UGC-NET (NTA) LINGUISTICS, JANUARY-2025

Total Questions: 100

51. _______ is a grammatical category that indicates the internal temporal constituency of a situation or an event.

Correct Answer: 2. Aspect
Solution:

Aspect is a grammatical category that indicates the internal temporal structure of a situation or an event, describing whether an action is completed, ongoing, habitual, or repetitive. Unlike tense, which places an event in time (past, present, or future), aspect describes how an action unfolds over time.
Example:
• Perfective aspect →"She wrote the letter." (completed action)
• Imperfective aspect →"She was writing the letter." (ongoing action)
• Habitual aspect →"She writes letters every day." (repeated action)

52. The comparative method is a set of techniques, that permits us to recover linguistic constructs of earlier stages in a family of related languages. The techniques involve comparison of _______ material from two or more related languages.

Correct Answer: 3. cognates
Solution:

The Comparative Method reconstructs earlier linguistic stages by comparing cognates, which are words in different languages that share a common origin. Cognates undergo systematic sound changes over time.
Example:
English father, German Vater, Latin pater → all derive from Proto-Indo-European pater. The method involves identifying sound correspondences, reconstructing proto-forms, and determining historical relationships between languages.

53. A single morph simultaneously representing a bundle of several different grammatical elements is called:

Correct Answer: 3. Portmanteau morph
Solution:

A portmanteau morph is a single morph that simultaneously represents multiple grammatical elements.
Unlike simple morphemes, portmanteau morphs fuse meanings that might otherwise be expressed separately.
Example:
French: au → combines à (to) + le (the) English: was → encodes past tense and thirdperson singular together.

54. The Neogrammarian Hypothesis claims that sound change is regular. This claim is based on the premise that:

Correct Answer: 2. There are no exceptions to sound change
Solution:

The Neogrammarian Hypothesis states that sound change is regular and exceptionless, meaning it applies uniformly across a language when conditions are met.
This contrasts with the Lexical Diffusion model, which suggests that sound change spreads gradually word by word.
Example: Grimm's Law (systematic shift in Indo-European consonants):
• p→ f (Latin pater → English father)
• t →0 (Latin tres → English three)
• k→h (Latin cord → English heart)

55. A semantic change with range of meanings increased so that a word can be used appropriately in wider contexts than it would before the change is called:

Correct Answer: 3. Broadening
Solution:

Broadening (semantic expansion) occurs when a word's meaning extends to cover a wider range of contexts than before. Example:
• Holiday→ originally meant "holy day" (religious observance), now refers to any day off.
• Dog → originally referred to a specific breed, now applies to all breeds. This process contrasts with narrowing, where a word's meaning becomes more restricted.

56. The following statement:

"Nothing is more natural than the prevalence of reduplication, in other words, the repetition of all or part of the radical element. The process is generally employed, with self-evident symbolism, to indicate such concepts as distribution, plurality, repetition, customary activity, increase in size, added intensity, continuance."
This statement is made by which one of the following:

Correct Answer: 4. E. Sapir
Solution:

The given statement about reduplication was made by Edward Sapir. He explained that reduplication (the repetition of a word or part of a word) is a natural linguistic process that conveys meanings such as plurality, repetition, distribution, intensity, and continuity.
Example:
• English: bye-bye (repetition for emphasis).
• Tagalog (Filipino): babae ("woman") → babaebabae ("womanly" or "very feminine").
• Indonesian: anak ("child") → anak-anak ("children").

57. Match the List-I with List-II.

List-IList-II
A. MetonymyI. Figure of speech in which an expression denoting a part is used for referring to a whole
B. SynecdocheII. A place name
C. MetaphorIII. Figure of speech in which a word normally used for one thing is used for something physically or otherwise associated with it
D. ToponymIV. Figure of speech in which a word or expression normally used for one kind of object, action, etc. is extended to another

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Correct Answer: 2. A-III, B-I, C-IV, D-II
Solution:

A. (Metonymy) - III: Metonymy is when a word is used to refer to something closely associated with it. Example: The White House issued a statement (White House refers to the U.S. President).
B. (Synecdoche) - I: Synecdoche is when a part represents the whole or vice versa. Example: All hands on deck (hands refer to sailors).
C. (Metaphor) - IV: Metaphor is when a word extends its meaning to another concept based on similarity. Example: Time is money.
D. (Toponym) - II: Toponyms are place names.
Example: New York, Himalayas, Amazon River.

58. William Laboy's study on Martha's Vineyard does not show:

Correct Answer: 4. Use of velar stops and fricatives in the region
Solution:

William Labov's Martha's Vineyard study (1963) did not analyze velar stops and fricatives but focused on sociolinguistic variation in vowel pronunciation.
His study examined how the pronunciation of / ay/ and /aw/ changed among different age and social groups.
It highlighted linguistic differentiation and social evaluation, showing that younger speakers adopted specific vowel shifts to align with the local identity.

59. Match the List-I with List-II.

List-IList-II
A. Communicative CompetenceI. Steven Pinker
B. The Language InstinctII. de Villiers
C. The Minimalist ProgramIII. Dell Hymes
D. Agrammatism in aphasiaIV. Noam Chomsky

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Correct Answer: 4. A-III, B-I, C-IV, D-II
Solution:

A. (Communicative Competence) - III: Dell Hymes introduced communicative competence, which refers to a speaker's ability to use language appropriately in various social contexts.
B. (The Language Instinct) - I: Steven Pinker wrote The Language Instinct, arguing that language is an innate human ability.
C. (The Minimalist Program) - IV: Noam Chomsky developed the Minimalist Program, which simplifies grammatical theory by focusing on core principles of universal grammar.
D. (Agrammatism in aphasia) II: de Villiers conducted research on agrammatism, a language disorder where sentence structure is impaired due to brain damage.

60. Hyponymy involves logical relationship of:

Correct Answer: 4. Part-whole relation
Solution:

Hyponymy involves a part-whole relationship in semantics, where one term (hyponym) is a subcategory of another (hypernym).
Example:
• Dog is a hyponym of animal.
• Rose is a hyponym of flower.
Hyponymy is different from entailment, which involves logical implications.