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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. In what year did Noah Webster die?
2. What does Mencken say that a proper understanding of words and their meanings will enable their speaker to do, in Chapter 11.1?
3. According to Mencken, the word "none" is a degenerate composition of what two words?
4. Which adjectival prefix does Mencken state is confined to the more sophisticated classes?
5. How does Mencken characterize the vulgar American habitual use of the double negative?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
At the root of the divergence of American from British was the spirit of the Revolution. Write an essay responding to the following questions: What was the nature of the revolutionary spirit? Why did it desire to distinguish itself from England? Why did this desire carry over to language? How was it practical and how impractical? What do these impracticalities reveal about the nature of the spirit? How did this spirit directly influence the American dialect? How did it indirectly influence it? For how long did this spirit continue to influence, directly or indirectly, the American language? What is significant about the relationship between this spirit and the language?
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
The primary conflict voiced by Mencken in The American Language is that which exists between the spirit of linguistic conservationism and a spirit of linguistic innovation. Analyze this conflict as it is presented throughout the book and report insightfully on the strengths and weaknesses of each spirit. How is each spirit superior to the other? How is it inferior? Is there a valid argument to be made in favor absolutely of one or the other? What arguments may be presented in support of each? What are the arguments that may be presented against each? Is there a plausible compromise that may be made between the two?
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This section contains 392 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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