MCQS Linguistics

1. Study of human speech sounds is phonetics

2. The study of language in social Interaction is Sociolinguistics
3. Human beings can talk about their present , past and future. This property of language is called
Displacement.

Hockett's Design Features are a set of features that characterize human language and set it
apart from animal communication. They were defined by linguistic anthropologist Charles F.
Hockett in the 1960s. He called these characteristics the design features of language.
Hockett originally believed there to be 13 design features.
While primate communication utilizes the first 9 features, the final 4 features (displacement,
productivity, cultural transmission, and duality) are reserved for humans.
Hockett later added prevarication, reflexiveness, and learnability to the list as uniquely human
characteristics. He asserted that even the most basic human languages possess these 16
features.

4. We can utter new and novel words and sentences but animal can’t. It describes which
property? Productivity
5. There is no connection between a linguistic form and its meaning describes. Arbitrariness
6. A little change in the sound can change the meaning describes which property of human
language. Discreetness
7. The general study of characteristics of speech sound is called phonetics
8. The use of the verb Google in the phrase ‘google it’ represent a case of word formation via
conversion
9. The study of signs is termed as semiotics.
10. The bound Morpheme er acts as an inflectional morpheme in Quieter
11. If a syntactic rule is applied more than once in generating a sentence then this is known as
Recursion.
12. When the meaning of the one form is included in another, the relationship between them is
hyponymy
13. The knowledge of the physical context of the speaker is necessary to make sense of t Deictic
expressions
14. In its general sense it refers to the creative capacity of language users to produce an endless
number of new sentences, in contrast to the communication systems of animals is called?
Productivity
15. ………….is the term introduced by Chomsky to describe the actual use of language in concrete
situations. Performance
16. The system of communication within a community langue
17. A pair of terms introduced by Noam Chomsky in 1965 to describe native speakers intuitions
about the grammatical correctness or otherwise of sentence. Acceptable/unacceptable
18. Who argues that language is a unique evolutionary development of the human species and
distinguished from models of communication used by any other animal species? Noam
Chomsky
19. Which one of the following is a feature of speakers rather than their speech? coherence
20. There are 24 consonant sounds in English IPA.
21. The term inter-language refers to a system of rules generated the speakers of L1 who are
learning L2.
22. Which one of the following constitutes an adjacency pair in conversation analysis?
Two linked phases of conversation
23. A type of writing in which symbols represent pronunciation of syllabus
Alphabetic writing
23 The co-existence of two different varieties of language in a society which differ in their
social status is known as Diglossia.
24. The cult of seeing postmodernism as the converse of the ideals of the Enlightenment is
opposed by Jurgen Habermas
25. When the vocal cords are spread apart and the air from the lungs passes between them
unimpeded (without any stopping) the sound is called. Unvoiced, voiceless, voiced Both
26. The sounds in English language are classified as Bilabials,dentals, alveolar etc. It is according to
their Place of articulation.
27. The sounds which are formed using both upper and lower lips, m, b,w are called bilabials
28. t, d,s,n,ad,z are called Alveolar because they are pronounced with the front part of the tongue
29. P,b,t,d,k,g are 6 plosives.
30. The consonants having the air push through the narrow opening are called Fricatives
31. Find out liquid consonants l,r
32. In American English if t occurs between vowels, it is pronounced as /d/ for example , writer as
rider and metal as medal. Name this term Flapping
33. The only lateral sound l
34. The consonant sounds are mostly articulated with obstruction in the vocal cart.
35. The sounds which are pronounced without any obstruction in the air passage and are produced
with a free flow of air are called. Vowel
36. Mark the number of monothongs and Diphthongs respectively 12,18
37. Smallest unit of speech sound phoneme
38. The versions of one phone are called allophone
39. A sound pronounced with one puff of air is called (a sound with one vowel sound) Syllable
40. Syllable consists of onset and rime while rime is further divided into Nucleus and coda
41. The syllabus having onset and nucleus but not coda are called Open syllables
42. There are one or more consonants before or after nucleus which describes consonant cluster
43. The omission or deletion of some sound from a word is known as Elision

Elision is the omission of sounds, syllables or words in speech. This is done to make the
language easier to say, and faster.
 Example
'I don't know' /I duno/ , /kamra/ for camera,

44. When the name of a company becomes the name of its product, it is called coinage
45. Portmanteau/ blending When one part of a word is joined with other part of the word, we get
a new word. Such types of words in linguistic terminology are called.
Example , smoke+fog smong motor +hotel motel
46. To form new words by attaching affairs with exiting words is called derivation care-ful
47. Originally morphology is biological term
48. A word or a group of word has one meaning is called lexeme
49. All the affixes in English are bound morphemes
50. Lexical and functional morphemes are two types of free morphemes
Lexical girl (n) jump (v), functional the,a , an , he ,she, and

51. Articles, pronouns and prepositions cover functional morphemes

52. Which of type of morphemes is used to indicate the grammatical function of a word.
Inflectional morphemes cool- cooler, the coolest

53. The study of rules of a language covers grammar

54. I shot an elephant in my pajamas is example of deep structure

The first sentence could be read two ways: "One morning I was wearing my pajamas, and I shot
an elephant." or "One morning, an elephant was wearing my pajamas, and I shot that
elephant". The most natural interpretation is the first one. The second is quite fantastic, yet
from the next sentence we learn that the author had exactly this interpretation in mind

