Exam questions

  1. Chomsky’s definition of language
  2. Explain the basic characteristics of human language
  3. Explain the notions langage, langue vs. parole
  4. Explain two basic functions of language
  5. Explain the diachronic and synchronic methods
  6. Explain the notion of competence and performance
  7. Explain ‘freedom from stimulus control’
  8. Explain the structural priority of spoken language over written language
  9. Explain the biological priority of spoken language over written language
  10. Give four priorities of spoken language over written langauge
  11. Explain the notion of isomorphy in relation to spoken and written language
  12. Explain the communication scheme
  13. Explain the principle of duality
  14. Explain two aspects of productivity of language
  15. Explain the difference between type and token
  16. Explain the difference between the language of animals and human language
  17. Explain the physiological adaptation principle
  18. Explain the difference between analytic and synthetic languages. What type of language is English
  19. Explain the basic features of analytic languages
  20. Explain the difference in behaviour of English and Slovak affixes (both derivational and inflectional)
  21. Give evidence of the so-called regularization tendencies
  22. Explain de Saussure’s notions signifiant and signifie
  23. Explain arbitrariness of linguistic signs
  24. Explain linearity of signs
  25. Explain the discontinuity as a feature of signs
  26. Explain the term syntagma
  27. Discontinuity at the phonological level
  28. Explain Ogden and Richard’s triangle
  29. Explain Peirce’s triad
  30. Explain freedom from stimulus control
  31. Explain the difference between connotation and. denotation
  32. Draw the Cardinal Vowel Scheme
  33. Explain the criteria for the classification of consonants
  34. Characterize plosives and fricatives in terms of the place and the manner of articulation
  35. Give two classes of diphthongs
  36. Explain the difference between consonants and vowels
  37. Explain commutation
  38. Basic parts of the tone unit
  39. Four basic functions of intonation
  40. What is influenced by amplitude and what by frequency of sound waves?
  41. Three factors influencing the position of stress in English words
  42. Explain assimilation and identify its three types. Give at least one example
  43. What is the difference between progressive and regressive types of assimilation? Give at least one example of assimilation and identify its type.
  44. Explain assibilation, give examples of historical and contextual assibilation
  45. Explain affrication, give examples of historical and contextual assibilation
  46. What is the function of linking and intrusive r? Explain the difference between them and give examples
  47. Explain and exemplify juncture and elision
  48. Explain the difference between hiatus and diphthong?
  49. What is syneresis? Give an example
  50. Explain the functional view of phoneme
  51. Explain the mentalistic view of phoneme
  52. Explain the physical view of phoneme
  53. Give at least three basic characteristics of phoneme
  54. What is the difference between phoneme and allophone?
  55. Reasons for the existence of allophones
  56. Explain the difference between combinatory and free allophones
  57. Explain complementary distribution. Give an example
  58. What is the weak form of word? Identify words that can have weak forms
  59. Explain the notion of semivowels and identify English semivowels
  60. Explain unidimensional and multidimensional oppositions
  61. Explain proportional and isolated oppositions
  62. Explain privative and gradual opposition
  63. Characterize morpheme and allomorph
  64. At least three conditions for the existence of allomorphs
  65. Explain suppletion and diamorph. Give examples
  66. Explain the cranberry morph
  67. Explain the notions paradigm, conjugation, and declension
  68. Explain the reason for the adjectivization of the original possessive case of nouns
  69. Explain accidental categories and susbtances
  70. Characterize three different types of categories according to John Lyons
  71. Explain three basic criteria for the classification of word-classes
  72. Explain why Plato and Aristotle classified adjectives as asubclass of verbs?
  73. Explain Mathesius’ notion categorial transition. Give also an example of the transition of Adjectives to Verbs
  74. Assign cases to the following functions: subjective, objective, inditrect objective, and possessive
  75. What is clitic, what is empty morph?
  76. What is the difference between referential (natural) gender and formal gender. What kind of gender is typical of English.
