VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

Full name: ............................................................................

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE
Student ID: ...........................................................................
FULL-TIME PROGRAMME

FINAL EXAMINATION
INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
Time Allotted: 60 minutes

Approved by Vice Dept. Chair Proctor

(CBCT) Examiner Total Score
(100%)

1. 1. Score in figures:

2. 2. Score in words:

Notes: NO materials or dictionaries are allowed.

Students write their answers on the answer sheet.

Page 1 of 8
Student’s full name: …......................................................................... Student ID: …..................................................................s

FINAL EXAMINATION
INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

SECTION 1. PHONETICS A. CONSONANTS

10 points – 2 points/correct answer
 Read the consonantal descriptions carefully and decide what consonant is being referred to.
 Form the phonemic structure by combining all phonemes
 Write the word for each of the phonemic transcription

Example:
Phonemic structure Word
[primary stress]
voiced
0 ə əʊ ə'gəʊ ago
velar
stop
[primary stress]
voiced voiced
voiceless
1 ɪ bilabial alveolar aɪ
bilabial
nasal liquid
plosive
[primary stress]
voiced voiceless voiceless voiceless
2 alveolar iː labiodental e velar alveolar
stop fricative stop stop

[primary stress] voiced voiced voiceless

3 æ bilabial bilabial ʊ post-alveolar
nasal stop fricative
[primary stress]
voiced voiceless voiceless
4 post-alveolar e alveolar post-alveolar ə
affricate fricative affricate

[primary stress]
voiced
voiced voiceless voiced voiceless
post-
5 bilabial e dental alveolar ə alveolar
alveolar
stop fricative liquid fricative
liquid

ANSWER:

Phonemic structure Word

5
Page 2 of 8
SECTION 2. PHONETICS B. VOWELS
10 points – 1 point/correct answer
 Choose the correct options (A-H) to indicate the vowels of the underlined part of each word.
 Write your answers on the answer sheet.

A C
1. leap 6. profitable
B D 2. cost 7. footwear
3. camera 8. specimens
H 4. hashtag 9. Turkish
F 5. reported 10 marvelous
E
G
ANSWERS:
J
1. 6.
L
2. 7.
I K 3. 8.
4. 9.
5. 10

SECTION 3. PHONOLOGY
10 points – 2 points/correct answer
 Find another word to finish the minimal pairs.

 Example: sheep --- leap

1. hate

2. tale

3. meal

4. rude

5. tomb

Page 3 of 8
SECTION 4. WORD-FOMATION PROCESSES
10 points – 1 point/correct answer
 Identify the main word-formation process involved in the creation of the highlighted word.
 Write your answer (A, B, C, or D) on the answer sheet.

1. We spent the afternoon in idle chit-chat.

A. alphabetism B. clipping C. reduplication D. onomatopoeia
2. We ordered pretty nearly every appetizer and every entrée. YOLO!
A. coinage B. acronymy C. eponymy D. affixation
3. Tomorrow we’ll have a lie-in and then go out for brunch.
A. compounding B. clipping C. blending D. onomatopoeia
4. I won’t have anything to do with spiritualism, ghosts and all that mumbo jumbo.
A. reduplication B. eponymy C. onomatopoeia D. calque
5. The taxi nosed its way back into the traffic.
A. conversion B. reduplication C. compounding D. blending
6. A Caesar salad is a green salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with lemon juice (or lime juice), olive oil, egg,
Worcestershire sauce, anchovies, garlic, Dijon mustard, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper.
A. coinage B. acronymy C. eponymy D. blending
7. Flu shots are recommended for people 55 and older.
A. clipping B. affixation C. acronymy D. reduplication
8. Of course, I have to keep slim for my hubby.
A. blending B. conversion C. calque D. hypocorism
9. For most of us, the clickety clack of a manual typewriter — or the gentler tapping of the IBM Selectric — are but
memories, or something seen only in movies.
A. onomatopoeia B. acronymy C. eponymy D. blending
10. Sewing, shopping, and beautifying themselves were the only activities that gave well-to-do women any outlet for
personal expression.
A. coinage B. acronymy C. eponymy D. affixation

ANSWER:

1 6

2 7

3 8

4 9

Page 4 of 8
5 10

SECTION 5. MORPHOLOGY
10 points – 1 point/correct answer
 Choose the correct option.
 Write your answer (A, B, C, or D) on the answer sheet.

