Linguistics Assignment: Identifying Structures, Wh-Questions, Theories of Wh-acquisition

This Linguistics assignment covers topics such as identifying structures, wh-questions, and theories of wh-acquisition. It includes exercises on identifying different types of clauses, phrases, and structures. The assignment also explores the differences between subject questions and object/adjunct questions, as well as the theories behind wh-acquisition. It provides explanations and examples to help students understand these linguistic concepts. The assignment is suitable for LING 334 course at any college or university.

Linguistics
LING 334 2019 Assignment 2
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Table of Contents
Identifying Structures 1
Wh-Questions 2
Theories of Wh-acquisition 3
Methodology: The Truth Value Judgement Task 4
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Assignment
Identifying Structures
1. (20 marks)
It is important to know what aspect of language is being tested in standardized tests.
Identify the underlined portion in the following sentences. It might be a type of
Sentence or clause, it might be a phrase, or it could be a syntactic category. Many of
These were in the CELF-P2 test studied in tutorials. Identify with 2 or 3 words as
Appropriate.
a. The student who is sitting on my right is from Iran. What type of clause?
Ans –Subordinate Clause
b. The ball rolled under the table. What type of phrase?
Ans-Prepositional Phrases
c. The red beetle with black spots is a ladybird. What type of phrase?
Ans- Noun Phrase
d. I saw her peeking at her presents. Finite or non-finite clause?
Ans- Finite Clause
e. The boy is being followed by his cat. What type of structure?
Ans- Complex structure
f. The girl is ready to go to bed . Finite or non-finite clause?
Ans- Non-Finite Clause
g. She drank the milk before she ate the sandwich . What type of clause?
Ans- Subordinate Clause
h. The lady is drinking a smoothie. What type of verb?
Ans- Active Verb
i. The large marmalade cat hissed at my dog . What syntactic category?
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Ans- Adjective
j. The man said that the cookie was delicious. Finite or non-finite clause?
Ans- Finite
Wh-Questions
2. (15 marks total)
The following questions are from Adam’s corpus (Brown 1970) in CHILDES. For
each of Adam’s questions, from a generative language acquisition perspective, say (i)
if it’s adult-like or not (ii) if it’s not, explain what is not adult-like about the question
structure (leave blank if you think it’s adult-like), and (iii) say whether it is a subject,
object or adjunct question.
a. What bumped it? (021128)
(i) Adult type
(ii)
(iii)Object type question
b. What you looking at? (021128)
(i) Not adult like
(ii)It has simple combination of words
(iii)Adjunct Question
c. Where firetruck goes? (030011)
(i) Not adult type
(ii)It has simple combination of words
(iii)Subject Question
d. Why it can’t turn off? (030025)
(i) Adult type
(ii)
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(iii)Adjunct Question
e. Who give that train to me? (030025)
(i)Not Adult type
(ii)Simple words used
(iii)Subject Question
Theories of Wh-acquisition
3. (30 marks total)
We have seen that in English, subject questions behave differently from object and
adjunct questions. Some examples of subject versus object/adjunct questions is shown
in the table below for your reference.
Generative researchers treat subject wh-questions and object/adjunct wh-questions
differently.
a. (5 marks, 100 words)
Explain the difference using text, making reference to the trees below.
Explanation
According to the Generative theory , In wh –questions the wh-word moves from its base position
to the clause initial position. There are two movements are performed –
Wh-Movement
Here the wh-word or wh-phrase can move to specCP.
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I to C Movement (Subject-Aux Inversion)
 Moving the Auxiliary verbs (be , have , do etc.)
 Moving the Modals (can, could , can’t etc.)
 Moving the main verbs ‘have ‘ and ‘be’.
 Features [+present] or [+past] if only a main verb
other than ‘have’ or ‘be’
The hardest part in the above mentioned theory for the children’s is that it is required for
children’s to learn the unusual set of words that undergoes I to C movement. These words are
stated unusual as it is mix of the items , auxiliary verbs , modals and only 2 main verbs.
Example-
Subject Question
Who like coriander?
Coriander is liked by whom?
Here according to the given specification the coriander is going to be moved at the noun place
and third form of verb is used in it.
Object Question
What does the cook like?
What is liked by the cook?
Here according to the given specification liked is going to be moved at the subject place and
third form of verb is used in it.
b. (4 marks)
Show the movement that takes place on each of the following trees.
v. Subject Question xii. Object Question
Who likes coriander? What does the cook like?
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According to the Subject question the movement is as follows-
The movement of the wh word goes to the Noun Phrase and subject Auxliary movement is
performed.
According to the Subject question the movement is as follows-
The movement of the wh word goes to the Noun Phrase and subject Auxliary movement is
performed.
Wh word moves here (spec CP)
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Wh word moves
here (spec CP)
Subject –Aux Inversion :Whatever is in I
moves to C

