LING 3303- Midterm Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 14 pages long!)
Document Summary
Grammar: some sort of system for generating sentences of human language. Can produce an infinite number of sentences. Finite system for combining these words into an infinite number of sentences. Competence - what speakers know that permits them to speak/comprehend. Performance - putting that implicit knowledge (competence) into practice. Descriptive grammar - idealized form of the mental grammars of the speakers of the language. Prescriptive grammar - collection of rules of how things should be. Linguistic knowledge represented in an individual speaker"s mind. Laws of a country - how you should behave. If the light is red, do not cross the street. Never end a sentence with a preposition. A principle which describes a regularity in what happens . Interested in how people actually speak, not whether or not they"re speaking correctly . Person coming to visit or person going to visit. Children obey the constraint on this contraction at an early age.
