Module 1: Introduction

Question 1

grammar

Answer 1

a person’s unconscious language knowledge

Question 2

rules

Answer 2

hypotheses or principles that allow a person to create an infinite number of “good” sentences from a finite number of words.

Question 3

syntax

Answer 3

how words are put together in grammatically sound wasy

Question 4

role of the SLP’s

Answer 4

Job is not to PRESCRIBE grammar.
Job is to DESCRIBE communication.

We are not English teachers. We are communication facilitators. We are NOT the grammar police.

Question 5

Dialects

Answer 5

SLP’s don’t deal with direct remediation unless they do so in a private practice.
We don’t help children “correct” grammar. We help children “communicate effectively.”

Question 6

Justification for “ain’t”

Answer 6

“I am not” contract the verb (am) with not.
“amn’t”-consonant cluster deletion gets rid of [m]
left with “an’t”
a simple dialectal vowel change gives us “ain’t”

Thus by applying the rules for attaching a negative to a verb in a systematic manner we arrive at ain’t.

Question 7

“The cows is out”

Answer 7

Pg. 4 of notes. Overgenerlization of grammar rules.

Question 8

Prestige vs Non-prestige

Answer 8

We have to have prestige dialects in every language because every society has a “standard” form that must be taught in the schools.
So, whoever has the power to make the decision about what is taught, gets to make the very arbitrary choice of what is acceptable “school” language and what is mot.

Question 9

Linguistics

Answer 9

Traditional grammar used Latin and Greek. Ended up with arbitrary “rules” like: A sentence can’t with a preposition.

In the 20th century, structural linguistics changed this approach. Linguistics did not use other languages as the model. Just looked at what a language did tried to tried to describe it. Archeologist hat- allows us to see how language is used as a tool of communication.

Question 10

Transformational Grammar

Answer 10

Noam Chomsky-grammar should describe where the sentence came from in the first place- what the underlying forms and thoughts were that generated the sentence in the first place.

look at groups of sentences to see how they were related to each other and to see how simple changes in one structure could lead to new meanings and interpretations.