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Linguistics — Basic Concepts — GK Questions with Answers

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29 questions
  1. The study of the sound system of a particular language is —
    1. phonetics
    2. phonology
    3. morphology
    4. phonemics
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    Answer: (B) phonology

    Phonology is language-specific; phonetics studies speech sounds universally.

  2. The father of modern linguistics is —
    1. Chomsky
    2. Saussure
    3. Bloomfield
    4. Sapir
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    Answer: (B) Saussure

    Ferdinand de Saussure, whose Course appeared in 1916.

  3. Saussure’s "langue" corresponds most closely to Chomsky’s —
    1. parole
    2. performance
    3. competence
    4. surface structure
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    Answer: (C) competence

    Competence — though Saussure’s is social and Chomsky’s psychological.

  4. Syntactic Structures (1957) was written by —
    1. Bloomfield
    2. Chomsky
    3. Halliday
    4. Firth
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    Answer: (B) Chomsky

    Noam Chomsky, beginning the generative revolution.

  5. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" was used to show that —
    1. English has no deep structure
    2. syntax is independent of meaning
    3. meaning determines grammar
    4. all sentences are ambiguous
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    Answer: (B) syntax is independent of meaning

    A sentence can be perfectly grammatical and completely meaningless.

  6. The Language Acquisition Device was proposed by —
    1. Skinner
    2. Chomsky
    3. Piaget
    4. Vygotsky
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    Answer: (B) Chomsky

    Chomsky, against Skinner’s behaviourist account.

  7. The hypothesis that language influences thought is called —
    1. the innateness hypothesis
    2. linguistic relativity
    3. the critical period hypothesis
    4. the input hypothesis
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    Answer: (B) linguistic relativity

    The weak form of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.

  8. "Communicative competence" was coined by —
    1. Chomsky
    2. Dell Hymes
    3. Halliday
    4. Widdowson
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    Answer: (B) Dell Hymes

    Dell Hymes, widening Chomsky’s narrower notion.

  9. The earliest formal grammar of any language was written by —
    1. Aristotle
    2. Pāṇini
    3. Donatus
    4. Dionysius Thrax
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    Answer: (B) Pāṇini

    Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī, on Sanskrit.

  10. "Flying planes can be dangerous" is an example of —
    1. lexical ambiguity
    2. structural ambiguity
    3. referential ambiguity
    4. phonological ambiguity
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    Answer: (B) structural ambiguity

    One surface string with two deep structures.

  1. Rose in relation to flower is a —
    1. hypernym
    2. hyponym
    3. meronym
    4. synonym
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    Answer: (B) hyponym

    A hyponym; flower is the hypernym.

  2. Finger in relation to hand is a —
    1. hyponym
    2. meronym
    3. hypernym
    4. homonym
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    Answer: (B) meronym

    A meronym — a part of a whole.

  3. Bank (of a river) and bank (for money) are an example of —
    1. polysemy
    2. homonymy
    3. synonymy
    4. hyponymy
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    Answer: (B) homonymy

    The senses are unrelated, so this is homonymy.

  4. Alive / dead is which kind of antonym?
    1. gradable
    2. complementary
    3. relational
    4. converse
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    Answer: (B) complementary

    Complementary — there is no middle ground.

  5. Buy / sell is which kind of antonym?
    1. gradable
    2. complementary
    3. relational
    4. reflected
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    Answer: (C) relational

    Relational or converse — each implies the other from the opposite side.

  6. We say strong tea and not powerful tea because of —
    1. connotation
    2. collocation
    3. denotation
    4. componential analysis
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    Answer: (B) collocation

    Collocation — the habitual company a word keeps.

  7. How to Do Things with Words (1962) was written by —
    1. John Searle
    2. J. L. Austin
    3. H. P. Grice
    4. Geoffrey Leech
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    Answer: (B) J. L. Austin

    J. L. Austin, the founder of speech act theory.

  8. The effect an utterance has on the hearer is the —
    1. locutionary act
    2. illocutionary act
    3. perlocutionary act
    4. performative
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    Answer: (C) perlocutionary act

    The perlocutionary act — persuading, frightening, convincing.

  9. "I now pronounce you man and wife" is an example of a —
    1. constative
    2. performative
    3. implicature
    4. presupposition
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    Answer: (B) performative

    A performative — the act is done by the saying.

  10. How many maxims are there under Grice’s Cooperative Principle?
    1. three
    2. four
    3. five
    4. six
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) four

    Four — Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner.

  1. Irony and metaphor are usually explained as a flouting of the maxim of —
    1. quantity
    2. quality
    3. relation
    4. manner
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    Answer: (B) quality

    The speaker says what is literally false — flouting Quality.

  2. The wish not to be imposed upon is called —
    1. positive face
    2. negative face
    3. face-threatening act
    4. tact maxim
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) negative face

    Negative face, in Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory.

  3. Words like here, now and you, whose reference depends on context, are —
    1. deictic
    2. anaphoric
    3. cataphoric
    4. elliptical
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    Answer: (A) deictic

    They are deictic expressions.

  4. The surface linking of a text by pronouns and connectives is —
    1. coherence
    2. cohesion
    3. collocation
    4. implicature
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    Answer: (B) cohesion

    Cohesion; coherence is the underlying sense.

  5. Krashen’s "i + 1" refers to —
    1. one extra hour of study
    2. comprehensible input just beyond the learner’s level
    3. one new word per lesson
    4. the first and second languages
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    Answer: (B) comprehensible input just beyond the learner’s level

    Input must be understandable but slightly challenging.

  6. Which of Krashen’s hypotheses explains why an anxious learner acquires less?
    1. Monitor
    2. Natural Order
    3. Input
    4. Affective Filter
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    Answer: (D) Affective Filter

    The Affective Filter rises with anxiety and blocks input.

  7. The learner’s own developing language system is called —
    1. interference
    2. interlanguage
    3. fossilisation
    4. transfer
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    Answer: (B) interlanguage

    Interlanguage, a term of Selinker.

  8. The distinction between a "mistake" and an "error" was drawn by —
    1. Krashen
    2. Pit Corder
    3. Selinker
    4. Lenneberg
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    Answer: (B) Pit Corder

    Corder — a mistake is a slip; an error shows a gap in knowledge.

  9. The Zone of Proximal Development is a concept of —
    1. Piaget
    2. Vygotsky
    3. Skinner
    4. Bruner
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) Vygotsky

    Lev Vygotsky, with the related idea of scaffolding.

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