LannisterKing Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Hi everyone. I'd really appreciate if you could take like 15 minutes or less to do an experiment for me. I need it to write an original paper and everyone's opinions would be great. Please try to put your answers in spoiler tags so other people don't see (that can spoil people's own intuitions). Instructions: You will be asked to judge the acceptability of each sentence on the following scale: Acceptable, Unknown or Unacceptable. The acceptability of a sentence is basically the same as the grammaticality of a sentence, but it's not the same kind of grammar that you learned in grammar class. Basically, grammaticality in linguistics is just how acceptable a sentence is for a native speaker (but maybe slightly robotic) of the language. Don't think too deeply about the answers: just give your thought after reading the context-sentence pair and thinking about it for a few seconds. For each of these sentences, imagine that a narrator says it after analyzing the situation. Don't expect a perfect description of the situation at hand; rather, can the sentences be used to describe the context imperfectly (but without giving outright false information of course)? Just copy paste the questions, type in your answers and post it. Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 1) It is dangerous to fail this exam. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 2) It is hard to fail this exam. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 3) It is dangerous for the students to fail this exam. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 4) It is hard for the students to fail this exam. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 5) It is dangerous for the teachers to fail this exam. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 6) It is hard for the teachers to fail this exam. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 7) It is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 8) It is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 9) This exam is dangerous to fail. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 10) This exam is hard to fail. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 11) This exam is dangerous for the students to fail. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 12) This exam is hard for the students to fail. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 13) This exam is dangerous for the teachers to fail. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 14) This exam is hard for the teachers to fail. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 15) This exam is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 16) This exam is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 17) To fail this exam is dangerous. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 18) To fail this exam is hard. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 19) To fail this exam is dangerous for the students. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 20) To fail this exam is hard for the students. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 21) For the teachers to fail this exam is dangerous. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 22) For the teachers to fail this exam is hard. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 23) For the teachers to fail this exam is dangerous for the students. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 24) For the teachers to fail this exam is hard for the students. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 25) Failing this exam is dangerous. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 26) Failing this exam is hard. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 27) Failing this exam is dangerous for the students. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 28) Failing this exam is hard for the students. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 29) The teachers' failing this exam is dangerous. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 30) The teachers' failing this exam is hard. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed. 31) The teachers' failing this exam is dangerous for the students. Your answer: Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks. 32) The teachers' failing this exam is hard for the students. Your answer: Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theda Baratheon Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 is this just your homework lol bcus if that's so then that's a bit cheeky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LannisterKing Posted June 19, 2015 Author Share Posted June 19, 2015 is this just your homework lol bcus if that's so then that's a bit cheeky Uh.. no. I'm doing research to write a formal paper that can be published in a journal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkhangel Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Then you're going to want methodology which is a bit more rigorous than "some peeps on a message board who said they were native English speakers". What kind of linguistics experiment doesn't distinguish between the dozens of different dialects of English? A native speaker of Indian English is going to be different from a native speaker of Canadian English, for example. So yeah, I'd rethink this a bit if you want to publish something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Well, I know I'm being a curmudgeon, but if I were a reviewer for a linguistics journal I wouldn't publish the results of this research already. You have posted this in a place where there are lots of non-native English speakers and you only have people's word for it on whether or not that's true of them. You are collecting no data on gender or nationality (British native English speakers might have different responses than Americans to some of these questions.) And people who read this board are very far from a random sample of even educated speakers of English. IF you are also posting this in many other places on the Internet, maybe it could still pass muster as good research. But I am very skeptical of the validity of research on a topic like this done solely on this board. The only kind of research one should use only members of this board for is research specifically on fans of ASOIAF (as has been done in the past.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Relic Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 yeah I'm gonna spend twenty minutes of my time reading and answering this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LannisterKing Posted June 19, 2015 Author Share Posted June 19, 2015 Uh, guys. This is how linguistics research is done. You try to find anonymous native speakers of a language (it's better if they're not educated at all in this) and test their intuitions. This is plenty rigorous enough for that purpose: it's how you're taught to collect data in a linguistics class. =_= I wouldn't have posted here if I knew the people were so rude, obnoxious and telling me what to do lol. Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Stone Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Native English Speaker from Nebraska. 39 Years Old. College Educated. Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.1) It is dangerous to fail this exam.Your answer: Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.2) It is hard to fail this exam.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.3) It is dangerous for the students to fail this exam.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.4) It is hard for the students to fail this exam.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.5) It is dangerous for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.6) It is hard for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.7) It is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.8) It is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.9) This exam is dangerous to fail.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.10) This exam is hard to fail.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.11) This exam is dangerous for the students to fail.Your answer:Unaccepatable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.12) This exam is hard for the students to fail.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.13) This exam is dangerous for the teachers to fail.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.14) This exam is hard for the teachers to fail.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.15) This exam is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.16) This exam is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.17) To fail this exam is dangerous.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.18) To fail this exam is hard.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.19) To fail this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.20) To fail this exam is hard for the students.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.21) For the teachers to fail this exam is dangerous.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.22) For the teachers to fail this exam is hard.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.23) For the teachers to fail this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.24) For the teachers to fail this exam is hard for the students.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.25) Failing this exam is dangerous.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.26) Failing this exam is hard.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.27) Failing this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.28) Failing this exam is hard for the students.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.29) The teachers' failing this exam is dangerous.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.30) The teachers' failing this exam is hard.Your answer:Unacceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.31) The teachers' failing this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer:Acceptable Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.32) The teachers' failing this exam is hard for the students.Your answer:Acceptable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkhangel Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Uh, guys. This is how linguistics research is done. You try to find anonymous native speakers of a language (it's better if they're not educated at all in this) and test their intuitions. This is plenty rigorous enough for that purpose: it's how you're taught to collect data in a linguistics class. =_=I wouldn't have posted here if I knew the people were so rude, obnoxious and telling me what to do lol. Oh well. It really, really isn't. I have a linguistics degree, and I'm pretty sure every one of my professors would have failed a paper which didn't make any differentiation between dialects, for crying out loud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam de Felden Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Speaking as someone with a linguistics degree, this is not how I was taught research methodology. First of all, native speakers needed, but what type of native speaker. The questions are formed in US English, so that itself influences your results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athias Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.1) It is dangerous to fail this exam.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.2) It is hard to fail this exam.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.3) It is dangerous for the students to fail this exam.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.4) It is hard for the students to fail this exam.Your answer: AcceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.5) It is dangerous for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.6) It is hard for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.7) It is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer: Unacceptable. This is a comma splice. In addition, you need the conjunction, "and."Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.8) It is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer: Unacceptable. (Refer to the statment above.)Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.9) This exam is dangerous to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable. Dangerous is modifying the state of the exam, not the state of failing.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.10) This exam is hard to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable. Hard is modyifing the exam, not the state of failing.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.11) This exam is dangerous for the students to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.12) This exam is hard for the students to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.13) This exam is dangerous for the teachers to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.14) This exam is hard for the teachers to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.15) This exam is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable. (comma splice, misplaced modifier.)Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.16) This exam is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable (comma splice, misplaced modifier.)Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.17) To fail this exam is dangerous.Your answer: Acceptable. Correct use of the infinitive.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.18) To fail this exam is hard.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.19) To fail this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.20) To fail this exam is hard for the students.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.21) For the teachers to fail this exam is dangerous.Your answer: Unacceptable. A prepositional phrase cannot serve as the subject of a sentence.