Middlebury College

LNGT0101A: Introduction to Linguistics/Fall 2012

Take-home Midterm Exam

Name: _______________________

Due on Wednesday Oct 31st by e-mail no later than 5pm. If you are submitting a

handwritten copy, please turn it in in class, also on Wednesday Oct 31st. Delay policy

applies. No extensions will be given, except for academically legitimate reasons. So, start

working on the exam early!

If you have questions, please come to the Q&A session scheduled on Monday Oct 29 th

at 4:15-5:15pm at Monroe 320, or to my office hours on Monday and Wednesday

between 10:30am and 12noon, or by appointment.

This exam is worth 200 points (and 20% of your overall grade in this course, so please

turn in “neat” work). The number of points each exercise is worth is explicitly indicated.

Also, make sure you answer EVERY question. There are no second chances if you forget

to answer any question(s).

This is an open book exam. So, feel free to refer to the textbook, the lecture slides, and

your notes, while answering the questions. There’s no time limit, either. Unlike with other

homework assignments, however, you are NOT allowed to discuss questions on this exam

with your classmates or anyone else. You have to work individually on the exam. Also,

you can NOT rely on internet resources other than the materials on the class website to

answer any of the questions.

Any failure to observe the instructions given here constitutes a violation of the College’s

Honor Code system and will be treated accordingly. Finally, please make sure you write

and sign the Honor Code pledge “I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on

this assignment,” in the box below:

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Instructions: Please read thoroughly and carefully!

- This take-home midterm exam consists of FOUR Parts, with a total of 11 exercises.

Most exercises have sub-questions (typically, though not always, named A, B, C, etc.).

Read each exercise carefully and make sure you answer ALL the sub-questions.

Important: Unlike with homework assignments, you have to answer the questions in the

provided empty table cells on this exam sheet. Answers given in any other form will NOT

be accepted. Please do not edit the exam .doc file or delete the questions. Simply type

your answers in the empty cells.

- Please notice that answers to the last two exercises of this exam MUST be typed.

Handwritten answers to these two questions will not be graded.

- You may handwrite your answers to the remaining exercises, but in that case please

make sure you submit legible handwritten answers, using a pen (not a pencil).

Handwritten exams that are illegible or do not follow the above instructions closely will

be returned to you without being graded, will have to be resubmitted, and will be subject

to the delay penalty upon resubmission.

- Finally, if you plan to submit your exam via e-mail, please make sure to name the file

‘midterm_your_last_name’.

IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING PHONETIC SYMBOLS: Since your computer

probably does not have the IPA font, some of the phonetic symbols in some of the

exercises will not appear correctly in the .doc file. To avoid any confusion, when you

print out a copy of the exam, use the link to the .pdf file. Do NOT use the .doc file for

printing. If you want to type phonetic transcriptions, you can always use this link:

http://weston.ruter.net/projects/ipa-chart/view/keyboard/

Finally, after you print out your answers from your .doc file, go over the hard copy and

make sure that no phonetic symbols are missing in your answers. If any symbols are

missing, you can then handwrite them on the hard copy. You are responsible for turning

in neat and complete work. As mentioned before, there will be no second chances on

questions missed or misunderstood.

Good luck, everyone!

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Part I: Know thy English!

Exercise #1: Gotcha! (15 points)

Pairs like top and chop, dunk and junk, so and show, reveal that /t/ and /t/, /d/ and /d/,

and /s/ and //, are distinct phonemes in English. Although it is difficult to find a minimal

pair to distinguish /z/ and //, they occur in similar, if not identical, environments, such as

razor and azure. Consider these same pairs of palatalized and nonpalatalized consonants

in the following data from American English. (Notice that the palatal forms are optional

forms that occur in casual speech.)

Nonpalatalized Palatalized

[ht mi] “hit me” [ht ju] “hit you”

[lid hm] “lead him” [lid ju] “lead you”

[phs s] “pass us” [ph ju] “pass you”

[luz әm] “lose them” [lu ju] “lose you”

Now, answer the following questions:

A. Name the co-articulation process that is involved in the palatalized forms in the

second column of the table above. Explain your answer. (5 points)

B. State informally (i.e., in plain English) the rule that specifies when /t/, /d/, /s/,

and /z/ become /t/, /d/, //, and //. (5 points)

C. Can you restate the rule you arrived at in B in a single phonological rule using

formal rule notation? If yes, write the rule below. If not, explain why not.

