Testing linguistic intuitions

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Testing linguistic intuitions

Postby Richard » 21 Nov 2017 12:56

I've been thinking of making a web-based 'fun' test on linguistics (remember, my definition of fun does not mean watching videos of cute cats), consisting of questions that can be answered through corpus analysis (the sorts of tasks I sometimes get you to do in my lessons).

For example:

1. Based on definitions in the Cambridge English Dictionary, can you rank the following meanings of 'would' in order of frequency in English
a. Opinion (I would think ...)
b. Preference (would like )
c. Conditional 'if'
d. Possibility (things you can imagine happening)
e. Request (Would you ...?)
f. Past habit (We would always wake up at ...)
g. Past of 'will'
h. Wish (would rather)

2. In the varieties of World Englishes, can you think of any words which are particularly associated with one or two varieties only?

If someone contributes another question, I'll give the answers to these (and that person can wait for another contribution before giving the answer to their question).
Richard
 
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Re: Testing linguistic intuitions

Postby Woravut » 22 Nov 2017 10:43

Answer to Q.1
From high to low (e,f,b,c,g,h,a,d)
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Re: Testing linguistic intuitions

Postby Wannapa » 18 Sep 2018 10:26

My answer: b, d, g, a, e, h, c, f
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Re: Testing linguistic intuitions

Postby sgtowns » 18 Sep 2018 10:29

Completely wild guess with no reasoning: B E G F H D C A
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Re: Testing linguistic intuitions

Postby punjaporn » 18 Sep 2018 10:32

My answer is
b, e, g, h, c, f, a, d
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Re: Testing linguistic intuitions

Postby Tepsuriwong » 18 Sep 2018 10:33

b,e,g,d,a,c,f,h
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Re: Testing linguistic intuitions

Postby Jansompatu » 18 Sep 2018 10:33

My guess is
b
e
g
c
h
f
a
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Re: Testing linguistic intuitions

Postby Wenwen Tian » 18 Sep 2018 10:34

My answer: e,b,f,g,h,d,c,a
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Re: Testing linguistic intuitions

Postby Raj » 18 Sep 2018 10:35

I guess i use 'would' in the following ranking:

1. b
2. a
3. c
4. e
5. f
6. h
7. d
8. g
Raj
 
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Re: Testing linguistic intuitions

Postby stevelouw » 24 Sep 2018 10:43

I'd say:
b
e
c
h
a
g
d
f

In answer to question 2:
There are specific words in Australian (and New Zealand) English, like bikkies (biscuits), eskie (a portable drinks cooler), and ute (a pick up). As a South African, I have a whole bunch of words specific to SA English like bakkie, takkie and robot (to mean a traffic light). In Australia, a coupe (car) is pronounced /kuːp/ but in South Africa it's a /ˈkuːpeɪ/, probably following the same pronunciation difference between US and UK.
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