Introduction to Linguistics - Assignment 1 James Madison University

[Your answers to this first assignment should, with the exception of question 1, be posted to the correct discussions on CANVAS by Thursday, 9/2, at 5pm). As with all our "ungraded" assignments this semester, you will get full credit for the assignment as long as you make an an acceptable effort on each part of each question.]

1. If you have not already done so, look over the whole syllabus, and make a note of any questions you still have about the course. (No need to submit these as part of your assignment, but do save them for when we can talk. If you have a question that would best be addressed the first week of class, you can email it to me. Time and internet connection permitting, I'll do my best to get back to you. )
2. One of the quotes below the "Tentative Schedule" on our syllabus is by the famous American writer/poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson. In your opinion, does Emerson's sentence include any violations of "prescriptive grammar" for English? Post your answer, and if you say "yes," state what you think the grammatical rule is that he violates.
3. Post 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 post at least one example of someone speaking perfectly naturally in less than a full sentence. (Examples: "Nice pants," "so true"). Describe the context for your example in one sentence or less , (eg., said by a friend about another friend's clown pants :) ).
5. Do exercise 2 at the end of Chapter 1 in your textbook. (For your CANVAS discussion post answers, just make a vertical list of the numbers of the ones you think should be starred and add a correction or very brief explanation by each of those numbers, if you have one in mind.)