Introduction to Language
Mid-term exam / L.3
Academic Year / 1433-1434
Name : ................................
ID : ......................................
Choose the correct answer for each question of the following:
A – The Origins of Language
1- The basic hypothesis of the divine source seems to have been that, if human infants were
allowed to grow up without hearing any language, they would spontaneously begin using..........
a) the sign language
b) God given language
c) Phrygian language
2- The pharaoh concluded in his experiment that the children were reported to have
spontaneously uttered “bekos” which is ................
a) an Egyptian word
b) an English word
c) a Phrygian word
3- In the experiment of King James the Fourth of Scotland , the children were reported to have
spontaneously started speaking ............
a) Phrygian language
b) Hebrew language
c) English language
4- The natural sound source is related to a theory called .............
a) bow-wow theory
b) coo-coo theory
c) onomatopoeia theory
5- Problem with the social interaction source is that ...................
a) the expressive noises people make in emotional reactions contain sounds that are not
otherwise used in speech production.
b) Apes and other primates live in social groups, but they do not seem to have developed the
capacity for speech.
c) it is a perfect candidate as source for language.
6- The genetic source is related to the theory of ....................
a) innateness
b) bow-wow
c) speaking
B- Phonetics and Phonology
7- Phonetics is defined as the general study of the characteristics of ...................
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a) phonemes
b) speech sounds
c) letters
8- The sounds which formed with the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth are ............
a) Labiodentals
b) dentals
c) Alveolars
9- Sounds produced with the back of the tongue against the velum are called ...............
a) velars
b) Alveolars
c) palatals
10- The sound
can be described as a ................
a) voiced bilabial stop
11- The sound
b) voiceless palatal fricative
c) voiced palatal affricate
can be described as a ................
a) voiced velar glottal
b) voiced velar nasal
c) voiced alveolar stop
12- An example for a voiceless bilabial stop sound is .......................
a) [ p ]
b) [ b ]
c) [ w]
13- An example for a voiced dental fricative sound is .......................
a) [
]
b) [
]
c) [ s ]
14- An essential property of a phoneme is that it functions..............
a) contrastively
b) physically
c) mentally
15- Syllables like me, to or no have an onset and a nucleus, but no coda. They are known as
a) closed syllables
b) open syllables
c) rhyme
C- Word Formation
16- A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a verb
without any reduction is called ..............
a) backformation
b) conversion
c) coinage
17- Examples for the process of acronyms are .............
a) ad + flu
b) televise + babysit
c) CD + NATO
18- An examples for the process of clipping is .............
a) exam
b) sofa
c) sandwich
19- The definition of coinage is ...........................
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a) It’s a joining of two separate words
b) the invention of totally new terms
c) none of them
20- The definition of borrowing is ..................
a) the invention of totally new terms
b) A change in the function of a word
c) none of them
21- New words based on the name of a person or a place are called .......................
a) eponyms
b) inventions
c)affixes
22- The word “ brunch” is an example of ...........................
a) compounding
b) blending
c) clipping
23- The backformation for a word like “ Television” is ......................
a) TV
b) Televise
c) watch TV
Morphology:
24- A morpheme is “a minimal unit of ....................... function”
a) meaning
c) meaning or grammatical
b) grammar
25- Morphemes that cannot normally stand alone and are typically attached to another form are
a) bound morphemes
b) free morphemes
c) none of them
26- All affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in English are ................
a) lexical morphemes
b) functional morphemes
c) none of them
27- When free morphemes used with bound morphemes, the basic word forms are known as
a) stems
b) prefixes
c) suffixes
28- The suffix _er in a word like bigger is a .........................
a) derivational morpheme
b) inflectional morpheme
c) functional morpheme
29- Words like “ on , the , above .... etc” are described as ......................
a) derivational morpheme
b) inflectional morpheme
c) functional morpheme
30- ..................................... morpheme never changes the grammatical category of a word.
a) An inflectional
b) A derivational
Good luck  Lecturer/ Najla Alqahtani
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c) A functional