What do you know when you know a language? Kuiper and Allan Chapter 1.1.3 - 1.1.4

Exercise Make a sentence out of each of the following sets of words. What does this tell you about the order of words in English sentences? sleeps, a, baby, new-born in, house, live, green, the, a, people the, kicked, boy, ball, a

Exercise Which of the following could be an English word? bnick blick

Exercise Whose dressing is under consideration in each of the following sentences? Jill appealed to Mary to dress herself. Jill appeared to Mary to dress herself.

Exercise What is the question formed from each of the following statements? John is eating his porridge. John won’t eat his porridge.

Question What kind of knowledge have you just displayed in answering the last few questions?

Linguistic units are constructed according to rules rules of sound sequencing rules of word sequencing Speakers of the same language must know the same rules. Rules are descriptive not prescriptive. Native speaker knowledge of rules is unconscious.

Language is specifically human Only we humans can answer questions like this. We can do it because we have knowledge of our language(s). No other species has this kind of knowledge.