Exercises
I.Multiple Choice
1. __________ studies language change over time in contrast to looking at language as it is used at a given moment.
A. Diachronic linguistics
B. Synchronic linguistics
C. Prescriptive linguistics
D. Comparative linguistics
2. Of all the speech organs, the ______ is/are the most flexible.
A. mouth
B. lips
C. tongue
D. vocal cords
3. In terms of place of articulation, the following sounds [p], [b], [m] and [w]share the feature of ______.
A. palatal
B. alveolar
C. bilabial
D. dental
4. A(n) ______ is a unit that is of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit, a collection of distinctive phonetic features.
A. phone
B. sound
C. allophone
D. phoneme
5. Which of the following sound description is for [d]?
A. voiced labiodental fricative
B. voiced alveolar stop
C. voiceless labiodental fricative
D. voiceless alveolar stop
6. What is the phonetic feature of the sound [u]?
A. close back short
B. semi-close front short
C. semi-open central short
D. open front short
7. Which of the following sentences contain a derivational affix?
A. The cows escaped.
B. It was raining.
C. Those socks are inexpensive.
D. She closed the book.
8. The morp heme “ed” in the word “worked” is known as a(n) ______.
A. derivational morpheme
B. lexical morpheme
C. inflectional morpheme
D. functional morpheme
9. “en-” in “enlarge” is a(n) ______.
A. derivational affix
B. inflectional affix
C. free root
D. bound root
10. ______ is the smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning or function.
A. Syntax
B. Grammar
C. Morphology
D. Morpheme
11. Which of the following forms is possible word of English?
A. sproke
B. bsarn
C. mbood
D. coofp
12. Which pair of words below shows the relation of antonymy. ______
A. flourish—thrive
B. intelligent—stupid
C. casual—informal
D. flog—whip
13. We call the relation between “furniture” and “wardr obe” as ______.
A. hyponymy
B. meronymy
C. homophony
D. homonymy
14. Most of the violations of the maxims of the CP give rise to ______.
A. breakdown of conversation
B. confusion of one’s intention
C. hostility between speakers and the listeners
D. conversational implicatures
15. In the phrase structure rule “S——>NP VP”, the arrow can be read as______.
A.is equal to
B.consists of
C.has
D.generates
16. The meaning carried by the inflectional morpheme is ______.
A. lexical
B. morpheme
C. grammatical
D. semantic
17. The pair of words “hot” and “cold” are ______.
A. gradable antonyms
