语言学课堂考试题

-Chapter One

I. Fill in the blanks.

1. Language, broadly speaking, is a means of _______ communication.

2. In any language words can be used in new ways to mean new things and can be combined into

innumuberable sentences based on limited rules. This feature is usually termed _____.

3. Language has many functions. We can use language to talk about itself. This function is ______.

4. Theory that primitive man made involuntary vocal noises while performing heavy work has been

called __________ theory.

5. The theory that language arose from instinctive emotional cries, expressive of pain or joy has been

called _____________ theory.

6. The theory that language arose from human beings instinctive need for contact with his companion

has been called the _________ theory.

7. Linguistics is the scientific study of _____________.

8. Modern linguistic is _____________ in the sense that the linguist tries to discover what language is

rather than lay down some rules for people to observe.

9. One general principle of linguistic analysis is the primacy of ________ over writing.

10. The description of a language as it changes through time is a ________ study.

11. Saussure put forward two important concepts. ___________ refers to the abstract linguistic system

shared by all members of a speech community.

12. Linguistic potential is similar to Saussure’s langue and Chomsky’s _________.

II． Choose the best answer.

13. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human ______.

a. contact b. communication c. relation d. community

14. Language is ___________.

a. instinctive b. non-instinctive c. static d. genetically transmitted

15. A linguist regards the changes in language and languages use as _________.

a. unnatural b. something to be feared c. natural d. abnormal

16. Which of the following words is entirely arbitrary?

a. tree b. crash c. typewriter d. bang

17. The function of the sentence “Water boils at 100 degrees Centigrade” is _________.

a. interrogative b. directive c. informative d. performative

18. _________ is a grammatical description of a language specially designed as an aid to teaching that

language to native or foreign learners.

a. Descriptive grammar b. Prescriptive grammar

c. Pedagogical grammar d. Universal grammar

19. In Chinese when someone breaks a bowl or a plate the host or the people present are likely to say

sui sui ping an (every year be safe and happy ) as a means of controlling the forces which the believers

feel might affect their lives. Which functions does it perform?

a. Interpersonal b. Emotive c. Performative d. Recreational.

20. Which of the following property of language enables language users to overcome the barriers

caused by time and place, due to this feature of language, speakers of a language are free to talk about

anything in any situation?

a. Transferability. b. Duality. c. Displacement. d. Arbitrariness

21. Study the following dialogue. What function does it play according to the functions of language?

---A nice day, isn’t it ?

---Right! I really enjoy the sunlight.

a. Emotive b. Phatic c. Performative d. Interpersonal

22. Which branch of linguistics studies the similarities and differences among languages?

a. Diachronic linguistics. b. Synchronic linguistics.

c. Prescriptive linguistics. d. Comparative linguistics.

23. _______ refers to the actual realization of the ideal language user’s knowledge of the rules of his

language in utterances.

a. Performance b. Competence c. Langue d. Parole

24. _______ deals with language application to other fields, particularly education.

a. Linguistic geography b. Sociolinguistics

c. Applied linguistics d. Comparative linguistics.

III. Decide whether the following statements are true(T) or false (F).

----- 25. Duality is one of the characteristics of human language. It refers to

The fact that language has two levels of structures: the system of sounds and the system of meanings.

-----26. Prescriptive linguistics is more popular than descriptive linguistics, because it can tell us how

to speak correct language.

---- 27. Competence and performance refer respectively to a language user’s underlying knowledge

about the system of rules and the actual use of language in concrete situations.

---- 28. Language is a means of verbal communication. Therefore, the communication way used by the

deaf-mute is not language.

---- 29. Arbitrariness of language makes it potentially creative, and conventionality of language makes

a language be passed from generation to generation. As a foreign language learner, the latter is more

important for us.

---- 30. By diachronic study we mean to study the changes and development of language.

---- 31. Langue is relatively stable and systematic while parole is subject to personal and situational

constraints.

---- 32. Language change is universal, ongoing and arbitrary.

---- 33. In language classrooms nowadays the grammar taught to students is basically descriptive, and

more attention is paid to the developing learners’ communicative skills.

---- ge is system of arbitrary, written signs which permit all the people in a given culture, or

other people who have learned the system of that culture, to communicate or interact.

---- 35. Saussure’s exposition of synchronic analysis led to the school of historical linguistics.

---- 36. Applied linguistics is the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching

and learning.

