语言学单元自测

1、1. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:2. One of the tasks of the historical linguists is to explore methods to reconstruct linguistic history and establish the relationship between languages.3. Language change is a gradual and constant process, therefore often indiscern

2、ible to speakers of the same generation.4. The history of the English language is divided into the periods of Old English, Middle English and Modern English.5. Middle English began with the arrival of Anglo-Saxons, who invaded the British Isles from northern Europe.6. In Old English, all the nouns a

3、re inflected to mark nominative, genitive, dative and accusative cases.7. In Old English, the verb of a sentence often precedes the subject rather than follows it.8. A direct consequence of the Renaissance Movement was the revival of French as a literary language.9. In general, linguistic change in

4、grammar is more noticeable than that in the sound system and the vocabulary of a language.10. The sound changes include changes in vowel sounds, and in the loss, gain and movement of sounds.11. The least widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English are the loss and ad

5、dition of affixes.12. In Old English, the morphosyntactic rule of adjective agreement stipulated that the endings of adjective must agree with the head noun in case, number and gender.13. The word order of Modern English is more variable than that of Old English.14. Derivation refers to the process

6、by which new words are formed by the addition of affixes to the roots, stems, or words.15. “ Smog” is a word formed by the word -forming process called acronymy.16. “ fridge ” is a word formed by abbreviation.17. Modern linguists are able to provide a consistent account for the exact causes of all t

7、ypes of language change.18. Sound assimilation maybring about the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in sequence, as in the case of change of “ Engla - land ” to “ England” .19. Rule elaboration occurs when there is a need to reduce ambiguity and increase communicative clarity or expr

8、essiveness.20. Language change is always a change towards the simplification of language rules21. The way children acquire the language is one of the causes for language change.II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:22. H linguistics is the subfield

9、 of linguistics that studies languagechange.23. The historical study of language is a dstudy of language ratherthan a synchronic study.24. European RMovement separates the period of Middle English from thatof modern English.25. An important set of extensive sound changes, which affected 7 long or te

10、nse vowels and which led to one of the major discrepancies between phonemic representations of words and morphemes at the end of the Middle English Period, is known as the Great VShift.26. Ainvolves the deletion of a word-final vowel segment.27. A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or

11、 vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as e.28. The three sets of consonant shifts that Grimm discovered became known collectively as Grimm s L .29. Sound change as a result of sound movement, known as m, involves areversal in position of two adjoining sound segments.30. Bis a process by whic

12、h new words are formed by taking away thesupposed suffixes of exiting words.31. Semantic brefers to the process in which the meaning of a wordbecomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denotation.32. The original form of a language family that has ceased to exist is called the p

13、.33. Sound a refers to the physiological effect of one sound on another.In this process, successive sounds are madeidentical or similar to one another in terms of place or manner of articulation.34. In order to reduce the exceptional or irregular morphemes, speakers of a particular language may borr

14、ow a rule from one part of the grammar and apply it generally. This phenomenon is called iborrowing.35. By identifying and comparing similar linguistic forms with similar meanings across related languages, historical linguists reconstruct the proto form inthe commonancestral language. This process i

15、s called c reconstruction.36. The m rule of adjective agreement has been lost from English.111. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:37. Historical linguistics explores .A. the nature of language change B. the causes that lead to langu

16、age changeC. the relationship between languages D. all of the above38. Language change is .A. universal, continuous and ,to a large extent, regular and systematicB. continuous, regular, systematic, but not universalC. universal, continuous, but not regular and systematicD. always regular and systema

17、tic, but not universal and continuous39. Modern English period starts roughly .A. from 449 to 1100 B. from 1500 to the presentC. from 1100 to the present D. from 1700 to the present40. Old English dates back to the mid-fifth century when .A. the Norman French invaders under William the Conqueror arr

18、ived in EnglandB. the printing technology was inventedC. Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northern EuropeD. the Celtic people began to inhabit England41. Middle English was deeply influenced by .A. Norman French in vocabulary and grammarB. Greek and Latin because of the European renaissan

19、ce movementC. Danish languages because Denmark placed a king on the throne of EnglandD. the Celtic people who were the first inhabitants of England42. Language change is essentially a matter of change .A. in collocations B. in meaningC. in grammar D. in usages43. In Old and Middle English, both /k/

20、and /n/ in the word“ knight ” werepronounced, but in modern English, /k/ in the sound /kn-/ clusters was not pronounced. This phenomenon is known as .A. sound addition B. sound lossC. sound shift D. sound movement44. A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of