  77. Explain the difference between tense and time, and give Jespersen’s classification of tenses
  78. Explain the difference between finite and non-finite verb forms . Which forms are non-finite?
  79. Explain the difference between perfective and progressive aspects
  80. Explain the Item and Arrangement model
  81. Explain the Item and Process model
  82. Explain the difference between IA and IP
  83. Explain morphonemics, give an example
  84. Explain Trubetzkoy’s notion of morphoneme
  85. DiSciullo and Williams’ four different notions of word
  86. Explain the difference between lexical unit vs. lexeme
  87. Explain the difference between synonymy and homonymy?
  88. Explain the difference between homonymy and polysemy
  89. Explain three types of homonyms, give examples
  90. What is the difference between converseness and conversion?
  91. What is complementarity?
  92. Explain the difference between homonymy and conversion
  93. Explain hyperonym, hyponym, and co-hyponym
  94. Explain archilexeme, give an example
  95. What is lexical field?
  96. Explain the difference between bound and free forms
  97. What is the difference between metaphor and metonymy?
  98. Explain anthropomorphic and synaesthetic metaphor
  99. What is synecdoche?
  100. Explain componential analysis, give an example
  101. What is moneme and what is zero morpheme?
  102. Explain the notions determinant vs. determinatum
  103. Explain semasiological method in WF
  104. Explain recursion
  105. What is the difference between exocentric and endocentric compounds, give examples
  106. Explain neoclassical compounds
  107. Explain the difference between Germanic and French types of compounds
  108. Explain the difference between Class Iand Class II affixes
  109. What is secretion? Give an example
  110. Explain conversion and zero-morpheme derivation
  111. Explain and exemplify back-formation, clipping, acronymization
  112. Explain Mathesius’ conception of the potentiality and oscillations of language phenomena
  113. Trnka as one of the major representatives of the Prague School of Linguistics distinguishes four morphological exponents. Give their list and exemplify each of them
  114. Explain phonological, synthetic morphological exponents distinguished by Trnka.
  115. Explain the principles of IC-analysis
  116. Explain the basic principles of Functional Sentence Perspective
  117. Explain the terms theme – rheme – transition, thematizer - rhematizer
  118. Explain the meaning of the absolute and the included positions in Bloomfield’s definition of sentence
  119. Give five basic sentence types according to Darbyshire.
  120. The basic ideas of the Theses of the Prague School
  121. Explain field method
  122. Basic features of American descriptivism; what are the differences from European structuralist schools?
  123. Explain Bloomfield’ behaviorism and its mechanistic nature
  124. Explain why semantics was not studied by American descriptivists?
  125. What Bloomfield meant by secondary phonemes? Why are they assigned the status of phoneme?
  126. Explain Bloomfield’s terms modulation and phonetic modification
  127. Explain the terms immediate constituents, ultimate constituents, and the binary nature of IC analysis
  128. Explain the difference between endocentric vs. exocentric constructions
  129. Explain phrase marker
  130. Explain labeled bracketing
  131. Explain the difference between kernel string and kernel sentence
  132. Explain rewrite rules + at least three restrictions upon them
  133. Explain understood and discontinuous constituents
  134. What is the role of transformations in the original version of TG?
  135. Basic parts of transformational rule + example of passive transformation
  136. Explain the difference between deep and surface structure
  137. Explain seme, sememe, semanteme, phraseme
  138. Give at last three types of connotations
  139. Explain the difference between contradictory and contrary antonyms?
  140. What is folk etymology? Give an example

144. Explain why American descriptivists concentrated on ethnography and anthropology. Explain the meaning of these branches of science.

145. Give six grammatical processes as distinguished by E. Sapir.

146. Explain the term reduplication as one of grammatical processes distinguished by Sapir.

147. Explain the terms internal and external factors, and exemplify them with negation in English.

148. Explain the terms internal and external factors, and exemplify them with the development of the pronunciation of -ing.

148. Explain what is meant by the integration of peripheral elements into the system of language and give at least two examples.

149 What is meant by differentiative integration? Illustrate with an example.

150. Explain the difference between root and stem.