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






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






3. Deals with how sentences are formed






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






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






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






7. Affixes - need to attach to another morpheme






8. Meaning components






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






10. Using a word from another language to create a new word (cafe - deja-vu)






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






12. What we say in a literal sense (speech act)






13. The overall meaning of a text






14. The branch of pragmatics that studies deictic words






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






16. What we say in a literal sense (speech act)






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






18. The situation in which a sentence is uttered






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






20. The word that connects the meaning and the referent






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






22. Parts of a word are translated from other languages to create a new word (Fernsprecher)






23. Affix before the root






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






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






26. Shortening a longer word (phone - auto) to create new words






27. One who knows many languages






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






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






30. Affix after the root






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






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






33. Mental representation of a word






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






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






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






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






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






39. Putting two old words together to make a new word (railway)






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






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






42. Describes how language words today or at any given moment in time - not concerned with origin/history






43. An utterance produced by a speaker






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






45. The connection between shape and meaning is arbitrary






46. Noam Chomsky's idea that the principles that govern grammar are genetically programmed in human beings






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






48. What can be deduced from the sentence's literal meaning






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






50. The connection between shape and meaning is arbitrary







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