View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 4.4 | Chapter 4.5.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Mencken, which title is subject to the greatest divergence in usage?
(a) General.
(b) Doctor.
(c) Professor.
(d) The Honorable.

2. Who proposed a generally accepted nomenclature for currency in 1785?
(a) Noah Webster.
(b) Gouverneur Morris.
(c) Thomas Jefferson.
(d) Richard Grant White.

3. What ethnicity of people, through the influence of the mercantile class, is referred to by a different name in the United States than in England?
(a) White/Caucasian.
(b) Black/African American.
(c) Jew/Hebrew.
(d) Latino/Hispanic.

4. What word in common honorifics did Edwin S. Gould protest against omitting in 1867?
(a) Right.
(b) Most.
(c) Very.
(d) The.

5. Which of the following did the African slaves NOT introduce to American English?
(a) Banjo.
(b) Goober.
(c) Gumbo.
(d) Voodoo.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many classifications of Americanisms does Gilbert M. Tucker provide in 1921?

2. Which of the early presidents does Mencken identify as archetypal of the new American?

3. What word was "coatee" used as a diminutive for?

4. How many classifications of Americanisms does Bartlett postulate in his 1859 dictionary?

5. In what language did the American derivative "coyote" originate?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 182 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample