Linguistic Facts of Life
Question: In which writing system is there a 1:1 relationship between sound and symbol?
a. alphabet
b. IPA
c. syllabary
d. logography
e. anagram
b. IPA
Question: Which of the following is an example of an iconic sign?
a. the English alphabet
b. the Hindi word for 'fruit'
c. the periodic table of elements
d. a "curves ahead" road sign
e. all of the above
d. a "curves ahead" road sign
Question: IPA allows us to provide
a. word structure
b. syllable structure
c. 1:1 relationship between sound and meaning
d. 2:1 relationship between sound and meaning
e. all of the above
Answer: c. 1:1 relationship between sound and meaning
Question: Which is a 'sound in the mind'?
a. allophone
b. phoneme
c. minimal pair
d. affixation
e. derivation
b. phoneme
This is the stock of vocabulary words that a speaker of a language knows.
a. phonemes
b. allophones
c. inflections
d. morphemes
e. lexicon
e. lexicon
Question: These describe what speakers DO do with language:
a. Prescriptive Rules
b. Phonological Rules
c. Descriptive Rules
d. Morphemic alternations
e. Morphemic suppletions
c. Descriptive Rules
Question: TRUE or FALSE: Design features exist in every human language.
a. TRUE
b. FALSE
a. TRUE
Question: Which of the following is a ‘lever,’ or parameter our mouths use to make consonants and vowels?
a. diphthongization
b. syllabification
c. place of articulation
d. aspiration
e. All of the above
Answer: c. place of articulation
Question: The correct way to write a phonological rule is:
a. [ ] → / / / ___
b. / / → [ ] / ___
c. [ / → [ ] / ___
d. ___ → [ ] / __
e. None of the above
Answer: b. / / → [ ] / ___
This is the process of building words out of other words (for example, the word 'wind' becoming 'windy')
a. inflection
b. derivation
c. aspiration
d. contraction
d. none of these
b. derivation
Question: TRUE or FALSE: In human history, WRITING developed before SPEECH.
a. TRUE
b. FALSE
b. FALSE
Question: Design features distinguish
a. iconic and non-iconic signs
b. meaning and form
c. human and animal communication systems
d. sound and meaning systems
e. none of the above
c. human and animal communication systems
This manner of articulation can be compared to a traffic circle/roundabout.
a. stops
b. fricatives
c. approximants
d. affricates
c. approximants (air flows continuously/smoothly)
Two sounds are CONTRASTIVE if they produce a change in ________.
a. aspiration
b. palatization
c. distribution
d. meaning
e. none of these
d. meaning
There are TEN (10) of these in English (i.e. they can be MEMORIZED).
a. inflectional affixes
b. derivational affixes
c. roots
d. stems
e. none of these
a. inflectional affixes
Question: These describe what speakers SHOULD do with language:
a. Prescriptive Rules
b. Phonological Rules
c. Descriptive Rules
d. Morphemic alternations
e. Morphemic suppletions
a. Prescriptive Rules
Question: Which is a possible mode of communication in human (linguistic) language?
a. Chemical
b. Kinesthetic
c. Color
d. Manual
e. All of the above
Question: Which feature does Hindi have to create morphemes that English doesn't?
a. affixation
b. nasality
c. aspiration
d. diphthongization
e. none of the above
c. aspiration
Question: Which of the following is NOT a minimal pair in English?
a. sun and bun
b. lit and lot
c. never and lever
d. plant and rant
e. light and white
Answer: d. plant and rant (notice there are TWO differences between [plænt] and [ɹænt], not just one).
This category includes prepositions (in, at, on), conjunctions (and, but) and determiners (the, a, an).
a. content morphemes
b. function morphemes
c. bound roots
d. stems
e. none of these
b. function morphemes
Question: Which of the following is an example of a prescriptive rule?
a. Place the subject of the sentence before the object
b. Use -ed to form past tense verbs
c. Use 's to mark possession on nouns
d. Aspirate voiceless stops at the beginning of words (i.e. [pʰɪt; kʰæt)
e. None of the above
e. None of the above (NOTE: a.-d. describe what speakers DO do with language, not what they SHOULDN'T do)
Question: TRUE or FALSE: In most animal communication systems, the signal code is innate (i.e. the animal is born with the ability).
a. TRUE
b. FALSE
a. TRUE
Question: Which written English word BEST demonstrates the need for a phonetic alphabet?
a. Pharaoh
b. pets
c. bit
d. desk
e. never
e. none of the above
a. Pharaoh
Question: Which of the following is an allophone we have studied in English?
a. ∅ for /t/
b. [ʃ] for /m/
c. [ð] for /o/
d. [ɹ] for /y/
e. [j] for /y/
a. ∅ for /t/ (as in [hʌnəɹ] for 'hunter' (i.e. the [t] is DELETED)
This process involves morpheme-internal modification that marks a morphological distinction (i.e.woman/women; sing/sang/sung).
a. reduplication
b. suppetion
c. alternation
d. compounding
e. none of these
c. alternation