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Not Quite Half-Term Survey Time!
Hello, Linguists!
Test One is looking good so far… expect grades on Thursday. Until then a couple of reminders…
(a) Discussion 2 has been postponed until the end of this week.
(b) Start thinking about your Final Projects… who you’ll work with, what you’ll produce, how you’ll explore your understanding of linguistics, and so on. The sky’s the limit for Final Projects– the sooner you start planning, the better it will be.
(c) After Test One, it’s time for a quick reassessment. A time to adjust the schedule if necessary, rethink how we’re prioritizing the different aspects of the class, reconsider our own levels of engagement, etc. Please fill out this Survey Monkey survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J5PXMGB). It’s anonymous.
(d) Hold off on HW-4 for now.
See you tomorrow!
-dsb
Review 1 – Collaborate!
(1) Five Terms I Definitely Know
(2) Four Terms I Know But Can’t Always Remember
(3) Three Terms I Don’t Understand
(a) Three Things I Know About Language & Linguistics in General
(b) Three Things I Know About Phonetics & Phonology
(c) Three Things I Know About Morphology
(d) Three Things I Know About Syntax
(e) Three Things I Know About Semantics
(f) Three Things I Know About the Philosophy of Language / Linguistic Theory
********
Class, try to answer each category above. Post your response as a Comment on this post OR as a comment to another person’s comment (be aware of what people before you have said). Try to answer your classmates’ responses to #3 especially. This review will guide you in taking Test One. Participation in this review counts towards your final grade.
Weekend Reminders for POS Wizards
Hello Apprentices of Linguistic Wizardy!
A few reminders for the weekend…
First, remember next week has updated office hours (in my office and on virtual chat):
Monday, 29-September: 10:30am-12noon
Thursday, 2-October: 4pm-5:30pm
Second reminder: Quizzes 7, 8, 9 are back online. Don’t forget to take them when you have a chance.
Third reminder: You need to create a Google Doc for your group to collaborate on what’s going in Blog-2. Here’s a video explaining how to create a Google Doc if you’re not sure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKt3-fruLyE
Make sure to send me the link to your Google Doc this weekend.
Finally, think about language this weekend… think about words not as single items, but as… things in need of other things. In order to build a sentence, we need a subject and a predicate. At their most basic, a Subject is a Noun Phrase consisting of the single Noun head and a predicate is a single Verb Phrase consisting of a single Verb head: Miranda sighed. But not all verbs work that way– *Miranda gave is not a normal grammatically acceptable sentence in English. That’s because different verbs have different Thematic Roles they can or must give out. Likewise, when the noun is rock (as in, any plain old rock you find on the side of a mountain), then you can’t have a sentence like *rock sighs. Not only does sighs need to give out a kind of thematic role that rock can’t fulfill, but also, rock is the kind of noun that needs something else in its Noun Phrase (like a determiner, as in The rock rolled down the mountain.).
The people at the Penn Tree Bank have been thinking about this for years. Have a look at how they categorize words and parts of speech and see if you agree or disagree with them. For possible extra credit, Microblog about Penn’s POS-tagging schema on the Language Village Tumblr– or write a full blog post about it on the course website. And take care with your formatting!
Have a great weekend!
-doug
Spanglish at SDSU!
Hello Linguists!
I encourage you to attend a lecture by Antropolitical Linguist Dr. Ana Celia Zentella, titled:
“For and Against Spanglish: With Friends Like These Who Needs Enemies?”
The event will be held on Wed., Sept. 24 at 7:00 p.m. in EBA 345.
Afterwards, you can blog a post about it for bonus points! Ask me how at the lecture.
Flyer: Zentella_GuestLecture_Fall2014_SDSU
HW-2 and Morphology Bonus Options
Going from Week Four to Week Five…
The Workflow Schedule has been updated; adjust your calendars and expectations accordingly!
(a) Group Work.
Given shifting needs and shifting personalities, you can freely form and remix and reform groups as you see fit. There is no “the group” anymore. There is only “this group for this assignment” and those groups will change size depending on the work. It’s okay. If there’s any time you strongly feel like it would be best for you to work in a “group of one”, email me, explain why you want to work alone, and I’ll consider it. The next major group work assignment is Blog-2, due October 2nd, 7pm. For Blog-2 you must work in groups of 3-5.
(b) You have two options for “bonus points” this weekend:
Hanunoo. As a way to boost your homework grade by 2 points, you may complete the Hanunoo problem from the ditto I passed out in class today. Due on Tuesday at the beginning of class. Must be neat. Must be clean. Must clearly show your work, along with annotations/descriptions of your thought processes, failed attempts, and successes. Show Your Work (like in math class). You may work in groups of two. You may all feel free to use the Collaborate page on the course website to discuss and collaborate.
Morphology of Images. For a few free-floating bonus points (up to 4), you may compose a Morphology Of Images blog post. Pick three images (pick from the sites listed below) and describe their morphology. Talk about their parts. Find what patterns repeat across the three images youv’e chosen. Determine what constitutes a “root” and what constitutes an “affix” in these images. What’s the difference between inflectional and derivational in these images? Are there any parts that seem to be allomorphs? See my blog post for an example of how to respond. Make sure your post is well formated, well titled, and well tagged. You may work in small teams of two or three, but make sure to clearly indicate how each member contributed equally. Remeber, this is a thought experiment– there is no one right answer. Open your mind! Due Monday, September 22nd, by 7pm.
Choose your images from one of these sources:
Omni Magazine Reboot (on Tumblr)
Everyday Comics (on Tumblr)
Todd Webb’s Wall Drawings (on Tumblr)
The art of Roy Lichtenstein (from Google image search)
As always– have fun, linguists!
The Morphology of Images
Take a look at the image “Minor Changes 50” by Todd Webb (all images by Todd Webb, take from Comics Workbook and Wall Drawing).
- What parts of the image do you see?
- How do those parts interact with each other?
- Is this image telling a story?
- Which parts of this image are characters in the story?
- Which parts of this image are crucial for the setting of the story ?
- Which parts of this images are crucial for the plot?
- How do these parts interact?
Now, look at Minor Changes 46.
- Does this new information change your interpretation of the morphology of Minor Changes 50?
- What do you know now that you didn’t know before?
- What parts of this image are “root” or “stem” parts and which parts feel like “affixes”? Why?
- Of the affixes, can you say which are “inflectional” (they only exist to hold the grammar together) and which parts are “derivational” (they add some important information to the meaning, or change the kind of meaning of a given part)?
Now look at” Minor Changes 63″–
- Did your opinion about the morphology of this image change?
Now look at the entire series of images in this group of “Minor Changes” (Minor Changes 39-63) and think about morphology.
- How does the visual morphology change?
- How does it stay the same?
One possible set of answers…
-doug
D5 Creation