ITL Tutorial 14 (WS25/26)

Historical Linguistics studies...

• ...the nature and causes of language change.

• ...the years during which language underwent change.

• ...the origins of language.

• ...the development of linguistics as a science.

English is a...

• Indo-European Language.

• Sino-Tibetan Language.

• Germanic Language

• Romance Language.

Old English is usually assumed to have been spoken from 449, the Germanic tribal conquest of England, to...

• ...1066, the Norman Conquest.

• ...1476, the introduction of book printing.

• ...1776, the independance of the United States.

• ...700, when English writing emerged.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) spoke...

• ...Middle English.

• ...Early Modern English.

• ...Modern English.

• ...Late West Saxon.

The development of West Germanic languages away from other types of Germanic languages is marked by the SGCS. What does this shortcut stand for?

Unlike Descriptive Grammars, a Prescriptive Grammar...

• ...seeks to prescribe one language system in preference to another.

• ...develops a previously unspoken language for everyday use.

• ...prescribes linguistic knowledge and ability of humans.

• ...advances the changes made to a language in use.

Which of these linguists distinguished between analytic, synthetic, and agglutinating languages?

• August Wilhelm von Schlegel

• Wilhelm von Humboldt

• Jacob Grimm

• August Schleicher

Ferdinand de Saussure is often considered "the father of...

• ...generative grammar, a system that allows us to form infinite sentences with finite rules.

• ...structuralism, a theory that understands language as a system of arbitrary signs.

• ...language typology, under which Proto-Indo-European has been identified as the common ancestor of many languages.

• ...universality, the idea that important grammatical principles and tendencies are shared by all natural languages.

What is Noam Chomsky famous for?

• Universal Grammar

• Prescriptive Linguistics

• Generative Grammar

• Innateness Hypothesis

Describe the notion of the Innateness Hypothesis with a key term or sentence.