Linguistics Sample Sentences

A collection of the silliest and/or worst sample sentences we find in linguistics texts. This blog is 99% submission based.

[lingsamplesentences]

thenavybluet-shirt submitted: Language files, 12th edition

[yonaks]

i hate languages

[lingsamplesentences]

Emily (via email) submitted:

There are no manatees in Armenia. Nor in Japan, for that matter. 

 From Wiktionary’s “manatee” entry.

[lingsamplesentences]

Emily (via email) submitted:

From Fillmore, Charles J (1971) Lectures on Deixis.

Image transcription, since it’s a little blurry:

The word “day” can be used caledrically or non-calendrically, to refer to the whole daily cycle, or it can refer just to the daylight portion of the cycle, in opposition to “night”. The word “morning” can be to refer to the daylight hours before noon, or to that part of thecalendar before noon. Thus, the “morning” is that part of the “day” which ends at noon, in either of the two calendric senses of “day”. Next time you hear someboday say, “Why are you calling me in the middle of the night? Don’t you realize it’s three o’clock in the morning?”, point out to him that he has chosen the word “night” from the day-subdivision cycle which is not put in phase with the calendar day and that he has chosen the word “morning” from the day-subdivision cycle which is put in phase with the calendar day, and explain to him that the reason is that only the latter is appropriate in expressions of clock time.

[filenesdebasement]

[lingsamplesentences]

happy new school year everyone !

please think of this humble blog and send in submissions as you trudge through your assigned readings :)

[wuqs]

i don’t know why, but example sentences in syntax always seem to tell short, sad stories

[schwa-chsinn]

i’m studying for my phonology exam and i was forced to reread this Particular chapter. one question: why

[lingsamplesentences]

Emily (via email) submitted :

Pues se le apareció a su mujer en forma de cuervo.

‘Well, he appeared to his wife in the form of a crow.' 

From Wikilengua: Marcadores del discurso (Discourse markers)

[lingsamplesentences]

Emily (via email) submitted:

van der Wal, J. (2015). Bantu Syntax. 

[lingsamplesentences]

emily (via email) submitted: 

Keenan, E. L., & Comrie, B. (1977). Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar. Linguistic inquiry, 8(1), 63-99.

[lingsamplesentences]

langsandlit submitted:

From A grammar of Yauyos Quechua by Aviva Shimelman

[lingsamplesentences]

Emily (via email) submitted: 

Scharff, C., Friederici, A. D., & Petrides, M. (2013). Neurobiology of human language and its evolution: primate and non-primate perspectives. Frontiers in evolutionary neuroscience, 5.

[lingsamplesentences]

lilykaur submitted:

And here I thought Indo-European studies were boring.

Lundquist, J. & Yates, A. (to appear) “Proto-Indo-European Morphology”. In Klein, J. & Joseph, B. (eds.), Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. De Gruyter: Berlin / New York. 

http://www.pies.ucla.edu/resources/ady/papers/IEmorph-F.pdf

[lingsamplesentences]

Emily (via email) submitted:

Levison, S. (2013). Recursion in pragmatics.

[filenesdebasement]

[lingsamplesentences]

Emily (via email) submitted:

Berwick, R. C., Beckers, G. J., Okanoya, K., & Bolhuis, J. J. (2012). A bird’s eye view of human language evolution. Frontiers in evolutionary neuroscience, 4.