Linguistics Assignment

Step 1

For Text 1, (a) identify the word class of each of the following words, and (b) indicate whether it is a lexical word, a function word or an insert. If the word is an insert, no word class label is necessary.

(a) line 1 underwater : it belongs to an adjective word class. The preposition under is attached with noun i.e. water. Therefore, it is a lexical word

(b) line 3 that: It belongs to a pronoun word class. It is a function word

(c) line 4 are: It belongs to verb word class and is a lexical word

(d) line 5 blue: It belongs to adjective word class and is a lexical word

(e) line 6 found: Adjective word class and a lexical word

(f) line 7 Abaco: Insert word

(g) line 9 another: Adjective word class and a lexical word

(h) line 11 had: Verb word class and a lexical word

(i) line 12 dimmer: Noun word class and a lexical word

(j) line 14 cannot : Verb word class and a lexical word

(15%)

Step 2

For Text 2, (a) identify the word class of each of the following words, and (b) indicate whether it is a lexical word, a function word or an insert. If the word is an insert, no word class label is necessary.

(a) line 1 quarter: Noun word class and a lexical word

(b) line 3 erm: insert word

(c) line 4 good: Adjective word class and a lexical word

(d) line 5 straight: Adjective word class and a lexical word

(e) line 6 of: preposition word class and a function word

(f) line 8 well: adverb word class and a lexical word

(g) line 9 does: noun word class and a lexical word

(h) line 15 relaxing: verb word class and a lexical word

(i) line 18 it : Pronoun word class and a function word

(j) line 21 swimming: adjective word class and a lexical word

Step 3

Text 1

1) Recent research in underwater caves could provide clues about the origins of life on

2) Earth. Tom Iliffe, professor of marine biology, examined three “blue holes” in the

3) Bahamas and found that layers of bacterial microbes exist in all three.

4) “Blue holes” are so named because from an aerial view, they appear circular in shape

5) with different shades of blue inand around their entrances. More than 1,000 such

6) caves have been found in the Bahamas.

7) “We examined two caves onAbaco Island and one on Andros Island,” Iliffe

8) explains. “In one on Abaco, at a depth ofabout 100 feet, inch-thick sheets     

9) bacteria clung to the walls. In another cave on the same island, the bacteria lived

10) within poisonous clouds of hydrogen sulphide at the boundary between fresh and salt

11) water.” Iliffe discovered that the different caves had differing forms of bacteria, and the

12) types and density changed as the light source fromabove grew dimmer and dimmer

13) “It shows that life forms adapt totheir environment. Some can exist in a particular

14) habitat, while others cannot. These bacterial forms of life could share similarities

15) with microbes on early Earth. They may provide a glimpse of early evolution onthis

16) planet” he adds.

Total words = 205

Function words = 41

Insert words = 4 (Abaco, digits)

Lexical words = 205 – 41 = 164

Lexical density = 164/205 x 100 = 80%

Text 2

1 A I’m usually infor about quarter to eight, half seven, quarter to eight

2 B Finish earlier?

3 AErm yeah, can finish at four o’clock then

4 B Oh very good

5 A so er next week I’m going to start going swimming straight from work as part

6 of my keep fit

7 B Very good

8 A Well I

9 B Adrian looks forward to going er, she just does half an hour

10 A Aye, she goes up to

11 C Up inSummerhill

12 B does she?

13 A Yeah

14 B every Tuesday

15 A Well I, I think it’s nice, supposed to be relaxing and everything

16 B Yeah

17 A isn’t it?

18 B Yeah, well she said she, she feels it does her, her legs good

19 A Yeah

20 B so

21 A Oh I’m gonna start going, I haven’t been swimming for that long and I’ve been

22 saying off andon oh I must go, I must go, but when it’s so cold outside you

23 don’t feel like coming out with all wet hair and all that

Total number of words 163

Function words = 20

Insert words 3

Lexical words = 140

Lexical density = 140/163 x 100 = 85.8%

Step 4

Text 1

|| “Blue holes” are so named ||

More than 1,000 such caves have been found in the Bahamas.

We examined two caves on Abaco Island

 In another cave on the same island, the bacteria lived within poisonous clouds of hydrogen sulphide at the boundary between fresh and salt water.”

Iliffe discovered

that the different caves had differing forms of bacteria,

as the light source from above grew dimmer and dimmer.

They may provide a glimpse of early evolution on this planet

he adds

These bacterial forms of life could share similarities with microbes on early Earth.

Text 2

so er next week I’m going to start going swimming straight from work as part

of my keep fit

does she?

Adrian looks forward to going

er, she just does half an hour

Erm yeah, can finish at four o’clock then

I haven’t been swimming for that long

Youdon’t feel like coming out with all wet hair and all that

oh I must go

and I’ve been saying off and on

Oh I’m gonna start going

Step 5

The difficulties that were encountered while establishing clause boundaries for Step 4 included that it seemed very confusing to differentiate between different aspects of it like finding out the circumstance and processes because the text 2 contained a conversation and it seemed to be a bit problematic to identify the clausal aspects of processes and circumstances. Moreover, in the text 2, the linguistic features included phonetics which indicates the sounds of a human speech like er, erm etc. The text 1 can be said to have a linguistic feature related to pragmatics as it is particularly related to anthropology and sociology. Therefore, to sum up, both the texts have a different linguistic characteristics where text 1 can also be linked with phonology as there are sound patterns. Moreover, text 1 is originally written while text 2 is a conversation as A and B are involved in it and they are talking to each other and more evidence can be found out by the communicative sound patterns like erm, err etc.