HISTÒRIA DE LA LLENGUA ANGLESA I

1 English originally derives from

a. West Germanic
b. Old Norse
c. North Germanic
d. East Germanic

2. The extension of –s to the plural of all regular nouns in English is an example of

a. analogical extension
b. bleaching of meaning
c. reduction
d. morphological fusion

3. Resurrect from resurrection is an example of:

a. clipping
b. conversion
c. folk etymology
d. back-formation SUFFIX CUT OFF

4. The evolution of the word starve is an example of

a. umlaut
b. narrowing
c. false friend
d. metaphor

5. Ablaut is:
a. the puff of air that sometimes follows a speech sound.
b. the oldest IE way of marking tense.
c. an assimilatory process.
d. vowel harmony.

6. We find unequal alongside inequality because:

a. with adjectives, but not with nouns, in- is receding before un
b.the prefix in- can only be added to nouns
c. Nouns can never have the same prefixes as adjectives
d. Inequality is a native word

7. The extension of a new linguistic pattern to forms originally belonging to another is

known as:
a. analogy
b. syncope
c. haplology
d. phonetic reduction

8. The main influence of Celtic on the English language is to be found

a. in everyday vocabulary
b. in place names
c. in legal terms
d. in pronouns

9. Explain why the word initial velar phoneme /g/ in get or gate is not palatalized
a. because initial /g/ never palatalizes in English
b. because they are borrowings from Old Norse
c. because of Norman influence
d. because it is followed by a front vowel

10. ModE. they is

a. native
b. of Scandinavian origin
c. of French origin
d. of Celtic origin

PART B

Answer the following questions:

1.Explain the differences in the highlighted consonants of the following words and write
at least another pair where a similar correspondence can be found

father - paternal

three - trio

2. As you know, there are prefixes which are identical in Modem English, but with a
completely different meaning. On the other hand, there are prefixes which are different,
but have the same meaning. Why? Provide examples.

3. Account from a diachronic perspective for the morphophonemic

alternation that we find in words such as divine/divinity or crime/criminal.

4. Compare the OE and ME declensions of the following a-stem noun and explain its
evolution:

OE
sing. pl

Nominative stān stānas

Accusative stān stānas
Genitive stānes stāna
Dative stāne stānum

ME

Nominative ston stones

Accusative ston stones
Genitive stones stones
Dative ston(e) stones