Test 1 Check-list

Scope of the test

The test will cover material covered in the class lectures, discussion sections, readings and homework assignments since the beginning of the semester, with the main emphasis on Morphology and Syntax. Below is a list of some of the most important topics and concepts covered so far. You can use this as a check-list to see if you are prepared for the test. Note: this list is not exhaustive, but it does cover most of the key areas.

Format

Examples of the kinds of questions that may be asked include:

• questions requiring analysis of unfamiliar language data (applying methods already practiced)
• multiple-choice questions
• questions requiring brief written explanations or diagrams
• short answer questions

Remember that we can only give you credit for answering the questions that we ask. So answer them, and not some other question. Good efforts and near misses can also receive credit. But answers to phantom questions cannot!

Useful Study Activities

To succeed in this, as in many other areas, you do not need to just work hard and feel that you have suffered and therefore must benefit. Rather you must study intelligently: if you use a small amount of time effectively you can benefit much more than if you study for a long while ineffectively. If you don't believe this: try it, and you'll be surprised; if you do believe it, then remember to practice what you believe! In order to learn effectively, you must study actively. Some ways of doing this...

• Before reviewing your notes (or after a quick 2-minute scan), try to create for yourself on a sheet of paper a table or diagram of the main points and concepts in that area. As yourself what the best evidence for these points is.
• Using the list of topics below, scribble down for yourself what you already know about these topics. As you write down one thing, does this start to bring other things to mind? If you can remember a little about some topic, but are not sure about a particular aspect of this, write down questions for yourself to look up, before going to the notes/textbook.
• Imagine that you have to explain about syntax (or morphology, or whatever) to another student who has missed a number of classes due to sickness ... how would you go about explaining this area? What examples would you use to support your points?
• Look in the textbook at an exercise that we did not already cover, and see if you can answer it (e.g. Ch. 2: ex. 6, 8; Ch. 3: ex. 1, 6, 8, 9, 10)
• Imagine that you are constructing this test yourself (and that you are not intent on evilly creating trick questions): ask yourself what kinds of questions you would ask. Could you answer these questions?
• Take advantage of the on-line lecture notes and the study notes prepared by Prof. William Idsardi and Tom Purnell (see the 'Study Notes' link in the navigation bar frame on the left).

Remember also, that the instructor and TA can help, too: come to office hours, send email or arrange an appointment. Office Hours for coming week: Phillips - no normal Thursday office hours, Friday 11-12, Monday (10/6) 2-3; Eastwick - Friday 10-11.

Not Particularly Useful Study Activities

• Reading the textbook or your notes straight through from beginning to end, passively.
• Anything else which will lead you to be sitting staring blankly at writing as your eyes droop.
• Blindly committing lists of facts to memory.

Check-list of Topics

Introduction

• Prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar
• Human and animal languages
• Arbitrariness of linguistic units and structures
• Critical Period hypothesis (Genie)

Languages of the World

• Diversity of languages
• Ways of grouping languages (history, geography, politics, grammatical features etc.)

Morphology

• Contents of mental dictionary
• Analyze an English word or two, justify
• Problem set: unfamiliar language
• Open & Closed class morphemes
• Productivity
• Predictability
• Allomorphy (e.g. -s plural and -ed past tense in English)
• Right-head rule

Syntax

• Drawing phrase-structure trees for sentences
• Grammar for another language, using familiar rules with reordered constituents
• Are syntactic patterns entirely due to meanings and to what 'makes sense'?
• Ambiguity
• Creating phrase-structure rules/tree-fragments
• Tests for structure: verb-phrase deletion, 'one'-substitution, coordination
• Arguments vs. modifiers; subcategorization
• Recursion
• Transformations