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Answer to #1
d
Answer to #2
c
Answer to #3
b
Answer to #4
b
Answer to #5
a
Answer to #6
Discourse involves units of language larger than individual sentencesin conversations, lectures, stories, essays, and even textbooks. Just as grammatical sentences are structured according to systematic syntactical rules, passages of discourse are structured systematically. By adulthood, most of us have a firm grasp of how sentences are sequenced into a greater whole (discourse structure). From our knowledge of discourse structure, we can derive meanings of sentence elements that are not apparent by looking at isolated sentences.
Answer to #7
In the English language, there are several approaches to teach children how to read. Some of the basic ones are the whole-word approach, the whole-language approach, and the phonics approach. In the phonics approach, children are taught how the letters of the alphabet sound and then progressively put them together to read two letters together, then three, and so on. In the beginning, only regular words are used that are pronounced as they are spelled. The whole-word approach teaches children to recognize whole words, without the analysis of the sounds that make up the word. Proponents of this approach consider it more interesting for young children than learning about phonics. And finally, the whole-language approach argues that words are pieces of sentences and reading should therefore be taught in connection with entire sentences. So children start to read by reading sentences rather than words. The teacher may assist them to read the same poem or story over and over again.
Answer to #8
Early in the 20th century, linguists who studied syntax largely focused on how sentences could be analyzed in terms of sequences of phrases, such as noun phrases and verb phrases, which were mentioned previously. They also focused on how phrases could be parsed into various syntactical categories, such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Such analyses look at the phrase-structure grammarthey analyze the structure of phrases as they are used.
Let's have a closer look at the sentence: The girl looked at the boy with the telescope..
First of all, the sentence can be divided into the noun phrase (NP) The girl followed by a verb phrase (VP) looked at the boy with the telescope.. The noun phrase can be further divided into a determiner (the) and a noun (girl). Likewise, the verb phrase can be further subdivided. However, the analysis of how to divide the verb phrase depends on what meaning the speaker had in mind. You may have noticed that the sentence can have two meanings: (a) The girl looked with a telescope at the boy, or (b) The girl looked at a boy who had a telescope. In case (a), the verb phrase contains a verb (V; looked), and two prepositional phrases (PP; at the boy and with the telescope). In case (b), the verb phrase would again contain the verb looked, but it has just one prepositional phrase (looked at the boy with the telescope).
The rules governing the sequences of words are termed phrase-structure rules. Linguists often use tree diagrams to observe the interrelationships of phrases within a sentence. Tree diagrams help to reveal the interrelationships of syntactical classes within the phrase structures of sentences. In particular, such diagrams show that sentences are not merely organized chains of words, strung together sequentially. Rather, they are organized into hierarchical structures of embedded phrases. The use of tree diagrams helps to highlight many aspects of how we use language, including both our linguistic sophistication and our difficulties in using language.
Answer to #9
What makes speech comprehension especially complicated is that often we pronounce more than one sound at the same time. This is called coarticulation. One or more phonemes begin while other phonemes still are being produced. For example, say the words palace and pool. They both begin with a p sound. But can you notice a difference in the shape of your lips when you say the p of pool as compared with the p of palace? You are already preparing for the following vowel as you pronounce the p sound, and this affects the sound you produce. Not only do phonemes within a word overlap, but the boundaries between words in continuous speech also tend to overlap. The process of trying to separate the continuous sound stream into distinct words is called speech segmentation.
Answer to #10
Chomsky addressed how syntactical structures may interact with words (lexical structures). He suggested that our mental lexicon contains more than the semantic meanings attached to each word (or morpheme). In addition, each lexical item also contains syntactical information. This syntactical information for each lexical item indicates three things:
The syntactical category of the item, such as noun versus verb;
The appropriate syntactical contexts in which the particular morpheme may be used, such as pronouns as subjects versus as direct objects; and
Idiosyncratic information about the syntactical uses of the morpheme, such as the treatment of irregular verbs.
How do we link the elements in our mental lexicon to the elements in our syntactical structures? Various models for such bridging have been proposed. According to some of these models, when we parse sentences by syntactical categories, we create slots for each item in the sentence. Consider, for example, the sentence, Juan gave Mara the book from the shelf.. There is a slot for a noun used as (1) a subject (Juan), (2) a direct object (the book), (3) an indirect object (Mara), and (4) objects of prepositions (the shelf).
There are also slots for the verb, the preposition, and the articles. In turn, lexical items contain information regarding the kinds of slots into which the items can be placed. The information is based on the kinds of thematic roles the items can fill. Thematic roles are ways in which items can be used in the context of communication. Several roles have been identified. In particular, these roles are as follows:
The agent, the doer of any action
The patient, the direct recipient of the action
The beneficiary, the indirect recipient of the action
The instrument, the means by which the action is implemented
The location, the place where the action occurs
The source, where the action originated
The goal, where the action is going
According to this view of how syntax and semantics are linked, the various syntactical slots can be filled by lexical entries with corresponding thematic roles. For example, the slot of subject noun might be filled by the thematic role of agent. Nouns that can fill agent roles can be inserted into slots for subjects of phrases. Patient roles correspond to slots for direct objects. Beneficiary roles fit with indirect objects, and so on.
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