Morphology and Lexicology

JANUARY 2013
1. Identify the morphemes in the following text:
She arranged the flowers in a vase.
{she}, {arrange}, {ed1}, {the}, {flower}, {s1}, {in}, {a}, {vase}
2. Words can be semantically, phonologically, morphologically and syntactically

lexicalized. Provide examples.
Semantically: forgiveness, likeness

Phonologically: strong strength, sing sang sung
Morphologically: department, basement
Syntactically: cutpurse, disbelieve
3. Compare the following affixes as to their degree of productivity:
Pre and wise: pre is more productive than wise (precook, preheat, predetermine,
precaution, prewar and likewise, clockwise, businesswise)
4. In what way does the approximate proportion of native to foreign words vary in
reference to language register and style?
Scientific and literary registers use more foreign words and so does formal style. Informal style
uses less formal words and native words. Urinate originates from Latin and is used in the
scientific register. Pee is of English origin and is used in a less formal style.
5. Analyze the following dictionary definition of the word and state the category, property
and function features: shoulder bag: a bag, especially a handbag, that has a long strap
and is carried over the shoulder
Category: [BAG], [HANDBAG] Property: [LONG STRAP] Function: [CARRIED OVER THE
SHOULDER]
6. Analyze the English word scooter in its assimilated Serbian form:
Scooter skuter fully assimilated; on the phonological level it is based on the original sound
form, morphologically it belongs to zero adaptation it fully conforms to morphological rules that
govern native wordformation, semantically its meaning is narrowed
7. Explain differential meaning. Consider the following minimal pair: masseur masseuse.
State the distinguishing meaning component in question.
Masseur masseuse: first word has the male marker and the second one has the female marker.
The semantic component that serves to distinguish one word from all others containing identical
morphemes is referred to as differential meaning.
8. The figure of speech antipodal to litotes is hyperbole.
9. Illustrate homonymy using examples of the ly suffix in adjective and adverb formation.
Adverbs: slowly, nicely, warmly, quickly, happily, stupidly

Adjectives: lively, costly, leisurely, motherly, cowardly, scholarly
10. Illustrate the principal kinds of alteration in approximate conversion.
Voicing: adviceadvise, househouse, abuseabuse, sheathsheath, teeth teethe, halfhalve,

reliefrelieve
Vowel modification: bloodbleed, breathbreathe, foodfeed
Shift of stress: (in V to N con.) abstract, conduct, conflict, contrast, compound, discount, escort,
import, insult produce, rebel, refund, remake, transform, transport
11. Identify the type of conversion in the following examples: (1) He will repair it, the how
you leave to him; (2) It is the why of the crime that interests the police.
Adverb to noun conversion
12. Rephrase the following so that you use compound adjectives with present participle: a
job that consumes a lot of time, a car which is moving fast
a timeconsuming job, a fastmoving car
13. Assign the appropriate semantic marker (purpose, habitual, habitual and
profession and species) to the following words:
gobetween habitual and profession

bookbinder habitual and profession
happygolucky habitual
sneezeweed species
tuningfork purpose
14. Pinpoint and explain the example of word play in the following joke: Two vultures board
an airplane, each carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at them and says: Im
sorry, gentleman, only one carrion allowed per passenger!
Rules state that every passenger can have only one carryon (a small bag or case) on the plane
and these vultures have two carrions (decaying flesh of a dead animal) each.
15. Give an example of a pun involving sound similarity.
Two peanuts were walking in a tough neighborhood and one of them was asalted.
16. Give two examples illustrating Cockney rhyming slang and provide their stylistically
neutral counterparts.
Adam and Eve believe

bees and honey money
butcher's hook a look
custard and jelly telly (television)
dog and bone phone
frog and toad road
north and south mouth
tea leaf thief
trouble and strife wife
whistle and flute suit (of clothes)
17. What do we mean by bilateral concord? Explain and illustrate.
Bilateral concord is the kind of concord where of two forms showing concord one necessitates
the use of the other. I am in present tense, this and singular noun
18. Translate the following Serbian idioms into English:
U svakoj corbi mirodjija

Tresla se gora, rodio se mis
19. Identify the word formation processes that produced the following words:
dovetail (v.) conversion
hopeful (n.) conversion
hope-not (n.) conversion
20. Suffixes ist, -an and ian are used to form nouns associated with people. Provide
examples.
-ist: soloist, atheist, dentist, violinist, plagiarist, abortionist, idealist, novelist