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Important Note: You cannot change the way rules are written. You have to abide

by the formalization system we discussed regarding phonological rules. Creating

your own system of rules is NOT a possible answer to this question. (5 points)

Exercise #2: The actual, the possible, and the impossible! (20 points)

Answer Exercise 13 from the textbook, pp. 314-315. Make sure to write your answers

in the following table. Note 1: The forms given in the first column are phonetic

transcriptions, as indicated by the square brackets. Note 2: You only need to write a

reason for words that you deem ‘impossible.’ Note 3: Even if you are not a native

speaker of English, you should be able to rely both on your knowledge of English as a

second/foreign language, as well as the information we discussed regarding English

phonology in this class.

Word? Possible? Impossible? Reason

(a) [phrill]

(b) [skrit]

(c) [know]

(d) [maj]

(e) [gnostik]

(f) [junkrn]

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Word? Possible? Impossible? Reason

(g) [fruit]

(h) [blaft]

(i) [ar]

(j) [pphlksi]

Exercise #3: Korean and Polish with an English flavor! (20 points)

Korean: In class, we talked about phonological changes that English words may undergo

when they get borrowed into foreign languages, so they comply with the borrowing

language’s phonotactic constraints (e.g., Turkish and Arabic speakers would typically use

epenthesis to break consonant clusters in English). The process is sometimes called

nativization. It happens when English borrows foreign words as well. For example, the

Korean automobile name Hyundai has been adapted into English in various ways, one of

which is given below:

Korean form English form

[hjndæ] [hndeɪ]

Given the Korean form and the English adaptation, state two reasons based on syllable

structure conditions in English that explain why the Korean car name is pronounced that

way in English. Hint 1: It does help to have done the readings. Hint 2: English has huge,

but … let’s just leave it at that. (10 points)

Reason 1:

Reason 2:

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Polish: The Polish place name Szczebrzeszynie is pronounced [] in Polish. As

with the Korean name, English speakers will have to ‘nativize’ this Polish name as well.

First, provide (in broad phonetic transcription) a potential English pronunciation of

Szczebrzeszynie, with at least three phonetic changes that an English speaker will make,

so the borrowed Polish name conforms to English phonotactics. (4 points)

Second, for each phonetic change you suggest, state briefly the English phonotactic rule

that requires it. (6 points)

Write the potential English pronunciation of the place name Szczebrzeszynie in broad

phonetic transcription in this box:

List the three phonetic changes here, and a reason for each change:

1.

2.

3.

Note 1: At this point in the semester, you should be able to come up with your own

phonotactic rules based on our discussion in class and your knowledge of English.

Note 2: Even if you’re not a native speaker of English, you should be able to answer both

parts of this exercise based on your knowledge of English as a second/foreign language,

as well as the hints given above.

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Exercise #4: Know thy English affixes! (20 points)A. Draw a tree diagram for the morphological structure of each one of the following

English words. Make sure your trees reflect the constraints regulating which affix may

combine with which category in English, per the handout given out in class.

1. deactivation 2. misidentifying 3. insincerities

B. The following compound is ambiguous between two meanings:

Vermont history teacher

Draw two morphological tree diagrams showing why the expression is ambiguous. Make

sure to indicate which meaning goes with which tree. Important note: This question is

about morphological trees. You should not use any of the content on syntax to answer

this question. This whole exam does not have a single question on syntax.

Meaning 1:

Tree 1:

Meaning 2:

Tree 2:

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Part II: Know thy neighbor’s phonologyExercise #5: A French dialect! (10 points)

Consider the distribution of [t] and [ts] (where [ts] is a voiceless alveolar affricate) in the

data below from some dialect of French:

a. [tu] “all” g. [telegram] “telegram”

b. [abutsi] “ended” h. [tr] “very”

c. `[tl] “such” i. [kltsyr] “culture”

d. [tb] “stamp” j. [mint] “minute”

e. [tsimd] “timid” k. [tsy] “you”

f. [tst] “title” l. [tsb] “tube”

Note: [y] and [] are high, front, rounded vowels, tense and lax, respectively, as shown on

the IPA vowel chart.

