Language & Linguistics Solved Questions

Section Overview: Detailed explanations for questions from the June 2025 Exam regarding Language and Linguistics.

Q11. According to Ferdinand de Saussure, what is the minimum number necessary to complete the speaking-circuit?
  • 1. One
  • 2. Two
  • 3. Three
  • 4. Four
Correct Answer: 2. Two

Detailed Explanation:

According to Ferdinand de Saussure in his foundational work Course in General Linguistics (1916), the speaking-circuit requires a minimum of two individuals (a Speaker and a Listener) to complete the process of communication.

The Circuit Process:

  • Psychological: The speaker forms a concept and associates it with a sound-image (signifier).
  • Physiological: The brain sends an impulse to the vocal organs to produce sound.
  • Physical: Sound waves travel from the speaker to the listener.
  • Reverse Process: The listener hears the sound and associates it back with the concept (signified).

Without a receiver to decode the sign, the circuit remains incomplete, emphasizing that language is fundamentally a social phenomenon.

Q12. Who among the following Mughal rulers carried out an experiment for newborn babies to be raised in silence, only to find that the children produced no speech at all?
  • 1. Akbar
  • 2. Bahadur Shah Zafar
  • 3. Aurangzeb
  • 4. Babur
Correct Answer: 1. Akbar

Detailed Explanation:

The Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556–1605) is historically recorded in Abu'l-Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari as having conducted this famous linguistic experiment.

The Experiment:

  • Objective: To determine if language is innate (God-given) or acquired. Akbar wanted to see if children would naturally speak a "divine" language (like Hebrew or Sanskrit) if left unexposed to human speech.
  • Method: Newborns were raised in a secluded house (known as the Gang Mahal or Dumb House) by mute wet nurses who were forbidden to speak to them.
  • Result: The children grew up mute, producing no speech at all. This reinforced the understanding that language acquisition relies on social interaction.
Q13. Who made the following remark?
"The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either..."
  • 1. Sir William Jones
  • 2. Patsy M. Lightbown
  • 3. Ferdinand de Saussure
  • 4. Albert Sydney Hornby
Correct Answer: 1. Sir William Jones

Detailed Explanation:

This famous remark was made by Sir William Jones (1746–1794), a British philologist and jurist, in his Third Discourse to the Asiatic Society delivered on February 2, 1786, in Calcutta.

Significance of the Quote:

  • Indo-European Hypothesis: This observation effectively launched the field of Comparative Linguistics. Jones identified that Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin shared a "stronger affinity... than could possibly have been produced by accident."
  • Proto-Language: It supported the theory of a common ancestral language (now known as Proto-Indo-European).

Why the other options are incorrect:

  • Patsy M. Lightbown: A modern expert in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), known for How Languages are Learned.
  • Ferdinand de Saussure: The father of Structuralism (Signifier/Signified), whose work came over a century later.
  • A.S. Hornby: Known for ELT and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.
Q14. If the glide is distinct enough to be heard, the vowel + glide will be treated as:
  • 1. A diphthong
  • 2. A monophthong
  • 3. A sequence of two vowels
  • 4. A sequence of two consonants
Correct Answer: 3. A sequence of two vowels

Detailed Explanation:

In phonetics and phonology, when a glide (semi-vowel like /j/ or /w/) is distinct enough to be heard separately from the vowel, the combination is treated not as a single phoneme but as a sequence of two vowel sounds.

Key Concept:

This occurs when the transition is perceptually salient (sharp).
Example: In the word "naive" /na.iːv/, the transition between /a/ and /i/ is distinct, so they are interpreted as a sequence of two vowels (hiatus), rather than a diphthong.

Why other options are incorrect:

  • A diphthong: A single vowel phoneme that glides smoothly from one quality to another within the same syllable (e.g., /aΙͺ/ in "ride"). If the glide is too distinct, it breaks the single phoneme status.
  • A monophthong: A pure vowel with a single unchanging quality.
Q15. The study of how human beings acquire language and how we use language to speak and understand is called:
  • 1. Theoretical Linguistics
  • 2. Sociolinguistics
  • 3. Applied Linguistics
  • 4. Psycholinguistics
Correct Answer: 4. Psycholinguistics

Detailed Explanation:

Psycholinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend, and produce language. It sits at the intersection of linguistics and cognitive psychology.

Key Areas of Study:

  • Language Acquisition: How children learn their first language and adults learn second languages.
  • Speech Perception & Production: The mental processes behind speaking and listening.
  • The Mental Lexicon: How vocabulary is stored and retrieved in the brain.
  • Major Figures: Noam Chomsky (Universal Grammar) and Steven Pinker.
← Back to June 2025 Index