P a g e | 1
WEEK 4, 5, AND 6 QUIZZES, ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS: SEMANTICS &
PRAGMATICS, MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX
LIN 510-Linguistics
December 2, 2022
Week 4 Quiz: Morphology
Question 1.
[Multiple Choice]: Which category of words primarily carries semantic content and includes nouns,
verbs, and adjectives?
A) Function words
B) Content words
C) Grammatical markers
D) Bound morphemes
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Content words, like nouns and verbs, carry the primary lexical meaning in a sentence, unlike
function words which mainly serve grammatical purposes.
Question 2.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: Words such as determiners, conjunctions, and prepositions that primarily signal
grammatical relationships are known as __________.
Correct Answer: function words
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
P a g e | 2
Explanation: Function words provide structural scaffolding for a sentence, linking content words and
indicating grammatical relations like tense or case.
Question 3.
[True/False]: A morpheme is defined as the smallest meaningful unit in a language that cannot be further
divided.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: This is the core definition of a morpheme in linguistics; it is a minimal unit of meaning or
grammatical function.
Question 4.
[Multiple Choice]: What term describes a linguistic unit that cannot be broken down into smaller
meaningful parts?
A) Lexical root
B) Minimal form
C) Complex word
D) Phonological word
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A minimal form is the smallest possible unit, such as a simple morpheme, possessing
meaning but lacking internal grammatical structure.
Question 5.
[Short Answer]: What term refers to a morpheme that can stand alone as an independent word?
Correct Answer: free morpheme
P a g e | 3
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Free morphemes, like "dog" or "run", can function as words by themselves without being
attached to other morphemes.
Question 6.
[Multiple Choice]: Which type of morpheme must always be attached to another morpheme to appear in
an utterance?
A) Free morpheme
B) Lexical root
C) Bound morpheme
D) Content word
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Bound morphemes, such as prefixes or suffixes, cannot stand alone and must be affixed to a
base or root.
Question 7.
[True/False]: A bound root is a morpheme that carries the core lexical meaning but cannot occur in
isolation.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Bound roots, like "ceive" in "receive", provide the primary meaning yet require affixes to
form a complete word.
Question 8.
P a g e | 4
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The primary morpheme that contributes the core meaning of a word, often a noun or
verb base, is termed the __________.
Correct Answer: lexical root
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: The lexical root is the fundamental part of a word, holding its central dictionary meaning,
upon which affixes operate.
Question 9.
[Multiple Choice]: Which morphological process involves the systematic addition of a bound morpheme
to a base or root?
A) Compounding
B) Reduplication
C) Affixation
D) Conversion
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Affixation is the process of adding prefixes, suffixes, infixes, or circumfixes to a stem to
form new words or word forms.
Question 10.
[Short Answer]: What is the term for an affix that is placed before the root or stem of a word?
Correct Answer: prefixation
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Prefixation is the specific type of affixation where the morpheme, like "un-" in "unhappy", is
attached to the beginning.
P a g e | 5
Question 11.
[Multiple Choice]: Which affixation process attaches a morpheme to the end of a base to modify its
meaning?
A) Prefixation
B) Infixation
C) Suffixation
D) Circumfixation
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Suffixation adds a morpheme to the end of a stem, such as adding "-ed" to form the past
tense of a verb.
Question 12.
[True/False]: Infixation is a morphological process that inserts an affix directly into the middle of a base
morpheme.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Unlike prefixes or suffixes, infixes are placed within the root itself, a process common in
some languages like Tagalog.
Question 13.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A bound morpheme that is attached both before and after a base to express a single
grammatical unit is a __________.
Correct Answer: circumfix
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 6
Explanation: A circumfix, like the German past participle "ge-t", has two parts that surround the base
morpheme to create a single meaning.
Question 14.
[Multiple Choice]: Which word-formation process creates a new lexeme with a possibly different
meaning and syntactic category?
A) Inflection
B) Derivation
C) Pluralization
D) Conjugation
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Derivation alters meaning or word class (e.g., "teach" to "teacher"), while inflection only
modifies form for grammatical context.
Question 15.
[True/False]: Inflection is a morphological process that produces new lexemes by changing the
grammatical category of a word.
Correct Answer: False
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Inflection modifies a word's form to express grammatical features like tense or number
without creating a new lexeme.
Question 16.
[Multiple Choice]: What is the result of a derivational process that changes a word from one syntactic
category to another?
P a g e | 7
A) Grammatical agreement
B) Paradigm leveling
C) Category shift
D) Inflectional depth
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Category shift, or conversion, is a derivational change where a word moves from one class
to another, like noun to verb.
Question 17.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The specific morphological marker that signals a grammatical feature such as
plurality or past tense is a __________.
Correct Answer: grammatical exponent
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A grammatical exponent is the actual phonological or written form that realizes or
"expones" a particular morphosyntactic property.
Question 18.
[Short Answer]: What is the morphological process that marks a noun to indicate more than one of its
referents?
Correct Answer: pluralization
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Pluralization is an inflectional process that systematically modifies nouns to express the
grammatical category of number.
Question 19.
P a g e | 8
[Multiple Choice]: Which morphological process is primarily used to indicate that an event occurred
before the moment of speaking?
A) Aspect inflection
B) Person inflection
C) Past formation
D) Degree formation
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Past formation is the inflectional process that marks a verb for past tense, situating the action
or state in a prior time.
Question 20.
[True/False]: Aspect inflection provides information about the internal temporal structure of an event,
such as whether it is completed.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Aspect, like perfective or progressive, marks the duration or completion of an action,
distinct from its location in time (tense).
Question 21.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The inflection on a verb that marks grammatical features like the subject or object,
such as in "he runs," is __________.
Correct Answer: person inflection
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Person inflection modifies a verb form to agree with the person (first, second, third) and
often number of its subject.
P a g e | 9
Question 22.
[Multiple Choice]: What type of inflection modifies a noun, pronoun, or adjective to reflect the sex of the
referent?
A) Case inflection
B) Gender inflection
C) Pluralization
D) Definiteness marking
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Gender inflection is a grammatical system that categorizes nouns and triggers agreement on
associated words like adjectives.
Question 23.
[Short Answer]: What is the morphological process for marking adjectives to express comparative or
superlative relations?
Correct Answer: degree formation
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Degree formation, through suffixes like "-er" or "-est," inflects adjectives to indicate relative
intensity or comparison.
Question 24.
[True/False]: Allomorphy refers to the phenomenon where a single morpheme has multiple
phonologically distinct surface forms.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
P a g e | 10
Explanation: Allomorphy is the variation in the pronunciation or spelling of a morpheme, such as the
plural "-s" in "cats," "dogs," and "horses."
Question 25.
[Multiple Choice]: Which term describes the systematic variation in the form of a morpheme due to its
phonological or morphological environment?
A) Suppletion
B) Blocking
C) Morph alternation
D) Portmanteau form
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Morph alternation, or allomorphy, is the conditioned change in a morpheme's shape, such as
the past tense "-ed" in different contexts.
Question 26.
[True/False]: Suppletion is a morphological pattern where two forms of a lexeme are phonologically
unrelated, like "go" and "went".
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Suppletion involves an unpredictable and entirely different phonological form to express a
grammatical contrast, such as in irregular verbs.
Question 27.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A morpheme that is posited in an analysis despite having no phonological realization,
like a singular marker, is a __________.
Correct Answer: null morpheme
P a g e | 11
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: A null morpheme, often represented as ∅, is an abstract analytical unit used where a
grammatical contrast exists without overt expression.
Question 28.
[Multiple Choice]: What term describes a morpheme that has a concrete phonological realization in the
speech stream?
A) Null morpheme
B) Overt exponent
C) Abstract root
D) Zero derivation
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: An overt exponent is a morpheme that is physically realized by specific sounds or letters, as
opposed to a null morpheme.
Question 29.
[Multiple Choice]: Which single morphological form simultaneously expresses multiple distinct
grammatical meanings or categories?
A) Null morpheme
B) Bound root
C) Portmanteau form
D) Free morpheme
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 12
Explanation: A portmanteau form, like French "au" (à + le), fuses several grammatical features into one
indivisible morphological unit.
Question 30.
[Short Answer]: What morphological process copies all or part of a base to mark grammatical meaning?
Correct Answer: reduplication
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Reduplication repeats a phonological segment of a word to indicate features like plurality,
intensity, or iterative aspect.
Question 31.
[True/False]: Echo formation is a specific type of reduplication that creates a word by repeating it with a
slight phonetic change.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Echo formations, like "teeny-weeny", involve reduplication with a systematic alteration of
the initial consonant or vowel.
Question 32.
[Multiple Choice]: Which word-formation process combines two or more existing free morphemes to
create a new lexeme?
A) Derivation
B) Inflection
C) Compounding
D) Affixation
Correct Answer: C
P a g e | 13
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Compounding joins two or more stems, like "doghouse", to form a new word with a
meaning often related to its parts.
Question 33.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A compound whose meaning is a specialization of the head, such that "doghouse" is a
type of house, is __________.
Correct Answer: endocentric compound
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: In endocentric compounds, the compound functions as a hyponym of its grammatical head,
which is contained within it.
Question 34.
[Multiple Choice]: What term describes a compound whose meaning is not a subtype of either
constituent, like "redneck"?
A) Endocentric compound
B) Coordinative compound
C) Exocentric compound
D) Synthetic compound
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Exocentric compounds lack a clear semantic head, meaning the compound's referent is
outside the set denoted by its parts.
Question 35.
P a g e | 14
[True/False]: A coordinative compound, like "actor-director", has two semantic heads that contribute
equally to the compound's meaning.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Also called dvandva compounds, these consist of two elements with equal status, referring
to an entity that is both simultaneously.
Question 36.
[Short Answer]: What type of compound, like "truck driver", involves a deverbal noun and its argument?
Correct Answer: synthetic compound
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Synthetic compounds contain a derived head noun, often from a verb, and a complement
that would be an argument of that verb.
Question 37.
[Multiple Choice]: Which element in a compound determines the grammatical category and core semantic
type of the whole word?
A) The base
B) The affix
C) The morphological head
D) The stem extension
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: The morphological head is the primary constituent that projects its category and core
meaning onto the entire compound.
P a g e | 15
Question 38.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A morphological pattern that specifies how new complex words can be built from
existing morphemes is a __________.
Correct Answer: formation rule
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Formation rules describe the systematic and predictable patterns by which speakers can
combine morphemes to create novel words.
Question 39.
[True/False]: Productivity in morphology refers to the extent to which a word-formation rule can be used
to create new words.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Productivity measures how freely and frequently a morphological process applies to new
bases in a language.
Question 40.
[Multiple Choice]: What is the phenomenon where the existence of an existing word prevents the
formation of a synonymous derived form?
A) Productivity
B) Blocking
C) Lexicalization
D) Overgeneration
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
P a g e | 16
Explanation: Blocking occurs when a lexical item pre-empts the application of a regular rule, like "went"
blocking "goed".
Question 41.
[Short Answer]: What is the process by which a complex word becomes stored as a single, unanalyzed
unit in the lexicon?
Correct Answer: lexicalization
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Lexicalization occurs when a word's meaning or form becomes conventionalized and its
internal structure is no longer transparent.
Question 42.
[Multiple Choice]: Which word-formation process creates a new word by removing a supposed affix from
an existing word?
A) Clipping
B) Blending
C) Back-formation
D) Conversion
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Back-formation derives a new lexeme, often a verb, by subtracting an actual or imagined
affix, like "edit" from "editor".
Question 43.
[True/False]: Conversion is a derivational process that assigns an existing word to a new syntactic
category without any formal change.
P a g e | 17
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Conversion, or zero-derivation, changes a word's class (e.g., noun to verb as in "to bottle")
without adding an affix.
