Introduction to Linguistics

1. Which of the following theories is based on the notion that speech began with interjections or spontaneous
cries of pain?
A. The bow-wow theory B. The pooh-pooh theory
C. The la-la theory D. The yo-he-ho theory

2. Regarding Phonetics, which of the following is NOT a MANNER of articulation?

A. Nasal B. Glide C. Affricate D. Palatal (Place)

3. Which of the following sounds is NOT a voiceless sound?

A. /p/ B. /t/ C. /ŋ/ D. /tʃ/

4. How many diphthongs are there in English?

A. 6 B. 8 C. 10 D. 12

5. Which of the following sounds is NOT an alveolar voiced consonant?

A. /ʒ/ B. /z/ C. /d/ D. /n/

6. All of these sounds are fricative consonants, except for __________

A. /θ/ B. /v/ C. /g/ D. /f/

7. When the vocal folds are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded (unstoppable).
Sounds produced in this way are described as ________
A. voiced B. voiceless C. long vowels D. short vowels

8. How many voiceless consonant sounds are there in the IPA?

A. 7 B. 8 C. 9 D. 11

9. Which of the following words DOES NOT CONTAIN the /ʌ/ sound?
A. sputter /ˈspʌtə/ B. butcher /ˈbʊʧə/ C. nothing /ˈnʌθɪŋ/ D. gutter /ˈɡʌtə/

10. The sound /ʃ/ can be characterized as _________

A. [+voiced, +alveolar, +fricative]
B. [-voiced, +palatal, +affricate]
C. [-voiced, +palatal, +fricative]
D. [+voiced, +dental, +plosive (stop)]

11. Which of the following vowels is a rounded one?

A. /æ/ B. /e/ C. /u:/ D. /ɪ/

12. Which of the following is NOT a minimal pair?

A. stable – staple /ˈsteɪbᵊl – ˈsteɪpᵊl/

B. bad – ban /bæd – bæn/

C. cheese – she’s /ʧiːz – ʃiːz/

D. chip – jeep /ʧɪp – ʤiːp/

13. Which of the following is a False minimal pair?

A. heart – hard /hɑːt – hɑːd/

B. hack – hag /hæk – hæɡ/

C. woe – who /wəʊ – huː/

D. thin – thing /θɪn – θɪŋ/

14. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. In an open syllable, the vowel is the last letter.
B. Closed syllables are the ones which end in a coda.
C. English can have up to three initial clusters.
D. English can have up to five final clusters. (The maximum English final cluster can have up to only 4, not 5)

15. The syllable in "Sixths" can be described as ________ /sɪksθs/

A. CVCCCC B. CVCCC C. CCVCCC D. CVCVC

16. The syllable in "mosque" can be described as ________ /mɒsk/

A. CVC B. CCVC C. CVCC D. CCCV

17. ________ refers to the scientific study of speech sound of a language in general.
A. Phonetics B. Phonology C. Phonotactics D. Phononetics

18. How many bound morphemes are there in the word "insurmountably"?
A. 3 B. 4 C. 6 D. 5
(In-, sur-, -able, -ly)

19. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. "Début" and "fiancé" are examples of words borrowed from French.
B. The most common reason for a language to borrow words is to fill lexical and semantic gaps.
C. "Ice-cream", "greenhouse", and "merry-go-round" are examples of compounding process.
D. "Brunch", "motel", and "fridge" are examples of the blending process in word formation. (the word “fridge”
itself is an English word and it doesn’t blend any other word)

20. Which of the following statements is False?

A. Derivation is the most common word-formation process in English.
B. The process of Derivation involves the use of affixes.
C. There are four affixes in the word "biodegradable". (there are only 3 affixes: bio-, de- and -able)
D. Affixes can be broken down into prefixes (e.g. pre-), infixes, and suffixes (e.g. -ment).

