Free Literary Terms and Devices MCQs with Answers
330 Literary Terms and Devices MCQs from English Literature, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.
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- A. Metalanguage
- B. Paralanguage
- C. Protalanguage
- D. None of These
Explanation: Paralanguage covers vocal features that accompany words, such as pitch, tone, stress, rhythm and pauses.
Correct answer: Paralanguage- A. Milton
- B. Coleridge
- C. Carlyle
- D. John Ruskin
Explanation: John Ruskin coined pathetic fallacy for attributing human feelings or intentions to inanimate nature, as in calling angry clouds…
Correct answer: John Ruskin- A. Harmony
- B. Poetry
- C. Tragedy
- D. None of these
Explanation: Tragedy comes from the Greek tragōidia, meaning “goat-song,” probably referring to a song connected with a goat sacrifice or a goat prize.
Correct answer: Tragedy- A. Text Structure
- B. Double meaning
- C. Conversational structure
- D. None of these
Explanation: Implicature is meaning conveyed indirectly in conversation rather than stated literally, so it is chiefly associated with conversational…
Correct answer: Conversational structure- A. One who is lover of beauty.
- B. One who never stops.
- C. A lover of mankind.
- D. A person who hates mankind
Explanation: An altruist acts out of concern for the welfare of others, often putting their interests before personal advantage.
Correct answer: A lover of mankind.- A. Syntagmatic
- B. Synergy
- C. Performance
- D. N. O. T
Explanation: Syntagmatic refers to the linear or sequential arrangement of linguistic units, such as words in a sentence.
Correct answer: Syntagmatic- A. Synchrony
- B. Diachrony
- C. Paradigmatic
- D. N. O. T
Explanation: Synchrony studies a language at a particular point in time, while diachrony studies its historical development.
Correct answer: Synchrony- A. Semiotics
- B. Semantics
- C. Paradigmatic
- D. Parole
Explanation: Semiotics is the general study of signs and sign systems. Semantics is narrower, dealing mainly with meaning in language.
Correct answer: Semiotics- A. Productivity
- B. Langue
- C. Paradigmatic
- D. Parole
Explanation: Productivity is the ability of language users to create and understand an unlimited number of new sentences.
Correct answer: Productivity- A. Performance
- B. Parole
- C. Paradigmatic
- D. N. O. T
Explanation: For Chomsky, performance is the actual use of language in real situations, whereas competence is the speaker's underlying knowledge of…
Correct answer: Performance- A. Langue
- B. Parole
- C. Paradigmatic
- D. N. O. T
Explanation: Langue is the shared system of signs and rules that exists within a speech community.
Correct answer: Langue- A. Both b and c
- B. Diachrony/Synchrony
- C. Acceptable/Unacceptable
- D. N. O. T
Explanation: Acceptable and unacceptable describe whether sentences accord with native speakers' grammatical intuitions in Chomskyan linguistics.
Correct answer: Acceptable/Unacceptable- A. Sociolinguistics
- B. Psycholinguisctics
- C. Biolinguistics
- D. None of these
Explanation: Psycholinguistics examines the relationship between language and mental processes, including language acquisition, production, and…
Correct answer: Psycholinguisctics- A. Ferdenand de Sassure
- B. Albert Chomsky
- C. Noam Chomsky
- D. Noah Webster
Explanation: Noam Chomsky argues that human language is a distinctive evolutionary capacity, unlike the communication systems of other animals.
Correct answer: Noam Chomsky- A. 22
- B. 23
- C. 24
- D. 25
Explanation: Standard English phonology is usually described as having 24 consonant phonemes, including stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, the…
Correct answer: 24- A. 19
- B. 20
- C. 21
- D. 22
Explanation: The conventional British-English inventory has 20 vowel sounds: 12 pure vowels and 8 diphthongs.
Correct answer: 20- A. December 7, 1928
- B. December 8, 1928
- C. December 9, 1928
- D. December 10, 1928
Explanation: Noam Chomsky was born on 7 December 1928, in Philadelphia. The date distinguishes option a from the otherwise closely grouped alternatives.
Correct answer: December 7, 1928- A. Noam Chomsky
- B. Ferdenand De Sassure
- C. Steven Pinker
- D. Enoch Powell
Explanation: Biolinguistics, which studies language as a biological capacity of the human mind, is strongly associated with Noam Chomsky.
Correct answer: Noam Chomsky- A. Noam Chomsky
- B. Ferdenand De Sassure
- C. Leon Battista Alberti
- D. Enoch Powell
Explanation: Noam Chomsky developed transformational-generative grammar to explain the underlying knowledge that enables speakers to produce and…
Correct answer: Noam Chomsky- A. 1950
- B. 1951
- C. 1952
- D. 1953
Explanation: The theory emerged in the early 1950s and is conventionally dated to 1950 in this question’s framework.
Correct answer: 1950Literary Terms and Devices MCQs: common questions
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There are 330 Literary Terms and Devices MCQs in the English Literature bank, shown 20 to a page with the correct answer and an explanation on each.
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