Free Literary Terms and Devices MCQs with Answers

• A. Sassure
• B. Enoch Powel
• C. Noam Chomsky
• D. None of these

Explanation: Chomsky separated linguistic competence, a speaker’s internal knowledge of language, from performance, its actual use in speech.

• A. Synchrony
• B. Diachrony
• C. Both a and b
• D. None of these

Explanation: Diachrony studies language through historical change over time, whereas synchrony examines a language at a particular point.

• A. 1975
• B. 1976
• C. 1977
• D. 1988

Explanation: Chomsky’s Reflections on Language was published in 1975. It presents his ideas about language, mind, and the limits of linguistic…

• A. 1957
• B. 1958
• C. 1959
• D. 1960

Explanation: Syntactic Structures was published in 1957 and became a landmark work in modern linguistics.

• A. Psycho linguistics
• B. Sociolinguistics
• C. Comparative linguistics
• D. None of theseTake Sociology Courses

Explanation: Comparative linguistics compares languages and investigates whether they developed from a shared ancestor.

• A. Amoral (neither good nor evil)
• B. Christian
• C. Evil
• D. None of these

Explanation: A trickster is generally amoral rather than simply good or evil: the figure may help or harm others according to personal motives.

• A. Giving words double meaning that appear differently to white and black readers.
• B. Fixing words with very specific meanings.
• C. Making sure that what is written makes sense.
• D. Lying to mislead the reader.

Explanation: In Gates's account, signify is an indirect, often ironic form of verbal play in which words carry layered meanings for different…

• A. choice of words for writing
• B. choice of characters
• C. choice of rhythms
• D. choice of simile and metaphor

Explanation: Diction means a writer's choice and use of words, including their level, tone, and connotations.

• A. a long verse
• B. a long narrative poem
• C. an overriding view
• D. an overstatement about something

Explanation: Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or dramatic effect, such as saying ‘I have told you a thousand times.’ It does not…

• A. Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.
• B. True is it that we have seen betting days.
• C. Knowledge is power.
• D. None of these.

Explanation: “Knowledge is power” is conventionally associated with Francis Bacon, not Shakespeare.

• A. a poem
• B. a sonnet
• C. an image or dummy
• D. a lamentation

Explanation: An effigy is an image, statue, or dummy representing a person, often used symbolically or for public display.

• A. symbol
• B. Metaphor
• C. Simile
• D. Metonymy

Explanation: The phrase compares the speaker directly to a cloud using “as,” so it is a simile. A metaphor makes the comparison without “like” or “as.”

• A. a hat of a king
• B. a day dreamer
• C. a lotus eater
• D. an ideal state which does not exist in real

Explanation: Utopia means an imagined ideal society or state, derived from Thomas More’s fictional Utopia.

• A. a short poem
• B. a long narrative poem
• C. a historical poem
• D. a prose composition

Explanation: An epic is an extended narrative poem, usually dealing with heroic deeds, warfare, or the destiny of a people.

• A. a song of lamentation
• B. a song of pleasure
• C. a hymn
• D. a praiseworthy song

Explanation: An elegy is a poem or song of lamentation, traditionally written to mourn the dead or reflect on loss.

• A. modern mode of words
• B. up-to-date words
• C. literary words
• D. obsolete words

Explanation: Archaism means an old-fashioned or obsolete word or expression that is no longer common in current usage.

• A. characters in play
• B. animals in play
• C. sympathy to others
• D. arouse of pity and fear

Explanation: In Aristotle’s theory of tragedy, catharsis is the arousal and subsequent purification or release of pity and fear.

• A. a satiric caricature of the characters
• B. a drama
• C. a satiric person
• D. an allegorical statement

Explanation: Burlesque is a comic or satirical imitation that caricatures a person, style, or subject by exaggerating it.

• A. a fictional story of animal characters
• B. a short story
• C. a long narrative prose
• D. a soft style epic

Explanation: A beast fable is a fictional narrative in which animals act and speak like human beings, usually to convey a moral lesson.

• A. collection of poems
• B. collection of insects
• C. fish cultivation
• D. study of poetry

Explanation: An anthology is a selected collection of literary writings, and a poetry anthology collects poems.