Question 44.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The morphological process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one or more
syllables is called __________.
Correct Answer: clipping
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Clipping truncates a longer word, like "ad" from "advertisement", while usually retaining the
same meaning and category.
Question 45.
[Multiple Choice]: What word-formation process merges parts of two separate words to create a new one,
like "brunch"?
A) Compounding
B) Blending
C) Acronymy
D) Affixation
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Blending combines non-morphemic parts of two words, typically the beginning of one and
the end of another, to form a new lexeme.
Question 46.
P a g e | 18
[Short Answer]: What is the term for a new word formed from the initial letters of a phrase and
pronounced as a single word?
Correct Answer: acronymy
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Acronyms, like "NASA", are lexicalized initialisms that are pronounced as a whole word,
not as a series of letters.
Question 47.
[True/False]: An initialism is a type of abbreviation formed from initial letters but pronounced letter by
letter, like "FBI".
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Initialisms, unlike acronyms, are pronounced as sequences of individual letters, not as a
single phonological word.
Question 48.
[Multiple Choice]: Which term refers to a newly coined word, expression, or usage in a language?
A) Archaism
B) Neologism
C) Hybridization
D) Jargon
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A neologism is any newly formed word or term that is in the process of entering common
use but may not be fully accepted.
P a g e | 19
Question 49.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A visual diagram that represents the hierarchical internal structure of a complex word
is a __________.
Correct Answer: morph tree
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: A morphological tree diagrams the layered structure of a word, showing how morphemes
are grouped into constituents.
Question 50.
[Multiple Choice]: What analytical technique uses square brackets to show the internal constituency and
order of morphemes?
A) Parsing
B) Bracketing
C) Paradigm completion
D) Stratification
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Bracketing is a method of representing morphological structure by enclosing each
constituent in brackets to show hierarchical grouping.
Question 51.
[Multiple Choice]: What analytical process involves identifying the component morphemes and their
structural arrangement in a complex word?
A) Bracketing
B) Parsing
C) Blending
D) Lexicalization
P a g e | 20
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Parsing is the cognitive or analytical process of segmenting a word into its constituent
morphemes and determining their hierarchical relationships.
Question 52.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A complete set of inflected forms that a particular lexeme can take, such as for a verb
or noun, is a __________.
Correct Answer: paradigm
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A paradigm organizes all the grammatically distinct forms of a lexeme, like the conjugation
table for a verb across person and number.
Question 53.
[True/False]: A stem is the part of a word to which inflectional affixes are attached, remaining after all
inflections are removed.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: The stem is the core morphological unit that carries the lexical meaning and serves as the
base for inflectional operations.
Question 54.
[Multiple Choice]: Which term refers to any form to which an affix is attached, which may itself be
morphologically complex?
A) Root
B) Base
P a g e | 21
C) Stem
D) Lexeme
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A base is a general term for any unit, simple or complex, that receives an affix; a root is
always a base, but a base may contain other affixes.
Question 55.
[Short Answer]: What aspect of morphological structure concerns the sequential positioning of prefixes,
suffixes, and infixes?
Correct Answer: affix order
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Affix order refers to the fixed or variable sequence in which bound morphemes must appear
relative to the stem and each other.
Question 56.
[Multiple Choice]: What term indicates a phonological or morphological juncture where one morpheme
ends and another begins?
A) Morph boundary
B) Root alternation
C) Paradigm gap
D) Stem extension
Correct Answer: A
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A morph boundary, often marked with a plus sign or hyphen in analysis, signifies the
division point between adjacent morphemes.
P a g e | 22
Question 57.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: An abstract unit of morphological analysis representing a word as a vocabulary item,
abstracted from its inflected forms, is a __________.
Correct Answer: lexeme
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A lexeme is the fundamental unit of the lexicon, such as RUN, which encompasses all its
inflected variants like "run", "runs", and "ran".
Question 58.
[True/False]: Declension is the systematic pattern of inflection for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives to
express categories like case and number.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Declension refers to the specific paradigm sets that nominal elements follow to mark
grammatical features through inflection.
Question 59.
[Multiple Choice]: Which term describes the systematic pattern of inflection for verbs to express
categories like tense, aspect, mood, and person?
A) Declension
B) Derivation
C) Conjugation
D) Conversion
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 23
Explanation: Conjugation is the structured set of inflected forms that a verb takes to encode various verbal
grammatical categories.
Question 60.
[Short Answer]: What morphological type is characterized by a one-to-one mapping between morphemes
and their grammatical meanings?
Correct Answer: agglutination
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Agglutination, as in Turkish, strings together discrete morphemes with clear boundaries,
each contributing a single, identifiable grammatical meaning.
Question 61.
[Multiple Choice]: Which morphological pattern involves multiple grammatical meanings fused into a
single, indivisible morpheme?
A) Agglutination
B) Fusion
C) Isolation
D) Incorporation
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Fusion, common in languages like Latin, combines several grammatical features into one
portmanteau morpheme with blurred boundaries.
Question 62.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A language type with little to no affixation, where words tend to consist of a single
free morpheme, is the __________.
P a g e | 24
Correct Answer: isolation type
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Isolating or analytic languages, like Mandarin Chinese, rely heavily on word order and
separate function words rather than inflection.
Question 63.
[True/False]: Polysynthesis is a morphological type where words are composed of many morphemes,
often incorporating objects and adverbs.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Polysynthetic languages, like Inuktitut, create extremely complex words that can express
what would be a full sentence in other languages.
Question 64.
[Multiple Choice]: What morphological process involves incorporating a noun stem into a verb to form a
single complex word?
A) Suffixation
B) Incorporation
C) Reduplication
D) Clipping
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Noun incorporation is a process where a noun object becomes part of the verb complex,
creating a tightly bound morphological unit.
Question 65.
P a g e | 25
[Short Answer]: What is the overarching category that groups languages based on their dominant
morphological structure?
Correct Answer: typological class
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Morphological typology classifies languages into broad types such as isolating,
agglutinating, fusional, and polysynthetic.
Question 66.
[Multiple Choice]: Which type of derivational affix specifically derives noun forms from verbs,
adjectives, or other nouns?
A) Verbalizer
B) Nominalizer
C) Adjectivizer
D) Agentive affix
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A nominalizer is a derivational morpheme that creates a noun from a different lexical
category, such as "-tion" forming nouns from verbs.
Question 67.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A derivational affix that creates a verb from a noun, adjective, or other part of speech
is a __________.
Correct Answer: verbalizer
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Verbalizers, like the suffix "-ize" in "modernize", change the syntactic category of a base
into a verb.
P a g e | 26
Question 68.
[True/False]: An adjectivizer is a bound morpheme that derives adjectives from nouns, verbs, or other
adjectives.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Adjectivizers, such as "-ful" in "hopeful", are derivational suffixes that create adjectives
from other word classes.
Question 69.
[Multiple Choice]: What term describes an affix that derives a noun meaning a person or thing that
performs an action?
A) Diminutive
B) Agentive affix
C) Augmentative
D) Nominalizer
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: An agentive affix, like "-er" in "writer", creates a noun that denotes the agent or performer
of an action.
Question 70.
[Short Answer]: What type of derivational affix conveys smallness, endearment, or insignificance, like "-
let" in "booklet"?
Correct Answer: diminutive
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 27
Explanation: Diminutive affixes are derivational morphemes that add a semantic component of smallness,
affection, or lesser intensity to a base.
Question 71.
[Multiple Choice]: Which affix type expresses largeness, intensity, or augmentation of the meaning of a
base word?
A) Diminutive
B) Agentive
C) Augmentative
D) Honorific
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Augmentative affixes, common in Romance languages, increase or intensify the meaning,
often indicating something large or important.
Question 72.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A morphological marker that encodes respect or social status toward the referent or
addressee is an __________.
Correct Answer: honorific
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Honorific morphology, as in Japanese, marks grammatical distinctions that convey the social
relationship between speakers and referents.
Question 73.
[True/False]: Redundancy in morphology occurs when multiple morphemes encode the same grammatical
feature within a word.
P a g e | 28
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Morphological redundancy involves multiple exponents marking the same feature, such as
plural being marked on both a noun and its modifier.
Question 74.
[Multiple Choice]: What property of morphological structure allows affixation processes to apply
repeatedly within a single word?
A) Affix stacking
B) Internal recursion
C) Morphotactics
D) Paradigmatic set
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Internal recursion is the capacity for morphological rules to apply to their own output,
creating layered structures like "nationalization".
Question 75.
[Short Answer]: What term refers to the linear sequence of multiple affixes attached to a single base?
Correct Answer: affix stacking
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Affix stacking is the phenomenon where several derivational or inflectional affixes occur in
sequence on a single stem.
Question 76.
[Multiple Choice]: What term describes the environmental factors, either phonological or morphological,
that determine which allomorph appears?
P a g e | 29
A) Blocking
B) Conditioning
C) Exponence
D) Stratification
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Conditioning refers to the phonological or morphological context that systematically
determines the selection of a specific allomorph.
Question 77.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The set of morphological forms that can occupy a particular slot in a grammatical
pattern constitutes a __________.
Correct Answer: paradigmatic set
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A paradigmatic set organizes forms that are mutually exclusive in a given structural
position, like different tense markers on a verb.
Question 78.
[True/False]: A syntagmatic chain refers to the linear sequence and combination of morphemes within a
word or sentence.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: The syntagmatic axis concerns the horizontal ordering and combination of linguistic
elements in a structured sequence.
Question 79.
P a g e | 30
[Multiple Choice]: Which term refers to a restriction or limitation on the application of a morphological
rule or pattern?
A) Productivity
B) Constraint
C) Blocking
D) Overgeneration
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A constraint is any structural, phonological, or lexical factor that restricts the possible forms
or combinations in morphology.
Question 80.
[Short Answer]: What historical process regularizes irregular paradigms by extending regular patterns to
formerly exceptional forms?
Correct Answer: paradigm leveling
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Paradigm leveling reduces allomorphy within a paradigm by eliminating alternations,
making forms more uniform and predictable.
Question 81.
[Multiple Choice]: What type of morphology involves grammatical marking that reflects agreement
between different elements in a phrase?
A) Derivational morphology
B) Concord morphology
C) Incorporation
D) Compounding
P a g e | 31
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Concord morphology encompasses agreement markers that appear on multiple constituents
to show grammatical relationships like number or gender.
Question 82.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The relationship between a morphological feature and the formal marker that realizes
it is termed __________.
Correct Answer: exponence
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Exponence is the mapping or realization relationship between a grammatical property and
the morphological form that expresses it.
Question 83.
[True/False]: Root alternation involves changes to the phonological shape of a root to mark grammatical
distinctions, like in "sing-sang".
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Root alternation, or ablaut, modifies the internal vowels or consonants of a root itself to
express grammatical categories like tense.
Question 84.
[Multiple Choice]: Which type of inflection specifically applies to nouns to mark categories such as case,
number, and gender?
A) Verbal inflection
B) Nominal inflection
P a g e | 32
C) Adjectival inflection
D) Degree formation
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Nominal inflection encompasses all morphological modifications made to nouns to encode
grammatical features relevant to that word class.
Question 85.
[Short Answer]: What inflectional type marks verbs for categories including tense, aspect, mood, person,
and number?
Correct Answer: verbal inflection
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Verbal inflection modifies verb forms to encode a range of grammatical properties that
situate the event in time and relate it to participants.
Question 86.
[Multiple Choice]: What morphological system applies to adjectives to mark features like degree, gender,
number, and case?
A) Nominal inflection
B) Verbal inflection
C) Adjectival inflection
D) Conjugation
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Adjectival inflection modifies adjectives to show agreement with nouns or to express
comparative and superlative degrees.
