Grammar Quiz

Question: What is the smallest grammatical unit of speech?: Answer: A morpheme, in linguistics is the smallest grammatical unit of speech. It may be a word, like “place” or “an,” or an element of a word, like re- and -ed in “reappeared.” Variants of a morpheme are called allomorphs; the ending -s, indicating plural in “cats,” “dogs,” the -es in “dishes,” and the -en of “oxen” are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme.

Question: Which book did Hermann Hirt publish between 1921 and 1937?: Answer: Hermann Hirt was a German linguist whose comprehensive Indogermanische Grammatik, 7 vol. (1921–37; “Indo-European Grammar”), remains influential. Earlier, Hirt had made original studies of accent and ablaut (vowel changes) in Indo-European. His concern with prehistory extended beyond language to the Indo-European people and their culture, which he treated in Die Indogermanen, 2 vol. (1905–07; “The Indo-Europeans”).

Question: Who is the author of the De compendiosa doctrina?: Answer: Nonius Marcellus was a Latin grammarian and lexicographer, and author of the De compendiosa doctrina, a lexicon in which are preserved extracts from the works of many earlier writers, which Nonius used for illustration. It consists of 20 chapters—the 16th is lost. The first 12 deal with language and grammar and the brief remaining chapters are on a variety of subjects (e.g., clothing).

Question: In grammar, what is the name of a word for a person, place, or thing?: Answer: A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing.

Question: What is the study of the internal construction of words called?: Answer: Morphology is the study of internal construction of words. It includes the grammatical processes of inflection and derivation. Languages vary widely in the degree to which words can be analyzed into word elements or morphemes. In English, there are numerous examples, such as “replacement,” which is composed of re-, “place,” and -ment, and “walked,” from the elements “walk” and -ed.

Question: What are the "i" in fit and the "a" in the pack?: Answer: A vowel, in human speech, is a sound in which the flow of air from the lungs passes through the mouth, which functions as a resonance chamber, with minimal obstruction, and without audible friction. (e.g., the i in fit, and the a in the pack).

Question: How many types of affixes are there?: Answer: An affix is a grammatical element that is combined with a word, stem, or phrase to produce derived or inflected forms. There are three main types of affixes: prefixes, infixes, and suffixes. A prefix occurs at the beginning of a word or stem (sub-mit, pre-determined, un-willing), a suffix at the end (wonder-ful, depend-ent, act-ion), and an infix occurs in the middle.

Question: What is the most common type of rhyme in English poetry?: Answer: End rhyme in poetry is a rhyme that occurs in the last syllables of verses. End rhyme is the most common type of rhyme in English poetry.

Question: What is the study of language and culture called?: Answer: Ethnolinguistics is that part of anthropological linguistics that is concerned with the study of the interrelation between a language and the cultural behaviour of those who speak it.

Question: What is the name of a grammatical process in which words are formed by a sequence of morphemes without a change in spelling or phonetics?: Answer: An agglutination is a grammatical process in which words are composed of a sequence of morphemes (meaningful word elements), each of which represents not more than a single grammatical category. The term is traditionally employed in the typological classification of languages.

Question: Which of these works is written by grammarian George O. Curme?: Answer: George O. Curme was an American grammarian and professor of German, best known for his Grammar of the German Language (1905, revised 1922) and for his Syntax (1931) and Parts of Speech and Accidence (1935)—the third and second volumes respectively of A Grammar of the English Language by Curme and Hans Kurath. Curme’s Grammar of the German Language is one of the best works in its field, among the books by non-Germans.

Question: Who wrote the book Sefer ha-zikkaron?: Answer: Joseph Kimhi was an European grammarian, biblical exegete, and poet who, with his sons, Moses and David, made fundamental contributions to establishing Hebrew-language studies. His comprehensive grammatical text, Sefer ha-zikkaron (“Book of Remembrance”), introduced a classification of verb stems for Hebrew that remains in use.

Question: In grammar, what is the name of a word that adds meaning to the basic meaning of the main verb?: Answer: Auxiliary in grammar is a helping element, typically a verb, that adds meaning to the basic meaning of the main verb in a clause. Auxiliaries can convey information about tense, mood, person, and number. An auxiliary verb occurs with the main verb that is in the form of an infinitive or a participle.

Question: Metaphysical and Petrarchan are types of what figure of speech?: Answer: Conceit is a figure of speech that is usually a simile or metaphor that forms an extremely ingenious or fanciful parallel between apparently dissimilar or incongruous objects or situations.

