UGC NET (English): 100 Questions & Answers of Unit – V: Language: Basic Concepts, Theories and Pedagogy, English in Use
UGC NET (English): 100 Questions & Answers of Unit – V: Language: Basic Concepts, Theories and Pedagogy, English in Use
Unit – V: Language: Basic Concepts, Theories and Pedagogy, English in Use
1. What branch of linguistics studies the production, transmission, and perception of speech sounds? Phonetics.
2. What branch of linguistics studies the organization and function of sounds within a particular language system? Phonology.
3. What is the smallest unit of sound that can distinguish meaning in a language? Phoneme.
4. What is the smallest meaningful unit of grammatical structure in a language? Morpheme.
5. What is the term for a phonetic variant of a phoneme that does not change word meaning? Allophone.
6. What is the term for a variant form of a morpheme that varies depending on phonetic context? Allomorph.
7. What branch of linguistics studies sentence structure and phrase formation? Syntax.
8. What branch of linguistics studies word meaning and semantic relations? Semantics.
9. What branch of linguistics studies meaning in context and language use? Pragmatics.
10. Who revolutionized modern linguistics with his theory of generative grammar and Universal Grammar? Noam Chomsky.
11. What mental faculty or innate system does Chomsky argue enables children to acquire language naturally? Language Acquisition Device (LAD).
12. What is Chomsky's term for an idealized speaker-hearer's innate knowledge of their language rules? Competence.
13. What term refers to the actual production and use of language in concrete situations, contrasted with competence? Performance.
14. Who proposed the theory of 'communicative competence' as a counter-weight to Chomsky's linguistic competence? Dell Hymes.
15. What second-language acquisition hypothesis by Stephen Krashen distinguishes between subconscious acquisition and conscious learning? Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis.
16. Which hypothesis by Krashen suggests that learners acquire language best when exposed to input slightly above their current level (i+1)? Input Hypothesis.
17. What affective barrier in Krashen's theory can block language acquisition when anxiety is high? Affective Filter Hypothesis.
18. Who formulated the cooperative principle in pragmatics involving maxims of quantity, quality, relation, and manner? H.P. Grice.
19. What term describes statements that violate Gricean maxims intentionally to convey hidden meanings? Implicature.
20. Who developed the theory of Speech Acts describing locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts? J.L. Austin (expanded by John Searle).
21. What speech act performs an action simply by being uttered, such as 'I pronounce you married'? Performative.
22. What pedagogical approach focuses on grammatical rules, translation, and rote memorization? Grammar-Translation Method.
23. What language teaching method emphasizes spoken communication, active student interaction, and avoiding the native tongue? Direct Method.
24. What methodology, derived from behaviorist psychology, uses repetitive drills and pattern practice? Audio-Lingual Method (ALM).
25. What contemporary language teaching approach prioritizes interaction and functional language use over strict structural accuracy? Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).
26. What approach integrates language learning with content instruction in non-linguistic subjects? Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).
27. What term describes the intermediate linguistic system constructed by a second-language learner that blends L1 and L2 features? Interlanguage (a term coined by Larry Selinker).
28. What is the permanent halting of interlanguage development before reaching native-like proficiency called? Fossilization.
29. What term describes the interference of a learner's native language habits when learning a target language? Language Transfer (or Interference).
30. What type of transfer occurs when L1 and L2 structures match, facilitating learning? Positive Transfer.
31. What type of transfer occurs when L1 habits cause errors in the target language? Negative Transfer.
32. What branch of applied linguistics uses psychological principles to study how humans process and learn language? Psycholinguistics.
33. What branch of linguistics studies the social dimensions, variations, and cultural uses of language? Sociolinguistics.
34. What is a regional or social variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation? Dialect.
35. What is a person's individual distinctive style or use of language called? Idiolect.
36. What is a simplified contact language used for basic communication between speakers of different native tongues? Pidgin.
37. What happens when a pidgin develops into a native, fully complex mother tongue for a community? Creole.
38. What linguistic process involves a creole language shifting back toward the standard prestige language? Decreolization.
39. What is a politically or socially dominant variety of a language used in public institutions and literature? Standard Language.
40. What is a neutral auxiliary language used for communication between groups who do not share a native language? Lingua Franca.
41. What code-switching phenomenon involves alternating between two or more languages within a single conversation? Code-switching.
42. What term describes lexical choices influenced by the social context, status, or setting of an interaction? Register.