P a g e | 33
Question 87.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The property of compounds that allows them to contain other compounds within them
is known as __________.
Correct Answer: compound recursion
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Compound recursion enables nested structures where a compound itself serves as a
constituent within a larger compound, like "kitchen table leg".
Question 88.
[True/False]: Headedness refers to the property of a morphological construction having a head that
determines its grammatical category.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Headedness is the fundamental property where one element in a complex word projects its
categorical features onto the entire construction.
Question 89.
[Multiple Choice]: What term describes morphological constructions where the meaning is directly
predictable from the sum of their parts?
A) Opacity
B) Transparency
C) Lexicalization
D) Fusion
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
P a g e | 34
Explanation: Transparency characterizes morphologically complex forms whose meanings are
compositionally derived from their individual morphemes.
Question 90.
[Short Answer]: What property of a complex word describes when its meaning is not predictable from the
meanings of its constituent morphemes?
Correct Answer: opacity
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Opacity occurs when a word's meaning has become conventionalized or idiomatic,
obscuring the contribution of its morphological parts.
Question 91.
[Multiple Choice]: What component of a grammar contains all stored information about the properties of
a morpheme or word?
A) Paradigm
B) Lexical entry
C) Formation rule
D) Morphotactics
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A lexical entry is the mental dictionary listing for a morpheme or word, including its
phonological form, meaning, and grammatical features.
Question 92.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A theoretical model proposing that complex words are retrieved whole from memory
rather than constructed is a __________.
P a g e | 35
Correct Answer: storage model
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Storage models assume that speakers memorize morphologically complex forms as units,
opposing compositional models that construct them by rule.
Question 93.
[True/False]: A paradigm gap is an accidental or systematic absence of a particular inflected form in an
otherwise regular paradigm.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Paradigm gaps, also called defective paradigms, are missing cells where a particular
grammatical form is unattested or impossible.
Question 94.
[Multiple Choice]: Which term refers to the morphological form used when specific conditions for other
forms are not met?
A) Portmanteau form
B) Default form
C) Null morpheme
D) Bound root
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: The default form is the elsewhere form that appears when no more specific morphological
rule or condition applies.
Question 95.
P a g e | 36
[Short Answer]: What phenomenon occurs when two or more morphological patterns vie for use with a
particular base?
Correct Answer: morph competition
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Morph competition involves rival affixes or patterns, like "-er" and "-or", that both attempt
to attach to the same type of base.
Question 96.
[Multiple Choice]: What term describes the competition between two or more affixes that express the
same grammatical function?
A) Blocking
B) Affix rivalry
C) Overgeneration
D) Paradigm leveling
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Affix rivalry is the competitive relationship between synonymous morphemes, such as
plural markers "-s" and "-en" in English.
Question 97.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A root that lacks inherent category specification and requires affixation to become a
noun, verb, or adjective is a __________.
Correct Answer: category-neutral root
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Category-neutral roots, posited in Distributed Morphology, have no inherent lexical
category and are categorized by functional heads.
P a g e | 37
Question 98.
[True/False]: Stratification in morphology refers to the organization of the lexicon into distinct layers
based on historical origin or phonological properties.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Lexical stratification divides vocabulary into levels, such as native versus borrowed strata,
each with different phonological and morphological behavior.
Question 99.
[Multiple Choice]: What process introduces morphological elements from one language into another
through language contact?
A) Reanalysis
B) Borrowing
C) Hybridization
D) Back-formation
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Morphological borrowing occurs when affixes or word-formation patterns are transferred
from one language to another through contact.
Question 100.
[Short Answer]: What term describes a complex word that combines morphological elements from two
different languages?
Correct Answer: hybridization
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
P a g e | 38
Explanation: Hybridization creates mixed forms, like "television" (Greek "tele" + Latin "vision"), that
combine morphemes from distinct linguistic sources.
Question 101.
[Multiple Choice]: What morphological process involves speakers interpreting the structure of a word
differently from its historical origin?
A) Borrowing
B) Reanalysis
C) Hybridization
D) Clipping
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Reanalysis occurs when speakers assign a new morphological structure to a word, often
leading to different segmentation or affix identification.
Question 102.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The phenomenon where a single phonological form represents two distinct
morphemes with different meanings is __________.
Correct Answer: affix homonymy
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Affix homonymy, like the English "-er" as agentive and comparative, involves identical
forms with unrelated grammatical functions.
Question 103.
[True/False]: Category assignment is the morphological process that determines the lexical category of a
root or derived word.
Correct Answer: True
P a g e | 39
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Category assignment specifies whether a morphological unit functions as a noun, verb,
adjective, or other lexical class.
Question 104.
[Multiple Choice]: Which aspect of morphology concerns the fixed sequence in which different classes of
affixes must appear?
A) Affix rivalry
B) Morpheme order
C) Paradigm gaps
D) Exponence pattern
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Morpheme order refers to the rigid or preferred sequencing of grammatical markers relative
to the stem and each other.
Question 105.
[Short Answer]: What theoretical approach treats words as stored units with internal structure analyzed
through schemas and analogies?
Correct Answer: word-based theory
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Word-based theories, like Word-and-Paradigm, take the whole word as the basic unit,
relating forms through paradigmatic patterns.
Question 106.
P a g e | 40
[Multiple Choice]: Which morphological model analyzes complex words as sequences of discrete
morphemes concatenated like beads on a string?
A) Word-and-Paradigm
B) Item-and-Process
C) Item-and-Arrangement
D) Realization rule
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Item-and-Arrangement models treat morphemes as minimal signs that are linearly arranged
to form complex words.
Question 107.
[True/False]: Item-and-Process models view complex words as derived from bases through the
application of morphological rules.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Item-and-Process approaches describe morphology in terms of rules and operations that
modify base forms, rather than arranging discrete items.
Question 108.
[Multiple Choice]: Which theoretical framework analyzes morphology through sets of inflected forms
organized into paradigms?
A) Item-and-Arrangement
B) Word-and-Paradigm
C) Item-and-Process
D) Distributed Morphology
P a g e | 41
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Word-and-Paradigm models take the word as fundamental and relate forms through
paradigmatic oppositions and patterns.
Question 109.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A rule that spells out the morphological form realizing a particular set of grammatical
features is a __________.
Correct Answer: realization rule
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Realization rules, central to inferential models, specify how abstract morphosyntactic
features are expressed by specific morphological forms.
Question 110.
[Multiple Choice]: What term describes the systematic relationship between grammatical features and
their morphological markers?
A) Morpheme order
B) Exponence pattern
C) Paradigmatic set
D) Morphotactics
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Exponence patterns characterize how grammatical properties are formally expressed,
whether cumulatively, multiply, or separately.
Question 111.
P a g e | 42
[True/False]: A stem extension is an increment added to a root before certain inflections, without
contributing independent meaning.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Stem extensions, like thematic vowels in Latin, are meaningless elements that appear
between a root and its inflectional affixes.
Question 112.
[Multiple Choice]: What analytical notation marks the division point between adjacent morphemes in a
complex word?
A) Paradigm gap
B) Morph boundary
C) Lexical insertion
D) Structural layering
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: A morph boundary, often represented by a hyphen or plus sign, indicates the juncture where
one morpheme ends and another begins.
Question 113.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The phenomenon where an existing lexical item prevents the formation of a regularly
derived synonym is __________.
Correct Answer: lexical blocking
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Lexical blocking occurs when a stored word preemptes the application of a productive
morphological rule, like "better" blocking "gooder".
P a g e | 43
Question 114.
[Multiple Choice]: What problem occurs when a morphological rule predicts forms that are not actually
acceptable in the language?
A) Undergeneration
B) Overgeneration
C) Blocking
D) Paradigm gap
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Overgeneration happens when a rule produces unattested or ill-formed words that exceed the
actual possibilities of the language.
Question 115.
[True/False]: Undergeneration occurs when a morphological rule fails to generate all the acceptable forms
that exist in a language.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Undergeneration describes a rule system that is too restrictive, failing to account for valid
and attested morphological forms.
Question 116.
[Multiple Choice]: What term measures how many layers of derivation have been applied in creating a
complex word?
A) Inflectional depth
B) Derivational depth
P a g e | 44
C) Morphotactics
D) Affix scope
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Derivational depth refers to the number of successive derivational operations that have been
applied to a base form.
Question 117.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The number of layers of inflectional marking present in a complex word form is its
__________.
Correct Answer: inflectional depth
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Inflectional depth measures how many stacked inflectional affixes occur within a single
word form.
Question 118.
[Multiple Choice]: What property of an affix describes its domain of application over the morphological
structure?
A) Affix order
B) Affix scope
C) Affix rivalry
D) Affix stacking
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Affix scope refers to the semantic or structural range an affix has over the base, with outer
affixes typically having scope over inner ones.
P a g e | 45
Question 119.
[True/False]: Morphotactics describes the constraints on the order and combinability of morphemes in a
language.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Morphotactics is the component of morphology that governs which affix classes can co-
occur and in what sequence they must appear.
Question 120.
[Multiple Choice]: What fundamental relationship concerns how morphological form corresponds to
semantic interpretation?
A) Paradigmatic set
B) Form-meaning mapping
C) Exponence pattern
D) Structural layering
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Form-meaning mapping addresses the correspondence between morphological expressions
and the conceptual content they convey.
Question 121.
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The process of placing a vocabulary item into a syntactic structure at a particular
terminal node is __________.
Correct Answer: lexical insertion
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
P a g e | 46
Explanation: Lexical insertion is the operation that supplies phonological content to abstract syntactic
terminals during word formation.
Question 122.
[Multiple Choice]: What process chooses the appropriate root from the lexicon to realize a particular
syntactic-semantic concept?
A) Affix selection
B) Root selection
C) Lexical insertion
D) Category assignment
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Root selection involves picking the correct lexical root that matches the required conceptual
and grammatical features for a word.
Question 123.
[True/False]: Affix selection is the process of choosing the correct bound morpheme based on the
properties of the base and target features.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Affix selection depends on factors like the base's phonological form, lexical class, and the
grammatical features needing expression.
Question 124.
[Multiple Choice]: What property of complex words refers to the hierarchical arrangement of constituent
morphemes?
P a g e | 47
A) Morpheme order
B) Structural layering
C) Bracketing
D) Derivational depth
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Structural layering captures the hierarchical, not just linear, organization of morphemes into
nested constituents.
Question 125.
[Short Answer]: What comprehensive term encompasses all the principles and patterns governing word
structure in a language?
Correct Answer: morphological system
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: The morphological system is the complete set of rules, constraints, and lexical resources that
regulate word formation in a given language.
Week 5 Quiz: Syntax
Q 1-[Multiple Choice]:
Which term denotes the hierarchical organization of phrases and sentences into constituents?
A) Linear order
B) Clause architecture
C) Lexicon
D) Discourse
Correct Answer: B
P a g e | 48
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Clause architecture refers to the hierarchical structure that organizes syntactic units like
phrases and clauses within a sentence.
Q 2-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
A word or group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure is a ________.
Correct Answer: constituent
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A constituent is a syntactic unit formed by words that work together and can be moved or
substituted as a whole.
Q 3-[True/False]:
The substitution test helps identify constituents by replacing a suspected unit with a pro-form like "do so."
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: If a sequence can be replaced by a single pro-form like "do so" or a pronoun, it provides
evidence for its status as a constituent.
Q 4-[Multiple Choice]:
What diagnostic identifies constituents by changing their position within a sentence?
A) Coordination
B) Substitution
C) Movement
D) Deletion
Correct Answer: C
P a g e | 49
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: The movement diagnostic checks if a group of words can be displaced, like in topicalization,
indicating it forms a constituent.