55. Following two languages are considered classical languages Greek and latin
56. Which of the following approaches deals with the set of grammar rules and focuses on the
teaching of grammar rules? Prescriptive approach
57. Mention the approach which discourages the too much focus on rules of language, according
to it, how language is used is important rather than how language should be used. Descriptive
approach
58. Syntax is originally taken from a word Greek
59. The table was listening to the music this sentence syntactically is correct , but semantically
wrong
60. Horse is hyponym of animal.
61. Words frequently occurring together are termed as (examples, husband and wife , salt and
pepper) collocation.
62. The study of intended speaker meaning is called pragmatics.
63. The set of words used in the same phrase or sentence is called linguistics context. It is also
known as co-text
64. Any additional information used by the listener to connect what is said to what must be meant
is called inference.
65. A subsequent reference to an already introduced entity is called. Anaphora
In rhetoric, an anaphora (Greek: ἀναφορά, "carrying back") is a rhetorical device that consists
of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending
them emphasis.[2] In contrast, an epistrophe (or epiphora) is repeating words at the clauses'
ends. The combination of anaphora and epistrophe results in symploce.
Example
She's imperfect, but she tries
She is good, but she lies

66. Linkage of ideas in text coherence

67. Big and small are the examples of gradable antonyms
Adjective that is used as comparative and superlative

68. When you mix L1 and L2 and make another language is called inter-language
69. Dialect is peculiar of vocabulary while accent is peculiar to pronunciation of a specific group of
people.
70. Variations in a language according to use in specific situations is called Register
71. When we speak two varieties of one language in a society, one is formal and other is informal
Diglossia
72. Major names related to theory of behaviourism skinner and Watson
73. Competence and performance Noam Chomsky
74. Langue and parole Saussure
75. The set of all possible grammatical sentences in the language is called langue
76. Utterances that have actually been produced parole
77. When we feel extreme difficulty in production of speech which part of our brain is damaged?
Brocas area (left)
78. Damage in wernicke’s area(right) of brain causes difficulty in speech comprehension
79. Omission of a word or more from a sentence is called ellipsis i.e I was thinking about you
today…
80. Which of the following part of the brain controls the articulatory muscles, jaws, tongue and
lynx? Motor cortex
81. Arcute fasciculus forms a critical connection between brocas area and wernickes area.
82. Language ability is located in left hemisphere in the brain
83. The inability to produce or comprehend the speech because of damage to certain parts is called
Aphasia
84. By six months, a baby can produce nasal and fricative sounds, this stage is called- babbling
85. Sapir-whorf hypothesis we perceive the word as our language leads us to perceive it
86. Vernacular everyday language colloquial speech informal speech slang
87. Speech style is a social feature of language use.
88. The most basic distinction in speech style is between formal uses and informal uses.
89. A change from one style to the other by an individual is called style. Shifting
90. A dialect reflects the colloquialisms, grammatical constructions , distinctive vocabulary and
pronunciation that are typical of region.
91. A register is a conventional way of using language that is appropriate in a specific context,
which may be identified as situational(e.g in church), occupational (e.g among lawyers or
topical) (e.g talking about language).
92. Jargon is special technical vocabulary (e.g plaintiff , suffix) associated with a specific area of
work or interest.
93. In social terms jargon helps to create and maintain connections among those who see
themselves as insider in some way and those who see themselves as insider in some way and to
exclude outsiders.
94. Vernacular is more typically used among those who are outside established higher status
groups
95. Two distinct varieties of a language, called diglossia, exits in some countries.
96. Chomsky believes that a simple system of phrase structure can provide the basis from which all
sentences can be derived by simple transformations.
97. Universal grammar or UG is an attempt to integrate grammar, mind and language.
98. Associative beyond conceptual
99. Conceptual meaning is the type of meaning that dictionaries are designed to describe.
(Literal , denotative, conceptual, dictionary lafzi )
100. Associative meaning of the word may differ from one person to the next.
101. One role is taken by the noun phrase as ‘the entity that performs the actions’ technically
known as the agent.
He hits the bell
Agent verbal process theme

102. Another role is taken by the object as the entity that is involved in or effected by the
action which is called theme
103. Noam Chomsky was born in December 7, 1928
104. Chomsky developed Transformational- Generative Grammar in 1950
105. Reflections on Language is a book written by Noam Choamsky in_1975
106. The Syntactic Structures is a book written by Noam Choamsky in_ 1957
107. Which among the following is an example for portmanteau Smog

a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, for example motel or
brunch.
podcast is a portmanteau, a made-up word coined from a combination of the words iPod and
broadcast

108. Words such as ‘edit’ and ‘house__keep’ are instances of Backformation

a word that is formed from an existing word which looks as though it is a derivative, typically by
removal of a suffix (e.g. edit from editor)
108 ___involves a different analysis of the structure of the word by attaching a consonant at the end of
a word or a vowel at the beginning of the next word ? Meta-analysis
109.The pronunciation of English practiced by the educated people at the public schools came to be
called? Received pronunciation
110. IPA existence in 1998
111. An allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds, or phones, or signs used to
pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. Kill, skill
112. The two great linguists who have contributed much to frame the device of Immediate
Constituent analysis are Leonard Bloomfield & Noam Chomsky

Immediate constituent analysis, also called Ic Analysis, in linguistics, a system of grammatical analysis
that divides sentences into successive layers, or constituents, until, in the final layer, each constituent
consists of only a word or meaningful part of a word.