-an: Libran, European, African, Asian
-ian: Bostonian, Brazilian, Shakespearian, mathematician, Algerian
21. Add the correct suffix: -er, -or, -ar to the following words:
Sail-sailor
Bake-baker
Liberate-liberator
Murder-murderer
Govern-governor
Orate-orator
Narrate-narrator
Beg-beggar
22. What is pidgin English?
A pidgin language is a simplified version of a language that develops as a means of

communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. Formed
from numerous languages and influences, Pidgin is a wide term covering a range of regional
hybrids, for example Indian English has improvised and innovated so much so that it is referred
to as Hinglish, a kind of Pidgin English that draws from Hindi and other local languages.
23. The book English Word-Formation by L. Bauer was published by Cambridge University
Press Before or after? Before the year 2000.
FEBRUARY 2013
1. Identify the morphemes in the following text. She was inexperienced and needed a
guiding hand.
{she}, {was}, {in-}, {experience}, {-ed2}, {and}, {need}, {-ed1}, {a}, {guide}, {-ing1}, {hand}
2. What is a lexeme in comparison to a word? (State the difference between a word and a
lexeme.)
A lexeme is an abstract unit of vocabulary arbitrarily chosen to stand for the whole paradigm and
can be represented by items that consist of more than one word-form while words are (even
though it is hard to define what word exactly is) usually concrete occurrences of the lexeme.
3. Compare the following affixes as to their degree of productivity: pre and dom
Pre and dom: pre is more productive than dom (precook, preheat, predetermine,
precaution, prewar and kingdom, princedom, freedom)
and function features: gibbon: a small ape with long arms that lives in SE Asia
category: [APE] property: [SMALL], [LONG ARMS] function: [LIVES IN SE ASIA]
6. Analyze the English word cabin in its assimilated Serbian form:
Cabin kabina fully assimilated; on the phonological level, Serbian orthography follows
English spelling, morphologically it belongs to third degree adaptation because it is fully
integrated into the morphological system of the Serbian language, semantically its meaning is
widened.
7. Explain differential meaning. Consider the following minimal pair: sultan sultana.
State the distinguishing meaning component in question.
First word has the male marker and the second one has the female marker. The semantic
component that serves to distinguish one word from all others containing identical morphemes is
referred to as differential meaning.
8. State to which figure of speech the following definition refers: the use of the name of one
object or concept for that of another which it is related, or of which it is a part
Metonymy.
9. Illustrate homonymy using examples of the ly suffix in adjective and adverb formation.

10. Consider the following sets of words and classify them according to the criterion of
province: 1. Morpheme, lexicology, neurolinguistics, LAD, nucleus, 2. Securities, invoice,
shareholder, payee, debit
1. linguistics 2. Finance
11. The name for a loose-fitting jacket and trousers for sleeping is pyjamas. Fill in the blank
using the word of Indian origin.
12. Many of the everyday English words such as bagel, klutz and kibitz are terms from
Yiddish. (insert the name of the language)
13. When verbs are converted into nouns the stress usually shifts from the second to the
first syllable. Provide examples.
abstract, conduct, conflict, contrast, compound, discount, escort, import, insult produce, rebel,
refund, remake, transform, transport
parent- species
goal-keeper- habitual and profession
bookbinder- habitual and profession
happy-go-lucky- habitual
lady-bird- species
tuning-fork- purpose
15. Pinpoint and explain the example of word play in the following joke: Two vultures board
an airplane, each carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at them and says: Im
sorry, gentleman, only one carrion allowed per passenger!
Rules state that every passenger can have only one carryon (a small bag or case) on the plane
and these vultures have two carrions (decaying flesh of a dead animal) each.
16. What is the difference between colloquial speech and slang?
Colloquial speech is the same as informal, it is a language that shows familiarity with other
speakers. Slang is a functional variety which a certain group of people use and it is considered
substandard.

dog and bone phone
frog and toad road
tea leaf thief
18. What do we mean by bilateral concord? Explain and illustrate.
Bilateral concord is the kind of concord where of two forms showing concord one necessitates
the use of the other. I am in present tense, this and singular noun
U svakoj corbi mirodjija

Tresla se gora, rodio se mis

hopeful (n.) conversion
hope-not (n.) conversion
singularity (n.) derivation
21. Suffixes ist, -an and ian are used to form nouns associated with people. Provide
examples.

22. Adverb particles can be found in imperatives and exclamations. Provide examples.
Get out! Look out! Hands off! Be off!
JUNE 2013
1. Identify the morphemes in the following text:
Litotes is a deliberate understatement which is generated by denying the opposite or contrary of

the word which otherwise would be used.
{litotes}, {is}, {a}, {deliberate}, {under-}, {state}, {-ment}, {which}, {generate}, {-ed2}, {by},
{deny}, {-ing2}, {the}, {opposite}, {or}, {contrary}, {of}, {word}, {other}, {-wise}, {would},
{be}, {use}
2. Words can be semantically, phonologically, morphologically and syntactically

lexicalized. Provide examples.
Semantically: forgiveness, likeness

Phonologically: strong strength, sing sang sung
Morphologically: department, basement
Syntactically: cutpurse, disbelieve
3. How many affixes are there in English? Prefix, Suffix
Quasi and dom: quasi is more productive than dom (quasiAmerican, quasi adult, quasi
accepted, quasidefinition and kingdom, princedom)
5. Pinpoint idiosyncrasy in word formation in the following text: Your looks are laughable,
unphotographable.
The word unphotographable does not exist but it is created for the occasion. Speaker has an
immediate need to explain that the other person has a bad look which is not appropriate for
taking photos (and cant remember the word photogenic).
7. What are the major source languages of English?
Greek, Latin, French, Danish (Scandinavian)
and function features: likelihood: the chance of something happening
category: [chance] property: [of something] function: [happening]
9. Analyze the English word in its assimilated Serbian form:
Establishment establiment fully assimilated; on the phonological level it is based on the