Now, answer the following questions:

A. Are [t] and [ts] in this French dialect separate phonemes, or are they allophones of

the same phoneme? Provide evidence from the data to support your answer.

B. If you conclude that they are allophones of the same phoneme, write a formal

phonological rule that derives the surface form from the underlying form. Justify

your choice of the underlying form.

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Exercise #6: How do they pronounce the /r/ in Persia? (15 points)

Examine the data below from Persian, an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, and

answer the questions that follow.

[r] voiced trill [r̥] voiceless trill [] voiced flap

1. [arte] “army” 7. [ahar] “starch” 13. [ahai] “starched”

2. [farsi] “Persian” 8. [behtær] “better” 14. [bæadær]

“brother”

3. [qædri] “a little

bit”

9. [hærtowr]

“however”

15. [beid] “go”

4. [rah] “road” 10. [tar] “four” 16. [biæg] “pale”

5. [ris] “beard” 11. [tedur] “what

kind”

17. [tea] “why”

6. [ruz] “day” 12. [ir] “lion” 18. [daid] “you have”

A. Given the data in 1-18, are [r], [r], and [] different phonemes or three allophones

of the same phoneme in Persian? Provide evidence in support of your answer.

B. If you concluded in part A of this exercise that the three sounds are allophones of

the same phoneme, write the two formal phonological rules showing how the

allophones are derived from the underlying form. Remember that we do not need

to write a rule for the ‘elsewhere’ case.

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Part III: Know thy neighbor’s morphologyExercise #7: Meet I, a dialect of Tiwa! (20 points)Consider the following data from a native American language spoken in New Mexico,

which we will call Language I, and answer the questions that follow.

[temiban] “I went” [mimiay] “he was going”

[amiban] “you went” [tewanban] “I came”

[temiwe] “I am

going”

[tewanhi] “I will come”

Now, answer the following questions A, B, and C:

A. List the morphemes in Language I corresponding to the English translations in the

following table. Note: The term “progressive” refers to the grammatical category

describing an event as being ‘in progress.’ (9 points)

Morpheme in Language I English translation

I

you

he

go

come

past tense morpheme

present progressive morpheme

past progressive morpheme

future morpheme

B. How would you say the following in Language I? (6 points)

English Language I

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He went.

I will go.

You were coming.

C. Based on the data above, do you think Language I is an isolating or a synthetic

language? If you think it is synthetic, is it fusional or agglutinative? (5 points)

Exercise 8: Meet Z, from Mexico! (15 points)

Examine the following data from a language spoken in Mexico, which we will call

Language Z, then answer the questions that follow.

a. [palu] ‘stick’ b. [spalube] ‘his stick’ c. [spalulu] ‘your stick’

d. [ku:ba] ‘dough’ e. [sku:babe] ‘his dough’ f. [sku:balu] ‘your dough’

g. [tapa] ‘four’ h. [stapabe] ‘his four’ i. [stapalu] ‘your four’

j. [ɡeta] ‘tortilla’ k. [sketabe] ‘his tortilla’ l. [sketalu] ‘your tortilla’

m. [bere] ‘chicken’ n. [sperebe] ‘his chicken’ o. [sperelu] ‘your chicken’

p. [doʔo] ‘rope’ q. [stoʔobe] ‘his rope’ r. [stoʔolu] ‘your rope’

A. List the morphemes in Language Z that correspond to the following English

translations. (6 points)

Possessive morpheme:

Third person singular morpheme:

Second person singular morpheme:

B. List the two allomorphs for each of the following words in Language Z. (6 points)

English translation of word Allomorph 1 Allomorph 2

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‘tortilla’

‘rope’

‘chicken’

C. What phonological environment triggers the alternation between the two

allomorphs you listed in Part B? What co-articulation process is involved here?