113. The – s in ‘she sings well’ is Morpheme signaling third person singular.
114. The –or in actor is Noun forming morpheme
115. The –s in ‘john’s’ is _ possessive morpheme
116. The –ish in the word ‘childish’ is . An adjective forming morpheme
117. The final consonants /s/, /z/ and /iz/ in the words ‘cats’, ‘dogs’ and ‘boxes’ are instances of
Allophones
118. The form ‘dog’ is a.............morphemE? A free morpheme

119. /m/ is a consonant? Bilabial nasal

120. How many types of phonetic transcriptions are generally followed two

There are two kinds of transcription: (1) Phonetic transcription proper, which draws on the total
resources of a phonetic alphabet to mark minute distinctions in sound and places symbols in square
brackets, [t]. Such transcriptions are used especially to represent the usage of individual speakers, and
are informally known as narrow transcriptions. (2) Phonemic transcription, which provides a symbol for
each PHONEME in a text and places the symbols between obliques, as in /t/.

121. The term refers to omissions of certain sounds, syllables or even words in continuous speech?
Elision
122. Juncture refers to the phenomenon of pauses in speech?
123. Stress is the degree of force with which a sound of syllable is uttered?
124. Supra-segmentals are also called secondary phonemes?
125. The final /n/ in the words ‘sudden’ and ‘mutton’ are Syllabic consonants
126. Syllables in which the consonant functions as nucleus are called. Syllabic consonants
127 The consonants /j/ and /w/ are called Semi__vowels
128 Three nasal sounds
129 ‘r’ in red articulated as a trill
130 the consonant S is called Sibilant
131 f and v are fricative
132. The initial sound in ‘chair’ and ‘jam’ are examples for affrivative
133. Which of the following patterns of intonation, is used to indicate that the speaker implies things
which are not explicitly expressed the fall rise
134Which of the following patterns of intonation is used in polite requests the rising
135 Which of the following patterns of intonation is used in listing the items ? the falling
136 Which of the following patterns of intonation is used in commands The falling
137 Which of the following patterns of intonation is used in declarative sentences uttered as ordinary
statements The falling
138 The preceding sound influencing the following sound is an instance of _assimilation?
Progressive
139 The two sounds influencing each other and combine to produce a third sound is an instance of
assimilation reciprocal

140 In the pronunciation of the word ‘ink’ the alveolar /n/ becoming a velar sound is an instance of
Regressive

141. The special features which affect speech sounds such as stress, pitch intonation and
juncture are called
A. Supra__segmental phonemes
B. Secondary phonemes
C. Prosodic features

142. The initial sounds in the words ‘ship’, ‘church’ and ‘judge; are examples for_?
Palato__alveola

143 /f/and /v/ are libio dental

144 Glottal are sounds articulated in the glottis ?

145…………. are produced involving the tip of the tongue and the back part of the teeth ridgE ?Post
alveolar

146………………are articulated by raising the front of the tongue towards the hard palate ? Palatal

147 The term semiology was introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure

148 The systematic study of signs is called ?

A. Semiotics
B. Semiology
149 The Musical Theory of the origin of language was advanced by Otto Jespersen

150 The study of elementary speech sounds is called

A. Phonology

Which of the following terms are assigned to the 13 properties identified by Hockett
 (1960)?

Linguistic Universals
Correct Answer:

 
Which of Hockett’s (1960) principles can be defined as ‘A small set of phonemes can be combined and
re-combined into an infinitely large set of meanings’ Duality of function

1. Meaning of words and how to use them Semantics

2. Goes beyond the study of individual languages to determine what constructs are needed in
order to do any kind of grammatical analysis. Theoretical Grammar
3. –One symbol represents one word-relation symbol-object is arbitrary Logograms
4. Ideograms
5. Pictograms
6. The ability to construct complex messages from smaller discrete parts Discreteness
7. Proto-language
8. The study of the structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and communication
Neurolinguistics
9. A book specially designed for teaching a foreign language , or for developing an awareness of
the mother tongue. Pedagogical grammar
10. Idea writing once a pictogram was accepted as the representation of an object, its meaning was
extended on the attributions of the objects or concepts associated with it Ideograms
11. Allows for rule-based expression of an infinite number of concepts productivity
12. Speech that doesn’t focus on correctness and arbitrary rules imposed by unauthorised group of
people , describing what language speakers actually do. Descriptive Grammar
13. The ability to communicate about something not present in space or time. Displacement
14. –each of the symbols represents a single type of sound Alphabetic writing
15. The study of the minimal units of the language (e.g the sounds of the spoken language)
16. The directives or rules in language. It is concerned with norms or rules for correct usage, telling
you how to speak more correctly. Prescriptive Grammar
17. The signal serves some useful purpose pragmatic function
18. The ability to both send and receive messages. Interchangeability
19. The notion that some part is learned through interaction with others. Cultural Transmission
20. The symbol for one entity is taken over as the symbol for the sound of the spoken word used to
refer to that entity Rebus writing
21. The form of a symbol is not inherently related to the meaning of function Arbitrariness
What does the sign / / represent?
a) Phonetic transcription
b) Centralization
c) Voiced bilabial nasal
d) Rising- falling pitch

What is the term used for ingressive air-sounds produced?

a) Claps
b) Snap
c) Clicks
d) Beats

What does the phonetic symbol d represent?

a) Voiced bilabial plosive
b) Voiceless palatal plosive
c) Voiced alveolor plosive
d) Voiced dental fricative

Which is obstruent sound?

Stops, Fricatives, Affricates.

The 'Stops' are generally knowm by tge term 'Plosives'

An obstruent is a speech sound such as [k], [d͡ʒ], or [f] that is formed by obstructing airflow. Obstruents
contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are
consonants, but sonorants include both vowels and consonants.
Both stops and fricatives are more commonly voiceless than voiced, and are known as obstruents.) ...
However, nasals are also obstruents in their articulation because the flow of air through the mouth is
blocked

Sonorant, in phonetics, any of the nasal, liquid, and glide consonants that are marked by a continuing
resonant sound. Sonorants have more acoustic energy than other consonants. In English the sonorants
are y, w, l, r, m, n, and ng. See also nasal; liquid.

