Free Literary Terms and Devices MCQs with Answers

• 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.

• 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…

• A. Dynamic
• B. Recursiveness
• C. Displacement
• D. TransferencE

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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…

• 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…

• 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.

• A. Ding Dong theory
• B. The Bow-vow theory
• C. The Pooh-pooh theory
• D. The Gesture theory

Explanation: The Bow-wow theory links the origin of language with humans imitating sounds in nature, such as animal cries.

• A. Noam Chomsky
• B. Ferdinand de Saussure
• C. Edward Sapir
• D. None of the above

Explanation: Edward Sapir gave this influential definition of language in his study of linguistics and culture.

• A. Superman
• B. Dr. House
• C. Luke Skywalker
• D. Yoda

Explanation: Dr. House resembles the Byronic hero through his intelligence, cynicism, rebelliousness, emotional isolation, and self-destructive…

• A. Beautiful
• B. Sublime
• C. Terrifying
• D. Romantic

Explanation: The sublime is an experience of awe produced by overwhelming beauty, vastness, power, or grandeur.

• A. Metaphor
• B. Synecdoche
• C. Euphemism
• D. Irony

Explanation: “True love” is used to refer to the beloved person rather than to the abstract emotion itself, a metonymic use often labelled synecdoche…

• A. Prosody
• B. Allegory
• C. Scansion
• D. Assonance

Explanation: Prosody studies the sound and structure of verse, including metre, rhythm, stress, and intonation.

• A. Get a "stake" in our business.
• B. You can't have your cake and eat it, too
• C. The snow was white as cotton.
• D. You're driving me crazy.

Explanation: “You can't have your cake and eat it, too” is a proverb because it expresses a general practical lesson in a memorable fixed form.

• A. a plot.
• B. an character
• C. an address
• D. the point a writer is trying to make about a subject.

Explanation: A theme is the central idea or insight a writer develops about a subject, not the plot, a character, or an address.

• A. pun
• B. simile
• C. haiku
• D. metaphor

Explanation: A pun is a play on words that exploits similar sounds or multiple meanings, often for humorous effect.

• A. Alliterative
• B. Epic
• C. Acrostic
• D. Haiku

Explanation: An acrostic poem uses the initial letters of successive lines to spell a word or message.

• A. Prosody
• B. Potology
• C. Rheumatology
• D. Scansion

Explanation: Prosody is the study of poetic metre, rhythm, and versification, including how a poem is formally structured.

• A. lyric
• B. free verse
• C. narrative
• D. none of the above

Explanation: Free verse does not follow a regular metrical pattern or rhyme scheme. Lyric and narrative describe a poem’s purpose or content, not its…