All Free English Literature MCQs with Answers

Every English Literature question in the bank, across all chapters, each with the correct answer and a written explanation. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

3,192 questions · page 83 of 160

  • A. Phonology
  • B. Morphology
  • C. Syntax
  • D. Semantics

Explanation: Phonology examines the sound system of a language, including its elementary speech sounds and their patterns.

Correct answer: Phonology
  • A. Phonology
  • B. Morphology
  • C. Semantics
  • D. Philology

Explanation: Phonology, morphology, and semantics are standard branches of linguistics.

Correct answer: Philology
  • A. Controlled observation
  • B. Hypothesis formulation
  • C. Analysis, generalization and prediction
  • D. Speculation

Explanation: Scientific methodology relies on observation, hypothesis testing, analysis, generalization, and prediction.

Correct answer: Speculation
  • A. Linguistics of sociology
  • B. Socio__linguistics
  • C. Sociology of linguistics
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Sociolinguistics examines how language interacts with society, including variation related to class, region, identity, and social context.

Correct answer: Socio__linguistics
  • A. Bilingualism
  • B. Poly__glotism
  • C. Multilingualism
  • D. None of the above

Explanation: Multilingualism refers to the ability to use two or more languages, whereas bilingualism specifically refers to two.

Correct answer: Multilingualism
  • A. Biolingual
  • B. Bilingual
  • C. Duo__lingual
  • D. Duo__langual

Explanation: A person who can use two languages is bilingual: the prefix bi- means “two,” and lingual relates to language.

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

Explanation: Noam Chomsky distinguished linguistic competence, a speaker’s underlying knowledge of language, from performance, its actual use in…

Correct answer: Noam Chomsky
  • A. Charles Sanders Pierce
  • B. Leonard bloom Filed.
  • C. Ferdinand De Saussure.
  • D. Edward Sapir

Explanation: Saussure distinguished langue, the underlying language system, from parole, its actual use.

Correct answer: Ferdinand De Saussure.
  • A. Language
  • B. Parole
  • C. performance
  • D. Both parole and performance

Explanation: Parole is Saussure’s term for actual language use, while performance is Chomsky’s term for the individual’s real utterances.

Correct answer: Both parole and performance
  • A. Dialect
  • B. Idiolect
  • C. Register
  • D. Slang

Explanation: An idiolect is the distinctive total speech pattern of one individual. A dialect belongs to a regional or social group, whereas register…

Correct answer: Idiolect
  • A. Dialect
  • B. Idiolect
  • C. Register
  • D. Slang

Explanation: Register is language shaped by a particular occupation, discipline, topic, or social situation.

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

Explanation: Ferdinand de Saussure introduced the term semiology for the study of signs within social life.

Correct answer: Ferdinand de Saussure
  • A. Semiotics
  • B. Semiology
  • C. Both "a" & "b"
  • D. Neither "a" not "b"

Explanation: Semiotics and semiology are both established names for the systematic study of signs.

Correct answer: Both "a" & "b"
  • A. Synchronic
  • B. Diachronic
  • C. Semiotic
  • D. Onomatopoeic

Explanation: Diachronic study examines how a language changes through time. Synchronic study, by contrast, describes a language at a particular point…

Correct answer: Diachronic
  • A. Dynamic
  • B. Recursiveness
  • C. Displacement
  • D. TransferencE

Explanation: Language is called dynamic because its vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and meanings continually change.

Correct answer: Dynamic
  • A. Duality of structure
  • B. Recursiveness
  • C. Displacement
  • D. TransferencE

Explanation: Displacement allows speakers to refer to things absent from the immediate time and place, including the past, future, or imaginary worlds.

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

Explanation: Duality of structure means that meaningless sounds such as phonemes combine to form meaningful units such as morphemes and words.

Correct answer: Duality of structure
  • A. Wilhelm Wundt and Sir Richard Paget
  • B. Noire
  • C. Max__Muller
  • D. Otto Jespersen

Explanation: Otto Jespersen advanced the musical or sing-song theory, which proposes that language developed from instinctive musical utterances and…

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

Explanation: Max Müller proposed the ding-dong theory, which suggests that words arose from an instinctive connection between sounds and the things…

Correct answer: Max__Muller
  • A. Ding Dong theory
  • B. The Bow__vow theory
  • C. The Pooh__pooh theory
  • D. The Gesture theory

Explanation: The Pooh-pooh theory explains language as developing from spontaneous cries caused by pain, surprise, pleasure or other emotions.

Correct answer: The Pooh__pooh theory