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. Affix in the middle of a word






2. Aspects of meaning having to do with the linguistic environment in which the expression occurs (cease and desist)






3. Deals with how the sounds are organized






4. Aspects of meaning concerning other meanings of an expression that may be activated when irrelevant (cock)






5. Provides information about the group to which individuals belong






6. A transformation in which you change the voice of the sentence (Mary stoop up John --> John was stood up by Mary)






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






8. The ability to produce language - what you know






9. Moving parts of a sentence into different positions for emphatic purposes






10. The word that connects the meaning and the referent






11. Morphemes that can appear alone (cat)






12. The branch of pragmatics that studies deictic words






13. Words that depend on the context of a sentence for meaning (I - here - now)






14. The rise and fall of sentences






15. Used by linguists to represent sounds in the languages of the world






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






17. A transformation in which you divide the phrasal verb (Mary stood up John --> Mary stoop John up)






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






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






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






21. Occurs when words have been disambigued and a sentence has a clear meaning






22. Occurs when words have been disambigued and a sentence has a clear meaning






23. Aspects of meaning having to do with feelings or attitudes of speakers (liberal - terrorist)






24. Deals with the sounds of a language






25. Deals with the meaning of words - sentences - and texts






26. The Principle of cooperation that states that one does not say what is false or what you lack evidence for






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






28. The situation in which a sentence is uttered






29. The sequence of sounds that make up a word






30. Figurative use of meaning (Bob is a pig)






31. Deals with how sentences are formed






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






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






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






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






36. An utterance produced by a speaker






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






38. The vocabulary of a speaker/language






39. Two words of different meanings that differ in only one phoneme (bit and pit - dog and dock)






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






41. The connection between shape and meaning is arbitrary






42. Using the initial letters of a set of words (NFL - NASA)






43. Actually saying a word - what you can do






44. Blending two existing words (motel - brunch)






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






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






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






48. Morphemes that can appear alone (cat)






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






50. A new word