PREVIOUS QUESTIONS

Introduction to Linguistics

2017

English

Subject Code: 231115

(Introduction to Linguistics)

Time: 4 Hours                                                                                                       Full Marks: 80

Part-A

1. Answer any ten of the following questions                                                           1 × 10 = 10

a) What is linguistics?

     Ans: Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

b) Who is Saussure?

     Ans: Ferdinand de Saussure is a renowned Swiss linguist and semiotician. He is the proponent of the terms Langue and Parole.

c) What is Langue?

     Ans: According to Saussure, langue is both a social product of the faculty of speech and a collection of necessary conventions that have been adopted by society to permit individuals to exercise that faculty.

d) What is a monophthong?

     Ans: A monophthong is a pure vowel articulated without any obstacle in vocal tract.

e) What is Pitch?

     Ans:  Pitch is the rate of vibration of the vocal folds. In speech, it is the highness or lowness of tone as perceived by the air.

f) What is a bound morpheme?

     Ans: A bound morpheme is a morpheme that is not a word itself but appears only as part of words, always in conjunction with a root and sometimes with other bound morphemes.

g) What is LAD?

     Ans: LAD stands for Language Acquisition Device which is a hypothetical tool hardwired into the brain that helps children rapidly learn and understand language.

h) What is Sociolinguistics?

     Ans: Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to social factors, including differences of regional, class, and occupational dialect, gender differences, and bilingualism.

i) What is IPA?

     Ans: IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language.

j) What is register?

     Ans: A register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting.

k) What is Accommodation Theory in SLA?

     Ans: In linguistics, accommodation is the process by which participants in a conversation adjust their accent, diction, or other aspects of language according to the speech style of the other participant.

1) What is intonation?

     Ans: Intonation is the rise and fall of the voice in speaking.

Part-B

Answer any five of the following questions:                                                               4 × 5 = 20

2. Write a note on Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic relationships.

3, What do you mean by voiced and voiceless sounds? Write a note on them.

4. Distinguish between Free Morpheme and Bound Morpheme.

5. How can you differentiate between langue and parole?

6. Define Diphthong. Mention eight Dipthongs of English language.

7. In what sense language is arbitrary?

8. Show the difference between creole and pidgin.

9. Transcribe any four of the following:

August, Student, University, Churches, Nature, Village

Part-C

Answer any five questions:                                                                                        10 × 5 = 50

10. Describe English consonant sounds according to the places of articulation.

11. What is Assimilation? Discuss the rules of Assimilation.

12. Write five techniques of word formation.

13. What is Syntax? What are the major syntactic processes in English? Describe them with diagrams.

14. Discuss critically the Nativist Theory of language learning.

15. What do you know about the Monitor Model Theory of Stephen Krashen? Why is it important in SLA?

16. Discuss different varieties of socio-linguistics.

17. Mention the major characteristics of language.