Question: What do we call a word that results from putting two or more words or parts of words?: Answer: Portmanteau word, also called blend, is a word that results from blending two or more words or parts of words, such that the portmanteau word expresses some combination of the meaning of its parts. Examples in English include chortle (from chuckle and snort), smog (from smoke and fog), and mockumentary (from mock and documentary), etc.

Question: Who was the originator of Stratificational grammar?: Answer: American linguist Sydney M. Lamb is the originator of stratificational grammar, an outgrowth of the glossematics theory. Glossematics theory is based on glossemes, the smallest meaningful units of a language.

Question: What is the name of the word that is attached to a word stem to alter its meaning?: Answer: An affix is a grammatical element that is combined with a word, stem, or phrase to produce derived or inflected forms. There are three main types of affixes: prefixes, infixes, and suffixes. A prefix occurs at the beginning of a word or stem (sub-mit, pre-determine, un-willing), a suffix at the end (wonder-ful, depend-ent, act-ion), and an infix occurs in the middle.

Question: What is the plural of bacteria?: Answer: The plural of bacteria in English is the irregular form "bacterium."

Question: In grammar, what is the use of spacing, conventional signs, and typographical devices called?: Answer: Punctuation is the use of spacing, conventional signs, and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading, both silently and aloud, of handwritten and printed texts. The word is derived from the Latin punctus, “point.” From the 15th century to the early 18th, the subject was known in English as pointing; and the term punctuation, first recorded in the middle of the 16th century, was reserved for the insertion of vowel points (marks placed near consonants to indicate preceding or following vowels) in Hebrew texts.

Question: In grammar, what are figures involving a change in a sense, such as metaphor, simile, and irony called?: Answer: A figure of speech is any intentional deviation from a literal statement or common usage that emphasizes, clarifies, or embellishes both written and spoken language. Most figures in everyday speech are formed by extending the vocabulary of what is already familiar and better known to what is less well known. Figures involving a change in a sense, such as metaphor, simile, and irony, are called tropes.

Question: Which Greek grammarian was called the "prince of grammarians"?: Answer: Apollonius Dyscolus or the Crabbed (flourished 2nd century AD) was a Greek grammarian who was reputedly the founder of the systematic study of grammar. Priscian, the Latin grammarian, styled him grammaticorum princeps (“prince of grammarians”) and used his work as the basis for his own. Four of Apollonius’s works are extant: On Syntax and three smaller treatises, On Pronouns, On Conjunctions, and On Adverbs.

Question: Which is the plural of codex?: Answer: The plural of codex in English is the irregular form "codices."

Question: Who among the following founded and edited the Indogermanische Forschungen?: Answer: Wilhelm Streitberg was a German historical linguist who, with Karl Brugmann, founded (1891) and edited Indogermanische Forschungen (“Indo-European Researches”), an influential journal in the field of Indo-European linguistic studies.

Question: Who was the originator of Tagmemics, a system of linguistic methodology?: Answer: Kenneth L. Pike was an American linguist and anthropologist known for his studies of the aboriginal languages of Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, New Guinea, Java, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, Nepal, and the Philippines. He was also the originator of tagmemics. Tagmemics is an outgrowth of Bloomfieldian immediate constituent analysis and Pike’s own general theory of human behavior, described in his Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, 3 vol. (1954–60; 2nd ed. 1967).

Question: What type of noun does kenning, a concise compound, replace?: Answer: A kenning is a concise compound or a figurative phrase, replacing a common noun, especially in Old Germanic, Old Norse, and Old English poetry. A kenning is commonly a simple stock compound such as “whale-path,” or “swan road” for “sea,” “God’s beacon” for “sun,” or “ring-giver” for “king.”

Question: Which grammarian is known as the founder of the study of Hebrew syntax?: Answer: Ibn Janāḥ, also called Ibn Jonah, was perhaps the most important medieval Hebrew grammarian and lexicographer. Known as the founder of the study of Hebrew syntax, he established the rules of biblical exegesis and clarified many difficult passages.

Question: In grammar, what is the name of a word that modifies a noun?: Answer: An adjective modifies a noun. In the phrase "pretty bird," the noun is "bird" and the adjective is "pretty."

Question: What is the plural form of the word "moose"?: Answer: The plural of "moose" is "moose."

Question: Which is the plural of ox?: Answer: The plural of ox in English is the irregular form "oxen."