Q 5-[Multiple Choice]:
Which test identifies constituents by combining them with another identical structure using "and"?
A) Substitution test
B) Coordination test
C) Movement test
D) Deletion test
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: The coordination test joins a potential constituent with another of the same type using "and,"
as only constituents can be coordinated.
Q 6-[Short Answer]:
What term describes the property of language where smaller units are nested within larger ones?
Correct Answer: Hierarchy
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Hierarchy refers to the layered, nested organization of linguistic units, where smaller
constituents combine to form larger phrases.
Q 7-[Multiple Choice]:
What is a formal notation, often a tree diagram, representing a sentence's syntactic structure?
A) Linear order
P a g e | 50
B) Phrase marker
C) Lexical entry
D) Semantic feature
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A phrase marker is a formal representation, such as a tree or bracketed diagram, that
illustrates the hierarchical structure of a sentence.
Q 8-[Multiple Choice]:
Which phrasal category has a noun as its head and typically functions as a subject or object?
A) Verb phrase
B) Adjective phrase
C) Noun phrase
D) Prepositional phrase
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A noun phrase is headed by a noun and can include determiners and modifiers, serving
grammatical functions like subject or object.
Q 9-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
A phrasal category whose head is a lexical verb and includes its complements is a ________.
Correct Answer: Verb phrase
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A verb phrase contains the main verb along with its objects, complements, and sometimes
adjuncts, but not the subject.
P a g e | 51
Q 10-[Multiple Choice]:
Which phrase has an adjective as its head and can function as a predicate or modifier?
A) Noun phrase
B) Prepositional phrase
C) Adjective phrase
D) Adverb phrase
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: An adjective phrase is built around an adjective and can be expanded with degree words like
"very" to modify nouns.
Q 11-[Multiple Choice]:
A phrase headed by a word like "quickly" or "very" that modifies a verb or adjective is a(n):
A) Adjective phrase
B) Adverb phrase
C) Prepositional phrase
D) Noun phrase
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: An adverb phrase has an adverb as its head and functions to modify verbs, adjectives, or
other adverbs within a sentence.
Q 12-[True/False]:
A prepositional phrase contains a preposition followed by a noun phrase, called its object.
P a g e | 52
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: The core structure of a prepositional phrase consists of a preposition (the head) and its
complement, typically a noun phrase.
Q 13-[Multiple Choice]:
Under the DP hypothesis, what is the head of a phrase like "the student"?
A) Noun
B) Verb
C) Determiner
D) Adjective
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: The DP hypothesis posits that a determiner projects its own phrase (DP), making the
determiner the head and the NP its complement.
Q 14-[Multiple Choice]:
Which phrasal category is headed by a word like "that" or "if" and introduces a clause?
A) Verb phrase
B) Determiner phrase
C) Complementizer phrase
D) Noun phrase
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 53
Explanation: A complementizer phrase (CP) is headed by a complementizer and serves as a clause
introducer, often for subordinate clauses.
Q 15-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
A syntactic category like Noun, Verb, or Adjective defines a word's grammatical properties.
Correct Answer: Category
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A category refers to the class of words (e.g., Noun, Verb) or phrases (e.g., NP, VP) that
share similar syntactic distribution.
Q 16-[Multiple Choice]:
What type of element, like Complementizer or Determiner, carries grammatical meaning rather than
lexical?
A) Lexical category
B) Functional element
C) Open class
D) Major category
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Functional elements are closed-class items that express grammatical relations or features,
contrasting with open-class lexical categories.
Q 17-[Multiple Choice]:
In a phrase, which word determines the syntactic properties and is the structural core?
A) Specifier
P a g e | 54
B) Complement
C) Adjunct
D) Head
Correct Answer: D
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: The head is the central word that projects its categorical features onto the phrase,
determining the phrase's overall type.
Q 18-[True/False]:
A specifier is a dependent that is the sister to a bar-level projection and daughter of the maximal
projection.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: In X-bar theory, the specifier is the node that combines with an intermediate projection (X')
to form the maximal projection (XP).
Q 19-[Multiple Choice]:
What is the term for a phrase that is selected by a head and appears as its sister?
A) Specifier
B) Complement
C) Adjunct
D) Modifier
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
P a g e | 55
Explanation: A complement is a phrase required by the head to complete its meaning, forming a closer
relationship than an adjunct.
Q 20-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
A rule like VP → V (NP) that expands a category into its constituents is a ________.
Correct Answer: Rewrite schema
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A rewrite schema is a phrase structure rule that formally defines how a phrasal category can
be rewritten as its subconstituents.
Q 21-[Multiple Choice]:
A visual diagram showing syntactic nodes, branches, and hierarchical relations is a:
A) Phrase marker
B) Rewrite rule
C) Dependency graph
D) Semantic network
Correct Answer: A
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A phrase marker, specifically a tree representation, uses nodes and branches to visually
encode the hierarchical structure of a sentence.
Q 22-[Short Answer]:
In a tree diagram, what is the label for each branching point representing a constituent?
Correct Answer: Node
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 56
Explanation: A node is a point in a tree structure that is assigned a category label, representing a syntactic
constituent.
Q 23-[Multiple Choice]:
In a phrase marker, what is the term for a node that dominates no further branching nodes?
A) Nonterminal
B) Root
C) Branch
D) Terminal
Correct Answer: D
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A terminal node is the lowest node in a tree, which is directly linked to an actual word from
the lexicon.
Q 24-[Multiple Choice]:
What kind of node in a syntactic tree dominates at least one other node?
A) Terminal
B) Leaf
C) Nonterminal
D) Preterminal
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A nonterminal node is a constituent label like NP or VP that dominates other nodes in the
hierarchical tree structure.
P a g e | 57
Q 25-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
The theoretical assumption that all branching in syntax is in a two-part form is called ________.
Correct Answer: Binary structure
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Binary structure is a foundational principle in many frameworks, asserting that every node
in a syntactic tree has at most two branches.
Q 26-[Multiple Choice]:
What property of grammar allows a rule to be applied repeatedly to its own output?
A) Embedding
B) Recursion
C) Subordination
D) Adjunction
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Recursion is the property that permits rules, such as embedding a clause within a clause, to
be applied an unlimited number of times.
Q 27-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
The phenomenon where a single sentence has more than one syntactic parse is known as ________.
Correct Answer: Structural ambiguity
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Structural ambiguity arises when a string of words can be assigned two distinct hierarchical
structures, leading to multiple interpretations.
Q 28-[True/False]:
P a g e | 58
The deep representation of a sentence corresponds directly to its pronounced word order and phonological
form.
Correct Answer: False
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Deep representation is the abstract syntactic structure encoding thematic relations, before
any transformations apply to yield the surface form.
Q 29-[Multiple Choice]:
What is the term for the final syntactic form of a sentence after transformations have applied?
A) Deep structure
B) Surface representation
C) Logical form
D) Phonetic form
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Surface representation is the syntactic output after movement and other operations, more
closely reflecting the actual pronounced sentence.
Q 30-[Multiple Choice]:
What type of grammatical operation maps deep structures to surface structures?
A) Merge
B) Spell-out
C) Transformation
D) Linearization
Correct Answer: C
P a g e | 59
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A transformation is a structure-dependent operation, like movement or insertion, that alters a
deep structure to derive a surface representation.
Q 31-[Short Answer]:
What syntactic operation moves an auxiliary to C position in English questions?
Correct Answer: Auxiliary inversion
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Auxiliary inversion is a transformation that moves a finite auxiliary verb from the T position
into the Complementizer position.
Q 32-[Multiple Choice]:
Which syntactic operation moves an interrogative phrase to the specifier of CP?
A) Passivization
B) Topicalization
C) Wh-fronting
D) Extraposition
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Wh-fronting is a movement operation that displaces a wh-phrase from its base position to
the left periphery of the clause, specifically Spec,CP.
Q 33-[Multiple Choice]:
The transformation that promotes an object to subject position and demotes the subject is called:
A) Raising
P a g e | 60
B) Passivization
C) Control
D) Inversion
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Passivization is a syntactic operation that alters argument structure, making the object the
subject and often omitting or demoting the agent.
Q 34-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
In a clause, the argument that typically agrees with the finite verb and is in nominative case is the
________.
Correct Answer: Subject
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: The subject is a core grammatical relation, typically the external argument that determines
agreement on the finite verb and occupies Spec,TP.
Q 35-[Multiple Choice]:
What grammatical relation typically refers to the direct argument affected by the action of the verb?
A) Subject
B) Object
C) Adjunct
D) Complementizer
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 61
Explanation: The object is a grammatical relation, typically the internal argument of a transitive verb that
receives accusative case.
Q 36-[True/False]:
Grammatical roles like Agent and Patient are the same as syntactic functions like Subject and Object.
Correct Answer: False
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Grammatical roles are semantic (e.g., Agent, Theme), while grammatical functions (Subject,
Object) are syntactic positions in clause structure.
Q 37-[Multiple Choice]:
What constraints determine which semantic classes of words can combine with a given head?
A) Subcategorization
B) Case theory
C) Selectional restrictions
D) Binding principles
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Selectional restrictions are semantic constraints a head imposes on its arguments, such as
requiring a subject to be animate.
Q 38-[Multiple Choice]:
What information in a verb's lexical entry specifies the syntactic category and number of its
complements?
A) Theta grid
P a g e | 62
B) Subcategorization frame
C) Case frame
D) Phonological form
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A subcategorization frame specifies the syntactic environment a head requires, listing the
categories of its complements, like NP or CP.
Q 39-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
A clause that functions as an argument within another clause, such as "that she left," is a ________.
Correct Answer: Complement clause
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: A complement clause is a finite or nonfinite clause that serves as a core argument, often a
subject or object, of a higher predicate.
Q 40-[Multiple Choice]:
What type of embedded clause modifies a noun and often begins with a relative pronoun?
A) Complement clause
B) Adjunct clause
C) Relative clause
D) Matrix clause
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun phrase, typically containing a
gap linked to the head noun.
P a g e | 63
Q 41-[Multiple Choice]:
In syntax, an optional element that modifies a phrase but is not selected by its head is a(n):
A) Complement
B) Specifier
C) Adjunct
D) Argument
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: An adjunct is an optional, modifying constituent that can be added recursively and does not
saturate a selectional requirement of the head.
Q 42-[True/False]:
Embedding refers to the process of placing one clause inside another, creating a hierarchical sentence
structure.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Embedding is the syntactic operation of recursion where one clause functions as a
constituent within a larger, matrix clause.
Q 43-[Short Answer]:
What is the term for a main clause that contains another clause embedded within it?
Correct Answer: Matrix
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 64
Explanation: A matrix clause is the highest or main clause in a complex sentence that contains and
governs a subordinate clause.
Q 44-[Multiple Choice]:
The principle that a head's properties determine the structure of its phrasal projection is called:
A) Government
B) Binding
C) Projection
D) Licensing
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Projection is the mechanism by which the lexical properties of a head determine the
categories of its complements and the overall phrasal structure.
Q 45-[Multiple Choice]:
Which layer of the clause is associated with force and hosts complementizers and fronted wh-phrases?
A) VP layer
B) TP layer
C) CP layer
D) DP layer
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: The CP layer is the topmost structural layer of the clause, encoding illocutionary force and
providing a landing site for moved elements.
P a g e | 65
Q 46-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
The syntactic layer that is the locus of tense, agreement, and finiteness in a clause is the ________.
Correct Answer: TP layer
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: The TP (Tense Phrase) layer is the functional projection that hosts the subject in its specifier
and encodes temporal and agreement features.
Q 47-[Multiple Choice]:
What hypothesis posits that nominal arguments are best analyzed as phrases headed by a functional D
element?
