History of the Language: QUIZ 3

Enter your first name: [Required]

Enter your SSNo: [Required]

For each question, use the drop-down menu to select the appropriate choice for that question. Please read carefully, as each question can ask for very different sorts of information. Once you have chosen the best answer for each question, click on "Submit for Grading" to proceed.

1. The most significant linguistic change that 
   characterizes the difference between Old English and Middle English is...

   
   (click here) The "Group Genitive" The development of the "th- plural" pronouns The decay of inflections The development of the "she" pronoun

2. Which of the following is not a consequence of 
   inflectional decay in English? 

   
   (click here) Increased importance of word order Increased use of prepositions Increased use of auxiliary verbs The loss of the Old English letters thorn, eth, wynn, and ash

3. "He is the man who slipped on the banana peel's lawyer" is an example of... 

   
   (click here) The "his genitive" The 'postmodifying genitive' The "group genitive" The "elsewhere" condition

4. The beginning of the Middle English Period is 
   usually assigned the date of 1066, in connection with...

   
   (click here) The Battle of Stamford Bridge The Norman Conquest The Signing of the Magna Carta The death of Edward the Confessor

5. Which of the following is not attributable to the Norman influence? 

   
   (click here) The replacement of the 3rd singular present tense '-eth' inflection by '-s' The spelling of the [s] phoneme with the letter 'c' in some contexts The use of 'qu-' in place of the Old English spelling convention of 'cw-' The respelling of Old English 'sc' and 'cg' as 'sh' and 'dg' respectively

6. The word-pair "warden" and "guardian" result from 
   differences in the phonology of ... 

   
   (click here) Northern and Southern English Old English and Old Norse Norman and Parisian French French and English

7. Which of the following did not contribute to the 
   re-establishment of English as the national language of England?
   

   
   (click here) The Black Death The loss of Normandy by King John The printing press The Hundred Years War

8. Which of the following English words is not derived from Arabic? 

   
   (click here) SOVEREIGN ALCOHOL ZERO ORANGE

9. In latter half of the 14th century, a regionally 
   standardized literary language developed in...

   
   (click here) Wessex The Central Midlands Winchester Northern English

10. Present-day English is a lineal descendant of the 
    West Saxon dialect preserved by Alfred the Great's victory 
    over the Danes at the Battle of Ethandun in 878...
    
    

    
    (click here) TRUE FALSE

---

Send comments about this quiz to Dan Mosser

---

This page generated by WhizQuiz v.2.0.1l(c) on Tue Nov 24 03:38:43 2009
Developed at ISIS, Virginia Tech
Send comments to Developers

Copyright © 1996-99 Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc., All Rights Reserved.