Ⅰ. Each of the statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that best completes the statement and put the letter in the bracket.
1. Which of the following is NOT true?______
A.A word is the smallest free form of a language
B.A word is a sound unity.
C.A word has a given meaning.
D.A word can be used freely in a sentence.
A B C D
A
2. By notion, words can be grouped into content words and functional words. Which of the following words belongs to functional words?______
A.Five.
B.Sun.
C.Run.
D.And.
A B C D
D
3. Which of the following words is a neologism?______
A.Dip.
B.Thou.
C.Internet
D.Bottom line.
A B C D
C
4. At the end of 6th century, Latin-speaking Roman missionaries under St. Augustine came to spread ______ in Britain, the introduction of which had a great impact on the English vocabulary.
A.Buddhism
B.Christianity
C.Catholicism
D.Islamism
A B C D
B
5. Social, economic and political changes bring about an increasing number of new words. Which of the following words is related to political changes?______
A.Moon walk.
B.Watergate.
C.Mao jackets.
D.Talk show.
A B C D
B
6. Which of the following statements is NOT true?______
A.The four major foreign contributors to English vocabulary in earlier times are Latin, French, Scandinavian and Italian.
B.Modem English is considered to be an analytic language.
C.English is more closely related to German than French.
D.The introduction of printing into England marked the beginning of modem English period.
A B C D
A
7. The root of the word "internationalist" is ______.
A.inter
B.nation
C.tion
D.ist
A B C D
B
8. There is(are) ______ allomorphemic word(s) in the following words: cats, men, glass, worked.
A.1
B.2
C.3
D.4
A B C D
C
9. The plural morpheme "-s" is pronounced as/z/in the following words EXCEPT ______.
A.beds
B.bags
C.cheats
D.bottles
A B C D
C
10. Words produced through ______ account for the largest part of the total number of new words through word-formation.
A.conversion
B.compounding
C.shortening
D.affixation
A B C D
D
11. The function of ______ is mainly to change the grammatical function of the stem rather than its meaning.
A.affixation
B.prefixation
C.suffixation
D.derivation
A B C D
C
12. The formation of new words by combining parts of two words or a word plus a part of another word is called ______.
A.conversion
B.blending
C.compounding
D.clipping
A B C D
B
13. The singular and plural meaning of a noun is known as the ______ meaning of a word.
A.grammatical
B.lexical
C.conceptual
D.associative
A B C D
A
14. ______ explains why a particular form has a particular meaning.
A.Reference
B.Concept
C.Sense
D.Motivation
A B C D
D
15. By ______ motivation, we mean that the meaning of a particular word is related to its origin.
A.onomatopoeic
B.morphological
C.etymological
D.semantic
A B C D
C
16. The differences between synonyms boil down to three areas: denotation, connotation, and ______.
A.application
B.lexical meaning
C.grammatical meaning
D.motivation
A B C D
A
17. Unlike radiation where each of the derived meanings is directly connected to the primary meaning, ______ describes a process where each of the later meaning is related only to the preceding one like chains.
A.back-formation
B.concatenation
C.association
D.extension
A B C D
B
18. Which term can be used to best describe the relationship between the underlined adjectives in "Unlike her gregarious sister, Jane is an unsociable person"?______
A.Synonymy.
B.Antonymy.
C.Homonymy.
D.Polysemy.
A B C D
B
19. The associated transfer of meaning and euphemistic use of words are often due to ______ factors.
A.scientific
B.internal
C.historical
D.psychological
A B C D
D
20. Some words can have two different types of antonyms at the same time, one being ______ and the other opposite.
A.negative
B.positive
C.protective
D.appreciative
A B C D
A
21. There is associated transfer, for example, the lip of a wound; the tongue of a bell; the ______ of a plane, in which the meaning is transferred through association.
A.eyes
B.face
C.nose
D.ears
A B C D
C
22. When a word with multiple meanings is used in inadequate context, it creates ______.
A.ambiguity
B.synonymy
C.context
D.hyponymy
A B C D
A
23. Missiles in the sentence "In the History Museum are exhibited all kinds of missiles." is ambiguous due to ______.
A.grammatical structure
B.lexical context
C.homonymy
D.polysemy
A B C D
D
24. in the sentence "'Do get me a clop,' she said, smacking her lips, but her brother, with a scornful glance up at the branches, said that there were none ripe yet.'" The meaning of clop can be inferred from the clue of ______.
A.relevant details
B.word structure
C.antonymy
D.hyponymy
A B C D
A
25. "Up in the air" is an idiom ______ in nature.
A.verbal
B.nominal
C.adjectival
D.adverbial
A B C D
C
26. Which of the following rhetorical features can be seen in the idiom "scream and shout"?______
A.Rhyme.
B.Reiteration.
C.Juxtaposition.
D.Synecdoche.
A B C D
B
27. The idiom "a bull in a china shop" was created probably by ______.
A.seamen
B.housewives
C.farmers
D.hunters
A B C D
C
28. The main body of a dictionary is its ______ of words.
A.spellings
B.pronunciations
C.definitions
D.usages
A B C D
C
29. Which of the following is NOT true about linguistic dictionaries?______
A.They aim at defining words and explaining their usages in the language.