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.22) For the teachers to fail this exam is hard.Your answer: Unacceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.23) For the teachers to fail this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer: Unacceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.24) For the teachers to fail this exam is hard for the students.Your answer: Unacceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.25) Failing this exam is dangerous.Your answer: Acceptable. (Correct use of a gerund phrase.)Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.26) Failing this exam is hard.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.27) Failing this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.28) Failing this exam is hard for the students.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.29) The teachers' failing this exam is dangerous.Your answer: Acceptable. (Use of possessive before the gerund is correct.)Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.30) The teachers' failing this exam is hard.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.31) The teachers' failing this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer: Acceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.32) The teachers' failing this exam is hard for the students.Your answer: Acceptable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Flashheart Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 The answer is C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castellan Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 oh God does this take me back to linguistics ... the worst bits. Horribly cute examples, way to long and complex an instrument for any realistic purpose, you are looking to test it on native speakers but I suspect there is really any point in doing so. Having got my first reaction out of the way, perhaps I will go back and read the zillion boring alternative statements. Instructions: You will be asked to judge the acceptability of each sentence on the following scale: Acceptable, Unknown or Unacceptable. The acceptability of a sentence is basically the same as the grammaticality of a sentence, but it's not the same kind of grammar that you learned in grammar class. Basically, grammaticality in linguistics is just how acceptable a sentence is for a native speaker (but maybe slightly robotic) of the language. Don't think too deeply about the answers: just give your thought after reading the context-sentence pair and thinking about it for a few seconds. (they are problematic constructions and not testable with the 'first instinct' test. You'd be better off asking people for their comments. I have graciously provided my comments without invitation)For each of these sentences, imagine that a narrator says it after analyzing the situation. Don't expect a perfect description of the situation at hand; rather, can the sentences be used to describe the context imperfectly (but without giving outright false information of course)? Just copy paste the questions, type in your answers and post it.You have the problem that 'faculty' can be interpreted differently. I am assuming you mean the teaching staff but I don’t really use it that way and think some people could think it meant the teachers and students combined. If this isn’t part of what you are testing, you should make this part crystal clear.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.1) It is dangerous to fail this exam.Your answer: More unacceptable than acceptable. It depends if the you think its dangerous for the teachers to be able to be held responsible for their students deaths. Yes I think in this case the danger can only apply to the people who carry out the verb.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.2) It is hard to fail this exam.Your answer: Unacceptable. We don’t know how hard it is.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.3) It is dangerous for the students to fail this exam.Your answer: Unacceptable. The students aren’t taking the exam.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.4) It is hard for the students to fail this exam.Your answer: Acceptable if we assume faculty means teachers only. Its hard for students to fail an exam they don’t take.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.5) It is dangerous for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer: I think I’l say same as for #1 even though the construction has become ambiguousContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.6) It is hard for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer: Unacceptable, we don’t know how hard the exam is. Yes, I think ‘its hard to’ refers to the difficulty of completing the verb that follows ‘to’.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.7) It is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer: Acceptable except that ‘dangerous’ is a poor choice of word - fatal is more like it.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.8) It is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.Your answer:Acceptable. I think. Would be an uncommon construction. I just don’t think this ‘It is hard for..’ construction is used that much. Wouldn’t people say It would be hard for ...Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.9) This exam is dangerous to fail.Your answer: now my mind is so confused by the test itself I don’t know. For some reason, I find this more acceptable than #1.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.10) This exam is hard to fail.Your answer:Unacceptable. again, we don’t know how hard the exam is.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.11) This exam is dangerous for the students to fail.Your answer:Unacceptable the students aren’t taking it.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.12) This exam is hard for the students to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable. students aren’t taking itContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.13) This exam is dangerous for the teachers to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable. Don’t know why.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.14) This exam is hard for the teachers to fail.Your answer:Unacceptable. DOn’t know how hard the test is.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.15) This exam is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable. I think. It sounds almost right.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.16) This exam is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail.Your answer: Unacceptable.