AN INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE
UPDATED ACTUAL QUESTIONS AND
CORRECT ANSWERS COMPLETE STUDY
GUIDE FULL SOLUTION
●● acronym
Answer: A WORD made from stringing together the initial orthographic
letters of PHRASES or names. An ACRONYM is a process of WORD
creation. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and SCUBA (Self-
Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) are both examples of
ACRONYMS.
●● adjective
Answer: A LEXICAL CATEGORY that modifies NOUNS: In the
PHRASE the yellow house, the WORD yellow is an ADJECTIVE
modifying the NOUN house.
●● advancement
Answer: A quality of VOWEL sounds relating to how far front or far
back a VOWEL is produced in the mouth. There are distinctions
between back VOWELS, central VOWELS, and front VOWELS: [u] as
in [bu] boo is a back VOWEL; [i] as in [bi] bee is a front VOWEL.
●● affix
,Answer: A BOUND MORPHEME that can be attached to a ROOT to
form a new WORD. PREFIXES (e.g. pre-, un-), SUFFIXES (e.g. -ly, -
less), and INFIXES (e.g. bloody as in abso-bloody-lutely) are all types
of AFFIXES.
●● affricate
Answer: A single CONSONANT sound produced with the articulations
of both a STOP and FRICATIVE: The [tʃ] in [tʃɹ̩ tʃ] church. It takes two
combined PHONETIC SYMBOLS to represent the AFFRICATES [tʃ]
and [dʒ].
●● alphabetism
Answer: A type of ACRONYM pronounced letter by letter: The
acronym FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is pronounced [ɛfbiaɪ].
●● alveolar
Answer: A NATURAL CLASS of CONSONANT sounds produced with
the tip of the tongue touching the area behind the upper front teeth: The
initial sounds of [ti] tea and [ni] knee are both alveolar.
●● ambiguity
Answer: AMBIGUITY arises when two or more meanings can be
interpreted in the UTTERANCE, and thus the speaker's intended
meaning might not match the audience's interpreted meaning. A WORD
such as bat can have two meanings, and a PHRASE, such as the deep
blue pool can have two meanings (is it a dark shade of blue, or is the
,volume of the blue pool deep?). The two types are LEXICAL
AMBIGUITY and STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY.
●● amelioration
Answer: On a scale of whether the word's meaning is good or bad,
AMELIORATION is a SEMANTIC CHANGE where it becomes more
favorable. For example, in Old English, the DENOTATION of the
WORD pretty referred to sly and tricky actions, but pretty now refers to
physical beauty.
●● analytic languages
Answer: Languages that have fewer MORPHEMES per WORD are
ANALYTIC. These languages rely on SYNTAX to arrange FUNCTION
MORPHEMES rather than MORPHOLOGY. An example is Mandarin
Chinese.
●● arbitrariness
Answer: The natural relation between form and meaning. The meaning
connected to any form is conventionally
determined by a society. Meaning is not predictable from linguistic
form, nor is form dictated by meaning. For example, nothing in the
meaning of 'artificial, packaged, sweetened beverage' is naturally
affiliated with the forms pop or coke or soda.
●● articulatory phonetics
, Answer: The study of language sounds, concerning how those sounds
are produced in the mouth. For consonants, there are three categories:
PLACE OF ARTICULATION, MANNER OF ARTICULATION, and
VOICE OF ARTICULATION.
●● aspect
Answer: Specifies the semantic quality of the VERB, indicating how
complete, or not, the meaning of the verb might be. PROGRESSIVE,
PERFECT, and NEUTRAL are all categories of ASPECT.
●● aspiration
Answer: A quality of CONSONANT sounds pronounced with an audible
release of breath: The initial sound of [tʰɪl] till.
●● assimilation
Answer: A PHONOLOGICAL process where speakers make one
sound more similar to another sound. An example can be
seen in the vowel difference of bin~bid [bɪñ ]~[bɪd] and
rung~rug [ɹəŋ̃ ]~[ɹəɡ], as the vowel before the nasal
consonant is itself nasalized. Types of ASSIMILATION
include PALATALIZATION, FLAPPING, DEVOICING, and
NASALIZATION.
