h. Spread mid central (strong vowel)

i. Voiced labiodental fricative

j. Voiced alveopalatal a ricate

k. Voiced palatal glide

l. Voiced velar nasal

m. Voiceless interdental fricative

7. Identify the component features of the following speech sounds

a. /k/

b. /s/

c. /z/

d. /tʃ/

e. /o/

8. Circle the odd one out

a. /b/ /p/ and /k/ are voicedless consonants

b. /s/ /h/ and /z/ are alveolar consonants

c. /tʃ/ /dz/ and /l/ are a ricates

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9. Which of the following pairs of words have the same vowel sound?

a. Back sat

b. Cot caught

c. Bid key

d. Hide height

e. Least heed

f. Drug cook

g. Oak own

h. Mouse cow

i. Pour port

10. For each articulatory description, write the corresponding sound

a. mid-central spread

b. Close front spread

c. Open central spread

d. mid-back rounded

11. Transcribe the following words marking stress. How many syllables do they
have? Describe the internal structure of each syllable.

a. foreign

b. communication

c. Sunny

d. Banana

e. Blackboard

f. Canada

g. (to) reject

h. Canadian

i. Canadianize

j. Academic

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k. Explanation

l. language

m. Diphthong

n. accuracy

12. True or False. Correct the false information

a. A minimal pair consists of two distinct words that di er in the position of a

segment.

b. A phoneme is a contrastive and predictable sound found in a language.

c. Phonetics is the study of how a language organizes speech sounds into a system.

d. Phonotactics refers to the knowledge native speakers have about permissible

sound combinations.

e. Features are aspects that make up speech sounds.

f. Vowels are the most sonorous speech sounds and they appear in the nucleus of a
syllable.

g. The IPA is a system for transcribing speech sounds with symbols.

h. Acoustic phonetics deals with the physical characteristics of the sounds of speech.

i. In English, all vowel sounds are produced with round lips.

j. A syllable is a supra segmental unit established around a peak of sonority called

coda.

k. A minimal pair consists of two distinct words that di er in a segment found in the
same environment.

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 Phonology
Activities
1. Answer

1. How is phonology a system?

2. What is a phoneme?

3. What is a minimal pair and how is it related to phonemes in a language?

4. What is an allophone?

5. What are phonotactic constraints?

2. Identify contrastive sounds in English by looking at the following minimal pairs.

1. bat pat

2. sit seat

3. sock shock

4. hid head

5. ruth roof

6. three free

7. bug bag

8. low law

3. Examine the realizations of /t/ and /l/ in the following words. Identify
allophones in complementary distribution.

a. train tin butter

b. lie little toll

4. Consider whether the following sequences of sounds are possible in English:

/spret/ /splet/ /spmet/ /skret/

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/puks/ /pukz/ /puds/ /pugz/

5. Answer

a. Do English syllables have structure? Identify some phonotactic constraints

regarding the combinations of sounds in English syllables.

b. What are supra segmental features? Give examples.

c. How do the concepts of phone, phoneme and allophone compare and contrast?

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 Morphology
Activities
1. De ne the following concepts

1. word

2. complex, simple and compound words

3. structural and content words

4. word structure

5. morpheme

6. free and bound morphemes

7. a xes: pre xes and su xes

8. root or base

9. allomorph

10. tree structures

2. Answer

a. Can a morpheme be represented by a single phoneme? And by more than one

phoneme? Illustrate

b. Does the same sound always represent the same morpheme? Illustrate

c. Can the same morpheme be spelled di erently? Illustrate

3. Some of the words below contain su xes. Identify the su xes by underlining
them.

a. unkind

b. freedom

c. owers

d. brother

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e. blackboard

f. Fly

g. justly

4. Some of the words in below contain pre xes. Underline them.

a. Unable

b. discourage

c. establish

d. receive

e. strawberry

f. amoral

5. Identify the root in the words below by underlining it and state which syntactic
category it belongs to.

a. friendly

b. kindness

c. hinted

d. players

e. editors

f. grandfathers

g. I

6. For each of the following bound morphemes, determine whether it is

derivational or in ectional and give two words in which it appears:

a. –able

b. –ity

c. –s

d. un–

e. –ing

f. –al

g. –er

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 h. –ed

7. For each of the following verbs give the past-tense form. State whether the
morphological process involved is a xation, partial suppletion, suppletion or
ablaut. Pay attention to how the past-tense form is pronounced rather than to
how it's spelled!

