ITL Tutorial 1 (WS25/26)

Linguistic theory seeks to capture as much of (a) language's inner workings as possible with...

• ...as little language input as possible.

• ...the most detailled set of rules scientists can come up with.

• ...scientific papers spanning no more than 50 pages.

• ...the smallest possible number of rules.

Which one of these is not one of the five basic linguistic disciplines?

• Syntax

• Pragmatics

• Morphology

• Phonetics

The meaning of words and sentences is interpreted in the discipline of...

• Phonology

• Literary Studies

• Semantics

• Academic Writing

Mark all words that seem like they would be possible English words!

• Dord

• Kimes

• Sparkt

• Abacot

Words and sentences formed in languages are creative, but...

• not arbitrary.

• very soleme.

• not infinite.

• restrictive.

What do linguists use as empirical evidence to formulate their theses?

• Natural language

• Their models

• Grammar rules

• Meta-level studies

What's wrong with the following quotation? "Random quote goes here." (Mustermann 2007)

• Missing page numbers

• Missing the book's title

• Unnecessary information inserted

• Illicit edit made to the quote

What's wrong with this "works cited"-list entry? "1989. Linguistics as History: Preserving Linguistic Oral Records. International Journal of American Linguistics 55(4). JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1265240"

• Missing an author's name

• Unnecessary link to the article

• Page numbers missing

• Title is not italicized

And what about this one? "Romaine, Suzanne. Bilingualism. Blackwell: ²1995. Malden."

• No author stated

• Title not italicized

• Unnecessary year inserted

• Publisher in wrong place

Finally, for a practical question: When will you write your final exam?

• 31st of March, 2026

• 6th of February, 2026

• 16th of September, 2025

• None of the above