Introduction to Linguistics - Assignment 1

James Madison University

[This assignment will be marked only as an acceptable or unacceptable effort.]

  1. What are Professor Cote's currently scheduled office hours?
  2. What is the quote below the tentative schedule on our syllabus? Does it seem like "proper" English to you?
  3. Write down one example of each type of sentence below.
    1. A grammatical sentence never before heard in the English language.
    2. A grammatical sentence you usually say at least once a day.
    3. A sentence that sounds like grammatical English but doesn't make sense.
    4. A sentence that is understandable but also ungrammatical.
  4. Listen closely to a conversation or conversations, perhaps by your friends, at the bookstore, on television, or wherever, and write down at least three examples of people speaking perfectly naturally in less than a full sentence. (Example: "Nice pants.") Also find one additional written example. What are your intuitions about why these utterances were okay?
  5. Write down your answers for exercises 2 and 7 at the end of Chapter 1 in your textbook.







Syllabus for ENG308 Linguistics Resources Oxford English Dictionary Send email to Prof. Cote

GENG418, fall 2010, © JMU