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25 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
A word, usage, or pronunciation not used by educated speakers is _____ English.
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NONSTANDARD
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1. Old English
2. Middle English 3. Early Modern English 4. Late Modern English |
1. A.D. 450-1150
2. 1150-1475 3. 1475-1700 4. 1700 to present |
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What are the three major American regional dialects?
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SOUTHERN
GENERAL AMERICAN NEW ENGLAND |
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Mary, marry, and merry are homonyms in the New England dialect.
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FALSE
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The language of the Normans was Old Norse.
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FALSE
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Modern English is a highly inflected (synthetic) language.
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FALSE
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Of the American dialects, the Southern dialect is the closest to British English
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FALSE
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A sentence composed of nonsense words can have grammatical meaning.
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TRUE
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Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" was written in formal English.
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TRUE
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All words that sound old fashioned are obsolete.
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FALSE
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Which of the following contribute to reduction of distinctions in dialects?
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MASS COMMUNICATION
TELEPHONE |
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A word that loses respectability undergoes _____.
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PEJORATION
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The ch in chronicle is a hint that the word is ultimately derived from _____.
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GREEK
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William Caxton was the first English _____.
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PRINTER
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The relationship of word parts is called _____.
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MORPHOLOGY
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The word gotten is an example of _____.
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AN AMERICANISM
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Informal English is appropriate in _____.
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FICTIONAL DIALOGUE
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Identify the mood of the following sentence.
Go home. |
IMPERATIVE
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The comparative ending -er is
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AN INFLECTION
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Latin, Greek, English, Dutch, and Spanish are all ____ languages.
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INDO-EUROPEAN
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The type of meaning change shown by board, a piece of lumber, becoming board, a group of officials, is ____.
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GENERALIZATION
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Since 1900, the most important influence on English has been _____.
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TECHNOLOGY
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A specialized form of informal English used by tradespeople among themselves is _____.
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JARGON
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A borrowed word which has been made to resemble English has been _____.
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ANGLICIZED
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The five major ways language can change are _____.
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1) Adaptation - Languages tend to change through daily use, commonly used words tend to change and be simplified more often than seldom used words. e.g. the verb "to be" is highly irregular in almost all languages, mostly because it is in very common usage.
2) Synthesis - Words are borrowed from other languages. e.g. beef and poultry were both synthesized from French to English after the Norman conquest. 3) Standardization - Languages tend to become more "regular" over time. Unusual spellings and conjugations tend toward a standard set of rules - usually the least commonly used words are the ones more quickly standardized. e.g. compare an old English text (Shakespeare, Canterbury Tales) to modern English. 4) Genesis - New words are created to express new ideas. e.g. email, CD-ROM 5) Design - Some languages (notably French) are controlled by an agency which regulates changes to the language. |