语言学单元自测7

1、Chapter 7 ： Historical LinguisticsI. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:1. One of the tasks of the historical linguists is to explore methods to reconstruct linguistic history and establish the relationship between languages.2. Language change is a gradual and constant

2、process, therefore often indiscernible to speakers of the same generation.3. The history of the English language is divided into the periods of Old English, Middle English and Modern English.4. Middle English began with the arrival of Anglo-Saxons, who invaded the British Isles from northern Europe.

3、5. In Old English, all the nouns are inflected to mark nominative, genitive, dative and accusative cases.6. In Old English, the verb of a sentence often precedes the subject rather than follows it.7. A direct consequence of the Renaissance Movement was the revival of French as a literary language.8.

4、 In general, linguistic change in grammar is more noticeable than that in the sound system and the vocabulary of a language.9. The sound changes include changes in vowel sounds, and in the loss, gain and movement of sounds.10. The least widely-spread morphological changes in the historical developme

5、nt of English are the loss and addition of affixes.11. In Old English, the morphosyntactic rule of adjective agreement stipulated that the endings of adjectivemust agree with the head noun in case, number andgender.12. The word order of Modern English is more variable than that of Old English.13. De

6、rivati on refers to the process by which new words are formed by the additi on of affixes to the roots, stems, or words.14. “Smog is a word formed by the word -forming process called acronymy.15. “fridge ” is a word formed by abbreviation.16. Modern linguistsare able to provide a consistent account

7、for the exact causesof all types of Ian guage cha nge.17. Sound assimilationmaybring about the loss of one of two phonetically similarsyllables in seque nee, as in the case of cha nge of “ En gla- la nd ” to “ En gla nd18. Rule elaborati on occurs whe n there is a n eed to reduce ambiguity and in cr

8、ease com muni cative clarity or expressive ness.19. Language change is always a change towards the simplification of Ianguage rules20. The way children acquire the Ianguage is one of the causes for Ianguage cha nge.II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with theletter gi

9、ve n:21. Hlinguistics is the subfield oflinguisticsthat studies Ianguagecha nge.22. The historical study of Ian guage is a dstudy of Ian guage ratherthan a synchronic study.23. European RMovement separates the period of Middle English from thatof moder n En glish.24. An important set of extensive so

10、und changes, which affected 7 long or tense vowels and which led to one of the major discrepa ncies betwee n pho nemicrepresentationsof words and morphemes at the end of the Middle English Period,is known as the Great VShift.25. Ain volves the deleti on of a word-fi nal vowel segme nt.26. A cha nge

11、that in volves the in serti on of a consonant or vowel sound to themiddle of a word is known as e.27. The three sets of consonant shifts that Grimm discovered became knowncollectively as Grimm s L.28. Sound cha nge as a result of sound moveme nt, known as m, in volves areversal in positi on of two a

12、djoining sound segme nts.29. Bis a process by which new words are formed by tak ing away thesupposed suffixes of exit ing words.30. Sema ntic brefers to the process in which the meaning of a wordbecomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denotation.31. The origi nal form of a Ia

13、n guage family that has ceased to exist is calledthe p.32. Sound arefers to the physiological effect of one sound on another.In this process, successive sounds are made identicalor similar to one anotherin terms of place or manner of articulation.33. In order to reduce the exceptional or irregular m

14、orphemes, speakers of aparticular Ian guage may borrow a rule from one part of the grammar and apply it gen erally. This phe nomenon is called iborrow ing.34. By identifyingand comparing similar linguistic forms with similar meaningsacross related Ian guages, historical li nguists recon struct the p

15、roto form inthe comm onan cestral Ian guage. This process is called crec on structi on.35. The mrule of adjective agreeme nt has bee n lost from En glish.III. There are four choices followingeach statement. Mark the choice that canbest complete the stateme nt:36. Historical li nguistics explores.A.