21. Which of the following words has the most syllables?

A. itinerary /aɪˈtɪnᵊrᵊri/ 5

B. communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/ 4

C. professional /prəˈfɛʃᵊnᵊl/ 4

D. exaggerate /ɪɡˈzæʤəreɪt/ 4
22. Which of the following words corresponds to the tree diagram?

A. resettlement B. rehospitalization
C. unexpectedness D. denationalization

23. How many functional morphemes are there in the following sentence: "Seeing a tiger, the man ran away
and shouted loudly."?
A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 5
2 articles: “a” and “the”
1 preposition: “away”
1 conjunction: “and”

24. In the sentence "Feeling scared, the little fish dived deep into the sea", the word "deep" is a/an __________
A. adjective B. adverb C. noun D. interjection

25. Which of the following sentences corresponds to the tree diagram?

A. The man caught a small fish in the pond.
B. The teacher advised her not to stay up late.
C. The police found a porcupine in the garden.
D. The pupil ran very quickly towards to the pole.

26. Which of the following sentences corresponds to the tree diagram?

A. A handsome guy showed me the way to the post office.

B. The small boy saw Peter with a cute kitten recently.
C. A wild dog bites Mary on her ankle yesterday.
D. A nice lady helped Bobby on his way to school lately.

27. Which of the following sentences is grammatically incorrect?

A. The struggles that the mule experiences while climbing the mountain are so intense.
B. Scientists report no human deaths due to excessive caffeine consumption.
C. Mr. Pike did not accept the job offer from Ultimate Mechanics because the salary was too low.
D. Because the fact that it was too freezing outside, I got sick and had to stay at home. (because of)

28. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

A. Words are the smallest units of study in syntax.
B. Morphology studies how words are formed.
C. Pragmatics studies the ways in which meaning contributes to context. (context contributes to meaning)
D. The closeness of the listener or reader determines how much needs to be said.

29. Of the four kinds of contexts, which one refers to what speakers know about the world?
A. Epistemic context B. Physical context
C. Linguistic context D. Social context

30. What a speaker (or writer) assumes is true or known by a listener (or reader) can be described as a/an
A. ego-assumption
B. presupposition
C. appropriateness
D. cataphora

31. Concisely, what are speech acts?

A. Acts of communication that are intended to convey a given intention
B. The language that people use when they do role plays
C. Acts of politeness when people are speaking, like saying 'please'
D. Any act that does not pose a threat to someone's face

32. Which of the following is NOT an example of temporal deixis?

A. then
B. later
C. tomorrow
D. near that (spacial deixis)

33. Taylor Swift is my idol. She appears in my dream every night. In terms of reference, "She" can be referred as
_______
A. cataphora B. antecedent C. anaphora D. inference

34. Which of the following is NOT a direct speech act?

A. Run faster! B. Do the dishes, please!
C. Can you wash the dishes? D. I advise you to wash the dishes.

35. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. "Feeble" and "weak" are synonyms of each other.
B. "Toe" is a meronym of "Foot".
C. "Fruit" is hyponym of "Watermelon".
D. "Amuse" and "bore" are antonyms of each other.
“Fruit” is hypernym of “Watermelon” or “Watermelon” is hyponym of “Fruit”

36. "Be clear, brief and orderly". That refers to the __________
A. Quantity maxim B. Quality maxim C. Manner maxim D. Relation maxim

37. A sentence that contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction is called a
___________
A. Compound sentence B. Complex sentence
C. Simple sentence D. Compound-complex sentence

38. Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

A. Susan is very smart, she began reading when she was three years old.
B. Susan is very smart although she began reading when she was three years old.
C. Susan is very smart because she began reading when she was three years old.
D. Susan is very smart because she began to reading when she was three years old.
39. In which of these following words is the letter "A" NOT pronounced as /æ/?
A. camp /kæmp/ B. various /ˈveəriəs/ C. jabber /ˈʤæbə/ D. gallop /ˈɡæləp/

40. The sentence "Tom is well-known for his touch-me-not-ishness." illustrates the use of __________ in
communication.
A. Etymology B. Word-coinage C. Derivation D. Compounding

41. Which of the following sounds can be characterized as [-voiced, +dental, +fricative]?
A. /tʃ/ B./θ/ C. /ʃ/ D. /f/

42. In the sentence "After a 2-hour discussion, they named their dog Cuckoo.", the phrase "Cuckoo" functions
as a(n) _______.
A. direct object B. indirect object
C. object complement D. subject complement

43. _______ is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning.
A. Semantics B. Phonology C. Pragmatics D. Syntax

44. In the word "DISLOCATION", how many bound morphemes are there?
A. 1 B. 2 C. 3 D. 4

45. Which of the following statement is Incorrect?

A. There are only eight inflectional morphemes in English language.
B. The derivation process involves the utilization of affixes.
C. There are 4 morphemes in the word “insurmountably”.
D. The word “undesirability” has 4 morphemes.

