SPH101 Quiz

Question 1

A morpheme is:

A)The smallest meaningful unit in a language

B)The meaning of words in a language

C)The same as a word

Answer 1

The smallest meaningful unit in a language

Question 2

Define ‘noun’.

What types of nouns are there?

Answer 2

A noun is a part of speech that names people, places, animals, things and concepts.

Proper vs common nouns

Count vs non-count nouns

Question 3

What evidence could be used to identify a noun?

Answer 3

Meaning criteria:

Names of people, places, animals, things and concepts.

Inflectional suffixes:

• s (plural)
• ’s (possessive

Derivational suffixes:

• er
• ness

ment

Can have a determiner in front

Question 4

Define ‘verb’.

What types of verbs are there?

Answer 4

A verb conveys an action, an occurrence, or a state of being.

Main verb

He is swimming.

Auxiliary verb (tense, aspect, mode)

He is swimming.

Question 5

Define ‘vowels’.

Answer 5

• Vowels are one of two main classes of speech sounds (the other being consonants).
• Vowels have relatively open articulations compared to consonants, creating larger resonating cavities that amplify the sound during their production.
• Vowels are voiced and are louder (more sonorous), than consonants.
• Vowels form the centres of syllables.

Question 6

Define ‘prosody’.

Answer 6

• Also called suprasegmantals.
• Includes stress, intonation, rhythm, and lexical and grammatical tones.
• Prosody can affect the meaning of a word or phrase, or add information.

Question 7

Define ‘consonants’.

Answer 7

• Consonants are one of two main classes os speech sounds (the other being vowels).
• Consonants are created by relatively more vocal tract constriction than vowels.
• Consonants can be voiced or voicelss and are not as loud (sonorous) as vowels.
• Consonants form the margins of syllables.

Question 9

What evidence could be used to identify a verb?

Answer 9

Meaning based criteria:

• actions and states

Distributional critera

• -derivational suffixes:
  
  • -ate, -ify, -ize.
• Inflectional suffixes:
  
  • -ed, -ing, -s(3s)

Question 10

Define ‘adjectives’.

Answer 10

describes, identifies, or quantifies a noun or a pronoun.

Question 11

What evidence could be used to identify an adjective (Adj)?

Answer 11

Meaning based criteria:

Describes the noun

Distributional criteria:

• Derivational suffixes:
  
  • -able, -al, -ful.
• Gradable: very small, less playful.
• Comparative suffixes:
  
  • -er, -est
• Can occur before or after the noun

Question 12

Define ‘adverbs’ (Adv).

What types of adverbs are there?

Answer 12

An adverb is a part of speech used to modify a verb, adjective, clause, or another adverb. It simply tells how, where, when, or the degree at which something was done.

Types of adverbs:

• Manner: quickly, painfully, quitetly, again.
• Time: yesterday, soon
• Place: here, there
• Intensifiers: very large, rather large, really large

Question 13

What evidence could be used to identify an ‘adverb’ (Adv)?

Answer 13

Meaning-based criteria

• Modify a verb adjective or adverb

Distributional criteria

• Derivational suffix:
  
  • -ly
• Gradable: very, much
• Comparative suffixes: -er, -est

Do NOT modify nouns

Are flexible in their location in a sentence.

Question 14

Define ‘pronouns’ (PrN).

What types of pronouns are there?

Answer 14

substitutes for a noun or noun phrase

Types:

Personal: he, she, it, I, me

Possesive: mine, my, your, his their

Reflexive: myself, themselves

Reciprocal: each other

Demonstrative: this, those

Interrogative: what, who

Indefinite: somebody, anyone, none

Question 15

What evidence could be used to identify a pronoun (PrN)?

Answer 15

• Replaces a noun phrase

Question 16

Define ‘determiners’ (Det).

What types of determiners are there?

Answer 16

Determiners introduce nouns.

Types:

• Indefinite artile: a, an
• Definite article: the
• Pronouns: my car, his book, those cars
• Numerals: one book, third prize, next week

Always come before nouns - don’t get confused with pronouns, which are more independent in a sentence.

Question 17

Define ‘prepositions’ (Prep).

What type of eidence could be used to identify a preporistion?

Answer 17

The location, direction or manner of the noun in relation to the verb.

Distributional criteria

• Can’t take inflection
• Often before noun phrase

Question 18

Define ‘conjunctions’ (Conj).

Answer 18

Join together two (or more) ideas/words of the same class.

I went swimming and I caught a fish.

I was tired because I watched the whole series.

Question 19

What is morphology?

Answer 19

Grammatical units.

Morphology is the study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language. It analyzes the structure of words and parts of words, such as stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes

Question 20

What is phonology?

Answer 20

The study of the rules or systems of speech sounds within languages.

Question 21

What is phonetics?