1. Which word contains an inflectional morpheme?

A. interdependence B. younger C. lovely D. renunciation
2. What is the final morpheme to be added in the creation of the word “extralinguistically”?
A. extra- B. ling- C. -ic D. -ly
3. What is the correct way of forming the word “unfriendliness”
A. friend B. friend C. friend D. friend
friendly unfriend friendly friendly
unfriendly unfriendly friendliness unfriendliness
unfriendliness unfriendliness unfriendliness
4. What is the correct way of forming the word “invisibility”
A. visible B. -vis- C. -vis- D. visible
visibility invis- visible invisible
invisibility invisible invisible invisibility
invisibility invisibility
5. Which word contains an allomorph of the morpheme “past participle”?
A. worked B. splashing C. comes D. gone
6. Which word contains a free morpheme?
A. gastritis B. televise C. portable D. formation
7. Which of the following words contains a bound morpheme?
A. inclusion B. schoolgirl C. green-house D. sandwich
8. Which word contains 3 morphemes?
A. interchangeable B. unfriendliness C. bewilderedness D. extraterrestrials
9. Which of the following words contains a derivational morpheme?
A. matter B. faster C. thinner D. goer
10. Which word contains an allomorph of the morpheme “plural”?
A. mathematics B. mouse C. interlocutor D. appendices

ANSWER:

1 6

Page 5 of 8
 2 7

3 8

4 9

5 10

ECTION 6. SYNTAX
0 points –2.5 points/ correct interpretation. There are totally 4 interpretations for 2 sentences.
 The following sentences are either structurally or semantically ambiguous (i.e. more than one interpretation is possible.)
 Read the sentences carefully and explain the ambiguity by writing complete explaining sentences in the answer sheet.

1. Call me a cab!

2. He looked at the dog with one eye.

ANSWER:

1. Call me a cab!

Interpretation 1:

Interpretation 2:

2. He looked at the dog with one eye.

Interpretation 1:

Interpretation 2:

ECTION 7. SEMANTICS
0 points – 1 point/correct answer
 Identify the lexical relation between the highlighted words in each of the following sentences.
 Write your answer on the answer sheet.

1 Lotus is a tropical plant with white or pink flowers that grows on the surface of lakes in Africa and Asia.

2 Do not let the kitchen sink sink into the water.

3 She shed a tear when she has to tear up the photos.

Snake: any of more than 3,400 species of reptiles distinguished by their limbless condition and greatly elongated body
4
and tail.

Page 6 of 8
 5 Too humble is half proud.

6 We bought the final tickets and caught the last bus home.

7 I never look at anyone right in the eye.

The big money is not in the buying and selling ... but in the waiting.
8
(Charlie Munger)

9 The capital of Egypt should be written in capital letters.

I'm off the deep end, watch as I dive in

I'll never meet the ground
10
Crash through the surface, where they can't hurt us
We're far from the shallow now

ANSWER:

1 6

2 7

3 8

4 9

5 10

ECTION 8. PRAGMATICS
0 points – 2 points/correct answer
 Identify the core presuppositions of the following sentences.
 Write your answers on the answer sheet.

1. “Have you stopped playing piano, John?”

2. “Peter wanted a new bike”

3. “Mary, where’re your shoes?”

4. John: I wish I killed the beast!

5. Peter: I had the books!

ANSWER:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Page 7 of 8
- - - THIS IS THE END OF THE TEST - - -

Page 8 of 8