Pragmatics

1. List ten ways you could get your neighbor to turn down loud music. What type of politeness does each one use? (1 point for each item)

2. Give two examples of each of the following face threatening acts (from things you’ve overheard, media, etc). Explain why your example counts as an instance of each FTA (2.5 points each)
a. Bald on-record FTAs
b. FTAs done with positive politeness
c. FTAs done with negative politeness
d. FTAs done off-record

Language Acquisition

1. Refer to the comic at the beginning of File 8 in Language Files (11th Ed.) to answer the following questions (20 points)
a. What stage of language acquisition is the infant in? In particular, what kind of babbling
does he or she produce? Based on this, how could could the infant be?

b. How old would you have guessed the child is, based on drawing? Does the child’s
physical development seem to match his language development; in others words, is his
development “normal”?

c. What is anomalous about having the child end his speech with “Is that normal”?

d. Given the syllable structures of his babbled speech, how do you think he would
actually produce the words Is that normal? (Use IPA)

Category: Essays