Questions on the Theory of the English Language

(Theory of Literature, Stylistics, Theoretical Phonetics,

Theoretical Grammar, Lexicology, History of Language)

1. The Theory of Genres.

2. Narratology: narrative genres and narrative levels; tense, time and narrative modes.

3. Feminism Criticism and Queer Theory.

4. The Author, the Text and the Reader.

5. New Historicism and Marxism Approach to Literature.

6. Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.

7. Figures of Quality: Metaphor (Antonomasia, Personification, Allegory).

8. Figures of Quality: Metonymy (Synecdoche, Periphrasis, Euphemism).

9. Figures of Quantity: Hyperbole, Meiosis, Litotes. Epithet: Structural Varieties of Epithets.

10. Ellipsis, Aposiopesis, Nominative Sentences, Asyndeton.

11. Phonetics and Phonology. Sound systems of English and Russian.

12. Syllabic and Accentual Structure of English Words.

13. Intonation and Prosody. New Trends in English Intonation.

14. Styles and Style-Forming Means. Rhythm of Verse and Prose.

15. Treatment of Pronouns in English Theoretical Grammar.

16. Treatment of Modal Words in English Theoretical Grammar.

17. Etymological survey of the English Words.

18. English Phraseology: Structural and Semantic Peculiarities of Phraseological Units, their classification.

19. Structure of Lexical Meaning. The Problem of Connotation.

20. Ways of Word Formation in Modern English.

Тести з теоретичних дисциплін (зразок)

1. In his greatest work W. Faulkner gives the story of several generations of ________ family:

a) the Prufrocks b) the Forsytes c) the Snopes

2. Two ideas predominate in the novel of D.H.Lawrence “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”: - the protest against ____________, which destroys human lives and souls; -the idea of free and sincere love between man and woman.

a) “mechanic civilization” b) “totalitarian civilization” c) “socialist civilization”

3. In the novel ________________ W. Golding created the mysterious atmosphere of symbolic puzzle.

a) “A Farewell to Arms” b) “Spire” c) “Magus”

4. V.Woolf used a literary technique called ______________ to reveal the inner lives of the characters and at the same time to criticize the social system of the day.

a) stream of consciousness b) stream of psychological ideas c) stream of reality

5. A British newspaperman collaborated with a group of patriots in the novel:

a) “Quiet American” b) “Our Man in Havana” c) “Stoic”

6.... is based on a specific kind of metonymic relationship which may be considered as quantitative – when a part stands for the whole and the whole stands for a part, an individual for a whole class, or a whole class for an individual:

a) synecdoche b) metonymy c) apostrophe

7.... is a stylistic device based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings – dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings stand in opposition to each other. It rather expresses irritation, displeasure, pity or regret. It is generally used to convey a negative meaning. This meaning can be realized in the context of a word, the fragment of the text or the whole book:

a) zeugma b) pun c) irony

8.... means to speak well, to use milder, more polite, less direct, or even less honest expression rather that one that is considered too blunt, vulgar, direct or revealing:

a) euphony b) chiasmus c) euphemism

9.... is an imaginative metaphoric attribute. It gives impressive characteristics to a person, object or phenomenon. It conveys the author’s personal appraisal. It is emotionally coloured:

a) epithet b) euphemism c) apostrophe

10.... is a hint. It is a reference to bible, mythology, history, literature, specific places, persons, events which stand for a certain thing or an idea:

a) antonomasia b) allusion c) allegory

11. Phonetics is concerned with…

a) phonemes, their distinctive features

b) contrasting sounds, human communication

c) speech production, speech perception, speech analysis

12. To understand the process of speaking we need to make use of information from…

a) physiology, acoustics, cognitive psychology

b) physics, psychology, linguistics

c) music, linguistics, chemistry

13. Which term doesn’t refer to the terms of perception?

a) length b)vowel quality c) intensity, fundamental frequency

14. Sociophonetics deals with…

a) varieties in the speech community b) pronunciation forms

a) spelling tendencies

15. Dialect doesn’t distinguish varieties in…

a) vocabulary b) grammar c) spelling

16. In all the Indo-European languages adjectives can be substantivized, in English it is easier than in other languages owing to the scarcity of … elements.

a) Affix-building b) Root-building c) Stem-building

17. The … is a part of speech characterized by the following feature: lexico-grammatical meaning of "qualitative, quan­titative or circumstantial characteristics of actions, states or qualities"; category of the degrees of comparison; typical stem-building affixes; combinability with verbs, adjectives, adverbs, less regularly with adlinks and nouns; function of adverbial complement.

a) Adjective b) Adverb c) Pronoun

18. The … meaning of numerals is the generalization of a multitude of meanings of individual numerals.

a) Lexical b) Grammati­cal c) Morphological

19. The peculiarity of … as a class of words is that they are not united by lexico-grammatical meanings, morphological categories, typi­cal stem-building elements, combinability and functions.

a) Adverbs b) Numerals c) Pronouns

20. The category of … is a system of two members such as works — is working, has worked — has been working, to work — to be working showing the character of the action, i. e. whether the action is taken in its progress, in its development or it is simply stated, its nature being unspecified.

a) Order b) Aspect c) Action

21. The … meaning may be defined as the component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words.

a) grammatical b) lexical c) denotative

22. … relations define the word-meaning in the flow of speech in various contexts.

a) paradigmatic b) semantic c) syntagmatic

23. … meaning is the knowledge about a real object which is embodied in a word which have the same meaning for all speakers of the language.

a) grammatical b) lexical c) denotative

24. Semantic changes in the denotative meaning may result in the application of the word to a wider variety of referents, which is described as … of meaning and may be illustrated by the word target which originally meant ‘a small round shield’ (a diminutive of targe, сf. ON. targa) but now means ‘anything that is fired at’ and also figuratively ‘any result aimed at’.

a) Generalization b) pejoration c) deterioration

25. … of meaning is the semantic change in the connotational meaning, accompanied by a change in the denotational component, or the acquisition by the word of some derogatory or pejorative emotive charge. The word boor was originally used to denote ‘a villager, a peasant’ (OE. zebur ‘dweller’) and then acquired a derogatory, contemptuous connotational meaning and came to denote ‘a clumsy or ill-bred fellow’.

a) amelioration b)B deterioration c) extension

26. English belongs to the … Germanic subgroup of languages.

a) East, b) West, c) North

27. English language begins with Germanic tribes invasion in the … century.

a) V, b) XI, c) XV

28. The vestiges of … language are found in Gaelic (Irish or Erse), Cymric (Welsh), Breton (or Armorican), and Manx (Isle of Man) languages.

a) Greek b) Celtic c) Slavic

29. Some languages share so many features not found in other languages that the conclusion that they were once the same language is inescapable. Such a clearly related group is normally called a language family,and the members of the group are called … languages

a) relative, b) cognate, c)C kindred

30. … "doublets" are pairs of expressions of which one is a colloquial, even slangy, native formation, the other a more dignified, borrowed term from Latin, but both originating as metaphors using the same semantic associations.

A Metaphorical B Metonymical C Ironical