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Lexical and semantic change

Total questions: 14

Worksheet time: 6mins

Name
Class
Date
1.

Descriptivism is...

a)

Not being pedantic

b)

Accepting change

c)

Seeing worth in all varieties of language

d)

Wanting clearer rules

2.

Lexical change: compounding is..

a)

taking parts of words to make new ones

b)

putting whole words together to make a new one

c)

taking a word from another country

3.

Lexical change: clipping

a)

when words are made longer

b)

when words are made shorter

c)

when words are blended together

4.

Semantic change: narrowing

a)

meaning becomes more general

b)

meaning becomes more specific

c)

meaning becomes more positive

5.

Semantic change: ameiloration is...

a)

words acquires a more negative meaning

b)

words acquires a more positive meaning

c)

words acquires a broader meaning

6.

Semantic change: euphemism means...

a)

an impolite way of referring to a topic

b)

a polite way of referring to a topic

c)

a metaphor

7.

In the words "recollection, idealistic, and ex-prisoner", "re-, -ion, -ist, -ic, ex-, and -er" are _________.

a)

a free root

b)

a bound root

c)

an inflectional affix

d)

a derivational affix

8.

The words “take” and “table” are called _____ because they can occur unattached.

a)

free words

b)

bound morphemes

c)

free morphemes

d)

inflectional morphemes

9.

Morphemes that represent tense, number, gender and case are called ____________ morphemes.

a)

inflectional

b)

free

c)

bound

d)

derivational

10.

Etymology is the study of...

a)

word origins

b)

insects

c)

aliens

d)

accents

11.

Neologism: 'cuisine' is an example of...

a)

a loan

b)

a composite

c)

a blend

d)

a shift

12.

Neologism: 'fridge' is an example of...

a)

a loan

b)

a composite

c)

a shortening

d)

a blend

13.

Neologism: 'bromance' is an example of...

a)

a composite

b)

a shortening

c)

a blend

d)

a creation

14.

A morpheme is...

a)

a suffix

b)

a prefix

c)

smallest unit of meaning in a word

d)

an affix