midterm

Midterm Test for Syntax

Name: นัยนา YU YANG
Code: 48043020183


Midterm Test for Syntax

1. Explain the correlation of the idea that language is used as a correlation between gestures and meaning? ( 5 points)

A. GESTIRES_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _MEANING
Language has often been characterized as a systematic correlation between certain types of gestures and meaning. For spoken language, the gestures are oral, and for signed language, they are manual.
Language as a correlation between gestures and meaning:
It is not the case that every possible meaning that can be expressed is correlated with a unique, unanalyzable gesture, be it oral or manual. Rather, each language has a stock of meaning-bearing elements and different ways of combining them to express different meanings, and these ways of combining them are themselves meaningful.
B.GESTIRES_ _ _ _ _ _ARRANGEMENT_ _ _ _ _ MEANING
Language as a correlation between gestures and meaning:
All of the examples looked at so far involve simple sentences, but one of the most important syntactic properties of language is that simple sentences can be combined in various ways to form complex sentences. One could say that syntax makes possible the formulation of expressions with complex meanings ort of elements with simple meanings. One of the defining features of human language is its unlimited nature; that is, the number of meaningful expressions that can be produced by users of a human language is potentially infinite, and this expressive potential comes from the combination of the basic meaningful elements with syntactic principles. Much of the interest in language in psychology and cognitive science comes from what the study of the cognitive mechanisms underlying language use and acquisition can reveal about the human mind.
2. To understand Syntax perfectly well, we need to under the other linguistic branch ‘Morphology.’ Why is that? Can you try to analyze using the following data. (5 points)
a. *Barking dogs dose not bite
This sentence is a declarative sentence. It is present and negate sentence.
Barking is adjective as attribute.
Dogs is noun as subject.
Does is verb as predicate.
Not is adverb as negate adverb.
Bite is verb as object.
b. *All men is create equal
This sentence is a declarative sentence. It is present and positive sentence.
All is pronoun as modification.
Men is noun as subject.
Is is link verb as auxiliary verb.
Create is verb as predicate verb.
Equal is adjective as predicative.
c. *How long is your feet? One foot
This sentence is a present and interrogative sentence.
How long is interrogative adverb.
Is is verb as predicate.
Your is genitive as complement.
Feet is noun as subject.
3. Experience of Language_ _ _ _language faculty_ _ _ _Grammar of L (5points)
How are these terms related? Explain each term
- Competence/performance
Linguistic competence: what you know abort a language, which is ideal or perfect like your ability to do addition.
Linguistic performance: how you use this knowledge in actual speech production and comprehension.
- Species-specific
Species-specific is a term used to refer to language as a genetic endowment unique to the human species. It is a uniquely human trait, shared by cultures so diverse and by individuals physically and mentally.
- Linguistic Acquisition Device---LAD
The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a postulated "organ" of the brain that is supposed to function as a congenital device for learning symbolic language (ie. language acquisition). First proposed by Noam Chomsky, the LAD concept is a component of the nativist theory of language which dominates contemporary formal linguistics, which asserts that humans are born with the instinct or "innate facility" for acquiring language.
- Principles and Parameter Theory—PPT
The central idea of principles and parameters is that a person's syntactic knowledge can be modelled with two formal mechanisms:
• A finite set of fundamental principles that are common to all languages; e.g., that a sentence must always have a subject, even if it is not overtly pronounced.
• A finite set of parameters that determine syntactic variability amongst languages; e.g., a binary parameter that determines whether or not the subject of a sentence must be overtly pronounced (this example is sometimes referred to as the Pro-drop parameter

4. Compare Thai and English in terms of the followings:
a. Case
English: Nominative Objective Genitive
I me mine
We us our
He him his
She her hers
They them their
It it its

Thai: male female
ผม(I) ฉัน(I)
Polite impolite
คุณ(you) เธอ(you)

b. Number
For example:99,999
English: Ninety-nine thousands nine hundred and ninety-nine
Thai: เก้าหมื่นเก้าพันเก้าสิบเก้า
c. Sentence/Phrase Structure
English: She is very beautiful.
Noun verb adj
Thai: เขา สวย มาก เลย
Noun adj
English: She often came to help us.
S Adv V O
Thai: เขา มา ช่วย พวกเรา บ่อยๆ
S V O Adv
Phrase Structure
a. More reading book
อ่านหนังสือเยอะๆ
Noun phrase
b. red clothes
เสื้อผ้าสีแดง
Verb phrase
d. go to shopping
ไปซื้อของ
Adjectives phrase
e. house big
บ้านใหญ่
Adverb phrase
d. rather quickly
เร็วมาก
5. Employ any means to show clearly the concept of “Constituent’ and ‘Construction’ of the following sentence.
John normally smokes cigarettes in the morning.
This clause comprises three constituents (i.e. structural units) the function of which is already familiar—namely the subject John, the predicate smokes and the complement cigarettes. But what is the function of the expression in the morning which also occurs in? Since in the morning and normally does not refer to one of the entities directly involved in the act of smoking, it isn’t an argument of the predicate smokes. On the contrary, it simply serves to provide additional information abort the time when the smoking activity takes place.
6. Underline the equal constituent with the underlined one.
a. Micheal Moore wrote a book about the President George Bush and Donal Rumsfeld
b. Kkenny G performed his concert in Bangkok and in Uttaradit
c. His Majesty the King is highly regarded not only as the talented Jazz musician but also as the great scientist.