A) VP-internal subject hypothesis
B) DP hypothesis
C) CP recursion hypothesis
D) Split-INFL hypothesis
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: The DP hypothesis argues that a determiner, not the noun, is the head of a nominal phrase,
projecting a Determiner Phrase (DP).
Q 48-[Multiple Choice]:
What term refers to the linear sequence of constituents like Subject, Verb, and Object in a clause?
A) Hierarchy
B) Word order
C) Phrase structure
D) Branching direction
P a g e | 66
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Word order describes the linear arrangement of major syntactic constituents, a key
parameter of typological variation across languages.
Q 49-[True/False]:
English exhibits a basic word order where the subject precedes the verb, and the verb precedes the object.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: English is classified as an SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) language, as seen in a basic
declarative clause like "The dog chased the cat."
Q 50-[Multiple Choice]:
In a language like Japanese, the canonical order places the verb after its object, known as:
A) VSO pattern
B) SVO pattern
C) SOV pattern
D) OSV pattern
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: The SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) pattern is a common word order where the verb appears at
the end of the clause, following its object.
Q 51-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
A typological word order where the verb precedes the subject and object, as in Irish, is ________.
Correct Answer: VSO pattern
P a g e | 67
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: The VSO pattern places the verb first, followed by the subject and then the object, a
common Celtic language structure.
Q 52-[Multiple Choice]:
What syntactic phenomenon occurs when a constituent appears in a position different from its base-
generated location?
A) Embedding
B) Displacement
C) Adjunction
D) Coordination
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Displacement refers to the property where a single constituent seems to occupy two
positions, interpreted in one but pronounced in another.
Q 53-[True/False]:
Island effects describe syntactic structures that block constituents from moving out of them.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Island effects are constraints that prevent extraction from specific syntactic environments,
such as complex noun phrases or adjunct clauses.
Q 54-[Multiple Choice]:
What area of syntax governs the distribution and interpretation of anaphors, pronouns, and referring
expressions?
P a g e | 68
A) Case theory
B) Theta theory
C) Binding theory
D) Control theory
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Binding theory concerns the syntactic conditions under which nominal expressions like
anaphors and pronouns corefer with their antecedents.
Q 55-[Multiple Choice]:
Which type of nominal expression, like "herself," must be bound within a local domain?
A) Pronoun
B) R-expression
C) Anaphor
D) Expletive
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: An anaphor is a reflexive or reciprocal expression lacking independent reference and
requiring a local antecedent under Principle A.
Q 56-[Short Answer]:
What nominal category, such as "her," must be free within its local domain?
Correct Answer: Pronoun
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
P a g e | 69
Explanation: Pronouns must be free in their local domain, meaning they cannot be bound by a c-
commanding antecedent within that clause under Principle B.
Q 57-[Multiple Choice]:
What structural relation exists between a node and its siblings and everything dominated by those
siblings?
A) Government
B) C-command
C) Precedence
D) Dominance
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: C-command defines a relation where one node is sister to another and thus dominates all
nodes within that sister's projection.
Q 58-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
A structural licensing relation where a head assigns case properties to a noun phrase it governs is
________.
Correct Answer: Government
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Government is an asymmetric structural relation where a head licenses specific features,
such as case, on an NP within its complement domain.
Q 59-[Multiple Choice]:
The requirement that certain elements appear in specific structural positions to receive features is called:
A) Theta marking
P a g e | 70
B) Structural licensing
C) Feature valuation
D) Binding satisfaction
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Structural licensing ensures that elements like case-marked DPs occupy positions where
their grammatical features can be properly checked.
Q 60-[Multiple Choice]:
Which abstract case is typically assigned to the subject of a finite clause?
A) Accusative
B) Dative
C) Nominative
D) Genitive
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Nominative case is the morphological form assigned to the subject position, often licensed
by finite Tense.
Q 61-[True/False]:
Accusative case is generally assigned to the direct object of a transitive verb.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Accusative case marks the direct object and is typically assigned by a transitive verb or a
preposition under government.
P a g e | 71
Q 62-[Multiple Choice]:
In many languages, which case is assigned to the indirect object of a ditransitive verb?
A) Nominative
B) Accusative
C) Dative
D) Genitive
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Dative case is the morphological form associated with the indirect object, often marking the
recipient or goal argument.
Q 63-[Multiple Choice]:
What type of case is assigned to an NP based on its thematic role rather than structural configuration?
A) Structural case
B) Inherent case
C) Default case
D) Lexical case
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Inherent case is assigned at deep structure together with a specific theta-role, contrasting
with structurally assigned nominative and accusative.
Q 64-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
The process where a predicate assigns semantic roles to its arguments is called ________.
P a g e | 72
Correct Answer: Theta assignment
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Theta assignment is the operation by which a predicate, such as a verb, assigns thematic
roles like Agent or Theme to its argument positions.
Q 65-[Multiple Choice]:
What term describes the number and type of arguments a lexical head requires?
A) Subcategorization
B) Valency
C) Selectional restriction
D) Theta grid
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Valency refers to the number of arguments that a lexical head, typically a verb, must
combine with to form a grammatical structure.
Q 66-[Multiple Choice]:
In semantic terms, what is the element in a clause that expresses the action or state about the subject?
A) Argument
B) Adjunct
C) Predicate
D) Modifier
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
P a g e | 73
Explanation: A predicate is the linguistic expression that asserts something about the subject, typically
realized by a verb phrase or adjective phrase.
Q 67-[Short Answer]:
What is a semantically empty element inserted to satisfy syntactic requirements, like "it" in "It is
raining"?
Correct Answer: Expletive
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: An expletive is a dummy element without semantic content that occupies a subject position
to satisfy the EPP feature.
Q 68-[Multiple Choice]:
What property allows a language like Spanish to have sentences without an overt subject?
A) Expletive insertion
B) Null subject
C) Pro-drop parameter
D) Topic drop
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Null subject refers to the empty category in subject position, licensed in pro-drop languages
where agreement morphology identifies its reference.
Q 69-[True/False]:
Raising moves a subject from an embedded clause to the matrix subject position without changing
thematic roles.
Correct Answer: True
P a g e | 74
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Raising is an A-movement operation where a subject moves to a higher clause for case
reasons, receiving no additional theta role.
Q 70-[Multiple Choice]:
In control constructions, what type of empty subject is interpreted through coreference with a matrix
argument?
A) Trace
B) PRO
C) pro
D) Wh-trace
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: PRO is the null subject of nonfinite clauses in control structures, interpreted through
reference to an antecedent like the matrix subject.
Q 71-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
A functional word like "that" or "whether" that introduces a complement clause is a ________.
Correct Answer: Complementizer
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A complementizer is a functional category that introduces a finite or nonfinite clause,
heading its own CP projection.
Q 72-[Multiple Choice]:
What syntactic operation places an auxiliary before the subject to form questions?
P a g e | 75
A) Wh-movement
B) Inversion
C) Passivization
D) Extraposition
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Inversion is the operation moving a finite auxiliary from T to C, resulting in the auxiliary
appearing before the subject position.
Q 73-[Multiple Choice]:
Which sentence type is prototypically used to ask questions and often involves wh-movement?
A) Declarative
B) Imperative
C) Interrogative
D) Exclamative
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Interrogative sentences encode questions, typically characterized by auxiliary inversion and
wh-fronting in English.
Q 74-[True/False]:
Imperative sentences typically have an overt second-person subject expressed.
Correct Answer: False
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 76
Explanation: Imperative sentences usually lack an overt subject, though understood as second-person, and
feature a base-form verb.
Q 75-[Multiple Choice]:
What sentence type is used to make a statement or assertion, typically with SVO order?
A) Interrogative
B) Imperative
C) Exclamative
D) Declarative
Correct Answer: D
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Declarative sentences are the default sentence type for making assertions, characterized by
unmarked word order and falling intonation.
Q 76-[Multiple Choice]:
What syntactic relation joins two or more constituents of equal grammatical status?
A) Subordination
B) Embedding
C) Coordination
D) Adjunction
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Coordination links constituents of the same category using conjunctions like "and" or "or,"
creating a flat structure.
Q 77-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
P a g e | 77
The relation where one clause is dependent upon and embedded within another clause is ________.
Correct Answer: Subordination
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Subordination establishes a hierarchical dependency where an embedded clause functions as
a constituent within a matrix clause.
Q 78-[True/False]:
Ellipsis refers to the phonological reduction of vowels in unstressed positions.
Correct Answer: False
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Ellipsis is a syntactic phenomenon where understood material is omitted from a structure
under identity with an antecedent.
Q 79-[Multiple Choice]:
What operation inserts the dummy auxiliary "do" to support tense affix in negation and questions?
A) Affix hopping
B) Do-support
C) Auxiliary inversion
D) Merge
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Do-support inserts the auxiliary "do" to host stranded tense features when no other auxiliary
is present in the structure.
Q 80-[Multiple Choice]:
P a g e | 78
The morphological covariance between a verb and its subject in person and number is called:
A) Case marking
B) Agreement
C) Concord
D) Feature matching
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Agreement is a syntactic relation where features like person and number of one constituent,
typically subject, are reflected on a verb.
Q 81-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
The process by which uninterpretable features are eliminated through syntactic operations is ________.
Correct Answer: Feature checking
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Feature checking ensures that uninterpretable features on functional heads are matched and
deleted by corresponding features on lexical items.
Q 82-[Multiple Choice]:
What is the fundamental structure-building operation that combines two syntactic objects?
A) Move
B) Merge
C) Adjoin
D) Project
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 79
Explanation: Merge is the basic recursive operation in Minimalist syntax that takes two elements and
combines them into a new syntactic object.
Q 83-[Multiple Choice]:
The syntactic operation that displaces a constituent from its base position to another location is:
A) Merge
B) Agree
C) Move
D) Spell-out
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Move is the operation that copies a constituent and remerges it elsewhere, leaving a trace or
copy in the original position.
Q 84-[True/False]:
Spell-out is the interface operation that sends syntactic structure to the semantic component only.
Correct Answer: False
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Spell-out transfers syntactic structure to both the phonological component for pronunciation
and the semantic component for interpretation.
Q 85-[Multiple Choice]:
What operation converts hierarchical syntactic structures into a linear sequence of words?
A) Merge
B) Linearization
P a g e | 80
C) Spell-out
D) Parameterization
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Linearization maps the hierarchical relations created by syntax into a temporally ordered
string required for pronunciation.
Q 86-[Short Answer]:
What syntactic relation holds between a head and its dependents without hierarchical dominance?
Correct Answer: Dependency
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Dependency is an asymmetric relation where a head licenses its dependents, fundamental to
dependency grammar frameworks.
Q 87-[Multiple Choice]:
What type of movement raises a head to adjoin to another head position?
A) Phrase movement
B) XP movement
C) Head movement
D) Wh-movement
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Head movement moves a head, such as V to T or T to C, adjoining it to another head while
respecting the Head Movement Constraint.
P a g e | 81
Q 88-[Multiple Choice]:
Movement that displaces an entire phrasal category to a specifier position is called:
A) Head movement
B) N-to-D movement
C) Phrase movement
D) Affix hopping
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Phrase movement moves a maximal projection like NP or wh-phrase to a specifier position,
such as subject raising or wh-fronting.
Q 89-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
A syntactic variable that accounts for cross-linguistic variation in a limited number of ways is a
________.
Correct Answer: Parameter
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A parameter is a binary setting in Universal Grammar that accounts for systematic syntactic
differences across languages.
Q 90-[Multiple Choice]:
What principle requires that every clause have an overt or covert subject in Spec,TP?
