1. Home
  2. GK Questions
  3. English Literature
  4. Varieties of Language

Varieties of Language — GK Questions with Answers

Current Affairs 2026 Today's GK Quiz Static GK हिन्दी
24 questions
  1. A variety of language determined by the user is called a —
    1. register
    2. dialect
    3. style
    4. mode
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) dialect

    Dialectal varieties go with who you are; register goes with what you are doing.

  2. The speech habits of a single individual form his —
    1. sociolect
    2. idiolect
    3. ethnolect
    4. dialect
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) idiolect

    An idiolect — nobody speaks exactly like anybody else.

  3. The difference between a dialect and an accent is that an accent involves —
    1. only grammar
    2. only vocabulary
    3. only pronunciation
    4. only region
    Show answer

    Answer: (C) only pronunciation

    An accent is pronunciation alone; a dialect also has its own words and grammar.

  4. A variety associated with social class or occupation is a —
    1. dialect
    2. sociolect
    3. idiolect
    4. register
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) sociolect

    A sociolect.

  5. Received Pronunciation is best described as —
    1. a dialect of English
    2. an accent of English
    3. a register
    4. a creole
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) an accent of English

    RP is an accent; it has no special vocabulary or grammar of its own.

  6. The three dimensions of register, in Halliday’s analysis, are —
    1. form, meaning, use
    2. field, tenor, mode
    3. sense, feeling, tone
    4. subject, speaker, setting
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) field, tenor, mode

    Field (subject), tenor (relationship), mode (medium).

  7. Which of Joos’s five styles would a prayer belong to?
    1. formal
    2. frozen
    3. consultative
    4. intimate
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) frozen

    Frozen style — fixed, unchanging texts.

  8. The technical vocabulary of a profession is called —
    1. slang
    2. jargon
    3. argot
    4. colloquialism
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) jargon

    Jargon — efficient inside the group, obscure outside it.

  9. A pidgin is distinguished from a creole chiefly because a pidgin —
    1. is spoken only in Africa
    2. has no native speakers
    3. has no grammar
    4. is a written language
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) has no native speakers

    A pidgin is nobody’s mother tongue; a creole is.

  10. When a pidgin acquires native speakers, the process is called —
    1. decreolisation
    2. creolisation
    3. pidginisation
    4. nativisation
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) creolisation

    Creolisation.

  1. Which of these is a creole?
    1. Chinese Pidgin English
    2. Haitian Creole
    3. Esperanto
    4. Received Pronunciation
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) Haitian Creole

    Haitian Creole is a full language with native speakers.

  2. The word "pidgin" is usually said to derive from a pronunciation of —
    1. pigeon
    2. business
    3. bridge
    4. beginning
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) business

    A Chinese pronunciation of the English word business.

  3. A language used between speakers who share no mother tongue is a —
    1. pidgin
    2. creole
    3. lingua franca
    4. sociolect
    Show answer

    Answer: (C) lingua franca

    A lingua franca — defined by function, not by form.

  4. Diglossia involves —
    1. two unrelated languages
    2. two varieties of one language used for separate purposes
    3. two accents of one dialect
    4. a pidgin and a creole
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) two varieties of one language used for separate purposes

    A High variety for formal use and a Low variety for everyday use.

  5. The modern account of diglossia was given by —
    1. Joshua Fishman
    2. Charles Ferguson
    3. John Gumperz
    4. Braj Kachru
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) Charles Ferguson

    Charles Ferguson, in 1959; Fishman later extended it.

  6. "Mujhe kal submit karna hai yeh assignment" is an example of —
    1. code-switching
    2. code-mixing
    3. diglossia
    4. borrowing
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) code-mixing

    English words inside one Hindi sentence — code-mixing, or intra-sentential.

  7. Code-switching, strictly used, happens —
    1. within a single word
    2. within a single sentence
    3. between sentences or clauses
    4. only in writing
    Show answer

    Answer: (C) between sentences or clauses

    Between sentences — inter-sentential. Mixing happens within.

  8. Switching codes because a new person joins the conversation is —
    1. metaphorical switching
    2. situational switching
    3. borrowing
    4. diglossia
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) situational switching

    The situation has changed, so the switch is situational.

  9. Braj Kachru’s model divides world English into —
    1. two circles
    2. three circles
    3. four circles
    4. five circles
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) three circles

    Inner, Outer and Expanding circles.

  10. India belongs to Kachru’s —
    1. Inner Circle
    2. Outer Circle
    3. Expanding Circle
    4. none of these
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) Outer Circle

    The Outer Circle — English has institutional status from colonial history.

  1. Countries of the Inner Circle are described as —
    1. norm-dependent
    2. norm-developing
    3. norm-providing
    4. norm-free
    Show answer

    Answer: (C) norm-providing

    Inner = providing, Outer = developing, Expanding = dependent.

  2. Which is a characteristic coinage of Indian English?
    1. preplan
    2. prepone
    3. prefix
    4. preview
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) prepone

    Prepone, formed on the analogy of postpone.

  3. Using a bilingual learner’s whole linguistic repertoire deliberately in class is now called —
    1. code-mixing
    2. translanguaging
    3. interference
    4. borrowing
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) translanguaging

    Translanguaging — treated as a resource rather than a defect.

  4. "Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S." reproduces the idiom of —
    1. Received Pronunciation
    2. Indian English
    3. Cockney
    4. a creole
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) Indian English

    Nissim Ezekiel wrote it in Indian English, affectionately.

More chapters in this subject