Exam, Semester 2

Question 1

Narrowing

Answer 1

The process of which the meaning of the word is changed to become more specific.
- Apple used to mean any fruit, now is specific

Question 2

Broadening

Answer 2

The process of which the meaning of the word is changed to become more general.
- Holiday meant ‘Holy Day’ but now is meant for ‘any day off’

Question 3

Meaning Shifts

Answer 3

The process of which a word changes in meaning that entirely different from its original meaning.
- Nice meant ignorant now it means good

Question 4

Taboo Words

Answer 4

Words that are embarrassing, or difficult to discuss.
- sex

Question 5

Euphemisms

Answer 5

Used in place of Taboo words, that are mild and are more suitable for offensive words
- passed away instead of dead

Question 6

Compounding

Answer 6

A combination of 2 or more free morphemes to create 1 word.
- Hamburger, Girlfriend

Question 7

Conversion

Answer 7

Creating a new word that belongs to a different part of speech than the original, without affixation.
- A noun to a verb
I am going to the market or I am going to the market this product

Question 8

Affixation

Answer 8

Adding a bound morpheme to form new words.
- Pro + Active = Proactive

Question 9

Blends

Answer 9

A process of word formation in which parts of two independent words are combined and used in a new word
- smog, blend of smoke and fog

Question 10

Backformation

Answer 10

New words are formed by subtracting an affix which was wrongly thought to be part of an old word.
- ‘enthuse’ was taken from ‘enthusiasm’

Question 11

Shortenings

Answer 11

Creating a new word by shortening a longer word.
- Insta from Instagram

Question 12

Abbreviations

Answer 12

A form of a word or phrase with letters removed or substituted
- St for Street

Question 13

Initialism

Answer 13

Taking the first letter from a string of words and saying those letters.
- DM (Direct Message)

Question 14

Neologisms

Answer 14

New words that have been invented.
- Instagram

Question 15

Acronym

Answer 15

Taking the first letter from a string of words and pronouncing them as their own word.
- ANZAC

Question 16

Contraction

Answer 16

Using an apostrophe to indicate that letters have been elided
- Mightn’ve (might not have)

Question 17

Commonization

Answer 17

Proper nouns being converted into common nouns or another part of speech.
- Internet, Coke

Question 18

Nominalisation

Answer 18

The conversion of non-nouns, noun phrases, often verbs into nouns.
- Unfriending

Question 19

Borrowing

Answer 19

New words that are taken from another language, especially in food.
- Giraffe from Arabic

Question 20

Word Loss / Obsolescence

Answer 20

Refers to word or expression that are not commonly used, that remain in the language for technical terminology.
- Codpiece

Question 21

Archaisms

Answer 21

Words or phrases that exist in fixed phrases or older texts not are not used outside of this context and have lost their general meaning.
- Hark exists in Church hymns

Question 22

Elision

Answer 22

When a speaker drops a sound segment.
- lie-bri, Library

Question 23

Assimilation

Answer 23

When a speaker makes one sound segment sound similar to an adjacent or neighbouring sound segment

Question 24

Deterioration

Answer 24

Process of semantic change in which the overall value attached to a word becomes increasingly negative
- Fair being beautiful to moderate

Question 25

Elevation

Answer 25

Process of semantic change in which the overall value attached to a word becomes increasingly positive. - Mischievous has gone from being bad to 'playfully annoying'

Question 26

Pidgin

Answer 26

Type of language that emerges between groups of people of two or more different language backgrounds when there is no existing lingua franca. Not anyones first language but a mix of languages.

Question 27

Lingua Franca

Answer 27

A language that is adopted as a common language between speakers who have different first languages

Question 28

Creole

Answer 28

Type of language that often develops from a pidgin, when the pidgin is so useful to its language community that children learn it as a mother tongue. Can be a first language.

Question 29

Cognate

Answer 29

a cognate can indicate and identify a relationship across languages, and can predict the ways of spelling and phonology, but will have consistent elements if their denotations (literal meanings)

Question 30

Dialect

Answer 30

a variety of language that identifies a person's geographical or social background. it could have distinctive language features or accent

Question 31

Language Reclamation

Answer 31

language reclamation raises awareness of the related peoples and cultures, and goes in a way towards giving the marginalised languages a greater voice in society