25. A_______ involves the deletion of a word-final vowel segment. 26. A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as e__________.
27. The three sets of consonant shifts that Grimm discovered became known collectively as Grimm s L _______.
28. Sound change as a result of sound movement, known as m_______, involves a reversal in position of two adjoining sound segments. 29. B________ is a process by which new words are formed by taking away the supposed suffixes of exiting words.
30. Semantic b________ refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denotation.
31. The original form of a language family that has ceased to exist is called the p_________.
32. Sound a________ refers to the physiological effect of one sound on another. In this process, successive sounds are made identical or similar to one another in terms of place or manner of articulation. 33. In order to reduce the exceptional or irregular morphemes, speakers of a particular language may borrow a rule from one part of the grammar and apply it generally. This phenomenon is called i_________ borrowing.
34. By identifying and comparing similar linguistic forms with similar meanings across related languages, historical linguists reconstruct the proto form in the common ancestral language. This process is called c________ reconstruction.
35. The m ____ rule of adjective agreement has been lost from English. Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:
36. Historical linguistics explores ________________. A. the nature of language B. the causes that lead to change language change C. the relationship between D. all of the above languages
37. Language change is ______________.
A. universal, continuous and, to a large extent, regular and systematic
B. continuous, regular, systematic, but not universal C. universal, continuous, but not regular and systematic
D. always regular and systematic, but not universal and continuous
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38. Modern English period starts roughly _____________. A. from 449 to 1100 B. from 1500 to the present C. from 1100 to the present D. from 1700 to the present 39. Old English dates back to the mid-fifth century when _________. A. the Norman French invaders under William the Conqueror arrived in England
B. the printing technology was invented
C. Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northern Europe D. the Celtic people began to inhabit England
40. Middle English was deeply influenced by ___________. A. Norman French in vocabulary and grammar
B. Greek and Latin because of the European renaissance movement C. Danish languages because Denmark placed a king on the throne of England
D. the Celtic people who were the first inhabitants of England 41. Language change is essentially a matter of change ________. A. in B. in C. in D. in usages collocations meaning grammar
42. In Old and Middle English, both /k/ and /n/ in the word “knight” were pronounced, but in modern English, /k/ in the sound /kn-/ clusters was not pronounced. This phenomenon is known as ________. A. sound addition B. sound loss C. sound shift D. sound movement
43. A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as _____. A. apocope epenthesis parenthesis B. C. D. antithesis
44. 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. B. sound C. sound D. apocope metathesis loss addition
45. _________ is a process of combining two or more words into one lexical unit. A. B. Blending Compounding Abbreviation Derivation C. D.
46. “Wife”, which used to refer to any woman, stands for “a married woman” in modern English. This phenomenon is known as
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________.
A. semantic shift B. semantic broadening C. semantic elevation D. semantic narrowing 47. English language belongs to _________. A. Indo-European Family B. Sino-Tibetan Family C. Austronesian Family D. Afroasiatic Family
48. By analogy to the plural formation of the word “dog-s”, speakers started saying “cows” as the plural of “cow” instead of the earlier plural “kine”. This is the case of _________. A. elaboration B. external borrowing C. sound assimilation D. internal borrowing 49. Morphologcial changes can involve __________. A. the loss of morphological B. the addition of rules morphological rules C. the alteration of D. all of the above morphological rules
50. The most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss of ________.
A. comparative markers B. tense markers C. gender and case markers D. none of the above Ⅳ. Define the following terms: 51. Apocope 52. Metathesis 53. Derivation 54. back-formation narrowing 55. semantic 56. protolanguage 57. haplology 58. epenthesis 59. Compounding 60. Blending broadening 61. semantic 62. semantic shift 63. Great Vowel Shift 65. sound 64. acronym assimilation Ⅴ. Answer the following questions:
66. What is the purpose or significance of the historical study of language?
67. What are the characteristics of the nature of language change? 68. What are the major periods in the history of English?
69. 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 some major sound changes. Illustrate
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these changes with some examples.
71. What are the most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English?
72. What are the causes of language change? Discuss them in detail.
Chapter 8 Sociolinguistics
Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False: 1. Sociolinguistics is the sub-discipline of linguistics that studies social contexts.
2. Language as a means of social communication is a homogeneous system with a homogeneous group of speakers.
3. Language use varies from one speech community to another, from one regional group to another, from one social group to another, and even from one individual to another.
4. The goal of sociolinguistics is to explore the nature of language variation and language use among a variety of speech communities and in different social situations.
5. The linguistic markers that characterize individual social groups may serve as social markers of group membership.
6. From the sociolinguistic perspective, the term “speech variety” can not be used to refer to standard language, vernacular language, dialect or pidgin.
7. Functional speech varieties are known as regional dialects.
8. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its grammar and uses of vocabulary.
9. Geographical barriers are the only source of regional variation of language.
10. A person’s social backgrounds do not exert a shaping influence on his choice of linguistic features.
11. Two speakers of the same language or dialect use their language or dialect in the same way.
12. Every speaker of a language is, in a stricter sense, a speaker of a distinct idiolect.
13. The standard language is a better language than nonstandard languages.
14. A lingua franca can only be used within a particular country for communication among groups of people with different linguistic backgrounds.
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15. Pidgins are linguistically inferior to standard languages.
16. A pidgin usually reflects the influence of the higher, or dominant, language in its lexicon and that of the lower language in their phonology and occasionally syntax.
17. The major difference between a pidgin and a creole is that the former usually has its native speakers while the latter doesn’t. 18. Bilingualism and diglossia mean the same thing.
19. The kind of name or term speakers use to call or refer to someone may indicate something of their social relationship to or personal feelings about that individual.
20. The use of euphemisms has the effect of removing derogatory overtones and the disassociative effect as such is usually long-lasting.
Ⅱ. Fill in each of the blanks below with one word which begins with the letter given:
21. The social group isolated for any given study is called the speech c________.
22. Speech v_________ refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or group of speakers.
23. From the sociolinguistic perspective, a speech variety is no more than a d__________ variety of a language.
24. Language standardization is also called language p_______.
25. Social variation gives rise to s_________ which are subdivisible into smaller speech categories that reflect their socioeconomic, educational, occupational background, etc.
26. S_______ variation in a person’s speech or writing usually ranges on a continuum from casual or colloquial to formal or polite according to the type of communicative situation.
27. A regional dialect may gain status and become standardized as the national or o________ language of a country.
28. The standard language is a s_________, socially prestigious dialect of language.
29. Language varieties other than the standard are called nonstandard, or v_______ languages.
30. A pidgin typically lacks in i_______ morphemes. 31. Linguistic taboo reflects s_________ taboo.
32. The avoidance of using taboo language mirrors social attitudes, emotions and value judgments and has no l_________ basis.
Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice
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