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. Blending two existing words (motel - brunch)






2. Affix before the root






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






4. Aspects of meaning having to do with different levels of formality






5. Deals with how the sounds are organized






6. An utterance produced by a speaker






7. The effect an utterance has on its audience (speech act)






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






9. An utterance produced by a speaker






10. Blending two existing words (motel - brunch)






11. Affix in the middle of a word






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






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






14. The branch of pragmatics that studies deictic words






15. One who knows many languages






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






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






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






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






20. Describing the facts - Tries to determine why people use language the way they do - seeks to find the rules that govern spoken language






21. A new word






22. Provides information about the group to which individuals belong






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






24. A sentence in context






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






26. The ability to produce language - what you know






27. The word that connects the meaning and the referent






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






29. Meanings of the same word that are unrelated (bank)






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






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






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






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






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






35. The connection between shape and meaning is arbitrary






36. Mental representation of a word






37. Having more than one meaning (polysemy)






38. Affix after the root






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






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






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






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






43. Meanings of the same word that are unrelated (bank)






44. When a public body decides which language will be taught in schools - what languages public employees must know - etc






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






46. A new word






47. A transformation in which you shift the object of a sentence (Mary gave a book to John --> Mary gave John a book)






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






49. Deals with the sounds of a language






50. The rise and fall of sentences