语言学单元自测7

Chapter 7 ：Historical LinguisticsI. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:1. One of the tasks of the historical linguists is to explore methods to reconstruct linguistic history and establish the relationship between languages.2. Language change is a gradual and constant process, therefore often indiscernible to speakers of the same generation.3. The history of the English language is divided into the periods of Old English, Middle English and Modern English.4. Middle English began with the arrival of Anglo-Saxons, who invaded the British Isles from northern Europe.5. In Old English, all the nouns are inflected to mark nominative, genitive, dative and accusative cases.6. In Old English, the verb of a sentence often precedes the subject rather than follows it.7. A direct consequence of the Renaissance Movement was the revival of French as a literary language.8. In general, linguistic change in grammar is more noticeable than that in the sound system and the vocabulary of a language.9. The sound changes include changes in vowel sounds, and in the loss, gain and movement of sounds.10. The least widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English are the loss and addition of affixes.11. In Old English, the morphosyntactic rule of adjective agreement stipulated that the endings of adjective must agree with the head noun in case, number and gender.12. The word order of Modern English is more variable than that of Old English.13. Derivati on refers to the process by which new words are formed by the additi on of affixes to the roots, stems, or words.14. “Smog is a word formed by the word -forming process called acronymy.15. “fridge ” is a word formed by abbreviation.16. Modern linguists are able to provide a consistent account for the exact causesof all types of Ian guage cha nge.17. Sound assimilation maybring about the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in seque nee, as in the case of cha nge of “ En gla- la nd ” to “ En gla nd18. Rule elaborati on occurs whe n there is a n eed to reduce ambiguity and in crease com muni cative clarity or expressive ness.19. Language change is always a change towards the simplification of Ianguage rules20. The way children acquire the Ianguage is one of the causes for Ianguage cha nge.II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with theletter give n:21. H _______ linguistics is the subfield of linguistics that studies Ianguage cha nge.22. The historical study of Ian guage is a d _____ study of Ian guage ratherthan a synchronic study.23. European R _______ Movement separates the period of Middle English from thatof moder n En glish.24. An important set of extensive sound changes, which affected 7 long or tense vowels and which led to one of the major discrepa ncies betwee n pho nemicrepresentations of words and morphemes at the end of the Middle English Period,is known as the Great V ______ Shift.25. A ______ in volves the deleti on of a word-fi nal vowel segme nt.26. A cha nge that in volves the in serti on of a consonant or vowel sound to themiddle of a word is known as e _________ .27. The three sets of consonant shifts that Grimm discovered became knowncollectively as Grimm s L ____ .28. Sound cha nge as a result of sound moveme nt, known as m _____, in volves a reversal in positi on of two adjoining sound segme nts.29. B ______ is a process by which new words are formed by tak ing away thesupposed suffixes of exit ing words.30. Sema ntic b ______ refers to the process in which the meaning of a wordbecomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denotation.31. The origi nal form of a Ian guage family that has ceased to exist is calledthe p ________ .32. Sound a _______ refers to the physiological effect of one sound on another.In this process, successive sounds are made identical or similar to one anotherin terms of place or manner of articulation.33. In order to reduce the exceptional or irregular morphemes, speakers of aparticular Ian guage may borrow a rule from one part of the grammar and apply it gen erally. This phe nomenon is called i __________________ borrow ing.34. By identifying and comparing similar linguistic forms with similar meaningsacross related Ian guages, historical li nguists recon struct the proto form inthe comm onan cestral Ian guage. This process is called c ____________ rec on structi on.35. The m ___ rule of adjective agreeme nt has bee n lost from En glish.III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the stateme nt:36. Historical li nguistics explores ______________ .A. the n ature of Ian guage cha ngeB. the causes that lead to Ian guage cha ngeC. the relati on ship betwee n Ian guagesD. all of the above37. Lan guage cha nge is ___________ .A. universal, continuous and ,to a large extent, regular and systematicB. continuous, regular, systematic, but not universalC. uni versal, con ti nu ous, but not regular and systematicD. always regular and systematic, but not uni versal and continu ous38. Moder n En glish period starts roughly ___________ .A. from 449 to 1100B. from 1500 to the prese ntC. from 1100 to the presentD. from 1700 to the present39. Old En glish dates back to the mid-fifth cen tury whe n ______ .A. the Norman French invaders under William the Conqueror arrived in EnglandB. the printing tech no logy was inven tedC. Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northern EuropeD. the Celtic people bega n to in habit En gla nd40. Middle En glish was deeply in flue need by _______ .A. Norma n French in vocabulary and grammarB. Greek and Lat in because of the Europea n ren aissa nee moveme ntC. Danish Ian guages because Denmark placed a king on the throne of En gla ndD. the Celtic people who were the first inhabitants of England41. Lan guage cha nge is esse ntially a matter of cha nge _____ .A. i n collocati onsB. i n mea ningC. in grammarD. in usages42. In Old and Middle English, both /k/ and /n/ in the word “knight ” were pronoun ced, but in moder n En glish, /k/ in the sound /kn-/ clusters was notpronoun ced. This phe nomenon is known as ______ .A. sound additi onB. sound lossC. sound shiftD. sound moveme nt43. A cha nge that in volves the in serti on of a consonant or vowel sound to themiddle of a word is known as _____ .A. apocopeB. epe nthesisC. pare nthesisD. an tithesis44. Segme nt switch of sound positi ons can be see n in the example of the moder n word “ bird ” which comes from the old English word “bridd ” . The change of the word from “ bridd ” to “ bird ” is a case of ________________ .A. metathesisB. sound lossC. sound additi onD. apocope45. ________ is a process of combining two or more words into one lexical unit.A. DerivationB. Ble ndingC. Compo undingD. Abbreviati on46. “Wife ” , which used to refer to any woman, stands for “ a married woman”in moder n En glish. This phe nomenon is known as ______ .A. sema ntic shiftB. sema ntic broade ningC. sema ntic elevati onD. sema ntic n arrow ing47. En glish Ian guage bel ongs to ______ .A. In do-Europea n FamilyB. Sino-Tibeta n FamilyC. Austr on esia n FamilyD. Afroasiatic Family48. By analogy to the plural formation of the word “dog-s" , speakers started say ing “ cows" as the plural of “ coW' in stead of the earlier plural “ kineThis is the case of ________ .A. elaborati onB. exter nal borrow ingC. sound assimilati onD. internal borrow ing49. Morphologcial cha nges can in volve ________ .A. the loss of morphological rulesB. the additi on of morphological rulesC. the alteration of morphological rulesD. all of the above50. The most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss of _______ .A. comparative markersB. tense markersC. gen der and case markersD. none of the aboveIV. Define the following terms:51. Apocope 52. Metathesis 53. Derivati on54. back-formati on 55. sema ntic n arrow ing 56.protola nguage57. haplology 58. epe nthesis 59. Compo unding60. Blending 61. semantic broadening 62. semantic shift63. Great Vowel Shift 64. acronym 65. sound assimilationV. An swer the follow ing questi ons:66. What is the purpose or sig nifica nee of the historical study of Ian guage ?67. What are the characteristics of the nature of Ianguage change ?68. What are the major periods in the history of En glish ?69. As Ianguage changes over time, the meaning of a word may deviate from its original denotation. Discuss the major types of semantic changes.70. Over the years from Old English period to the Modern English period, has unEn glish derg one some major sound cha nges. Illustrate these cha nges with some examples.71. What are the most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical developme nt of En glish ?72. What are the causes of Ian guage cha nge Discuss them in detail.Chapter 7 Historical Lin guisticsI. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:I. T 2.T 3.T 4.F 5.F 6.T 7.F 8.F 9.T 10.FII. T 12.F 13.T 14.F 15.F 16. F 17. T 18. T 19. F 20.TII. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with theletter give n:21.Historical 22.diachr onic 23.Re naissa nee 24.Vowel 25.Apocope 26.epe nthesisw 28. Metathesis 29.Backformati on 3O.broade ning 31.protola nguage32.assimilati on 33.i nternal parative 35. morphos yn tacticIII. There are four choices follow ing each stateme nt. Mark the choice that can best complete the stateme nt:36.D 37.A 38.B 39.C 40.A 41.C 42.B 43.B 44.A 45.C46. D 47.A 48. D 49. D 50. CIV. Define the following terms:1. Apocope : Apocope is the deletion of a word-final vowel segment.2. Metathesis: Sound change as a result of sound movement is known as metathesis.It involves a reversal in position of two neighbouring sound seg-ments.3. Derivati on: It is a process by which new words are formed by the additi onof affixes to the roots, stems or words.4. back-formation: It is a process by which new words are formed by taking awaythe supposed suffix of an exist ing word.5. semantic narrowing: Semantic narrowing is a process in which the meaning ofa word be-comes less general or inclusive than its historically earlier meaning.6. Protolanguage: It is the original form of a Ianguage family that has ceasedto exist.7. Haplology: It refers to the phenomenon of the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in seque nee.8. Epenthesis: A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel soundto the middle of a word is known as epe nthesis.9. Compounding: It is a process of combining two or more than two words into one lexical un it.10. Blending: It is a process of forming a new word by combining parts of other words.11. semantic broadening: Semantic broadening refers to the process in which themeaning of a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlierdeno ta-ti on.62. semantic shift: Semantic shift is a process of semantic change in which a word loses its former meaning and acquires a new, sometimes related, meaning.63. Great Vowel Shift: It is a series of systematic sound change at the end of the Middle English period approximately between 1400 and 1600 in the history