a. care

b. be

c. skip

d. sink

e. bring

f. drive

g. love

h. go

i. lose

j. read

k. think

l. take

8. The words below are compounds. For each one, give the meaning of each
member of the compound and that of the compounded form. Say whether the
compound is semantically transparent or not.

a. battle eld

b. scarecrow

c. churchyard

d. buttercup

e. hoodwink

f. handkerchief

g. inmate

h. postman

i. bluebell

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 9. Describe the morphological structure of the following words using tree
diagrams

a. certainties

b. unfriendliness

c. ex-husband

d. unfaithful

e. activation

f. codify

g. authorship

h. displease

i. underprivileged

j. impressive

k. freedom

l. friendly

m. encouragement

n. biannually

o. readings

p. unhappiness

10. Provide an example, complete and match

# Process Example # De nition
1 Acronym A process that creates a word which................. like the thing they
name.
2 Conversion A process that forms a new word by taking
the................. ................. of some or all the words in a phrase or
title.
3 Derivation The addition of an a x to a base to express di erent grammatical
categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number,
gender and case.
4 Onomatopoeia A process that................. a polysyllabic word by ................... one or
more syllables.
5 Coinage A process that assigns an already existing word to a new...................
...........................
6 Compounding The process that creates a new word from…………..
7 In ection The addition of an a x to change the ………….. ………… or meaning
of an already existing word.
8 Clipping The combination of two or more ……………… to make a new word

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11. Mention the processes through which the following words have been created.
Analyze the internal structure of the complex words. Identify free and bound
morphemes and classifying them.

a. overgeneralization

b. Kleenex

c. empty nester

d. fridge

e. limo

f. kitty.cat

g. SOS

h. catwalk

i. vlog

j. government

k. feet

l. drove

m. implant (N)

n. scrub nurse

o. to ink

p. mice

q. (to) butter

r. crashed

s. brothers

t. UNICEF

u. smaller

v. bookcase

w. happy hour

x. burger

y. Kodak

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Consolidation
1. Analyze each of the following words into their constituent morphemes.

a. rehospitalization

b. Incomprehensibility

c. unpreparedness

d. prettier

e. disenfranchisement

2. Identify word formation process

a. daydreamers

b. PC

c. knock

d. Kleenex

e. confessed

f. super-duper

g. pineapple

h. croissant

i. CEO

j. chit-chat

k. exam

l. sat (past of sit)

3. Each of the following sentences contains an error which was made by a

student learning English as a second language (ESL). In each of the
sentences, identify and correct the incorrect word.

a. I am very relax here.

b. I am very boring with this game.

c. I am very satisfactory with my life.

d. Many people have very strong believes.

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 e. My culture is very di erence from yours.

f. His grades proof that he is a hard worker.

In general terms, brie y discuss what ESL students must learn in order to avoid such
errors.

4. Answer

a. What are the most productive morphological processes in English? Mention and
explain them, and provide examples.ç

b. How are in ectional and derivational a xes di erent from each other?

c. How are the compounds “start-up” and “police o cer” di erent?

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 Syntax
Activities
1. De ne the following concepts

1. Syntactic category

2. Open versus closed classes

3. Nouns (N)

4. Determiner (D)

5. Verbs (V)

6. Adjectives (Adj)

7. Adverbs (Adv)

8. Auxiliary verbs (Aux)

9. Pronouns (Pron)

10. Prepositions (P)

11. Phrases

2. Complete. Use: nucleus, right, hierarchical, head, phrase

Sentences are not formed by simply stringing words together like beads on a necklace.
Rather, they have a _______________ design in which words are grouped together into
successively larger structural units.

• Heads: Phrases are built around a ___________ called the head, a noun in the case of
NP, a verb in the case of a VP, and so on.

• Speci ers: they help to make the meaning of the ___________ more precise. They
occur before the head.

• Complements: they provide information about entities and location whose existence
is implied by the meaning of the head. Complements are attached to the ________ of
the head in English.

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Phrases are created from other phrases or words. A sentence is the biggest
__________. We can depict the fact that a sentence is built from smaller parts by a tree
diagram.