Difference between PICTOGRAM,

IDEOGRAM & LOGOGRAM

ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 at
the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum
There are 20 vowel sounds.
What is number of long vowel sounds?
short vowels sounds ? and
Diphthong sounds ?

1. Behaviourist theory is basically a psychological theory

2. Behaviourist theory founded by J.B Watson
3. Behaviourism was advanced in America in early 20th century emphasizing on importance OF
verbal behaviour
4. Thorndike was the first behaviourist to explore the area that learning is the establishment
of association particular process of behaviour and consequences of that behaviour
5. Behaviourist theory dwells on spoken language
6. Anderson has described cognitive skill acquisition as a three stage process that are
cognitive, associative, and autonomous stages
7. During the associative stage of skill acquisition the errors in the original declarative
representation of the stored information are gradually detected and eliminated
8. During the autonomous stage of skill acquisition, the performance becomes increasingly
fine-tuned, automatic, and errors disappear.
9. In cognitive theory language comprehension is viewed as consisting of active and complex
processes in which individual constructs meaning from aural or written information
10. Anderson differentiates comprehension into three interrelated processes perceptual
processing, parsing and utilization.
11. In cognitive theory language production is seen as an active process of meaning ,
instruction and expression
12. Anderson indicates that language production can be divided into three stages
Construction, transformation and execution.
13. The different arrangements or patterns of words are called structures
14. Structural approach is not a method of teaching but an approach to language teaching. An
approach tell us what to teach while a method tells us how to teach
15. There are about 275 structures in English
16. In the opinion of little wood foreign language learners need opportunities to develop the
skills by being exposed to situation.
17. Direct method is also known as natural method
18. Theory of stimulus, classical conditioning response theory Pavlov he was Russian
physiologist (did research on dog)
19. Trail and error theory (1913) thorndike ( he was American psychologist , focus on stimulus)
cat (puzzle box), thorndike said learning is connecting. The mind is mans connection
system. He is the father of modern educational psychology in US
20. Insight theory kohler (German psychologist) champion zee
 21. Operant conditioning theory skinner (American psychologist (focus on response ) Rat
1938, R.S theory, used skinner box) after five years did research on kabutar penguin
(used skinner box)
22. Theory of imitation bandura
23. Gestalt word of German language (it is in insight theory) whole, total pattern ,
configuration all of these
24. John Watson apply classical conditioning to children behaviour. (Albert)
25. Father of behaviourism john Watson
26. Law of learning

(1)Law of readiness
Learning will be effective if learner ready to learn
(2) Law of exercise or frequency
Law of newness
Law of use and disuse
(3) Law of effect
Law of like and dislike
Law of pleasure and pain
Law of satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Classical Conditioning

 First described by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist

 Focuses on involuntary, automatic behaviors
 Involves placing a neutral signal before a reflex

Operant Conditioning (focus on response)

 First described by B. F. Skinner, an American psychologist

 Involves applying reinforcement or punishment after a behavior
 Focuses on strengthening or weakening voluntary behaviors

Law of partial activity whole to part , part to whole

Trail and error theory also called Bond theory is given by thorndike

Phoeneme — Sound (single unit)

Syntax—system of rules (structure )

Morpheme—smallest meaningful unit

Semantics —meaning of words phrase

Chomsky American (father of modern linguistics ) (91 years ) book mind and language

Left brain side (logic, LAD, Language,symbol)

Right brain side (Creativity)

Role of LAD to generate grammar rules

What is semantics? 
Ans. Semantics is the study of the meanings of words, phrases and sentences

Sign object, signifier (the physical existence (sound, word, image) , Signified the mental
concept(fruit,apple, tree, computer)

Q. What is Signifier? 
Ans. Signifier is the sound or pronunciation of a word

Q. What is Signified? 
Ans. Signified is the meaning indicated by the signifier/pronunciation of a word

Q. What is Conceptual meaning? 

Ans. The basic meaning conveyed by words e.g. the word needle means "thin, sharp, steel
instrument"

Q. What is Associative meaning? 

Ans. The type of meaning that people connect with words e.g. the word needle may be
associated with "pain, illness, blood, drugs or knitting"

Q. Conceptual meaning is also called? 

Ans. Denotative meaning which means dictionary meaning

Q. Associative meaning is also called? 

Ans. Connotative meaning which means what the words actually connote in different situations

Q. What is meant by Semantic Features in Semantics? 

Ans. Basic elements such as 'human' included as plus (+human) or minus (-human) used in the
analysis of words.

Q. Give an example of a semantically incorrect sentence? 

Ans. "The horse is reading the newspaper." This sentence is structurally correct but semantically
incorrect

Q. What is Semantic Role? 

Ans. The part played by a noun phrase, such as the subject, in a sentence is called semantic role 
The most obvious semantic role or theta role is called the agent. The agent is the 'doer' of an action
described by a 'doing' verb. So John is the agent in the following example: John steered the boat.
Thematic relations, also known as semantic roles

1.Agent: The ‘doer’ or instigator of the action denoted by the predicate.

