1000+ Literary Theory MCQs – Part 2: Structuralism I: Saussure & Linguistics

1. Ferdinand de Saussure argued that the units in langue are:

1. Contrastive and relational
2. Relational and homologous
3. Unique and self-contained
4. Contrastive and independent

2. Who is credited as being a key figure in the development of modern approaches to language study?

1. Thomas De Quincey
2. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
3. Ferdinand de Saussure
4. Saki

3. What example did Saussure use to explain what he meant by saying that there are no intrinsic, fixed meanings in language?

1. Animal Farm
2. Ulysses
3. 1984
4. 8.25 Geneva to Paris

4. Which of the following options is incorrect?

1. Ferdinand de Saussure’s lectures were posthumously published from his students’ notes as Cours de linguistique générale.
2. Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist whose major contribution was the observation that language operates as a structure.
3. Ferdinand de Saussure prioritised the diachronic approach to language over the synchronic approach.
4. Ferdinand de Saussure proposed the synchronic approach to language as opposed to the diachronic approach.

5. Who is Ferdinand de Saussure?

1. An American journalist
2. A German professor
3. A Russian leader
4. A Swiss linguist

6. Who believed language is made up of a system of differences?

1. Ferdinand de Saussure
2. Jackson Shephardberg
3. Shakespeare
4. Marlowe

7. Ferdinand de Saussure argued that meaning is generated through

1. a system of structured differences in language
2. a system of random differences in language
3. a system of structured references in language
4. a system of random references in language

8. Which of the following is not a pair of concepts of Ferdinand de Saussure?

1. Signifier and signified
2. Diachrony and synchrony
3. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations
4. Competence and performance

9. Ferdinand de Saussure argued that the units in langue are:

1. Unique and self-contained
2. Relational and homologous
3. Contrastive and relational
4. Contrastive and independent

10. The branch that studies the social life of signs is:

1. Semiotics
2. Semiology
3. Etymology
4. Semantics

11. Ferdinand de Saussure argued that meaning is generated through:

1. a system of structured differences in language
2. a system of random differences in language
3. a system of structured references in language
4. a system of random references in language

12. Semiotics has been defined as “the life of signs within society” by:

1. Noam Chomsky
2. Claude Lévi-Strauss
3. Charles Sanders Peirce
4. Ferdinand de Saussure

13. Which of the following statements are true?

1. All the statements are true.
2. Statements 1, 2 and 3 only are true.
3. Statements 1 and 2 only are true.
4. Statements 3 and 4 only are true.

14. According to Ferdinand de Saussure, language is:

1. A and B only
2. A and C only
3. B and D only
4. C and D only

15. Cours de linguistique générale was published in:

1. 1906
2. 1916
3. 1911
4. 1918

16. Which term describes the meanings of words according to Saussure?

1. Hermeneutics
2. Episteme
3. Relational
4. Canon

17. Saussure used the terms ________ and ________ to signify language as a system or structure on the one hand, and any given utterance in that language on the other.

1. Langue / parole
2. Humanism / icon
3. Logocentrism / margin
4. Paradigm / paradigmatic

18. Which is the incorrect option with regard to Saussure’s concepts of langue and parole?

1. Saussure defines the two concepts with reference to the game of chess.
2. Parole can change without any changes in langue.
3. Language as a structure employs a duality between an underlying set of rules and the performed act of any utterance.
4. Langue keeps changing with every parole.

19. According to Ferdinand de Saussure, the elements of language become unique based on their _________.

1. Popularity among speakers
2. Contrast against other elements
3. Similarity to other elements
4. Function

20. From among the following, identify the incorrect observation regarding Ferdinand de Saussure’s seminal distinction between langue and parole.