3. Classify the following phrases according to their type. Draw tree diagrams

a. On the table

b. A woman

c. With comfortable clothes

d. Will win

e. Really well

f. Pale blue

g. The zoo

h. Always try

i. So witty

j. Very fast

4. Write sentences following these patterns

a. IP: NP VP AdjP

b. IP: NP VP NP

c. IP: NP VP PP

d. IP: NP VP NP PP

e. IP: NP VP Adv P.

f. IP: NP VP CP

5. What makes the following sentences ambiguous?

a. I saw the man with the binoculars.

b. The mother of the boy and the girl will arrive son.

c. We need more intelligent leaders.

6. Draw a tree diagram to illustrate the structure of the following sentence

a. John eats in a restaurant every Friday.

b. The people in the room will move the desk into the hall.

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c. The boy frightened the people in the room.

d. The police will block the street quickly.

7. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences

a. That glass suddenly broke.

b. A jogger ran toward the end of the lane.

c. These dead trees are blocking the street.

d. The detective hurriedly looked through the records.

e. The peaches never appear quite ripe.

f. Jeremy will play the trumpet and the drums in the orchestra.

8. Create phrase structure trees for the following sentences

a. Those guest should leave.

b. Maria never ate a brownie.

c. The manager may o er a rise.

d. Marianne could become quite fond of Larry.

e. The judge often jail shoplifters.

f. The police will block the street.

g. I´m curious about the experiment.

9. Apply the substitution test to determine whether the bracketed sequences form
constituents

a. [The tragedy] upset the entire family.

b. They hid [in the cave].

c. The [computer was very] expensive.

d. [The town square and the civic building] will be rebuilt.

e. Jane has [left the town]

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 10. Describe the operations involved in the creation of the following sentences

a. Will the girl leave?

b. Do those birds sing?

c. Which car should the man x?

d. Where can the child sit?

e. Who criticized Marxwell?

12. Complete the following statements

a. Phrases are built from____________________________________________________

b. Phrases can be combined into __________________________________________

c. According to Chomsky, people are preprogrammed with_______________________

To build phrases, we start with words which then project phrases.

d. Recursion means that _____________________________________________

13. Match these concepts with their de nitions

1 Universal Grammar Features that divide lexical categories into subcategories by

......... indicating their compatibility with different complement
types (e.g. put: NP PP)
2 Specifier (in XP) The replacement of a group of words by a single word to
......... find out whether the group of words is a syntactic unit (e.g.
the gang robbed the bank; they robbed the bank)
3 Subcategorization The lexical category around which a phrasal category is
......... built and that is the only obligatory constituent of a phrase.

4 Substitution test A set of genetically transmitted categories and principles

......... proposed by Chomsky which are common to all human
languages.
5 Complement (in XP) A syntactic constituent of an XP that provides information
......... about entities and locations implied by the meaning of the
head. (e.g. eat in the garden)
6 Head in (XP) A test for identifying syntactic constituents by moving a
......... sequence of words
7 Movement test Words that mark a phrase boundary and help to make more
......... precise the meaning of the head (e.g. determiners such as
the, auxiliaries such as will and degree words such as quite)

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 Consolidation
1. True or False. Justify the false statements

a. Syntax is concerned about possible combinations of words into larger structures.

b. According to Chomsky, there is a basic phase structure captured by the formula

XP: (speci er) X (complement).

c. Any syntactic category can occupy the position of speci er in an NP.

d. Phrases are made up of three obligatory constituents.

e. Movement, deletion and recursion are syntactic processes involved in the formation
of questions.

f. Chomsky identi ed an in nite number of syntactic processes for the construction of

sentences.

g. The concept of syntagmatic relations (Saussure) captures the importance of

linearity and sequential order in sentence interpretation.

h. Phrases are classi ed according to di erent types in relation to the syntactic

category of their heads.

i. Evidence that phrases are syntactic units comes from the fact that they can be
replaced by an element such as they, it or do so. This is called the substitution test.

j. Words such as “that”, “which”, and “if” are complementizers and they project an IP
as a complement in a CP.

k. A theory of the structure of phrases and sentences is a vital component of the

competence model.

l. In all languages, sentences are structured.

m. Linear word order doesn´t play a crucial role in determining the meaning of English
sentences.

n. The following sentence displays ambiguity “ The mother of the boy and the girl will
arrive soon”.

o. Interrogative sentences are not related to declarative sentences.

p. Universal grammar (UG) emphasizes the set of principles and rules which underlie
all natural languages.

q. The complement of a phrase completes the meaning of the speci er by providing

information about where an action is performed or who is a ected by it.