2.Patient: The ‘undergoer’ of the action or event denoted by the predicate.
3.Theme: The entity that is moved by the action or event denoted by the predicate.
4.Experiencer: The living entity that experiences the action or event denoted by the predicate.
5.Goal: The location or entity in the direction of which something moves.
6.Benefactive: The entity that benefits from the action or event denoted by the predicate.
7Source: The location or entity from which something moves
8.Instrument: The medium by which the action or event denoted by the predicate is carried out.
9.Locative: The specification of the place where the action or event denoted by the predicate in
situated.

Q. Semantic Roles are also called? 

Ans. Thematic Roles

Q. How many common semantic roles are there? 

Ans. 7

Q. What is the first semantic role called Agent OR Doer? 

Ans. Agent is the doer of an action e.g. 'Ahmad' in the sentence, "Ahmad called me."

Q. What is the second semantic role called Patient OR Theme? 

Ans. It refers to what is acted upon by the Agent e.g. 'boat' in the sentence, "John steered the
boat."

Q. What is the third semantic role called Recipient OR Receiver? 

Ans. It indicates a receiver in a situation e.g. 'Ali' in the sentence, "The children sent Ali a
postcard."

Q. What is the fourth semantic role called Instrument? 

Ans. It identifies the entity that is used to perform an action e.g. 'Razor' in the sentence, "The boy
cut the rope with a razor."

Q. What is the fifth semantic role called Experimenter? 

Ans. It is the entity that has the feeling e.g. 'The Boy' in the sentence, "The Boy feels bad."

Q. What is the sixth semantic role called Source? 

Ans. It identifies where an entity moves from e.g. 'The House' in the sentence, "The Boy ran
from the house."

Q. What is the seventh semantic role called Goal? 

Ans. It identifies where an entity moves to e.g. The Window in the sentence, "The boy walked to
the window."
Q. Does a semantic role change in passive voice? 
Ans. No, because nothing changes in the real world e.g. "John steered the boat" becomes "The
boat was steered by John." Still John is the Agent

Q. What is Synonymy? 
Ans. The lexical relation in which two or more words have very closely related meanings e.g.
'Conceal' is a synonym of 'Hide'

Q. What is Antonymy? 
Ans. The lexical relation in which words have opposite meanings e.g. 'Shallow' is an Antonym of
'Deep'

Q. What are Gradable Antonyms? 

Ans. Words with opposite meanings along a scale e.g. small-medium-large-extra large

Q. What are Non-gradable Antonyms? 

Ans. Words which are direct opposites e.g. alive-dead

Q. What is Hyponymy? 
Ans. The lexical relation in which the meaning of one word is included in the meaning of another
word e.g. daffodil is a hyponym of flower because flower is common name for different flower

Q. What are Co-hyponyms? 

Ans. Two or more words that share the same broader category are co-hyponyms e.g. dog and
horse are co-hyponyms as both are animals

Q. What is Superordinate? 
Ans. Superordinate means higher-level term e.g. dog and horse both have the same
Superordinate "Animal"

Q. What is Prototype? 
Ans. The most common example of a category is called prototype e.g. Robin is the prototype of
bird

Q. What are Homophones? 

Ans. Two or more words with different spellings and meanings but the same pronunciation e.g.
to-too-two

Q. What are Homonyms? 

Ans. Two words with the same spellings and pronunciation but different meanings e.g. mole(on
a skin) and mole(an animal) 

Q. What is Polysemy? 
Ans. A word having two or more related meanings e.g. foot of a person, of bed, of mountain
Q. What are mostly used for Word Play? 
Ans. Homophones, homonyms and Polysemy

Q. What is Metonymy? 
Ans. A word used in place of another with which it is closely connected in everyday experience
e.g. Hollywood is used for English movies while it is actually a district of USA
Queen or king , crown , queen still exit without crown,
Whitehouse is metonymy for president

Q. What is Collocation? 
Ans. Words that frequently occur together e.g. salt and pepper

Q. The basic principle of Lexicography is? Ans. Synonymy. Note: lexicography is the process of
writing, editing and compiling a dictionary

Q. The soul of language is? 

Ans. Meaning

Q. Words are not only associated with situations but also with? 
Ans. Other words

Q. Who developed a field called general semantics? 

Ans. Alfred Habdank

Q. What are the two main areas of semantics? 

Ans. Logical semantics and lexical semantics

logically * logical analysis * logical atomism * logical positivism * logical empiricism

lexical (linguistics) concerning lexicography or a lexicon or dictionary

Q. Macro Linguistics? 
Ans. It is concerned with the way languages are acquired, stored in the brain and used for various
functions.

Q. Geographical Linguistics? 
Ans. It studies the geographic distribution of language

Q. Diachronic OR Historical Linguistics? 

Ans. It studies the history and development of languages

Q. Comparative OR Contrastive Linguistics? Ans. The study of similarities and differences

between languages

Q. Psycholinguistics? 
Ans. It examines how humans acquire, use and understand language 

Q. Sociolinguistics? 
Ans. It studies the relationship between language and society. It tells how language is affected by
social factors such as gender, ethnicity, age or social class

Q. Ethnolinguistics? 
Ans. It studies the relationship between language and culture

Q. Biolinguistics? 
Ans. The study of language functions as derived from the biological characteristics of an
organism.

Q. Creolistics? 
Ans. It is the study of both creoles and the pidgin languages from which creoles develop.

Q. Evolutionary linguistics? 
Ans. The study of the origin and subsequent development of language.

Q. Clinical Linguistics? 
Ans. It deals with the application of linguistic science to the study of communication disability in
order to treat an individual

Q. Forensic Linguistics? 
Ans. It helps in legal domain to identify speaker from voice recording etc

Q. Cognitive Linguistics? 
Ans. It describes how language interacts with cognition, how language forms our thoughts. It is
the study of language as a mental phenomenon

Q. Corpus Linguistics? 
Ans. It deals with the principles and practice of using corpora in language study. It studies
language as expressed in corpora (samples) of real world text.

