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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What language does Mencken quote Sidney Low as saying is not taught to English youth?

2. What notable author was the first Englishman to carry Americanisms successfully back to his home?

3. According to Mencken, how do the Americans consider the precise English use of the indefinite pronoun ("one")?

4. What does Sayce say that language is composed of in 1879?

5. According to Chapter 2.6, what regional pronunciation is erroneously thought by some to have superior authority regarding English pronunciation?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the most common incorrect usage of the adjective in vulgar American?

2. In general, how did Noah Webster influence American pronunciation?

3. In what ways is the noun principally abused in vulgar American?

4. What were some of the reasons that many immigrants changed their names upon arriving in America?

5. What is Mencken's chief critique of the classifications that he reports in Chapter 1.6?

6. What two principal sources does Mencken identify as adding new words to the American English in Chapter 2.2?

7. What chief cause does Mencken ascribes the backwardness of American war slang to?

8. What is significant about the divergent styles of naming of streets in America and England?

9. What style of writing does Mencken advocate concerning euphemisms in Chapter 4.4?

10. How does a word move from legitimate vocabulary to slang vocabulary, according to Mencken?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A major part of the analysis of linguistic development provided by Mencken in The American Language is the relationship between language and the territory in which it changes. Construct a well-formed analytical essay that investigates this connection. What are the reasons behind it? What are the consequences of this connection in England and in America? How can territorial linguistic development be seen in the various regions of America? What is the common ground between change and territory upon which this connection is founded?

Essay Topic 2

Compose an essay analyzing the Americanization of foreign names, as presented in The American Language. How are they Americanized? What characterizes the Americanization of surnames? What characterizes the Americanization of given names? What influences their Americanization? Why are they Americanized? What is lost by their Americanization? What is the result of this tendency to conformity?

Essay Topic 3

There is a very notable and significant difference between the neologisms of the Americans and the British. Write an essay analyzing these differences, their sources, and what the neologisms reveal about the respective national characters. What is characteristic about the neologisms Mencken ascribes to Americans? What are the characteristics of those ascribed to the British? How are these different? How are they similar? How does each country come about fostering their neologisms? What do these methods and their sources reveal about the countries and their national characteristics, respectively?

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