43. What is a polite, indirect expression substituted for one considered too harsh or blunt? Euphemism.
44. What term describes a word formed from the initial letters of other words, pronounced as a single word (e.g., NASA)? Acronym.
45. What term describes an abbreviation formed from initial letters where each letter is pronounced individually (e.g., FBI)? Initialism.
46. What word-formation process creates a new word by combining parts of two existing words (e.g., 'brunch' from breakfast and lunch)? Blending (or Portmanteau).
47. What word-formation process creates a new word by removing an actual or supposed affix (e.g., 'enthuse' from enthusiasm)? Back-formation.
48. What term describes words that are created from scratch without using existing morphemes, often brand names? Coinage (or Neologism).
49. What process creates new words by changing the grammatical category of an existing word without changing its form (e.g., 'to google')? Conversion (or Zero Derivation).
50. What word-formation process shortens a longer word (e.g., 'exam' from examination)? Clipping.
51. What semantic shift expands a word's meaning to cover a broader category (e.g., 'dog' originally meant a specific breed)? Generalization (or Broadening).
52. What semantic shift restricts a word's meaning to a narrower subcategory (e.g., 'meat' once meant all food)? Specialization (or Narrowing).
53. What semantic change occurs when a word acquires a more positive connotation over time (amelioration)? Amelioration.
54. What semantic change occurs when a word acquires a more negative connotation over time? Pejoration.
55. What figurative device substitutes the name of an attribute for the thing meant (e.g., 'the Crown' for the monarchy)? Metonymy.
56. What figure of speech uses a part to represent the whole or vice versa (e.g., 'all hands on deck')? Synecdoche.
57. What linguistic concept by Ferdinand de Saussure refers to the abstract system of language? Langue.
58. What Saussurean concept refers to individual speech utterances or concrete realizations? Parole.
59. What did Saussure call the linguistic sign, composed of the signifier (signifiant) and the signified (signifie)? The Sign.
60. What linguistic distinction by Saussure contrasts elements analyzed sequentially in time (syntagmatic) versus those related by substitution in memory? Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic relations.
61. Who introduced the distinction between deep structure and surface structure in syntax? Noam Chomsky.
62. What term describes the underlying abstract syntactic representation of a sentence before transformations? Deep Structure.
63. What term describes the actual phonetic or written output of a sentence after transformations? Surface Structure.
64. What branch of linguistics studies the history and development of languages over time? Historical Linguistics.
65. What law of sound change in Germanic languages describes regular consonant shifts, formulated by Jacob Grimm? Grimm's Law.
66. What family of languages does English belong to, sharing common historical roots across Europe and South Asia? Indo-European Language Family.
67. What historical period of the English language spans from the Germanic invasions to the Norman Conquest (c. 450–1100 AD)? Old English (Anglo-Saxon).
68. What historical event in 1066 profoundly transformed English vocabulary and grammar, initiating the Middle English period? The Norman Conquest.
69. What major phonological shift altered long English vowels between the 15th and 18th centuries? The Great Vowel Shift.
70. What printing press pioneer introduced printing to England in 1476, helping stabilize English orthography? William Caxton.
71. What term refers to English used as a global medium of communication across non-native and native speakers? English as a Lingua Franca (ELF).
72. What term describes the localized varieties of English that have developed globally, such as Indian English or Nigerian English? World Englishes (a framework advanced by Braj Kachru).
73. According to Braj Kachru's concentric circles model, which circle includes countries where English is the primary native tongue (e.g., UK, USA)? The Inner Circle.
74. In Kachru's model, which circle represents nations with colonial histories where English serves as an institutionalized second language (e.g., India, Nigeria)? The Outer Circle.
75. In Kachru's model, which circle comprises regions where English is learned primarily as a foreign language for international communication (e.g., Japan, China)? The Expanding Circle.
76. What is corpus linguistics? The study of language based on large, computerized collections of real-world text and speech samples (corpora).
77. What is a concordance in corpus linguistics? A list showing occurrences of a given word or phrase together with its immediate context.
78. What term describes words that frequently occur together naturally in a language (e.g., 'heavy rain')? Collocation.
79. What pedagogical method focuses on teaching language through tasks that require learners to achieve a specific communicative goal? Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT).
80. What testing type assesses a student's baseline proficiency level without regard to a specific curriculum? Proficiency Test.
81. What testing type measures student mastery of specific course content or instructional objectives? Criterion- referenced test
82. What test design property ensures a test yields consistent, stable results across different administrations? Reliability.