Q. Philosophy Of Linguistics? 
Ans. Philosophy of linguistics is the philosophy of other special sciences as applied to linguistics

Q. Text Linguistics? 
Ans. It is concerned with the description and analysis of extended texts (either spoken or written)
in communicative contexts.

Q. Discourse Analysis? 
Ans. It is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social
context.

Q. Neurolinguistics? 
Ans. It deals with the relationship between language and the structure and functioning of the
brain.
Q. Applied linguistics? 
Ans. The study of applying linguistics to real-life situations e.g. language teaching

Q. Computational Linguistics? 
Ans. The application of computer science to the analysis, synthesis and comprehension of
written and spoken language

Q. Linguistic Philosophy? 
Ans. It tells that philosophical problems could be solved either by reforming language or by
understanding more about the language that we presently use

🔸 MICRO LINGUISTICS 🔸

Q. Micro Linguistics? 
Ans. It is concerned only with the structures of the language system

Q. Phonology? 
Ans. It is the study of how speech sounds function in a particular language 

Q. Synchronic Linguistics? 
Ans. Synchronic linguistics is the study of a language at one particular period (usually the
present). It is also known as descriptive linguistics

Q. Descriptive Linguistics? 
Ans. It describes the structure of a language as it exists, without reference to its history or to
comparison with other languages

Q. Grammar OR Syntax? 
Ans. Grammar is the way we arrange words to make proper sentences

Q. Semantics? 
Ans. It is the study of the relationship between words and how we draw meaning from those
words

Q. Pragmatics? 
Ans. It studies how context affects meaning in human language

Q. Dialectology? 
Ans. The branch of linguistics concerned with the study of dialects. Dialect is a regional variety
of language 

Q. Morphology? 
Ans. The study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same
language
Q. Phonetics? 
Ans. It studies the sounds of human speech

Q. Phonemics? 
Ans. It is the study of phonemes. The /s/ in ‘soar’ distinguishes it from /r/ in ‘roar’ in
pronunciation as well as meaning

Q. Morphophonology? 
Ans. It deals with the phonological representation of morphemes. E.g. plurals "-es" and "-s", as
in "bus, buses", versus "bun, buns"

Q. Lexicology? 
Ans. It studies the stock of words (the lexicon OR vocabulary) in a given language

Q. Lexicography? 
Ans. The process of writing, editing and compiling a dictionary

Q. Translation Theory? 
Ans. Translation Theory is concerned with the translation method appropriately used for a
certain type of text

Q. Etymology? 
Ans. The study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed
throughout history

Q. Stylistics? 
Ans. It is concerned with the study of style in texts especially literary works

Q. Phraseology? 
Ans. It is the study of fixed expressions, such as idioms and phrasal verbs whose meanings can't
be predicted by translating every single word

Q. Quantitative Linguistics? 
Ans. Statistical and other quantitative concepts, models and methods which are used in the
analysis of languages OR texts.

Q. What is Morphology? 
Ans. Morphology is the study and analysis of the structure, form and classes of words

Q. We can also say that morphology is the study of? 

Ans. Morphemes

Q. What is a morpheme? 
Ans. A word or a part of a word that has a meaning or a function e.g. in the word 'dogs', the
morpheme dog has meaning but the morpheme -s makes it plural
Q. The plural suffix must follow? 
Ans. The stem of the word e.g. dog-s, cat-s, stone-s

Q. Each functional and lexical piece of a word is called? 

Ans. A morpheme e.g. the word 'dog' has one morpheme and the word 'dogs' has two morphemes

Q. The term Morphology means? 

Ans. The study of forms which means the study of morphemes

Q. Although Morphology was first used in Biology, when was it used for the first time in the
study of language? 
Ans. In the middle of the 19th century

Q. What is the main difference between word and morpheme? 

Ans. A word stands by itself and a morpheme may or may not stand alone

Q. When a morpheme stands by itself, it is called? 

Ans. Root because it has a meaning of its own e.g. the morpheme 'cat'

Q. When a morpheme depends on another morpheme it is called? 

Ans. An affix because it has a grammatical function e.g. 's' in cats

Q. What are Free Morphemes? 

Ans. Morphemes that stand by themselves as single words e.g the words open and tour

Q. What are Bound Morphemes? 

Ans. Morphemes such as 'un' or 'ed' that can't stand alone and must be attached to another
morpheme as 'un and ed' in the word undressed

Q. Free Morphemes fall into? 

Ans. Two categories Lexical and Functional 

Q. What is Lexical Morpheme? 

Ans. A free morpheme that is a content word such as a noun or verb e.g. Girl or hit

Q. What is Functional Morpheme? 

Ans. A morpheme that is used as function word such as a conjunction (and) or a preposition (in)

Q. Lexical Morphemes are? 

Ans. Verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives 

Q. Functional morphemes are?

 Ans. Conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns

Q. Lexical Morphemes are also called? 

Ans. Open class words... Because new words are added to them everyday
Q. Functional Morphemes are also called? 
Ans. Closed class words... because new words can't be added to them

Q. Bound Morphemes fall into? 

Ans. Two categories, derivational and inflectional

Q. What is Derivational morpheme? 

Ans. Morphemes that make words of different grammatical category from the stem e.g.
Derivational morpheme 'ness' changes the adjective good to the noun goodness

