LIN102H Winter 2025
Final Exam Instructions & Study Guide
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Final assessment instructions (ver 2025-04-03)
Coverage and Structure
● The LIN102 in-person final examination will be on 15 April 2025 (Tuesday), from 9am – 11am.
Please note the following exam location assignments based on your lecture section and surname.
Please make sure to be familiar with the location of your exams before the day of the midterm.
Exam Location Surnames of Students Assigned
EX 100 A – PEA
EX 200 PEN – ZZ
● You have two hours to complete the final examination.
● The in-person midterm exam covers all material from Weeks 01 (Introduction; Syntactic
Categories) to 12 (Morphosyntactic Variation and Change).
● The materials include the lecture slides, the readings (all chapters of the Moulton reading; Sedivy
reading, EoL readings).
● Three-fourths of the exam involves close-ended questions (e.g., true or false, multiple choice),
while one-fourth is open-ended (e.g., supplying phrase/sentence-level answers, drawing tree
diagrams, etc.)
● In terms of exam content, 65-70% of the exam questions are on morphology, syntax, and
psycholinguistics (Weeks 01-08); 30-35% of the exam questions are on semantics, pragmatics,
and variation and change (Weeks 09-12).
● Please make sure to bring a pen (blue/black ink), pencil, and eraser. You can complete the exam
either with a pencil or a pen.
● PLEASE BRING YOUR TCard OR GOVERNMENT-ISSUED ID. Students without IDs or
documentation will NOT be permitted to take the exam. Please arrive 20-30 minutes before exam
time. TCards will be checked before entering the exam premises.
No Aids Permitted
● No aids are permitted in the exam.
● The phrase structure rules (PSRs) will be provided for tree diagramming (this same set of rules is
available at the end of this guide).
Study Suggestions for the Final
1. Focus on understanding the concepts/terminologies listed in the study guide.
2. Review the questions from the quizzes, homework, and midterm; make sure you understand why
you got something wrong on the homework/quiz/midterm and how to avoid making the same
errors.
3. Be sure to be able to answer questions related to the topic objectives (listed below).
4. Try answering all questions in the Extra Practice Exercises (posted on selected weeks on
Quercus) + Midterm Practice + Final Exam Practice as drills to hone your analytical skills.
Topic Objectives List of Concepts
(not an exhaustive list)
Week 01: Introduction; Syntactic Categories
1. Explain how productivity and systematicity relate to the study
of language
2. Describe prescriptive versus descriptive approaches to the
study of language
productivity (in language)
systematicity (in language)
prescriptive vs descriptive approach
linguistic competence
grammar
phonetics
phonology
LIN102H Winter 2025
Final Exam Instructions & Study Guide
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3. Name and describe the different multiple levels of
representation involved with language
4. Name and describe the different subfields of linguistics
5. State the kinds of questions asked and methods in theoretical
linguistics and psycholinguistics
6. Distinguish between a grammatical and ungrammatical
sentence
7. Distinguish between grammaticality and acceptability
8. Explain what is represented with interlinear glossing
9. Explain the importance of syntactic categories
10. Identify the syntactic category of a word in a sentence
11. Explain why meaning is problematic when determining the
syntactic category of a word
12. State the tests (morphology, syntactic distribution) used to
determine the syntactic category of a word
13. Explain what distinguishing environment means
14. Distinguish between lexical vs functional categories
15. Explain how syntactic categories and distribution can differ
across languages
morphology
syntax
semantics
pragmatics
theoretical linguistics
psycholinguistics
syntactic patterns
grammaticality judgments
grammaticality vs acceptability
interlinear glossing
syntactic categories
syntactic distribution
distinguishing environment
lexical vs functional categories
Week 02: Words (Morphology)
1. Explain how a unit can be identified as a morpheme in a
language
2. Describe how morphological complexity differs across
languages
3. Determine the different morphemes in a language other than
English based on a dataset
