Testing linguistic intuitions
Posted: 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).
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).