《语言学概论》练习测试题库及参考答案.doc

《英语语言学》练习测试题及参考答案 本科

I. Tick off the correct or the best possible answers:
1. One of the properties of language is that a language user can understand and produce sentences he/she has never heard before. This property of language is called ________.
A. duality B. productivity C. displacement D. arbitrariness
Key: B
2. The ______ function refers to the fact that language can be used for establishing a favorable atmosphere or maintaining social contact rather than for exchanging information or ideas.
A. phatic B. directive C. evocative D. performative
Key: A
3. From a functional approach, the _______ meaning of a language use consists of what is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer.
A. affective B. associative C. stylistic D. collocative
Key: A
4. When –ing in ‘gangling’ is removed to get a verb ‘gangle’, we call this way of creating words ________.
A. suffixation B. back-formation C. blending D. acronymy
Key: B
5. ______ refers to the process by which words rise from humble beginnings to positions of importance.
A. Degradation B. Specialization C. Elevation D. Extension
Key: C
6. As we know, every speaker has his own pet words and expressions and special way of expressing his ideas in language. This language variety of individual users is called ______.
A. idiolect B. regional dialect C. temporal dialect D. social dialect
Key: A
7. When pitch, stress and length variations are tied to the sentence rather than to the word, they are collectively known as ________.
A. intonation B. tone C. phoneme D. sentence stress
Key: A
8. _______ refers to the change of a sound as a result of the influence of an adjacent sound.
A. Addition of sound B. Loss of sound C. Metathesis D. Assimilation
Key: D
9. Basically, all the languages in the world can be classified in terms of language family. Vietnamese and Korean are two languages in the ______ family.
A. Indo-European B. Sino-Tibetan C. Hamito-Semitic D. Malayo-Polynesian
Key: B
10. A _______ is the minimal contrastive unit in the writing system of a language.
A. morpheme B. phoneme C. grapheme D. letter
Key: C
11. All mono-morphemic words are constituted by free morphemes, and those poly-morphemic words which consist wholly of free morphemes are called_________.
A. hyponyms B. compounds C. blends D. allomorphs
Key: B
12. The requirement that the forms of two or more words of specific word classes which stand in specific syntactic relationship with one another shall also be characterized by the same paradigmatically marked category or categories is called _______.
A. concord B. government C. recursiveness D. cohesion
Key: A
13. The formation of new words by combining parts of two words or a word plus a part of another is called _____.
A. blending B. clipping C. acronymy D. compounding
Key: A
14. The distinction of ‘linguistic potential’ and ‘actual linguistic behavior’ is proposed by _______.
A. N. Chomsky B. F. de Saussure C. M. A. Halliday D. J. Austin
Key: C
15. The word meaning given in the dictionary is called _____ meaning.
A. denotative B. connotative C. collective D. stylistic
Key: A
16. When we consider the variation relating to what a user is trying to do with language, we are dealing with addressee relationship—continually categorized as “______”.
A. tenor of discourse B. mode of discourse
C. field of discourse D. idiolect
Key: A
17. According to words’ structures, Turkish is a typical ______ language.
A. isolating B. fusional C. analytic D. agglutinative
Key: D
18. ______ refer to the fact that one type of utterance is typically followed by a special type of utterance.
A. Minimal pairs B. Illocutionary acts C. Social dialects D. Adjacency pairs
Key: D
19. The relation between “dead” and “alive” is labeled as ________.
A. gradability B. complementarity C. hyponymy D. homonymy
Key: B
20. The words “encore” and “au pair ” are loanwords from _______.
A. French B. German C. Italian D. Spanish
Key: A
21. The distinction of langue and parole is proposed by______.
a. N. Chomsky b. F. de Saussure c. M. A. Halliday d. J. Austin
Key: b
22. Which of the following is the exception to the feature of arbitrariness of language?
a. native English words b. borrowed words
c. echoic words d. one-syllable words
Key: c
23. Which of the following feature cannot be used to describe the phone [s]?
a. voiceless b. oral c. alveolar d. lateral
Key: d
24. In terms of place of articulation, the two consonants [f], [v] are ________.
a. dental b. alveolar c. palatal d. labiodental
Key: d
25. In terms of manner of articulation, the sounds [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g] are ________.
a. affricates b. fricatives c. bilabial d. oral stops
Key: d
26. Which of the following statements about allophone is NOT correct?
a. Allophones are different forms of the same phoneme
b. Allophones of the same phoneme are in complementary distribution.
c. Allophones distinguish meaning. d. Allophones are language specific.
