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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 is often used in England to designate a thoroughfare?
2. In what language does Mencken state the double negative was once "quite respectable?"
3. From what language is "gob" reputed to be derived in Chapter 11.2?
4. According to Mencken, the word "none" is a degenerate composition of what two words?
5. What military slang term refers to the sunburned necks of the Marines?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Mencken claims that the true American spirit is to be found not in the textbooks or proclamations of grammarians, but in the vulgar speech of the common people. Discuss this claim in a thoughtful analytical essay. What is the American spirit? Does Mencken clearly present what the American spirit is? Is his a defensible claim? How does the vulgar speech of the common person reflect this spirit? Is there some danger of degradation in linguistic form from prevalence of the vulgar speech? How does the vulgar speech reflect upon the American as a human person?
Essay Topic 2
Much of Mencken's The American Language is devoted to the study of expansion of the American vocabulary. Write an essay examining the various sources and means by which new words enter the American dialect, as well as the impact they have. From where do new words come? What prompts the admission of new words into the vocabulary? What languages have had the most influence on the American vocabulary? What does the American dialect do with its new words? What are the effects that new words can and do have on the American dialect? Be sure to use specific examples.
Essay Topic 3
Write an essay analyzing the nature of the relationship between the "melting pot" of American immigrant assimilation and the nomenclature that permeates the country. What are the evident influences of foreign languages on American names? How are these names Americanized? What is the general tendency of American-speakers in the employment and application of names to places and people? To what degree are the various names Americanized? What is the cause of Americanization of names? What is its result and what does it indicate about the American spirit?
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This section contains 376 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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