A) Case filter
B) Theta criterion
C) EPP
D) Binding principle
P a g e | 82
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: The Extended Projection Principle (EPP) mandates that the specifier of TP be filled,
explaining obligatory subject presence in English.
Q 91-[True/False]:
The Case filter requires every overt DP to be assigned abstract case, even if not morphologically realized.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: The Case filter is a principle requiring all lexical noun phrases to receive abstract case,
explaining why DPs move to case positions.
Q 92-[Multiple Choice]:
Which binding principle requires anaphors like "herself" to be bound in their local domain?
A) Principle A
B) Principle B
C) Principle C
D) Principle D
Correct Answer: A
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Principle A of binding theory states that anaphors must be c-commanded by an antecedent
within their governing category.
Q 93-[Multiple Choice]:
Which principle requires pronouns to be free within their local binding domain?
P a g e | 83
A) Principle A
B) Principle B
C) Principle C
D) Principle D
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Principle B states that pronouns must not be bound by a c-commanding antecedent within
the same local domain.
Q 94-[Short Answer]:
What binding principle prohibits R-expressions from being bound anywhere?
Correct Answer: Principle C
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Principle C requires that referring expressions like proper names be free, meaning they
cannot have any c-commanding antecedent.
Q 95-[Multiple Choice]:
What theory governs the distribution and interpretation of the null subject PRO in nonfinite clauses?
A) Binding theory
B) Case theory
C) Control theory
D) Theta theory
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
P a g e | 84
Explanation: Control theory determines whether PRO is controlled by a matrix argument (obligatory
control) or has arbitrary reference.
Q 96-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
A construction where the embedded subject receives accusative case from a matrix verb is Exceptional
Case Marking, or ________.
Correct Answer: ECM
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: ECM structures like "I believe him to be honest" involve the matrix verb assigning
accusative case across a nonfinite clause boundary.
Q 97-[Multiple Choice]:
What type of clause lacks a tense specification and contains a subject-predicate relation without a finite
verb?
A) Finite clause
B) ECM clause
C) Small clause
D) Relative clause
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A small clause is a tenseless subject-predicate structure, as in "I consider [her intelligent],"
without an overt verb.
Q 98-[Multiple Choice]:
What type of verb, like "be" or "seem," connects a subject to a predicate without assigning theta roles?
A) Transitive verb
P a g e | 85
B) Unaccusative verb
C) Copula
D) Ditransitive verb
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A copula is a linking verb with little semantic content that connects the subject to a subject
complement like an AP or NP.
Q 99-[True/False]:
A ditransitive verb takes two objects, typically a direct object and an indirect object.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Ditransitive verbs like "give" or "send" select two internal arguments: a theme direct object
and a goal indirect object.
Q 100-[Multiple Choice]:
What type of intransitive verb has a subject that behaves like an object semantically?
A) Unergative verb
B) Transitive verb
C) Unaccusative verb
D) Copular verb
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Unaccusative verbs like "arrive" or "fall" have a single argument that is generated as an
object and moves to subject position.
P a g e | 86
Q 101-[Multiple Choice]:
Which verb type has an external argument that is an agent and patterns with transitives in syntax?
A) Unaccusative
B) Unergative
C) Ditransitive
D) Copular
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Unergative verbs like "run" or "laugh" have an agent subject generated externally in
Spec,vP, unlike unaccusatives with internal arguments.
Q 102-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
The phenomenon where a language permits object omission under discourse-licensed conditions is
________.
Correct Answer: Argument drop
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Argument drop allows pronouns to be omitted when recoverable from context, common in
languages like Japanese and Chinese.
Q 103-[True/False]:
Extraposition moves a clausal subject to the right and inserts an expletive in subject position.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Extraposition displaces a clausal subject to sentence-final position, inserting "it" to satisfy
the EPP requirement.
P a g e | 87
Q 104-[Multiple Choice]:
What syntactic operation moves a constituent to clause-initial position for discourse prominence?
A) Wh-movement
B) Topicalization
C) Passivization
D) Extraposition
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Topicalization moves a non-subject phrase to sentence-initial position, marking it as topic
for discourse-old information.
Q 105-[Short Answer]:
What construction places focused information in a separate clause with a copula?
Correct Answer: Cleft
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: A cleft construction like "It was John who left" isolates a constituent in a matrix clause with
a copula.
Q 106-[Multiple Choice]:
Which construction resembles a cleft but begins with a wh-clause followed by a copula?
A) It-cleft
B) Pseudo-cleft
C) Reverse cleft
D) Basic cleft
P a g e | 88
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A pseudo-cleft like "What John bought was a book" uses a free relative clause as subject
before the copula.
Q 107-[Multiple Choice]:
What operation moves a constituent to left or right periphery for discourse effects?
A) Scrambling
B) Dislocation
C) Gapping
D) Ellipsis
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Dislocation places a constituent at clause edge, often resumed by a pronoun as in "John, I
like him."
Q 108-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
An ellipsis phenomenon that deletes verbs in coordinate structures leaving remnants is ________.
Correct Answer: Gapping
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Gapping removes the verb from the second conjunct, leaving behind two remnants like
"John bought apples and Mary pears."
Q 109-[True/False]:
VP ellipsis deletes a verb phrase under identity with an antecedent in surrounding discourse.
P a g e | 89
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: VP ellipsis removes a verb phrase after an auxiliary, interpreted from context as in "John left
and Mary did too."
Q 110-[Multiple Choice]:
What clause type expresses a comparison between two entities using degree words?
A) Relative clause
B) Complement clause
C) Comparative clause
D) Adjunct clause
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: A comparative clause like "than Mary is" expresses the standard of comparison in sentences
with degree morphology.
Q 111-[Multiple Choice]:
What element introduces a relative clause and binds a gap within the embedded clause?
A) Complementizer
B) Relative operator
C) Expletive
D) Determiner
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
P a g e | 90
Explanation: A relative operator like "who" or "which" moves to Spec,CP and links the head noun to its
thematic position.
Q 112-[Short Answer]:
What grammatical property distinguishes tensed clauses from untensed ones?
Correct Answer: Finiteness
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Finiteness marks a clause for tense and agreement, distinguishing finite verbs from nonfinite
infinitives or participles.
Q 113-[Multiple Choice]:
What term describes a clause lacking tense and agreement features?
A) Finite
B) Nonfinite
C) Matrix
D) Embedded
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Nonfinite clauses contain verbs in infinitive, gerund, or participial form without
specification for tense or subject agreement.
Q 114-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
The configuration where a head and its specifier share features through agreement is ________.
Correct Answer: Spec-head relation
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
P a g e | 91
Explanation: Spec-head relation refers to the local agreement configuration between a head and its
specifier in checking theory.
Q 115-[True/False]:
Head directionality determines whether heads precede or follow their complements in a language.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Head directionality is a parameter setting where languages are consistently head-initial or
head-final across categories.
Q 116-[Multiple Choice]:
What operation attaches an adjunct to a projection without changing category features?
A) Merge
B) Move
C) Adjunction
D) Substitution
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Adjunction is an operation that attaches a modifying element to a projection, creating a
larger projection of the same category.
Q 117-[Multiple Choice]:
What movement operation raises a predicate to combine with functional heads in complex structures?
A) NP movement
B) Predicate raising
P a g e | 92
C) Wh-movement
D) Head movement
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Predicate raising moves verbal elements to functional heads like v or T to form complex
predicates in some frameworks.
Q 118-[Short Answer]:
What free word order phenomenon moves constituents for information structure in German?
Correct Answer: Scrambling
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Scrambling reorders constituents within a clause for discourse-pragmatic effects, common in
languages with rich morphology.
Q 119-[Multiple Choice]:
What process attaches a dependent morpheme to a host word in syntax?
A) Affixation
B) Incorporation
C) Cliticization
D) Adjunction
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Cliticization attaches a phonologically dependent element to a host word, behaving between
an affix and an independent word.
P a g e | 93
Q 120-[Multiple Choice]:
What parameter allows a language to omit subject pronouns when agreement is sufficiently rich?
A) Null subject parameter
B) Pro-drop
C) Topic drop
D) Argument drop
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Pro-drop is the null subject parameter that licenses empty pronominal subjects in languages
like Italian and Spanish.
Q 121-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
The mechanism by which DPs receive case features through Agree with functional heads is ________.
Correct Answer: Case valuation
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Case valuation is the Minimalist mechanism where unvalued case features on DPs receive
values from functional heads through Agree.
Q 122-[True/False]:
A phase is a syntactic domain that is opaque for further syntactic operations after spell-out.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Phases like CP and vP are cyclic domains where material is sent to interfaces and becomes
inaccessible to later operations.
P a g e | 94
Q 123-[Multiple Choice]:
What feature allows a phase head to attract an element to its edge for further movement?
A) Uninterpretable feature
B) Edge feature
C) Strong feature
D) EPP feature
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: An edge feature on a phase head allows extraction from the phase by attracting an element
to its specifier.
Q 124-[Multiple Choice]:
What operation matches and deletes uninterpretable features through Agree relations?
A) Feature checking
B) Feature valuation
C) Feature matching
D) Feature inheritance
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Feature valuation values uninterpretable features on probes and goals through Agree before
spell-out in Minimalist syntax.
Q 125-[Fill-in-the-Blank]:
The component of grammar dedicated specifically to sentence structure computation is the ________.
Correct Answer: Syntactic module
P a g e | 95
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: The syntactic module is the specialized cognitive subsystem responsible for generating well-
formed hierarchical sentence structures.
Week 6 Quiz: Semantics & Pragmatics
Q 1
[Multiple Choice]: The central object of study in semantics is best defined as the interpretation of
linguistic expressions known as:
A) Sound patterns
B) Grammatical rules
C) Meaning
D) Utterance context
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Meaning constitutes the core concept in semantics, concerning how language conveys
interpretable content.
Q 2
[True/False]: A sentence's truth conditions specify the circumstances in the world necessary for that
sentence to be true.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Truth conditions define the precise real-world states that would make a given proposition
accurate.
Q 3
P a g e | 96
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The logical relation where the truth of one sentence guarantees the truth of another is
called _________.
Correct Answer: entailment
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Entailment holds when sentence A being true logically requires sentence B to also be true.
Q 4
[Multiple Choice]: A statement that is necessarily false because its component meanings conflict is
termed a:
A) Tautology
B) Contradiction
C) Presupposition
D) Ambiguity
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A contradiction arises when the meaning of a sentence makes it logically impossible under
any circumstances.
Q 5
[Short Answer]: What term describes a statement that is necessarily true by virtue of its logical structure
alone?
Correct Answer: Tautology
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A tautology is a proposition that remains true regardless of the truth values of its
components.
P a g e | 97
Q 6
[Multiple Choice]: Background assumptions that must be satisfied for an utterance to be appropriate are
called:
A) Entailments
B) Implicatures
C) Presuppositions
D) Ambiguities
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Presuppositions are implicit assumptions taken for granted that must hold for a sentence to
be felicitous.
Q 7
[True/False]: Lexical ambiguity occurs when a single word has multiple distinct but historically related
meanings.
Correct Answer: False
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: This describes polysemy. Ambiguity involves unrelated meanings or multiple structural
interpretations.
Q 8
[Multiple Choice]: The semantic relationship where two different words share identical or nearly identical
meaning is:
A) Antonymy
B) Hyponymy
C) Synonymy
P a g e | 98
D) Meronymy
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Synonymy is the relation of having the same or very similar meaning, as with couch and
sofa.
Q 9
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The semantic relationship of opposition in meaning between two lexical items is
known as _________.
Correct Answer: antonymy
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Antonymy refers to meaning opposition, illustrated by pairs like hot and cold or alive and
dead.
Q 10
[Multiple Choice]: What hierarchical relationship exists where rose is a kind of flower?
