1. Language change and issues QUIZ
1.“Perjoration” is a process by which
a) words increasingly acquire positive meanings
b) words increasingly acquire negative meanings
c) words are used incorrectly with regard to their original meaning
2) “ethnic cleansing”, “collateral damage” and “nuclear deterrent” are examples of
a) hypercorrection
b) an assertive foreign policy
c) euphemism
3) “dialect levelling” is
a) a decrease in dialect differences
b) the belief that no dialect is linguistically superior to another
c) the belief that young people can’t speak properly any more
4) “Prescriptivism” is
a) the study of language with the intention of controlling it – by dictating rules of usage
b) the study of language with the intention of recording and analysing how it is used
c) the study of the almost indecipherable handwriting of doctors
5) 1755 is significant for the development of the English language because
a) it is almost 6 o’clock and that’s when The Simpsons begin
b) Samuel Johnson published his dictionary
c) it is the number of books David Crystal has written on the subject
6) “jargon” is
a) technical language or highly field-specific vocabulary
b) the Greek god of lexicographers
c) gobbledygook
7) “Amelioration” is a process by which
a) words simplify their spellings – e.g. ‘color’ for ‘colour’; ‘nite’ for ‘night’
b) words become less socially acceptable – e.g. ‘spastic’
c) words become more socially acceptable or prestigious
8) Which one of the following processes could the word “cupboard” not be used as an example of
a) Compounding
b) Borrowing
c) Phonological change
d) Generalisation
9) The “etymological fallacy” is
a) The mistaken belief that the earliest historical meaning of a word is its only true meaning
b) The mistaken belief that the study of word origins is intrinsically interesting
c) The obsessive cataloguing of neologisms
10) Time was once pronounced more like team, see like say, now like noo and so like saw; and are all
examples of the phonological differences brought about by
a) the rise of estuary English
b) the fitting of dentures
c) the Great Vowel Shift
11) ‘Fax’, ‘flu’, ‘celeb’ ‘bike’, ‘gym’ and ‘memo’ are all examples of
a) blending
b) eponyms
c) borrowing
d) abbreviations or shortening
© 2002 www.teachit.co.uk 1

2. Language change and issues QUIZ
12) The use, in the USA, of phrases such as “I guess” [for “I think”] and “gotten” are examples of
a) The corrupting inaccuracy of American speech
b) Americans retaining an earlier English form after its use has largely died out in Britain
c) Verbal depravation
13) “Bidialectalism” is a term used, by Crystal and others, to describe
a) the ability to use two dialects of the same language
b) the disintegration of English into mutually unintelligible dialects
c) genderised conversational behaviour
14) ‘Government’, ‘peasant’, ‘crime’, ‘justice’, ‘fashion’, ‘biscuit’ and ‘leisure’ are words loaned from
a) Greek
b) Latin
c) French
d) German
15) The prescriptive “Short Introduction to English Grammar” [1762] was written by
a) Bishop Robert Lowth
b) Doctor Samuel Johnson
c) Professor Jean Aitchison
d) William Labov [dude]
e) Sir J A H Murray
16) The printing press was introduced into England by
a) William Shakespeare in 1592
b) Geoffrey Chaucer in 1398
c) William Caxton in 1476
d) Rupert Murdoch’s great-great grandfather in 1755
17) “Accommodation theory” was developed by Howard Giles to suggest:
a) the number of student classes will always exceed the number of rooms available at college
b) we adjust our accent/speech in response to the person we are addressing
c) co-operation between participants as the fundamental principle underlying conversation
18) The words “Children”, “oxen” and “men” are among a handful of now irregular plurals that are a
hangover from a time when English had a greater number of
a) Inflections
b) Lexical items
c) Latinate words
d) Pre-pubescent male bovine creatures
19) What is Jonathan Green describing as “the counter language …the language of the rebel, the
outlaw, the despised, the marginal, the young”?
a) Jargon
b) Slang
c) Plain English
d) Estuary English
e) Ann Widdecomb’s idiolect
20) “The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis” put forward the theory that
a) language reflects the way we think
b) language controls or determines the way we think
c) language influences but doesn’t govern our thoughts
d) language is essentially ‘thinking out loud’
e) the Hagen Daz have over 50 words for “ice cream”
© 2002 www.teachit.co.uk 2

3. Language change and issues QUIZ
Answers
1. B
2. C
3. A
4. A
5. B
6. A
7. C
8. B
9. A
10. C
11. D
12. B
13. A
14. C
15. A
16. C
17. B
18. A
19. B
20. B
© 2002 www.teachit.co.uk 3