●● assumption of composition
UPDATED ACTUAL QUESTIONS AND
CORRECT ANSWERS COMPLETE STUDY
GUIDE FULL SOLUTION
●● acronym
Answer: A WORD made from stringing together the initial orthographic
letters of PHRASES or names. An ACRONYM is a process of WORD
creation. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and SCUBA (Self-
Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) are both examples of
ACRONYMS.
●● adjective
Answer: A LEXICAL CATEGORY that modifies NOUNS: In the
PHRASE the yellow house, the WORD yellow is an ADJECTIVE
modifying the NOUN house.
●● advancement
Answer: A quality of VOWEL sounds relating to how far front or far
back a VOWEL is produced in the mouth. There are distinctions
between back VOWELS, central VOWELS, and front VOWELS: [u] as
in [bu] boo is a back VOWEL; [i] as in [bi] bee is a front VOWEL.
●● affix
,Answer: A BOUND MORPHEME that can be attached to a ROOT to
form a new WORD. PREFIXES (e.g. pre-, un-), SUFFIXES (e.g. -ly, -
less), and INFIXES (e.g. bloody as in abso-bloody-lutely) are all types
of AFFIXES.
●● affricate
Answer: A single CONSONANT sound produced with the articulations
of both a STOP and FRICATIVE: The [tʃ] in [tʃɹ̩ tʃ] church. It takes two
combined PHONETIC SYMBOLS to represent the AFFRICATES [tʃ]
and [dʒ].
●● alphabetism
Answer: A type of ACRONYM pronounced letter by letter: The
acronym FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is pronounced [ɛfbiaɪ].
●● alveolar
Answer: A NATURAL CLASS of CONSONANT sounds produced with
the tip of the tongue touching the area behind the upper front teeth: The
initial sounds of [ti] tea and [ni] knee are both alveolar.
●● ambiguity
Answer: AMBIGUITY arises when two or more meanings can be
interpreted in the UTTERANCE, and thus the speaker's intended
meaning might not match the audience's interpreted meaning. A WORD
such as bat can have two meanings, and a PHRASE, such as the deep
blue pool can have two meanings (is it a dark shade of blue, or is the
,volume of the blue pool deep?). The two types are LEXICAL
AMBIGUITY and STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY.
●● amelioration
Answer: On a scale of whether the word's meaning is good or bad,
AMELIORATION is a SEMANTIC CHANGE where it becomes more
favorable. For example, in Old English, the DENOTATION of the
WORD pretty referred to sly and tricky actions, but pretty now refers to
physical beauty.
●● analytic languages
Answer: Languages that have fewer MORPHEMES per WORD are
ANALYTIC. These languages rely on SYNTAX to arrange FUNCTION
MORPHEMES rather than MORPHOLOGY. An example is Mandarin
Chinese.
●● arbitrariness
Answer: The natural relation between form and meaning. The meaning
connected to any form is conventionally
determined by a society. Meaning is not predictable from linguistic
form, nor is form dictated by meaning. For example, nothing in the
meaning of 'artificial, packaged, sweetened beverage' is naturally
affiliated with the forms pop or coke or soda.
●● articulatory phonetics
, Answer: The study of language sounds, concerning how those sounds
are produced in the mouth. For consonants, there are three categories:
PLACE OF ARTICULATION, MANNER OF ARTICULATION, and
VOICE OF ARTICULATION.
●● aspect
Answer: Specifies the semantic quality of the VERB, indicating how
complete, or not, the meaning of the verb might be. PROGRESSIVE,
PERFECT, and NEUTRAL are all categories of ASPECT.
●● aspiration
Answer: A quality of CONSONANT sounds pronounced with an audible
release of breath: The initial sound of [tʰɪl] till.
●● assimilation
Answer: A PHONOLOGICAL process where speakers make one
sound more similar to another sound. An example can be
seen in the vowel difference of bin~bid [bɪñ ]~[bɪd] and
rung~rug [ɹəŋ̃ ]~[ɹəɡ], as the vowel before the nasal
consonant is itself nasalized. Types of ASSIMILATION
include PALATALIZATION, FLAPPING, DEVOICING, and
NASALIZATION.
●● assumption of composition
