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Worksheetschapter 3
Total questions: 30
Worksheet time: 15mins
What does "tertium comparationis" (TC) literally mean?
A third form of comparison
The first language of the learner
A secondary form of transfer
A type of universal grammar
The primary role of tertium comparationis in contrastive analysis is to:
Eliminate language interference
Provide a common basis for comparison between languages
Translate L1 into L2
Highlight cultural differences
Tertium comparationis is essential because it:
Allows learners to avoid fossilization
Provides a reference point shared by both languages being compared
Guarantees error-free production
Encourages overgeneralization
In contrastive analysis, TC helps avoid comparisons that are:
Structural
Meaningless or arbitrary
Necessary
Productive
What is a key requirement for something to be used as a tertium comparationis?
It must be language-specific
It must exist only in L1
It must be common to both languages
It must be non-verbal
Tertium comparationis belongs to which level of contrastive analysis?
Cultural level
Syntactic level only
Meta-level
Lexical level only
When comparing the English verb "go" and the French "aller," what acts as the TC?
A bilingual teacher
A shared semantic category
A translation dictionary
A code-switching strategy
Which of the following is shared between L1 and L2 in Tertium Comparationis?
Their spelling
Their frequency
The shared concept of movement
Their phonetic structure
What is NOT a valid function of Tertium Comparationis?
Creating a shared analytical ground
Enabling scientific comparison
Emphasizing language uniqueness
Preventing irrelevant contrasts
Tertium Comparationis is most useful when:
L1 and L2 are genetically related
L1 and L2 have no similarities
There is a need for objective comparison
A learner already knows both languages well
Which of the following is NOT a commonly used type of Tertium Comparationis?
Semantic features
Formal structure
Cultural background
Grammatical category
Form-based Tertium Comparationis compares:
Language use in society
Similarity in spelling or phonology
The function of linguistic items
Non-verbal behavior
Function-based Tertium Comparationis focuses on:
How often a word is used
The syntactic complexity of a word
What a linguistic item does in communication
How the word is pronounced
Semantic-based Tertium Comparationis is built around:
Shared meaning
Sentence order
Frequency lists
Lexical stress
Which of the following would best serve as a semantic Tertium Comparationis?
The orthography of words
Shared concepts like 'pastness' or 'future'
Frequency of word usage
Phonetic similarity
A grammatical category (e.g., “plurality”) used to compare two languages represents:
A cultural TC
A semantic TC
A structural TC
A universal TC
Which type of TC would be least reliable when comparing two very different languages?
Formal TC
Functional TC
Semantic TC
Grammatical TC
The word order SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) as a tertium comparationis is an example of:
Cultural TC
Semantic TC
Formal TC
Pragmatic TC
When selecting a TC, it should be:
Exclusive to one language
Arbitrary
Relevant to the linguistic level being compared
Culturally biased
A poor choice of TC may lead to:
Deeper understanding of both languages
Irrelevant or misleading comparisons
More learner motivation
Easier vocabulary memorization
What is equivalence in the context of contrastive analysis?
Translation accuracy
The relationship of similarity between L1 and L2 items
The degree of bilingualism
Grammar accuracy
Formal equivalence is based on:
Semantic similarity
Functional roles
Surface or structural similarity
Cultural context
Functional equivalence is concerned with:
How similar two words look
The origin of the words
The roles items play in communication
How frequently they are used
When two expressions in different languages serve the same communicative purpose, this is called:
Phonetic equivalence
Functional equivalence
Morphological alignment
Orthographic match
If “to whom” in English and “à qui” in French both function as interrogative pronouns, they are:
Formal equivalents
Semantic opposites
Functional equivalents
Non-comparable items
Formal equivalence can be problematic because:
It does not exist in most languages
It focuses only on meaning
Surface forms may appear similar but function differently
Learners dislike it
Semantic equivalence is achieved when:
Words sound the same
Grammatical structures align
Words or phrases share the same core meaning
Both items are spelled alike
Which pair best illustrates functional equivalence?
English “dog” and Spanish “perro”
English “Hello” and French “Bonjour”
English “quickly” and Chinese “kuài” (fast)
English “beautiful” and Vietnamese “xinh”
Which equivalence type would best help learners avoid negative transfer?
Formal equivalence
Functional equivalence
Morphological equivalence
Cultural equivalence
Why are types of equivalence important in contrastive analysis?
To memorize vocabulary faster
To evaluate literary translations
To make accurate and useful comparisons
To test learners’ fluency