83. What test design property ensures a test actually measures what it claims to measure? Validity.
84. What term describes a syllabus organized around grammatical structures and verb tenses? Structural (or Grammatical) Syllabus.
85. What syllabus design centers on communicative purposes and social actions (e.g., apologizing, inviting)? Notional-Functional Syllabus.
86. What instructional framework uses English as the medium to teach academic subjects like history or science to non-native speakers? English Medium Instruction (EMI).
87. What educational model transitions students from their native tongue to English instruction over time? Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE).
88. What term describes the cognitive process of acquiring a first language natively during early childhood? First Language Acquisition (L1 Acquisition).
89. What term describes the acquisition of any subsequent language after the first language is established? Second Language Acquisition (SLA).
90. What hypothesis suggests there is a biologically determined time window during which language acquisition is effortless and complete? Critical Period Hypothesis (associated with Eric Lenneberg).
91. What psychological theory of language acquisition, championed by B.F. Skinner, argued that language is learned through imitation, reinforcement, and habit formation? Behaviorism.
92. How did Noam Chomsky critique B.F. Skinner's behaviorist theory of language acquisition in his famous 1959 review? By arguing that stimulus-response mechanisms cannot account for the creative, rule-governed nature of human language production (Poverty of the Stimulus).
93. What term describes the minimal pairs test used by phonologists to identify distinct phonemes in a language (e.g., 'pat' vs. 'bat')? Minimal Pairs Analysis.
94. What acoustic property distinguishes voiced speech sounds from voiceless ones? Vibration of the vocal cords.
95. What articulation place describes consonants produced by bringing both lips together (e.g., /p/, /b/, /m/)? Bilabial Sounds.
96. What articulation manner describes sounds produced by completely obstructing airflow and then releasing it with a burst (e.g., /p/, /t/, /k/)? Plosive (or Stops).
97. What is a diphthong? A vowel sound that glides from one vowel quality to another within the same syllable (e.g., /aɪ/ in 'time').
98. What suprasegmental feature of speech involves variations in pitch, loudness, and syllable duration to convey meaning or emotion? Prosody (or Intonation and Stress).
99. What branch of grammar prescribes correct usage according to established social standards and handbooks? Prescriptive Grammar.
100. What branch of grammar scientifically analyzes and describes how a language is actually spoken and written by its native users without value judgments? Descriptive Grammar.
Unit – V: Language: Basic Concepts, Theories and Pedagogy, English in Use
1. What branch of linguistics studies the production, transmission, and perception of speech sounds? Phonetics.
2. What branch of linguistics studies the organization and function of sounds within a particular language system? Phonology.
3. What is the smallest unit of sound that can distinguish meaning in a language? Phoneme.
4. What is the smallest meaningful unit of grammatical structure in a language? Morpheme.
5. What is the term for a phonetic variant of a phoneme that does not change word meaning? Allophone.
6. What is the term for a variant form of a morpheme that varies depending on phonetic context? Allomorph.
7. What branch of linguistics studies sentence structure and phrase formation? Syntax.
8. What branch of linguistics studies word meaning and semantic relations? Semantics.
9. What branch of linguistics studies meaning in context and language use? Pragmatics.
10. Who revolutionized modern linguistics with his theory of generative grammar and Universal Grammar? Noam Chomsky.
11. What mental faculty or innate system does Chomsky argue enables children to acquire language naturally? Language Acquisition Device (LAD).
12. What is Chomsky's term for an idealized speaker-hearer's innate knowledge of their language rules? Competence.
13. What term refers to the actual production and use of language in concrete situations, contrasted with competence? Performance.
14. Who proposed the theory of 'communicative competence' as a counter-weight to Chomsky's linguistic competence? Dell Hymes.
15. What second-language acquisition hypothesis by Stephen Krashen distinguishes between subconscious acquisition and conscious learning? Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis.
16. Which hypothesis by Krashen suggests that learners acquire language best when exposed to input slightly above their current level (i+1)? Input Hypothesis.
17. What affective barrier in Krashen's theory can block language acquisition when anxiety is high? Affective Filter Hypothesis.
18. Who formulated the cooperative principle in pragmatics involving maxims of quantity, quality, relation, and manner? H.P. Grice.
19. What term describes statements that violate Gricean maxims intentionally to convey hidden meanings? Implicature.
20. Who developed the theory of Speech Acts describing locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts? J.L. Austin (expanded by John Searle).
