Anthropology 340: Language and Culture
EXAM 2
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Circle the letter of the single best response for each of the following.
1. The portion of the mouth that is located just above the upper teeth and runs in an arc above the molars on
one side around behind the incisors to the molars on the opposite side is called the
a. hard palate
b. nasal cavity
c. larynx
d. alveolar ridge.
2. The apex is part of the
a. tongue
b. hard palate
c. pharynx
d. vocal cords.
3. When the lower lip is pressed against the upper teeth, the place of articulation is called
a. bilabial
b. labiodental
c. apicodental
d. retroflex.
4. The cardinal vowel diagram
a. demonstrates that all languages use the same vowels
b. shows how vowels are inserted between consonants
c. graphically shows tongue position and lip shape when making vowels
d. can only be used to describe vowels in the romance languages.
5. Which of the following comes within the root or stem of a word?
a. prefix
b. suffix
c. infix
d. allomorph
6. Phonetics is
a. the study of how speech sounds are made
b. the study of the rules for how speech sounds are combined in a given language
c. the study of how native speakers categorize speech sounds
d. the study of how units of meaning are combined
7. Phonemic analysis focuses on
a. describing how speech sounds are made using criteria that can be applied to all languages
b. sounds that are used in only a few languages in the world
c. how speech sounds are classified into phonemes in a given language
d. the sounds that distinguish allomorphs within a single morpheme
8.
The sound indicated by the English letter “k” is
a. a plosive or stop
b. a fricative
c. a roll or trill
d. a lateral
9.
Sounds where air escapes unimpeded through the mouth or nose are called
a. fricatives
b. consonants
c. voiceless
d. vowels
10. Consonants
a. provide boundaries for vowel sounds
b. define syllables
c. cannot be easily produced by non-human primates
d. all of the above
11. Compounding is a process of
a. inflectional morphology.
b. agglutinating.
c. isolating.
d. derivational morphology.
12. The English sound "t" is made in which of the following places of articulation?
a. apico-alveolar
b. labiodental.
c. bilabial
d. retroflex.
13. The difference between the English sounds "t" and "d" is
a. one is nasal and the other is oral
b. one is a fricative and the other is not.
c. one is a stop and the other is not.
d. one is voiced and the other is not.
14. Sounds that typically occur at the beginning and end of syllables are called
a. allophones.
b. vowels.
c. consonants.
d. affricatives.
15. Agglutinating languages
a. keep individual morphemes separate and link them in sequences to form sentences.
b. have no lower case letters.
c. join morphemes into long meaning strings without pauses between the individual morphemes.
d. use tonal changes to indicate meaning in phonetically identical words.
16. Two types of phrases are
a. dependent or independent phrases.
b. noun and verb phrases.
c. aspirated and non-aspirated phrases.
d. phonological and morphological phrases.
17. Box diagramming
a. is a way of graphically indicating the structure of meaning strings like phrases, clauses and
sentences.
b. is a way of diagramming vowel sounds by place and manner of articulation.
c. is a way of charting consonant sounds by place and manner of articulation.
d. is part of the International Phonetic Alphabet notation system.
18. Sentences must always contain
a. a prepositional phrase and a noun phrase
c. a noun phrase used as a subject and a verb phrase used as a predicate
d. at least three clauses.
e. a noun phrase used as an object.
19. In inflectional morphology
a. the basic meaning of the root/stem changes with phonetic change.
b. the basic meaning of the root/stem changes with a change in the tone of pronunciation.
c. the basic meaning of the root/stem changes with the addition of bound morphemes.
d. the basic meaning of the root/stem remains the same, while additional information is added through
bound morphemes.
20. The English word "flu"
a. is a compound word.
b. resulted from the process of clipping.
c. is an example of an agglutinated word.
d. a and b only.
21. A bound morpheme is
a. a morpheme that can only be used in a noun phrase
b. a morpheme that can only be used in a verb phrase
c. a morpheme that cannot stand alone and must be attached to another morpheme to be used
d. a morpheme that can stand alone
22. Word classes include
a. nouns, verbs and adjectives
b. agents, patients and goals
c. subjects and predicates
d. infixes, prefixes and affixes
23. The qualities of count, gender and specificity attributed to nouns are called
a. phonemic properties
b. semantic properties/features
c. morphological criteria
d. grammatical inflections
24. Word order in sentences
a. is the major determiner of meaning and word function in all known languages.
b. Is particularly important in aglutinating languages
c. is particularly important in isolating languages
d. is an important part of phonology.
25. Semantic roles can be used to identify
a. the gender of a given noun
b. whether the noun is singular or plural
c. whether the noun represents an actor, something acted upon, or the goal of action
d. whether the word is a noun or a verb
26. "He runs like the wind" is an example of a(n)
a. acronym
b. simile
c. metaphor
d. homonym
27. Which of the following is an example of a structural ambiguity?
a. Mary showed the darling baby picture. (Mary showed the darling picture of the baby. Mary
showed the picture of the darling baby)
b. oe opened the book. (Joe opened the book [of matches]. Joe opened the [volume of written
words].)
c. The man took the bus. (The bus was taken by the man.)
d. The girl bought the dress. (Did the girl buy the dress?)
28. For many people in the U.S. today, the sense of the word Islam conveys a monotheistic religion
characterized by the acceptance of the doctrine of submission to God and to Muhammad as the chief and
last prophet of God OR the people or nations that practice Islam; the Muslim world. Because of this, Islam
is a
a. metanym
b. homonym
c. homograph
d. antonym
29. An independent clause
a. is made up of a preposition and its modifiers
b. is made up of a noun and its modifiers
c. is made up of a subject and a predicate and can stand alone
d. is made up of a subject and a predicate but cannot stand alone
30. Flower and flour are
a. homographs
b. homonyms
c. antonyms
d. metanyms
Answer questions 31-43 using the following diagram.
31. Fill in the letter on your answer sheet that corresponds to the correct label for the section of the diagram
indicated by the number 31.
a. N
b. V
c. DET
d. P
32. Fill in the letter on your answer sheet that corresponds to the correct label for the section of the diagram
indicated by the number 32.
a. NP
b. VP
c. PP
d. S
33. Fill in the letter on your answer sheet that corresponds to the correct label for the section of the diagram
indicated by the number 33.
a. NP
b. VP
c. PP
d. S
34. Fill in the letter on your answer sheet that corresponds to the correct label for the section of the diagram
indicated by the number 34.
a. NP
b. VP
c. PP
d. S
35. Fill in the letter on your answer sheet that corresponds to the correct label for the section of the diagram
indicated by the number 35.
a. NP
b. VP
c. PP
d. S
36. If two distinct sentences have the same truth conditions, it means that
a. the context in which they are spoken is exactly the same.
b. one uses a noun for the subject and the other substitutes a pronoun.
c. the sentences are not the same, but have the same meaning.
d. all of the above.
37. The sense of a word is also called its
a. Denotative definition
b. Intension
c. Extension
d. None of the above.
36. The reason that we pronounce “sh” differently in the two words “shoe” and “she” is because
a. of the immediate context of the “sh” sound
b. of the stress of the sounds that precede the “sh”.
c. of the regional accent of the speaker
d. shoe has four letters and she has only three.
37. Which of the following is NOT one of the questions that can be used to determine the morphological form
of a language?
a. Does a word divide into smaller meaningful parts?
b. Are the boundaries between meaningful units clear?
c. Does each morpheme express a single meaning?
d. Does the language use suffixes?
38. Which of the following languages is the most isolating?
a. English
b. Latin
c. Turkish
d. Chinese
39. The word “goody-goody” resulted from the process of
a. prefixation
b. blending
c. clipping
d. reduplication
40. Adding “When” at the beginning of “the students took the test” creates a/an
a. verb phrase
b. prepositional phrase
c. independent clause
d. dependent clause
Definition/Identification: Define/identify the following terms/concepts as they are used in the context of
this class. (5 points each)
41. Semantics
42. Referential meaning
43. Phonetics
39. Morphology
40. Syntax
Essay: Write a concise, well-organized answer to ONE of the following two questions. (10 points each)
41. Our ability to describe how consonants are made depends on knowledge of three aspects of sound
articulation. Name and define at least two of these. Give two examples of consonant sounds that differ
from one another and describe how they differ using both of the aspects you have identified.
OR
42. Our ability to describe how vowels are made depends on knowledge of three aspects of how the sounds are
made. Give at least two of these aspects. Give two examples of vowel sounds that differ from one another
and describe how they differ using both of the aspects you have defined.
Essay: Write a concise, well-organized answer to ONE of the following two questions. (10 points each)
43. There are two general types of morphology. What are they? Compare and contrast the two types and give
an example of each. What does each contribute to language processes?
OR
44. The terms phoneme and allophone, and morpheme and allomorph refer to parallel sets of concepts in
phonology and morphology. Define each of these terms and tell how they relate to one another. Explain
the analogy between the two sets of terms.