of En glish that in volved seve n long vowels and con seque ntly led to one of the major discrepancies between English pronunciation and its spelling system.64. Acronym: An acronym is a word created by combining the initials of words.of a number65. sound assimilation: Sound assimilation refers to the physiological effectof one sound on an-other. In an assimilative process, successive sounds are madeidentical, or more similar, to one another in terms of place or manner of articulati on, or of haplology.V. An swer the follow ing questi ons:66. What is the purpose or sig nifica nee of the historical study of Ian guage1) Researches in historical linguistics shed light on prehistoric developmentsin the evoluti on of Ian guage and the conn ecti ons of earlier and later varia ntsof the same Ian-guage and provide valuable in sights into the kin ship patter ns of differe nt Ian guages.2) The identification of the changes that a particular Ianguage has undergoneen ables us to rec on struct the lin guistic history of that Ian guage, and thereby hypothesizes its earlier forms from which current speech and writing have evolved.3) The historical study of Ian guage also en-ables them to determ ine how non -lin guistic factors, such as social, cultural and psychological factors, in teract over time to cause lin guistic cha nge.67. What are the characteristics of the n ature of Ian guage cha ngeAll liv ing Ian guages cha nge with time and Ian guage cha nge is in evitable. As a gen eral rule, la nguage cha nge is uni versal, con ti nu ous and, to a con siderable de-gree, regular and systematic. Language change is extensive, taking place in virtually all aspects of the grammar.Although Ian guage cha nge is uni versal, in evitable, and in some cases, vigorous,it is never an overnight occurrenee, but a gradual and constant process, often in discer ni ble to speakers of the same gen erati on.68. What are the major periods in the history of En glishThe major periods in the history of English are Old English period (roughly from 449 to 1100), Middle English period(roughly from 1100 to 1500), and Modern English period (roughly from 1500 to the pre-sent). Old English dates back to the mid-fifth century when Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northernEurope.The pronunciation of Old English is very different from its modem form. For example, the OldEnglish word "ham" is pronounced as /ha:m/. In terms of morphology, n early half of the nouns are in flected to mark no mi-native , gen itive, dative, and accusative cases .In additi on, suffixes are added to verbs to indicate tense. Syntactical-ly , the verb of an Old English sentence precedes, hut does not follow, the subject.Middle En glish bega n whe n the Norma n French in vaders in vaded En gla nd un der William the Conq ueror in 1066. Middle En glish had bee n deeply in flue need by Norma n Fre nch in vocabulary and grammar. For example, such terms as " army," "court," " defe nse," " faith," "pris on" and "tax" came from the Ian guage of the French rulers.Moder n En glish period starts with Europea n ren aissa nee move-me nt. A di-rect con seque nee of the Ren aissa nee moveme nt was the revival of Lat in as a literary Ian guage. In the post-Re naissa nee period, the "British Empire" set upEnglish-speaking colonies in many parts of the world. By the nineteenth century,En glish was recog ni zed as the Ian guage of the gover nment, the law, higher educati on, and bus in ess and commerce in the Un ited States, Can ada, Australia and New Zeala nd. Today Moder n En glish is widely used and has in fact become an importa nt tool of intern ati onal com muni cati on among peoples of differe nt coun tries.69. As Ianguage changes over time, the meaning of a word may deviate from its original denotation. Discuss the major types of semantic changes.Major types of semantic changes are semantic broadening, semantic narrowing and sema ntic shift.Semantic broadening refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more gen eral or in elusive tha n its historically earlier deno ta-ti on. Take theword "holiday" for example, The older meaning was a " holy day." Today every one enjoys a holiday, whether he or she is religious or not.Semantic narrowing is a process in which the meaning of a word be-comes lessgeneral or inclusive than its historically earlier meaning. For ex-ample," wife," used to mean "any woman," but now it means “married fe - males" only.Sema ntic shift is a process of sema ntic cha nge in which a word loses its former meaning and acquires a new, sometimes related, meaning. For example, the word silly meant “happy" in Old English, and naive in Middle English, but "foolish" in Moder n En glish.70. Over the years from Old English period to the Modern English period, English has un derg one some major sound cha nges. Illustrate these cha nges with some examples.The major sound cha nges in clude cha nges in vowel soun ds, and in the loss, gain and moveme nt of soun ds.The changes in vowel sounds can be seen in the Great Vowel Shift in the history of English, which led to one of the major dis-agreements between the pronun ciati on and the spelli ng system of Moder n En glish. These cha nges in volveseve n long, or tense vowels, for exampleSounds do not just change, they can be lost. vowel sounds change, but some sounds simply disappeared from the gen eral pronun ciati on of En glish. One example of sound loss is the /kn - / clusters in the word - in itial positi on. In Old andMiddle En glish, both /k/ and /n/ were pro-noun ced, as is show n in the spelli ngof such words as "knight" and "knee." Although Modern English spelling of these words still keeps the in itial letter k, its sound is no Ion ger pronoun ced.Sound cha nges can also take the form of sound additi on. Sound additi on in eludes the gain or in serti on of a sound, for example:spi nle sp in dleemty emptySound cha nge can take the form of sound moveme nt. It in volves a reversal inposition of two neighbouring sound seg-ments. For example, the /r/ sound in the Old En glish words "bridd" ("bird") and "hros" ("horse") was moved to the right of the vowel sounds in their Modem En glish coun terparts "bird" and "horse."71. What are the most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical developme nt of En glish?The most widely-spread morphological cha nges in the historical developme nt ofEn glish are the loss and additi on of affixes. A nu mber of morphological rules in Old En glish are now lost in Moder n En glish. Some of these rules are about derivati onal affixes, such as suffixes "-baere" and "-bora" .In Old En glish an adjective would derive if "-baere" was added to a noun, such as:lust ("pleasure") + baere lustbaere ("agreeable")But this rule has bee n lost in moder n En glish.The most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss of gender and case marking. In Old English,for example, "stn" ("stone") was marked masculine, while "gief" ("gift") and "d …or" ("wild ani mal") were marked respectively femi nine and n euter. I n moder n En glish, the gen der markers of these words have bee n lost.Some affixes have been added to the English morphological system.Take "-able"for example, it has been added to English since the Old English period. At first, words ending in "-able," such as "favourable" and "conceivable," were borrowed altogether from French. Then this suffix be-came a productive rule in English.It was used with other verbs to form ad-jectives. Con temporary En glish speakers apply this suffix rule to more stems, thus produc ing new adjectives such as " payable," and “washable. ”72. What are the causes of Ian guage cha nge Discuss them in detail.Lan guage cha nges are due to the follow ing causes:1) Sound assimilation: Sound assimilation refers to the physiological effectof one sound on an-other. In an assimilative process, successive sounds are made identical, or more similar, to one another in terms of place or manner of articulation, or of haplology, the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in sequenee. For example, the Old English word "Engla-land" ("the land of the Angles") came to be pronounced “England”through the assimilation of"la-la soun ds.2) Rule simplification and regularization: Some changes are the result of simplificati on and regularizati on. The plural forms of borrowed words are usually irregular, thus complex. For example, the plural forms of "age ndum","datum", "curriculum" and "memorandum" are "agenda" , "data" , "curricula" and "mem-oranda" . The irregular plurals of these nouns have been replaced by regular plurals of "agendas", "curriculums", and "memorandums" amongmanyspeakers, thus making them simplified and regularized.3) Internal borrowing: In order to reduce the number of ex-ceptional or irregular morphemes, speakers of a particular Ian guage may bor-row a rule from one partof the grammar and apply it gen erally. For exam-ple, by an alogy to the plural formati on of "foe-s" and "dog-s", speakers started say ing "cows" as the plural of "cow" in stead of the earlier plural kine.4) Elaboration: Rule elaboration occurs when there is a need to reduce ambiguityand in crease com muni cative clarity or expressive ness. If a particulargrammatical feature is lost as a re-sult of a cha nge in the phono logical system, some other feature may be added in ano ther comp onent of the grammar.5) Social triggers: Socio-political changes such as wars, invasions, oc-cupation, coloni zati on, and Ian guage pla nning and sta ndardiza-ti on policies lead toIan guage cha nges. For example, in the history of En glish, the Norma n Conq uest marked the begi nning of the Middle En glish period. And British colonial settleme nt, and the coun try' s political, cultural and econo mic adva nces in dista nt lands such as North America, Ocea nia, South Africa, and In dia lead to the cha nge of En glish into British, America n, Australia n, South Africa n and In dia n varieties.6) Cultural transmission: Although a new generation has to find a way of using the Ianguage of the previous generation, it has to find expressions that can best com muni cate the views and con cepts of the time and the cha nged and ever-cha nging social life, and re-create the Ian guage of the com muni ty. For example, while old people tend to call a refrigerator "icebox," the youn gergeneration is more often heard speaking of a "fridge." This tenuous transmission process adds up to the in evitable and ongoing Ian guage cha nge and variati on.7) Childre n's approximati on toward the adult grammar:The way childre n acquire the Ian guage is ano ther basic cause for Ian-guage cha nge. Childre n usually con struct their pers onal grammars by themselves and gen eralize rules from thelinguistic information they hear. Children' s grammar never models exactly afterthat of the adult speech com mun ity, because childre n are exposed to diverse lin guistic in for-mati on.All the above factors con tribute to Ian guage cha nges.。