Key: c
27. Which of the following words is not a free morpheme?
a. able b. pet c. change d. dusty
Key: d
28. How many morphemes are there in the word discharged?
a. 2 b. 3 c. 4 d. 5
Key: b
29. Which of the following words is made up of bound morphemes only?
a. happiness b. television c. ecology d. teacher
Key: c
30. Language is passed on from one generation to the next by teaching and learning rather than by instinct. This property of language is called_____.
a. interchangeability b. productivity
c. cultural transmission d. arbitrariness
Key: c
31. The famous quotation from Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet’ well illustrates _______.
A. the conventional nature of language B. the creative nature of language
C. the universality of language
D. the big difference between human language and animal communication
Key: A
32. Of the following sound combinations, only _______ is permissible according to the sequential rules in English.
A. kibl B. bkil C. ilkb D. ilbk
Key: A
33. The sentence that has a NP and a VP can be shown in a _______ formula “S→NP VP”.
A. hierarchical B. linear C. tree diagram D. vertical
Key: B
34. It is the _______ on Case assignment that states that a Case assignor and a Case recipient should stay adjacent to each other.
A. Case Condition B. Case Parameter C. Adjacent Condition D. Adjacent Parameter
Key: C
35. Predication analysis is a way to analyze _______ meaning.
A. phoneme B. word C. phrase D. sentence
Key: D
36. According to Searle, those illocutionary acts whose point is to commit the speaker to some future course of action are called _______.
A. commisives B. directives C. expressives D. declaratives
Key: A
37. The term _______ linguistics may be defined as a way of referring to the approach which studies language change over various periods of time and at various historical stages.
A. synchronic B. diachronic C. comparative D. historical comparative
Key: B
38. The way in which people address each other depends on their age, sex, social group, and personal relationship. The English system of address forms frequently used includes first name, last name, title+last name, _______, and kin term.
A. title+first name B. title+title C. title alone D. first name+last name+title
Key: C
39. Language and thought may be viewed as two independent circles overlapping in some parts. When language and thought are identical or closely parallel to each other, we may regard thought as “subvocal speech,” and speech as “_______”.
A. vocal thought B. subvocal thought C. covert thought D. overt thought
Key: D
40.Whcih of the following best states the behaviorist view of child language acquisition?
A. Language acquisition is a process of habit formation.
B. Language acquisition is the species-specific property of human beings.
C. Children are born with an innate ability to acquire language.
D. Humans are equipped with the neural prerequisites for language and language use.
Key: A
41. The words “kowtow” and “tea ” are loanwords from _______.
A. Chinese B. German C. Italian D. Spanish
Key: A
42. The term _______ linguistics may be defined as a way of referring to the approach which studies language change over various periods of time and at various historical stages.
A. synchronic B. diachronic C. comparative D. historical comparative
Key: B
43. The formation of new words by combining parts of two words or a word plus a part of another is called _____.
A. blending B. clipping C. acronymy D. compounding
Key: A
44. According to words’ structures, Latin is a typical ______ language.
A. isolating B. fusional C. analytic D. agglutinative
Key: B
45. The relation between “animal” and “lamb” is labeled as ________.
A. gradability B. complementarity C. hyponymy D. homonymy
Key: C
46. One of the property of language is that there is no logical connection between meaning and sounds. This property of language is called________.
A. duality B. productivity C. displacement D. arbitrariness
Key: D
47. The________ function refers to the use of language to create certain feelings in the hearer.
A. phatic B. directive C. evocative D. performative
Key: A
48. The _______ meaning of a word consists of the associations it acquires on account of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment.