46. Regarding syllable, the word “street” can be described as _____

A. CCCVC B. CCVC C. CCCVVC D. CCCVCC

47. How many morphemes are there in the word "rehospitalizing"?

A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 5

48. Regarding word formation, "ad", "exam", and "flu" are examples of _____.
A. backformation B. clipping C. borrowing D. coinage

49. What is the main verb in the sentence "The guy whose books you borrowed last night crashed into a large
truck which was carrying pipes on Main Street." ?
A. borrowed B. crashed C. carrying D. books

50. Which of the following words has the most morphemes?

A. Affectionately B. Insurmountable C. Denationalization D. Gentlemanly

51. "Veggie" and "Comfy" are 2 examples of _______ regarding word formation process.
A. Acronyms B. Hypocorisms C. Conversion D. Derivation

52. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?

A. /s/ is a voiceless alveolar fricative sound.
B. /k/ is a voiceless velar stop sound.
C. /n/ is a voiced alveolar nasal sound.
D. /b/ is a voiced labiodental stop sound.

53. In the sentence "“The prisoners followed him to the top of the hill”, how many inflectional morphemes are
there?
A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 1

54. Which of the following sentences syntactically fits the tree diagram below?
A. A large formidable eagle snatches a fatty fish.
B. The Prince of Wales visited France in a big helicopter.
C. The Princess of Switzerland leads an unhappy life.
D. A man from Hanoi planned a short visit to HCMC.

55. Which of the following words has NO inflectional morphemes?

A. ingredients B. borrowing C. wonderful D. longest

56. Which TWO of the following sounds are unvoiced alveolar sounds?
A. /p/ and /l/ B. /d/ and /v/ C. /s/ and /t/ D. /g/ and /z/

57. In the sentence "The imposing mountain gave me goose bumps.", the phrase "goose bumps" serves as a(n)
________.
A. direct object B. indirect object
C. complement D. predicate

58. The sentence “She cried bitter tears as she knew the truth about him.” is a __________.
A. simple sentence B. complex sentence
C. compound sentence

59. Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

A. The man visited you last weekend is actually a very well-known actor in the Philippines.
B. A round Japanese wooden writing table was mysteriously delivered to my maternal aunt's house.
C. Although the frighteningly torrential rain downtown, he was able to show up at the luncheon.
D. He was born in Los Angeles however he spent his adulthood in Ho Chi Minh City.

60. Which of the following statements is incorrect?

A. "Tofu" and "fengshui" are borrowed words from Chinese.
B. "Tango" and "Taco" are borrowed words from Spanish.
C. "Renaissance", "genre", and "macho" are borrowed words from French.
D. "Siesta" is a borrowed words from Spanish.

61. A sentence containing at least one main clause and one subordinate clause is called a __________.
A. Complex sentence B. Compound sentence
C. Simple sentence D. Compound-complex sentence

62. In Phonetics, _____ consonants do not require the use of the vocal cords to produce their signature sounds.
A. long B. voiced
C. voiceless D. cluster

63. Which of the following vowels is a "ROUNDED" one?

A. /æ/ B. /iː/ C. /uː/ D. /e/

64. In the sentence "The wardrobe is 2 m high, 1 m wide and 60 cm deep.", the word "deep" is a/an ______.
A. adjective B. adverb C. noun D. conjunction

65. The sound /ʃ/ can be characterized as ________.

A. [+voiced, +alveolar, +fricative]
B. [-voiced, +palatal, +affricate]
C. [-voiced, +palatal, +fricative]
D. [+voiced, +dental, +plosive]

