GATE 2021 Question Paper XH C3 Humanities and Social Sciences - Linguistics

General Aptitude (GA)
Q.1 – Q.5 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry ONE mark each (for each wrong
answer: – 1/3).

Q.1 Consider the following sentences:
(i) After his surgery, Raja hardly could walk.
(ii) After his surgery, Raja could barely walk.
(iii) After his surgery, Raja barely could walk.
(iv) After his surgery, Raja could hardly walk.
Which of the above sentences are grammatically CORRECT?

(A) (i) and (ii)

(B) (i) and (iii)

(C) (iii) and (iv)

(D) (ii) and (iv)

Q.2 Ms. X came out of a building through its front door to find her shadow due
to the morning sun falling to her right side with the building to her back.
From this, it can be inferred that building is facing _________

(A) North

(B) East

(C) West

(D) South

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Q.3 M

O N

In the above figure, O is the center of the circle and, M and N lie on the
circle.
The area of the right triangle MON is 50 cm2.
What is the area of the circle in cm2 ?

(A) 2π

(B) 50π

(C) 75π

(D) 100π

Q.4 "  " means" − ",
" " means" ",

If 
" " means" + ",
" " means" ",

then, the value of the expression  2  3  ( ( 4  2)  4) =

(A) -1

(B) -0.5

(C) 6

(D) 7

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Q.5 “The increased consumption of leafy vegetables in the recent months is a
clear indication that the people in the state have begun to lead a healthy
lifestyle”
Which of the following can be logically inferred from the information
presented in the above statement?

(A) The people in the state did not consume leafy vegetables earlier.

(B) Consumption of leafy vegetables may not be the only indicator of healthy
lifestyle.

(C) Leading a healthy lifestyle is related to a diet with leafy vegetables.

(D) The people in the state have increased awareness of health hazards causing by
consumption of junk foods.

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Q. 6 – Q. 10 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry TWO marks each (for each wrong
answer: – 2/3).

Q.6 Oxpeckers and rhinos manifest a symbiotic relationship in the wild. The
oxpeckers warn the rhinos about approaching poachers, thus possibly
saving the lives of the rhinos. Oxpeckers also feed on the parasitic ticks
found on rhinos.
In the symbiotic relationship described above, the primary benefits for
oxpeckers and rhinos respectively are,

(A) Oxpeckers get a food source, rhinos have no benefit.

(B) Oxpeckers save their habitat from poachers while the rhinos have no benefit.

(C) Oxpeckers get a food source, rhinos may be saved from the poachers.

(D) Oxpeckers save the lives of poachers, rhinos save their own lives.

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Q.7

A jigsaw puzzle has 2 pieces. One of the pieces is shown above. Which one
of the given options for the missing piece when assembled will form a
rectangle? The piece can be moved, rotated or flipped to assemble with the
above piece.

(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

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Q.8 The number of hens, ducks and goats in farm P are 65, 91 and 169,
respectively. The total number of hens, ducks and goats in a nearby farm Q
is 416. The ratio of hens:ducks:goats in farm Q is 5:14:13. All the hens, ducks
and goats are sent from farm Q to farm P.
The new ratio of hens:ducks:goats in farm P is_____

(A) 5:7:13

(B) 5:14:13

(C) 10:21:26

(D) 21:10:26

Q.9

The distribution of employees at the rank of executives, across different
companies C1, C2, …, C6 is presented in the chart given above. The ratio of
executives with a management degree to those without a management degree
in each of these companies is provided in the table above. The total number
of executives across all companies is 10,000.
The total number of management degree holders among the executives in
companies C2 and C5 together is_____.

(A) 225

(B) 600

(C) 1900

(D) 2500

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Q. 10 Five persons P, Q, R, S and T are sitting in a row not necessarily in the
same order. Q and R are separated by one person, and S should not be
seated adjacent to Q.
The number of distinct seating arrangements possible is:

(A) 4

(B) 8

(C) 10

(D) 16

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Reasoning and Comprehension (XH-B1)
Q.1 – Q.5 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry ONE mark each (for each wrong
answer: – 1/3).

Q.1 According to a recent article in a medical journal, consuming curcumin
(from turmeric) significantly lowers the risk of COVID-19. The researchers
draw this conclusion from a study that found that people who consumed
one or more teaspoons of curcumin extract everyday were half as likely to
be diagnosed with the disease as people who did not consume curcumin.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument in the article?

(A) In another study, people who were given a zinc supplement everyday were more
than four times less likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 as those who did
not.

(B) All the participants in this study were from the same state where no other spices
or herbs are consumed.

(C) The participants who consumed curcumin were also more likely to exercise than
those who did not.

(D) In another study, COVID-19 patients who were given curcumin were no more
likely to recover than others.

Q.2 Froot Inc. carried out an internet advertisement campaign for its new
beverage CocoLoco. After the campaign, the director of the advertising
company conducted a survey and found that the CocoLoco sales were
higher than that of TenderJoos a competing product from Joos Inc. The
agency concluded that the internet advertising campaign is more effective
than advertising through other media.
Which of the following statements could strengthen the conclusion above
by the agency?

