Study Guide: Midterm #3 Review

In terms of the readings, Midterm #3 will cover Chapters 9 and 11 on Latin and Greek word structure; Chapter 10 on Indo-European; and Chapter 8 on Language in Sociey. There will be a bit on the part of Ch. 3 on neologisms that formed part of the basis for doing your Word Journal assignment (the word formation types). You should now recognize these types easily when given clear examples of them.

Besides the book material, the exam will cover class discussions and web pages linked on the grid on the home page and on the Course Schedule. Finally, there will be a few parsing problems. parsing of words introduced or discussed in class and quizzes.

In terms of topics, the exam focuses on:
1. Latin and Greek word structure
2. genetic relationships of languages, the Indo-European language family, Proto-Indo-European vocabulary and what it reveals about Indo-European culture; a little on languages that are NOT Indo-European
3. Language variation and varieties of English, including slang, jargon, and varieties associated with particular groups like gamers and college students (to the extent covered in book--we did not get to this in class).

Questions in the midterm will assume knowledge of concepts introduced in the previous chapters, and will include a few questions on loanwords discussed in the last third of the class.

Latin and Greek morphology

inflection                        verbs
base or stem                      person:  1st, 2nd, 3rd        
inflectional categories           verb conjugation classes
nouns                             infinitive
grammatical gender                voice: active, passive    
masculine, feminine, neuter       principal parts
noun declension                   participles
  (= noun class defined by set of endings)  
grammatical number                past participle 
singular, plural                     (or perfect participle in book) morpheme
case                              present participle morpheme  
                                  (stem vowel + nt)
                                  future participle morpheme 
                                    (or gerundive in book)  (stem vowel + nd)

Changes in late Latin; Latin vs. French

learned vocabulary
spelling (spelling is the most conservative aspect of English words)
classical diphthongs ae, oe
pronunciation changes in late Latin 
approximimants /i/, /u/ --> affricates  /d3/ as in justice,  /v/ as in 
civil  (L. iusticia --> O. Fr. d3ustice --> Engl. d3ustice)  (L. civis
'citizen'  /kiwis/--> O. Fr. sivi )
velar stops /k/, /g/  --> /s/, /d3/ as in judge.
Great Vowel Shift affecting Latinate words
Latin -ula --> O. Fr. -le   (L. tabula --> O. Fr. table)
Latin -fic- 'make' --> O. Fr. -fy
Latin/French doublets
Latin --> French syllable deletions
Latin --> French coronalizations (usually called palatalizations):
   gaudiam --> joy, legalem -->loyal etc.
diphthongizations 
  (Lat. pictum --> Old Frn. paint, L. punctum --> O. Fr. point)

Genetic relationship, Indo-European language family, the Indo-Europeans

genetic relationship
related languages vs. languages affected by culture contact (and
      therefore borrowing)
language family
family tree metaphor
parent language, mother language, ancestor language
sister language
daughter language
dialects
language breakup
   (due to loss of contact  + different changes in different places)
Grimm's law
sound change
reasons for persistence of evidence of relationship:
  regularity of sound change
  resistance to change of basic vocabulary
Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European
Germanic
   North Germanic
   East Germanic
   West Germanic
Celtic
   Welsh
   Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic
Italic / Romance
Hellenic  (Greek)
Baltic
Slavic
Armenian
Albanian
Indo-Iranian
Tocharian
Hittite language  (Anatolian family)
Sanskrit
Hindi
Finnish
Hungarian
Estonian
Basque
4 language families of Africa
3 language families of the Americas
The Indo-Europeans
reconstruction of words
reconstruction of aspects of culture

Language Variation and Language in Society

prescriptivism
descriptivism
standardization and education
standard, nonstandard
formality
formal, informal varieties
contractions
orthography; sound vs. spelling
spoken vs. written language
taboo
euphemism
jargon (words used by a professional or interest group)
slang, characteristics of slang
in-group vs. outgroup
language as a marker of a group
shibboleths

Neologisms

neologism
derivation
zero-derivation
affixation
compounds, compounding: phrasal compounds, rhyming compounds
blends, blending
acronyms
clipping, clippings
folk etymology
reanalysis
analogy
novel creation
sound symbolism/onomotopeia

Parsing

Review the Parsing page.

gloss
transparent 
opaque

© 2009 Suzanne Kemmer
Last modified 2 Dec 09