Final Exam

Question 1

What is the basic difference between a logographic writing system and a phonographic writing system?

Answer 1

Logographic writing uses characters to represent whole words or morphemes; phonographic writing uses characters to represent sounds

Question 2

What is a digraph? Give an example

Answer 2

A digraph is a combination of two letters consistently used for a single sound. An example would be the “th” in “there”, “weather”, “bother”, etc.

Question 3

Which of these symbols (%,?,8,&) is not a logogram?

Answer 3

?

Question 4

Is a radiation warning symbol a pictogram or an ideogram? Explain why.

Answer 4

Ideogram, because the image has no correlation to what it is representing. If shown to someone who has never seen this symbol, they would not be able to deceiver it’s meaning.

Question 5

Is a crosswalk sign a pictogram or an ideogram? Explain why

Answer 5

A pictogram, it gives a clear image on what it is representing. In the image a person is seen walking on the road, to warn drivers to be cautious of people walking across the road.

Question 6

Where and when was cuneiform writing used?

Answer 6

Cuneiform writing was used by the Sumerians, in Mesopotamia. Used this writing around 5,000 years ago. This writing is created by pressing a wedge-shaped implement into soft clay.

Question 7

What is the difference between a syllabary and an alphabet?

Answer 7

A syllabary uses characters to represent syllables; an alphabet uses characters to represent phonemes/phones.

Question 8

What are cognates? Answer and provide an example.

Answer 8

A cognate is a word that has similar form (looks and sounds similar) and meaning to a word used in another language. (Blau vs Blue)

Question 9

What type of sound change is illustrated by the following example? thridda–>third (metathesis, epenthesis, prothesis)

Answer 9

metathesis

Question 10

What type of sound change is illustrated by the following example? (scribere–>escribir = “to write”) (epenthesis, metathesis, prothesis)

Answer 10

prothesis

Question 11

What type of sound change is illustrated by the following example? glimsian–>glimpse (metathesis, epenthesis, prothesis)

Answer 11

epenthesis

Question 12

What type of sound change is illustrated by the following example? (hring–>ring) (sound loss, metathesis, prothesis)

Answer 12

sound loss

Question 13

What type of sound change is illustrated by the following example? slummer–>slumber (sound loss, metathesis, epenthesis)

Answer 13

epenthesis

Question 14

What type of sound change is illustrated by the following example? bocsa–>bosca (meaning “a box”) (epenthesis, metathesis, sound loss)

Answer 14

metathesis

Question 15

English is related to Punjabi

Answer 15

True (they share a common ancestor language, Proto-Indo-European, and are both members of the Indo-European language family)

Question 16

English comes from German

Answer 16

False (English and German both belong to the Germanic subbranch of the Indo-European language family, so are closely related, Germanic does not equal German)

Question 17

The Old English word steorfan (to die from any cause) is the source of the Modern English verb starve (to die from lack of food or from the cold). What is the technical term used to describe this type of meaning change?

Answer 17

Word went from having a broader meaning to a restricted meaning. Narrowing is the technical term for this.

Question 18

What semantic feature must a noun have in order to be used in this sentence? The____ were discussing what to do.
[+animate/human/equine/female]

Answer 18

[+human]

Question 19

Using semantic features, how would you explain the oddness of this sentence? “The television drank my water.”

Answer 19

The noun “television” and verb “drank” make this sentence odd. only nouns that have the feature [+animate] are capable of performing the verb “drank”

Question 20

Using semantic features, how would you explain the oddness of this sentence? “His dog writes poetry.”

Answer 20

The noun “dog” and verb “write” make this sentence odd. only nouns that have the feature [+human] are capable of performing the verb “write”

Question 21

Which of the following words would be analyzed in terms of the semantic features [+male, -adult]?
(stallion, mare, colt, filly)

Answer 21

colt

Question 22

How is the term “prototype” used in semantics?

Answer 22

A prototype is the clearest resemblance of a word (when we think of “cat” we think of “tabby”, “bird” for “robin”, etc.). Prototype words can replace their original word in a sentence w/o making the sentence semantically odd.

Question 23

What phrase is used more often instead of “thematic roles” and what other term is used instead of “theme” in the semantic analysis of noun phrases?

Answer 23

The phrases “agent” and “theme” are often used instead of “thematic roles”. The “patient” is another term used instead of “theme” in semantic analysis of noun phrases.

Question 24

What is the basic lexical relation between the following word pair? damp/moist (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy)

Answer 24

synonymy

Question 25

What is the basic lexical relation between the following word pair? (dog/schnauzer) (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy)

Answer 25

hyponymy

Question 26

What is the difference between an accent and a dialect (according to the reading)?

Answer 26

An accent represents pronunciation of words that identify where speaker is from A dialect represents pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary of a language that identify where speaker is from

Question 27

What is one disadvantage of using NORMS in dialect surveys?

Answer 27

NORMS uses people who have minimal accents/grammar/words taken from other dialects, (usually older people), which unfortunately means that the dialect they speak in is usually outdated.

Question 28

What does an isogloss represent in a linguistic atlas?

Answer 28

An isogloss is a boundary (represented by a line) that separates the difference between words used to represent an item. (ex: paper bag vs paper sack)

Question 29

In what specific way is a creole different from a pidgin?

Answer 29

A pidgin is a "contact" language, developed for a practical purpose like trading or among groups of people who have a lot of contact, but don't know each other's languages. When a pidgin develops into an "actual" language (language used for communicative, everyday speech, having large number of native speakers)

Question 30

Which term describes an individual's personal use of language? (Linguistic variable, social variable, social marker, idiolect, sociolect)

Answer 30

idiolect

Question 31

In AAVE, what is communicated by "be" in "He don't be smokin' now?"

Answer 31

"be" communicates "habitual action" so it means that he doesn't smoke anymore

Question 32

In the study of gestures, what are emblems? give an example

Answer 32

Emblems are signals that have a singular meaning/represent a singular phrase and don't depend on speech (ex: in the USA, thumbs up means "things are good" or "good job")

Question 33

In the study of gestures, what are iconics? Give an example

Answer 33

Gestures representing the meaning of what is trying to be described in a sentence. (ex: pointing to car while saying "I'm going to drive to school in the car".

Question 34

What is the fundamental difference between ASL and Signed English?

Answer 34

Signed language arranges signs in a way that they correspond to words in English sentences, and also arranges these signs in English work order (makes it easier for deaf and hearing individuals to communicate) ASL is a "visual language", with the movements in ASL and the signs have some relation to the word they are describing.

Question 35

Which articulatory parameter of ASL has "flat hand" as a prime? (orientation, shape, movement, location)

Answer 35

shape

Question 36

Which articulatory parameter of ASL has "palm up" as a prime? (shape, location, movement, orientation)

Answer 36

orientation