Shah HW 1.docx - Assignment 1 Due: June 29th by 11:59pm via...

Assignment 1
Due: June 29th by 11:59pm via email to [email protected]
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 TYPE YOUR NAME HERE: Amber Shah
Instructions:
 Please read the beginning of Chapter 2 in the Yule text. If you for some reason do not
have the textbook yet, I have included the relevant pages for you as a PDF on the course
website. Download and read from there (but find the book online ASAP!).
 This chapter is about animal communication, but you will only read up until the end of
the section on “Duality” (that is, please stop reading when you get to the section on
“talking to animals”). We will come back to animal communication in Week 3 of the
course.
 After completing this reading, please do the assignment below. Your answer should be
typed into this word document, saved, and then sent to me by 11:59pm 6/29.
Assignment:
Linguistics is field that attempts to provide a scientific understanding about human language.
The first step towards understanding something scientifically is to be very clear about what it is
you’re trying to understand. For that reason, the first reading is laying out a very specific
definition for “language”, so that we can distinguish it from “communication”. Whereas other