Linguistics Quiz: Antonyms and Affixes

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Questions and Answers

Which of the following types of antonyms describes pairs that exhaust all linguistic possibilities along some dimension?

Converse Antonyms

Binary Antonyms (correct)

Gradable Antonyms

Complex Antonyms

What is the term for the list of characteristics that describe a typical member of a referring expression?

Stereotype (correct)

Prototype

Coreference

Referent

Which term refers to a linguistic expression that points to another linguistic expression?

Coreference

Anaphora (correct)

Extension

Deixis

Which type of truth is represented by a sentence that is necessarily true by virtue of the words it contains?

Analytic Sentence Signup and view all the answers

What is the systematic denotation of a linguistic expression as part of a language called?

Linguistic-Reference Signup and view all the answers

What are the two types of inflectional affixes added to nouns?

Plural and Possessive Signup and view all the answers

Which suffix would be added to create the superlative form of an adjective?

-est Signup and view all the answers

What is the term for the part of a word that remains after removing the last suffix or prefix?

Stem Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a characteristic of allomorphs?

They have the same meaning but different forms. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following examples demonstrates phonological conditioning in allomorphs?

Boxes and Bushes Signup and view all the answers

What type of affix can create an infinite number of variations in word formation?

Derivational affixes Signup and view all the answers

What is the absolute stem of a word?

A single morpheme with all affixes removed Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary requirement for a verb phrase?

It must contain a verb. Signup and view all the answers

Which phrase consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase?

Prepositional phrase Signup and view all the answers

What does recursion in phrase structure allow?

Embedding phrases within other phrases. Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference between a sentence and an utterance?

A sentence is an abstract concept, while an utterance is a real language use. Signup and view all the answers

What do tree diagrams help to visualize?

The relationship between components in a phrase. Signup and view all the answers

Which element is NOT part of an adjective phrase?

Noun phrase Signup and view all the answers

Which term refers to the operation of moving categories within a structure?

Transformation Signup and view all the answers

What does lexical decomposition help to analyze?

The sense of a word through its semantic features. Signup and view all the answers

Which statement about a verb phrase is accurate?

It may include a prepositional phrase but not necessarily. Signup and view all the answers

What is the study of semantics primarily concerned with?

The meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. Signup and view all the answers

What are the two areas into which the study of sense can be divided?

Speaker-sense and Linguistic-sense Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following words is an example of homonymy?

Ball (round object) and Ball (event) Signup and view all the answers

What characterizes a lexically ambiguous word?

It has more than one unrelated sense Signup and view all the answers

What defines synonymy?

Two words have the same values for all semantic features Signup and view all the answers

A superordinate term is best defined as:

A term that contains the meaning of a more specific term Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following pairs exemplifies polysemy?

Leg (of a person) and Leg (of a table) Signup and view all the answers

Which statement about absolute synonyms is accurate?

They do not exist in any language Signup and view all the answers

How does ambiguity differ from synonymy?

Ambiguity involves more than one meaning, while synonymy involves sameness of sense Signup and view all the answers

What is linguistic sense concerned with?

The literal meaning of language expressions Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following describes speaker-sense?

The speaker's intention in communication Signup and view all the answers

What is epenthesis in linguistic terms?

The insertion of a syllable within an existing string. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following describes metathesis?

Switching the positions of two segments. Signup and view all the answers

What are phrases in the context of syntactic structures?

Constituents that may consist of more than one word. Signup and view all the answers

Which structure involves a subject and a predicate?

Structure of Prediction. Signup and view all the answers

What role do grammatical functions serve in a sentence?

They identify what constituents may perform in a sentence. Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'left-to-right ordering' refer to in syntactic structures?

The sequence of words in a sentence. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is true about PS (Phrase Structure) rules?

They describe the phrasal category and its components. Signup and view all the answers

What is the minimum requirement for a noun phrase (NP)?

It must contain a noun. Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of a predicate in a sentence?