(3 points)

Exercise #9: A bit on the challenging side, hence interesting! (15 points)Consider the following pairs of singular and plural nouns from a language that we will

call H, and then answer the questions that follow. Note 1: [y] represents a high, front,

rounded vowel on the IPA vowel chart. Note 2: [a:] is a central-back vowel in H.

Word Singular Plural

a. “table” [stl] [stlok]

b. “worker” [munka:] [munka:ok]

c. “man” [mbr] [mbrk]

d. “white” [fhe:r] [fhe:rk]

e. “this” [z] [zk]

f. “line” [o] [ook]

g. “shirt” [i] [ik]

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h. “head” [fy] [fyk]

i. “box” [doboz] [dobozok]

j. “coat” [kba:t] [kba:tok]

A. As you should be able to notice, the plural morpheme in Language H has two

allomorphs. State each allomorph and its distribution (i.e., explain the

phonological context in which each allomorph occurs). Hint: Maybe make a

vowel chart for H and see if you can make sense of the data? (9 points)

B. Given your answer to Part A of this exercise, predict the plural forms of the

following singular nouns in Language H. (6 points)

Word Singular Plural

“(a pair) of eyeglasses” [smyvg]

“drum” [dob]

“flower” [vira:g]

Part IV: Time to argue

Exercise #10: To prescribe or to describe, that’s the exercise! (20 points)

A. The following story has been (probably wrongly) attributed to Winston Churchill.

After an overzealous editor attempted to rearrange one of Winston Churchill's sentences to avoid ending it in a preposition, the Prime Minister scribbled a single sentence in reply: "This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put."

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Churchill’s goal in his response should be clear, but the example he gave to drive his

point actually fails to achieve that goal. Why? In other words, if you were the

overzealous editor, how would you respond to Mr. Churchill’s note refuting Churchill’s

point? (Be polite in your response, though, since the guy was an influential figure at his

time.)

Note: Your answer to this question MUST be typed. Handwritten answers will not be

graded.

B. One prescriptive rule that we have not talked about in class is the prohibition against

use of so-called ‘singular their,’ which is commonly used by many speakers and writers

of English, as in the following examples, where ‘their’ refers back to ‘everybody’:

- Everybody should do their work.

- Everybody was punctual, everybody in their best looks: not a tear, and hardly a

long face to be seen. (From Emma, a novel by well-known British author Jane

Austen)

However, English speakers/writers who use ‘their’ in this fashion never use it in

sentences like the one below, where ‘their’ may not refer back to ‘John’:

*John should do their work.

Based on these few examples (or any others you can think of), provide a short descriptive

analysis of the use of singular ‘their’ by these English speakers/writers. Is the use

random, or rule-governed? Given your analysis, does the prescriptive rule prohibiting use

of ‘singular their’ make sense? If yes, why? If not, why not?

Note: Your answer to this question MUST be typed. Handwritten answers will not be

graded.

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Exercise #11: Can you speak Newspeak? (30 points)In his original, highly influential novel, 1984, George Orwell introduces Newspeak, a

government-enforced language designed to keep the masses subjugated. He writes:

“Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and by stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meanings whatever. To give a single example, the word free still existed in Newspeak, but it could only be used in such statements as “This dog is free from lice” or “This field is free from weeds”. It could not be used in its old sense of ‘politically free’ or ‘intellectually free’ since political and intellectual freedom no longer existed even as concepts, and were therefore of necessity nameless.

In the same novel, Orwell also proposes that if a crime were nameless, it would be

unimaginable, hence impossible to commit:

A person growing up with Newspeak as his sole language would no more know that free had once meant “intellectually free,” than, for instance, a person who had never heard of chess would be aware of the secondary meanings attaching to queen and rook. There would be many crimes and errors which it would be beyond his power to commit, simply because they were nameless and therefore unimaginable.

Given what you learned in this class about human language, critique Newspeak, as

described in each of the two quotations above. Can Newspeak achieve its goal? Why?

Why not? Write your answer in the form of a short essay of no more than 500 words.

Note: Your answer to this question MUST be typed. Handwritten answers will not be

graded.

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