original soundform, morphologically it belongs to zero adaptation because it fully conforms to
morphological rules that govern native wordformation, semantically its meaning is widened.
10. What do we mean by associative meaning? Explain and illustrate.
The upper term related to and including all the following types of meaning: social, stylistic,
reflected, emotional is associative meaning.
11. Provide a formal-style equivalent of the word mercy-killing. Euthanasia
12. The figure of speech antipodal to dysphemism is euphemism

13. Ethnic slurs occur in every language. Provide four examples of ethnic slurs in English
and Serbian.
French leave, Irish bull, Roman holiday, Chinese wall, Dutch courage, French disease
pansko selo, francuski poljubac, jadan onaj koga Rus brani, a Grk hrani, duzan kao Grcka
14. Illustrate historical change of meaning through elevation.
Knight from cniht (boy, manservant) from knecht

Marshal from mareschal (servant)
Queen from cwen (woman)
Steward (a man who takes care of pigs)
15. Illustrate the principal kinds of alteration in approximate conversion.
Voicing: advice-advise, house-house, abuse-abuse, sheathsheath, teeth- teethe, half-halve,

relief-relieve
Vowel modification: blood-bleed, breath-breathe, food-feed
16. Identify the type of conversion in the following examples: (1) He will repair it, the how
you leave to him; (2) It is the why of the crime that interests the police.
Adverb to noun conversion
17. Explain the difference in structure, meaning and focus between the following pair of
constructions: (1) the air-company charted the flight; (2) the air-company charted flight.
In the first example, there is a subject, a predicate, and an object, while the second example is a
noun phrase and the headword is flight. The meaning of the first differs from the meaning of
the second one in that the first example is written in the active voice, while the second one is
passive (the flight that was charted by the air-company). The focus in the first one is air-
company and the focus in the second one is flight.
gobetween habitual and profession
bookkeeper habitual and profession
merrygoround habitual
spoon purpose
19. Pinpoint and explain the example of word play in the following sentence: Marianne
Faithfull met Mick Jagger at 17 and survived the love affair.
It is ironic that her last name is Faithfull (faithful) and she was involved in a love affair (which
denotes the absence of faithfulness).
Two peanuts were walking in a tough neighborhood and one of them was a-salted.
dog and bone phone
frog and toad road
tea leaf thief
22. Provide linguistic explanation of the humour in the following blooper (on a shop
window): Why go elsewhere to be cheated when you can come here!
To be cheated, interpolated the way it is, makes the clause when you can come here refer to it
instead of the intended why go elsewhere
23. What do we mean by unilateral concord? Explain and illustrate.
It is a case of concord in which one element can be combined with several other elements. Are
combines with you, we and they.
Drveni advokat -
Bacati biser pred svinje - cast/throw pearls before swine
Ubiti nekoga u pojam -
Podviti rep

hopeful (n.) - conversion
hope-not (n.)
clever-read (v.)
26. Identify compound words in the following text: To be high-minded is to be of noble

mind. High-principled and high-toned have this meaning of high-minded, and high-spirited is
similar, with the added idea of courage. State the word class of the compounds identified.
high-minded, high-principled, high-toned, high-spirited adjectives
27. Adverb particles can be found in imperatives and exclamations. Provide examples.
Get out! Look out! Hands off! Be off!
JULY 2013
1. How many affixes are there in English? 1250
Semi and demi: semi is more productive than demi (semiproductive, semicircular,
demigod)
3. Prefixes semi- and half- are synonymous; however they are not interchangeable in all
contexts. Provide examples.
Half- is not used with Latin words; semi-circular, semi-idiom, semi-final

4. Qua is a preposition the colloquial substitute of which is as something. What is a
stylistically formal synonym of about as in the example: He was born circa 150 BC.
Supply the missing word.
5. Apply immediate constituent analysis to the following word:
good-neighbourliness IC: good-neighbourly, -ness, good neighbour, -ly, good, neighbour

-UC: good, neighbour, -ly, -ness
6. What do we mean by nominalization in lexicology? Provide examples.
By nominalization we refer to nouns derived from what can function as a verb or an adjective or
to the process of forming such nouns. Ex: development- develop, imagination-imagine, equality-
equal, popularity-popular
7. Pinpoint idiosyncrasy in word formation in the following text: Your looks are laughable,
unphotographable.
The word unphotographable does not exist but it is created for the occasion. Speaker has an
immediate need to explain that the other person has a bad look which is not appropriate for
taking photos (and cant remember the word photogenic).
8. What are the major source languages of English?
Greek, Latin, French, Danish (Scandinavian)
9. Give four examples of clich rhymes in English including both individual words and
phrases.
Namby-pamby, eager beaver, ants in your pants, arty crafty, big wig, true blue, chalk and talk, by
hook or by crook, make or break, put up or shut up
10. Give two examples of enclitics in English
Hell do it anyway, Id rather not to.
11. When two or more words collocate they often come together. Sometimes they dont.
Provide examples.
Make both ends meet, make the best of something, make a name for yourself, make the time up
12. Hypocorism is a pet name. Provide examples. Bobby, Charlie, Liz, Betty
13. Antonymy is an inclusive term for complementarity, converseness and incompatibility.

