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Historical Linguistics Questions and Answers

21.

Assertion (I) : Analogical changes brings about regularity in the paradigm. Assertion (II) : By bringing about regularity in the paradigm, it becomes irregular.

Exam Year(s)

UGC NET - 2012,

Answer: D

Both statements are true, option D. Analogical change levels irregularities and so brings regularity into the paradigm, as when a child form like gooses replaces geese. Assertion (II) is the paradoxical side of the same process: analogy applied to one part of the system can make the wider system irregular, because the new form can differ from related forms or from forms in other paradigms.

Options A, B and C deny one or both statements, so they are wrong. The key reading is that analogy regularises one paradigm while it can disturb the larger pattern.

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22.

Assertion (I) : Phonetic changes are subphonemic changes in that it merely affects the pronunciation of a given phoneme. Assertion (II) : Phonetic changes always brings about a new phoneme in the language.

Exam Year(s)

UGC NET - 2012,

Answer: C

Assertion (I) is true and Assertion (II) is false, option C. Phonetic change is subphonemic: it changes how a phoneme is pronounced without altering the number or identity of phonemes in the system.

Assertion (II) says phonetic changes always bring about a new phoneme, which is false, since a change becomes phonemic only when it splits or merges phonemes. So option A (both true) is wrong because of (II), option B (both false) is wrong because of (I), and option D reverses the verdicts.

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23.

Assertion (I) : Reconstruction as theoretical construct is absent. Assertion (II) : A proto-phoneme is without concrete realisation.

Exam Year(s)

UGC NET - 2012,

Answer: C

The official key is option C, both statements true. Assertion (II) is accepted: a proto-phoneme is a reconstructed unit with no concrete, attested realisation. Assertion (I) is worded obscurely and, read as saying that reconstructed forms are not directly attested and so are only theoretical constructs, it is accepted by the key.

The wording of (I) is ambiguous, because reconstruction itself is a theoretical construct, and a careful reader may doubt the key. Because no source proves it wrong, the key stands. Options A and B declare one statement false and option D declares both false, so they contradict the key.

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24.

Assertion (I) : Diachronic linguistic deals with changes over time. Assertion (II) : Historical linguistics deals with the nature of change in languages in general.

Exam Year(s)

UGC NET - 2012,

Answer: A

Both statements are true, option A. Diachronic linguistics studies language change over time, which is Assertion (I). Historical linguistics studies the nature of change in languages in general, tracing how languages develop and relate, which is Assertion (II); the two statements describe the same field from two sides.

Options B, C and D call one or both statements false, so they conflict with the standard definitions. Remember the contrast with synchronic linguistics, which studies a language at a single point in time.

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25.

Assertion I : Internal reconstruction takes into consideration the data of a single language. Assertion II : Internal reconstruction attempts to posit an earlier stage of the language.

Exam Year(s)

UGC NET - 2012,

Answer: D

Both assertions are true, so option (D) is right. Internal reconstruction works on the evidence of a single language, using alternations in its forms, such as the variation of a stem in different words, to infer an earlier state of that language; this is Assertion I. By positing the earlier stage from which the alternation arose, it gives an earlier stage of the language; this is Assertion II. Comparative reconstruction, by contrast, uses data from several related languages. Options (A), (B) and (C) each call one of the two true statements false.

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26.

Borrowing of a linguistic item of Hindi into Punjabi is a case of

Exam Year(s)

UGC NET - 2012,

Answer: B

Borrowing from Hindi into Punjabi is intimate borrowing, option (B). In Bloomfield's scheme, intimate borrowing happens when two languages are spoken in the same area, so that the speakers of the less dominant language take features from the dominant one. Hindi and Punjabi are spoken in neighbouring regions of the same country, so the borrowing is between close neighbours. Cultural borrowing, option (C), brings in items from a distant culture along with new things and ideas. Dialect borrowing, option (A), is between dialects of one language. Calquing, option (D), is a loan translation of the parts of a foreign expression.

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27.

The word Skyline, originally referred to the lexicon in general. Now it is used only in cases where the line of the horizon is decorated with a complex of tall buildings. It is a case of

Exam Year(s)

UGC NET - 2012,

Answer: B

The word skyline once referred to the horizon in general and now refers only to the outline of buildings against the sky, so its meaning has become more specific, which is narrowing of meaning, option (B). Extension, option (A), would mean a wider use than before. Transference, option (C), is the shift of a word to a related referent, and here the use has been restricted instead. Pejoration, option (D), is a shift to a worse meaning, and there is no worsening in skyline.

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28.

The set of techniques developed over move than a century and half that permits us to recover linguistic constructs of earlier stages in a family of related languages is known as

Exam Year(s)

UGC NET - 2013,

Answer: B

The set of techniques developed over a century and a half that permits us to recover the forms of earlier stages in a family of related languages is the comparative method. It compares the sound correspondences between related languages and reconstructs the proto-language.

The contrastive method compares languages for teaching, and the synchronic method studies a language at one point in time.

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29.

Assertion (A) : The 'guna' increment is an Indo-European phenomenon. Assertion (B) : The "Vṛddhi" increment is specifically Indian in origin.

Codes :

Exam Year(s)

UGC NET - 2013,

Answer: A

Following the key, both assertions are correct. The guna increment, the strengthening of a vowel as in the change from i to e, is a feature of the Indo-European languages, and vriddhi, the further lengthening, is the specifically Indian term for the increment in the grammar of Sanskrit.

So the options that call either statement wrong are rejected. A reviewer may wish to note that the lengthened grade is found beyond India in the early forms of the family.

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30.

The exploitation of patterns in the synchronic grammar of a single language or dialect to recover information about its prehistory is

Exam Year(s)

UGC NET - 2013,

Answer: D

The use of patterns in the synchronic grammar of one language or dialect to recover information about its prehistory is internal reconstruction. It works without comparing other languages, for example from the alternations within a paradigm.

The standard method of reconstruction is the comparative method, and the synchronic and diachronic grammars are descriptions, not methods of recovery.

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