Keys to Chapter one

I. Fill in the blanks.

1. verbal 2. productivity 3. metalingual function 4. yo-he-yo 5. pooh-pooh 6. contact

7. language 8. descriptive 9. speech 10. diachronic linguistic 11. Langue 12. competence

II. Choose the best answer.

13. B 14. B 15. C 16. A 17. C 18. C 19. C 20. C 21. B 22. D 23. A 24. C

III. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

25. T 26. F 27. T 28. F 29. T 30. T 31 T 32. F

33. T 34 .F 35. F 36. T

Chapter Two

I. Fill in the blanks.

1. ________ phonetics studies the movement of the vocal organs of producing the sounds of speech.

2. Speech takes place when the organs of speech move to produce patterns of sound. These movement

have an effect on the _______ coming from the lungs.

3. Consonant sounds can be either _______ or ______, while all vowel sounds are ________.

4. Consonant sounds can also be made when two prgans of speech in the mouth are brought close

together so that the air is pushed out between them, causing _________.

5. The qualities of vowels depend upon the position of the ________ and the lips.

6. One element in the description of vowels is the part of the tongue which is at the highest point in the

mouth. A second element is the _______ to which that part of the tongue is raised.

7. Consonants differ from vowels in that the latter are produced without _______.

8. In phonological analysis the words fail-veil are distinguishable simply because of the two phonemes

/f/-/v/. This is an example for illustrating _______.

9. In English there are a number of _______, which are produced by moving from one vowel position

to another through intervening positions.

10. ________ refers to the phenomenon of sounds continually show the influence of their neighbours.

11. ________ is the smallest linguistic unit.

12. According to _______, when there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the

onset rather than the coda.

II. Choose the best answer.

13. Pitch variation is known as ________ when its patterns are imposed on sentences.

a. intonation b. tone c. pronunciation d. voice

14. Conventionally a ________ is put in slashes.

a. allophone b. phone c. phoneme d. morpheme

15. An aspirated p, an unaspirated p and an unreleased p are ________ of the p phoneme.

a. analogues b. tagmemes c. morphemes d. allophones

16. The opening between the vocal cords is sometimes referred to as _______.

a. glottis b. vocal cavity c. pharynx d. uvula

17. The diphthongs that are made with a movement of the tongue towards the center are known as

________ diphthongs.

a. wide b. closing c. narrow d. centering

18. A phoneme is a group of similar sounds called _________.

a. minimal pairs b. allomorphs c. phones d. allophones

19. Which branch of phonetics concerns the production of speech sounds?

a. acoustic phonetics. b. Articulatory phonetics. c. Auditory phonetics d. Neither of them

20. Which one is different from the others according to manners of articulation?

a. [z] b. [w] c. [Ø] d. [v]

21. Which one is different from the others according to places of articulation?

a. [ｎ] b. [ｍ] c. [ｂ] d. [ｐ]

22. Which vowel is different from the others according to the characteristics of vowels?

a. [ｉ：] b. [ｕ] c. [e] d. [ｉ]

23. What kind of sounds can we make when the vocal cords are vibrating?

a. Voiceless b. Voiced c. Glottal stop D. Consonant

24. Which consonant represents the following description: voiceless labiodental fricative?

a. [ｆ] b. [Ø] c. [z] d. [s]

III. Decide whether the following statements are [T] or [F].

____ 25. Of the three phonetics branched, the longest established one, and until recently the most

highly developed, is acoustic phonetics.

____ 26. Sound [p] in the word “spit” is unaspirated stop.

____ 27. Supersegmental phonology refers to the study of phonological properties of units larger than

the segment-phoneme, such as syllable, word and sentence.

____ airstream provided by the lungs has to undergo a number of modification to acquire

quality of a speech sound.

____ 29. Two sounds are in free variation when they occur in the same environment and do not

contrast, namely, the substitution of one for the other does not produce a different word, but merely a

different pronunciation.

---- 30. [p] is voiced bilabial stop.

---- 31. Acoustic phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech sounds.

----32. All syllables must have a nucleus but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda.

---- 33. When pure or monophthongs are pronounced, no vowel glides take place.

---- 34 According to the length or tenseness of the pronunciation, vowels can be divided into tense vs.

lax or long vs. short.

----- 35. Received Pronunciation is the pronunciation accepted by most people.

---- 36. The maximal onset principle states that when there is a choice as to where to place a consonant,

it is put into the coda rather than the onset.

Keys to Chapter Two:

Fill in the blanks

1. Articulatory 2. airstream 3. voiced; voiceless; voiced 4. friction

5. tongue 6. height 7. obstruction 8. minimal pairs

9. diphthongs 10. Coarticulation 11. Phonemes

12. the maximal onset principle

II. Choose the best answer

13. A 14. C 15. D 16. A 17. A 18. D 19. B

20. B 21. A 22. B 23. B 24. A

III. Decide whether the following statements are [ T] or [ F].

25. [F] it should be articulatory phonetics.

