View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 11.1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Mencken, the word "none" is a degenerate composition of what two words?
(a) Not on.
(b) No tone.
(c) No one.
(d) Not one.

2. 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) Latino/Hispanic.
(b) White/Caucasian.
(c) Black/African American.
(d) Jew/Hebrew.

3. What event does Mencken credit with strengthening the obfuscation of distinction between American and British English?
(a) The advent of the transatlantic telephone line.
(b) The First World War.
(c) The French Revolution.
(d) The bombing of London.

4. Which adjectival prefix does Mencken state is confined to the more sophisticated classes?
(a) Pen-.
(b) Super-.
(c) Ante-.
(d) Ultra-.

5. Which two letters did the American ethnologist McGee insist were his first name and should not be followed by periods?
(a) AD.
(b) WJ.
(c) EL.
(d) TJ.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Mencken, how do the English pronounce "been?"

2. What is the universal substitute for the word "ye" as described in Chapter 6.2?

3. What is the English meaning of the Hawaiian word "lanai"?

4. Which impulse behind American imitation of English orthography is more influential?

5. Who is the author of "Dissertations on the English Language"?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 212 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample