Philadelphia University
Faculty of Arts/ Department of English
Comprehensive Exam - Language
‫ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ‬
Directions : On the answer sheet, mark (X) in the square that stands for most
appropriate choice :
1. Arbitrariness is
a. no relationship between speech sounds and the meaning they represent.
b. no relationship between the signifier and the signified.
c. no relationship between the message and the reference.
d. all of the above .
2. The system of the arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication is:
a. phonetics
b. phonology
c. language
d. morphology
3. Your ability to creatc infinite number of sentences using finite number of rules
is :
a. predictability
b. linguistic knowledge
c. redundancy
d. creativity
4. Your ability to utilize the rules of the language is:
a. competence
b. linguistic competence
c. linguistic performance
d. communicative competence
5. An example of linguistic universals is :
a. nouns
b. verbs
c. sentences
d. all of the above
6. The opening between the vocal folds is called :
a. trachea
b. glottis
c. pharynx
d. larynx
7.Slips of tongue are part of the speaker’s :
a. linguistic performance
c. linguistic competence
b. linguistic creativity
d. linguistic knowledge
8. The phrase ‫ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ‬refers to the rules of the language that should be
followed by people.
a. functional grammar
b. transformational grammar
c. descriptive grammar
d. prescriptive grammar
9. The set of rules that enable the speakers of the language to combine smaller
units is:
a. linguistics
b. phonology
c. syntax
d. grammar
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10. The term‫ ــــــــــــــــــــــــ‬refers to the phenomenon when particular sound
sequences imitate what they refer to.
a. sound symbolism
b. onomatopoeic
c. iconic
d. mimetic
11. The examples “ not " and “ knot " show that:
a. no one – to- one correspondence between sounds and letters.
b. a single letter may represent a single sound.
c. some sounds are not represented in spelling.
d. one letter may represent two sounds.
12. The period of voicelessness after the stop articulation and before the start of
voicing for the vowel is called :
a. voicing
b. palatalization
c. aspiration
d. nasalization
13. Which of the following statements is correct. The following phonological rule
reads:
- cont.
- voiced
+ asp.
#
$
- cons
+voc
+ stressed
a. Voiceless stops are aspirated at the beginning of a word or a syllable before
stressed vowel.
b. Voiceless consonants are aspirated at the beginning of word or a syllable before
stressed vowels .
c. Voiced consonants are aspirated at the end of a word or a syllable after stressed
vowel.
d. Voiceless stops are aspirated at the end of a word or a syllable after stressed
vowel .
14.
a.
b.
c.
A vowel becomes nasalized before a nasal segment can be formalized as:
- cons
– voc.
+ nasal
+ nasal
+ voc.
+ cons
+ voc.
-cons
d. +voc.
-cons
+ nasal
+nasal
+ nasal
+nasal
- nasal
+nasal
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15. The common phonetic features the following sounds
/ t, s, ʃ, p, k, f, θ / all share are:
a. + voiced , +cons.
c. – voiced , +cor.
b. - voiced , + cons.
d. + voiced , + ant.
