Practice Questions

1. What is linguistics?
2. What are the aims of linguistics?
3. What are the four main criteria which make linguistics a science? Explain them
4. What are the main differences between modern and traditional western schools of linguistics?
5. Explain the difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar.
6. What is the primary subject matter of modern linguistics, spoken or written language? Why?
7. Who is Panini? What is his contribution to linguistics? (short answer)
8. What are the reasons behind the emergence of ancient Arabic linguistics?
9. Who is Sibawayhi? What is his main contribution to linguistics? (short answer)
10. Who is Ibn Jinni? What is his main contribution to linguistics? (short answer)
11. Outline in a short paragraph the theory of structural linguistics?
12. What was structuralism criticized for?
13. Explain the difference between ‘parole’ and ‘langue’.
14. Explain the difference between diachronic linguistics and synchronic linguistics.
15. What is Functionalism in linguistics?
16. Explain the contrast between ‘competence’ and ‘performance’.
17. Explain the differences between the functionalist and the mentalist schools.
18. What does Chomsky mean by Language Acquisition Device (LAD)?
19. Give a definition of phonology.
20. State the key contrast between applied linguistics and linguistics in general.
21. Give two fields which applied linguistics works on. Explain.
22. List the main aims of sociolinguistics?
23. How does a pidgin become a creole?
24. Match the type of grammar to its reaction towards the following sentence.
I’m gonna work now.
a. Descriptive grammar 1. It is correct. It is used by native speakers.
b. Prescriptive grammar 2. It shouldn’t be used especially in formal speaking and writing.
25. State whether the following study is synchronic or diachronic. Justify why.
The Status of French language in Morocco.
26. Define phonetics.
27. In what way does a sound differ from a letter?
28. What is articulatory phonetics?
29. List the places of articulation and give one example of each.
30. List 5 manners of articulation and explain them.
31. State the contrast between phonetics and phonology.
32. Identify the sounds in contrast (phonemes) in the following minimal pairs and justify.
a. tea /ti:/ & see /si:/
b. How /haʊ/ & hi /hai/
33. Does the following pair of words form a minimal pair? Explain.
 neighbour /ˈneɪbər/ & cyber /ˈsaɪbər/
34. What does ‘allophone’ mean? Give an example.
35. Explain forensic phonetics.
36. Define ‘free variation’ and give an example from English language.
37. Explain ‘assimilation’ in phonology and give an example.
38. Explain ‘elision’ in phonology and give an example.
39. Explain ‘insertion’ in phonology and give an example.
40. Define morphology and give an example.
 41. What is the difference between functional and lexical morphemes? Give examples of each type.
42. What is the difference between inflectional and derivational morphemes? Give examples.
43. Cut the word ‘winners’ into 1. Root and 2. Stem. Explain.
44. Cut the word ‘untouched’ into 1. Root and 2. Stem. Explain.
Example: agreements 1. ‘agree’ is the root with {-ment}= derivational suffix and {plural-s}
inflectional suffix removed. 2. ‘agreement’ is the stem with {plural -s} inflectional suffix removed
45. Identify the morpheme (s) added to the root in ‘afterlife’. Is it derivational or inflectional?
46. Identify the morpheme (s) added to the root in ‘impermeable’. Is it derivational or inflectional?
47. Identify the morpheme (s) added to the root in ‘unforgettable’. Is it derivational or inflectional?
48. Analyse the word “reappearance” and state the nature of its different morphemes.
49. Analyse the word “unfortunately” and state the nature of its different morphemes.
50. Analyse the word “overdone” and state the nature of its different morphemes.
51. Analyse the word “disagreement” and state the nature of its different morphemes
52. Analyse the word “meaningless” and state the nature of its different morphemes
53. Analyse the word “better” and state the nature of its different morphemes
54. Give the different allomorphs of the past {-ed} and give examples
55. Give the different allomorphs of the negative {-in} as in ‘incapable’ and give examples
56. Give the different allomorphs of the third-person singular {-s}.
57. What do ‘meronym’ and ‘hyponym’ mean? Give an example of each.
58. This sentence is ambiguous. Illustrate the two meanings on two different tree diagrams.
Young boys and girls study seriously.
59. This sentence is ambiguous. Represent the two meanings on two different tree diagrams.
The boy saw the man with a telescope.
60. This sentence is ambiguous. Represent the two meanings on two different tree diagrams.
The American history teacher will give a lecture.

Example:

Ambiguous sentence: The teacher spoke to the boy with a smile.

Questions: Who is smiling, the teacher or the boy? So, there are two meanings?
Two meanings:
Meaning1: the teacher spoke to the smiling boy. Meaning 2: the teacher was smiling as he was speaking
to the boy.

More ambiguous sentences: ( to be corrected in class)

He has coloured pictures
Egyptian cotton shirts are expensive.
Jane hid the letter from Dan
He likes raw vegetables and meat