Insert the missing word.
and function features: shampoo: a liquid soap that is used for washing your hair
category: [SOAP] property: [LIQUID] function: [FOR THE WASHING OF HAIR]
15. Analyze the English word in its assimilated Serbian form:
Fancy fensi fully assimilated; On the phonological level it is based on the original sound-
form, morphologically it belongs to zero adaptation it fully conforms to morphological rules that
govern native word-formation, semantically its meaning is at zero level, the loan word keeps its
original meaning
16. What do we mean by associative meaning? Explain and illustrate.
The upper term related to and including all the following types of meaning: social, stylistic,
reflected, emotional is associative meaning. Insert the missing word.
17. The upper term related to and including all the following types of meaning: social,
stylistic, reflected, emotional is associative meaning.
18. Consider the following set of words: under-capacity, undergrowth, undersea,

underarm, underclothes, underground, understatement, under-production. The set falls
into two sub-sets according to the difference of meaning of their members. Separate sheep
from goats.
Below- undergrowth, undersea, underarm, underclothes, underground

Lower- under-capacity, understatement, under-production
19. Name the figure of speech that is the hypernym of synecdoche metonymy.
20. Illustrate historical change of meaning through elevation.
Knight from cniht (boy, manservant) from knecht

Marshal from mareschal (servant)
Queen from cwen (woman)
Steward (a man who takes care of pigs)
parent- species
book-keeper- habitual and professon
merry-go-round
cake- species
23. Give two examples illustrating back slang and provide their stylistically neutral
counterparts.
Top o reb- pot of beer

Say-yes
Tekram-market
Emag-game
24. Provide linguistic explanation of the humour in the following blooper (on a shop
window): Why go elsewhere to be cheated when you can come here!
To be cheated, interpolated the way it is, makes the clause when you can come here refer to it
instead of the intended why go elsewhere
Radio Mileva
Okruglo pa na cose
Dva losa ubise Milosa-
Drveni advokat-
sundial- compound
transformation- derivation
child-mind (v.) back-formation
backbencher- derivation
mish-mash- reduplication
SEPTEMBER 2013
1. What is a lexeme in comparison to a word? (State the difference between a word and a
lexeme)
A lexeme is an abstract unit of vocabulary arbitrarily chosen to stand for the whole paradigm and
can be represented by items that consist of more than one word-form while words are (even
though it is hard to define what word exactly is) usually concrete occurrences of the lexeme.
2. What do words and morphemes have in common?
They both represent a correlation between form and meaning.
3. What is lexicography in comparison with lexicology?
They both study the vocabulary of the language. Lexicography is concerned with formal,
functional and semantic description of the words which constitute the explicit lexicon of a
particular language. Lexicology is a branch of linguistics which studies words, word-forming
morphemes and word-groups.
4. What are multilingual dictionaries?
They are dictionaries in which the explanations are given in a different language or languages
from the explained words.
5. Define synecdoche as a figure of speech. Illustrate.
Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the
special for the general or the general for the special. Handle for beer glass, big smoke for big
town (both Australian English)
6. What is lexicostatistics?
It is the statistical study of the vocabulary of a language or languages for historical purposes.
7. What is lexically bound meaning. Illustrate.
It is the meaning of a word conditioned by the lexical context.
8. Explain and illustrate morphological motivation.
MOPHOLOGICAL MOTIVATION is the synchronic relationship between morphemic structure

and meaning. All one-morpheme words: man, bag, stop are not motivated. It the words consist of
more than one morpheme their meaning is the sum of the meaning of the component morphemes
and the meaning of the component morphemes and the meaning of the structural morphological
pattern of the word: flower-pot and pot-flower the meaning of the constituent morphemes is the
same, but the difference in meaning of these two words can be accounted for by the difference in
the structural pattern.
9. Alternative term for morphosyntactic words is GRAMMATICAL WORDS
10. What is a lexical paradigm? Provide examples.
Lexical paradigms refer to sets of words which share the same root morpheme (like, liking,
likely, unlikely, likelihood, unlikelihood) or which share the same derivational suffix (booklet,
coverlet, cutlet, droplet, starlet). The minimal number of members which constitute a paradigm is
two (let-letting, cut-cutting, orange-oranges, toy-toys).
11. Give four examples of suffixal derivatives.
darken, widen, glorify, personify, nationalize, institutionalize, princedom, brightness,

reconciliation, kitchenette, froglet, duckling, assistant, assistance, slavery;
12. Give four examples of suffixal derivatives of the adj. + n + er type
13. Give four examples of words including semibound morphemes.
Under in under the circumstances (compared to underestimate); out in out of preference

(compared to outstmart), over in over the river (compared to overhead); up in up the stairs
(compared to uphill)
14. Provide examples of paradigms illustrating suppletion.