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 r. The principle of compositionality states that phrases and clauses are made up of
smaller phrases.

s. A head is a word or lexical item from which a phrase of the same category is
projected.

t. Recursion is the process which allows grammatical processes to be applied once.

u. Merger is the process by which phrases are included in larger phrases.

2. Classify the following phrases

a. every Friday

b. has been looking

c. toward the nishing line

d. surprisingly calmly

e. quite fond

3. Write sentences following these patterns

a. IP: NP VP AdjP

b. IP: NP VP NP NP

c. IP: NP VP PP

d. CP: C IP

4. Analyze the following sentences by drawing tree diagrams

a. The president of the company likes to see big pro ts.

b. I know that you are right.

c. Jane has left Peter.

5. Complete the following summaries about syntax

According to Chomsky, syntax has two subcomponents: ……………………….. and

………………….… From this perspective, words are classi ed according to
…………………… They can be grouped into larger structures called …………..… which
consist of ………………………, …………………… and ……………..… Only the
……………. is obligatory, the other components are optional. There are some tests to
identify phrases, among them ……………….. and ………………… Syntactic operations
such as ……………….. and ………………… are used to create ………………….. and
………………… respectively.

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 Generative Grammar is also known as........................... It states that all languages are
composed of........................................................... It provides all languages with
general types of syntactic mechanisms which can produce.........................................
These mechanisms include..........................................................................................
They combine words according to ................................................................ and create
a representation called ................................................ which can be modi ed by
moving elements to produce more complex structures called………………………

6. Answer

a. What is Generative Grammar?

b. According to Chomsky, which are the components of syntax? De ne them.

c. How are words put together according to Generative Grammar?

d. What is the blueprint or phrase structure rule? What is the phrase structure
schema? Compare and contrast them.

e. What is the head of an IP or a sentence? What does it indicate?

f. What are operations? Mention and explain them.

g. What is a deep structure? And a surface structure?

h. What is the internal structure of a phrase (XP)? Explain in full.

i. De ne the following concepts: constituent, grammatical sentence vs

ungrammatical sentence, IP and CP.

j. How are yes-no questions formed in English? Are there constraints? Which ones?

k. According to transformational grammar, can operations be applied in nitely?

Explain

7. Fill in the blanks with:

subcategorization properties - move operation - all types of sentences in a language -

a lexicon - transformational grammar - surface structure - a computational system -
merge operation- syntactic categories - deep structure-

Generative Grammar is also known as ........................... It states that all languages are
composed of ..................... and .................................... Generative Grammar provides
all languages with the same general types of syntactic mechanisms which can produce
.............................................. These mechanisms include the ....................................
and the .............................. The former combines words according to ............................
and .......................... creating a representation called ................................................The
latter operation can modify deep structures by moving words and phrases to produce a
.........................................

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 Semantics
Activities
1. De ne the following concepts

1. Linguistic meaning

2. Sense relations between words

3. Synonymy

4. Antonymy

5. Hyponymy

6. Entailment

7. Paraphrase

8. Contradiction

9. Homophony

10. Polysemy

2. Two relations involving word meanings are antonymy and synonymy. Which
relation is illustrated in each of the pairs below?

a. Flourish —thrive

b. Intelligent — stupid

c. Causal — informal

d. Young — old

e. Uncle — aunt

f. Intelligent — smart

g. Drunk — sober

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 3. A single form can have two or more meanings. This phenomenon involves
polysemy and homophony. Which of these two relations is exempli ed in the
forms below?

a. Grass: herbage used for grazing animals / marijuana

b. Leech: a bloodsucking worm / a anger-on who seeks advantage

c. Range: a cooking stove / a series of mountains

d. Key: an instrument used to apply to a lock / an answer sheet for a test

e. Steal / steel: rob / a type of metal

4. Three semantic relations are paraphrase, entailment and contradiction. Which

relation is exempli ed in each case?

1. a. I saw Timothy at the anniversary party.

1.b. It was Timothy that I saw at the anniversary party.

2.a. Jules is Mary’s husband.

2.b. Jules is married.

3.a. My pet cobra likes the taste of chocolate.

3.b. My pet cobra nds chocolate tasty.

4.a. Vera is an only child.

4.b. Olga is Vera’s sister.

5.a. It is fty miles to the nearest service station.

5.b. The nearest service station is fty miles away.

6.a. My cousin Bryan teaches at the community collage for a living.

6.b. My cousin Bryan is a teacher.

7.a. In the spine, the thoracic vertebrae are above the lumbar vertebrae.

