Introduction to Linguistics - Assignment 1 James Madison University

[Your answers to this assignment should be written out clearly (or typed :) ) with your name at the top. As an "ungraded" assignment, your work will be collected but will be marked only as an acceptable or unacceptable effort.]

1. What are Professor Cote's currently scheduled office hours?
2. One of the quotes below the "Tentative Schedule" on our syllabus is by the famous American writinger/poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Look carefully at this quote. In it there is one example of what many "prescriptivist" grammarians would call "improper/bad" English grammar. If you think you see this example write it down, otherwise just say nothing stands out for you!
3. Write down one example of each type of sentence below.
   1. A sentence never before heard in the English language.
   2. A 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 quite understandable but also ungrammatical.
4. Listen closely to a conversation or conversations, perhaps by your friends, on line in the dining hall, on television, or wherever, and write down at least two examples of people speaking perfectly naturally in less than a full sentence. (Example: "Nice pants.") Also see if you can find one additional written example (hint -- ads and posters and such count!).
5. Write down an example of something in English that you have either spoken yourself to an animal or which you have heard someone else do so.
6. Do exercise 2 at the end of Chapter 1 in your textbook.