DLAB Trivia 2

Question 1

What is the primary difference between a morpheme and a phoneme?

Accepted Answer

A morpheme carries meaning; a phoneme is a unit of sound without inherent meaning.

Answer

A phoneme carries meaning; a morpheme is a unit of sound.

Answer

Morphemes are longer than phonemes.

Answer

Phonemes only exist in written language.

Question 2

The term 'agglutinative language' describes a language where words are formed by:

Accepted Answer

Stringing together multiple morphemes, each with a distinct meaning

Answer

Using word order alone to signal grammatical relations

Answer

Changing vowels within a root to indicate tense (like English sing/sang)

Answer

Using tones to distinguish word meanings

Question 3

In phonetics, what is the difference between 'voiced' and 'voiceless' sounds?

Accepted Answer

Voiced sounds involve vibration of the vocal cords; voiceless sounds do not.

Answer

Voiced sounds are louder than voiceless sounds.

Answer

Voiceless sounds are only found in whispering.

Answer

Voiced sounds are only found at the beginning of words.

Question 4

What is a 'minimal pair' in linguistics?

Accepted Answer

Two words that differ in only one phoneme and have different meanings

Answer

Two words with the same spelling but different pronunciations

Answer

Two words with the same meaning but different spellings

Answer

A pair of synonyms with slightly different connotations

Question 5

Which linguistic concept describes the phenomenon where the same word has different stress patterns depending on whether it functions as a noun or a verb?

Accepted Answer

Noun-verb stress shift (heteronym pair)

Answer

Allophone variation

Answer

Phonemic neutralization

Answer

Tone sandhi

Question 6

What is the term for the smallest unit of sound in a language that can change the meaning of a word?

Accepted Answer

Phoneme

Answer

Morpheme

Answer

Allophone

Answer

Grapheme