LEXICOLOGY TEST JUNE 2010

1.

Identify the trope used in the following examples:

He is not working to his full potential (instead of: He is lazy)

She has a rather relaxed attitude to her work (instead of: She is lazy)
He is unable to concentrate in class (instead of: He is disruptive)
He has strong opinions about everything and is not afraid to voice them (instead of: He is loud and
arrogant).
euphemism
2.

Give two examples of numeric terms used as metaphors.

404- Something missing: I was looking for it but it was 404/ he was 404/ my computer was 404-ed.
Metaphorically=someone who is 404 is stupid and unable to use computers or complicated equipment. 24/7complete availability: He needs 24/7 attention; metaphorically= all the time 180 degrees turn- complete refusal: the
company went 180 degrees on the strategy.

3.

Give two examples of words derived from people's surnames (e.g. sandwich).

Boycott (C.C. Boycott) , macadam (L. McAdam), reglan (Lord Reglan), trece: maxwell after J. C. Maxwell,
newton after I. Newton, watt after J. Watt, lawrencium after E. O. Lawrence, lewisite after U. L. Lewis, pentlandite after
J. B. Pentland, cardigan after Earl of Cardigan, Chippendale after Th. Chippendale, daltonism after J. Dalton

4. Fill in the blanks using appropriate eponyms: An ___odyssey____ is a long quest or wandering that is
full of adventures. The word comes from the _Odyssey______, the ancient Greek epic poem by Homer.
5.

There are certain restrictions on productivity (nonlinguistic and linguistic) Illustrate.

1. pragmatic - requierement of existence, nameability requirement, existence of another form (thin, little - unthick,
unbig)
2. linguistic - phonological (*livelily), morphological (*polynational - multinational) semantic dark-eyed - *black-shoed

6. Which rules have been applied successively to generate the following words: top-ranking,
unscheduled.
A rule of morphological derivation the addition of a free morpheme in top-ranking

top-ranking = the addition of a free morpheme top + ranking, a ranking = present participle converted into adjective,
conversion
unscheduled = the addition of an affix un- + conversion in scheduled

7. Explain the following neologisms from the point of view of word-formation: guestworker
(compounding), fishburger (compounding), homophobia (blending = homosexual + phobia), teleshopping
(compounding)
8.

What do we mean by folk etymology?

FOLK ETIMOLOGY-refers to the situation when an opaque and unanalyzable word is treated as transparent and
analyzable= is change in the form of a word or phrase based on a mistaken assumption about its composition or
meaning: e.g. asparagus is interpreted as sparrow grass
cockroach was borrowed from Spanish cucaracha but was folk-etymologized as cock + roach.
female (Old French femelle, diminutive of femme "woman"), by assimilation with male (Old French masle, from Latin
masculus).

9. Anglicisms can be analysed on three levels: phonological, morphological, and semantic. Analyze the
following anglicisms in Serbian: blu tut, klub
Blu tut - blu tut - morphologically semi-assimilated, the first part is not assimilated because it does not follow the
morphological rules of the serbian language, but the second is (Poslati nesto preko blu tutA); phonetically - fully
assimilated because it follows Serbian phonological and spelling patterns; and semantically - not, because it has the
same meaning as in English
klub: morphologically: fully, because it follows bla bla bla (u klubU) phonetically: fully (club - Klub) semantically - not,
because it had the same meaning as in English, and no meaning is added to it

10. Give two examples of Serbian words and expressions that are literal translations (calques) from
English (e.g. panel diskusija)
Neboder, vodopad
11. Affective meaning can be expressed by suffixes. Illustrate.
-ie piggy
Let piglet,
Ling duckling

-ish girlish, boyish

-like childlike
-ly - lovely
12. Give two pairs of examples illustrating homophony.
Key quay
Prophet profit
Band banned
Brews bruise
Cruise crews
Our hour
New knew

13. Here are two words for you to analyze by means of immediate constituent analysis. Identify
constituents: immediate and ultimate: water-skiing, weekender
Immediate: water, skiing, ski, -ing
Ultimate: water, ski, -ing
Immediate: weekend, -er, week, end
Ultimate: week, end, -er
14. Identify the semantic marker shared by the following words: coverage, drainage, leakage, linkage
Semantic marker of process
15. Give two examples of English words that have zero correspondent in Serbian.
sophisticated and efficient and birdwatcher
(opanak, cevapcici, sarma obrnuto)

16. Apply contrastive analysis to the following pairs of words to show the difference in stylistic
meaning: you and me - you and I; array - clothes.
You and me informal
You and I formal
Array formal
Clothes informal, stylistic

17. Semantically prefixes can be mono- and polysemous. Illustrate.

mono (like in baby like, childlike- it only represents this one meaning of similarity)
polysemous(ery has four different meanings: action in bribery, delivery, robbery, behavior in bravery, savagery,
foolery, place in bakery, fishery, cannery, and groups in artillery, greenery, imagery, jewelry
special : pre-abdominal, foreground, forehead, foreplay, post frontal

temporal: postwar, post-modern, prenatal, prewar, foreshadow

18. Adverb particles can be used as prefixes. Illustrate.
Upmost, indoor, downwards, downtrodden, offline,
19. Give four examples of compound adjectives.

mostly consist of two elements, the second of which is an adjective proper (evergreen, off-white,
drip-dry, word-perfect) or a particle (home-made, heart-shaped, chauffeur-driven, half-starved).
The first element can be a noun (hand-written, crystal-clear), an adjective (bitter-sweet, reddishbrown), an adverb (over-cautious, over-eager, underpriced, all-important) or a particle
(sweltering hot, stinking rich). There are also combinations of ordinal numeral and noun (firstrate, second-hand) and combinations with self (self-centered, self-confident)
20. Give four examples of back-derived verbs.

back-formation: babysit, playact, housekeep, spring-clean, mas-produce, chain-smoke, dry-clean,

hand-wash, roller-skate, ice-skate, window-shop, spin-dry, type-write, proof-read, sleep-walk,
backbite, spoon-feed, double-glaze, double-check, double-cross, cross-examine(back-formed
verbs can be treated as compound verbs only from the point of view of structure and not from
historical viewpoint)
21. Give four Netspeak examples of acronyms and clippings.

acronyms and abbreviations (FAQ-frequently asked questions; TIA- thanks in advance),

clipping: net, bot, ad
22. Cliche formations fall into different categories. State which they are and provide examples.
individual words: cradle-snatcher, backhander, cliff-hanger phrases: too good to be true, it's all Greek to me, armed to
the teeth proverbs: life begins at forty, no news is good news lively metaphors: red herring, monkey business, the
back of beyond catchy rhymes and assonance: eager beaver, ants in your pants alliteration: too little too late, live and
let live

23. Idioms are typically metaphorical. Provide examples.

to go off the deep end
to be between the devil and the deep blue sea
to be out of one's depth
to be on pins and needles

24. Analyze the following dictionary definition in terms of category features, property features, and
function features: pick-me-up n. 'is a drink that you have in order to make you feel healthier and more
energetic'
Cathegory drink
Property that you have
Function to make you feel healthier and more energetic
25. Name four books on English word-formation written by authors other than English.

Bauer, L. (1983) English Word-Formation, Cambridge: Cambridge university Press

Arnold, I. V. (1973) The English Word, Moskva: Visaja skola
Marchand H. (1969) Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation,
Munchen: C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung
Marchand, H. (1974) Studies in Syntax and Word-Formation, ed. D. Kastovsky, Munchen: Wilhelm Fink
Stein, G. (1973) English Word-Formation over Two Centuries, Tubingen Beitrage zur Linguistik, Tubingen