Q. What is inflectional morpheme? 

Ans. Inflectional morphemes are used to show if a word is plural or singular, if it is paste tense
or not, and if it is comparative or possessive form

Q. English has how many inflectional morphemes? 

Ans. Only eight... For noun -'s for possession and -s for plural; for verb -s, - ing, -ed, -en; for
adjective -er and -est

Q. The main difference between inflectional and derivational morphemes is? 

Ans. Inflectional morpheme doesn't change the category of word while derivational changes the
category

Q. What is Morph? 
Ans. Morph is the other name of morpheme e.g. the word cats consists of two morphemes cat
and -s... Cat is lexical morpheme and -s is inflectional morpheme

Q. What is Allomorph? 
Ans. One of a set of forms that a morpheme may take in different contexts e.g. the -s of cats, the
-en of oxen are allomorphs of the English plural morpheme

Q. Morphology plays an important role in? Ans. Theories of the acquisition of language and in
theories of language change

Q. Our morphological knowledge has what two components? 

Ans. Knowledge of the individual morphemes
 AND knowledge of the rules that combine them

Q. What is Syntax? 
Ans. The way in which words are put together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences

Q. What allow(s) the grammatical inflection of words and are used to change the syntactic class
of words? 
Ans. Morphemes

Q. Allow and kick are examples of which type of morpheme? 

Ans. Free morpheme

Q. What is Eponym? 
Ans. New words based on the name of a person or place are called Eponyms e.g. the word jeans
from the Italian city Genoa where this type of cloth was first made

Q. What is Backformation? 
Ans. The process of reducing a word such as a noun to a shorter version and using it as a new
word such as a verb e.g. Babysit from babysitter

Q. What is Coinage? 
Ans. The invention of new words e.g xerox

Q. The most typical sources of Coinage are? Ans. Commercial products that become general
terms e.g. aspirin, nylon, zipper

Q. The most salient contemporary example of Coinage is? 

Ans. The word google which is originally a misspelling for the word googol

Q. What is Borrowing? 
Ans. The process of taking words from other languages... As English has taken words from many
languages

Q. What is Compounding? 
Ans. The process of combining two or more words to form a new word e.g. Bookcases, textbook,
fingerprint

Q. What is Blending? 
Ans. The process of combining the beginning of one word and the end of another word to form a
new word e.g. Brunch from breakfast and lunch; smog from smoke and fog

Q. What is clipping? 
Ans. The process of reducing a word of more than one syllable to a shorter form e.g. 'ad' from
advertisement and 'flu' from influenza 

Q. What is Hypocorism? 
Ans. A process in which a longer word is reduced to a shorter form with y or ie at the end e.g
'movie' from moving pictures and 'telly' from television

Q. What is Conversion? 
Ans. The process of changing the function of a word, such as a noun to a verb e.g. the noun
vacation as a verb in 'they are vacationing in Lahore'

Q. What are Acronyms? 

Ans. Acronyms are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words e.g. NASA
from National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Q. What is Affix? 
Ans. A bound morpheme such as un- or ed- added to a word e.g. undressed

Q. What is Derivation? 
Ans. The process of forming new words by adding affixes e.g. Unhappy from happy and
misrepresent from represent

Q. What is etymology? 
Ans. The study of the origin and history of words

Q. The word etymology is originated from? Ans. Greek

Q. What is suffix? 
Ans. A bound morpheme added to the end of a word e.g. ness in illness

Q. What is prefix? 
Ans. A bound morpheme added to the beginning of a word e.g. 'un' in unclear

Q. What is the general name for prefixes and suffixes? 

Ans. Affixes

Q. The study of the systems and patterns of speech sounds is? 

Ans. Phonology

Q. Phonology is based on the theory that? Ans. Every speaker of a language unconsciously
knows about the sound patterns of that language

Q. Phonology is about? 
Ans. The general sounds i.e. when we think of the 't' sound in the words "tar, star, writer" as
being the same, we actually mean that phonologically although phonetically they are different 

Q. What is used to indicate phoneme in abstract? 

Ans. Slash marks e.g. /t/, /k/

Q. What is used to indicate each physically produced sound also called stops or plosives? 
Ans. Square brackets as in [t], [k]

Q. An essential property of phoneme is that? 

Ans. It functions contrastively e.g. the phonemes /f/ and /v/ in fat and vat.. Meaning changes if
we substitute f or v

Q. What is phoneme? 
Ans. The smallest unit of speech that can be used to make one word different from another word
e.g. c and b are different phonemes in the words cat and bat
Q. In phonology what do we use in charts for an existing feature or missing feature?
 Ans. Plus + and Minus - respectively... e.g. +voice for voiced sounds and -voice for voiceless

Q. What are aspirated speech sounds? 

Ans. aspirated sounds are pronounced with a forceful expulsion of air e.g. p, t and k in pat, top
and keel

Q. Nasal sounds in English are represented by a small mark called? 

Ans. Tilde (~)

Q. What is minimal pair? 

Ans. Two or more words that are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme in the
same position in each word e.g. bad, mad

Q. What is Phonotactics? 
Ans. Constraints on the permissible combination of phonemes in a language e.g. we can never
have words like "fsig" or "rnig"

Q. What is syllable? 
Ans. Any one of the parts into which a word is naturally 
divided when it is pronounced. Each part must have a vowel e.g. the word doctor has two
syllables doc and tor