21、 a word is known as .A. apocope B. epenthesisC. parenthesis D. antithesis45. Segment switch of sound positions can be seen in the example of the modern word “ bird ” which comes from the old English word “ bridd ” . The change of the word from “ bridd ” to “ bird ” is a case of .A. metathesis B. sou

22、nd lossC. sound addition D. apocope46. is a process of combining two or more words into one lexical unit.A. Derivation B. BlendingC. Compounding D. Abbreviation47. “ Wife” , which used to refer to any woman, stands for “ a married woman” in modern English. This phenomenon is known as .A. semantic sh

23、ift B. semantic broadeningC. semantic elevation D. semantic narrowing48. English language belongs to .A. Indo-European Family B. Sino-Tibetan FamilyC. Austronesian Family D. Afroasiatic Family49. By analogy to the plural formation of theword “ dog-s” , speakers startedsaying “ cows” as the plural of

24、 “ cow” instead of the earlier plural “ kine This is the case of .A. elaboration B. external borrowingC. sound assimilation D. internal borrowing50. Morphologcial changes can involve .A. the loss of morphological rulesB. the addition of morphological rulesC. the alteration of morphological rulesD. a

25、ll of the above51. The most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss of .A. comparative markers B. tense markersC. gender and case markers D. none of the aboveIV. Define the following terms:52. Apocope 52. Metathesis 53. Derivation54. back-formation 55. semantic narrowing57. haplology 58. epent

26、hesis 59. Compounding60. Blending 61. semantic broadening 62. semantic shift63. Great Vowel Shift 64. acronym 65. sound assimilationV. Answer the following questions:66. What is the purpose or significance of the historical study of language67. What are the characteristics of the nature of language

27、change68. What are the major periods in the history of English69. As language changes over time, the meaning of a word may deviate from its original denotation. Discuss the major types of semantic changes.70. Over the years from Old English period to the Modern English period, English has undergone

28、some major sound changes. Illustrate these changes with some examples.71. What are the most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English72. What are the causes of language change Discuss them in detail.Chapter 7 Historical LinguisticsI. Decide whether each of the foll

29、owing statements is True or False:16. F 17. T 18. T 19. FII. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:28. Metathesis 35. morphosyntacticIII. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:46. D 48. D

30、49. D 50. CIV. Define the following terms:1. Apocope : Apocope is the deletion of a word-final vowel segment.2. Metathesis: Sound change as a result of sound movement is known as metathesis. It involves a reversal in position of two neighbouring sound seg-ments.3. Derivation: It is a process by whic

31、h new words are formed by the addition of affixes to the roots, stems or words.4. back-formation: It is a process by which new words are formed by taking away the supposed suffix of an existing word.5. semantic narrowing: Semantic narrowing is a process in which the meaning ofa word be-comes less ge

32、neral or inclusive than its historically earlier meaning.6. Protolanguage: It is the original form of a language family that has ceased to exist.7. Haplology: It refers to the phenomenon of the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in sequence.8. Epenthesis: A change that involves the in

33、sertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as epenthesis.9. Compounding: It is a process of combining two or more than two words into one lexical unit.10. Blending: It is a process of forming a new word by combining parts of other words.11. semantic broadening: Semantic b

34、roadening refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denota-tion.62. semantic shift: Semantic shift is a process of semantic change in which a word loses its former meaning and acquires a new, sometimes related, meaning.63. Gr

35、eat Vowel Shift: It is a series of systematic sound change at the end ofthe Middle English period approximately between 1400 and 1600 in the history of English that involved seven long vowels and consequently led to one of the major discrepancies between English pronunciation and its spelling system

36、.of a number64. Acronym: An acronym is a word created by combining the initials of words.65. sound assimilation: Sound assimilation refers to the physiological effectof one sound on an-other. In an assimilative process, successive sounds are made identical, or more similar, to one another in terms o

37、f place or manner of articulation, or of haplology.V. Answer the following questions:66. What is the purpose or significance of the historical study of language1) Researches in historical linguistics shed light on prehistoric developments in the evolution of language and the connections of earlier a

38、nd later variants of the same lan-guage and provide valuable insights into the kinship patterns of different languages.2) The identification of the changes that a particular language has undergone enables us to reconstruct the linguistic history of that language, and thereby hypothesizes its earlier

39、 forms from which current speech and writing have evolved.3) The historical study of language also en-ables them to determine how non - linguistic factors, such as social, cultural and psychological factors, interact over time to cause linguistic change.67. What are the characteristics of the nature

40、 of language changeAll living languages change with time and language change is inevitable. As a general rule, language change is universal, continuous and, to a considerable de-gree, regular and systematic. Language change is extensive, taking place in virtually all aspects of the grammar.Although