21. What speech act performs an action simply by being uttered, such as 'I pronounce you married'? Performative.
22. What pedagogical approach focuses on grammatical rules, translation, and rote memorization? Grammar-Translation Method.
23. What language teaching method emphasizes spoken communication, active student interaction, and avoiding the native tongue? Direct Method.
24. What methodology, derived from behaviorist psychology, uses repetitive drills and pattern practice? Audio-Lingual Method (ALM).
25. What contemporary language teaching approach prioritizes interaction and functional language use over strict structural accuracy? Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).
26. What approach integrates language learning with content instruction in non-linguistic subjects? Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).
27. What term describes the intermediate linguistic system constructed by a second-language learner that blends L1 and L2 features? Interlanguage (a term coined by Larry Selinker).
28. What is the permanent halting of interlanguage development before reaching native-like proficiency called? Fossilization.
29. What term describes the interference of a learner's native language habits when learning a target language? Language Transfer (or Interference).
30. What type of transfer occurs when L1 and L2 structures match, facilitating learning? Positive Transfer.
31. What type of transfer occurs when L1 habits cause errors in the target language? Negative Transfer.
32. What branch of applied linguistics uses psychological principles to study how humans process and learn language? Psycholinguistics.
33. What branch of linguistics studies the social dimensions, variations, and cultural uses of language? Sociolinguistics.
34. What is a regional or social variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation? Dialect.
35. What is a person's individual distinctive style or use of language called? Idiolect.
36. What is a simplified contact language used for basic communication between speakers of different native tongues? Pidgin.
37. What happens when a pidgin develops into a native, fully complex mother tongue for a community? Creole.
38. What linguistic process involves a creole language shifting back toward the standard prestige language? Decreolization.
39. What is a politically or socially dominant variety of a language used in public institutions and literature? Standard Language.
40. What is a neutral auxiliary language used for communication between groups who do not share a native language? Lingua Franca.
41. What code-switching phenomenon involves alternating between two or more languages within a single conversation? Code-switching.
42. What term describes lexical choices influenced by the social context, status, or setting of an interaction? Register.
43. What is a polite, indirect expression substituted for one considered too harsh or blunt? Euphemism.
44. What term describes a word formed from the initial letters of other words, pronounced as a single word (e.g., NASA)? Acronym.
45. What term describes an abbreviation formed from initial letters where each letter is pronounced individually (e.g., FBI)? Initialism.
46. What word-formation process creates a new word by combining parts of two existing words (e.g., 'brunch' from breakfast and lunch)? Blending (or Portmanteau).
47. What word-formation process creates a new word by removing an actual or supposed affix (e.g., 'enthuse' from enthusiasm)? Back-formation.
48. What term describes words that are created from scratch without using existing morphemes, often brand names? Coinage (or Neologism).
49. What process creates new words by changing the grammatical category of an existing word without changing its form (e.g., 'to google')? Conversion (or Zero Derivation).
50. What word-formation process shortens a longer word (e.g., 'exam' from examination)? Clipping.
51. What semantic shift expands a word's meaning to cover a broader category (e.g., 'dog' originally meant a specific breed)? Generalization (or Broadening).
52. What semantic shift restricts a word's meaning to a narrower subcategory (e.g., 'meat' once meant all food)? Specialization (or Narrowing).
53. What semantic change occurs when a word acquires a more positive connotation over time (amelioration)? Amelioration.
54. What semantic change occurs when a word acquires a more negative connotation over time? Pejoration.
55. What figurative device substitutes the name of an attribute for the thing meant (e.g., 'the Crown' for the monarchy)? Metonymy.
56. What figure of speech uses a part to represent the whole or vice versa (e.g., 'all hands on deck')? Synecdoche.
57. What linguistic concept by Ferdinand de Saussure refers to the abstract system of language? Langue.
58. What Saussurean concept refers to individual speech utterances or concrete realizations? Parole.
59. What did Saussure call the linguistic sign, composed of the signifier (signifiant) and the signified (signifie)? The Sign.
60. What linguistic distinction by Saussure contrasts elements analyzed sequentially in time (syntagmatic) versus those related by substitution in memory? Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic relations.
61. Who introduced the distinction between deep structure and surface structure in syntax? Noam Chomsky.
62. What term describes the underlying abstract syntactic representation of a sentence before transformations? Deep Structure.
