Words in English
Linguistics/English 215
Prof. S. Kemmer

STUDY GUIDE
MIDTERM #3 REVIEW

Midterm #3 will cover the chapters in the book on Etymology and on Semantic change, a few processes of sound change not treated until after midterm #2, and class material on linguistic variation, standardization and prescriptivism, neologisms and their types, and slang.

Some abilities you should have by now:

  • Ability to recognize morphemes in words despite their occurrence in somewhat different forms (allomorphs)

  • Increased parsing ability

  • Increased understanding of word formation processes, particularly for new words
  • Increased ability to judge the likeliest source language for a given word, based on knowledge of characteristics of loanwords from different languages
  • Ability to recognize and produce examples of words illustrating sound processes studied after midterm #2, like rhotacism s-deletion, etc.
  • ability to recognize and produce examples of various types of semantic change
  • ability to discuss the cognitive processes underlying semantic change, particularly metaphor and metonymy
  • knowledge of some specific word histories discussed in class

    The following list of keywords is still under construction (until Wednesday):

    Semantics 

    synonyms          
homonyms          
polysemy
    Semantic change 
    etymology	                  euphemism
polysemy	                  taboo
widening (generalization)	  amelioration
narrowing (specialization)	  degeneration, pejoration
metaphor	                  eponymy
metonymy	                  
synechdoche
    Language Variation and Language in Society 
    prescriptivism
descriptivism
standard, nonstandard
shibboleths    
jargon
slang
    Neologisms 
    derivation
compounding: phrasal compounds, rhyming compounds
blends
acronyms
zero-derivation

    Other 

    rhotacism

    Keywords from material prior to Midterm #2

    The following material will not be focused on or tested directly; concepts will be made reference to in the exam (by me or by you) only to the extent that they exemplify or relate to concepts that are the focus of Midterm #3. The last third of the course necessarily builds on what went before.

    History of English 

    Old English (Anglo-Saxon)         Normans
Middle English                    Norman conquest
Early Modern English              Battle of Hastings
Present Day English (PDE)         Edward the Confessor
Celts                             Harold Godwinson
Romans                            William of Normandy (William the Conqueror)
Anglo-Saxons                      Norman French   
Beowulf                           Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
King Alfred (Alfred the Great)    William Caxton, printing press
Vikings, Danes                    Great English Vowel Shift  
Ethelred the Unready              King James Bible       
Canute (Cnut)                     Shakespeare
Danelaw, Watling Street

    Words in English 

    native                        
borrowed          
nativized, nativization	     
loanword, borrowing           
doublets

    Morphology 

    morpheme                          parse, parsing
root                              allomorphs, allomorphy
affix                             assimilation
prefix                            ablaut                           
suffix                            metathesis
inflection                        weakening 
derivation                        insertion
compounds, compounding            deletion
filler, linker morpheme           
transparent, opaque morphemes

    Phonetics 

    consonants                        fricative
voicing                           affricate
larynx (voice box), vocal chords  nasal
place of articulation             liquid
lips, bilabial                    approximant
labiodental                       lateral
interdental                       voicing assimilation
alveolar, alveolar ridge          place assimilation
palatal-alveolar                  manner assimilation
  ( = alveo-palatal)              partial, total assimilation
hard palate, palatal              vowels
soft palate (velum), velar        vowel frontness: front/central/back
glottis, glottal                  vowel height: high/mid/low
manner of articulation            diphthong
stop (plosive)

    © 2004 Suzanne Kemmer

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