66. Which of the following is NOT a minimal set?

A. fat, mat, vat, cat, hat (fæt, mæt, væt, kæt, hæt)
B. seek, sake, sock, suck (siːk, seɪk, sɒk, sʌk)
C. young, yang, ying (jʌŋ, jæŋ, jɪŋ)
D. fill, feel, fail, fell, felt (fɪl, fiːl, feɪl, fɛl, fɛlt)

67. When pronounced, which of the following words DOES NOT CONTAIN the /k/ sound?
A. knack /næk/ B. knead /niːd/ C. hook /hʊk/ D. chemist /ˈkɛmɪst/

68. How many bound morphemes are there in the word "unfriendliness"?
A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 5

69. How many functional morphemes are there in the following sentence: "Feeling hangry, the man stopped his
job and went home."?
A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 5

70. Which of the following sounds is NOT considered an alveolar voiced consonant?
A. /z/ B. /d/ C. /ʒ/ D. /n/

71. The syllable in "gloom" can be described as ____.

A. CCVC B. CVCC C. CCVVC D. CVCV

72. Which of the following sentences corresponds to the tree diagram?

A. The valet saw an exotic fish in the tank.

B. My aunt advised me not to tell mom the story.
C. The vet found a hamster in the garden.
D. The girl promised to return the book to me.

73. _____ grammar adheres to strict rules of sentence organization, ordering parts of speech consistently in
accordance with rigid standards.
A. Descriptive B. Performance C. Modern D. Prescriptive

74. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. "Courageous" and "brave" are synonyms of each other.
B. "Toe" is a meronym of "Foot".
C. "Red" is hyponym of "scarlet". (“Red” is hypernym of “scarlet”) (“Scarlet” is hyponym of “red”)
D. "Amuse" and "bore" are antonyms of each other.

75. Which of the following sentences is grammatically incorrect?

A. The difficulties that the ox experiences while climbing the mountain are so intense.
B. Scientists report no human deaths due to excessive caffeine consumption.
C. My uncle did not accept the job offer because the salary was terribly low.
D. Because the fact that it was too freezing outside, she had to stop working. (because of)

76. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

A. The morpheme is the smallest unit of a language that can carry meaning.
B. Morphology studies how words and sounds are formed.
C. Pragmatics studies the ways in which meaning contributes to context.
D. Generally, human language is arbitrary, dynamic, social, and instinctive.

77. Which of the following is a False minimal pair?

A. fate - fought /feɪt - fɔːt/
B. hack - hag /hæk - hæɡ/
C. grow - glow /ɡrəʊ - ɡləʊ/
D. woe – who /wəʊ - huː/
78. The word "Safari" originates from which of the following languages?
A. Hindi language B. Chinese language
C. Arabic language D. Portuguese language

79. In Phonetics, which of the following is NOT a manner of articulation?

A. Glide B. Affricate
C. Liquid D. Alveolar (Place of articulation)

80. Which of the following sentences is NOT a simple sentence regarding its structure?
A. Bobby and Mary like football and basketball.
B. I don't want anything to drink.
C. Sarah, Liza, and Jane are working at a bank.
D. Michael likes cooking, but Sara hates cleaning up.

81. Which of the following sounds is a voiced palatal affricate one?

A. /ʒ/ B. /θ/ C. /v/ D. /ʤ/

82. Which of the following is an example of homophones?

A. poured/bored /pɔːd/ bɔːd/
B. berth/birth /bɜːθ/ bɜːθ/
C. phlegm/flame /flɛm/ fleɪm/
D. color/collar /ˈkʌlə/ ˈkɒlə/

83. What is one obvious presupposition of a speaker who says "Anna's hamster is very smart"?
A. Anna has raised different pets. B. Anna is not lonely.
C. Anna has a hamster. D. Anna is good at teaching.

84. Which of the following sentences suits the given syntax tree?
A. The little boy of mine won a notably great prize.
B. The king of Switzerland had a sumptuous life.
C. One of the winners said something quite improper.
D. A good man in my neighborhood offers some useful help.

