Sample Exam Test

English Phonetics/Phonology/Morphology Exam Katalin Balogné Bérces Sample test (originally exam 3 on 18 January 2005) Working time: 70 mins Questions refer to RP unless explicitly indicated otherwise. WORD = Kristó, L. (May 2004) The English word. Kristó (2004b) = Words and meanings. In: Dubs, K. (ed.) What does it mean? Piliscsaba: PPKE. (pp. 248-270) Balogné (2004) = On the notion word and its role as a phonological constituent. In: Dubs, K. (ed.) What does it mean? Piliscsaba: PPKE. (pp. 240-247) Part A: Multiple-Choice Questions (26 pts: 1 pt each) Data 1. Which of the following RP vowels is rounded? a.  c.  b.  d.  2. Which of the following consonants canNOT form a two-member onset with // in English? a.  c.  b.  d.  3. Which of the following word pairs illustrates unmotivated Vowel Shift? a. do – does c. tone – tonic b. crime – criminal d. vain – vanity 4. Closed-syllable shortening basically refers to the same regularity as ... a. Pre-cluster Laxing c. Trisyllabic Laxing b. Degemination d. Broadening 5. In which of the following words is Yod-Dropping optional in RP? a. rude c. suit b. during d. new

6. Which of the following rules is totally insensitive to morphological and syntactic structure? a. palatalisation b. nasal place assimilation c. consonant elision d. R-dropping

Answers 1.

a. X

2. 3.

X

4.

X

8. Which of the underlined t’s is always aspirated in both RP and General American? a. hesitate c. twenty b. flatter d. competitive

5.

c. flapping d. elision

d.

X

6.

X

7.

X

8.

X

10. In RP, as opposed to GA, // can only become syllabic... a. word-internally c. in stressed position b. word-finally d. None of a, b or c.

9.

X

10.

X

11. The word cart does NOT exemplify ... a. Aspiration b. R-dropping

12.

c. Pre-R Breaking d. Pre-Fortis Clipping

c.

X

7. In which of these words is the vowel the shortest? a. bean c. bead b. bee d. beat

9. A // can NOT undergo ... a. aspiration b. devoicing

b.

11.

13.

X X X

12. Which of the following grammatical function words canNOT be pronounced //? a. the c. there b. their d. they 13. Which of these sound changes is a characteristically British innovation? a. (extended) Yod-dropping c. Diphthong Shift b. t/d-tapping/flapping d. LOT Unrounding

1

Analysis/theory 14. Oral sounds are produced by … the velum. a. raising c. opening b. lowering d. pulling back

22. Which of the following features must change its value to bring about the // → // change? a. [coronal] c. [nasal] b. [sonorant] d. [voice]

15. Syncope rules … segments. a. move b. delete

23. Compensatory lengthening illustrates ... a. the independence of timing relations from other aspects of phonological representation. b. the naturalness of lexical phonological processes. c. a major weakness of Generative Phonology. d. the relative ease of dropping consonants.

c. insert d. assimilate

16. The difference between inflection and derivation is that ... a. in inflection there is pressure for all the members of the paradigm to be present, in derivation there are many accidental gaps. b. inflection forms new lexemes, derivation forms new word-forms. c. inflection is a more open system, derivation is a more closed system. d. inflection is always class-changing, derivation is always classmaintaining.

24. Which of the following stressed vowel letters is in covered graphic position? a. taxi c. later b. scruple d. manor

17. Which of the following words has an ult with a branching onset? a. horizon c. algebra b. propaganda d. Matilda

25. Which of these letters does NOT have // as one of its regular sound values? a. c. b. <e> d. <ey>

18. Which of the following characterises postlexical rules? a. essentially no exceptions b. morphological information decisive c. distinctive alternating sounds d. not particularly natural phonological process

26. According to Balogné (2004), compounds like lifestyle ... a. behave like single p-words in English. b. are morphologically simple. c. do not reduce their second terms to zero stress. d. treat their terms as separate units grammatically.

19. The nucleus of the syllable // is ... a. // b. //

c. // d. //

Answers 14.

a. X

15. 16.

b.

d.

X X

17. 18.

c.

X X

19.

X

20.

X

21.

X

22.

X

23.

X

24.

X

25. 26.

X X

20. Which of the following is a well-formed partial sonority hierarchy? a. <<< c. <<< b. <<< d. <<< 21. Bogus cluster is the name given to consonant cluters that ... a. can only appear word-medially. b. cannot appear word-medially. c. can appear word-initially but not word-medially. d. can appear word-finally but not word-initially.

2

Answers Part B: Part B: Open-ended Questions (20 pts: 2 pts each)

1. nasals, liquids, glides

1. The three groups of sonorant consonants are … 2. The plain lax vowels of RP are ... (list their symbols!) 3. Give an example of a position in which the plain lax vowels listed above can NOT normally appear. 4. Kristó (2004b) uses Tarzanlike and Jabbalike to illustrate the on-line, on-the-spot formation of unconventionalized items that are usually referred to as ... 5. The name of the phonological rule governing the choice of the form of the suffix -val/-vel 'with' in Hungarian, as in madárral 'with bird' as opposed to egérrel 'with mouse' (described in Balogné 2004) is ... 6. In morphology, the situation when a single form represents several grammatical words within the paradigm is best referred to as ... 7. In three-member onsets in English the first consonant is always ... 8. In the word gradual (cf. grade), the vowel undergoes a rule causing Vowel Shift called ... 9. Using the numbers 1 (primary), 2 (secondary), 3 (tertiary or strong unstressed), and 0 (completely unstressed), indicate the stress degree of the syllables in the word domesticity. 10. List at least three words (other than carrot) in which the Carrot-rule applies.

2. / U  (or E)   Ă/ 3. word-finally, prevocalically, before a dropped /r/, in free graphic position... 4. nonce words/items 5. vowel harmony 6. syncretism 7. /s/ 8. Pre-u Laxing 9. 20100 or 23100 10. mirror, merry, miracle, paradise, hurricane...

Part C: Analysis (10 pts) Consider the word radiator. 1. Indicate the stress degree of the syllables using numbers. (1 pt) 2. Characterize the morpheme –or. What kind of morpheme is it? List as many characteristics as you can (2 pts) 3. What kind of morpheme is –or as far as its phonological behaviour is concerned? Is it able to influence the phonological shape of the base? (2 pts)

Part C: 1. 1030 2. deverbal nominal agentive derivational suffix 3. analytic (/strong-boundary/neutral/ClassII): unable to influence the base phonologically

3

Answers 4. If the ult of a verb (radiate) is stressable (-ate is heavy 4. Using this word, explain what the Alternating Stress Rule is. (3 pts) 5. The first vowel letter of the word is pronounced //. Which phonological class of vowels does it belong to? (1 pt) 6. Which letter-to-sound rule is responsible for the pronunciation of the first vowel letter? (1 pt)

even if the /t/ is extrametrical) and the verb has more than two syllables, primary stress moves to the antepenult (ra-) and the ult reduces to tertiary stress. 5. plain tense 6. Free Position Basic Rule / CiV Tensing

Part D: 1. /()/ 2. /Ă or - or -/ 3. //

Part D: Transcription (7X2=14 pts) Transcribe the following words phonemically as they are pronounced in RP, using the symbols of Gimsonian IPA, either the standard set or the modified version introduced in WORD, but please be consistent. All these words are regular as far as letter-tosound rules are concerned.

4. /()/ 5. // 6. / or -E/

1 auctions, 2 chunky, 3 hissed, 4 Mabel, 5 propaganda, 6 repel, 7 Samantha Total: 70 pts

7. //

4