A) Meronymy
B) Hyponymy
C) Polysemy
D) Homonymy
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Hyponymy is the relationship between a specific term and its more general superordinate
category.
P a g e | 99
Q 11
[Short Answer]: What term describes a part-whole relationship between lexical items such as wheel and
car?
Correct Answer: Meronymy
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Meronymy denotes the semantic relation where one lexeme represents a constituent part of
another.
Q 12
[Multiple Choice]: A single lexical item with multiple distinct but historically related senses exhibits:
A) Homonymy
B) Polysemy
C) Ambiguity
D) Hyponymy
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Polysemy involves multiple related meanings for one word, such as bright referring to light
or intelligence.
Q 13
[True/False]: Homonymy refers to unrelated words that share the same phonological or orthographic
form.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Homonymy involves distinct words with identical form but unrelated meanings like bank
and bank.
P a g e | 100
Q 14
[Multiple Choice]: The principle that complex expression meaning derives from parts and their
combination is:
A) Reference
B) Compositionality
C) Sense
D) Deixis
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Compositionality states that whole meaning is a function of constituent meanings and
syntactic structure.
Q 15
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The relationship between a linguistic expression and the specific entity it identifies is
_________.
Correct Answer: reference
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Reference is the semantic connection linking words to entities, properties, or situations in
the world.
Q 16
[Multiple Choice]: The inherent conceptual content or intension of a linguistic expression is its:
A) Reference
B) Deixis
P a g e | 101
C) Sense
D) Scope
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Sense is the meaning relation an expression has within the language system independent of
reference.
Q 17
[Short Answer]: What phenomenon requires contextual information to interpret expressions like I or
tomorrow?
Correct Answer: Deixis
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Deixis anchors reference to the speaker, time, and place of the utterance context.
Q 18
[Multiple Choice]: Grammatical marking of speaker and addressee roles in conversation is which deixis
type?
A) Spatial deixis
B) Temporal deixis
C) Discourse deixis
D) Personal deixis
Correct Answer: D
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Personal deixis encodes participant roles through pronouns like I and you.
P a g e | 102
Q 19
[True/False]: Spatial deixis uses terms like here and there to encode location relative to speech event.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Spatial deixis grounds reference in physical space relative to the deictic center of the
utterance.
Q 20
[Multiple Choice]: Words such as now, then, and recently are classic examples of which deictic category?
A) Personal deixis
B) Social deixis
C) Temporal deixis
D) Discourse deixis
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Temporal deixis encodes time relative to the moment of speaking.
Q 21
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A definite expression that picks out an entity by denoting a property unique to it is a
_________.
Correct Answer: description
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: A description identifies referents through properties, as in the current president of France.
Q 22
P a g e | 103
[Multiple Choice]: The semantic operation using all, some, and no to specify entity quantity is called:
A) Reference
B) Sense
C) Quantification
D) Deixis
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Quantification expresses the amount or scope of noun phrase reference using quantifiers.
Q 23
[Short Answer]: What term denotes the portion of a logical formula under a quantifier's influence?
Correct Answer: Scope
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Scope is the syntactic and semantic domain over which an operator like negation or
quantifier applies.
Q 24
[Multiple Choice]: The formal system analyzing sentence meaning through predicates, arguments, and
quantifiers is:
A) Componential analysis
B) Frame semantics
C) Predicate logic
D) Prototype theory
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 104
Explanation: Predicate logic represents meaning using predicates applied to arguments with quantifiers.
Q 25
[True/False]: A thematic role describes the abstract participant role that an argument plays in a verb's
event.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Thematic roles label semantic relationships between predicates and their arguments like
agent or patient.
Q 26
[Multiple Choice]: The participant that performs or instigates the action expressed by a verb is the:
A) Theme
B) Agent
C) Experiencer
D) Instrument
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Agent is the thematic role assigned to the argument that deliberately performs an action.
Q 27
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The participant that undergoes the action or movement in an event is called the
_________.
Correct Answer: Theme
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Theme is the entity moved, located, or affected by the action described by the verb.
P a g e | 105
Q 28
[True/False]: An Experiencer is the thematic role for an entity that perceives or has a mental state.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Experiencer labels the participant who feels, perceives, or undergoes psychological events.
Q 29
[Multiple Choice]: The thematic role indicating the endpoint or destination of motion is called:
A) Source
B) Goal
C) Location
D) Theme
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Goal is the semantic role of the entity toward which something moves.
Q 30
[Short Answer]: What thematic role identifies the starting point of a movement?
Correct Answer: Source
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Source is the origin or starting location from which motion proceeds.
Q 31
P a g e | 106
[Multiple Choice]: The object used by an agent to perform an action receives which thematic role?
A) Theme
B) Beneficiary
C) Instrument
D) Experiencer
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Instrument is the entity used to carry out an action.
Q 32
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The participant for whose benefit an action is performed is the _________.
Correct Answer: Beneficiary
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Beneficiary is the entity that benefits from the action expressed by the verb.
Q 33
[True/False]: A thematic grid specifies all thematic roles a predicate assigns to its arguments.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: The thematic grid lists every thematic role required by a verb.
Q 34
[Multiple Choice]: Combining a predicate with an argument of an inappropriate semantic type creates a:
A) Scope ambiguity
P a g e | 107
B) Presupposition failure
C) Selectional violation
D) Implicature
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Selectional violation occurs when semantic restrictions of a predicate are not satisfied.
Q 35
[Short Answer]: What method decomposes word meanings into primitive semantic features?
Correct Answer: Componential analysis
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Componential analysis breaks lexical meaning into binary distinctive features.
Q 36
[Multiple Choice]: In componential analysis, meaning features are organized using which type of
contrast?
A) Scalar opposition
B) Binary opposition
C) Gradable opposition
D) Relational opposition
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Binary opposition uses two-valued features like ±animate to capture meaning contrasts.
P a g e | 108
Q 37
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: An expression that is semantically ill-formed due to incompatible meaning
components exhibits _________.
Correct Answer: semantic anomaly
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Semantic anomaly arises when word meanings conflict producing odd interpretations.
Q 38
[True/False]: Figurative meaning departs from literal meaning to achieve imaginative effects.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Figurative meaning involves non-literal interpretation for rhetorical purposes.
Q 39
[Multiple Choice]: A cognitive mechanism mapping conceptual structure from one domain onto another
is:
A) Metonymy
B) Idiom
C) Metaphor
D) Polysemy
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Metaphor involves understanding one domain in terms of another.
Q 40
P a g e | 109
[Short Answer]: What conventionalized expression has meaning not predictable from its parts?
Correct Answer: Idiom
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Idiom is a fixed phrase with non-compositional figurative meaning.
Q 41
[Multiple Choice]: Meaning conveyed indirectly beyond what is literally said is termed:
A) Entailment
B) Presupposition
C) Implicature
D) Truth condition
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Implicature refers to communicated meaning beyond literal content.
Q 42
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A Gricean conversational guideline that explains how implicatures arise is a
_________.
Correct Answer: Maxim
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Maxims are principles of cooperative conversation including quantity and quality.
Q 43
[True/False]: The cooperation principle assumes speakers contribute appropriately to accepted
conversational purposes.
P a g e | 110
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: The cooperation principle guides participants to communicate efficiently and effectively.
Q 44
[Multiple Choice]: An utterance considered as an action performed by a speaker is a:
A) Locution
B) Proposition
C) Speech act
D) Implicature
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Speech act theory treats utterances as actions like promising or requesting.
Q 45
[Short Answer]: What component of a speech act refers to its intended communicative force?
Correct Answer: Illocution
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Illocution is the speaker's intended function in performing a speech act.
Q 46
[Multiple Choice]: The actual effect an utterance has on a hearer is termed:
A) Locution
B) Illocution
P a g e | 111
C) Perlocution
D) Performative
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Perlocution refers to effects on hearer thoughts feelings or actions.
Q 47
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The literal act of producing a meaningful linguistic expression is the _________ act.
Correct Answer: Locution
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Locutionary act is uttering words with specific sense and reference.
Q 48
[True/False]: A performative utterance accomplishes an action simply by being spoken.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Performatives perform actions through the utterance itself like I promise.
Q 49
[Multiple Choice]: A speech act performed indirectly through another speech act is:
A) Performative
B) Illocution
C) Indirect act
D) Locution
P a g e | 112
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: An indirect act occurs when one illocutionary force is conveyed via another.
Q 50
[Short Answer]: What term encompasses the physical social and linguistic setting of an utterance?
Correct Answer: Context
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Context includes all situational factors affecting language interpretation.
Q 51
[Multiple Choice]: The shared knowledge and beliefs that participants assume in conversation is termed:
A) Context
B) Common ground
C) Givenness
D) Information structure
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Common ground represents mutual knowledge presupposed by conversational participants.
Q 52
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The way information is packaged to reflect discourse status is called _________.
Correct Answer: Information structure
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Information structure organizes sentences to mark topic focus and givenness.
P a g e | 113
Q 53
[True/False]: Topic refers to what a sentence is about given the preceding discourse context.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Topic is the entity that the sentence predicates something about.
Q 54
[Multiple Choice]: The part of a sentence that presents new or emphasized information is the:
A) Topic
B) Focus
C) Theme
D) Givenness
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Focus highlights the most informative or contrastive element in an utterance.
Q 55
[Short Answer]: What term refers to information already present in the discourse context?
Correct Answer: Givenness
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Givenness marks information that is familiar from prior discourse.
Q 56
P a g e | 114
[Multiple Choice]: An entity introduced into the discourse model for subsequent reference is a:
A) Discourse referent
B) Topic
C) Focus
D) Deictic
Correct Answer: A
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Discourse referents are mental representations of entities under discussion.
Q 57
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The relationship where a pronoun refers back to a previously mentioned expression is
_________.
Correct Answer: Anaphora
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Anaphora involves a linguistic element referring to an earlier element.
Q 58
[True/False]: Cataphora occurs when a pronoun refers forward to an expression later in the discourse.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Cataphora establishes reference where the antecedent follows the pronoun.
Q 59
[Multiple Choice]: A linguistic expression whose reference shifts with context is termed:
P a g e | 115
A) Description
B) Indexical
C) Proper name
D) Quantifier
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Indexicals like I and here depend on utterance context for interpretation.
Q 60
[Short Answer]: What property of presuppositions allows them to survive under negation?
Correct Answer: Projection
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Projection describes how presuppositions remain constant in embedded contexts.
Q 61
[Multiple Choice]: An implicature arising from ordered scales like all most some is:
A) Conversational implicature
B) Conventional implicature
C) Scalar implicature
D) Generalized implicature
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Scalar implicature arises when weaker terms imply negation of stronger ones.
P a g e | 116
Q 62
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The pragmatic process where meaning becomes more specific in context is called
_________.
Correct Answer: Strengthening
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Strengthening enriches underspecified meanings through contextual inference.
Q 63
[True/False]: Relevance is a principle explaining how context selects among possible interpretations.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Relevance guides hearers toward most informative and least effortful interpretations.
Q 64
[Multiple Choice]: The pragmatic process adding contextual meaning to logical form is termed:
A) Implicature
B) Enrichment
C) Strengthening
D) Projection
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Enrichment adds contextual specification to undersaturated semantic representations.
Q 65
P a g e | 117
[Short Answer]: What level of representation captures meaning relevant for truth evaluation?
Correct Answer: Logical form
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Logical form is the semantic structure determining truth conditions.
Q 66
[Multiple Choice]: The property of a proposition being either true or false is its:
A) Sense
B) Reference
C) Truth value
D) Extension
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Truth value is the binary status of true or false assigned to propositions.
Q 67
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A mental or formal structure encoding meaning is called a _________.