16. The voiceless aspirated alveolar stop is
a. / t /
b. / d /
c. / s /
d. / r /
17. Which of the following words does not have a diphthong:
a. neigh
b. marry
c. Mary
d. name
18. Nasality is related to :
a. lips
b. velum
d. nose
c. lungs
19. The phonetic symbol of the high back tense rounded vowel is :
a. / u /
d. / ɔ : /
c. / ə /
b. / u: /
20. The phonetic symbol of the voiceless palatal affricate is :
a. / ʤ/
b. / ʧ /
d. / ʃ /
c. / j /
21. The phonetic symbol of the voiced interdental fricative is :
a. / v /
b. /
/
d. / ʒ /
c. / z /
22. The phonetic symbol of the voiced velar stop is :
a. / t /
b. / n /
c. / g /
23. Phonology is the study of :
a. words
b. sounds
d. / ? /
c. sentences
d. patterns of sounds
24. The phonetic symbol of the mid central lax vowel is
a./ Ʒ: /
b. / e/
25. Continuants are :
a. fricatives
b. liquids
c. / ə /
c. glides
:
d./ ɔ /
d. all of the above
26. The study of how sounds are produced is called:
a. auditory phonetics
b. acoustic phonetics
c. articularity phonetics
d. none of the above
27. Syllabic sounds are :
a. liquids and nasals
c. liquids and affricates
b. liquids and glides
d. glides and affricates
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28. The smallest abstract meaningless unit of the language used to distinguish
differentiate words is called :
a. morpheme
b. allophone
c. allomorph
d. phoneme
29. The word “ rough “ can be transcribed as :
a. / r æ f /
b. / r ٨ f/
c. / r ə f /
30. The word “ physics “ can be transcribed as :
a. / fizi:ks /
b. / fi:ziks /
c. / fiziks /
d. / ruf /
d. / fizaks /
31.The phonetic symbol / v / stands for:
a. voiced labio-dental fricative
c. voiced palatal affricate
b. voiceless interdental fricative
c. voiced palatal fricative
32. The phonetic symbol / w / stands for :
a. voiceless bilabial glide
c. voiced bilabial glide
b. voiceless palatal glide
d. voiced palatal glide
33. The phonetics symbol / e / stands for :
a. mid central lax vowel
c. mid front lax vowel
b. mid back lax vowel
d. mid high lax vowel
34. The flap / D / in the transcribed “ writer “ and “ rider “ is an example of :
a. laleratization
b. palatalization
c. neutralization
d. velarization
35. The aspirated / ph / in “ pin “ and the unaspirated / p/ in (spin “ are :
a. in free variation
b. mutually exclusive
c. contrastive
d. a and b
36. Light / l / and dark / t / are:
a. allophones
b. morphemes
c. phonemes
d. allomorphs
37. The different predictable rule – governed phonetic variants of a phoneme
are called.
a. allomorphs
b. allophones
c. morphemes
d. phones
38. When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound
segment that occurs in the same place, the two words are called.
a. minimal pairs
b. minimal set
c. free variation
d. complementary distribution
39.Allophones can be characterized as:
a. non – distinctive
c. in complementary distribution
b. predictable
d. all of the above
4
or
40. An example of assimilation is :
a. input
b. newspaper
c. good girl
d. all of the above
41. An example of complementary distribution :
a. aspirated /ph /and unaspirateal / p /
b. oral vowels and nasal vowels
c. light / l / and dark / t /
d. all of the above
42. Which of the following statements is incorrect :
a. Nasalization of vowels is distinctive
b. Nasalization of consonants is distinctive
c. Nasalization of vowels is predictable
d. ( b ) and (c )
43. A class in which a number of features which must be specified to define it is
smaller than the number of features required to distinguish any member of
that class is :
a. lexical gap
b. complementary distribution
c. minimal set
c. natural class
44.Nasatization and assimilation are :
a. feature changing rules
c. segment deletion rules
b. addition rules
d. movement rules
45. An example of dissimilation is:
a. aminal for animal
d. frompkin for fromkin
b. chimely for chimney
c. hissed for missed
46. Epenthesis is a
a. segment deletion rule
c. segment addition rule
b. metathesis rule
c. feature changing rule
47. Aspiration is example of a / an
a. feature addition rule
c. movement rule
b. feature changing rule
c. segment deletion rule
48. “ aks” for “ ask “ and “ bridd “ ( OE ) for “ bird are examples of
a. from one to many rules
b. dissimilation rules
c. metathesis rules
c. assimilation rules
49. “ mystry “ for “ mystery “ is an example of :
a. segment deletion rule
b. segment addition rule
c. dissimilation rule
d. feature addition rule
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50. A morpheme may have different phonetic representation, i.e. , the plural / s/
in that its application is determined by both morphology and phonology is
known as :
a. morphological rule
b. phonological rule
c. morphosyntactic rule
d. morphophonemic rule
51. The realization of the regular past tense morpheme as /t/ - /d/ or /id/ is:
a. morphologically conditioned
b. lexically conditioned
c. phonologically conditioned
d. grammatically conditioned
52. “ Kodak “ is an example of :
a. compounding
c. word form name
b. word coinage
c. abbreviation ( clipping )
53. “ Smog “is . an example of :
a. blend
b. acronym
c. back – formation
d. compounding
54. “ UNESCO “ is an example of :
a. acronym
b. abbreviation
c. word – formation
d. word from name
55. “Sandwich” is an example of :
a. compounding
b. word from name
c .blend
d. acronym
56. “ White house “ where the stress falls on the first word – white- is an
example of :
a.syntactic phrase
b. compounding
c. back formation
d. blend
57. “ Worker “ in “ workers “ is an example of :
a. stem
b. base
c. root
d. lexeme
58. The irreducible core of the word with absolutely nothing attached to it , and
the part that is always present in the various reatrzation of the same lexeme is
a / an .
a. root
b. stem
c. base
d. affix
59. The morpheme that has a meaning and / or grammatical function is :
a. inflectional morpheme
b. derivational morpheme
c. free morpheme
d. ( b) and ( c )
60. Which of the following sentences is incorrect:
a. prefixes are always derivational
b. suffixes could be derivational or inflectional
c. suffixes are only inflectional .
d. prefixes and suffixes are bound morphemes
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61. Study the following example and decide which one of them is incorrect :
a. short – steeyed ( shirt )
b. one – eyed ( man )
c. three – legged ( stool)
d. two – cared ( family )
62. Study the following example and decide which of the statements is correct:
a. unwell
( b) unill
unloved
unhated
unhappy
unsad
unwise
unfoolish
unclean
undirty
a. Examples in (a) are morphologically correct
b. Examples in (b) are morphologically incorrect
c. The negative prefix ( un-) attaches the positive adjectives
d. All of the above.
63. The words that have the same form with different meaning are called:
a. homonyms
b. homophones
c. homographs
d. none of the above
64. The typical verb suffix is:
a. ity
b. ify
c. ive
d. ly
65. The study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes , words . phrases and
sentences is called :
a. psycholinguistics
b. pragmatics
c. sociolinguistics
d. semantics
66. The study of how context affects meaning – for example , how the sentence “It
is cold in here” comes to be interpreted as “close the windows” in certain
situation – is called :
a. pragmatics
b. semantics
c. sociotinguistics
d. syntax
67. Different words that are pronounced the same, but may be spelled differently
are called:
a. homonyms
b. homographs
c. homophones
d. heteronyms
68.When a word has multiple meanings that an related conceptually or
historically, it is said to be :
a. hyponymy
b. polysemy
c. homophony
d. homonymy
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69. give / receive, buy /sell are examples of:
a. graded antonymy
b. relational antonymy
c. complementary antonymy
d. all of the above
70. Hyponymy involves :
a. inclusion
b. entailment
c. collocational meaning
71. Synonymy means:
a. sameness of meaning
c. none of the above
b. symmetric hyponymy
d. ( a ) and ( b )
d. (a) and (b)
72. ( “site” , “sight” ) , ( right , write , rite and wright ) are examples of :
a. homography
b. homophony
c. homonymy
d. all of the above
73. “rancid bacon” , “rancid butter”, “addled brains” , “addled eggs”, are
examples of:
a. collocation meaning
b. connotative meaning
c. denotation meaning
d. all of the above
74. The term used to refer to sequence of lexical items, semantically and
syntactically restricted functioning as a single indivisible unit and can’t be
predicted from the meanings of the words themselves refers to :
a. idiom
b. potysemy
c. relational opposites
d. markendnss
75. The relationship between linguistic elements , words phrase, sentences, etc, and
the non – linguistic world of experience refers to :
a. sense
b. reference
c. thematic role
d. truth value.
76. Elizabeth II is Queen of England is an example of :
Elizabeth II is a man
a. entailment
b. contradiction
c. paraphrase
77. “Walls have ears” is an example of :
a. metaphor
b. idiom
c. anomaly
d. anomaly
d. (a) and (b)
78. The speech habits of a single person , or the unique characteristics of language
of an individual or speaker refers to :
a. dialect
b. idiolect
c. accent
d. standard language
79. The language that can be used among a group of people whose languages are
not mutually intelligible is called
a. pidgin
b. creole
c. lingua franca
d. jargon
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80. All vowels are ……………….phonemes
a. voiced
b. voiceless
c. short
d. long
81. Stress and intonation are called …………phonemes.
a. suprasegmental
b. interdental
c.segmental
d. nasal
82.Circle the word that contains a high back vowel.
a. wait
b. date
c. read
d.spoon
83. Circle the word that begins with voiceless affricate
a. church
b. ship
c. judge
d. vision
84. Circle the word with the proper stress.
a. photographer
b. photographer
c. photographer
85. Circle the word that contains the /
a. boat
b. boar
c. roar
d. photographer
/ sound
d. bought
86. / p/ ,/ b/ and / m / are all …………phonemes.
a. voiced
b.voiceless
c. nasal
d. bilabial
87. / s, z, t , n/ and / d/ are all………phonemes
a. fricative
b. alveolar
c. stop
d. nasal
88. / t , p , k ,f , s/ and / Ө / are all …………..phonemes
a. voiceless
b. voiced
c. dental
d. fricative
89. The ability of human beings to talk about the past , present and the future is
called.
a. arbitrariness,
b. displacement
c. patterning
d. creativity
90. The relationship between language and the mind is called
a. psycholinguistics
b. sociolinguistics
c. applied linguistics
d. comparative linguistics
91. Aspects that cannot be captured by linguistic knowledge alone are called
a. semantics
b. pragmatics
c. speech acts
d. denotation
92. “Isn’t it past your bedtime?” is
a. indirect speech act
c. statement
b. direct speech act
d. exclamative
93. Prefixes are always
a. derivational morphemes
c. bound morphemes
b. inflectional morphemes
d. free morphemes
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94. The study of the evolution of the language through time represents a /an
………… approach.
a. synchronic
b. applied
c. diachronic
d. sociolinguistic
95. The speech habits of a single person refer to :
a. language
b. dialect
c. style
d. idiolect
96. The study of the internal structure of words to form larger grammatical units
is the domain of :
a. phonology
b. grammar
c. syntax
d. morphology
97. A sentence to which more than one deep structure can be assigned is :
a. ambiguous
b. ungrammatical
c. non – sensical
d. none of the above
98. The immediate constituents of the sentence “ Jack has been studying syntax.”
are:
a. ( Jack has been ) ( been studying syntax . )
b. ( Jack has been ) ( studying syntax . )
c. ( Jack ) ( has been studying syntax . )
d.( Jack has been studying ) ( syntax .)
99. The regular plural morpheme is phonetically realized as / iz/…..
a. after bases ending in voiceless sounds except sibilants .
b. after bases ending in voiced sounds except sibilants.
c. after voiced and voiceless sibilants.
d. in all phonological environments.
100. The term “ rankscale “ refers to a hierarchy in which:
a. morphemes function as constituents of words.
b. words function as constituents of phrases.
c. phrases function as constituents of sentences.
d. all of the above
101. Which of the following statements is incorrect ?
a. All prefixes are derivational morphemes.
b. Suffixes can be either inflectional or derivational.
c. inflectional affixes change the word class ( category ) of the base.
d. The majority of derivational affixes are class changing
102. Which of the following suffixes characterizes only nouns ?
a. – ive
b. – en
c. – ence
d. –able
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103. In the sentence “ when will the patient come round again ? “, the word “
round” is a / an
a. preposition
b. adverb
c. noun
d. adjective
104.The plural form of the word “ phenomenon” is
a. phenomenas
b. phenomenon
c. phenomeni
d. phenomena
105. The class of nouns that cannot usually be precede by a definite article
are……… nouns
a. noncount ( mass)
b. proper
c. count
d. common
106. An adjective that functions as a constituent of a noun phrase is called:
a. attributive
b. predicative
c. comparative
d. superlative
107. Which of the following nouns can have a zero plural ?
a. grouse
b. goose
c. ox
108. Which of the following adjectives is used attributively only ?
a. intent
b. old
c. afraid
d. index
d. former
109.In the sentence “They consider him a fool” , the verb “consider” is :
a. monotranstive
d. ditransitive
c. transitive predicator complement
d. complex transitive
110. The verb “charge” in the sentence “They charged the man with murder”. is
a. monotransitive
b. ditransitive
c. non-transitive predicator complement
d. transitive predicator complement
111. In the sentence “He insisted on his suggestion”, the verb “insisted on” is:
a. phrasal
b. prepositional
c. phrasal – prepositional
d. ditransitive
112.In the sentence “She has no friends”, the word “no” functions as a / an
a. determiner
b. head of the NP
c. adjective phrase
d. none of the above
113. In the sentence “ I do like her”, the verb “do” is
a. an auxiliary of emphasis .
b. a lexical verb
c. an auxiliary of periphrasis
d. an auxiliary of aspect
114. In the sentence “Susan prefers her tea hot”, the word “hot” functions as a / an
a. subject attribute
b. object attribute
c. indirect abject
d. postmodifier
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115. In the sentence “She bought him chocolate”, the noun “chocolate” functions
as a / an
a. direct object
b. object attribute
c. indirect object
d. predicator complement
116. In the sentence “They found him guilty’ , the adjective “guilty” functions as
a / an
a. direct object
b. indirect object
c. subject attribute
d. object attribute
117. In the sentence “ That tin contains tobacco” the noun “ tobacco” functions
as /a
a. direct object
b. subject attribute
c. predicator complement
d. none of the above
118. In the sentence “ The man who escaped is dangerous” the finite clause “who
escaped” is a
a. constituent of the sentence
b. constituent of the noun phrase “the man”
c. post modifier of the head noun “man”
d. (b) and (c)
119. The phrase “linguistically competent” is :
a. an adjective phrase with head adjective “competent” premodified by an adverb
phrase “linguistically”.
b. an adverb phrase with head adverb “linguistically” postmodified by an adjective
phrase “competent”.
c. (a) and (b)
d. none of the above
120. He is no longer the man ………….he used to be:
a. who
b. which
c. that
d. what
121. Our teacher is marching in front of …………
a. us
b. our
c. ours
d. ourselves
122. In the sentence “You can spare yourself the trouble”. The reflexive pronoun
“yourself” functions as a / an
a. direct object
b. indirect object
c. benefactive object
d. predicator complement
123. The part of the word that exists before any inflectional affixes have been
added is a /an
a. root
b. stem
c. base
d. allophone
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124. The different realizations of the same phoneme refer to :
a. allophones
b. allomorphs c. morphemes
d. roots
125. Did you tell me you’d be away? of course I did . the word “did” is used
a. emphatically
b. as a pro – verb
c. as a lexical verb
d. periphrastically
126. In the word “reception” the root is
a. recept
b. – ceive
c. receive
d. recipe
127. The word “discouragement” can be analysed as :
a. “discourage” is the root and “ment” is a suffix
b. “courage” is the root, and “dis” is a prefix and ment is a suffix
c. “discouragement” is the root, and no prefixes or suffixes
d. all of the above
128. The coordination in the sentence “The students are waving black flags and
white ones.” is:
a. word coordination
b. phrasal coordination
c. sentential coordination
d. all of the above
129. The word “this” in the sentence “ This is my friend”. is:
a. a demonstrative pronoun
b. personal pronoun
c. an NP functioning as subject
d. ( a ) and (c)
130. Their house is up for sale.
The word “their” is
a. an immediate constituent of the sentence
b. an immediate constituent of the NP
c. a possessive pronoun.
d. ( b ) and ( c )
131. Someone must have left the door open. The word “someone”is
a. a determiner
b. a quantifier
c. an immediate constituent of the sentence
d. ( b ) and (c )
132. Which of the following sentences is correct ?
a. John is a bachelor and so his brother.
b. John is a bachelor and so is his brother.
c. John is a bachelor and so his brother is.
d. John is a bachelor and so does his brother.