4. Identify whether morphemes are roots vs stems/bases vs
affixes (and their different types), whether they are free/bound
5. Identify the different allomorphs of a morpheme based on a
dataset
6. Draw morphological trees to represent the morphological
structure of words (including compounds)
7. Draw morphological trees to represent words (and
compounds) that are structurally ambiguous, and explain the
meanings that correspond to the trees
8. Distinguish between inflection and derivation
9. Identify whether an affix is inflectional or derivational
10. Distinguish between exocentric and endocentric compound
11. State some criteria that distinguish between compounds vs
phrases
12. Name other morphological or word formation processes
besides affixation and compounding
13. Explain the findings of the Wug Test
morpheme
free vs bound morpheme
root vs stem/base
affixes: prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix
allomorph
analytic/isolating language
synthetic, polysynthetic language
morphological trees
inflection
derivation
compound
exocentric vs endocentric compound
internal change
suppletion
partial reduplication
full reduplication
Wug Test
Week 03: Phrasal Structure
1. Describe what constituents are and their importance in syntax
2. Correctly apply constituency tests to a string of words tested
for constituency
3. Correctly describe the procedures in conducting different
constituency tests
4. Correctly interpret the results of a constituency test
syntactic constituent
constituency test
phrase
head
dependent
node
parent(hood)/mother(hood)
child(hood)/daughter(hood)
LIN102H Winter 2025
Final Exam Instructions & Study Guide
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5. Describe what a phrase is, and the different ways to indicate
constituent/phrase boundaries
6. Describe the relations between nodes in a tree using the
appropriate labels (parent/child/sister, head/dependent)
7. Explain what phrase structure rules are
8. Identify the different notations in phrase structure rules
(arrow, parentheses, plus, brackets)
9. Draw tree diagrams for different English sentences based on
phrase structure rules
10. Explain what recursion is and how this recursive property
relates to the generativity in grammar
11. Correctly represent phrasal structures in trees (NP, VP, AP,
AdvP, PP, TP)
12. Name the elements that are identified as T(ense) in TPs
sister(hood)/sibling(hood)
substitution test
pro-form
movement test
clefting test
topicalization (see Moulton 2021)
pseudo-clefting (see Moulton 2021)
fragment test
coordination test
coordination
phrase structure rules
recursion
phrases (NP, VP, AP, AdvP, PP, TP)
Week 04: Clausal Structure
1. Describe sentences that are structurally ambiguous
2. Draw trees to represent sentences that are structurally
ambiguous, and explain the meanings that correspond to the
trees
3. Correctly use constituency tests to determine the correct tree
diagrams for sentences/clauses
4. Describe what subcategorization is
5. Formulate subcategorization frames (using the notations) for
verbs based on data
6. Identify the clauses in a sentence
7. Identify types of clauses (independent/dependent,
matrix/embedded, root, finite/non-finite,
subject/complement/adjunct) in a sentence
8. Identify relative clauses, and identify where the gap is in a
relative clause
9. Correctly represent clausal structures in trees (using CPs and
other phrases: NP, VP, AP, AdvP, PP, TP)
10. Explain why CPs are considered as constituents
11. Name the different subcategories of Cs [+Q], [-Q]
12. Determine the tense and aspect of verbs; whether a verb is
main/auxiliary verb; whether a sentence is active/passive;
which ones are subjects/predicates
13. Formulate phrase structure rules based on data that is not
English
14. Determine whether a language is head-initial/final/mixed,
and determine a language’s basic word order
lexical vs structural ambiguity
complement
subcategorization
intransitive/transitive/ambitransitive verb
clause
independent vs dependent clause
matrix vs embedded clause
finite vs non-finite clause
root clause
subject vs complement vs adjunct clause
relative clause
reduced relative clause
relative clause gaps
relative pronoun
complementizer
complementizer phrase (CP)
subject vs predicate (see Moulton 2021)
tense-aspect system (see Moulton 2021)
passive (see Moulton 2021)
coordinated clauses (see Moulton 2021)
head-initial vs final vs mixed
