Final Exam

Due 15 January/ June at 11:59 PM HOL time.

There are several different options to choose from for the assignment. Choose which sections you want to complete, however they cannot exceed 30 points as I will not be grading further than that.

Please send your answers in one email to hol.signlanguage@gmail.com and put "Sign Language - Final Exam - HOL Name in the subject line. Also remember to include your HOL name and your House in the body of your email.

Survey (10 points)

1) What was your overall impression of the class?

2) How has your opinion of sign language changed since taking the class?

3) Which lesson did you like the most and which did you like the least? Why?

4) What did you think of the assignments and extra credits?

5) Any other comments or suggestions?

Opinion (10 points)

There has been a lot of effort in recent years in South Africa to get South African Sign Language recognised as an official language. In other countries such as New Zealand, their sign language has already been granted status as an official language. Do you think that this is something that all countries should strive towards? What do you think the implications are of both recognising a sign language as an official languages and of not doing so?

Minimum 100 words.

Short Answer (10 points)

1) Why are minimal pairs important in linguistics?

2) What is fingerspelling? Give one example of what fingerspelling is used for.

3) Choose two types of verbs and explain the differences between them.

4) Based on what you have learnt about sign language and linguistics, how does your country's sign language (or the sign language of your choice) compare with the spoken language of the country?

5) Why are tree diagrams useful?

True or False (10 points)

1) When verbs are derived form nouns, they differ in terms of the handshape used.

2) One of the main differences between spoken and sign languages is the type of channel used.

3) All sign languages make use of the same word order.

4) There were no criticisms leveled at the Stokoe System.

5) South African Sign Language has a set of classifiers specifically for vehicles.