Go went, go gone, bad worse, good better
15. Lexical verbs are alternatively called full verbs or content verbs. Provide example.
16. Give four examples of endocentric noun compounds.
Gold-fish; wedding-ring; doghouse; slaughterhouse; darkroom; Smalltalk
17. Give four examples of exocentric noun compounds
Pickpocket; spoilsport; white-collar; barefoot; skinhead; paleface
18. Give four examples of compound conjunctions.
Bittersweet, sleepwalk,
19. Give four examples of compound pronouns
Somebody; anybody; something; everybody
20. What is the difference between onomatopoeia and phonetic symbolism? Illustrate.
Phonetic motivation refers to onomatopoeic, imitative or echoic words which are lexicalized
sound symbolic units which join together sound and meaning in a non-arbitrary way e.g. buzz,
crack, growl.
Phonetic symbolism on the other hand refers to meaningful combinations of vowels and
consonants that derive their functional significance from the arbitrary associations between
them.
21. Name geographical dialects of British English
Irish, Scottish, Northern, Midland, Welsh, South-western and London variety.
22. In what way can we say that language registers and style are related?
A register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting.
A style is a set of linguistic variants with specific social meanings. In this context, social
meanings can include group membership, personal attributes, or beliefs.
Every style fits a certain language register. A speaker mighty vary his speech according to the
group or the social setting he is in. E.g. choosing more formal words (father vs. dad, child vs.
kid) or less formal words (dad vs. father); pronouncing words ending in ing with a velar nasal
instead of an alveolar nasal (walking vs. walkin) or vice versa
23. What are obsolete words?

Obsolete words are the words that have dropped out of the language. It can disappear due to
linguistic reasons (a new name is introduced) and extra-linguistic (when the denotatum is
outdated historicism and when a word is no longer in use but is still in the language
archaism)
24. Give four examples of international words.
Taxi; problem; atom; disc; antibiotic; university; football
25. Say if the following words are transparent or opaque: egg-slicer, non-existent, lately,
Viking
Egg-slicer transparent
Non-existent transparent
Lately opaque
Viking opaque
26. Apply immediate constituent analysis to the following words.
Interplanetary IC: inter-, planetary, planet, -ary

-UC: inter-, planet, -ary
Bullfighter IC: bull, fighter, fight, -er

-UC: bull, fight, -er
27. Pinpoint and explain the example of word play in the following joke: Uneasy is my easy
chair
Easy chair is a large, comfortable, well-upholstered chair. Its ironic that ones easy chair is
uneasy.
28. Explain the following words in Serbian rent-a-car and rent-a-camci from the point of
view of assimilation.
Rent-a-car rent-a-amci the first part rent-a hasnt been morphologically, phonetically and
graphically assimilated, the second part was formed by analogy - amci is a native-word inserted
instead of car, thus widening the meaning onto another semantic field
and function features. lasso: a long rope with one end tied into a loop that is used for
catching horses
category: [ROPE] property: [LONG], [ONE END TIED INTO A LOOP] function: [USED FOR
CATCHING HORSES]
OCTOBER 2013
1. Opaque words stand in contract to transparent words. Explain and illustrate.
Opaque refers to the analyzability of a word. A word which is not clearly analyzable into its
constituent morph is said to be opaque. E.g. carriage, bondage, dosage, barrage.
A word is transparent if it is clearly i.e. unambiguously analyzed into its constituent morphs. E.g.
washable, analyzable, irreplaceable.
2. What are neo-classical compounds? Provide examples.
Neo-classical compounds are those formed from elements of the classical languages(ancient
Greek and Latin) and even the root is not native, e.g. scientology, biosphere, nanotechnology,
cryptography, cryptogenic, person, megalomaniac
3. Narrowing refers to the shrinking of denotation. Provide examples.
1) The Modern English word meat had an earlier meaning of food.

2) Skyline formerly referred to any horizon, but now in the USA it has narrowed to a horizon
decorated by skyscrapers.
3) The word "fowl is now usually restricted to the farmyard hen, but it retains its old meaning of
'bird' in expressions like the fowls of the air and wild fowl".
4) The word litter, for example, meant originally 'a bed,' then gradually narrowed down to
'bedding,' then to 'animals on a bedding of straw,' and finally to things scattered about, odds
and ends.
5) The word deer, which originally had the general meaning 'animal.
6) The word girl, which meant originally 'a young person.
4. Why is statistical analysis in morphology important?

