All Free English Literature MCQs with Answers

• A. Charles Sanders Pierce
• B. Leonard bloom FileD.
• C. Noam Chomsky
• D. Edward Sapir

Explanation: Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance parallels Saussure’s langue, the underlying system, and parole, its actual use in…

• A. Charles Sanders Pierce
• B. Ferdinand de Saussure
• C. Noam Chomsky
• D. Edward Sapir

Explanation: Ferdinand de Saussure introduced langue for the shared system of a language and parole for individual speech acts.

• A. Charles Sanders Pierce
• B. Ferdinand de sauddure
• C. Noam Chomsky
• D. Edward Sapir

Explanation: Charles Sanders Peirce introduced the term semiotics for the general study of signs.

• A. Synchronic
• B. Diachronic
• C. Semiotic
• D. Onomatopoeic

Explanation: A synchronic study examines how the elements of one language function together at a particular point in time.

• A. Duality of structure
• B. Recursiveness
• C. Displacement
• D. Transference.

Explanation: Transference refers to the ability to shift language from one medium to another, such as converting speech into writing and reading the…

• A. Duality of structure
• B. Recursiveness
• C. Displacement
• D. TransferencE

Explanation: Recursiveness allows linguistic rules to be applied repeatedly, producing an unlimited number of grammatical sentences from finite…

• A. Wilhelm Wundt and Sir Richard Paget
• B. Noire
• C. Max__Muller
• D. Otto Jepersen

Explanation: The Yo-he-ho theory explains language as developing from rhythmic communal work cries and is associated with Ludwig Noiré.

• A. Kings and queens
• B. Poets and artists
• C. Dictators and Tyrants
• D. All people equally

Explanation: In his defence of poetry, Shelley presents poets as cultural creators whose imagination shapes moral ideas, social values, and laws.

• A. Percy Shelley
• B. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• C. William Hazlitt
• D. William Wordsworth

Explanation: William Hazlitt used the idea of poetry as an imitation of nature in his discussion of poetic art.

• A. William Blake
• B. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• C. Lord Byron
• D. Percy Shelley

Explanation: Percy Shelley argued in “A Defence of Poetry” that poetry arises from an external and transformative inspiration, rather than from…

• A. Lord Byron
• B. Percy Shelley
• C. William Hazlitt
• D. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Explanation: Hazlitt and Coleridge were major professional literary critics, and Shelley wrote the substantial critical essay A Defence of Poetry.

• A. William Wordsworth
• B. William Blake
• C. Lord Byron
• D. Percy Shelley

Explanation: Elizabeth Fay’s description presents William Wordsworth as a central, almost legendary figure of English Romantic poetry, comparable to a…

• A. The 1900's
• B. The 1960's
• C. The 1920's
• D. The 1930's

Explanation: The Cambridge School usually refers to the contextualist school of intellectual history associated with scholars such as Quentin Skinner…

• A. Thomas Aquinas
• B. Augusta Gregory
• C. Charles Parnell
• D. Ezra Pound

Explanation: Claritas is one of the qualities Thomas Aquinas associates with beauty, alongside integrity and proportion.

• A. "Allegory of speech" and "allegory of the poets"
• B. "Allegory of speech" and "allegory of irony"
• C. "Allegory of speech" and "allegory of the theologians"
• D. "Allegory of the poets" and "allegory of the theologians"

Explanation: The distinction is between the allegory of the poets, which conveys a fictional narrative with a further meaning, and the allegory of the…

• A. Lust is often pure, while love tends to be crude.
• B. Lust and love are both sins that place the sinner in hell.
• C. Lust involves the subordination of reason to desire.
• D. Lust leads to moral improvement, while love is a more destructive force.

Explanation: For Dante, lust occurs when sexual desire overrules rational judgment and moral order.

• A. Unlike Virgil's hell, Dante's underworld focuses on punishment for sins.
• B. Unlike Virgil's hell, Dante's underworld is concerned with destiny and future.
• C. Unlike Virgil's hell, Dante's underworld is not expected to last forever.
• D. Unlike Virgil's hell, Dante's underworld does not include examples of justice.

Explanation: Dante’s Hell is organised as a Christian moral system in which sinners receive punishments corresponding to their sins.

• A. It is static language with unchanging rules.
• B. It is the language spoken by everyday people.
• C. It is the only kind of illustrious vernacular.
• D. It is synonymous with natural language.

Explanation: For Dante, grammatica means a deliberately constructed, stable language governed by fixed rules, unlike the changing vernacular spoken by…

• A. Thomas More.
• B. Francis Bacon.
• C. Earl of Oxford.
• D. John Shakespeare.

Explanation: Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are famous anti-Stratfordian candidates, while John Shakespeare, William's father, has not been…

• A. Blake
• B. Eliot
• C. Johnson
• D. Shelley

Explanation: William Blake described Milton as being ‘of the Devil's party without knowing it’ because Milton's imaginative sympathy appears to lie…