Linguistics and English Language 1B Assessment

Linguistics and English Language 1B Assessment

Semester 2, 2020­2021
ASSESSMENT 2
For the Linguistics and English Language 1B Assessment, you have a choice of three questions. You should answer one. Your answer should be no
longer than 1,500 words(including any examples that you cite, but excluding any references
that you list at the end). There is no specific minimum length for the assignment, but the
word limit is also as an indication of the amount of work that we expect from you, so
assignments much shorter than 1,500 words are unlikely to do well.
This assignment relates to the material covered in the last six weeks of the course, in the
areas of Phonology, Sociolinguistics and Sign Language and Language Evolution. You
should be able to answer the questions on the basis of the content of the lectures and readings, but may also refer to other sources. If you use ideas from any sources in your assignment, be sure to reference those sources fully. Remember that any examples that you
use should be consecutively numbered, and that each example that is not from Present ­Day
English should include a line below it for aligned glosses and a further line below that for
a translation.
Queries about the submission process should be sent to: lelinfo@ed.ac.uk. Queries about
content should be posted on Piazza by 19th April at 12 noon (with the tag ‘assignment_2’).
Queries posted on Piazza will be answered in the Q/A session on 20th April at 1:10pm.
No content queries submitted after the Q/A session will be answered. The deadline for
the assignment is 12 noon on 29th April. Your assignment should be submitted through
the LEL1B Learn site. All submission and marking is done electronically. Click on ‘Assessment’ in the Learn site for information (this also features information about what to do
if you have problems with submission, or need to ask for an extension).
When submitting your assignment, you must:
• USE YOUR EXAM NUMBER (not your regular student number) AS THE SUBMISSION TITLE FOR THE FILE THAT YOU SUBMIT. This will help enormously with the timely marking of your work: it’s very time-­consuming to work out
what to do with 60 files called ‘LEL1B final essay’. Your exam number will start
with a capital B and is on your University of Edinburgh student card. All marking is
anonymous so your name should not be on your assignment anywhere
• submit your assignment using the correct ‘submission box’ in the Learn site—if you
answer question 1, use the submission link labelled ‘QUESTION 1 Submission box’;
for question 2, use the submission link labelled ‘QUESTION 2 Submission box’; for
question 3, use the submission link labelled ‘QUESTION 3 Submission box’—note
that you will need to submit the ‘Own Work Declaration’ for your question before
you can use the submission box.

Linguistics and English Language 1B Assessment Questions
1
QUESTION 1: Phonology
Why do phonologists distinguish between two levels of representation (surface/allophonic
and underlying/phonemic)?
• In order to illustrate your argument, use the following data from General American
English (GA).
• Focus specifically on the surface alternations in the sounds spelled as ‘t’ or ‘tt’ (in
regular orthographic spelling!). Where do they occur? What is (are) their underlying
value(s)?
• Don’t worry about representing the underlying values of other sounds in these words.
• Even if you are familiar with the dialect of the examples, limit your discussion to the
given forms. There is no need to do additional reading on this particular phenomenon
and dialect.
GA Orthography
[ˈtʰiːm] ‘team’
[ˈstiːm] ‘steam’
[әˈtʰæk] ‘attack’
[ˈmæstәɹ] ‘master’
[ˈlɪst] ‘list’
[ˈækt] ‘act’
[ˈɪtsi] ‘itsy’
[ˈbɛt] ‘bet’
[ˈbɛɾɪŋ] ‘betting’
[ˈhɪt] ‘hit’
[ˈhɪɾәɹ] ‘hitter’
[ˈɪɾәli] ‘Italy’
[ɪˈtʰælɪәn] ‘Italian’
[ˈæɾәm] ‘atom’
[әˈtʰɑmɪk] ‘atomic’
Remember: the file that you submit when you submit your assignment should be
named using your exam number (not your student number); if you answer this
question, you should submit your assignment using the link on the LEL1B Learn site
labelled ‘QUESTION 1 Submission box’.
2
QUESTION 2: Sociolinguistics and Sign Language
What is linguistic discrimination and how does it relate to linguistic inequality? Discuss
with specific reference to signed languages.
Remember: the file that you submit when you submit your assignment should be
named using your exam number (not your student number); if you answer this
question, you should submit your assignment using the link on the LEL1B Learn site
labelled ‘QUESTION 2 Submission box’.
3
QUESTION 3: Language Evolution
Bunny the Talking Dog is a sheepadoodle who lives in southern California with her owner
Alexis Devine. Over the last year, Bunny has appeared in a series of TikTok videos in which
she appears to be communicating with Alexis using a specially designed soundboard. First
of all:
1. Watch this Youtube video of Bunny: https://youtu.be/NJYpXDMPlKA
2. Read this article about Bunny: https://www.theverge.com/21557375/bunny­the­dogtalks­researchers­animal­cognition­language­tiktok
Now, with reference to the Week 11 reading by Cuskley on Learn, write a short informal
article (i.e. in the style of a popular science magazine) which addresses at least three of
the following questions:
i. Can you see any evidence of arbitrariness, generativity, displacement, and reflexiveness in Bunny’s behaviour in the video linked above?
ii. Taking into account the issues raised in the Cuskley paper and the Verge article, how
reliable do you think the evidence in the Youtube video is?
iii. Can you think of any ways we could collect better evidence on the nature of Bunny
the Talking Dog’s communicative abilities?
iv. Do you think the difference between Bunny’s behaviour in the video and the natural
languages used by humans is one of degree or kind? That is, do you think that Bunny
is using a less ­developed form of language, or is it something completely different?
v. Some people argue that human languages are culturally evolved through repeated
cycles of learning and transmission to fit human cognition. Since Bunny learned to
use the soundboard, do you think that ­ under the right conditions – this could be the
first stage in a culturally evolved doggy language?
Remember: the file that you submit when you submit your assignment should be
named using your exam number (not your student number); if you answer this
question, you should submit your assignment using the link on the LEL1B Learn site
labelled ‘QUESTION 3 Submission box.

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