Statistical analysis in morphology is important because of its precision and its relevance to
information theory, communication engineering, speech recognition, machine translation,
lexicography, theoretical linguistics, applied linguistics etc. In language study there is a need for
the collection of quantitative data. Statistics is indispensable in any kind of automatic language
and speech processing,
5. The study of historical linguistic change, especially as applied to individual words is

referred to as diachronic analysis.
6. What do we mean by complementary distribution in morphology?

Complementary distribution refers to the situation when two morphs never occur in the same
position in certain contexts - the negative prefix im- occurs before the bases starting with the
sounds p or b improbable, impartial / the prefix ir- occurs before the bases starting with r
irreplaceable irregular ... A vice versa situation is not possible. These two morphs are
contextually conditioned and are in complementary distribution - the occurrence of one morph
excludes the occurrence of the other in the same position
7. Give four examples of compound relative pronouns.
Whoever, whichever, whatever, wherever
8. Compounds can be formed by joining constituents with no linking element or with a

linking element. Provide examples.
Skinhead, windmill, doorknob, frogman, snowflake

Window-shopping, trouble-shooter, dish-washer, spin-dryer
9. Give two examples of calques in Serbian which are translation loans from English.
Skyscraper neboder
Superman - supermen
10. State the difference between implicit and explicit lexicon.
Implicit lists all the possible words that could be generated by the grammar of words (algorithms
in the formation of words and word-forms)
Explicit list, a subset of the implicit lexicon, contains only the actual words of the language.
11. Illustrate syncope in morphology.
Maam is a syncopated form.

English hast[e]ning > poetic hast'ning
English heav[e]n > poetic heav'n
English over > poetic o'er
English never > poetic ne'er
12. The term by which we refer to internal clipping is syncope/ellipsis
13. Define simile as figure of speech. Provide examples.
Simile is a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared as in she is like a
rose. Black as coal, as blind as a bat, as bold as brass, as brave as a lion
14. Explain the difference between standard and substandard English in reference to its
vocabulary.
There are varieties according to education and social standing known as social dialects; educated
English is referred to as Standard English and uneducated English is often called substandard.
Stylistic varieties are most often talked about in terms of the dichotomy: formal and informal
English. Standard English is by definition the language of educated people; certain combinations
of varieties can be incompatible (e.g. the subject of courtship and formal style or a parliament
debate on the subject of fox-hunting and informal style). E.g. ain't (instead of: am not, isn't,
aren't) is substandard and am not, is not is standard.
15. Apply transformational analysis to the following sets of words and see if they embody
the same logical pattern: jugful, boastful, graceful, shameful, hopeful
They do not embody the same logical pattern, graceful, shameful, hopeful can be rephrased as
full of grace, shame and hope respectively and boastful and jugful cannot.
16. Apply immediate constituent analysis to the following word:
Disdainful IC/UC: disdain, -ful
Trivialization IC: trivialize, -ation, trivial, -ize

-UC: trivial, -ize, -ation
17. Semantically prefixes can be monosemous and polysemous. Explain and illustrate.
The prefix like- has only one meaning of 'things that are similar to whatever the noun refers to' as
in animal-like, baby-like, childlike, clown-like, dreamlike - on the other hand, the prefix -ery has
four meanings: the meaning of 'actions' as in bribery, delivery, robbery, recovery, the meaning of
'behaviour' as in bravery, savagery, snobbery, foolery, the meaning of 'place' as in bakery,
cannery, fishery, winery, and the meaning of 'groups' as in artillery, greenery, imagery,
jewellery, machinery.
18. The prefix mis- generally means that something has been incorrectly preformed.
Provide examples.
Misunderstanding; misfortune; misspelling; mistreat; mislead, mistrust, mistake, misunderstand
19. Self- is very productive in forming nouns from nouns or adjectives from present and
past participles. Provide examples.
Self-abasement, self-absorption, self-abuse, self-acceptance, self-advancement, self-analysis

Self-deprecate, Self-perpetuating, Self-standing, Self-fulfilling
20. Classify suffixes according to their part-of-speech meaning. Provide examples.
According to the part of speech formed there are:
Noun suffixes, e.g. -er, -dom, -ness, -ee, -ery, -ance as in worker, freedom, whiteness, appointee,
piggery, resemblance
Adjective suffixes, e.g. -able, -less, -ful, -ic, -ous as in washable, flawless, hateful, diplomatic,
courageous;
Verb-forming suffixes, e.g. -en, -ify, -ize, as in darken, glorify, monopolize
21. Say which English suffixes have derogatory force.
Suffixes -let and -ling often have derogatory force (apart from their diminutive meaning), e.g.
kinglet, princelet, lordling, weakling.
Suffix ish has different meanings. When it is added to the names of persons it means having
the bad qualities of. In this case we say that it is derogatory.
22. Acronyms can be used attributively. Provide examples.