Correct Answer: Representation
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Representation is any symbolic encoding of conceptual or linguistic content.
Q 68
[True/False]: A proposition is the meaning content that can be evaluated as true or false.
Correct Answer: True
P a g e | 118
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Proposition is the truth-conditional content expressed by a declarative sentence.
Q 69
[Multiple Choice]: The inherent conceptual meaning of an expression independent of reference is:
A) Extension
B) Intension
C) Denotation
D) Truth value
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Intension is the conceptual content determining reference across possible worlds.
Q 70
[Short Answer]: What term denotes the set of entities a predicate applies to in the world?
Correct Answer: Extension
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Extension is the actual set of things a linguistic expression picks out.
Q 71
[Multiple Choice]: A complete way things could be for purposes of semantic evaluation is a:
A) Logical form
B) Representation
C) Possible world
P a g e | 119
D) Proposition
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Possible worlds are complete consistent states of affairs for evaluating modality.
Q 72
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The semantic category expressing necessity possibility or contingency is _________.
Correct Answer: Modality
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Modality marks speaker attitudes toward likelihood or necessity of propositions.
Q 73
[True/False]: Epistemic modality concerns knowledge belief or possibility relative to knowledge.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Epistemic modality indicates speaker certainty based on available evidence.
Q 74
[Multiple Choice]: Modality concerned with obligation permission and necessity is:
A) Epistemic
B) Deontic
C) Dynamic
D) Alethic
Correct Answer: B
P a g e | 120
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Deontic modality relates to rules norms and social obligations.
Q 75
[Short Answer]: What logical operator reverses the truth value of a proposition?
Correct Answer: Negation
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Negation is an operator mapping true propositions to false and vice versa.
Q 76
[Multiple Choice]: A linguistic element that binds variables or modifies truth values is termed:
A) Quantifier
B) Operator
C) Predicate
D) Argument
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Operators like negation or modality scope over propositions to modify semantic values.
Q 77
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The approach representing verbs as introducing eventualities is called _________.
Correct Answer: Event semantics
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Event semantics treats sentences as existential quantifications over events or states.
P a g e | 121
Q 78
[True/False]: Aspectual class categorizes verbs according to temporal properties like duration and telicity.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Aspectual class includes states activities achievements and accomplishments based on
temporal structure.
Q 79
[Multiple Choice]: The property of having a natural endpoint or goal is semantically termed:
A) Durability
B) Telicity
C) Dynamicity
D) Stativity
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Telicity marks events with inherent boundaries or completion points.
Q 80
[Short Answer]: What aspectual class describes situations that involve no change over time?
Correct Answer: Stative
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Stative predicates describe stable situations without internal temporal dynamics.
Q 81
P a g e | 122
[Multiple Choice]: Aspectual class involving change and requiring energy input is called:
A) Stative
B) Dynamic
C) Telic
D) Atelic
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Dynamic predicates involve processes actions or events with internal change.
Q 82
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: An argument whose incremental change measures event progress is an _________.
Correct Answer: Incremental theme
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Incremental theme undergoes gradual change marking event culmination like eating an
apple.
Q 83
[True/False]: Degree semantics analyzes meanings involving measurement along scalar dimensions.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Degree semantics treats gradable predicates as relating individuals to degrees.
Q 84
[Multiple Choice]: An adjective that can be modified by very or too is a:
P a g e | 123
A) Relational adjective
B) Gradable adjective
C) Absolute adjective
D) Classifying adjective
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Gradable adjectives denote properties scalable along a dimension like tall or expensive.
Q 85
[Short Answer]: What semantic analysis handles constructions like taller than or as big as?
Correct Answer: Comparison semantics
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Comparison semantics analyzes structures expressing relative positions on scales.
Q 86
[Multiple Choice]: The interpretation of forms like tallest or most beautiful involves:
A) Positive meaning
B) Comparative meaning
C) Superlative meaning
D) Equative meaning
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Superlative meaning picks out the extreme endpoint on a scale.
P a g e | 124
Q 87
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: Sentences expressing properties of kinds rather than individuals involve _________.
Correct Answer: Genericity
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Genericity concerns generalizations about kinds or characteristic properties.
Q 88
[True/False]: Habituality describes repeated or customary actions over time.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Habituality marks events occurring regularly as characteristic of a situation.
Q 89
[Multiple Choice]: A conditional statement assuming the opposite of fact is termed:
A) Indicative conditional
B) Counterfactual
C) Biconditional
D) Material conditional
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Counterfactuals consider situations contrary to known facts.
Q 90
[Short Answer]: What structure expresses dependence of one situation on another?
P a g e | 125
Correct Answer: Conditional
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Conditional sentences relate antecedent and consequent clauses typically if then.
Q 91
[Multiple Choice]: The property making discourse segments connected and interpretable is:
A) Cohesion
B) Coherence
C) Givenness
D) Relevance
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Coherence ensures discourse segments form a meaningful connected whole.
Q 92
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: Semantic theory organizing knowledge around stereotypical situations is _________.
Correct Answer: Frame semantics
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Frame semantics understands word meanings relative to background knowledge structures.
Q 93
[True/False]: Prototype theory holds that categories have best example members and fuzzy boundaries.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 126
Explanation: Prototype theory treats categories as organized around central typical exemplars.
Q 94
[Multiple Choice]: A group of words covering a conceptual domain is a:
A) Semantic field
B) Lexical field
C) Conceptual domain
D) Frame
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Lexical field organizes related vocabulary under a shared conceptual area.
Q 95
[Short Answer]: What process changes word meaning over historical time?
Correct Answer: Semantic shift
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Semantic shift is diachronic change in word meanings across time.
Q 96
[Multiple Choice]: Meaning change where a word becomes more specific is called:
A) Broadening
B) Narrowing
C) Amelioration
D) Pejoration
P a g e | 127
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Narrowing restricts meaning from general to specific like deer from animal to specific
species.
Q 97
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: Semantic change expanding a word's range of meanings is _________.
Correct Answer: Broadening
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Broadening extends meaning from specific to general like dog from specific breed to all
canines.
Q 98
[True/False]: Pejoration is semantic change where meaning acquires negative associations.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Pejoration degrades meaning over time like silly from blessed to foolish.
Q 99
[Multiple Choice]: Semantic change where meaning becomes more positive is termed:
A) Broadening
B) Narrowing
C) Amelioration
D) Pejoration
Correct Answer: C
P a g e | 128
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Amelioration improves meaning like knight from servant to honored rank.
Q 100
[Short Answer]: What conceptual shift uses one entity to refer to another related entity?
Correct Answer: Metonymy
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Metonymy involves reference via contiguity like the White House for administration.
Q 101
[Multiple Choice]: The conversational phenomenon where speakers correct errors in their own speech is:
A) Turn-taking
B) Repair
C) Face threat
D) Coherence
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Repair refers to mechanisms for addressing problems in speaking hearing or understanding.
Q 102
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The system governing how conversational participants alternate speaking is called
_________.
Correct Answer: Turn-taking
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Turn-taking organizes smooth speaker transitions in conversation.
P a g e | 129
Q 103
[True/False]: Politeness involves linguistic strategies maintaining social harmony and face concerns.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Politeness theory explains how language manages interpersonal relationships.
Q 104
[Multiple Choice]: An act that potentially damages someone's public self-image is a:
A) Face threat
B) Repair
C) Indirect act
D) Implicature
Correct Answer: A
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Face threat endangers positive or negative face needs of participants.
Q 105
[Short Answer]: What implicature arises from Gricean maxims in specific contexts?
Correct Answer: Conversational implicature
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Conversational implicature depends on context and cooperative principles.
Q 106
P a g e | 130
[Multiple Choice]: Reference to a uniquely identifiable entity uses which type of reference?
A) Indefinite reference
B) Definite reference
C) Generic reference
D) Proper reference
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Definite reference picks out specific entities assumed known to hearer.
Q 107
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: Reference introducing a new entity not previously known uses _________.
Correct Answer: Indefinite reference
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Indefinite reference presents novel entities into discourse.
Q 108
[True/False]: Proper reference uses names to pick out specific individuals directly.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Proper names refer directly without descriptive content.
Q 109
[Multiple Choice]: A quantifier asserting that a property holds for all entities is:
A) Existential quantifier
P a g e | 131
B) Universal quantifier
C) Definite quantifier
D) Indefinite quantifier
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Universal quantifier corresponds to all or every in natural language.
Q 110
[Short Answer]: What quantifier asserts existence of at least one entity?
Correct Answer: Existential quantifier
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Existential quantifier corresponds to some or there is.
Q 111
[Multiple Choice]: When a sentence has multiple interpretations due to quantifier interaction this is:
A) Lexical ambiguity
B) Scope ambiguity
C) Referential ambiguity
D) Structural ambiguity
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Scope ambiguity arises from different quantifier scope relations.
Q 122
P a g e | 132
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: A diagnostic determining if one sentence logically follows from another is the
_________.
Correct Answer: Entailment test
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Entailment test checks if truth of A guarantees truth of B.
Q 113
[True/False]: The presupposition test examines whether meaning survives under negation.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Presupposition test uses negation to identify background assumptions.
Q 114
[Multiple Choice]: A method identifying multiple possible meanings for an expression is:
A) Entailment test
B) Presupposition test
C) Ambiguity test
D) Reference test
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Apply
Explanation: Ambiguity test reveals distinct interpretations like zeugma or contradiction.
Q 115
[Short Answer]: What process determines which entity a pronoun picks out?
P a g e | 133
Correct Answer: Reference assignment
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Reference assignment resolves referring expressions to discourse entities.
Q 116
[Multiple Choice]: A restriction on possible interpretations or structures is termed:
A) Scope
B) Constraint
C) Operator
D) Maxim
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Constraint limits possible linguistic forms or interpretations.
Q 117
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The process of assigning meaning to expressions is _________.
Correct Answer: Interpretation
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Interpretation maps linguistic forms to semantic representations.
Q 118
[True/False]: Meaning opposition refers to relations like antonymy and complementarity.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
P a g e | 134
Explanation: Meaning opposition covers various types of semantic contrast.
Q 119
[Multiple Choice]: Implicature derived entirely from specific utterance context is:
A) Generalized implicature
B) Conventional implicature
C) Contextual implicature
D) Scalar implicature
Correct Answer: C
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Contextual implicature depends on particular situational factors.
Q 120
[Short Answer]: What ensures that discourse segments form a meaningful whole?
Correct Answer: Discourse coherence
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Discourse coherence connects utterances into unified meaningful texts.
Q 121
[Multiple Choice]: The theory claiming human cognition seeks maximal cognitive effect for minimal
effort is:
A) Gricean theory
B) Relevance theory
C) Frame theory
P a g e | 135
D) Prototype theory
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Relevance theory explains communication through cognitive principles.
Q 122
[Fill-in-the-Blank]: The process where contextual knowledge structures are accessed during interpretation
is _________.
Correct Answer: Frame activation
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Frame activation calls up relevant background knowledge for interpretation.
Q 123
[True/False]: The prototype effect shows some category members are judged more typical than others.
Correct Answer: True
Cognitive Skill Level: Understand
Explanation: Prototype effect reveals graded category structure with central examples.
Q 124
[Multiple Choice]: The organization of semantic knowledge in the mind is:
A) Lexical field
B) Conceptual structure
C) Frame semantics
D) Thematic grid
P a g e | 136
Correct Answer: B
Cognitive Skill Level: Remember
Explanation: Conceptual structure organizes mental representations of meaning.
Q 125
[Short Answer]: What cognitive subsystem handles context-dependent aspects of meaning?
Correct Answer: Pragmatic module
Cognitive Skill Level: Analyze
Explanation: Pragmatic module processes inferential context-driven meaning components.