133. I cannot come since my mother is ill. The under lined subordinate clause is:
a. a constituent of the sentence
b. a constituent of the phrase
c. all of the above.
d. none of the above
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134. The sentence “ The snake which killed the rat belongs to our neighbors” is:
a. simple
b. compound
c. complex
d. compound complex
135. “ I have heard that you are a car mechanic and your brother is a plumber”
is a
a. complex sentence
b. simple sentence
c. compound sentence
d. compound complex sentence
136. “ I think that your new position demands sensitive judgments and I would
hope that you will mature as the years go by” is a ……… sentence
a. simple
b. compound
c. complex
d. compound complex
137. The underlined clause in the sentence “ Jack was very glad that he had passed
the exam” . is a / an:
a. immediate constituent of the sentence.
b. immediate constituent of the phrase.
c. finite clause functioning as post modifier of the head adjective “glad”
d. ( b ) and ( c )
138. To say that in public is dangerous. The underlined clause in the sentence
above is :
a. finite clause functioning as subject
b. none – finite clause functioning as subject
c. verbless clause functioning as subject
d. all of the above
139. She failed the exam although she studied hard . The underlined clause is a:
a. conditional clause
b. concessive clause
c. reason clause
d. result clause
140. Take the right fork when the road splits into two. The underlined clause
is a:
a. clause of time
b. clause of place
c. clause of contrast
d. clause of exception
141. My assumption is that interest rates will soon fall. The that - clause in the
above sentence is :
a. adjectival
b. nominal
c. adverbial
d. all of the above
142. I know her to be reliable. The underlined clause is a non – finite clause
functioning as
a. direct object
b. indirect object.
c. object complement
d. adverbial
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143. The place where I always go is quiet and unfashionable. The underlined
clause is a finite clause functioning as:
a. adverbial
b. post modifier of the head noun “place”
c. appositive
d. subject complement.
144. Our instructor likes everyone ……………
a. relax
b. relaxing
c. to relax
d. is relaxing
145. Would you mind ………… the door ?
a. open
b. to open
d. opened
c. opening
146. The man near the door is my uncle .The underlined clause is :
a. nominal
b. adverbial
c. adjectival
d. appositive
147. Where the fire had been, we saw nothing but blackened ruins . The
underlined clause is:
a. nominal
b. adverbial
c. adjectival
d. none of the above
148. I believe Mary to be innocent. The finite form of the underlined clause is:
a. that Mary be innocent
b. that Mary is innocent
c. that Mary should be innocent
d. that Mary been innocent
149. Any case which is reported to this office will be treated seriously. The
non- finite form of the underlined clause is:
a. reporting to this a office
b. reported to this office
c. to report to this office
d. been reported to this office.
150. Sami is just the man to cool their zeal. The underlined clause can be changed
into a finite clause as :
a. who cools their zeal
b. who is cooling their zeal
c. who can cool their zeal
d. who had cooled their zeal.
151. I was quite put out by what he said. The underlined clause is a :
a. finite clause functioning as subject complement
b. non- finite clause functioning as subject complement
c. verbless clause functioning as subject complement
d. finite clause functioning as prepositional complement
152. I don’t mind admitting a desire for solitude. The underlined clause is :
a. a finite clause functioning as predicator complement .
b. a finite clause functioning as direct object.
c. a non – finite clause functioning as predicator complement
d. a non – finite clause functioning as direct object.
