Project Task Description B
Project Task Description B
Components:
The project is worth 20%; there are two related tasks:
- Written task 1 (15%)–complete following tasks
- Written task 2 (5%) – reflective essay
Before starting on the project:
First, you will need to find an ‘informant’: someone who is a native speaker of a language other than your first language or English.
You will need to use this informant to tell you about some of the features of the language you are focusing on. They do not need to be a linguistic expert. They just need to be able to provide you with ‘data’ about their language, which you will then need to interpret using the terminology and ideas introduced throughout the course.
It is probably better to focus all components of the task on the same language and use the same informant.
Note: You must work with a native speaker on this task. You can conduct all interviews via MS teams or zoom.
Task A: Phonetics
The language I am investigating is ________________________________
For this task you will need to ask your informant to provide you with samples of the sound system which is used in his/her language variety.
- Ask your informant to say a short sentence in his/her language. If you like, it could be the equivalent to this English sentence:
It is quite difficult to hear the different sounds of a language.
(You could choose something else if you like).
- Try to write it down as you hear it using the Roman alphabet (the alphabet that English also uses):
- Circle the sounds that seem to be difficult to capture using the Roman alphabet, and those which you found difficult to recognise. Ask your informant to repeat the sentence as many times as you need.
- Now ask your informant to write down the sentence s/he has spoken using the Roman alphabet. (Informants will probably be able to do this even if their own writing system is very different.)
- Ask them what difficulties they face trying to fit the sounds of their language into this script.
- Compare the two versions. What do you learn from the differences?
- Now, working from phonetic charts, transcribe the sentence into IPA symbols.
- What difficulties did you encounter?
- Ask your informant to say aloud to you five ‘loan’ words from English which are commonly used in his/her language.
Tell him/her to say them in the way that those words would normally be spoken in his/her own country (not as s/he has learned to say them with a beautiful English accent!). You are aiming for the non- English pronunciation.
Transcribe these five words as best you can, using IPA symbols, asking him/her to repeat the words as often as necessary. The example given below is taken from French.
| Original English word (Roman alphabet and IPA) | As spoken in _______________ |
| e.g. television /ˈtel·əˌvɪʒ·ən/ | [ˌtɛlɪˈvɪʒən] |
| 1. | |
| 2. | |
| 3. | |
| 4. | |
| 5. |
What differences do you notice between the sound system of English and that of your informant’s language?
- Now, write a short 150-word reflection on what you have discovered when undertaking this task.
Task B: Morphology
My informant’s language is: …………………….
- Find out if your informant’s language has free and bound morphemes. If so, give some examples:
definition and English example |
examples from your informant’s language,
which is … |
|
| Free morpheme | they can occur in isolation (as a word), e.g. dog, on, pull | 1.
2. 3. |
| Bound morpheme | they cannot occur in isolation,
e.g. un-, re-, –ing |
1.
2. 3. |
- Find out if in your informant’s language there are inflectional processes at work. Give examples:
| Number agreement in noun phrases
(as, e.g., in English the agreement between the demonstrative and the noun: this book vs these books) |
in your informant’s language:
|
| Subject-verb agreement in person and number (as, e.g., in English: I walk vs he/she/it walks) | |
| Gender agreement (as, e.g., between the Italian adjective and noun:
bambina buonavs bambinobuono (good girl vs good boy) |
- How are new words created in your informant’s language? Which of the following derivational processes are possible in his/her language? Give examples.
| e.g. in English
|
in your informant’s language, which is ………………………… | |
| AFFIXATION | lock > unlock
loud > loudly |
|
| CONVERSION | run (V) > run (N)
bottle (N) >bottle (V) down (Adv) > down (V) up (Adv) > up (V) |
|
| COMPOUNDING | Schoolboy, jump suit, after-thought, in-laws, overripe, ingrown, nationwide, student-like | |
| BLENDS | Smog
Brunch workaholic guesstimate |
|
| CLIPPING | zoo, ad
lab, demo prof deli |
|
| ACRONYMS | Laser
NATO, UN, EU radar, scuba |
- Now, write a short 150-word reflection on what you have discovered when undertaking this task.
Task C: Syntax
My informant’s language is: …………………….
- Prepositional phrases
- Not all languages have prepositions before the noun phrase. Ask your informant how s/he would say the following, and draw trees for them.
on the river to the sea
- Write a paragraph to explain how the structure of the trees is different from, or the same as, those for English prepositional phrases:
- Adverb, adjective and prepositional phrases
- Find out where in a sentence it is possible to insert the adverb phrase (reluctantly), the adjective phrase (colorful), and the prepositional phrase (on the weekend), in your informant’s language. Use the following sentence as your base.
The girl gave herbicycle to her sister
- Write a paragraph explaining the differences (and/or similarities) with English.
- Now, write a short 150-word reflection on what you have discovered when undertaking this task.
Task D: Semantics
My informant’s language is: …………………….
- Kinship terms: Ask your informant to draw a “family tree” showing the kinship terms for two or three generations. Note any differences with English. What are the relevant “dimensions” of kinship in that language?
- Lexical Relationships
POLYSEMY: Find out from your informant two examples of POLYSEMY in his/her language and discuss them. Do not forget to give English glosses for them. Are they also polysemous in English?
1.
2.
SYNONYMY: Choose two synonym pairs in English. [Hint: Any two words with similar meanings, such as fast/quick will do]. Describe how their meaning overlaps and/or differs with the help of semantic features in the second column in the table. Give (if applicable) some examples in which they are not interchangeable. Ask your informant if these pairs are also synonymous in his/her language and discuss your findings in detail.
| Synonymy in English | Semantic description | Examples (not interchangeable) | Informant’s language |
| 1.
2. |
|
||
| 1.
2. |
ANTONYMY: Find out the equivalent of the following terms in your informant’s language:
| English | Informant’s language | English | Informant’s language |
| Light | heavy | ||
| Slow | fast |
COLLOCATION (You shall know a word by the company it keeps – J.R. Firth)
Words have a tendency to work syntagmatically together in predictable ways in each language. Words which tend to occur together form collocations.
What are the possible collocations with the above adjectives in English? (To give you an example, light collocates with colour, touch, breeze, sleeper, –hearted, –headed and weight in English).
Find out if the same collocations are possible in your informant’s language. If not, give the correct collocation with English glosses.
| English | Informant’s language | English | Informant’s language |
| light | heavy | ||
| slow | fast |
- Now, write a short 150-word reflection on what you have discovered when undertaking this task.
