PYTANIA Z PRZEDMIOTÓW KIERUNKOWYCH 2025

What is language? Present different views and four properties.

Language is a system of communication using symbols or sounds. It’s seen as a rule system (structuralism) or a communicative tool (functionalism). Properties: arbitrariness, productivity, displacement, and cultural transmission.

Compare English to Polish.

Both are Indo-European, SVO languages. English has simpler grammar, fixed word order, and articles; Polish uses rich inflection and flexible word order.

Define phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics.

Phonetics studies speech sounds; Phonology studies sound systems; Morphology studies word formation; Syntax studies sentence structure; Semantics focuses on meaning; Pragmatics studies meaning in context.

Origins of language and how we know about past languages.

Language likely evolved to help humans cooperate and survive. Linguists study past forms through comparative analysis and written evidence.

Natural, ethnic, pidgin, dialect, idiolect, artificial languages.

Natural languages evolve naturally; ethnic ones belong to an ethnic group; pidgins are simplified contact languages; dialects are regional varieties; idiolects are individual speech styles; artificial languages are invented (e.g. Esperanto).

Features of formal/academic writing.

Formal writing uses objective tone, no slang or contractions, clear structure, logical argumentation, and proper referencing.

What is rhetoric? Give examples of rhetorical devices.

Rhetoric is the art of effective communication. Common devices: metaphor, repetition, antithesis, rhetorical question.

Literal vs figurative language. Examples.

Literal language means exactly what it says; figurative language uses imagery or comparison. Examples: metaphor, simile, personification.

What is the Renaissance and its impact?

A cultural rebirth (14th-17th c.) inspired by classical antiquity. It emphasized humanism, science, and the arts, breaking from medieval religious focus.

Literary genres and subgenres.

Main genres: prose, poetry, drama. Subgenres: novel, short story, epic, tragedy, comedy, sonnet.

L1 vs L2 development.

Both involve grammar and meaning. L1 is learned unconsciously from birth; L2 is often learned later, consciously, and influenced by L1.

Nativism (Chomsky).

Chomsky proposed that humans are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) that allows natural learning of grammar.

Progress and errors in behaviorism, nativism, cognitivism, and interactionism.

Behaviorism sees errors as bad habits; Nativism sees them as natural rule testing; Cognitivism treats them as part of mental processing; Interactionism sees them as normal in communication.

Krashen’s theory.

His five hypotheses: acquisition-learning, monitor, natural order, input (“i+1”), and affective filter. Language develops through meaningful, low-stress input.

Teaching grammar (example subsystem).

Teach rules in context, move from explanation to practice to communication. Use examples and give feedback on accuracy and fluency.

Training speaking (example skill).

Focus on both fluency and accuracy using role-plays, discussions, and problem-solving tasks, while encouraging confidence.

Learner autonomy.

The ability to take responsibility for one’s learning. Teachers promote it through self-assessment and choice; learners plan, reflect, and set goals.

Three mainstream methods.

Grammar-Translation (focus on rules), Direct Method (target language only), and Communicative Approach (focus on meaning and fluency).

Fringe methods.

Suggestopedia (relaxation and music), Total Physical Response (movement), Silent Way (discovery learning). Useful mainly for beginners.

Kompetencja językowa vs komunikacyjna.

Kompetencja językowa to znajomość zasad języka; kompetencja komunikacyjna to umiejętność użycia języka w odpowiednim kontekście, także kulturowo.

Language centers in the brain.

Broca’s area (speech production) and Wernicke’s area (comprehension), both in the left hemisphere.

Communication model (psychological aspect).

Shannon Weaver model: sender → message → receiver with feedback. Influenced by motivation, emotion, and perception.

Specific vs non-specific speech/language disorders.

Specific (e.g. DLD) affect language only; non-specific occur with other issues like autism or intellectual disability.

Phoneme vs allophone.

A phoneme changes meaning (/p/ vs /b/); an allophone is a variant of the same sound ([pʰ] in pin). Two sounds are contrastive if they change meaning.

Articulatory tract and speech organs.

Air from lungs passes through vocal cords and articulators (tongue, lips, teeth, palate) shaping sounds.

English vowel system.

About 12 vowels, 8 diphthongs (/eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, etc.), and triphthongs (/aɪə/, /eɪə/). Classified by tongue position and lip rounding.

English consonant system.

Consonants differ by place (bilabial, alveolar), manner (plosive, fricative, nasal), and voicing (/p b/, /f v/, /m n/).

Stress and intonation.

Stress is syllable emphasis; intonation is pitch movement. Falling tone = statements, rising tone = questions, fall-rise = uncertainty.

Phonological processes in connected speech.

Assimilation (“good boy” → [gʊb bɔɪ]), elision (“next day” → [neks deɪ]), linking /r/, vowel reduction to schwa.

Modal verbs

functions and examples. Express ability, permission, obligation, or probability: can, may, must, should, might.

Main derivational processes.

Prefixation (unhappy), suffixation (teacher), conversion (to email), compounding (blackboard), back-formation (edit).

Sentence types in English.

Declarative (statement), interrogative (question), imperative (command), exclamative (emotion).

Phrase structure and types of phrases.

Words combine into phrases: noun (the house), verb (has gone), adjective (very tall), adverb (quite quickly), prepositional (in the park).

Word classes in English.

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, interjections.

Lexical relations.

Synonymy (big-large), antonymy (hot - cold), homonymy (bank), polysemy (head), hyponymy (rose - flower), meronymy (wheel

Morpheme types.

The smallest meaning unit. Free (book), bound (-s), inflectional (walked), derivational (teacher).

State verbs (no continuous).

Know, believe, love, hate, seem, understand, belong. Used in simple, not continuous, forms.

Lexical contrast problems (English - Polish).

False friends, literal translations, wrong prepositions, and phrasal verbs cause errors.

Word order contrast (English - Polish).

English is fixed SVO; Polish is flexible. Learners may invert order or omit auxiliaries.

Gender contrast (English - Polish).

Polish uses grammatical gender; English uses natural gender. Leads to errors with he, she, it.

The novel and Dickens.

A long prose narrative exploring human experience. Dickens wrote Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations criticizing social injustice.

Transcendentalism.

A 19th-century American movement valuing intuition, nature, and self-reliance. Key figures: Emerson and Thoreau.

The Troubles.

Conflict in Northern Ireland (1960s-1998) between Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists; ended with the Good Friday Agreement.

US territory and states.

USA ≈ 9.8 million km², about 335 million people. California (film, tech), Texas (oil), New York (finance, culture).

New England and its status.

Northeastern US region (Massachusetts, etc.), site of first English colonies; important in early American history and education.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Civil rights leader using non-violent protest and media. Assassinated in Memphis, 1968.

Three decisive British battles.

Hastings (1066), Agincourt (1415), Battle of Britain (1940).

King Alfred.

King of Wessex (849-899), defended England from Vikings, promoted education and unity.

“Red Indians” origins.

Native Americans descended from Asian migrants crossing the Bering land bridge about 15,000 years ago.

Pilgrim Fathers.

English Puritans who sailed on the Mayflower (1620) to Plymouth for religious freedom.