Answer only the questions for the topics that you missed on Examinations 1 and 2. Save your answers in a text file, putting two carriage returns after the answer to each question so that we have a place for annotations. Then upload the file using Annotate. You have until midnight tonight (Wednesday) to finish; the answers will be posted then, and no more submissions will be accepted. Start early.
You may use any resources you want except other people. If you have questions about what a question means, send email to Mike, but don't wait till the last minute to do this. Do not ask where you can find the answer to a question or whether your answer is right or on the right track.
Describe each of the following English examples using one or more of these terms for each one: grammatical, ungrammatical, appropriate, inappropriate, speech error, standard. If you're not sure of the status of a sentence, feel free to speculate.
Create a system of personal pronouns for an imaginary language that has exactly three semantic dimensions with three values on one and two on each of the others. For each of the words, say what its values on the dimensions are and give a translation in English that makes clear how it differs from all of the other words. You can use any forms you want for the words. Note: there will be 12 words in all if there are no words with unspecified values for dimensions, but you may include some with unspecified values if you want (in which case there will be fewer words). (For example, the English pronoun you is unspecified for NUMBER because it refer to one or more people.)
Here is one possibility.
There are three dimensions: PERSON (1, 2, 3), NUMBER (singular, plural),
GENDER (feminine, other).
go: PERSON: 1, NUMBER: singular, GENDER: unspecified; 'I'
bi: PERSON: 2, NUMBER: singular, GENDER: feminine; 'you singular feminine'
ba: PERSON: 2, NUMBER: singular, GENDER: other; 'you singular non-feminine'
zu: PERSON: 3, NUMBER: singular, GENDER: feminine; 'she'
ze: PERSON: 3, NUMBER: singular, GENDER: other; 'he' or 'it'
mo: PERSON: 1, NUMBER: plural, GENDER: unspecified; 'we'
ge: PERSON: 2, NUMBER: plural, GENDER: feminine; 'you plural feminine'
ga: PERSON: 2, NUMBER: plural, GENDER: other; 'you plural other'
le: PERSON: 3, NUMBER: plural, GENDER: feminine; 'they feminine'
lu: PERSON: 3, NUMBER: plural, GENDER: other; 'they non-feminine'
All three of the problems concern an artificial language I'll call Zipso. The language has the following consonants.
| bilabial | alveolar | palatal | velar | |
| voiceless stops | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ | |
| voiced fricatives | /B/ | /z/ | /G/ | |
| (voiced) nasals | /m/ | /n/ | /N/ | |
| (voiced) lateral | /l/ |
For allophones, you'll also see this symbol: [F]: a voiceless, bilabial fricative.
The language has the following vowels.
| front | central | back | |
| high | /i/ | /u/ | |
| mid | /e/ | /o/ | |
| low | /a/ |
There are also two tonemes, high pitch and low pitch. High pitch is indicated by an accent mark over the vowel, low pitch by no mark on the vowel.
The list below includes examples of most of what you will need to answer the questions for Topics 3, 4 and 5 below. Glosses (meanings) are not given, but you can assume that every form below has a different meaning (is a different word).
(Each of the stop phonemes has two other allophones, a voiced stop and a voiceless fricative.
So the allophones for each of these phonemes are
[p, b, F], [t, d, s], [k, g, x] ([F] represents a voiceless bilabial fricative).
Say what the phonetic contexts for each of the three allophones of each phoneme are.
They are the same for each phoneme (that is, the context for [b] is the same as
the context for [d] and [g]).
The voiced stop allophones ([b, d, g]) occur between voiced phones.
The voiceless fricative allophones ([F, s, x]) occur before voiceless consonants (stops).
The voiceless stop allophones ([p, t, k]) occur elsewhere.