26. [T] 27. [T] 28. [T] 29. [T] 30. [F] 31. [F] 32. [T]

33. [T] 34. [T] 35.[ F] 36. [ F]

Chapter Three

Fill in the blanks :

1．Take is the ________ of taking, taken and took.

2. Bound morphnmes are classified into two types _________ and _________ root.

3. An __________ is pronounced letter by letter, while an ___________ is pronounced as a word.

4. Lexicon, in most cases, is synonymous with ____________.

5. Orthographically, compounds are written in three ways : __________, _________ and ________.

6. All words may be said to contain a root ____________.

7. A samll set of conjunctions, prepositions and pronouns belongs to ________ class, while the largest

part of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs belongs to _________ class.

8. ___________ is a reverse process of derivative, and therefore is a process of shortening.

9. __________ is extremely productive, because English had lost most of its inflectional endings by the

end of Middle English period, which facilitated the use of words interchangeable as verbs or nouns,

verbs or adjectives, and vice versa.

10. Words are divided into simple, compound and derived words on the _______ level.

11. A word formed by derivation is called a ______________________., and a word formed by

compounding is called a__________.

12. The poor is an example of _______conversion.

II. Choose the best answer.

13. Nouns, verbs and adjectives can be classified as ___________.

a. lexical words b. grammatical words c. function word d. form words

14. Morphemes that represent tense, number, gender and case are called ______ morpheme.

a. in. flectional b. free c. bound d. derivational

15. There are ___________ morphemes in the word denationalization?

a. three b. four c. five d. six

16. In English -ise and –tion are called __________.

a. prefixes b. suffixes c. infixes d. free morphemes

17. Morphology is generally divided into two fields: the study of word-formation and _______.

a. affixation b. etymology c. inflection d. root.

18. The three subtypes of affixes are : prefix, suffix and _________.

a. derivational affix b. inflectional affix

c. infix d. back-formation

19. __________ is a way in which new words may be formed from already existing words by

subtracting an affix which is thought to be part of the old word.

a. Affixation b. Back-formation c. Insertion d. Addition

20. The word TB is formed in the way of _________.

a. acronymy b. clipping c. initialism d. blending

21. There are different types of affixes or morphemes. The affix “ed” in the word “learned” is known

as a(n) _______________.

a. derivational morpheme b. free morpheme

c. inflectional morpheme d. free form

22. The words like comsat and sitcom are formed by _________.

a. blending b. clipping c. backformation d. acronymy

23. The stem of disagreements is ___________.

a. agreement b. agree c. disagree d. disagreement

24. All of them are meaningful except for _________.

a. lexeme b. phoneme c. morpheme d. allomorph

III. Decide whether the statements are [ T] or [ F].

------ 25. Phonetically, the stress of a compound always falls on the first element, while the second

element receives secondary stress.

------ 26. Fore as in foretell is both a prefix and a bound morpheme.

------ 27. Base refers to the part of word that remains when all inflectional affixes are removed.

------ 28. In most cases, prefixes change the meaning of the word-class of the base whereas suffixes

change the word-class of the base.

------ 29. Conversion from noun to verb is the most productive process of conversion.

------ 30. Reduplicative compound is formed by repeating the same morpheme of a word.

------ 31. The word, whimper, whisper and whistle are formed in the way of onomatopoeia.

------ 32. In most cases, the number of syllables of a word corresponds to the number of morphemes.

------ 33. Backformation is a productive way of forming nouns in Modern English.

------ 34. Inflection is a particular way of word-formation.

------ 35. We can always tell by the words a compound contains what it means because the meaning of

a compound is always the sum of the meanings of its parts.

----- 36. All roots are free and all affixes are bound.

Keys

I. Fill in the blanks:

1. lexeme 2. affix; bound 3. initialism; acronym

4. vocabulary 5. solid; hyphenated; open 6. morpheme

7. close; open 8. Backformation 9. Conversion

10. morphemic 11. derivative, compound 12. partial

II. Choose the best answer:

13. A 14. A 15. C 16. B 17. C 18. C

19. B 20. C 21. C 22. A 23. B 24. B

III. Decide whether the following statements are true [T] or false [F].

25. [F] 26.[T ] 27. [F ] 28. [ T] 29. [T ] 30. [F ]

31.[T] 32.[F] 33.[F] 34. [F] 35.[ F] 36. [F]