Question

Alistair receives a text message from his friend Beatrice, who is very excited because she has received word of a happy event. She texts:

i talked to my dad's second cousin in toronto on good friday and he was just good newsed!
Consider each of the following linguistic concepts. For each one, briefly explain what it is, and decide whether the sentence illustrates it, and if so, explain how. You do not need to start each answer on a new page. (We're indicating this by using roman numerals instead of letters.)
i. Constituents
ii. Multi-word units/collocations
iii. Coreference
iv. Syntactic ambiguity
V. Number agreement
vi. "Infinite capacity from finite means"

Answer 1

The sentence provided by the student illustrates linguistic concepts such as constituents, coreference, and syntactic ambiguity, but does not illustrate multi-word units/collocations or the concept of 'Infinite capacity from finite means.' Number agreement is not an issue in the sentence.

Step-by-step explanation:

Linguistic Concepts in Sentences

Constituents refer to the groups of words that function as a single unit within a sentence. In the provided sentence, "my dad's second cousin in Toronto" is a constituent, as it works together to provide a description of the person Beatrice talked to.

Multi-word units/collocations are combinations of words that frequently occur together and have a meaning that is different from the words individually. This sentence does not illustrate multi-word units as "just good newsed" is not a standard collocation.

Coreference occurs when multiple expressions in a sentence refer to the same person or thing. In the sentence, "my dad's second cousin" and "he" are coreferential because they refer to the same individual.

Syntactic ambiguity exists in a sentence when it can have more than one possible structure or meaning. The phrase "just good newsed" could imply that the cousin has just received good news or has been informed about someone else's good news, making this an example of syntactic ambiguity.

Number agreement requires that words in a sentence agree in singular or plural form. The provided sentence does not demonstrate an issue with number agreement.

The idea of "Infinite capacity from finite means" suggests that a finite set of elements (such as words) can be combined in an infinite number of ways to create different meanings or sentences. This concept is not demonstrated or relevant in the given sentence.