E.g. TV programme, UN vote.
23. What is back slang? Provide examples in English and Serbian.
BACK SLANG is created when a word is spelled backwards (top o reeb > pot of beer, say>yes,
tekram, emag), Aleksandar > radnaskela,
24. The language of mobile communication abounds in acronyms and clippings. Provide
examples.
E.g. U.N. < United Nations, H.M.S. < Her Majesty's Ship, AM. < ante meridiem, P.M. < post
meridiem. The abbreviated written form can be read as though it were an ordinary English word,
e.g. U.N.E.S.C.O., laser, radar. On the other hand there are initial abbreviations with the
alphabetical reading retained, e.g. B.B.C., M.P., S.O.S., B.A, M.A. Ph.D., N. Y., AM., P.M., D.
J., V. J., VCR.
E.g. examination> exam, double> dub, influenza> flu; permanent wave> perm, public house>
pub; Collins Birmingham University International Language Database> COB UIL D, Federal
Bureau of Investigation> FBI. Vicky < Victoria, Aussie < Australian, hanky < handkerchief,
maths < mathematics, specs < spectacles, bike < bicycle, mike < microphone.
25. Comment on the English word pirouette from the point of view of assimilation.
Pirouette came from French, its partly assimilated, semantically it has been assimilated and its
meaning widened, it has been assimilated morphologically and naturalized (has English plural),
its not completely phonetically assimilated it keeps the stress is on the last syllable (French), and
it is not completely assimilated graphically (the original spelling is the same)
26. Some words in English are inherently marked for definiteness of indefiniteness. Provide
examples.
E.g. some kinds of pronouns and determiners (me is definite, oneself is indefinite; my is definite,
whichever is indefinite), also personal and geographical names (which are all definite).
27. Illustrate the relationship of reverse antonyms that holds between prefixal derivatives
and the bases they are derived from.
E.g. lace inlace; associate disassociate, dress undress, tie untie, obey disobey
JUNE 2014
1. Compare the following pairs of affixes as to their degree of productivity:
Cyber- is more productive as it yields more new words, e.g. cyber-alert, cyber-bully, cybercaf,
cyber-chase, cybercrime, cyber-dating, cyber fraud, cybergoth, cyberhate, cyberhomes, cyber
nationalism, cyber law, cyber light, cybernetics, cyberpilgrimage, cyberpower, cyberpunk, cyber
racism, cyber-safety, cybersecurity, cybersex, cyberspace, cyberterrorism, cyberwarfare, cyber-
safe,
Self- is less productive, e.g. self-confidence, self-esteem, self-pity, self-critical, self-centered,

self-image
3. Analyse the following dictionary definition of the word geometry The branch of
mathematics that deals with measurements of relationships of lines, angles, surfaces and
solids. State the category, property and function features.
Category: mathematics, property: branch, function features: deals with measurements of

relationships of lines, angles, surfaces and solids
4. Analyse the English word fan in its assimilated Serbian form.
Fan fan fully assimilated; on the phonological level Serbian orthography follows English
spelling, morphologically it belongs to zero adaptation it fully conforms to morphological rules
that govern native wordformation, semantically its meaning is narrowed
5. Explain differential meaning. Consider the following minimal pair: management-

mismanagement. State the distinguishing meaning component in question.
The semantic component that serves to distinguish one word from all others containing identical
morphemes is referred to as differential meaning. The distinguishing meaning is that
management is positive in its meaning and mismanagement has the opposite meaning due to the
mis- prefix.
6. Figure of speech antipodal to euphemism is? Dysphemism
7. Illustrate homonymy using the examples of the ly suffix in adjective and adverb
formation.

8. Illustrate the principal kinds of alternation in approximate conversion.
Voicing: adviceadvise, househouse, abuseabuse, sheathsheath, teeth teethe, halfhalve,

reliefrelieve
Vowel modification: bloodbleed, breathbreathe, foodfeed
9. Rephrase the following so that you use compound adjectives with present participle: a
job that consumes a lot of time, a car which is moving fast
Fast-moving car, time-consuming job
10. Assign the appropriate semantic marker (purpose, habitual, habitual and profession
and species ) to the following words: lilac, teacher, cheese cutter, wet blanket
Lilac - species
Teacher habitual and profession
Cheese cutter purpose
Wet blanket - species
11. Give an example of a pun involving sound similarity
How does NASA organize a company party? They planet.
dog and bone phone
frog and toad road
tea leaf thief
13. Converseness refers to contrastive lexical relations involving logical reciprocity.

Provide examples.
The words are said to be reciprocal correlates = husband-wife; buy-sell, send receive, up -
down
15. Translate the following Serbian idioms in English:
zlata vredan the salt of the earth

na sta ti ja licim what do you take me for
16. If something curls your hair or make your hair curl it makes you very.... ?
Frightened
17. The new prefixes cyber and e- both meaning relating to electronic communication
networks produce many words. Provide examples.
e.g. cyber-alert, cyber-bully, cybercaf, cyber-chase, cybercrime, cyber-dating, cyber fraud,

cybergoth, cyberhate, cyberhomes, cyber nationalism, cyber law, cyber light, cybernetics,
cyberpilgrimage, cyberpower, cyberpunk, cyber racism, cyber-safety, cybersecurity, cybersex,
cyberspace, cyberterrorism, cyberwarfare, cyber-safe,
e-mail, e-commerce, e-business, e-text
18. One new combination sometimes inspires another (after road rage there has come air
rage and phone rage). This kind of word formation process is referred to as?
Word formation by analogy
19. Identify the word formation process that triggered the following words: infomercial,
edutainment
Blending
20. Give two examples of Anglo-Serbian blends.
et soba, ritejl odeljak
21. Suffixes ist and an and ian are used to form nouns associated with people. Provide
examples