word order in languages
Week 05: Parsing Ambiguity
1. Describe the questions that are commonly answered in
psycholinguistics
2. Name some of the behavioural measures commonly
collected in psycholinguistic methods
3. Differentiate between global vs local ambiguity
4. Explain why locally ambiguous sentences have processing
difficulty
incremental processing
global vs local ambiguity
garden path model/theory
garden path sentence
garden path effect
processing difficulty/cost
embedded object/matrix subject
ambiguity
LIN102H Winter 2025
Final Exam Instructions & Study Guide
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5. Explain what incremental processing is
6. Identify the types of local ambiguities that can give rise to
garden path effects
7. Describe what the garden path model proposes about
syntactic parsing
8. Differentiate between late closure and minimal attachment
9. Use the principles of the garden-path model to explain how
syntactic ambiguity is resolved in a sentence and whether
there will be processing difficulty in a sentence or not
main clause/reduced relative clause
ambiguity
NP/S ambiguity
initial analysis
reanalysis
late closure
minimal attachment
Week 06: Parsing Ambiguity (cont., on constraint-based models),
Movement
1. Explain how the constraint-based model differs from the
garden-path model
2. Use the principles of the constraint-based model to explain
how syntactic ambiguity is resolved in a sentence and
whether there will be processing difficulty in a sentence or
not
3. Explain how the different types of information sources
(thematic relations, frequency of subcategorization frames,
context effects) impact processing, according to the
constraint-based model
4. Differentiate between D-structure and S-structure
5. Define T-to-C movement, phrasal movement, and wh- movement
6. Identify sentences that require T-to-C movement and wh- movement
7. Identify where the gaps are in wh-questions
8. Identify what types of gaps there are in wh-questions
(subject, object complement, PP object complement,
adjunct)
9. Identify sentences that involve pied-piping
10. Draw S-structure trees for various sentences involving T-to- C movement or wh-movement
constraint-based model
thematic relations
frequency of subcategorization frames
context effects
movement operations
deep structure (D-structure)
surface structure (S-structure)
subject-auxiliary inversion
T-to-C movement
phrasal movement
wh-movement
do-support
subject gap
object complement gap
PP object complement gap
adjunct gap
pied-piping
preposition stranding
Week 08: Movement (continued), Parsing Gaps
1. Identify sentences that have wh-movement but do not have
T-to-C movement
2. Describe what in-situ and multiple wh-questions are
3. Identify where the gaps are in relative clauses
4. Identify what types of relative clause gaps there are
5. Explain what the Accessibility Hierarchy is
6. Determine, based on given data, where the cut-off point is in
the Accessibility Hierarchy
7. Make predictions based on data according to the
Accessibility Hierarchy
8. Draw S-structure trees for various sentences involving
topicalization and relative clauses
9. Describe what long-distance dependencies are
10. Describe what the processing tendencies of the incremental
parser are when it comes to parsing sentences involving
gaps
topicalization
relative clauses
in-situ wh-questions
multiple wh-questions
subject relative clause gap
direct object relative clause gap
indirect object relative clause gap
object of the preposition relative clause
gap
Accessibility Hierarchy
cut-off point
long-distance dependency
filler and gap
active filler hypothesis
memory-based approaches
LIN102H Winter 2025
Final Exam Instructions & Study Guide
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11. Explain what the active filler hypothesis is
12. Explain what memory-based approaches propose about
processing difficulty of sentences with gaps
13. Determine which sentences are easier or more difficult to
process according to active filler hypothesis or memory- based approaches
Week 09: Formal Semantics
1. Explain the notions of reference and sense with respect to
language in general as well as individual word
2. Describe the difference between a common noun and a
definite description, including proper names
3. Distinguish between analytical sentences, contradictions,
and synthetic sentences