16、the n ature of Ian guage cha nge B. the causes that lead to Ian guage cha ngeC. the relati on ship betwee n Ian guages D. all of the above37. Lan guage cha nge is.A. universal, continuous and ,to a large extent, regular and systematicB. continuous, regular, systematic, but not universalC. uni versal

17、, con ti nu ous, but not regular and systematicD. always regular and systematic, but not uni versal and continu ous38. Moder n En glish period starts roughly.A. from 449 to 1100 B. from 1500 to the prese ntC. from 1100 to the present D. from 1700 to the present39. Old En glish dates back to the mid-

18、fifth cen tury whe n.A. the Norman French invaders under William the Conqueror arrived in EnglandB. the printing tech no logy was inven tedC. Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northern EuropeD. the Celtic people bega n to in habit En gla nd40. Middle En glish was deeply in flue need by.A.

19、Norma n French in vocabulary and grammarB. Greek and Lat in because of the Europea n ren aissa nee moveme ntC. Danish Ian guages because Denmark placed a king on the throne of En gla ndD. the Celtic people who were the first inhabitants of England41. Lan guage cha nge is esse ntially a matter of cha

20、 nge.A. i n collocati ons B. i n mea ningC. in grammar D. in usages42. In Old and Middle English, both /k/ and /n/ in the word“knight ” werepronoun ced, but in moder n En glish, /k/ in the sound /kn-/ clusters was notpronoun ced. This phe nomenon is known as.A. sound additi on B. sound lossC. sound

21、shift D. sound moveme nt43. A cha nge that in volves the in serti on of a consonant or vowel sound to themiddle of a word is known as.A. apocope B. epe nthesisC. pare nthesis D. an tithesis44. Segme nt switch of sound positi ons can be see n in the example of the moder nword “ bird ” which comes fro

22、m the old English word“bridd ” . The change ofthe word from “ bridd ” to “ bird ” is a case of.A. metathesis B. sound lossC. sound additi on D. apocope45. is a process of combining two or more words into one lexical unit.A. Derivation B. Ble ndingC. Compo unding D. Abbreviati on46. “Wife ” , which u

23、sed to refer to any woman, stands for“ a married woman”in moder n En glish. This phe nomenon is known as.A. sema ntic shift B. sema ntic broade ningC. sema ntic elevati on D. sema ntic n arrow ing47. En glish Ian guage bel ongs to.A. In do-Europea n Family B. Sino-Tibeta n FamilyC. Austr on esia n F

24、amily D. Afroasiatic Family48. By analogy to the plural formation of theword “dog-s , speakers startedsay ing “ cowsas the plural of “ coW in stead of the earlier plural “ kineThis is the case of.A. elaborati on B. exter nal borrow ingC. sound assimilati on D. internal borrow ing49. Morphologcial ch

25、a nges can in volve.A. the loss of morphological rulesB. the additi on of morphological rulesC. the alteration of morphological rulesD. all of the above50. The most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss of.A. comparative markers B. tense markersC. gen der and case markers D. none of the abov

26、eIV. Define the following terms:51. Apocope 52. Metathesis 53. Derivati on54. back-formati on 55. sema ntic n arrow ing 56.protola nguage57. haplology 58. epe nthesis 59. Compo unding60. Blending 61. semantic broadening 62. semantic shift63. Great Vowel Shift 64. acronym 65. sound assimilationV. An

27、swer the follow ing questi ons:66. What is the purpose or sig nifica nee of the historical study of Ian guage ?67. What are the characteristics of the nature of Ianguage change ?68. What are the major periods in the history of En glish ?En glish69. As Ianguage changes over time, the meaning of a wor

28、d 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, has un derg one some major sound cha nges. Illustrate these cha nges with some examples.71. What are the most widely-spread morphological c

29、hanges in the historical developme nt of En glish ?72. What are the causes of Ian guage cha nge Discuss them in detail.Chapter 7 Historical Lin guisticsI. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:I. T 2.T 3.T 4.F 5.F 6.T 7.F 8.F 9.T 10.FII. T 12.F 13.T 14.F 15.F 16. F 17. T 1

30、8. T 19. F 20.TII. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with theletter give n:21.Historical 22.diachr onic 23.Re naissa nee 24.Vowel 25.Apocope 26.epe nthesis27.Law 28. Metathesis 29.Backformati on 3O.broade ning 31.protola nguage32.assimilati on 33.i nternal parative 35.