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.17) To fail this exam is dangerous.Your answer: UnacceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.18) To fail this exam is hard.Your answer: unacceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.19) To fail this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer: AcceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.20) To fail this exam is hard for the students.Your answer: acceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.21) For the teachers to fail this exam is dangerous.Your answer: same as #1Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.22) For the teachers to fail this exam is hard.Your answer: UnacceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.23) For the teachers to fail this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer: AcceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.24) For the teachers to fail this exam is hard for the students.Your answer: Acceptable but in my dialect you could say Hard on which would do away with the slight confusion caused by the ‘hard for’ being more associated with difficulty of doing something.Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.25) Failing this exam is dangerous.Your answer: same as #1Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.26) Failing this exam is hard.Your answer: UnaceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.27) Failing this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer:Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.28) Failing this exam is hard for the students.Your answer: UnacceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.29) The teachers' failing this exam is dangerous.Your answer: AcceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.30) The teachers' failing this exam is hard.Your answer: UnacceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.31) The teachers' failing this exam is dangerous for the students.Your answer: AcceptableContext: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.32) The teachers' failing this exam is hard for the students.Your answer: Acceptable PS Whenever I have accepted ‘hard for the students’ meaning it will have unpleasant consequences, I am being a bit laissz faire about people who use ‘hard for’ differently than me. I was thinking that may be a common use in the US. I would mainly interpret hard as referring to degree of difficulty of doing something. So maybe I take back all those answers. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castellan Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Uh, guys. This is how linguistics research is done. You try to find anonymous native speakers of a language (it's better if they're not educated at all in this) and test their intuitions. This is plenty rigorous enough for that purpose: it's how you're taught to collect data in a linguistics class. =_=I wouldn't have posted here if I knew the people were so rude, obnoxious and telling me what to do lol. Oh well.I agree people's intuitions are a good test of the innate grammatical rules (i.e. English speakers would all agree Dog kicks John doesn't describe the situation where John is the one doing the kicking) but you are testing not very common constructions in a highly abstract test with a fanciful example. Most people in the world do not hear sentences as acceptable/unacceptable they hear them as confusing, amusing, rude etc. Possibly your point is just to see which ones all agree are wrong and right so you can find the areas of confusion and discuss why, but still... "I wouldn't have posted here if I knew the people were so rude, obnoxious and telling me what to do lol. Oh well" - Welcome to fieldwork, LannisterKing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kikajon Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 (i.e. English speakers would all agree Dog kicks John doesn't describe the situation where John is the one doing the kicking) who is doing the kicking? sorry I couldn't resist... :leaving: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LannisterKing Posted July 1, 2015 Author Share Posted July 1, 2015 It really, really isn't. I have a linguistics degree, and I'm pretty sure every one of my professors would have failed a paper which didn't make any differentiation between dialects, for crying out loud. The arrogance in this post is disturbing tbh. Seems to me like you studied applied linguistics or whatever else. This obviously depends on what the phenomenon you're investigating is. For the purposes of this experiment, the dialect, it seems even the language spoken, is completely irrelevant. I've tested this phenomenon in English, Turkish, French and German, and it applies in all of those languages. If the answers are the same in all these languages, why on earth should the dialect matter? My professors said this test was fine. I'm trying to figure out what the difference between adjectives on the easiness scale and other adjectives is. 1) It is dangerous for the students to fail this exam. 2) It is hard for the students to fail this exam. When the context refers to the teachers failing the exam (spec embedded TP position does not share the same index as the experiencer of the adjective), the intuition that the referent of spec embedded TP position can be something other than the experiencer of the adjective is much stronger when the adjective is not on the easiness scale. Other adjectives such as dangerous, embarrassing, hilarious etc. can allow for this, however. In simpler terms, the failers of the exam can be something other than the students in the dangerous one, but this is very unlikely in the "hard" one. Athias seems to be an outlier in this case, which is interesting. I went to a top 5 theoretical linguistics school, this is exactly how they do it. Here's an example of an experiment where it is completely irrelevant which dialect of English you speak: http://spellout.net/ibexexps/stefan.keine/Coreference_nC/experiment.html (they only want native English speakers, the dialect makes no difference). Binding theory phenomena are pretty much the same in all dialects of English, so why bother asking? Btw thanks for your answers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mance Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Athias seems to be an outlier in this case, which is interesting. Not if you know Athias. There's a good chance her answers have less to do with what she really thinks and more to do with setting up a contrary, though arguably defensible, position, merely for the sake of defending it. How does that work for your academic rigor? :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LannisterKing Posted July 1, 2015 Author Share Posted July 1, 2015 Not if you know Athias. There's a good chance her answers have less to do with what she really thinks and more to do with setting up a contrary, though arguably defensible, position, merely for the sake of defending it. How does that work for your academic rigor? :P I don't think Athias could've done that, since it was completely unknowable what I was doing the experiment for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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