Q. The basic elements of syllable are? 

Ans. Three... They are Onset, Rhyme and Coda

Q. What is Onset? 
Ans. The part of the syllable before the vowel e.g. 'Cl' in clean

Q. What is Rhyme? 
Ans. The part of the syllable which consists of a vowel e.g 'ea' in clean

Q. What is Coda? 
Ans. The part of a syllable after the vowel e.g. 'n' in clean

Q. What are Open Syllables? 

Ans. Syllables which have Onset and Rhyme but no Coda are open syllables e.g. Me, to, no

Q. What are Closed Syllables? 

Ans. Syllables which end which a consonant or coda e.g. Chit, kit, kick

Q. What is Consonant Cluster? 

Ans. Two or more consonants in sequence is called Consonant Cluster e.g. st in stop

Q. What is Co-articulation? 
Ans. In spoken language, the process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next
sound is called Co-articulation
Q. What are the two well-known co-articulation effects? 
Ans. Assimilation and Elision

Q. What is Assimilation? 
Ans. The process by which one sound becomes more like a nearby sound e.g. Handbag is
pronounced as hanbag

Q. What is Elision? 
Ans. Elision is the omission of sounds in speech e.g. we pronounce the phrase 'he must be' as 'he
mus be'

Q. Assimilation and elision are parts of? 

Ans. Normal speech

Q. What are phones? 

Ans. Phones are general human sounds irrespective of their place in the sound system of a
language

Q. What are allophones? 

Ans. One of two or more variants of the same phoneme. The aspirated 'p' of pin and the
unaspirated 'p' of spin are allophones of the phoneme p .

What a speaker or writer assumes is true or known by a listener (or reader)

Presupposition

According to Austin (1962) in his speech acts theory , there are 3 actions related to speech acts
The first act is Locutionary act which is the basic production of meaningful utterance.
The performance of an utterance and its meaning is locutionary.
This act is much related to the hearer.
If the hearer fails to understand what the speaker is saying then the speaker has failed to do a
locutionary act.
In uttering a sentence or word , one must have a certain intension
A/An illocutionary act is accomplished via utterance with a communicative intension
A speaker may perform act to make promise, offer etc which is as proposed by Austin as illocutionary
force
Prelocutionary Act talks about producing the effect of the meaningful, intentional utterance

While making utterance that intent to make someone to drink coffees is successfully performed the
effect is that someone actually drink the coffee is also known as perloculionary effect

The effect on the listener persuading convincing inspiring scaring can be intended or not is
perloculionary act
The study of intended speaker meaning is called pragmatics
The set of words used in the same phrase or sentence is called linguistics context it is also known as co-
text
Words that cannot be interpreted at all without the physical context of the speaker are called Dixies
Any additional information used by the listener to connect what is said to what must be meant is called
Inference
A subsequent reference to an already introduced entity is called Anaphora
Linkage of ideas in a text is called Coherence
A conventional knowledge structure which exits in memory is called schema
The study of invisible meaning what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or written context.
The public self- image the emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone
else to recognize face
The need to be connected to belong to be a member of the group positive face
Subsequent reference to an already introduced entity referring back Anaphora
Uses typical syntactic form when an interrogative structure is used with the function of a question (can
you ride a bicycle). Direct speech act
Used to point to time (tomorrow , that day , overmorrow , last year temporal deixis
Used to point to things ( it , this, these , ) and people (him, them, those idiots ) personal deixis
Used to point to places (here, there , younder) spatial deixis
Words do not refer to something people do
Pragmatics is an important aspect of language for both children and adults . it involves both verbal and
non-verbal communication.
Showing awareness and consideration of another person’s face politeness
Set of other words used in the same phrase or sentence (bank with steep or overgrown) linguistic
context/co-text
The need to be independent and free from imposition negative face
Connection between what is said and what is meant inference
Cataphora the use of a word or phrase that refers to or stands for a later word or phrase (e.g. the
pronoun he in he may be approaching 37, but Jeff has no plans to retire from the sport yet ).
Face threatening act if you say something that represents a threat to another person’s self image (give
me that pepper
Reference An act by which a speaker(or writer) uses language to enable a listener (or reader)to identify
something
Baby and toddler sale, heated attendant parking are example of invisible meaning
Co-text is also called Linguistic context
My car broke down , presupposition of this sentence I have a car
My car broke down entailment of this sentence The car needs repair

Semantics
Synecdoche when a part represents a whole entity it is known as
Meaning is in people
The pioneer work in general semantics is science and sanity

Semantic assumptions underlying scientific century

The universe is verb
A fact is a rapidly aging event
Map is not territory
 General semantics is most based on principle of science
Saussure used sound and meaning

Sound is signifier
Thought is signified
Thing is significant
Meaning which a speaker or writer intends but it is not communicated directly implication
The shape of needle refers to conceptual meaning
The pain of needle refers to associative meaning
Smoke with fire refers to natural meaning
White as symbol of piece refers to conventional meaning
Anomia a language disorder in which it is difficult to find words often associated with wernicke’s area
Agrammatic speech the type of speech without grammatical markers , often associated with brocas
aphasia
Anticipation slip of tongue cup of tea tup of tea
Arbitrariness No natural connection between linguistic form and meaning
Articulatory parameters the key aspects of visual information used in description of signs (shape,
orientation, location, and movement.
Ameslan, ASL American sign language
Broadening a semantic change in which word is used with a more general meaning eg foda, (animal
fodder , food any kind) contrast narrowing.

Cognates words in different languages that have similar form and meaning English friend , german
freund
Digraph a combination of letters used in writing for a single sound eg ph for f
Temporal deixis now or tomorrow as a way of pointing time.
Tautology
Soopnerism slip of tongue
MCE manually coded English or Signed English
Shape the configuration the hand (s) as an articulatory parameter ASL