1. Saussure made this crucial distinction in a study called A Course in General Linguistics (1916).
2. A language consists in the interrelationship between langue and parole.
3. Parole is the particular language system, the elements of which we learn as children, and which is codified in our grammars and dictionaries, whereas langue is the language-occasion (what A says to B).
4. Langue is the particular language system, the elements of which we learn as children, and which is codified in our grammars and dictionaries, whereas parole is the language-occasion (what A says to B).

21. What is the meaning of ‘langue’ in Saussurean linguistics?

1. Individual speech acts
2. An organized system of differences
3. The dialectic between thought and speech
4. Language in the abstract sense

22. What term used by Ferdinand de Saussure corresponds to Noam Chomsky’s term ‘performance’?

1. Difference
2. Paradigm
3. Parole
4. Langue

23. Which one of the following is correct about Saussure’s analysis of language?

1. Parole is the study of language over a period of time.
2. Parole focuses on language as a system at a particular time.
3. La langue is the particular instance of speech and writing.
4. La langue is the system of a language.

24. The relationship between signifier and signified is:

1. arbitrary
2. voluntary
3. involuntary
4. imaginary

25. Parole is:

1. Abstract system of a language
2. The diachronic aspect of language
3. Standard educated speech
4. Actual speech

26. According to Ferdinand de Saussure, the relation between the signifier and the signified is:

1. symbiotic
2. mandatory
3. arbitrary
4. rational

27. What theory believes that language limits the ability to think?

1. Sisley-Spear formula
2. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
3. Johnson-Kater results
4. Morton-Gran conjecture

28. What is the order of publication of the following books of Noam Chomsky?

1. D, C, B, A
2. B, C, D, A
3. C, B, A, D
4. A, B, C, D

29. Who among the following linguists proposed the terms ‘competence’ and ‘performance’?

1. Noam Chomsky
2. Steven Pinker
3. Roman Jakobson
4. Noah Webster

30. Who among the following theorists holds that metaphor and metonymy are the two fundamental structures of language?

1. Ferdinand de Saussure
2. J.L. Austin
3. Roman Jakobson
4. Viktor Shklovsky

31. Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R). In the light of the above two statements, choose the correct option.

1. Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true

32. Which of the following stylistic features characterize spoken discourse?

1. A and B
2. B and C
3. C and D
4. B and D

33. Who is associated with the idea of systemic functional grammar?

1. Michael Halliday
2. Ferdinand de Saussure
3. Noam Chomsky
4. Frank Palmer

34. The relevance of behaviourist psychology to language learning was questioned by

1. Skinner
2. Chomsky
3. Halliday
4. Fries

35. In Halliday’s classification of the functions of language, language used for learning about and exploring the environment is termed

1. Representational
2. Imaginative
3. Interactional
4. Heuristic

36. The terms deep structure and surface structure are associated with:

1. Noam Chomsky
2. B.F. Skinner
3. Benjamin Whorf
4. Claude Lévi-Strauss

37. Match the following:

1. b c a d
2. b c d a
3. c d a b
4. a b c d

38. What is NOT true of semantics?

1. It means the meaning and interpretation of words, signs and sentence structure.
2. It determines our reading comprehension, how we understand others, and the decisions we make from our interpretations.
3. It can also refer to the branch of linguistics that deals with language and how we understand meaning.
4. It explains how stress and intonation occur in language.

39. Language (1933) is authored by:

1. Chomsky
2. Saussure
3. Bloomfield
4. Derrida

40. Structuralism (in linguistics) is associated with:

1. Chomsky
2. Bloomfield
3. Wren and Martin
4. Hornby

41. “The most striking aspect of linguistic competence is what we may call the ‘creativity of language’, that is, the speaker’s ability to produce new sentences…” This is a quote by ____ who is here talking about the ____ of human language.

1. T.S. Eliot; creative expressiveness
2. William Empson; ambiguities
3. Noam Chomsky; ‘generative’ capacity
4. Jean Baudrillard; simulative nature

42. The study of the structures of language is called ____.

1. Semantics
2. Discourse
3. Phonetics
4. Syntax