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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. In what location does Mencken say both the American and English orthographies flourish side by side?
2. Which of the following does names, used for a settlement, Mencken not list as bespattering the land?
3. Who published a work in 1768 entitled "Scheme for a New Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling, with Remarks and Examples Concerning the Same, and an Enquiry into its Uses"?
4. What leads most of the studies of the sounds of the American common speech astray, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.10?
5. In what dialect of English is "slick" used synonymously with "sleek" according to Chapter 9.10?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
An implicit premise throughout Mencken's work is that of the influence the overall national character and spirit has on the formation of a language. Write an essay discussing and analyzing the possibility and evidence of this connection. What are the national characters of Americans and Englishmen? How is this shown in their languages? What influence do these character traits have on linguistic formulations and habits of the people? What are some specific examples by which this influence can be seen? What is the ultimate significance of this connection?
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
Unlike nouns and adjectives, Mencken devotes considerable inquiry to the nature and alteration of verb forms in The American Language. Write an essay explaining the attention that Mencken pays to verbs. What role do they fulfill in communication? Why do its particular forms change more rapidly than other parts of speech? What does this rapid changing indicate about the relationship between language and circumstance/culture? How do verbs typically change? What is significant about the manner in which they typically change?
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This section contains 361 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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