Linguistics Quiz

What is the scientific study of language called?

• Grammar

• Linguistics

• Literature

• Syntax

Which of the following is not a branch of linguistics?

• Phonetics

• Morphology

• Chemistry

• Semantics

What distinguishes descriptive from prescriptive linguistics?

• Descriptive tells people how to speak

• Prescriptive describes how people actually speak

• Descriptive records language use; prescriptive tells how it should be used

• There is no difference

Which of the following is a voiceless bilabial plosive?

• /b/

• /p/

• /m/

• /v/

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is used to:

• Write poems

• Translate languages

• Represent sounds of speech

• Analyze sentence structure

What is phonology concerned with?

• Sentence patterns

• Word meanings

• Speech sounds and sound systems

• Word formation

Which of the following is an example of a bound morpheme?

• Book

• Un-

• Dog

• Tree

The word "unhappiness" contains how many morphemes?

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

A morpheme that changes the grammatical category of a word is called:

• Inflectional

• Phonetic

• Derivational

• Reduplicative

Syntax is the study of:

• Word structure

• Sentence structure

• Sound patterns

• Word meaning