Real-world example instructions

For this assignment, you need to write about an example of something you saw in the world that illustrates a systematic difference between two languages and that can be analysed using concepts you've learned from this class. The example could be, for example, a link to a website you saw, a photo (or description of) a sign, a story about something you heard or said, etc. You should also include a brief linguistic description of how they are different and what linguistic factor you think caused the difference. (i.e., it's not enough to just show a picture of a bad translation; things like this photo are very funny, but won't get you credit if you can't say anything about the linguistics behind them.) Your example doesn't have to be something you criticize; you don't have to make judgments like "this translation is bad", etc. (in fact, the example doesn't have to be about translations at all). You should also say what aspect of linguistics was the problem (e.g., phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, etc.) by connecting your example to one of our class modules.

Keep in mind that the example should illustrate a linguistic concept that we have learned about in class. If the explanation of your example is something that could have been written by someone with no formal linguistics background or by someone who has not taken this class (i.e., if your explanation doesn't use specific concepts from our class), you won't receive credit.

You can submit a total of five real-world examples; after your fifth I won't accept more. Your submissions can be totally new, or they can be retries of previous submissions that didn't pass. If you submit one and it doesn't meet the above requirements, it will count as one submission but you won't receive credit for it. Keep in mind that to get a C in this class you need at least one successful real-world example submission out of your five attempts; to get a B you need two; and to get an A, three. (Of course, if your first three attempts are all successful, you don't need to submit a fourth or fifth unless you want to do it for fun). Each submission should be about a different topic (related to a different module) than previous credited submissions. For example, if your first submission is about phonetics and you receive credit for it, then you can't get any more credit for phonetics-related submissions; your next submissions have to be about something else. If your first submission is about phonetics and you don't receive credit for it (because it did not meet all the requirements), then you can still submit something else about phonetics (it could be a revision of your first submission, or it could be a totally new submission that's still related to phonetics).

Below are some examples of the kinds of things you can use for this assignment. Click on an example to see whether or not it would receive credit, and why.

This example would receive credit. It recounts a specific thing that happened, accurately points out that the example is related to phonology, uses formal concepts from class (like IPA and phonemes), and links the specific example (a pronunciation of one word) to a more general issue (the phoneme inventories of Mandarin and English).

This example would receive credit. It recounts a specific thing that happened, accurately points out that the example is related to syntax, uses formal concepts from class (like relative clauses and subjecthood), and links the specific example (a pronunciation of one word) to a more general issue (relative clause structure in Mandarin and English).

This example would not receive credit; it's only about a particular word, rather than revealing a general difference between the languages.

This example would not receive credit; it doesn't use any specific concepts from this class.

This example would not receive credit, because it does not include any analysis of linguistic differences, or any linguistic reasons why it was mis-translated.

Instructions for real-world example assignment