63. What term describes the actual phonetic or written output of a sentence after transformations? Surface Structure.
64. What branch of linguistics studies the history and development of languages over time? Historical Linguistics.
65. What law of sound change in Germanic languages describes regular consonant shifts, formulated by Jacob Grimm? Grimm's Law.
66. What family of languages does English belong to, sharing common historical roots across Europe and South Asia? Indo-European Language Family.
67. What historical period of the English language spans from the Germanic invasions to the Norman Conquest (c. 450–1100 AD)? Old English (Anglo-Saxon).
68. What historical event in 1066 profoundly transformed English vocabulary and grammar, initiating the Middle English period? The Norman Conquest.
69. What major phonological shift altered long English vowels between the 15th and 18th centuries? The Great Vowel Shift.
70. What printing press pioneer introduced printing to England in 1476, helping stabilize English orthography? William Caxton.
71. What term refers to English used as a global medium of communication across non-native and native speakers? English as a Lingua Franca (ELF).
72. What term describes the localized varieties of English that have developed globally, such as Indian English or Nigerian English? World Englishes (a framework advanced by Braj Kachru).
73. According to Braj Kachru's concentric circles model, which circle includes countries where English is the primary native tongue (e.g., UK, USA)? The Inner Circle.
74. In Kachru's model, which circle represents nations with colonial histories where English serves as an institutionalized second language (e.g., India, Nigeria)? The Outer Circle.
75. In Kachru's model, which circle comprises regions where English is learned primarily as a foreign language for international communication (e.g., Japan, China)? The Expanding Circle.
76. What is corpus linguistics? The study of language based on large, computerized collections of real-world text and speech samples (corpora).
77. What is a concordance in corpus linguistics? A list showing occurrences of a given word or phrase together with its immediate context.
78. What term describes words that frequently occur together naturally in a language (e.g., 'heavy rain')? Collocation.
79. What pedagogical method focuses on teaching language through tasks that require learners to achieve a specific communicative goal? Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT).
80. What testing type assesses a student's baseline proficiency level without regard to a specific curriculum? Proficiency Test.
81. What testing type measures student mastery of specific course content or instructional objectives? Criterion- referenced test
82. What test design property ensures a test yields consistent, stable results across different administrations? Reliability.
83. What test design property ensures a test actually measures what it claims to measure? Validity.
84. What term describes a syllabus organized around grammatical structures and verb tenses? Structural (or Grammatical) Syllabus.
85. What syllabus design centers on communicative purposes and social actions (e.g., apologizing, inviting)? Notional-Functional Syllabus.
86. What instructional framework uses English as the medium to teach academic subjects like history or science to non-native speakers? English Medium Instruction (EMI).
87. What educational model transitions students from their native tongue to English instruction over time? Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE).
88. What term describes the cognitive process of acquiring a first language natively during early childhood? First Language Acquisition (L1 Acquisition).
89. What term describes the acquisition of any subsequent language after the first language is established? Second Language Acquisition (SLA).
90. What hypothesis suggests there is a biologically determined time window during which language acquisition is effortless and complete? Critical Period Hypothesis (associated with Eric Lenneberg).
91. What psychological theory of language acquisition, championed by B.F. Skinner, argued that language is learned through imitation, reinforcement, and habit formation? Behaviorism.
92. How did Noam Chomsky critique B.F. Skinner's behaviorist theory of language acquisition in his famous 1959 review? By arguing that stimulus-response mechanisms cannot account for the creative, rule-governed nature of human language production (Poverty of the Stimulus).
93. What term describes the minimal pairs test used by phonologists to identify distinct phonemes in a language (e.g., 'pat' vs. 'bat')? Minimal Pairs Analysis.
94. What acoustic property distinguishes voiced speech sounds from voiceless ones? Vibration of the vocal cords.
95. What articulation place describes consonants produced by bringing both lips together (e.g., /p/, /b/, /m/)? Bilabial Sounds.
96. What articulation manner describes sounds produced by completely obstructing airflow and then releasing it with a burst (e.g., /p/, /t/, /k/)? Plosive (or Stops).
97. What is a diphthong? A vowel sound that glides from one vowel quality to another within the same syllable (e.g., /aɪ/ in 'time').
98. What suprasegmental feature of speech involves variations in pitch, loudness, and syllable duration to convey meaning or emotion? Prosody (or Intonation and Stress).
99. What branch of grammar prescribes correct usage according to established social standards and handbooks? Prescriptive Grammar.
100. What branch of grammar scientifically analyzes and describes how a language is actually spoken and written by its native users without value judgments? Descriptive Grammar.
