Morphology And Syntax

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  • 1/10 Questions

    Consider the following example in French: Je                  n’-aime-Ø                           pas                l’-école!1sgPRO        NEG-like-1sgS                   not                DEF-school’I don’t like school’ On the basis of this example, what is the basic word order in French? 

    • OVS
    • SVO
    • SOV
    • VSO
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About This Quiz

Explore the intricacies of language structure with this quiz on Morphology and Syntax. Assess your understanding of verbal morphology, morphological types, indices of fusion and synthesis, and syntactical roles across different languages. Ideal for linguistics students and enthusiasts aiming to deepen their knowledge.

Morphology And Syntax - Quiz

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  • 2. 

    Consider the following example of a Japanese relative clause:Japanese:watasi     ga  hon  o         ataeta    kodomo1sgPRO  S  book  ACC  give.PRV  child-----------REL. CLAUSE------------------  HEAD’the child I gave a book to’ The position of the relative clause in respect to the head gives us reason to believe 

    • That adjectives would be placed in front of the noun in an NP

    • That adjectives would be placed after the noun in an NP

    Correct Answer
    A. That adjectives would be placed in front of the noun in an NP
    Explanation
    The correct answer is that adjectives would be placed in front of the noun in an NP. This is because in the given example of a Japanese relative clause, the relative clause comes before the head noun. This suggests that in Japanese, adjectives would also be placed before the noun in a noun phrase.

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  • 3. 

    Index of synthesisThe index of synthesis describes languages on a scale from

    • Fusional to synthetic

    • Isolating to synthetic

    • Agglutinating to synthetic

    • Option 4

    Correct Answer
    A. Isolating to synthetic
    Explanation
    The index of synthesis describes the level of synthesis in languages, ranging from isolating to synthetic. Isolating languages have minimal inflectional morphology and rely heavily on word order and function words to convey meaning. On the other hand, synthetic languages have a high degree of inflectional morphology, where words change their forms to indicate grammatical relationships. Therefore, the correct answer is "Isolating to synthetic" because it represents the scale of synthesis in languages, starting from isolating languages and moving towards more synthetic languages with greater inflectional morphology.

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  • 4. 

    Compare the 2 sentences below: Jeg forstår ikke, hvorfor han ikke vil snakke med mig. I don’t understand why he won’t speak to me  Does the underlined clause fulfill the same syntactical role in both of the 2 languages? 

    • Yes –they are both relative clauses.

    • No, the comma marks the beginning of a non-restrictive relative clause in the Danish example, whereas the English one, lacking the comma, is a restrictive one.

    • Yes, they are both complement clauses fulfilling the role of direct object.

    • No, they are both complement clauses, but the Danish one fulfills the role of direct object, whereas the English one fulfills the role of adverbial

    Correct Answer
    A. Yes, they are both complement clauses fulfilling the role of direct object.
    Explanation
    The underlined clause in both sentences fulfills the same syntactical role in both languages, which is that of a complement clause functioning as a direct object.

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  • 5. 

    Categories of verbal morphologyWhich of the following is NOT a category of verbal morphology: 

    • Tense

    • Case

    • Aspect

    • Person

    Correct Answer
    A. Case
    Explanation
    Verbal morphology refers to the study of the structure and formation of verb forms. It includes various categories such as tense, aspect, person, and case. Tense refers to the time of the action, aspect refers to the way the action is viewed, and person refers to the grammatical relationship between the subject and the verb. However, case is not a category of verbal morphology. Case is a category that typically applies to nouns and pronouns, indicating their grammatical function in a sentence.

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  • 6. 

    Index of fusionThe index of fusion describes languages along a scale from: 

    • Synthetic to fusional

    • Agglutinating to fusional

    • Isolating to fusional

    • Option 4

    Correct Answer
    A. Agglutinating to fusional
    Explanation
    The index of fusion describes languages along a scale from agglutinating to fusional. This means that the index measures the degree to which a language uses affixes to express grammatical relationships. Languages that are more agglutinating have a higher number of affixes, while languages that are more fusional tend to have fewer affixes that carry multiple meanings. Therefore, the correct answer is "Agglutinating to fusional."

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  • 7. 

    Consider the following examples from Greenlandic:Nuummukarpoq - 'She went to Nuuk'Arnaavunga       - 'I am a woman'Kaffisivit?           - 'Did you buy coffe?'On the basis of these examples, it seems safe to assume that Greenlandic is:

    • Polysynthetic

    • Agglutinative

    • Fusional

    • Option 4

    Correct Answer
    A. Polysynthetic
    Explanation
    Greenlandic is polysynthetic because the examples provided show that words in the language can be composed of multiple morphemes that convey different grammatical and semantic information. In the first example, "Nuummukarpoq" is made up of the morphemes "nuummu" (Nuuk), "kar" (to go), and "poq" (past tense marker), indicating "She went to Nuuk." Similarly, in the second example, "Arnaavunga" consists of the morphemes "arna" (woman), "a" (first-person singular pronoun), and "vunga" (copula), meaning "I am a woman." This demonstrates the polysynthetic nature of Greenlandic.

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  • 8. 
    Consider the following example og Lithuanian morphology from M. Arkadiev, Peter. 2012Stems in Lithuanian verbal inflection (with remarks on derivation) in: Word Structure. Apr2012, Vol. 5 Issue 1, p7-27. 21p.On the basis of these data, what morphological type would you consider Lithuanian to come closest to? - ProProfs

    Consider the following example og Lithuanian morphology from M. Arkadiev, Peter. 2012Stems in Lithuanian verbal inflection (with remarks on derivation) in: Word Structure. Apr2012, Vol. 5 Issue 1, p7-27. 21p.On the basis of these data, what morphological type would you consider Lithuanian to come closest to?

    • Isolating

    • Fusional

    • Agglutinative

    • Option 4

    Correct Answer
    A. Fusional
    Explanation
    Lithuanian morphology is considered to come closest to the fusional morphological type. This is because Lithuanian exhibits a combination of both inflectional and derivational morphemes, where morphemes can be fused together to express multiple grammatical categories simultaneously. This is typical of fusional languages, where a single morpheme can carry multiple meanings or functions. In contrast, isolating languages have minimal or no inflectional morphology, and agglutinative languages have clear boundaries between morphemes. Therefore, based on the given data, Lithuanian is best classified as a fusional language.

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  • 9. 

    Switch reference is a grammatical phenomenon found in some languages. It is used to

    • Link several clauses together by marking each clause for same or different subject

    • Switch subjects around within the clause

    • Link several clauses together by switching the subject for each clause

    • Link sentences together by repeating the final clause of the first sentence as the first clause of the next one.

    Correct Answer
    A. Link several clauses together by marking each clause for same or different subject
    Explanation
    Switch reference is a grammatical phenomenon found in some languages where several clauses are linked together by marking each clause for the same or different subject. This means that the subject of each clause can change, depending on the context or the information being conveyed. This allows for a more fluid and cohesive connection between the clauses, enhancing the overall coherence of the language.

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  • Current Version
  • Aug 27, 2024
    Quiz Edited by
    ProProfs Editorial Team
  • Oct 29, 2014
    Quiz Created by
    Tolk
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