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Language, Linguistics PYQs UGC-NET English
1. Which of the following terms is used to describe spurious words which are the result of inadvertent errors made by copyists, printers and editors?
2. Usage in “you have hissed the mystery lectures” is an example of:
3. The set of inflected forms taken by a single word is:
4. Words with the same pronunciation and different meanings are:
5. Which pair of linguists in the following list is associated with ‘speech acts’?
6. Given below are two statements:
Statement I: A pidgin is formed by two mutually unintelligible speech communities trying to communicate using the most obvious features of each other’s language.
Statement II: Notwithstanding the number of years a pidgin is spoken, it can never become the mother tongue of a community.
Statement II: Notwithstanding the number of years a pidgin is spoken, it can never become the mother tongue of a community.
In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer:
7. Arrange in the right sequence the following stages of a child’s first language acquisition:
(a) Holophrastic
(b) Babbling
(c) Telegraphic speech
(d) Cooing
8. Which among the following are true about the figures of speech?
[A] Figures based on sound – paronomasia
[B] Figures based on construction – zeugma
[C] Figures based on imagination – irony
[D] Figures based on association – chiasmus
[E] Figures based on indirectness – euphemism
9. Which figure of speech is implicit in ‘light winged smoke!’?
10. Given below are two statements:
Statement I: The teaching of non-native literature to the students of English language teaching is arid.
Statement II: The negative responses in ELT classroom can create an interesting classroom situation.
Statement II: The negative responses in ELT classroom can create an interesting classroom situation.
In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer:
11. Which of these statements are true in the context of neuro-linguistic programming?
[A] ‘Neuro’ in NLP means that our behavior is determined by our sensory experiences
[B] Grammatical knowledge is a matter of practice
[C] NLP was developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970s
[D] Neuro covers “invisible thoughts and visible physiological reactions”
[E] All of the above
12. Identify the correct combination among the following:
[A] Spondee: It consists of three stressed syllables
[B] Pyrrhic: It consists of two unstressed syllables
[C] Amphimacer: It is a metrical foot of three syllables
[D] Choriambus: It is a foot of verse consisting of two stressed syllables enclosing two unstressed syllables
[E] Trochaic: It has a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one.
13. Identify the correct combinations:
[A] Dadaism – Tristan Tzara
[B] Super realism – Guillaume Apollinaire
[C] Surrealism – Filipo Marinetti
[D] Futurism – Andre Breton
[E] Nihilism – Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev
14. Which of the following methods is the oldest for teaching English language?
15. Match List I with List II:
List I
[A] “Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike.”
[B] “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
[C] “Thou still unravished bride of quietness. Thou foster child of silence and slow time.”
[D] “And ice, mast-high, come floating by, as green as emerald.”
List II
[I] Irony
[II] Simile
[III] Antithesis
[IV] Assonance
16. Which of these are not forms of flash fiction?
[A] Drabble
[B] Postcard fiction
[C] Novelette
[D] Short story
[E] Nanofiction
17. The arrival of corpus linguistics has revitalized:
18. Second Language is:
19. When a learner’s second language learning system seems to freeze or get stuck at some more or less deviant stage, that phenomenon is known as:
20. Integrative motivation refers to:
21. Given below are two statements. One is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion (A): Co-operative learning activities are those in which students must work together in order to complete a task or solve a problem.
Reason (R): These techniques are used to identify a weak learner and to separate him/her from the rest of the members of the group for taking special care of him/her.
Reason (R): These techniques are used to identify a weak learner and to separate him/her from the rest of the members of the group for taking special care of him/her.
In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer:
22. Given below are two statements. One is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion (A): In second language learning, in the same classroom setting, some students progress rapidly through the initial stages of learning a new language while others struggle making very slow progress.
Reason (R): Some learners never achieve native-like command of a second language.
Reason (R): Some learners never achieve native-like command of a second language.
In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer:
23. The full form of MLAT is:
24. Who among the following argued that children learn language based on behaviorist reinforcement principles by associating words with meaning?
25. In the context of ‘nature-nurture’ debate in Linguistics, there is a view that there must be an innate core of abstract knowledge about language form, which pre-specifies a framework for all natural human languages and is currently known as ‘Universal Grammar’. Among the following, who is the linguist proposing this view?
26. Which of the following points are correct regarding the Direct Method of teaching English in a classroom scenario?
[A] There is no interference of the mother tongue.
[B] There is direct connection with the target language (English). Learners think in the target language and express in the target language.
[C] The teaching learning process is carried out in English.
[D] This method is useful in overcrowded classroom situation.
[E] This method is based on the principle of “Doing by Learning.”
27. Which among the following statements are true?
(A) Miscegenation is a sexual relationship or marriage between the people of the same race
(B) Creole is a language that has evolved from a pidgin but serves as the native language of a speech community
(C) Indian tribal people are popularly termed as aboriginals
(D) Mulatto is a person of mixed white and black ancestry
(E) Australian indigenous population is termed as Red Indians
28. A portmanteau is:
29. Who among the following described drama in the following words?
“A true play is three dimensional; it is literature that walks and talks before our eyes.”
30. Match List I with List II:
List I (Literary Device)
[A] Hyperbole
[B] Metonymy
[C] Synecdoche
[D] Periphrasis
List II (Definition)
[I] Referring to something by the name of something else that is closely connected with it
[II] A roundabout or indirect manner of writing or speaking
[III] A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole
[IV] An intentional exaggeration for emphasis or comic effect

Hi sir,
Can you please clarify the answer for the question,
Words with same pronunciation with different meanings are called Homologues??