Basic Linguistic Terms

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. What is the correct term for the omission of a final syllable, sound or letter in a word as e.g. in a cup o' tea where f is dropped? Elision Apocope Clipping Liaison

2. Initialisms are spoken as individual letters. USA and BBC are initialisms. Nato, Unesco are not because you pronounce these 'letterwords' as single words. Which of these terms is a correct synonym for an initialism? Acronym Literalism Blend Alphabetism

3. When you use the word Cologne for Koeln in Germany then you are using the non-local version of a placename. Same applies to Milan for Milano; Prague for Praha, The Hague for Den Haag; etc. What is the linguistic name for such a NON-local version of a placename? Anglicanism Allonym Exonym Anglicism

4. In Spanish and French an e is often added to words that in Latin began in sch. Escuela, escole (later: ecole) for schola. What's the technical term for such an addition at the beginning of words? Syncope Epenthesis Prothesis Assimilation

5. The German word for potatoes was originally Tartuffeln related to tartufoli 'truffles'. The initial T became a K: Kartoffeln. Of what language change phenomenon is that an example? Dissimilation Metathesis Assimilation Syncope

6. It is it said by a famous 'linguistic law' that voiceless 'plosives' such as p, t, k in Latin or Greek will normally become voiceless 'fricatives' in English ( f, th, ch). In other words pater, piscis become father, fish. Tres becomes three. Cornu; cor become horn, heart. Who 'discovered' this 'law' ? Jakob Grimm Ferdinand de Saussure Noam Chomsky Karl Verner

7. Which of these types of linguistics applies linguistic theories and methods to the analysis of disorders of spoken, written or signed language? Clinical linguistics Neurolinguistics Applied linguistics Ethnolinguistics

8. In language study various abbreviations are used to refer to certain specific types of language study. EIL is English as an International Language , nl. for purposes of international communication. EAP is English for Academic Purposes. EOP is English for Occupational Purposes. ESP : English for Special Purposes as contrasted to EGP English for General Purposes. EFL : English as a Foreign Language. Which of the following terms and abbreviations is the only one that is correct for the language preferred in a multilingual situation, whether it is the first acquired or not ? MT or Mother Tongue NL or Native Language L1 or First Language NNL or Non-Native Language

9. Words may develop from a neutral meaning to a worse or a better meaning. Villain e.g. originally meant :farm labourer.Or from bad to neutral or less bad as 'mischievous' that developed from 'disastrous' to 'slightly annoying'. Words may also be reshaped because of popular misunderstanding such as a. 'bride-goom' from bride + guma (man) into bridegroom (literally the bride's serving lad) or b. asparagus being misnamed sparrow-grass. What is the correct name for such an evolution as in a. or b. ? Amelioration Folk etymology Deterioration Pejoration

10. Which of these terms refers to a type of fabricated and non-meaningful speech and is often when associated with a trance state as in the so-called 'speaking in tongues'? Pidgin Baby-talk Glossolalia Gobbledegook