85. A ______ is a word that denotes a constituent part or a member of something.

A. synonym B. meronym
C. antonym D. hyponym

86. Do not say that which you believe to be false or for which you lack adequate evidence. (quoting
others, rumors, slander, giving advice). That refers to the _____.
A. Manner maxim B. Quality maxim
C. Quantity maxim D. Relation maxim

87. ______ refers to the need for self-image to be accepted, appreciated, and approved of by others.
A. Politeness B. Positive face
C. Negative face D. Facial expression

88. In the sentence “The hairy guy whose books you borrowed at the library crashed into a large truck
which was carrying pipes on Main Street.”, what is the subject?
A. The hairy guy
B. The library
C. The hairy guy whose books
D. The hairy guy whose books you borrowed at the library
89. The word “discourse” is usually defined as language _______ the sentence.
A. among B. within
C. beyond D. above

90. In which sentence do the dots replace a verb?

A. Bobby will become … B. They might ... them.
C. It has no ... D. She is a real …

91. Classify each word in the following sentence “The villagers peopled America.”
A. Det + N + V + N B. Det + N + N + N
C. Det + N + Adj + N D. Det + N + V + Adv

92. In the sentence “The foal is so cute that I love it so much.”, “it” can be referred to as the _____.
A. person deixis B. cataphora
C. anaphora D. antecedent

93. Usually, participants have to wait until one speaker indicates that he or she has finished, usually
by signaling a _________________.
A. nodded head B. smiley face
C. completion point D. a period of silence

94. ________ is the ties and connections that exist within the actual texts, written or spoken.
A. Cohesion B. Coherence
C. Co-text D. Script

95. In the sentence “Both the brothers became doctors.”, “doctors” can be referred to as a(n) _____.
A. predicate B. adverbial
C. object D. complement

96. Which of the following is not an example of ‘Determiners’?

A. The B. An
C. Whether D. Those

97. Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which _____ contributes to
meaning.
A. language B. social interaction
C. context D. language structure

98. “Either…or…”, “both…and…”, “whether…or…” are examples of _____.

A. Coordinating conjunctions B. Subordinating conjunctions
C. Correlative conjunctions D. Ellipsis

99. The sentence “She returned the computer after she noticed it was damaged.” is a ____.
A. Simple sentence B. Complex sentence
C. Compound sentence D. Compound-complex sentence

100. In the sentence “You’ll have to bring it back tomorrow because she isn’t here today.”, how many
temporal deictic expressions are there?
A. 06
B. 02
C. 03
D. None

101. _________ can be defined as the words or phrases used to show that we are not really sure that
what we’re uttering is sufficiently correct or complete.
A. Filled pauses B. Hedges
C. Cohesive ties D. References

102. Which of these following statements is NOT true?

A. "Rose", "daisy", and "hibiscus" are hyponyms of "flower".
B. The sentence <I saw her slip> is ambiguous. At least 2 meanings can be found.
C. There is no adverb in the sentence "If he is under 5 years of age, he can watch the film free."
D. Partial synonyms are words that mean almost the same thing.

103. _____ context is the location of a given word, the situation in which it is used, as well as timing,
all of which aid proper understating of the words.
A. Epistemic B. Physical
C. Linguistic D. Social

104. Which of the following is not a direct speech act?

A. Sugar, please!
B. Please pass me the sugar pot!
C. Can you give me some sugar?
D. I request you to pass me the sugar pot.

105. What should be filled in the box with the question marks?

A. VP B. CP
C. PP D. S'

106. Which of the following sentences is entirely structurally ambiguous?

A. <The pupil is of great importance>
B. <Her cat lies on the mat>
C. <Elegant girls and boys will be invited>
D. <He saw a large bat on the ground>
Based on “Semantics”, “elegant” meaning is about being grateful, stylish and attractive in appearance
or manner, which meets the exterior surface and behavior criteria of a female. Hence, “elegant”
cannot be used for “boys” or any other word for male, it will create an ambiguity for us to see that
whether the boy are male or not.

107. What is the correct order of the following adjective phrase?

A. An impressive large round scarlet Japanese wooden writing table
B. A writing impressive large round scarlet Japanese wooden table
C. An impressive round large scarlet Japanese wooden writing table
D. A Japanese writing impressive large round scarlet wooden table

108. When the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart
as it passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as
________
A. voiced B. voiceless C. long vowels D. short vowels