Test your basic knowledge |

Linguistics Basics

Subject : humanities
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Deals with how sentences are formed






2. One who knows many languages






3. 1. Vowels (no obstruction) 2. Stops (complete obstruction) 3. Fricatives (Partial occlusion)






4. Invent new words from scratch (Xerox - Kleenex)






5. The ability to produce language - what you know






6. A transformation in which you add a negation word to the sentence






7. 1. Airstream 2. Phonation 3. Nasalization 4. Articulation






8. A single sound. K - d - t - e






9. Aspects of meaning evoked by cultural or literary codes






10. The branch of pragmatics that studies deictic words






11. Breaking a word down by the way it looks and adding morphemes (workaholic - veggieburger)






12. A transformation in which you add an auxiliary verb and switching to question format






13. Deals with how sounds are put together to form words






14. A sentence in which no transformation has been applied






15. Adding derivational morphemes to create new words (to fax)






16. Mental representation of a word






17. 1. Representations 2. Directives 3. Expressives 4. Commissives 5. Declaratives






18. The overall meaning of a text






19. Historical - shows how language has changed through time - traces the etymology of words






20. Multiword units - the meaning of which is not the sum of its parts






21. How sentences and texts are used in the world(context)






22. The property of the surface structure of the text to 'hold together'






23. The fact that saying something commits you to it (vow - promise - swearing) (speech act)






24. Change the meaning of a word - or part of speech (ex. child -> childhood)






25. Core meaning - corresponds to a sign's sense or intension - the literal meaning of a word






26. Breaking a word down by the way it looks and adding morphemes (workaholic - veggieburger)






27. The fact that saying something commits you to it (vow - promise - swearing) (speech act)






28. Combined phonemes - the smallest unit of language with a distinct meaning






29. Associations that an individual/small group may develop through everyday experiences (inside joke)






30. Shift in meaning (drink a glass of water)






31. Morphemes that can appear alone (cat)






32. Deals with how sentences are formed






33. The rise and fall of sentences






34. The principle of cooperation that states to avoid obscurity and ambiguity - be brief and orderly






35. The principle of cooperation that requires you be as informative as required but not more than that






36. The object which you can see - touch - hear - or smell






37. A black and white - right and wrong approach to language - traditional - seeks to impose outside arbitrary rules






38. The connection between shape and meaning is arbitrary






39. Purposefully violating one of the principles/maxims of cooperation






40. 1. Quality or timbre 2. Volume 3. Length 4. Pitch or tone






41. The set of sentences that must be true for the sentence to be true






42. The meaning derived from flouting






43. Meaning components






44. Provides information about the group to which individuals belong






45. The ability to produce language - what you know






46. Two linked turns by different speakers which make sense only taken together (How are you? Fine. How about you?)






47. Required by syntax - mark grammatical categories (plurality - tense - comparative - etc) suffixes only






48. A syntactic phenomenon where a given constituent is in a constituent of the same kind






49. Affix in the middle of a word






50. The meaning derived from flouting