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153. All you have to do is to study harder. The underlined clause is a:
a. non – finite clause functioning as subject complement.
b. non – finite clause functioning as predicator complement
c. non – finite clause functioning as extraposed subject.
d. non – finite clause functioning as direct object
154. Turn off the tap was all I did. The underlined clause is a :
a. finite clause functioning as subject.
b. bare infinitive non – finite clause functioning as subject
c. non – finite clause functioning as subject complement
d. non – finite clause functioning as predicator complement
155. This story reminded me of my native town. The underlined phrase is a
prepositional phrase functioning as:
a. subject complement
b. indirect object
c. predicator complement
d. object complement
156. Mary appeared glad to see me . The underlined phrase is a/ an
a. adjective phrase functioning as subject complement
b. non – finite clause functioning as post modifier of the head adjective “glad”.
c. adjective clause functioning as direct object.
d. adjective phrase functioning as predicator complement.
157. The exam is fairly easy. The underlined word is /an :
a. adverb phrase functioning as adverbial
b. adverb phrase functioning as pre-modifier of the head adjective “ easy”
c. adjective phrase functioning as subject complement.
d. adverb phrase functioning as subject complement.
158. Synonyms are words or expressions that have the same meaning:
a.
in some contexts
b.
in all contexts
c.
in different contexts
d.
None of the above
159. Polysemy occurs where a word has
a.
two related meanings
b.
only one meaning
c.
two or more related meanings
d.
unrelated meanings
160. Homonomys are:
a.
Related senses of the same phonological word
b.
Unrelated senses of the same phonological word
c.
Similar senses of the same phonological word
d.
None of the above
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161. The impossibility of equating an element’s meaning with its referents has led
to a distinction between:
a.
extension and intension
b.
internal extension and external intension
c.
neither extension nor intension
d.
either extension or intension
162. What can we say about meaning? It seems that meaning must be
something that:
a.
exists in the mind
b.
exists in the objects around us.
c.
exists in the mind rather than the world.
d.
Exists in the world rather than the mind.
163. In a conversation between two people (X and Y) in a market place, when X
says to Y “what a beautiful perfume you are wearing” s/he intends to:
a.
tell Y something new about the perfume
b.
tell Y that the perfume is beautiful
c.
show a sign of courteousy
d.
do none of the above
164. Semantic theory deals with semantic facts, facts about meaning of:
a.
only words
b.
words and sentences
c.
sentences and utterances
d.
everything expressed by the speaker of both verbal and nonverbal.
165. A speaker says to his friend, “I am writing a letter to our friend John”. This is
an example of
a.
an utterance
b.
a sentence
c.
a sentence and an utterance
d.
none of the above
166. A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of declarative
sentence, which describes some state of affairs. The state of affairs typically
involves:
a.
persons or things
b.
persons and things
c.
persons only
d.
things only
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167. In what utterance of the following, the proposition is asserted by the
speaker:
a.
“Did you give him your book?”
b.
“Have you eaten your meal?”
c.
“I think that I should allow you to eat your meal”
d.
“Leave this room immediately!”
168. Which of the following sentence pairs have the same propositional
content.
a.
I am a tall man
Am I a tall man?
b.
He lost his purse
He lost his money
c.
You should enjoy your life
You shouldn’t enjoy your life
d.
She is a nice lady
Nice ladies are many
169. Propositions are characterized by having only one of the following:
a.
can be loud or quiet
b.
can be only grammatical
c.
can be grammatical or not
d.
can be true or false.
170. Sentences are characterized by having all of the following EXCEPT:
a.
can be loud or quiet
b.
can be grammatical or not
c.
can be in a particular language
d.
can be true and false
171. Both referring and uttering are acts performed
a.
by particular speakers
b.
on particular occasions
c.
both (a) and (b)
d.
neither (a) nor (b)
172. In talking of reference we deal with the relationships between/inside:
a.
the language
b.
language and the mind
c.
language and the world
d.
language and another language
173. The reference of an expression usually varies according to:
a.
time and place
b.
the topic and the conversation
c.
both of the above
d.
none of the above
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174. When we talk about the sense, we talk of all of the following EXCEPT:
a.
sounds
b.
sentences
c.
words
d.
phrases
175. The study of sense demands:
a.
a degree of understanding of the facts about meaning
b.
a degree of consideration of the facts about meaning
c.
a degree of idealization of the facts about meaning
d.
a degree of explanations of the facts about meaning
176. By using the word meant in: The boy meant to annoy their neighour,
the speaker intends one of the following:
a.
