Choose the most appropriate alternative to answer the questions below. Sometimes more than one alternative is possible

HISTORY of LANGUAGE

1. Genetically, English belongs to the... group of languages.

a) Iberian;

b) German;

c) Germanic;

d) British.

2. Historically, this group of languages goes back to the parent language variously called. a) West Germanic;

b) Common Germanic;

c) Primitive German;

d) Proto-Germanic.

3. This parent language later split into… groups of languages.

a) 2;

b) 3;

c) 4;

d) 5.

4. Modern languages of this group comprise such subgroups as.....

a) North Germanic;

b) East Germanic;

c) West Germanic;

d) South Germanic.

5. English belongs to the... subgroup.

a) North Germanic;

b) East Germanic;

c) West Germanic;

d) South Germanic.

6. Henry Sweet suggested that the history of English should be divided into... periods.

a) 2;

b) 3;

c) 4;

d) 5.

7. What factors are normally taken into consideration with the view to dividing English into periods?

a) linguistic only;

b) extralinguistic only;

c) linguistic and extralinguistic;

d) internal and external.

8. According to H. Sweet, the first period is referred to as the... (1), the second period as the... (2), and the third as the... (3).

a) period of pre-written English;

b) period of leveled endings;

c) period of lost endings;

d) period of full endings.

9. Typologically, OE was a (an)... (1) language while modern English is a(an)... (2) language.

a) morphological;

b) analytical;

c) syntactical;

d) synthetic.

10. OE vowel system didn’t include...

a) front vowels;

b) back vowels;

c) diphthongs;

d) triphthongs.

11. Word stress in OE was normally....

a) on the prefix;

b) fixed;

c) free;

d) on the suffix.

12. What law explains the following correspondences in the consonants? п лот – OE fl ota, г оре - OE c aru, т ы - OE Þ ü.

a) Newton’s Law;

b) Grimm’s Law;

c) Verner’s Law;

d) The Great Vowel Shift.

13. What law illustrates these changes in modern consonants? dea th – dea d, rai s e - rea r, wi f e – wi v es.

a) Newton’s Law;

b) Grimm’s Law;

c) Verner’s Law;

d) The Great Vowel Shift.

14. What phonetic change is illustrated by these examples? werm – wearm, ae hta - eahta, melcan – meolcan.

a) mutation;

b) gradation;

c) palatalization;

d) fracture.

15. What phonetic change is illustrated by these examples? rïsan – räs, faran – for, bëad - budon.

a) mutation;

b) gradation;

c) palatalization;

d) fracture.

16. What is the name of this phonetic phenomenon? sandian – sendan, namnian – nemnan, salian - sellan.

a) u-mutation;

b) i-mutation;

c) a-mutation;

d) o-mutation.

17. How did English consonants differ from the vowels diachronically?

a) they proved more subjected to change;

b) they proved more stable;

c) they remained the same;

d) they changed considerably.

18. At the morphological level, the principal OE form-building means were....

a) sound interchanges;

b) prefixes;

c) suppletive forms;

d) inflections.

19. OE nouns, adjectives and verbs consisted of such basic elements as....

a) the root;

b) the stem;

c) the stem-building affix;

d) the inflection.

20. Which parts of speech had the following grammatical categories?

1) number and case;

2) number, person, mood, tense;

3) number, case, gender, comparison;

4) persons, 3 numbers, gender.

a) personal pronouns;

b) nouns;

c) adjectives;

d) verb.

21. Which parts of speech during the OE period do they characterize?

1) vocalic stems, n-stems, s/r-stems, root stems;

2) strong, weak, preterite-present;

3) adjectival-pronominal;

4) definiteness –indefiniteness.

a) verbs

b) adjectives

c) nouns

d) the definite article.

22. The rise of which analytical forms do they illustrate?

1) He is on huntinge.

2) And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering?

3) Then hate me when thou wilt (desire).

4) For sefenn winnterr hafde he ben in Egypte.

a) perfect forms;

b) gerund;

c) simple future;

d) continuous forms.

23. Explain the origin of the components of this place-name:

STRATFORD-UPON –AVON

1) strat;

2) ford;

3) avon.

a) Celtic;

b) Latin;

c) OE;

d) Scandinavian.