4. Understand the differences in truth conditions between
contradictory and contrary relations between propositions
5. Define entailment and presupposition, including types of
entailments (asymmetrical vs. paraphrase)
6. Identify presupposition triggers
7. Apply the negation and question tests to pairs of
propositions to see if the logical inference (the second in the
pair) drawn is that of presupposition or entailment
sense
reference
proper name
(common) noun
definite description
verb
adjective
presupposition
entailment
asymmetrical entailment
paraphrase
contradictory propositions
contrary propositions
negation test
question test
Week 10: Lexical Semantics
1. Understand and define different approaches to lexical
semantics
2. Distinguish between different types of lexical ambiguity
3. Discuss synonyms and their behaviour with respect to literal
and idiomatic meaning
4. Identify different kinds of antonyms
5. Understand hyponymy and meronymy
6. Distinguish between verb-framing and satellite-framing
languages using diagnostics and definitions from the slides
7. Discuss cross-linguistic typology of prepositional meaning
and its impact on child acquisition
Necessary and sufficient conditions
Conceptual semantics
General Lexicon Theory
Prototype Theory
polysemy
homophony
synonymy
Simple/Complementary antonymy
Gradable antonymy
Converse pairs
Reverse pairs
verb-framing
satellite-framing
manner
path
motion
figure
path
Beekhuizen (2016)
Week 11: Pragmatics
1. Distinguish utterances from sentences
2. Distinguish between utterance meaning and implied
meaning in different conversational contexts
3. Define pragmatics, lexical semantics, and formal semantics
4. Define conversational implicatures and give examples
5. Identify different Gricean Maxims and the cooperative
principle in action
6. Distinguish between types of inferences by applying tests,
including the defeasibility and reinforcement tests
7. Identify scalar implicatures with predicates on a scale of
more to less specific
8. Discuss variation in conversational implicatures in contexts
of cultural diversity and neurodiversity
utterance
conversational implicature
pragmatics
lexical semantics
formal semantics
cooperative principle
Paul Grice
Maxim of Quality
Maxim of Quantity
Maxim of Manner
Maxim of Relevance
flouting maxims
apparent violation of maxims
conflict between maxims
LIN102H Winter 2025
Final Exam Instructions & Study Guide
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flouting of maxims
scalar implicature
defeasibility test
reinforceability test
Wilson and Bishop (2010)
Guests in Kyoto
Week 12: Morphosyntactic Variation and Change
1. Define variationist sociolinguistics
2. Explain the difference between variant and variable
3. Discuss the nuances between the terms language, dialect,
and variety with respect to mutual intelligibility and social
value judgments
4. Explain the difference between synonyms, variants, and
categorical alternation
5. Identify types of variation in style and register
6. Distinguish between synchronic and diachronic studies of
language as well as real-time and apparent time studies
7. Discuss the role of language variation in language change
over time vs. stable variation
8. Identify different pressures of change and reasons for
language change
9. Define grammaticalization and be familiar with different
ways to diagnose it
10. Understand and discuss English and Nahuatl case studies of
grammaticalization covered in class
variationist sociolinguistics
variant
variable
language
dialect
variety
variation across languages
variation within languages
categorical alternation
mutual intelligibility
Forms of address (madam, sir, vs. girl,
buddy)
Pronominal reference (c.f. French tu vs.
vous)
Appropriateness of subject (taboo,
secularity, age-specificity)
Interactual norms (e.g. interruption, turn- taking, etc.)
Style-shifting
language variation
change from above and below
stable variation
language contact
Vocabulary innovations
Grammaticalization
decategorialization
extension
desemantization
phonological erosion
Wolgemuth (1981)
Appendix
This list of PSRs will show up on the final exam, particularly in the Tree Diagramming Section.
Phrase Structure Rules:
CP → C TP
TP → {NP/CP} T VP
NP → (Det) (AdjP+) N (PP+) (CP+)
VP → (AdvP+) V (NP) ({NP/CP}) (AdvP+) (PP+) (AdvP+)
PP → (PQual) P (NP)
AdjP → (AdvP) Adj (PP)
AdvP → (AdvP) Adv
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