7.b. In the spine, the lumbar vertebrae are below the thoracic vertebrae.

8.a. Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethiopia.

8.b. Addis Ababa is not the capital of Ethiopia.

9.a. Henry murdered his bank manager.

9.b. Henry’s bank manager is dead.

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5. Each of the following linguistic expressions is associated with a category.
Name one prototypical member of that category and one member that is closer to
the boundary. Are these categories fuzzy?

a. Island

b. Mother

c. Pope

d. Means of transport

6. Identify the words or phrases that are used metaphorically in each sentence.
Identify the conceptual basis for each of these metaphor sets. Use the pattern
“the metaphors in X describe ……… in terms of ……”

a. She gave hime an icy stare.

He gave her the cold shoulder.

He exudes a lot of warmth toward people.

They got a heated argument.

b. He drops lots of hints.

The committee picked up on the issue.

She dumps all her problems on her friends.

Although he disagreed. He let it go.

c. The eye of a needle

The foot of the bed

The hands of the clock

The arm of a chair

The table legs

d. This lecture is easy to digest

He just eats up the lecturer’s words

Chew on this thought for a while

Listen to this juicy piece of gossip.

7. Identify literal and non-literal meanings in the following phrases and sentences

- To send in the dogs

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 - To pay a visit

- To face a problem

- Pain killer

- I have a lot invested in this relationship

- They are building a beautiful relationship

- They found love

- In ation is eating up our savings

Consolidation
1. Semantic relationships What type of semantic relationships are established
between these pairs of sentences.

a. The baby cried.

The baby wept.

b. I bought a sofa today.

I purchased some furniture today.

c. John is a bachelor.

John is engaged

2.What types of meaning relations can be established among words? Mention

them and give examples.

3. Consider the following sentences. Detect polysemy and di erent types of

meanings.

“The tree is nally bearing fruit.”

“His work is bearing fruit now.”

4. The following sentences are ambiguous. What causes ambiguity?

a. I saw him walking by the bank.

b. Police help dog bite victim.

c. I saw the man with the binoculars.

d. I smell a rat.

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5. Compare kill, murder and assassinate. What semantic features do they share?
How are they related?

6. Love is perhaps the most metaphorized emotion. Read the sentences and
complete the chart. Think of other examples for each category.

a. I’ve got a lot invested in this relationship.

b. We are building a beautiful family.

c. It is great he found love at his age.

d. Her love is supernatural.

e. They are a perfect match.

LOVE IS THE UNITY OF LOVE IS A HIDDEN LOVE IS A LOVE IS A VALUABLE LOVE AS A

TWO COMPLEMENTARY OBJECT
COLLABORATIVE COMMODITY
MIRACLE
PARTS WORK OF ART

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 Exam
questions
1. What is language?

2. What is linguistics?

3. How are human beings specialized for language?

4. Which are the two de ning characteristics of language? Why are they necessary
conditions?

5. De ne these terms: grammaticality and acceptability.

6. What is a grammar?

7. Explain the following properties of language: “generality”, “parity”, “universality”,

“mutability”, “inaccessibility”

8. De ne these terms: competence, performance

9. What are the components of the language system? Mention and de ne them.

10. Compare and contrast Phonetics and Phonology.

11. What does the term Phonotactics refer to? (Relate this to constraints on creativity)

12. What is morphology?

13. What are the building blocks of words?

14. De ne the following terms: morpheme, allomorph, base, root and a x.

15. How does a free morpheme di er from a bound morpheme?

16. How does a simple word di er from a complex word?

17. What are the most productive morphological processes in English? Mention,
explain and provide examples.

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 18. What is syntax?

19. According to Chomsky, What are the components of grammar? What are their
functions? Provide examples.

20. What are phrases? How are they classi ed?

21. What is the head of an IP or a sentence? What does it indicate?

22. De ne deep structure and surface structure.

23. What are fuzzy concepts? What do they tell us about human conceptual systems
and the organization of meaning?

24. Compare and contrast Semantics and Pragmatics.

25. What is Semantics?

26. What types of meaning relations can be established among words? And among
sentences. Mention three and give examples.

27. How are the meanings of a polysemous word organized?

28. What is ambiguity?

29. What are presuppositions? Mention the di erent types and provide examples

30. What is the cooperative principle? Refer to the maxims of relation, quality, quantity
and manner. What is a conversational implicature?

31. What is politeness? What does the concept of face refer to? Refer to face-saving
and face-threatening acts, give examples

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