英语词汇学复习题

英语词汇学复习题(五)

I. Some of the following statements are true, and the others false. Mark your answer by writing T or F on your answer sheet. (10%)

1. The great majority of the basic word stock of the English language are native words, that is, words of Anglo-Saxon origin.

2. Suffixation is different from conversion in that it does not change the word-class of the base.

3. Words of a semantic field are synonymous.

4. Clipping involves the deletion of one or more syllables from a word, which is also available in its full form.

5. Content words have lexical meaning but no grammatical meaning.

6. A particular characteristic of componential analysis is that it attempts to treat components in terms of binary opposites.

7. A root is the basic unchangeable part of a word.

8. Many English words cannot be analyzed in terms of semantic features.

9. All words have antonyms.

10. The impact of context on meaning differs from one word to another and from one instance or passage to another.

II. The following are multiple-choice questions. Mark your answer by writing A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet. (20%)

11. The English language from ______ to the present is called Modern English.

(A) 450 (B) 1100

(C) 1500 (D) 1800

12. The sentence “John was fired for petty thieving.” Is stylistically ________.

(A) literal (B) colloquial

(C) archaic (D) neutral

13. Of the following words, _____ is an acronym.

(A) OPEC (B) CIA

(C) stylistic (D) affective

14. The definition of a word given in the dictionary is called its _____ meaning.

(A) connotative (B) denotative

(C) stylistic (D) affective

15. In terms of oppositeness of meaning, ________ is a pair of conversives.

(A) “deep” and “shallow”

(B) “present” and “absent”

(C) “love” and “hate”

(D) “above” and “below”

16. In the group of words “ride, run, walk, go, fly”, “go” is a ________.

(A) superordinate term (B) hyponym

(C) subordinate term (D) hyponymy

17. The word “success” used to mean “result, outcome”, now it means “a favorable outcome or result”. This is an example of __________ of meaning.

(A) elevation (B) degeneration

(C) extension (D) restriction

18. The language the early immigrants brought them to America was different from present English; the greatest difference lies in ________.

(A) spelling (B) pronunciation

(C) grammar (D) vocabulary

19. _________ serves as a typical example of euphemism.

(A) “Pious” meaning “hypocritically virtuous”

(B) “A mental hospital” referring to “a madhouse”

(C) “A landscape architect” meaning “a gardener”

(D) “Slow learners” referring to “underachievers”

20. Oxford English Dictionary is a ___________ dictionary.

(A) pocket (B) medium-size

(C) descriptive (D) prescriptive

III. Decide whether each of the following words is a A) simple word, B) compound word, C) derived word or D) shortened form. Mark your answer on the answer sheet. (10%)

21. acidhead 26. fashion

22. formal 27. recycle

23. preplant 28. honesty

24. lab 29. phone

25. ready 30. ashtray

IV. Explain the following terms with appropriate examples. Do it on the answer sheet. (10%)

31. back-formation

32. polysemy

V. Give a short answer to the following questions. Do it on the answer sheet. (30%) 33. What is the difference between a morpheme and a syllable? Illustrate your points with examples.

34. Explain conventionality and motivation. Give examples.

VI. Give a longer answer (150-200 words) to the following question. Do it on the answer sheet. (20%)

35. Context is very important for the understanding of word meaning. How is context