University of New Zealand.
B.A. Examination for Honours, and for Senior Scholarships, 1885.
English Language and Literature.
Examiner: Prof.
Henry Morley, LL.D.
Paper
a.
1. |
Point out some of the chief differences in vocabulary and in grammatical forms between First English or Anglo-Saxon, and the English of the present day. |
2. |
Account for the existence of three dialects in Early English. How were they to be distinguished from one another by the form of the plural in the Present Indicative, and by the form of the Present Participle? |
3. |
Explain the terms
Ablaut and
Umlaut. |
4. |
Give an example of each of the nine cases of mutation of sound in accordance with Grimm's Law. |
5. |
Classify the Strong Verbs. |
6. |
Give some account of the successive stages of the introduction of words from the Latin into our vocabulary.
|
7. |
Discuss the structure of each of these words as minutely as you can:—
starvation, bicycle, undress, handkerchief, burglar, parcel, sauce, summons, since. |
8. |
Write a few notes of your own upon this piece of early English:—
"Laverd, oure Laverd, hou sclkouth is
Name pine in all land pis.
For upe-hoven es pi mikelhade
Over hevens pat ere brade;
Of mouth of childer and soukand
Made pou lof in ilka land."
|
9. |
Write a few notes on the place of Layamon's 'Brut' (
a) in the history of our literature and (
b) in the history of our language. |
10. |
Describe any references to himself that are to be found in Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' or in his other poems. |
11. |
Write a note or two on differences between Chaucer's English and the English of' the Vision of Piers Plowman.' |
12. |
In what year was Shakespeare writing plays? Who were our chief dramatists when he first came to London? What was the condition of our stage when his last plays were being written? |
13. |
Write a few notes on the relation of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' to the time when it was written. |
14. |
Write a few notes on the relation of Cowper's 'Task' to the time when it was written. |