It expresses an action or state. Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Components of Language

Phonology, phonetics, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics are components of language.
Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

Main Tasks of Phonetics

Provide a notation and description for each speech sound; these are transcription symbols to record speech accurately.
Describe the characteristics of speech sounds. International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a transcription system with symbols for hundreds of speech sounds.

Three Branches of Phonetics

Articulatory Phonetics: The oldest branch examining vocal organs and their role in producing speech sounds.
Acoustic Phonetics: Deals with the physical properties of speech sounds as they travel through the air.
Auditory Phonetics: Examines how humans perceive speech sounds through the ear.

The Vocal Tract

Speech is produced by pushing air from the lungs through the vocal tract, manipulating variables like vocal cord vibration, velum position (mouth/nose air flow), and airflow blockage.
Variables include movement of lips, teeth, tongue, alveolar ridge, palate, velum, uvula, pharynx.

Phonology

The study of the sound system of a language, including pronunciation rules.
Focuses on phonemes (abstract minimal sound units distinguishing words).
Uses minimal pairs to identify phonemes (e.g., "pat" and "bat").

Vowel Phonemes

Classified by tongue height (high, mid, low), frontness/backness, lip rounding, and tenseness.
Vowel chart displays high-to-low, front-to-back placement of the tongue.

Consonant Phonemes

Classified by place and manner of articulation.
Place of Articulation: Location of constriction in the vocal tract (bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal).
Manner of Articulation: Type of constriction (stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, liquids, glides).

Morphology

The study of morphemes (smallest meaningful units of language) and how they combine to form words.
Morphemes are categorized into lexical (meaningful stand-alone like "cat") and grammatical (relationship words "the," "in").
Derivational morphemes are prefixes and suffixes changing word meaning and grammatical class
Inflectional morphemes are suffixes only, changing word form (plural, past tense).
Examining word structure, word formation.

Word-Formation Processes

Derivation: Adding derivational affixes to change the syntactic category of a word.
Category Extension: Expanding a morpheme's use from one part of speech to another.
Compounding: Combining free morphemes to form new words.
Root Creation: Creating new words without using existing morphemes.
Clipping: Shortening existing words,
Blending: Combining parts of two words,
Acronyms: Using initial letters of a phrase,
Abbreviation: Shortening word using initial letters of prominent.
Proper Names: Using proper nouns to form new words.
Folk Etymology: Changing a word's form to seem more familiar; modifying existing words for unfamiliar forms.
Back Formation: Removing a mistaken affix from a word.
Assimilation: Sounds become more similar to nearby sounds.
Dissimilation: Sounds become less similar.
Deletion: Removing a sound segment within an existing segment
Epenthesis: Inserting a syllable.
Metathesis: Reordering sounds .

Semantics

The study of meaning in language (words, phrases, and sentences).
Lexical Decomposition: Representing a word's meaning in terms of semantic features.
Sense Relations: Concepts like synonymy (same sense), antonymy (opposite sense), hyponymy (part/whole), polysemy (multiple meanings for word).

Syntax

The study of sentence structure, phrases, and clauses in a sentence.
Constituents: Parts of a sentence grouped by phrase structure.
Phrase structure rules: Describe how phrases are constructed and ordered.
Transformational rules: Explain how phrases are moved or changed in syntax.

Pragmatics

The study of language use in context, including speaker's intent and hearer's interpretation.
Implicature: Implied meaning beyond the literal meaning of an utterance.
Cooperative Principle: Guiding principles of conversation (quantity, quality, relation, manner).
Speech acts: Actions performed through utterances (locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary).
Flouting: Intentionally violating conversational maxims to convey an underlying meaning

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Description

Test your knowledge on linguistics with this quiz that covers antonyms, inflectional affixes, and word formation. You'll tackle questions about linguistic expressions, truth types, and characteristics of allomorphs. Challenge yourself and see how well you understand these key concepts in language.