SLO1 WGU CORE EXAM MANUAL 2025/2026 QUESTIONS
WITH ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Modal - ✔✔auxillary verb that is used to express an attitude toward the action or
state of being of the main verb (can, could, will, would must)
✔✔Auxiliary verbs - ✔✔helping verbs ( have, be, will)
✔✔Structure Dependent - ✔✔(1) A principle of Universal Grammar that states that the
application of transformational rules is determined by phrase structure properties, as
opposed to structureless sequences of words or specific sentences; (2) the way children
construct rules using their knowledge of syntactic structure irrespective of the specific
words in the structure or their meaning.
✔✔Lexical Categories - ✔✔A general term for the word-level syntactic categories of
noun, verb, preposition, adjective, and adverb. These are the categories of words like
man, run, large, and rapidly, as opposed to functional category words such as the and
and
✔✔Sound symbolism - ✔✔The notion that certain sound combinations occur in
semantically similar words: for example, gl in gleam, glisten, and glitter, which all relate
to vision
✔✔Onomatopoeic - ✔✔formed in imitation of a natural sound (meow and buzz)
✔✔Slips of the tongue - ✔✔errors in which sounds or entire words are rearranged
between two or more different words
✔✔Descriptive grammar - ✔✔an explicit statement of what speakers know about their
language
✔✔Prescriptive grammar - ✔✔Specific rules for using language and grammar
✔✔Prestige dialect - ✔✔The variety of a language spoken by the high-status people of
a society.
✔✔Standard - ✔✔dialect considered the 'norm'
✔✔Gloss - ✔✔A word in one language given to express the meaning of a word in
another language: for example, "house" is the English gloss for the French word maison
✔✔discreteness - ✔✔A fundamental property of human language in which larger
linguistic units are perceived to be composed of smaller linguistic units: for example, cat
is perceived as the phonemes /k/, /æ/, and /t/; the cat is perceived as the and cat.
, ✔✔Birdcalls - ✔✔One or more short notes that convey messages associated with the
immediate environment, such as danger, feeding, nesting, and flocking
✔✔Critical period - ✔✔The time between early childhood and puberty during which a
child can acquire a native language easily, swiftly, and without external intervention.
After this period, the acquisition of the grammar is difficult and, for some individuals,
never fully achieved.
✔✔Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - ✔✔Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis that
language creates ways of thinking and perceiving (linguistic relativism and Linguistic
determinism)
✔✔Lexicon - ✔✔a speakers mental dictionary
✔✔Acoustic Phonetics - ✔✔the study of physical characteristics of speech sounds
✔✔Auditory Phonetics - ✔✔the study of the perception of speech sounds
✔✔Articulatory Phonetics - ✔✔the study of how the vocal tract produces speech sounds
✔✔Orthography - ✔✔the written form of a language ; spelling
✔✔Glottis - ✔✔Opening between vocal cords
✔✔Larynx - ✔✔voice box
✔✔Pharynx - ✔✔throat; the tube or cavity in the vocal tract above the glottis through
which the air passes during speech production
✔✔Oral cavity - ✔✔the mouth area which air passes during the production of speech
✔✔Vocal tract - ✔✔network consisting of the larynx, pharynx, and the oral and nasal
cavities
✔✔Place of articulation - ✔✔The position in the mouth where a consonant sound is
produced
✔✔Dental - ✔✔A place-of-articulation term for consonants articulated with the tongue
against, or nearly against, the front teeth.
✔✔Alveolar ridge - ✔✔the hard ridge behind the upper front teeth
WITH ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Modal - ✔✔auxillary verb that is used to express an attitude toward the action or
state of being of the main verb (can, could, will, would must)
✔✔Auxiliary verbs - ✔✔helping verbs ( have, be, will)
✔✔Structure Dependent - ✔✔(1) A principle of Universal Grammar that states that the
application of transformational rules is determined by phrase structure properties, as
opposed to structureless sequences of words or specific sentences; (2) the way children
construct rules using their knowledge of syntactic structure irrespective of the specific
words in the structure or their meaning.
✔✔Lexical Categories - ✔✔A general term for the word-level syntactic categories of
noun, verb, preposition, adjective, and adverb. These are the categories of words like
man, run, large, and rapidly, as opposed to functional category words such as the and
and
✔✔Sound symbolism - ✔✔The notion that certain sound combinations occur in
semantically similar words: for example, gl in gleam, glisten, and glitter, which all relate
to vision
✔✔Onomatopoeic - ✔✔formed in imitation of a natural sound (meow and buzz)
✔✔Slips of the tongue - ✔✔errors in which sounds or entire words are rearranged
between two or more different words
✔✔Descriptive grammar - ✔✔an explicit statement of what speakers know about their
language
✔✔Prescriptive grammar - ✔✔Specific rules for using language and grammar
✔✔Prestige dialect - ✔✔The variety of a language spoken by the high-status people of
a society.
✔✔Standard - ✔✔dialect considered the 'norm'
✔✔Gloss - ✔✔A word in one language given to express the meaning of a word in
another language: for example, "house" is the English gloss for the French word maison
✔✔discreteness - ✔✔A fundamental property of human language in which larger
linguistic units are perceived to be composed of smaller linguistic units: for example, cat
is perceived as the phonemes /k/, /æ/, and /t/; the cat is perceived as the and cat.
, ✔✔Birdcalls - ✔✔One or more short notes that convey messages associated with the
immediate environment, such as danger, feeding, nesting, and flocking
✔✔Critical period - ✔✔The time between early childhood and puberty during which a
child can acquire a native language easily, swiftly, and without external intervention.
After this period, the acquisition of the grammar is difficult and, for some individuals,
never fully achieved.
✔✔Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - ✔✔Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis that
language creates ways of thinking and perceiving (linguistic relativism and Linguistic
determinism)
✔✔Lexicon - ✔✔a speakers mental dictionary
✔✔Acoustic Phonetics - ✔✔the study of physical characteristics of speech sounds
✔✔Auditory Phonetics - ✔✔the study of the perception of speech sounds
✔✔Articulatory Phonetics - ✔✔the study of how the vocal tract produces speech sounds
✔✔Orthography - ✔✔the written form of a language ; spelling
✔✔Glottis - ✔✔Opening between vocal cords
✔✔Larynx - ✔✔voice box
✔✔Pharynx - ✔✔throat; the tube or cavity in the vocal tract above the glottis through
which the air passes during speech production
✔✔Oral cavity - ✔✔the mouth area which air passes during the production of speech
✔✔Vocal tract - ✔✔network consisting of the larynx, pharynx, and the oral and nasal
cavities
✔✔Place of articulation - ✔✔The position in the mouth where a consonant sound is
produced
✔✔Dental - ✔✔A place-of-articulation term for consonants articulated with the tongue
against, or nearly against, the front teeth.
✔✔Alveolar ridge - ✔✔the hard ridge behind the upper front teeth
