Introduction to Linguistics Brief Questions and Answers / How do linguistics study?

Introduction to Linguistics Brief Questions and Answers / How do linguistics study?

What is language?
Ans. Language is the expression of human communication through which knowledge, belief, and behavior can be experienced, explained, and shared.

. How many functions of language are?

Ans. There are three functions of language:

informative function
expressive function
directive function
Enumerate different functions of language.

Ans. The functions of language fall into two broad categories:

Micro Function
Macro Function
Q.38. What are the causes of language change?

Ans. There are many causes of language change:

economy
analogy
language contact
the medium of communication
cultural environment
How is a sign language different from an oral language?

Ans. Sign language is as rich as any oral language. It has its own written forms and rules which differ it from any oral language.

What does syllable mean?

Ans. Syllable is a unit in which the word is divided while pronouncing it.

. What is a vowel?

Ans. A vowel is a sound produced by the unimpeded passage of the breath through the mouth.

. What is a consonant?

Ans. A consonant is a speech sound in which the breath is at least partly obstructed and which forms a syllable combined with a vowel.

. What do you mean by Phonetic transcription?

Ans. Phonetic transcription is a technique which enables us to identify different sounds through several symbols.

How would you define “Auditory phonetics”?

Ans. Auditory phonetics is that branch of linguistics which studies the process of the perception of the speech sound.

. How many kinds of plosives are?

Ans. There are three kinds of plosives:

Bilabial plosives (p,b)
Alveolar plosives (t,d)
Velar plosives (k,g)
Describe the numbers of phonemes in English.

Ans. In English, there are 44 distinctive speech sounds or phonems. 20 sounds are vowel sounds, while the remaining 24 sounds are consonant sounds.

. What does “consonant clusters” mean?

Ans. The sequence of two or more consonants are called consonant clusters.

. Describe the supra-segmental features.

Ans. Features of speech which extend over more than one sound are called supra-segmental features; supra-segmental features include loudness, intonation, stress and speed of utterance.

. What is stress?

Ans. Stress is the degree of prominence a syllable receives. Stress is either primary or secondary.

. What does morphology study?

Ans. A systematic study of morphemes is known as morphology.

What does ‘morpheme’ mean?

Ans. A morpheme is a minimal, meaningful unit in grammatical system of a language.

. What are free morphemes?

Ans. Some morphemes can stand on their own as independent morphemes. Such morphemes are called free morphemes.

What are bound morphemes?

Ans. The morphemes which cannot stand on their own as independent words are known as bound morphemes.

Ans. Affixation is the morphological process whereby an affix is attached to a root or stem.

. What are the different ways of word formation?

Ans. Some other methods of word formation are reduplication, clipping, acronyms, blend formation.

What is Immediate Constituent Analysis?

Ans. Immediate Constituent Analysis deals with the immediate binary division of a sentence.

What is phrase structure grammar?

Ans. The analysis of a sentence into different constitutes is called phrase structure grammar.