UGC-NET (NTA) LINGUISTICS, JUNE-2025

sky-high, coal-black, oil-rich → overactive → grey-green, red-hot: These items belong to the class of compound adjectives, which are multi-word (or multi-morphemic) combinations functioning together as a single adjective modifying a noun.
A. sky-high, coal-black, oil-rich qualify as compound adjectives because each consists of two semantic parts working together to describe a noun, typically hyphenated when used attributively (e.g., a sky-high price, coal-black hair, an oil-rich country).
B. overactive is a closed compound adjective, formed by combining over (functioning as an intensifying bound form) with active to yield a single adjectival unit describing excessive activity (e.g., an overactive child).
D. grey-green, red-hot are classic hyphenated compound adjectives involving adjective + adjective structures used to describe mixed colours (grey-green water) or extreme states (red-hot iron).
(C) contains underestimate and overcook, which are verbs, not adjectives. They express actions rather than qualities.
(E) contains hand-wash and air-condition, which also function as verbs, even though their related nouns (hand-wash cycle, air conditioner) may look adjectival in other contexts.
Thus the expressions that correctly fit the category of "compound adjectives" are A, B and D.

The reflexive lacks an appropriate antecedent → the anaphor "each other" is uninterpretable → the sentence does not have a compatible antecedent for the anaphor: The sentence "John despises each other" is ill-formed because each other is a reciprocal anaphor, which requires a plural antecedent (e.g., "The boys despise each other").
A. Correct: There is no plural antecedent matching the reciprocal.
C. Correct: Without a plural antecedent, “each other” cannot be interpreted at all.
D. Correct: The sentence lacks a compatible antecedent—"John" is singular, so it cannot bind a reciprocal anaphor.
(B) is incorrect because anaphors do not require "matching pronouns"; they require matching antecedents.
(E) is impossible: "some each other" cannot be interpreted in English grammar.
Thus A, C and D correctly diagnose the ungrammaticality.

The Locative is assigned 7th case marker → in some contexts it is assigned the 2nd case marker:
A. Correct: The Sanskrit Locative (Adhikarana Kara ka) is normally expressed by the saptami (7th case), marking location, time, or context (e.g., grhe ‘in the house’).
B. Correct: In specific constructions (e.g., adhyayanam patham, gantum ghram in some extended uses), the dvitiya (2nd case) can serve a Locative-like semantic role.
(C) is incorrect: Adhikarana is fully recognized as one of the six genuine karakas by Panini.
(D) is false: Only 2nd case is not possible.
(E) is also false: Although the 7th is normal, Sanskrit allows semantic extensions where 2nd case expresses location-like meaning.
Thus correct statements are A and B.

Structural meaning from syntax → structural meaning uses lexical information → both lexical and structural meaning combine to produce sentence meaning:
C. Correct: Structural meaning arises from syntactic configuration, such as word order, relations, scope, and hierarchy.
D. Correct: Structural meaning depends on lexical content (e.g., "dog bites man" ≠ "man bites dog"), showing interaction between lexical meaning and syntactic roles.
E. Correct: Understanding a full sentence requires combining word meanings with structural relations (composition principle).
(A) is incorrect: Lexical items do not have fixed, unchanging meanings; polysemy and semantic shift exist.
Thus only C, D, E align with the statement.

Deixis is pervasive → time/space/participants/ discourse are core components → texts contain explicit/implicit deictic cues:
A. Correct: Deixis is universal and present in every natural language (e.g., I, here, now, this).
D. Correct: Major types include time deixis, space deixis, person deixis, and discourse deixis.
E. Correct: Any text includes deictic references, some explicit (today, here, I) and some context-dependent.
(B) is false: Time deixis (yesterday, tomorrow, now) exists in all languages, indigenous or not.
(C) is false: Place deixis is not "obscured" in advanced languages; it is present in all languages (e.g., here, there).
Thus correct set is A, D and E.

A. Historical linguists may study changes in the history of a single language → C. Historical linguistics is sometimes called 'diachronic linguistics' → E. Historical linguistics may study changes revealed in the comparison of related languages:
Historical linguistics focuses on language change over time, both within one language and across a family of related languages.
• A is correct because the discipline includes studying developments such as phonological or syntactic shifts within a single language (e.g., Old English → Modern English).
• C is correct because historical linguistics is the same as diachronic linguistics, analysing language through time.
• E is correct because comparing related languages (e.g., Sanskrit, Greek, Latin) helps reconstruct earlier stages.
• B is incorrect: studying individual word histories is part of etymology, not the primary focus of historical linguistics.
• D is incorrect: modern historical linguistics does study the how and why of language change (sound change, analogy, borrowing, etc.).
Thus the accurate set is A, C and E.

A. traces of earlier changes remain → B. internal reconstruction compares variants of the same form → C. compares allomorphs across alternations:
Internal reconstruction uses patterns inside one language to infer earlier stages.
• A is correct because earlier phonological or morphological patterns often leave remnants in alternations (e.g., sing/sang).
• B is correct: internal reconstruction focuses on forms that have multiple shapes conditioned by environment.
• C is correct: it analyses allomorphs in paradigms, derivations, and stylistic alternations to hypothesize earlier uniform forms.
• D is incorrect: internal reconstruction is especially useful for isolates and proto-form inference.
• E is incorrect: internal reconstruction absolutely is applied to individual languages to derive their earlier stage.
Thus the correct group is A, B and C.

Substrate language → Adstrate language → Superstrate language:
Heinz Kloss introduced two major distinctions:
• Abstand language → based on structural distance (E)
• Ausbau language → based on sociopolitical/cultural development (B)
Thus A, C, D are not introduced by Kloss.
• Substrate, superstrate, adstrate belong to contact linguistics, not Kloss' classification.
Hence the correct group of "NOT introduced by Kloss" is A, C and D.

Hindi-Urdu → Punjabi:
Languages where ergative subjects marked by postpositions (e.g., ne) cannot trigger agreement on the verb, which instead agrees with the object/theme, display ergative agreement split.
B. Hindi-Urdu shows classic ergative alignment: Ram-ne roti khai (‘roti’ = theme agrees).
D. Punjabi also shows similar behaviour, with the verb agreeing with the object when the subject is ergative.
A. Malayalam is not ergative.
C. Bengali has lost ergativity.
E. Maithili does not exhibit this modern ergative agreement pattern.
Thus the correct choice is B & D.