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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > grammatical judgment test
grammatical judgment test
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Patrick
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grammatical judgment test
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Hi Guys, looking for help.
Below in a grammatical judgment test aimed at non native speakers carried out by linguists in attempt to discover whether or not non native speakers can show the same grammatical intuition as native speakers. The sentences should be marked as either 1) correct, 2) awkard or 3) incorrect. Reportedly, Native speakers of English can also vary widely in their answers.
Personally, I have changed my own answers quite a number of times.
Can you help me out and give me your opinions. (I �m doing an MA in Linguistics).
1. The milkman who Paul saw after discovering the zoo keeper planned to kill got off the bus.
2. That dog will be difficult to persuade the little girl to play with.
3. John remembered that the fact that criticizing himself was hard surprised Arthur.
4. That little boy will be very difficult to persuade his teacher to criticise.
5. It �s the ticket conductor who Jim managed to convince that the red nosed man was looking for.
Many thanks for your time and efforts.
P.S. Apologies if I haven �t I posted this in the correct area |
5 Jun 2013
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libertybelle
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Below
in a grammatical judgment test aimed at non native speakers carried out
by linguists in attempt to discover whether or not non native speakers
can show the same grammatical intuition as native speakers. The
sentences should be marked as either 1) correct, 2) awkward or 3)
incorrect. Reportedly, Native speakers of English can also vary widely
in their answers.(You should have an answer called confusing)
1. The milkman who Paul saw after discovering the zoo keeper planned to kill got off the bus. - 2
2. That dog will be difficult to persuade the little girl to play with. -3
3. John remembered that the fact that criticizing himself was hard surprised Arthur. 2-3
4. That little boy will be very difficult to persuade his teacher to criticise. 3
5. It �s the ticket conductor who Jim managed to convince that the red nosed man was looking for.
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5 Jun 2013
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yanogator
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I would say:
1 - incorrect ("kill" doesn �t have a direct object. It isn �t "The milkman", because that is the object of "saw", not of "kill".)
2, 3, 4 - awkward (meaning that I can figure out what the speaker intends to say, but not very easily, and it could be interpreted differently)
5 - incorrect ("for" doesn �t have an object)
Commas are desperately needed.
2 and 4 are essentially the same sentence, so it �s silly to have both of them on the test. A person could claim that the goal there is to see if a person rates them the same, but they are so clearly the same that I can �t imagine anyone not noticing that.
Also, I would never give this test to any students except the most advanced, at a near-native level. For students at that level, though, it would make a very interesting discussion topic.
Bruce |
5 Jun 2013
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Zora
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I �d say:
1 and 5. incorrect
The rest are confusing or akward.
I agree with Bruce - commas are really needed in those sentences. Punctuation is everything sometimes.
Hi Libertybelle  Nice to see you around the forum again.
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5 Jun 2013
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douglas
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I �m with Bruce and Linda |
5 Jun 2013
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Apodo
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They are all awkward and confusing! 
Word order without commas - very strange. |
5 Jun 2013
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Jayho
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I had a go at this late last night and found them difficult to comprehend.
But it �s another day (and a fresh coffee) and I �m having another go.
After perusing this paper I took a deeper look and it does seem that the placement of commas helps but all in all these are not at all natural for NSs.
Cheers
Jayho
1. The milkman who, Paul saw after discovering the zoo keeper, planned to kill got off the bus.
2. That dog will be difficult to persuade the little girl to play with.
3. John remembered that the fact that criticizing himself was hard, surprised Arthur.
4. That little boy will be very difficult to persuade his teacher to criticise.
5. It�s the ticket conductor, who Jim managed to convince, that the red nosed man was looking for. |
5 Jun 2013
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PhilipR
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If these are actual sentences to test people, then this whole so-called judgment test is awkward and incorrect.  |
5 Jun 2013
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Patrick
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Hi guys,
firstly, a very big thank you to those of you who took the time to post your answers.
I agree, the whole test is awkward especially without punctuation, it is from Dabrowska (1997) and intended to discover whether second language learners have access to the language acquisition device and Universal Grammar that children have when learning L1.
I also have doubts as to the value of the test and I �m glad to have your opinions. (but it is required study)
My own take was that 1 & 5 are correct but awkard 2,3, & 4 are incorrect.
I �ll submit my answers today and I �ll post the results here when I get them back if you are interested.
again, a big thank you!!! |
7 Jun 2013
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