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The above specification also fulfills the conditions mentioned by the Rowland and Pine
according to which the children learn the correct word order for object and adjunt questions by
learning each wh+aux combination.
c. (15 marks, 200 words max)
How would a constructivist researcher characterize the difference between subject
questions and object/adjunct questions? Refer to the examples in the table above and
propose what children would need to learn.
According to the theory given by the Constructivist researchers Rowland &Pine, the
children’s learn the questions by hearing them used frequently in the input. Children’s learn each
question word and modal/auxiliary/ be combination individually-
For example –what+can
It is observed that the error is viewed in the wh+modal/aux /be combination , it showed group
patterns that showed the errors in it. Learning each wh+aux combination as they are total 50 is a
difficult task for a child. The children’s prefer to use the most frequently used words in their
combination. This theory stresses on ability to explain the occurrence of the errors in child
speech is the best practice to provide the effective learning to the child. The theory also stated
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Wh word moves here
(spec CP)
Subject –Aux Inversion :Whatever is in I moves to C

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that the traditional methods of sampling the data will not provide any help. The approach to find
the errors in the small samples are reduced and further improvement is required in it.
According to the above given table the children’s can learn a lot in grammar in characterizing the
difference between Subject questions and Object/adjunct questions.
Here the first example
Like in subject based question – Who can ride the bicycle?
The object based question of this example is – What the boy can ride?
The children’s are required to learn about the manner in which these questions are formed and
how the modals , verbs and objects are used in this paper.
d. (6 marks, 100 words)
Do you think it would be difficult for children to learn the difference between subject
and object/adjunct questions on each theory? Why or why not?
Yes I feel these theories are complicated and there are many rules used in it. The
children’s with age group of 1 to 10 years will find difficult to learn so many rules. Although
above theories clearly state that the main consideration of these theories are to develop those
techniques which make children’s easy to learn about the question sentence formation. Though
the conditions are difficult for children’s to learn like in constructive theory there are 50
combinations , the children’s with this age group finds difficult to grasp these so many
complicated rules/ On the other hand in the Generative theory , the hard part is that children’s
have to learn unusual set of items that undergoes from the I to C movement. These combinations
are considered as unusual as they are in combination of the auxiliary verbs, modals and two main
verbs.
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Use of Subjects: Overt or Dropped
a. (10 marks 150 words)
Compare American and Italian children’s use of subjects over time, as age and
MLU increase. Do you think the trend over time for English-speaking children
Support’s a performance account or a parametric account of their subject use?
Why?
Solution
The overall performance of the American children’s in use of the subject over the time is
comparatively better than American Children’s according to the graph. According to the
statement given the American children in the graph above ranged in age from 1;10 to 2;8 and are
divided into 4 groups by MLU with 5 children in each group; children in Group 1 had
a mean MLU of 1.77 and a mean age of 2;0; Group II had a mean MLU of 2.5;
Group III had a mean MLU of 3.39 and Group IV had a mean MLU of 4.22. The data
from 5 Italian children brings together a corpus from multiple short sessions. Though Italian
children’s are slightly younger than American children’s . In this respect the growth of the
Italian Children’s is better according to their age group variation.
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b. (10 marks, 100 words)
Do the cross-linguistic data support or go against Hyams’s (1996) parametric
proposal? Explain your reasoning.
Yes the above given specification follows the Hyam’s parametric proposal to a high extent but
not completly, we can justify this as the above specification gives clear distribution of the above
given data using the –
 All the data has been put in groups of the range of the children according to their age.
 All the parameters are clearly defined either it be subjects , pronominal subjects , pre –
verbal subjects , post-verbal subjects and pre-nominal subjects.
 The above data has not given the specification of the usage of the verbs , modals ,
auxiliary words etc which are also specified in the Hyam’s parametric proposal.
Methodology: The Truth Value Judgement Task
5. (15 marks total)
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a. (4 marks)
a)If Principle B did not apply to ‘Every troll dried her’ the sentence would have
2 meanings. What is the adult meaning that is allowed, and what is the
meaning that is ruled out by Principle B?
Meaning 1 (Adult): Since the pronoun is given before noun so two meaning are allowed and the
adult meaning is whether the troll is female or male .
Meaning 2 (Ruled out Principle B): This only depends upon the views presented all the views
cannot be put this category.
b. (5 marks)
In a story testing children’s knowledge of Principle B, which of the meanings
will be made False and which of the meanings will be made True?
Meaning 1:True
Meaning 2:False
Why? The second picture does not specify that they are going to beach .
Take a look at the file titled ‘Principle B photos’ on ilearn with photos
outlining a story that would test children’s understanding of the meaning of
‘Every troll dried her’.
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According to the story the above sentence gives clear understanding to children’s.
c) (2 marks, 1 or 2 sentences)
Explain what experimental requirement is being satisfied in slides 6 to 9.
The use of the verb, modals and auxiliary words has been done in the given meaning of the slide
6.
d. (2 marks, 1 or 2 sentences)
What happens in slide 10? (This is not asking what happens literally, but how
the plot is proceeding).
The plot of the story is proceeding in the interesting way and children’s will read the words in
more concentrative way now.
e. (2 marks, 1 or 2 sentences)
What does slide 11 show?
The last slide shows the activity of the three trolls , all the statements are given in the inverted
comma . All the statements are written in simple language.
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