Friends, on thinking about it, I don't think that a plain old takehome exam would be a good idea for this class. SOO, I'll give a set of questions right now and we will do the exam on computers in a specially reserved room. Check it out. Don't worry, those who have asked to take the exam early can still do so. The exam is Thursday, 4pm, Speech and Hearing Rm 164. This is on the first floor of the Speech Clinic (attached to the back of the Music Library). See you Tues at 4.

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Question List for First Midterm Exam L205, Spring 2000, R. Port

EXAM QUESTIONS. Your exam on Thurs will consist of a set of 3 or 4 questions drawn from the 9 questions below. You can prepare for these questions and discuss them with each other between now and the exam. During the exam you may use your text books and any written notes but not online computer files (I don't want you writing your submitted answers until Thursday afternoon!) The students who have requested to take the exam on Wednesday need to make arrangements with me about when to do it. You can use computers in the Ling Dept on the third floor of Memorial Hall near my office. In preparing for the exam, please think through an argument or line of reasoning for each question and think how you would state and defend the argument in general terms. Answers are probably not to be found on any single page of the text materials, so I suggest reading (or skimming) and thinking about all the articles in developing your response. When you write the exam, I expect real English text, ie, full sentences, etc.

EXAM ADMINISTRATION. I have reserved a PC classroom for taking the exam, Room 164, Speech and Hearing Clinic. You will write your questions during class on Thursday (using the PC editor of your choice) and submit your answer to our ANNOTATE page. But these essays, unlike the others, will be visible only to me.

QUESTION LIST - the exam will consist of 3-4 questions from the list below.

1. Why does the mere universality of some property (the fact that all humans exhibit some feature) not necessarily imply that the property is innate (eg, Pinker, p. 31 and Port's pages on instincts)? Explain using some concrete examples.

2. Explain the difference between a Sign (or Index) and a Symbol. How is it that a symbol can have or have meaning if it does not have some direct correlation between the physical sensory pattern (the signal part, the A part) and the content (the meaning part, or semantics or B part).

3. Do you suppose that a professional propagandist (eg, a political consultant for a political candidate, a spokesman for the US Army or an advertising agent for laundry soap) tend to agree with Sapir on the issue of `linguistic determinism' (see his views on the webpage) or with Pinker (Lang Instct, p. 55-67)? Why or why not? Be sure to explain the notions of propaganda and linguistic determinism in your answer.

4. Give a precise statement of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. What are some reasons to believe that it (or something close to it) may have some truth.

5. Orwell says (p. 201, par 13) euphemism is needed when one "wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them." What role do `mental pictures' play in the use of language? Give a couple examples of familiar euphemisms showing how this `mental picture' idea applies to them.

6. The Institute for Propaganda Analysis proposes that there are "7 main propaganda devices", all of which work by exploiting `emotions' - like, especially, pride or hatred (text, p. 191, par 21). By this criterion, then, how is it that the generalized political speech in `Everyspeech' (p. 210-211) could be called an example of propaganda?

7. Interpret the case where our missing soldiers, captured by the enemy are POWs (that is," prisoners of war") but enemy soldiers who and captured by us are not POWs but rather EPWs ("enemy prisoners of war") (discussed in Bella English reading, p. 236). The question is why EXACTLY did the military briefing officers (or whoever is responsible) choose to NOT speak of Iraqi POWs in our military prisons? And how does the history of the use of the word POW influence this issue?

8. Port argues that many of the factors affecting decisions about speaking style reflect basic universal properties of human behavior. How could some combination of instincts in Port's list (on the webpage) contribute to the difficult decisions of, (a) a Spanish-English bilingual American (eg, cf, Rodriguez in his article), (b) a highschool student on the Apache reservation (cf. Basso).

9. Basso tries to show (Chapt 2, 3) that the mocking imitation of white speech is a natural extension from traditional joking behavior (the kind that is done entirely in the Apache language). Indeed, both kinds of humorous speech acts seem like human universals. But now, can these speech activities be related to some item or items already on Port's list of Possible Human Instincts (note that the March 5 edition of this page now includes `making jokes') or do they require NEW entries on the list? In short, WHY might people everywhere tease each other by means of play-acting and mimicry, and always count on getting a smile or a laugh from people nearby? (Naturally, there is no `right answer' for this.)

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