Linguistics Assignment Questions With Answers

1.The abstract, basic units that differentiate words are called __________.

phonemes

2. The allophonic rule for vowel reduction in English involves changing vowels to [ə] when they are ________.

unstressed

3. Alveolar, bilabial, and velar sounds are classified according to _______________

place

4. A(n) _______________ is a sequence of two vowels squished together.

diphthong

5. Correct the error in the following phonological rule of English V [-nas] / _____ C

change the [nas] to [+nas]

6. Describe the following vowel phoneme of English in terms of tongue height, frontness, lip rounding, and tenseness:

æ

7. Describe the following vowel phoneme of English in terms of tongue height, frontness, lip rounding, and tenseness

o

8. The different - but predictable pronunciations of a single morpheme are called __________.

allomorphs

9. A family of expressions that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality is a __________.

syntactic category

10. Identity the formal statement that is equivalent to the following informal statement: A voiceless consonant becomes voiced when it occurs between two vowels.

C [+voice] / V _____ V

11. Identity the formal statement that is equivalent to the following informal statement: Vowels become nasalized in the environment before nasal segments within a syllable.

V [+nasal] / [+nasal] $

12. In English, where oral vowels occur, nasal vowels do not occur, and vice versa. This is referred to as __________

complementary

distribution

13. The limitations on sequences of sound segments in a given language are called ________ constraints.

phonotactic

14. list the parts of the vocal tract

bilabial labiodental interdental alveolar (alveo) palatal velar uvular glottal

15.The natural groupings of words within asentence are called _________

constituents

16. The opening between the vocal cords is the ________, which is located in the voice box, also called the ________

larynx;glottis

17. The phrase new sweaters and jeans is an example of _______________ ambiguity.

structural

18. The plural form of the noun horse takes which plural allomorph?

[əz]

19. Sentences that are always true are called

________________

tautologies

20. The sound [s] is described as a _______________.

voiceless alveolar fricative

21. The sound [w] is described as a(n)

_______________.

velar liquid

22. The study of how speech sounds are produced in the vocal tract is _______________.

articulatory phonetics

23. To explain how phonological rules work in languages around the world, ________ Theory hypothesizes a universal set of ranked constraints with higher order ranked constraints taking precedence over lower ranked ones.

Optimality

24. The transcription [∫ɪp] represents which English word?

ship

25. The transcription [baɪ bəl] represents which English word?

bible

26. Voiced/voiceless sounds are classified according to _______________

manner of

articulation

27. What does it mean for a syntactic category to be a closed class?

new words

are rarely added to the class

28. What does the sentence Judy walks her dog every morning entail?

Judy has a dog

29. what is one of the lexical items is a function word?

the

30. What is the English allophonic rule for the nasalization of vowels?

Vowels become

nasalized before nasal consonants in the same syllable

31. What is the head of the phrase swim with the graceful dolphins?

swim

32.What is the process of inserting aconsonant or a vowel into a wordduring speech?

epenthesis

33. What is the rime of the word trains (/trenz/)?

/enz/

34. Which maxim of conversation involves saying what you believe to be the truth?

maxim of quality

35. Which natural class is composed of all the non-nasal stops, fricatives, and affricates?

obstruents

36. Which of the following features is NOT distinctive for English consonants?

aspirated

37. Which of the following is the correct phonetic transcription of the English word feather?

fɛð ər

38. Which of the following is the correct phonetic transcription of the English word seem?

sim

39. Which of the following non-words represents an accidental gap?

[khrʌk]

40. Which of the following options constitutes a minimal pair for [t] and [d]?

dip and tip

41. Which of the following options is NOT a suprasegmental (or prosodic) feature?

voicing

42. Which of the following options is the best transcription for an American

English pronunciation of the word jam?

[dʒæm]

43. Which of the following sounds is classified as a bilabial sound?

[p]

44. Which of the following sounds is classified as a stop?

[d]

45. which of the following words is deitic?

you

46. Which phonological rule makes neighboring sound segments more similar?

assimilation

47. Which sound is described as a mid back rounded vowel?

[o]

48. Which vowel below is classified as lax?

[ε]

49. Which word below illustrates the process of dissimilation?

the word fifth being pronounced

as if it were spelled fift

50. The word gentlemanliness has _____ morphemes. In the space below divide the word into its various morphemes.

4 morphemes gentle+man+li+ness