41、language change is universal, inevitable, and in some cases, vigorous, it is never an overnight occurrence, but a gradual and constant process, often indiscernible to speakers of the same generation.68. What are the major periods in the history of EnglishThe major periods in the history of English a

42、re Old English period (roughly from 449 to 1100), Middle English period(roughly from 1100 to 1500), and ModernEnglish period (roughly from 1500 to the pre-sent). Old English dates back tothe mid-fifth century when Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northernEurope.The pronunciation of Old En

43、glish is very different from its modem form. For example, the Old English word "ham" is pronounced as /ha:m/. In terms of morphology, nearly half of the nouns are inflected to mark nomi-native , genitive, dative, and accusative cases . In addition, suffixes are added to verbs to indicate t

44、ense. Syntactical-ly , the verb of an Old English sentence precedes, hut does not follow, the subject.Middle English began when the Norman French invaders invaded England under William the Conqueror in 1066. Middle English had been deeply influenced by Norman French in vocabulary and grammar. For ex

45、ample, such terms as " army," " court," " defense," " faith," "prison" and "tax" came from the language of the French rulers.Modern English period starts with European renaissance move-ment. A di-rect consequence of the Renaissance movement

46、 was the revival of Latin as a literary language. In the post-Renaissance period, the "British Empire" set up English-speaking colonies in many parts of the world. By the nineteenth century, English was recognized as the language of the government, the law, higher education, and business a

47、nd commerce in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Today Modern English is widely used and has in fact become an important tool of international communication among peoples of different countries.69. As language changes over time, the meaning of a word may deviate from its original

48、 denotation. Discuss the major types of semantic changes.Major types of semantic changes are semantic broadening, semantic narrowing and semantic shift.Semantic broadening refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denota-tion

49、. Take the word "holiday" for example, The older meaning was a " holy day." Today everyone enjoys a holiday, whether he or she is religious or not.Semantic narrowing is a process in which the meaning of a word be-comes less general or inclusive than its historically earlier meani

50、ng. For ex-ample," wife," used to mean "any woman," but now it means“married fe- males" only.Semantic shift is a process of semantic change in which a word loses its former meaning and acquires a new, sometimes related, meaning. For example, the word silly meant “happy“in Ol

51、d English, and naive in Middle English, but "foolish"in Modern English.70. Over the years from Old English period to the Modern English period, English has undergone some major sound changes. Illustrate these changes with some examples.The major sound changes include changes in vowel sound

52、s, and in the loss, gain and movement of sounds.The changes in vowel sounds can be seen in the Great Vowel Shift in the history of English, which led to one of the major dis-agreements between the pronunciation and the spelling system of Modern English. These changes involve seven long, or tense vow

53、els, for exampleWordsMiddle EnglishModem EnglishFivefi:vfaivMouseMu:smausFeetfe:tfi:tMoodMo:dmu:dBreakBr e :kenbreikSounds do not just change, they can be lost. vowel sounds change, but some sounds simply disappeared from the general pronunciation of English. One example of sound loss is the /kn - /

54、 clusters in the word - initial position. In Old andMiddle English, both /k/ and /n/ were pro-nounced, as is shown in the spellingof such words as "knight" and "knee." Although Modern English spelling of these words still keeps the initial letter k, its sound is no longer pronoun

55、ced.Sound changes can also take the form of sound addition. Sound addition includes the gain or insertion of a sound, for example:spinle spindle emty emptySound change can take the form of sound movement. It involves a reversal in position of two neighbouring sound seg-ments. For example, the /r/ so

56、und in the Old English words "bridd" ("bird") and "hros" ("horse") was moved to the right of the vowel sounds in their Modem English counterparts "bird" and "horse."71. What are the most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical

57、 development of EnglishThe most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English are the loss and addition of affixes. A number of morphological rules in Old English are now lost in Modern English. Some of these rules are about derivational affixes, such as suffixes "

58、;-baere" and "-bora" . In Old English an adjective would derive if "-baere" was added to a noun, such as:lust ("pleasure") + baere lustbaere ("agreeable")But this rule has been lost in modern English.The most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss

59、of gender and case marking. In Old English,for example, "stn" ("stone") was marked masculine, while "gief" ("gift") and "d or" ( "wild animal") were marked respectively feminine and neuter. In modern English, the gender markers of these wor

60、ds have been lost.Someaffixes have been added to the English morphological "-able"for example,it has been added to English since the Old English period. At first,words endingin "-able," such as "favourable" and "conceivable," were borrowed altogether from French. Then this suffix be-came a productiverule in English. It was usedwith other verbs