Phonetics
Phonology
Syntax
Semantics & Pragmatics
Others
100

Which of the sounds shares the same place of articulation and voicing as the sound /x/?

A) /χ/

B) /d/

C) /k/

D) /g/

100

Describe the following phonological change:

/p/ becomes [b] when following a voiced sound.

A) Assimilation

B) Dissimilation

C) Deletion

D) Insertion

100

In the following sentence, what category does "his" belong to?

The man donate his computer to the charity. 

A) P

B) Adj

C) N

D) Det

100

What is the relationship between the following two words?

Oyster

Creature

A) Hypernym and Hyponym

B) Synonym

C) Antonym 

D) Metonymy

100

Which of the following statement is false?

A) Linguistics is the study of language 

B) Languages stay unchanged over time

C) There are different word orders in different languages

D) Semantics is the study of meaning

200

Which of the following words does not have same vowel as the others?

A) Sew

B) Dough

C) Though

D) Through

200

Describe the following phonological rule:

/n/ → [ɾ] / V __ C#

A) /n/ becomes [ɾ] between vowels.

B) /n/ becomes [ɾ] before a vowel-consonant sequence at the end of a word after a vowel.

C) /n/ becomes [ɾ] before a consonant at the end of a word after a vowel.

D) /n/ becomes [ɾ] between a consonant and a vowel.

200

What is not one of the constituents found in the following sentence?

A person joyfully danced on the table.

A) A person

B) danced on the table 

C) joyfully danced

D) danced on

200

If A entails B, what does it exactly mean?

A) If A is true, B must be false

B) If A is true, B must be true

C) If A is true, B must be false and vice versa.

D) If A is true, B must be true and vice versa. 

200

What are "cognates"?

A) Words borrowed from a neighboring language due to cultural contact.
B) Words in different languages that sound the same but have entirely different meanings.

C) Words that have descended from a common mother language.

D) None of above.

300

Describe the vowel /a/

A) Open front unrounded vowel

B) Low front unrounded vowel

C) A and B are both true

D) Open back unrounded vowel

300

If two speech sounds never occur in the same phonological environment, they are in _____.

A) Contrastive distribution

B) Identical distribution

C) Complementary distribution

D) Normal distribution

300

For the following sentence, which constituent does the PP attach to?


Eric saw a person with a telescope. 

A) NP (a person)

B) NP (Eric)

C) VP

D) A and C are both true

300

Which of the following sentences involves semantic ambiguity?


A) John hit people with a spoon.

B) I saw the man with the telescope.

C) Mary is looking for a match.

D) Every student hates a professor.

300

Which of the following language pairs belongs to the same language family?

A) English and Cantonese

B) German and Tibetan

C) Turkish and Russian

D) Hindi and Spanish

400

Identify the conventional English spelling for the word transcribed in IPA as: /kæt/

A) Get

B) Cat

C) Cot

D) Caught

400

When you find the following two words in a language, what can you conclude?

[ŋak]       Keep

[nak]       Eat

A) [ŋ] and [n] are allophones of the same phoneme.

B) [ŋ] and [n] are different phonemes.

C) [ŋ] and [n] are minimal pairs.

D) You cannot conclude anything.

400

Which phrase structure rule is used to form the following sentence?

He said that John ate a burger.

A) VP -> V Adj

B) VP -> V PP

C) VP -> NP VP

D) VP -> V CP

400

What does the following sentence not entail?

John and Mary denied that they went to the music festival yesterday. 

A) There was a music festival yesterday. 

B) Mary denied that they went to the music festival yesterday.

C) John denied something.

D) John lied.

400
Which of the following is true about mutual intelligibility?

A) If two language varieties are mutual intelligibility, speakers of them understand each other equally well.

B) Two languages must not be mutual intelligible

C) Two dialects of the same language must be mutual intelligible

D) None of above

500

Which sentence contains a mixture of different initial sounds?

A) Knights knew nothing. 

B) Ken kept quiet. 

C) Phil photographed fish. 

D) Charlie chose chemistry.

500

How can you describe the alternation between [ŋ] and [n] given the following data.

[gaŋ]    [gibn]

[tiŋ]      [nid]

[giŋ]     [gnab]

[biŋ]    [kanab]

A) /ŋ/ -> [n] / #_

B) /n/ -> [ŋ] / V_#

C) /n/ -> [ŋ] / _#

D) /n/ -> [ŋ] / V_

500

Which phrase structure rule is not used to form the following sentence?

Eric gave the book to the smart student. 

A) N' -> Adj N'

B) N' -> N

C) VP -> V PP

D) VP -> VP PP

500

Which Grice's maxim is flouted in the following situation?

(John own five computers)

Mary: How many computers do you have?

John: 3

A) Maxim of quality

B) Maxim of quantity

C) Maxim of relation

D) Maxim of manner

500

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Dialects differ only in pronunciations.

B) People in the same city speak exactly the form of language

C) Language/dialect distinction is often not based on linguistic consideration

D) None of the above

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