B.They usually cover such areas as spelling, pronunciation, meaning, grammatical function, usage and etymology, etc.
C.They can be monolingual and bilingual.
D.They provide encyclopaedic information concerning each headword.
A B C D
D
30. Which of the following is NOT true about Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English?______
A.It is a desk dictionary.
B.It is noted for its elaborate grammar information.
C.It creates an extra column arranged alongside the definitions.
D.It is noted for its wide coverage of new words, new meanings and new usages.
A B C D
C
Ⅱ. Complete the following statements with proper words or expressions according to the course book.
1. In terms of the origin of words, words may fall into native words and ______ words.
borrowed
2. In the Western set of the language family, ______ is the modern language derived from Hellenic.
Greek
3. Morphemes which cannot occur as separate words are ______ morphemes.
bound
4. ______ is the process of forming new words by joining the initial letters of names of social and political organizations or special noun phrases and technical terms.
Acronymy
5. That part of the word-meaning, which is suggested by the words before or after the word in discussion, is known as ______ meaning.
collocative
6. Words of language can be classified into semantically related sets or ______.
fields
7. Observation shows that it is much more common for word meanings to change in denotation from ______ to pejorative than it is for them to go the other way.
neutral
8. Based on the ______ context, we can determine the meaning of "do fish" as "cook".
lexical
9. "White elephant" is an idiom ______ in nature.
nominal
10. Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms is a(n)______ dictionary.
specialized
Ⅲ. Define the following terms.
1. semantic change
semantic change means an old form which takes on a new meaning to meet the new need. This does not increase the number of word forms but create many more new usages of the words,thus enriching the vocabulary.
2. compounding
Compounding is the formation of new words by joining two or more stems. compound is a "lexical unit consisting of more than one stem and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word" (Quirk et al 1985).
3. radiation
A semantic process in which the primary meaning stands at the centre and the secondary meaning proceed out of it in every direction like rays.
4. extra-linguistic context
It refers to the physical situation in which a word appears, which embraces the people,time, place, and even the whole cultural background.
5. idioms nominal in nature
refer to: (1)Each idiom has a noun as the key word; (2)Each functions as a noun in sentences.
Ⅳ. Answer the following questions. Your answers should be clear and short.
1. Analyze "individualistic" in terms of root and stem.
individualistic individualist + ic [tem] individual + ist [stem] individu + al [stem] in + dividu [root, stem]
2. Both back-formation and back-clipping are ways of making words by removing the endings of words. Can you explain the difference? Illustrate your point with examples.
Back-formation is the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes. It is considered to be the opposite process suffixation. For example, "loafer" may be assumed to derive from the verb "loaf" on the analogy of know derivatives, such as "swimmer" from "swim", or "driver" from "drive". By removing the supposed suffixes -er from "loafer", a verb "loaf" is coined. Majority of back-formed words are verbs. Back-clipping is different. The deletion occurs at the end of the word (usually a noun). Both the original long word and its short form remain in the same word class. In different context, one could be used in the other's place.
3. Group the following words into semantic fields initiated with the superordinate that covers each field. credit card, gas, go, hotel, liquid, matter, room service, run, walk
hotel: credit card, room service matter: liquid, gas go: run, walk
4. Can you determine the meaning of the words in bold type in each of the following sentences? Explain and make some alterations in the context so as to pin down the meaning. (a) They saw her duck. (b) The ball was attractive.
In each case we can make two different senses depending on our interpretation of the words duck and ball. Duck can be understood as a noun meaning a "kind of poultry" or as a verb meaning "lower one's head or body quickly, dodge". Both fit in the syntactic structure of the sentence. Similarly, ball may mean a "round object to play in a game" as well as a "dancing party". Grammatically, the usage is perfectly all right. This ambiguity can only be eliminatde by altering the context a little as "They saw her duck swimming in the river" in the first case or as "The ball was attractive with nice music and a lot of people" in the second case.
Ⅴ. Analyze and comment on the following.
1. Comment on the following 2 sentences to illustrate the features of affective meaning of words. Sentence 1 "One who is filled with ambition usually works hard." Sentence 2 "Knowledge of inequality has stimulated envy, ambition and greed."
In sentence 1, however, ambition undoubtedly conveys a pejorative overtone. In sentence 2, the italicized word is obviously used in good sense showing approval on the part of the speaker. Therefore, to a large extent the affective meaning of the word depends on the context where the word is used.
2. Analyze and comment on the word dull in the following sentences based on the characteristics of antonyms. [A] She became dull and silent during the last part of the journey. [B] I'm hearing a constant dull noise (whirring) that gets louder as I accelerate. [C] I got a right way to keep your face radiant and glowing even in this dull weather. [D] These factors affect both intelligent and dull children.
In the sentence "She became dull and silent during the last part of the journey", the antonym is surely lively. The opposite of dull in "dull weather" can be sunny. "Dull noise" and "dull pain" have sharp and acute as their opposite counterparts. In the sentence "These factors affect both intelligent and dull children", the antonym of dull is obviously intelligent.