24. What is theactual meaning of the word Oxford?

a) shallow water;

b) a stretch of shallow water on the river;

c) a stretch of shallow water for oxen to cross;

d) a stretch of broad shallow water for oxen to cross.

25. Since English, as a living language, is constantly changing, which changes take place faster than others? Arrange them from most to least fastest.

1)...;

2)...;

3)...;

4)....

a) phonetic;

b) phonemic;

c) lexical;

d) grammatical.

26. This Germanic language is not spoken anymore.

a) Frankish;

b) Faroese;

c) Frisian;

d) Flemish.

27. The word SAGA deals with... folklore.

a) German;

b) English;

c) Gothic;

d) Scandinavian.

28. Choose two features that correspond to the OE verb.

a) there was homonymy in the conjugation;

b) there were three tenses: Past, Present, Future;

c) only endings were employed in the paradigm of strong verbs;

d) weak verbs were the most numerous class of verbs.

29. Choose two phonetic processes that were typical of NE.

a) breaking;

b) qualitative change of the diphthongs [au] and [ai];

c) lengthening before the cluster “a sonorant and a plosive”;

d) development of diphthong due to the vocalization of [r];

30. Account for the language that provided English with the largest number of loans.

a) French;

b) Scandinavian;

c) Latin;

d) Celtic;

31. Decide which statement is true.

a) in OE subordination was preferable to coordination;

b) repetition of connectives at the head of each clause was common in compound sentences in OE;

c) in ME correlation fell into disuse;

d) ME means of connecting clauses were less diverse than OE ones;

32. This Germanic language has no historical ties with the Netherlands.

a) Dutch;

b) Gothic;

c) Afrikaans;

d) Flemish.

33. This language has two main variants called High... and Low....

a) Frisian;

b) Dutch;

c) German;

d) Swedish.

34. Runic alphabet avoided....

a) straight lines;

b) curved lines;

c) short lines;

d) long lines.

35. This historic event marked the transition from Old English to Middle English.

a) the departure of the Romans;

b) the Norman conquest;

c) Reformation;

d) Restoration.

36. The variant of English which is believed to be the closest to the English language of the 17^th- beginning of the 18 century is....

a) Australian;

b) British;

c) American;

d) South African.

37. The classical translation of the Bible into the English language is called....

a) King George’s Bible;

b) King Henry’s Bible;

c) King James’ Bible;

d) Queen Elisabeth’s Bible.

38. The greatest author of the Middle English period is....

a) W. Shakespeare;

b) G. Chaucer;

c) E. Dickinson;

d) B. Dylan.

39. Whan that Aprille with his shores sote... is the beginning of....

a) Romeo and Juliet;

b) Canterbury Tales;

c) Utopia;

d) Catch 22.

40. The phonetic phenomenon which happened during the Middle English period and made the English system of spelling differ a lot from the real pronunciation is called....

a) The Great Vowel Shift;

b) Grimm’s Law;

c) Verner’s Law;

d) leveling of the endings.

41. The first book printed in English was....

a) the Bible;

b) Beowulf;

c) Canterbury Tales;

d) Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.

42. The ways of expressing syntactical relations in Old English were....

a) agreement;

b) government;

c) connection;

d) joining.

43. What secondary parts were not frequently found in OE texts?

a) parenthesis;

b) attribute;

c) apposition;

d) object.

44. The evolution of syntax was closely connected with....

a) word order;

b) fixing of noun patterns;

c) decline of the inflectional system;

d) extensive use of prepositions.

45. The full extent of the OE vocabulary is....

a) 30000 words;

b) 100000 words;

c) not known;

d) 600 words.

46. " Hlaford" is....

a) a specific OE word;

b) a Scandinavian word;

c) a Celtic word;

d) a Latin word.

47. The word "tomato" is of... origin.

a) Spanish;

b) Russian;

c) Italian;

d) Belarusian.

48. Identify the literary source: Fyrst forþ ʒewat: flota wæs on ÿðum….

a) Beowulf;

b) Orosius’s Universal history;

c) Ecclesiastical History;

d) The Story of Isaac’s Deceit.

49. Identify the literary source: ‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy; - Thou art thyself though, not a Montague.

a) Romeo and Juliet;

b) The Merchant of Venice;

c) Hamlet;

d) The Tempest.

50. The Scandinavian pronoun "þeir" superceded the OE pronoun "hīe" and became modern....

a) their;

b) though;

c) the;

d) he.

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