22. ism is found in nous referring to beliefs or to behavior related to such belief. Provide 4
examples.
Buddhism, Hinduism, sophism, positivism
23. Give a list of verb forming suffixes and provide examples.
Verb-forming suffixes, e.g. -en, -ify, -ize, as in darken, glorify, monopolize
24. Clich formations fall into different categories. State which they are and provide
examples.
Individual words (e.g. backhander, cradle-snatcher, cliff-hanger), phrases (e.g. crme de la

crme, to have the last laugh, off the beaten track), proverbs and sayings (e.g. absence makes
the heart grow fonder, life is not a bed of roses), lively metaphors (e.g. blind alley, red hering,
monkey business), catchy rhymes based on assonance (e.g. namby-pamby, eager beaver), and
alliteration (e.g. too little, too late; live and learn)
25. Analyse the following words by means of Immediate Constituent analysis:
unsurpassably, noncomformity
Unsurpassably: unsurpassable, ly
Un, surpassable
Surpass, able
Nonconformity: nonconform, ity

Non, comform
26. What is a word geography concerned with?
Word geography is concerned with the regional distribution of words for various notions = cow-
house, cow-shed, breast-house

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JANUARY 2013

1. Identify the morphemes in the following text:

She arranged the flowers in a vase.

{she}, {arrange}, {ed1}, {the}, {flower}, {s1}, {in}, {a}, {vase}

2. Words can be semantically, phonologically, morphologically and syntactically

Semantically: forgiveness, likeness

3. Compare the following affixes as to their degree of productivity:

6. Analyze the English word scooter in its assimilated Serbian form:

8. The figure of speech antipodal to litotes is hyperbole.

Adverbs: slowly, nicely, warmly, quickly, happily, stupidly

10. Illustrate the principal kinds of alteration in approximate conversion.

Voicing: adviceadvise, househouse, abuseabuse, sheathsheath, teeth teethe, halfhalve,

Vowel modification: bloodbleed, breathbreathe, foodfeed

Adverb to noun conversion

a timeconsuming job, a fastmoving car

gobetween habitual and profession

15. Give an example of a pun involving sound similarity.

Adam and Eve believe

17. What do we mean by bilateral concord? Explain and illustrate.

18. Translate the following Serbian idioms into English:

U svakoj corbi mirodjija

-ist: soloist, atheist, dentist, violinist, plagiarist, abortionist, idealist, novelist

22. What is pidgin English?

A pidgin language is a simplified version of a language that develops as a means of

category: [APE] property: [SMALL], [LONG ARMS] function: [LIVES IN SE ASIA]

6. Analyze the English word cabin in its assimilated Serbian form:

Adverbs: slowly, nicely, warmly, quickly, happily, stupidly

16. What is the difference between colloquial speech and slang?

Adam and Eve believe

18. What do we mean by bilateral concord? Explain and illustrate.

19. Translate the following Serbian idioms into English:

U svakoj corbi mirodjija

dovetail (v.) conversion

-ist: soloist, atheist, dentist, violinist, plagiarist, abortionist, idealist, novelist

Get out! Look out! Hands off! Be off!

1. Identify the morphemes in the following text:

Litotes is a deliberate understatement which is generated by denying the opposite or contrary of

2. Words can be semantically, phonologically, morphologically and syntactically

Semantically: forgiveness, likeness

3. How many affixes are there in English? Prefix, Suffix

4. Compare the following affixes as to their degree of productivity:

7. What are the major source languages of English?

Greek, Latin, French, Danish (Scandinavian)

category: [chance] property: [of something] function: [happening]

9. Analyze the English word in its assimilated Serbian form:

Establishment establiment fully assimilated; on the phonological level it is based on the

10. What do we mean by associative meaning? Explain and illustrate.

11. Provide a formal-style equivalent of the word mercy-killing. Euthanasia

12. The figure of speech antipodal to dysphemism is euphemism

14. Illustrate historical change of meaning through elevation.

Knight from cniht (boy, manservant) from knecht

15. Illustrate the principal kinds of alteration in approximate conversion.

Voicing: advice-advise, house-house, abuse-abuse, sheath- sheath, teeth- teethe, half-halve,

Vowel modification: blood-bleed, breath-breathe, food-feed

Adverb to noun conversion

20. Give an example of a pun involving sound similarity.

23. What do we mean by unilateral concord? Explain and illustrate.

dovetail (v.) conversion

26. Identify compound words in the following text: To be high-minded is to be of noble