Reference
b.
Sense
c.
Reference and Sense
d.
Neither reference nor sense .
177. The word “Star” can be seen as:
a.
Variable reference
b.
Constant reference
c.
Variable and constant reference
d.
None of the above
178.The mobility up or downward the social hierarchy is mirrored
more accurately in some aspects of peoples’ speech such as:
a. grammar
b. vocabulary
c. pronunciation
d. all of the above
179. In multilingual communities Lingua Francas are useful, they may
eventually displace.
a. The standard variety
b. The vernacular variety
c. Both the standard and the vernacular
d. None of the above
180. It is believed that if linguistic distinctiveness is an important
identifying value for a particular group then their ethnic language.
a. May survive
b. Will survive
c. May die
d. Will die
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181.It is said that the differences between dialects are a matter of :
a. More or less
b. Either, or
c. Neither, nor
d. None of the above
182. Languages are not purely linguistic entities. They serve:
a. Social norms
b. Social functions
c. Social hierarchies
d .None of the above
183.Accents are distinguished from each other by:
a. Vocabulary and grammar
b. Pronunciation and vocabulary
c. Pronunciation only
d. Vocabulary only
184.Dialects are distinguished from each other by:
a. Vocabulary and grammar
b. Pronunciation and vocabulary
c. Pronunciation and grammar
d All of the above
185.People can be categorized into classes in terms of
a. Similar social factors
b. Similar social and economic factors
c. Similar political and social factors
d. Similar economic and political factors
186.The most clear differences between people of different social classes take place
in
a. vocabulary
b. pronunciation
c. grammar
d. all the above
187.Social grouping is usually determined by a number of elements such as the
following EXCEPT:
a. occupation
b. income level
c. geographical area
d.education
188. RP (Received Pronunciation) indeed conceals a speaker’s :
a. social group
b. social origin
c. social and regional origin
d. regional origin but not social grouping
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189.Lingua Francas often develop initially as:
a. Social languages
b. Trade languages
c. Regional languages
d. Geographical languages
190.Standard languages are codified varieties. Codification is usually achieved
through recording, and sometimes prescribing the standard forms of the
language at the level of:
a. Grammar and lexicon
b. Lexicon and pronunciation
c. Grammar and pronunciation
d .All of the above
191.Language shift tends to be slower among speech communities when the
minority language is :
a. less valued
b. highly valued
c. Not valued at all
d. None of the above
192.The quickest way of ensuring shift to the majority group language
for the children is:
a. School effect
b. Marriage to a majority group
c. The degree and frequency of contact with the homeland
d. Institutional support
193.In most cases of language shift among migrant speech communities
it is found that, the new language gradually infiltrates the home
through:
a. the men
b. the women
c. the children
d. the adults of both men and women
194.There is nothing inherently bad or good about the pronunciation of any
speech sound because:
a. Different speech communities have different views of pestige
b. Prestige has nothing to do with language use
c. Prestige and education are closely related elements
d. All speech sounds are looked at equally in terms of prestige
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195.Women and men do not speak in exactly the same way as each other in
any speech community because of:
a. Differences in rate of speech
b .Differences in voice pitch
c. Differences in the concept of prestige
d. All of the above
196.In some sociolinguistic studies it has been said that women are more
standardized in their speech than men because:
a. They are less status-conscious
b. They are more status-conscious
c. Status-consciousness has nothing to do with that
d. None of the above
197.Once a standard dialect develops or is developed, it generally provides a
very useful means of communication across areas of:
a. Dialect similarity
b. Dialect diversity
c. Dialect chains
d. None of the above
198. Obstruents are:
a. stops
b. fricatives
c. affricates
d. all of the above
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