Answer 21

The scientific study of speech sounds.

- articulatory phonetics (how we use vocal tract) This is what we are doing in this subject.

• instrumental phonetis
• perceptual phonetics

Question 22

What is syntax?

Answer 22

Syntax is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language, specifically word order and punctuation.

• word classes/parts of speech
• agreement
• phrase structure
• clause structure
• sentence structure

Question 23

What is pragmatics?

Answer 23

Language in use, focusing on the social exchange of language.

Question 24

What is a phrase?

Answer 24

Syntactic unit of one or more words, containing a ‘head’ which functions as its most prominent word.

Noun Phrase (NP)

Verb Phrase (VP)

Adjective Phrase (AdjP)

Adverb Phrase (AdvP)

Preposition Phrase (PP)

Question 25

Define 'clause'

Answer 25

Contains a VP (verb phrase) with accompanying NPs (noun phrases) and PPs (prepositional phrases).

Question 26

Define 'sentence'

Answer 26

May contain one or more clauses *(count the number of verbs).*

Question 27

What is the phonological process '**weak form**'?

Answer 27

In connected speech, function words are often reduced. The label function word is often used to describe a class of words which serves a purely grammatical role. Since their presence is usually predictable from context, their vowels can reduce to [ə] and some of their consonants may also be deleted. **am** /æm/ ----\> /əm/ **an** /æn/---\> /ən/----\> /n/ **and** /ænd/---\> /ənd/---\> /ən/---\> /n/ **are** /ɐː/---\> /ə/ **as** /æz/---\> /əz/

Question 28

What is the phonological process '**epenthesis**'?

Answer 28

Adding sounds in connected speech. **Linking** /ɹ/- pronounced between vowels when there is 'r' in the spelling **Intrusive** /ɹ/- prounounced between vowels when there is no 'r' in the spelling *The word epenthesis comes from epi "in addition to" and en "in" and thesis "putting" to help remember what it is!*

Question 29

What is the phonological process 'assimilation'?

Answer 29

In continous speech, alveolar stops can take the place of articulation of the next consonant. eg- /t/ /d/ /n/ become: /p/ /b/ /m/ before a bilabial stop (or nasal) /k/ /g/ /ŋ/ before a velar stop (or nasal). NOTE: Assimilation of place, not manner or voicing.

Question 30

What is the phonological process '**elision**'?

Answer 30

**Deletion of sounds** in connected speech. This can take the form of: - _deletion_ of unstressed syllables and function words - _reduction_ of cononant clusters: medial d/t most susceptible.

Question 31

# Define phonotactics:

Question 32

# Define 'syllable' and give an example:

Question 33

Define 'minimal pairs' and give example:

Question 34

What is speech?

Answer 34

Motor speech: - respiration - phonation - articulation - intonation - resonance * R-Pair!*

Question 35

Define 'language'

Answer 35

Bloom and Lahey model (form, use, content) all surrounded by context. Form: Structure Use: How we use it Content: vocabulary Culture: All ideas and assumptions that are learned as a member of a group, initially acquired without conscious awareness.

Question 36

How are **sounds**'shaped' in the vocal tract?

Answer 36

(Articulatory phonetics) Respiration Phonation Articulation Resonance - *intonation is not listed, because it is made through respiraton.*

Question 37

Label this diagram of the vocal tract:

Answer 37

Question 38

What are 'stops' ?

Answer 38

Stops are consonants created through a sequence of articulatory events beginning with **total occlusion**, which _traps the air behind a blockage_: [p] [b] [m] [t] [d] [n] [k] [ɡ] [ŋ]

Question 39

What are nasals (or nasal stops)?

Answer 39

Nasals have occlusion of airway as for oral stops, except the soft palate is lowered, allowing the **air to flow both into the oral cavity and out of the nose.** The important nasal stop sounds in English are [m] [n] [ŋ]

Question 40

Fricatives are created by placing the articulators in a position that restricts the flow of air but does _not totally block its path_. When air is forced through the constriction, the turbulent airflow generates the **hissing sound** associated with fricatives. In fricativeproduction, the soft palate is raised so the air cannot escape through the nose. [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [h]

Question 41

What are **affricates**?

Answer 41

Affricates are a **combination of a stop and a fricative** united to form a single consonant. The stop is immediately followed by relaxing the occlusion sothat a fricative release occurs. [ʧ] [ʤ]

Question 42

What is an approximant?

Answer 42

Approximants are sounds produced with relatively _little obstruction to the airstream_ and are therefore the **most vowel-like** of all the consonants. They are created by _moving the tongue towards a vocal tract landmark_, rather than any single major obstruction orconstriction. [j], [w], [ɹ] [l]

Question 43

What are monophthongs:

Answer 43

Simple vowels that can be prolonged without having to change the position of the tongue during their productions eg: heat, hit, head.