语言学单元自测7

Chapter 7

：

Historical Linguistics

I.

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 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.

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.

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 development of English

are the loss and addition of affixes.

11.

In Old English, the morphosyntactic rule of adjective agreement stipulated that the endings

of adjective

gender.

12.

The word order of Modern English is more variable than that of Old English.

13.

Derivati on refers to the process by which new words are formed by the additi on of affixes

to the roots, stems, or words.

must agree with the head noun in case, number and

14.

“

Smog is a word formed by the word -forming process called acronymy.

15.

“

fridge

”

is a word formed by abbreviation.

16.

Modern linguists

are able to provide a consistent account for the exact causes

of all types of Ian guage cha nge.

17.

Sound assimilation

maybring about the loss of one of two phonetically similar

syllables in seque nee, as in the case of cha nge of

“

En gla- la nd

”

to

“

En gla nd

18.

Rule elaborati on occurs whe n there is a n eed to reduce ambiguity and in crease com

muni cative clarity or expressive ness.

19.

Language change is always a change towards the simplification of Ianguage rules

20.

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 the

letter give n:

21.

H _______ linguistics is the subfield of

cha nge.

22.

The historical study of Ian guage is a d

_____

study of Ian guage rather

than a synchronic study.

23.

European R

_

______

Movement separates the period of Middle English from that

of moder n En glish.

24.

An important set of extensive sound changes, which affected 7 long or tense vowels and

which led to one of the major discrepa ncies betwee n pho nemic

representations

of words and morphemes at the end of the Middle English Period,

linguistics

that studies Ianguage

is known as the Great V

______ Shift.

25.

A

______ in volves the deleti on of a word-fi nal vowel segme nt.

26.

A cha nge that in volves the in serti on 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 ____

.

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28.

Sound cha nge as a result of sound moveme nt, known as m _____, in volves a

reversal in positi on of two adjoining sound segme nts.

29.

B

______ is a process by which new words are formed by tak ing away the

supposed suffixes of exit ing words.

30.

Sema ntic b ______ refers to the process in which the meaning of a word

becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denotation.

31.

The origi nal form of a Ian guage 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 Ian guage may borrow a rule from one part of the grammar and apply it gen erally.

This phe nomenon is called i __________________

borrow ing.

34.

By identifying

and comparing similar linguistic forms with similar meanings

across related Ian guages, historical li nguists recon struct the proto form in

the comm onan cestral Ian guage. This process is called c

____________ rec on structi on.

35.

The m

___ rule of adjective agreeme nt has bee n lost from En glish.

III.

There are four choices following

each statement. Mark the choice that can

best complete the stateme nt:

36.

Historical li nguistics explores ______________

.

A.

the n ature of Ian guage cha nge B. the causes that lead to Ian guage cha nge

C. the relati on ship betwee n Ian guages D. all of the above

37.

Lan guage cha nge is

___________ .

A.

universal, continuous and ,to a large extent, regular and systematic

B.

continuous, regular, systematic, but not universal

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C.

uni versal, con ti nu ous, but not regular and systematic

D.

always regular and systematic, but not uni versal and continu ous

38.

Moder n En glish period starts roughly ___________

.

A.

from 449 to 1100 B. from 1500 to the prese nt

C. from 1100 to the present D. from 1700 to the present

39.

Old En glish dates back to the mid- fifth cen tury whe n

______ .

A.

the Norman French invaders under William the Conqueror arrived in England

B.

the printing tech no logy was inven ted

C.

Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northern Europe

D.

the Celtic people bega n to in habit En gla nd

40.

Middle En glish was deeply in flue need by

_______

.

A.

Norma n French in vocabulary and grammar

B.

Greek and Lat in because of the Europea n ren aissa nee moveme nt

C.

Danish Ian guages because Denmark placed a king on the throne of En gla nd

D.

the Celtic people who were the first inhabitants of England

41.

Lan guage cha nge is esse ntially a matter of cha nge

_____ .

A. i n collocati ons B. i n mea ning

C. in grammar D. in usages

42.

In Old and Middle English, both /k/ and /n/ in the word

“

knight

”

were

pronoun ced, but in moder n En glish, /k/ in the sound /kn-/ clusters was not

pronoun ced. This phe nomenon is known as ______

.

A. sound additi on B. sound loss

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C. sound shift D. sound moveme nt

43.

A cha nge that in volves the in serti on of a consonant or vowel sound to the

middle of a word is known as

_____

.

A. apocope B. epe nthesis

C. pare nthesis D. an tithesis

44.

Segme nt switch of sound positi ons can be see n in the example of the moder n

word

“

bird

”

which comes from the old English word

“

bridd

”

. The change of

the word from

“

bridd

”

to

“

bird

”

is a case of ________________ .

A. metathesis B. sound loss

C. sound additi on D. apocope

45.

________ is a process of combining two or more words into one lexical unit.

A. Derivation B. Ble nding

C. Compo unding D. Abbreviati on

46.

“

Wife

”

, which used 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 ning

C. sema ntic elevati on D. sema ntic n arrow ing

47.

En glish Ian guage bel ongs to ______ .

A. In do-Europea n Family B. Sino-Tibeta n Family

C. Austr on esia n Family D. Afroasiatic Family

48.

By analogy to the plural formation of the

word

“

, speakers started

say ing

“

cows

as the plural of

“

coW' in stead of the earlier plural

“

kine

This is the case of

________ .

A. elaborati on B. exter nal borrow ing

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C. sound assimilati on D. internal borrow ing

49.

Morphologcial cha nges can in volve

________

.

A.

the loss of morphological rules

B.

the additi on of morphological rules

C.

the alteration of morphological rules

D.

all of the above

50.

The most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss of

_

______

.

A. comparative markers B. tense markers

C. gen der and case markers D. none of the above

IV.

Define the following terms:

51.

Apocope 52. Metathesis 53. Derivati on

54. back-formati on 55. sema ntic n arrow ing a nguage

57. haplology 58. epe nthesis 59. Compo unding

60. Blending 61. semantic broadening 62. semantic shift

63.

Great Vowel Shift 64. acronym 65. sound assimilation

V.

An swer the follow ing questi ons:

66.

What is the purpose or sig nifica nee of the historical study of Ian guage ?

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