Ensk Málsaga -- Lokapróf
Some dialects of American English are non-rhotic.
True
The form ain't is NOT a contracted form of one of the following: have not am not had not has not are not
had not
The strong version of Linguistic Relativity, a.k.a. linguistic determinism, is not generally accepted by academics today.
True
The number of auxiliaries has increased since the Early Modern English period. The bare form of the perfective auxiliary is _____.
have
"This matter is between my wife and I," the President said. What is going on in this sentence:
hypercorrection
What happens to the third person singular verbal inflectional ending -th in Early Modern English.
it changes to -s
What special use did the word whether have in earlier forms of English that it no longer has today?
it could be used to begin yes/no questions
For the Modern English period, there are:
more external changes and fewer internal changes
Choose ALL the properties of the Home Englishes:
- acquired as a first language - has phonetic elaboration - experiencing increased illiteracy - is developing, subject to change
Choose ALL the properties of International English:
- has spelling pronunciation - has phonetic simplification - acquired as a second language - is stable, resists change
How languages change is mostly a theoretical issue.
False
When a new word is coined, that word is referred to as a _________.
neologism
One of the following English loanwords is NOT borrowed from German:
pajamas
One of the following words shows US spelling:
pajamas
Preposition stranding is common in Early Modern English as in the sentence: Who did you talk about? The preposition can be moved along with its object as in: About who(m) did you talk? Linguists call this movement of the preposition:
pied piping
One of the following words is an example of jargon rather than slang: zoo plane drugsville postmodern neverendum phoney
postmodern
One of the following statements about Early Modern English morphology is false:
prepositions are inflected
In terms of its origins, first is both an adjective and an adverb. However, there is a tendency to use firstly as an adverb, thus creating a distinction as with second and secondly. The change from first to firstly involves:
regularization
Verb sets such as bite - bit - bitten tend to become bite - bit - bit. This process involves:
regularization of the past participle
Which of these borrowings in English is NOT adopted from Yiddish? chutzpah dreck spook borscht belt schlep
spook
Verb sets such as abide - abode - abode have a tendency to become abide - abided - abided. In this process
strong verbs become weak
The archaic form of "you" in the accusative case as in the sentence "He saw you" is ________.
thee
The archaic form of "you" in the singular nominal case as in the sentence "You can leave" is ________.
thou
The archaic form of "you" in the genitive case as in the sentence "He saw your dog" is ________.
thy
In Modern English with SVO word order, subjects are obligatory, except in the phenomenon typically seen in e-mail and letters in which, generally, a first person pronoun is left out. Would like to see you soon This is known as:
topic-drop
Countries with virtually no history of English colonization are known as the
Expanding Circle
In Kachru's model of English, Iceland would be part of the:
Expanding Circle
The Great Vowel Shift is nearly completed by the beginning of the Early Modern English Period.
False
The subjunctive case is still frequently used in Modern English
False
There are more English native speakers than there are English second language speakers.
False
One of the following is NOT an Early Modern English text: The Tempest An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Dorothy Osborne's letters Gawain and the Green Knight The Vanity of Dogmatizing
Gawain and the Green Knight
One of the following is NOT an Early Modern English author: John Dryden Geoffrey Chaucer Thomas Kyd William Shakespeare John Donne
Geoffrey Chaucer
In the academic essay, "English as a Dead Language", the English language is compared with what language?
Latin
Plato's problem is:
How come children acquire their language(s) so fast given that the input is so poor?
In Irish English sentences of the following kind can be heard: "I'm after reading the book." The standard English equivalent is:
I have read the book
Lack of inversion is typical of this kind of English:
Indian
The use of the progressive with verbs expressing a state is typical of this kind of English:
Indian
In Kachru's model of English, Canada would be part of the:
Inner Circle
This use of [r] occurs when words are pronounced with a final [r] even in isolation as in: "I think that is a good idear."
Intrusive R
One of the following statements about the acquisition of first language English is FALSE:
It is learned primarily through reading and writing
One of the following statements about the acquisition of second language English is FALSE:
It is mainly acquired by children
The pronunciation of steak, great, yea, Reagan, and Yeates is interesting for the following reason having to do with the Great Vowel Shift (GVS):
It retains an archaic pre-GVS pronunciation
The following words were borrowed into Early Modern English from this language: balcony, granite, grotto, volcano, allegro, concerto, opera, stanza:
Italian
The first English dictionary to provide examples was written by:
Johnson
In non-rhotic dialects, this use of [r] occurs when one word ends and the following one starts with a vowel, so that the [r] sound would be pronounced in the following words: four o'clock and forever
Linking R
The academic who is usually credited with the theory of Universal Grammar is:
Noam Chomsky
In Kachru's model of English, Singapore would be part of the:
Outer Circle
The academic essay, "English as a Dead Language" is written by:
Pétur Knútsson
One of the following acronyms is also a euphemism: ACLU FAQ OK WC LOL
WC
Pronoun doubling is typical of this kind of English:
West African
Subject drop is is typical of this kind of English:
Singapore
The following words were borrowed from native American languages into Early Modern English via this language: barbecue, canoe, cigar, cocoa, maize, potato, tobacco, tomato:
Spanish
The controversy that arose over the introduction of new words from Latin and other languages into English is called:
The Inkhorn Debate
Linguistic Relativity is a hypothesis which basically says that:
The language that we speak influences the way we think
One of these phenomena is NOT a typical feature of northern (Scottish) pronunciation: [f] in father [x] in night, loch [r] weakening in far [k] in kirk [u] in cow, house
[r] weakening in far
An alternative to the universal grammar theory of language acquistion is:
a usage based approach
In rare instances, a verb paradigm such as sneak, sneaked, sneaked becomes sneak, snuck,snuck. In this process:
a weak verb becomes strong
"Us Democrats are finally in power." What is going on in this sentence:
accusative used as subject
The number of auxiliaries has increased since the Early Modern English period. The bare form of the progressive auxiliary is _____.
be
One of the following words shows British spelling:
cheque
Which of these borrowings in English is adopted from Dutch?
cookie
One of the following statements about Early Modern English syntax is false:
embedded clauses disappear