Morphology: Classes of Words 1.2

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This exercise is designed to give you more practice with open and closed words. Open class words are lexical categories: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Closed class words are functional categories: prepositions, pronouns, and conjunctions.

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Question 1

Choose whether the word below belongs to an open or closed class.

'soon'

The holidays will be here soon.

A	closed Hint: 'Soon' is an adverb. Adverbs are open class words.
B	open

Question 2

Choose whether the word below belongs to an open or closed class. 'was' Batman was hoping to go to the ball with Lois.

A	open
B	closed Hint: In this sentence, 'was' is an auxiliary verb, which shows grammatical function, thus is a closed class word.

Question 3

Choose whether the word below belongs to an open or closed class. ‘able’ The sheriff was able to find the villain within 24 hours.

A	closed Hint: ‘Able’ is an adjective that modifies the noun ‘sheriff’ thus is an open class word.
B	open

Question 4

Choose whether the word below belongs to an open or closed class.

'which'

They chose to decline the offer, which turned out to be a wise decision.

A	open Hint: 'Which' is a complementizer. These are words that show grammatical function thus are closed class words.
B	closed

Question 5

Choose whether the word below belongs to an open or closed class. ‘first’ The veteran climber was terrified the first time she tackled a rock face.

A	open
B	closed Hint: The word ‘first’ is an adjective that modifies the noun ‘time’ thus is an open class word.

Question 6

Choose whether the word below belongs to an open or closed class. 'refrained' The local activist refrained from bringing charges of fraud against the governor.

A	closed Hint: 'Refrained' is a verb, which is an open class word, since new verbs can be added to a language.
B	open

Question 7

Choose whether the word below belongs to an open or closed class.

'across'

Some historians believe that the Japanese travelled across the Pacific Ocean in the 13th century.

A	open Hint: 'Across' is a preposition. All prepositions are closed class words.
B	closed

Question 8

Choose whether the word below belongs to an open or closed class.

'will'

He will take public transit to his classes this semester.

A	closed
B	open Hint: 'Will' is a modal verb. Although verbs are open class words, modals and auxiliaries do not bear semantic content, thus are considered function words, or closed class.

Question 9

Choose whether the word below belongs to an open or closed class.

'them'

She saw them at the grocery store today.

A	closed
B	open Hint: 'Them' is a pronoun. All pronouns are closed class words because there is a fixed number of them within a language and no more can be added.

Question 10

Choose whether the word below belongs to an open or closed class. ‘about’ Spiderman recounted the story about how he ran the Boston Marathon in 50 minutes.

A	open Hint: ‘About’ is a preposition that shows the grammatical relationship between ‘the story’ and ‘how he ran….’, thus is a closed class word.
B	closed

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There are 10 questions to complete.

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Morphology: Classes of Words 1.2

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