Question: Which South African poet and novelist is called the “father of Xhosa poetry”?: Answer: S.E.K. Mqhayi, in full Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi was a Xhosa poet, historian, and translator who has been called the “father of Xhosa poetry.” His first published book, U-Samson, was a version of the biblical story of Samson. In 1914 his Ityala lamawele (“The Lawsuit of the Twins”) appeared. A short autobiography and two works, “The Death of Hintsa” and “The Dismissal of Sir Benjamin D’Urban,” were published in Mqhayi in Translation (1976).

Question: Which figure of speech is characterized by the deliberate omission of a word or words?: Answer: An ellipsis also called an ellipse, is characterized by the deliberate omission of a word or words that are, however, understood in light of the grammatical context.

Question: Which language analysis recognizes the relationship among the various elements of a sentence?: Answer: Transformational grammar, also called Transformational-generative Grammar, is a system of language analysis that recognizes the relationship between the various elements of a sentence and the possible sentences of a language. It uses processes or rules (some of which are called transformations) to express these relationships. For example, transformational grammar relates the active sentence “John read the book” with its corresponding passive, “The book was read by John.”

Question: What type of syllable ends with a vowel?: Answer: A syllable is a segment of speech that consists of a vowel, with or without one or more accompanying consonant sounds immediately preceding or following—for example, a, I, out, too, cap, snap, check. Closed (checked) syllables are those that end in a consonant; open (free) syllables end in a vowel.

Question: What is a word or a group of words that is self-contradicting called?: Answer: An oxymoron is a word or group of words that is self-contradicting, as in a bittersweet or plastic glass. Oxymorons are similar to such other devices as paradox and antithesis and are often used in poetry and other literature.

Question: Who wrote the first grammar of the Indian language Tupí?: Answer: Spanish Jesuit acclaimed as a poet, dramatist, and scholar, St. José de Anchieta is considered one of the founders of the national literature of Brazil. He wrote the first grammar of the Indian language Tupí and many letters describing the local way of life, customs, folklore, and diseases, as well as flora and fauna of Brazil.

Question: In which figure of speech, a striking opposition or contrast of words is made in the same sentence to secure emphasis?: Answer: An antithesis is a figure of speech in which irreconcilable opposites or strongly contrasting ideas are placed in sharp juxtaposition and sustained tension, as in the saying “Art is long, and Time is fleeting.” The opposing clauses, phrases, or sentences are roughly equal in length and balanced in contiguous grammatical structures.

Question: What is the study of the grammatical structures of sentences?: Answer: Syntax is the arrangement of words in sentences, clauses, and phrases, and the study of the formation of sentences and the relationship of their parts.

Question: What was the name of the artificial language constructed in 1928 by the Danish philologist Otto Jespersen?: Answer: Novial is an artificial language constructed in 1928 by the Danish philologist Otto Jespersen, intended for use as an international auxiliary language, but little used today. Its grammar is similar in type to that of Esperanto or Ido. It has one definite article, no gender for nouns except those denoting persons, noun plurals in -s, forms for a possessive (genitive), and an objective (accusative) case, adjectives with uninflected form, and verbs that are not inflected for person or number.

Question: In which figure of speech does a speaker directly address a single person or thing?: Answer: An apostrophe is a rhetorical device by which a speaker turns from the audience as a whole to address a single person or thing. An example of Apostrophe is in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, where Mark Antony addresses the corpse of Caesar in the speech.

Question: In the sentence "John kicked the football across the yard," what is the verb?: Answer: The verb is "kicked," the past tense of "to kick."

Question: Which grammatical form is used in speaking to a social superior?: Answer: Honorific is a grammatical form used in speaking to a social superior. In English, it has largely disappeared, retained only in the use of the third person when speaking to someone clearly superior in rank (for eg., “Does your highness wish it?”).

Question: What is the plural form of the word "leaf"?: Answer: The plural of leaf is "leaves." This is an irregular form in English, which forms most plurals by adding -s or -es.

Question: Which school of linguistic thought and analysis was established by Vilém Mathesius in 1926?: Answer: The Prague school was the school of linguistic thought and analysis established in Prague in the 1920s by Vilém Mathesius. It included prominent members like the Russian linguist Nikolay Trubetskoy and the Russian-born American linguist Roman Jakobson. The school was most active during the 1920s and 30s. Linguists of the Prague school stress the function of elements within language, the contrast of language elements to one another, and the total pattern or system formed by these contrasts, and they have distinguished themselves in the study of sound system.

Question: In grammar, what does the tense express?: Answer: Tense, in grammar, is a verbal category that relates to the time of a narrated event to the time of the speech event. Time is frequently perceived as a continuum with three main divisions: past, present, and future. In many languages, the concept of time is expressed not by the verb but by other parts of speech.

