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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Which of the following does Wilcox not list as a negative treatment of the English language by grammarians?
2. In what year did Noah Webster die?
3. What name is the Italian "Giuseppe" transformed into?
4. Which reporter first brings colloquial Americanisms to the written word, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.2?
5. What is the longest list of spelling changes from English to American that Mencken gives in Chapter 8.1?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
A significant contributor to the present state of the American language is the influx of foreign words, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries. Compose an essay analyzing the impact and influences of these various foreign words. What particular contributions have they made to the language? How do they reflect the overall composition of the American populace? How have these words themselves changed? How have they changed the language overall? How do all of these changes indicate the tendencies of the American English dialect?
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
Although American had changed drastically by the time Mencken wrote The American Language, in 1921, it has clearly changed drastically since then, as well. Examine, in an analytical essay, some of the more significant changes since then. What new words have come into popular usage? What then popular Americanisms have faded out almost altogether? Has the language changed as significantly since 1921 as it did between any other comparable span of time? If so, defend your answer with specific examples. Finally, what is the characteristic of the American language as revealed by comparing its present state with that it was characterized by Mencken as having when he wrote The American Language?
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This section contains 367 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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