31、morphos yn tacticIII. There are four choices follow ing each stateme nt. Mark the choice that can best complete the stateme nt:36.D 37.A 38.B 39.C 40.A 41.C 42.B 43.B 44.A 45.C46. D 47.A 48. D 49. D 50. CIV. Define the following terms:1. Apocope : Apocope is the deletion of a word-final vowel segmen

32、t.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. Derivati on: It is a process by which new words are formed by the additi onof affixes to the roots, stems or words.4. back-formation: It is a pr

33、ocessby which new words are formed by taking awaythe supposed suffix of an exist ing word.5. semantic narrowing: Semantic narrowing is a process in which the meaning ofa word be-comes less general or inclusive than its historically earlier meaning.6. Protolanguage: It is the original form of a Iangu

34、age family that has ceasedto exist.7. Haplology: It refers to the phenomenon of the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in seque nee.8. Epenthesis: A change that involves the insertionof a consonant or vowel soundto the middle of a word is known as epe nthesis.9. Compounding: It is a p

35、rocess of combining two or more than two words into one lexical un it.10. Blending: It is a process of forming a new word by combining parts of other words.11. semantic broadening: Semantic broadening refers to the process in which themeaning of a word becomes more general or inclusivethan its histo

36、rically earlierdeno ta-ti on.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. Great Vowel Shift: It is a series of systematic sound change at the end of the Middle English period approximate

37、ly between 1400 and 1600 in the history of En glish that in volved seve n long vowels and con seque ntly led to one of the major discrepancies between English pronunciation and its spelling system.of a number64. Acronym: An acronym is a word created by combining the initials of words.65. sound assim

38、ilation: Sound assimilation refers to the physiological effectof one sound on an-other.In an assimilative process, successive sounds are madeidentical, or more similar, to one another in terms of place or manner of articulati on, or of haplology.V. An swer the follow ing questi ons:66. What is the p

39、urpose or sig nifica nee of the historical study of Ian guage1) Researches in historicallinguisticsshed light on prehistoricdevelopmentsin the evoluti on of Ian guage and the conn ecti ons of earlier and later varia ntsof the same Ian-guage and provide valuable in sights into the kin ship patter ns

40、of differe nt Ian guages.2) The identification of the changes that a particular Ianguage has undergoneen ables us torec on struct the lin guistic history of that Ian guage, and therebyhypothesizes its earlier forms from which current speech and writing have evolved.3) The historical study of Ian gua

41、ge also en-ables them to determ ine how non -lin guisticfactors, such as social, cultural and psychological factors,in teractover time to cause lin guistic cha nge.67. What are the characteristics of the n ature of Ian guage cha ngeAll liv ing Ian guages cha nge with time and Ian guage cha nge is in

42、 evitable. As a gen eral rule, la nguage cha nge is uni versal, con ti nu ous and, to a con siderable de-gree, regular and systematic. Languagechange is extensive, takingplace invirtually all aspects of the grammar.Although Ian guage cha nge is uni versal,in evitable,and in some cases, vigorous,it i

43、s never an overnight occurrenee, but a gradual and constant process, often in discer ni ble to speakers of the same gen erati on.68. What are the major periods in the history of En glishThe major periods in the history of English are Old English period (roughly from 449 to 1100), Middle English peri

44、od(roughly from 1100 to 1500), and Modern English period (roughly from 1500 to the pre-sent). Old English dates back to the mid-fifthcentury when Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northernEurope.The pronunciation of Old English is very different from its modem form. For example, the Old En

45、glish word ham is pronounced as /ha:m/. In terms of morphology, n early half of the nouns are in flectedto mark no mi-native, gen itive,dative, and accusative cases .In additi on, suffixes are added to verbs to indicate tense. Syntactical-ly , the verb of an Old English sentence precedes, hut does n

46、ot follow, the subject.Middle En glish bega n whe n the Norma n French in vaders in vaded En gla nd un der William the Conq ueror in 1066. Middle En glish had bee n deeply in flue need by Norma n Fre nch in vocabulary and grammar. For example, such terms as army, court, defe nse, faith, pris on and

47、tax came from the Ian guage of the French rulers.Moder n En glish period starts with Europea n ren aissa nee move-me nt. A di-rect con seque nee of the Ren aissa nee moveme nt was the revival of Lat in as a literary Ian guage. In the post-Re naissa nee period, the British Empire set upEnglish-speaki

48、ngcolonies in many parts of the world. By the nineteenth century,En glish was recog ni zed as the Ian guage of the gover nment, the law, higher educati on, and bus in ess and commerce in the Un ited States, Can ada, Australia and New Zeala nd. Today Moder n En glish is widely used and has in fact be

49、come an importa nt tool of intern ati onal com muni cati on among peoples of differe nt coun tries.69. As Ianguage changes over time, the meaning of a word may deviate from its original denotation. Discuss the major types of semantic changes.Major types of semantic changes are semantic broadening, s

50、emantic narrowing and sema ntic shift.Semantic broadening refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more gen eral or in elusive tha n its historically earlier deno ta-ti on. Take theword holiday for example, The older meaning was a holy day. Today every one enjoys a holiday, wheth

51、er he or she is religious or not.Semantic narrowing is a process in which the meaning of a word be-comes lessgeneral or inclusive than its historically earlier meaning. For ex-ample, wife, used to mean any woman, but now it means“married fe- males only.Sema ntic shift is a process of sema nticcha ng

52、e in which a word loses its formermeaning and acquires a new, sometimes related, meaning. For example, the word silly meant “happy in Old English, and naive in Middle English, but foolish in Moder n En glish.70. Over the years from Old English period to the Modern English period, English has un derg

53、 one some major sound cha nges. Illustrate these cha nges with some examples.The major sound cha nges in clude cha nges in vowel soun ds, and in the loss, gain and moveme nt of soun ds.The changes in vowel sounds can be seen in the Great Vowel Shift in the history of English, which led to one of the

54、 major dis-agreements between the pronun ciati onand the spelli ngsystem of Moder n En glish. These cha nges in volveseve n long, or tense vowels, for exampleWordsMiddle En glishModem En glishFivefi:vfaivMouseMu:smausFeetfe:tfi:tMoodMo:dmu:dBreakBr e :kenbreikSounds do not just change, they can be l

55、ost. vowel sounds change, but some sounds simply disappeared from the gen eral pronun ciati on of En glish. One example of sound loss is the /kn - / clusters in the word - in itial positi on. In Old andMiddle En glish, both /k/ and /n/ were pro-noun ced, as is show n in the spelli ngof such words as

56、 knightand knee. Although Modern English spellingof thesewords still keeps the in itial letter k, its sound is no Ion ger pronoun ced.Sound cha nges can also take the form of sound additi on. Sound additi onin eludesthe gain or in serti on of a sound, for example:spi nle sp in dleemty emptySound cha

57、 nge can take the form of sound moveme nt. It in volves a reversal inposition of two neighbouring sound seg-ments. For example, the /r/ sound in the Old En glish words bridd (bird) and hros (horse) was moved to the right of the vowel sounds in their Modem En glish coun terparts bird and horse.71. What are the most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical developme nt of En glish?The most widely-spread morphological cha nges in the historical developme nt ofEn glish are the loss and additi on of affixes. A nu mber of morphological rules in Old En glish ar