Question: What is the plural form of the word "goose"?: Answer: The plural of "goose" is "geese." This is an irregular form in English, which forms most plurals by adding -s or -es.

Question: What word describes the formation of a word by changing the base or by adding a prefix or a suffix?: Answer: Derivation, in descriptive linguistics and traditional grammar, is the formation of a word by changing the form of the base or by adding affixes to it (e.g., hope to hopeful). In historical linguistics, the derivation of a word is its history or etymology. In generative grammar, derivation means a sequence of linguistic representations that indicate the structure of a sentence or other linguistic unit resulting from the application of some grammatical rule or set of rules.

Question: Which of these is an adverb?: Answer: An adverb modifies a verb. Meanwhile means "in the time between," as in, "My parents made dinner. Meanwhile, I studied for the test."

Question: Which scholar authored 3,500 books that earned him the nickname Chalkenteros (“Brass Guts”)?: Answer: Greek scholar and grammarian Didymus Chalkenteros was one of the chief links between ancient and modern classical scholarship. His industry, as the reputed author of 3,500 books, earned him the nickname of Chalkenteros (“Brass Guts”). His output included work on the text of Homer, exegetical commentaries on numerous Greek authors, lexicographical compilations, and grammatical and antiquarian treatises.

Question: What is the form of language that is spoken in a particular region or by a group of people?: Answer: A Dialect is a variety of a language that signals where a person comes from. The word dialect comes from the Ancient Greek dialektos “discourse, language, dialect,” which is derived from dialegesthai “to discourse, talk.” The notion is usually interpreted geographically (regional dialect), but it also has some application about a person’s social background (class dialect) or occupation (occupational dialect). A dialect is chiefly distinguished from other dialects of the same language by features of linguistic structure, i.e., grammar (specifically morphology and syntax) and vocabulary.

Question: What word describes a word that sounds like the noise it makes?: Answer: Onomatopoeia comes from the Greek meaning "it makes its own name." Examples are bang, crash, and whoosh.

Question: Which of the following work is written by Greek grammarian Manuel Moschopoulos?: Answer: Manuel Moschopoulos was a Byzantine grammarian and critic during the reign (1282–1328) of Andronicus II Palaeologus. He was a prominent representative of humanist scholars active during the last revival of classical learning in Byzantium and is best remembered for his Erotemata grammatika (“Grammatical Questions,” first printed in Milan, 1493), a handbook of Greek in the form of question and answer that enjoyed great popularity among Western humanists of the early Renaissance.

Question: Who wrote the book "About Analogy"?: Answer: Aristophanes of Byzantium was a Greek literary critic and grammarian who, after early study under leading scholars in Alexandria, was a chief librarian c. 195 BC. As a grammarian, Aristophanes founded a school and wrote a treatise, About Analogy, which laid down rules for declension, etc.

Question: In grammar, which verb reflects the speaker’s view towards the character of an event?: Answer: The mood in grammar is a category that reflects the speaker’s view of the ontological character of an event. This character may be, for example, real or unreal, certain or possible, wished, or demanded. The mood is often marked by special verb forms or inflections, but it is sometimes expressed by a single word or a phrase.

Question: Which term was introduced by Leonard Bloomfield in 1933 that divides sentences into successive layers or constituents?: Answer: Immediate constituent analysis, also called Ic Analysis, in linguistics, is a system of grammatical analysis that divides sentences into successive layers, or constituents. By the final layer, each constituent consists of only a word or meaningful part of a word. The term was introduced by the United States linguist Leonard Bloomfield in 1933, though the underlying principle is common both to the traditional practice of parsing and to many modern systems of grammatical analysis.

Question: How many types of moods are there in English grammar?: Answer: A mood in grammar is a category that reflects the speaker’s view of the ontological character of an event. A Mood is often marked by special verb forms or inflections, but it is sometimes expressed by a single word or a phrase. Languages frequently distinguish grammatically three moods: the indicative, the imperative, and the subjunctive.

Question: Which German linguist known for the Stammbaumtheorie or family-tree theory?: Answer: August Schleicher was a German linguist whose work in comparative linguistics was a summation of the achievements up to his time and whose methodology provided the direction for much subsequent research. He aimed to devise a scientific theory of language based on principles of natural science. Schleicher traced groups of related languages and arranged them into a genealogical tree by developing a system of language classification resembling a botanical taxonomy. His model came to be known as the Stammbaumtheorie or family-tree theory and was a major development in the history of Indo-European studies or, more generally, in historical linguistic theory.