A. associative B. affective C. stylistic D. collocative
Key: D
49. When –or in editor is removed to get a verb edit, we call this way of creating words ________.
A. suffixation B. back-formation C. blending D. acronymy
Key:
50. The relation between “rose” and “flower” is labeled as ________.
A. gradability B. complementarity C. hyponymy D. homonymy
Key: C
51. Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. This is what we mean by __________.
A. duality B. productivity C. displacement D. arbitrariness
Key: C
52. When language is used to get the hearer to do something, then it serves a _______ function.
A. directive B. informative C. interrogative D. expressive
53. The description of a language at some point in time is a ________ study.
A. diachronic B. synchronic C. descriptive D. prescriptive
Key: B
54. The distinction between “competence” and “performance” was made by______ .
A. N. Chomsky B. F. de Saussure C. M. A. Halliday D. L. Bloomfield
Key: A
55. According to the places of articulation, sounds in English such as [t], [l], and[z] can be labeled as _______ ones.
A. dental B. bilabial C. velar D. alveolar
Key: D
56. According to the morphological analysis, the underlined part in the word “internationalism” should be regarded as a ___________ .
A. root B. stem C. prefix D. suffix
Key: B
57. Words such as “telex” and “workfare” are created through ___________.
A. affixation B. compounding C. conversion D. blending
Key: D
58. According to the syntactic construction analysis, simple sentence such as “John is a student.” belongs to __________construction.
A. endocentric B. exocentric C. coordinate D. subordinate
Key: B
59. The sense relationship between “male” and “female” is _________.
A. complementarity B. gradability C. relational opposites D. hyponymy
Key: A
60. Componential analysis is a method of analyzing________ meaning.
A. sentence B. lexical C. grammatical D. utterance
Key: B
II. Are the following statements true (T) or false (F)?
1. A sentence cannot be a word or a fragment in strict sense, but an utterance can be a word or a fragment of a sentence. T/F
Key: T
2. It doesn’t make sense to ask what language a sentence belongs to. T/F
Key: F
3. A stem first of all refers to any morpheme or combination of morphemes, but an affix can be added to it. T/F
Key: T
4. Every word in a language can find at least one referent in the objective world. T/F
Key: F
5. In most cases, lexicon means vocabulary and is related to the analysis and creation of words, idioms and collocations. T/F
Key: T
6. The use of the term ‘implicature’ is different from ‘implication’ in that it usually indicates a rather narrowly defined logical relationship between two propositions. T/F
Key: F
7. A phrase means two or more words in sequence, intended to have meaning, that form a syntactic unit that is less than a complete sentence. It is actually synonymous with word group. T/F
Key: F
8. Collocation is a term in lexicology used by some linguists to refer to the habitual co-occurrences of individual lexical items, or collocates. This relation of co-occurrence usually cannot be accounted for. T/F
Key: T
9. In order to understand how conversational principles work, we may consider how each maxim actually works and how people observe these maxims in daily communication. T/F
Key: T
10. Syntax studies the rules which govern the ways words, word groups and phrases are combined to make grammatical sentences in a language, i.e. it deals with the relationships between elements in sentence structures. T/F
Key: T
11. Even in modern society, the primary medium is sound for all languages, and the fact that children acquire spoken language first before they can read or write also indicates that language is primarily vocal.
Key: T
12. The defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication are termed design features.
Key: T
13. There are other channels, besides language, for communicating our thoughts, so language is only one aspect of semiotics.
Key: T
14. Modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, written language as secondary.
Key: T
15. Descriptive linguistics aims to lay down rules for ‘correct’ language use, i.e., to tell people what they should say and what should not say.
Key: F
16. Phonology is the branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and their patterns.
Key: F
17. The case category is used in the analysis of word classes to identify the syntactic relationship between words in a sentence.
Key: T
18. Language is genetically transmitted.
Key: F
19. The grammar taught today to language learners is still basically descriptive.
Key: F
20. All the sounds produce