By William B. McGregor
1) The linguistic diversity of the world is decreasing rapidly.
True False
2) Which of the following corresponds best to the linguistic conception of a single language?
mutually intelligibile varieties varieties associated with a religion varieties associated with an individual speaker varieties associated with a nation state
3) If you were to draw a graph showing the number of speakers of languages against numbers of languages with those speakerships, would this look like a normal bell curve?
Yes No
4) Languages are genetically related if they:
are typologically similar derive from a single proto-language are spoken by genetically related groups of people are spoken in the same geographical region (e.g. contintent) share the same two parent languages
5) The regional density of languages correlates directly with population density.
6) The most reliable method of establishing the genetic relatedness of a group of languages is:
mass-comparison comparative method lexicostatistics typology
7) Cognates are lexical items that:
are identical in form and meaning in a pair of languages are similar in form and meaning in a pair of languages derive from the same item in an ancestor language have been borrowed from another language are accidentally similar in form and meaning
8) If you were going to reconstruct proto-Indo-European (p.278), the ancestor language of most languages spoken in Europe, which of the following glosses would you not set about establishing cognate sets for?
'water' 'up' 'stand' 'musket' 'father'
9) Even if all languages spoken today do derive from a single ancestor language, it is unlikely this will ever be convincingly demonstrated.
10) The method of mass comparison can be useful as an initial step in determining which languages in a set of languages are genetically related.
11) Basic vocabulary of a language is believed to be more resistant to replacement (including borrowing) than non-basic vocabulary.
12) Lexicostatistics is a statistical tool developed for which of the following purposes?
determining if languages are genetically related determining subgrouping within an established genetic family determining whether languages have borrowed extensively from one another determining if languages are typologically similar none of the preceding
13) Language isolates are languages that:
are not known to be related to any other languages are spoken on isolated islands have no dialectal or sociolectal varieties are separated geographically from other members of their family
14) Does a large number of lexical similarities between a pair of languages indicate that are genetically related?
15) Which of the following regions is the most linguistically diverse in terms of numbers of languages?
Europe North America New Guinea and nearby islands Tasmania China Africa
16) It is generally presumed that the area where a family of languages shows the greatest linguistic diversity is the homeland of the family.
17) What is the largest genetic family in terms of number of speakers?
Sino-Tibetan Austronesian Afroasiatic Niger-Congo Indo-European
18) Which of the following four putative families of African languages is the best established?
Khoisan Nilo-Saharan Afroasiatic Niger-Congo
19) Rudimentary languages that sometimes arise in contact situations, when speakers of mutually unintelligible languages come into contact with one another in a limited range of social interactions are called:
creoles pidgins hibrid languages mixed languages lingua francas
20) Is it true that creoles are full languages, with lexical and grammatical complexities comparable with those of other languages?
21) Which of the following is a mixed language?
Tok Pisin Pidgin Yimas Fanagalo Michif Cree
22) In a mixed language it is possible for two distinct phonological systems to coexist.
23) Which types of language cause greatest problems for the family tree model of genetic relations?
mixed languages language isolates superstratum languages substratum languages none of these
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