(A) A ₹2 discount was offered on CocoLoco during the campaign period.

(B) CocoLoco sales were higher than those of TenderJoos before the internet
campaign.

(C) A newspaper advertisement campaign the previous year did not increase
CocoLoco sales.

(D) During the campaign for CocoLoco, Joos Inc. did not advertise TenderJoos at
all.

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Q.3 An e-commerce site offered a deal last month conditional on the customer
spending a minimum of ₹500. Any customer who buys 2 kg of fresh fruit
will receive a hand mixer and any customer who buys 2 kg of fresh
vegetables will receive a vegetable chopper.
Which of the following is NOT a possible outcome of the above?

(A) A customer purchased 3 kg of fresh fruit and did not receive a vegetable
chopper.

(B) A customer purchased items for ₹500 which included 1 kg of vegetables and
received a hand mixer.

(C) A customer purchased items for ₹500 which included 2 kg of vegetables and 1
kg of fruit and received a hand mixer.

(D) A customer purchased items for ₹300 which included 2 kg of fruit and received
neither a hand mixer nor a vegetable chopper.

Q.4 Writers of detective fiction often include an incompetent detective as a foil
for the brilliant investigator-protagonist as they follow different paths in
trying to solve the crime. In the individual accounts, the incompetent
detective is frequently distracted by the culprit’s careful plans, while the
competent investigator solves the case after a final confrontation. Analysts
of such fiction believe that the authors select this story-telling technique to
provide readers with more complexities in the form of misleading clues,
while figuring out the crime.
Which of the following statements most logically follows from the passage
above?

(A) A detective story is considered well-written if the brilliant investigator is
accompanied by an incompetent detective.

(B) Writers of detective fiction use the contrast of an incompetent detective to
mainly show how complex the investigation is.

(C) Writers of detective fiction never write stories where the incompetent detective
solves the case.

(D) Writers of detective fiction use two investigative accounts to make it difficult
for the reader to figure out the outcome.

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Q.5 The first (P1) and the last (P6) parts of a single sentence are given to you.
The rest of the sentence is divided into four parts and labelled (L,M,N,O).
Reorder these parts so that the sentence can be read through correctly and
select one of the options given.
P1: Studies of several Sahitya Akademi award winners show that…
L: or encounter professional
M: and invariably develop a strained relationship with other literary figures
N: they often publish very little
O: after winning the prize
P6: …envy and rivalry.
The correct order is:

(A) NOLM

(B) MLON

(C) ONML

(D) MOLN

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Q.6 – Q.10 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry TWO mark each (for each wrong
answer: – 2/3).

Q. 6 Gerrymandering refers to the targeted redrawing of election constituencies
so as to benefit a particular party. This is especially important where the
electoral system is “first past the post” in each constituency (i.e. one winner
is selected in each constituency based on a majority of votes won) and
where there is no other provision for proportional representation (as for
example in the German system). For a simple illustration of
gerrymandering, if a region consists of districts 1, 2, 3, …, 9 with districts
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 favouring party P and 7, 8, 9 favouring party Q, then
grouping of districts to constituencies as {1,2,3}, {4,5,6}, {7,8,9} will give
two seats to party P and one seat to party Q, whereas the grouping {1,2,7},
{3,4,8}, {5,6,9} will give all three seats to party P, as they will secure a
majority in each constituency.
Which of these statements can be deduced from the above?

(A) Gerrymandering implies that constituency boundaries can sometimes be drawn
to favour one party over the other.

(B) Gerrymandering implies that proportional representation is impossible when
districts are grouped to form constituencies.

(C) To counteract gerrymandering political parties should concentrate on districts
where they are favoured.

(D) The grouping of districts to constituencies has very little impact on proportional
representation.

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Q. 7 X-ray examination of a recently discovered painting that some authorities
judge to be a self-portrait by Michelangelo revealed an under-image of a
woman’s face. Either Michelangelo or some other artist must have
repainted over the first painting that had now been seen on the canvas.
Because the woman’s face also appears on other paintings by Michelangelo,
this painting is determined to indeed be an authentic painting by
Michelangelo.
Which of the following assumptions must be made in reaching the
conclusion above?

(A) When an already painted canvas of an artist is used, the second artist using that
canvas for a new painting is usually influenced by the artistic style of the first.

(B) Several painted canvases that art historians attribute to Michelangelo contain
under-images that appear on at least one other of Michelangelo’s paintings.

(C) Subject or subjects that appear in authenticated paintings of Michelangelo are
rather unlikely to show up as under-images on painted canvases not attributed to
Michelangelo.

(D) No painted canvas can be attributed to a particular artist with certainty without
an X-ray analysis.

Q. 8 This season _______ tourists visited Ladakh than last season; however,
______ to be the biggest tourist destination in India. The tourism
department explains that the number of tourists to India has ______
relative to previous years, ________ have chosen to visit Ladakh.
Select the correct sequence of phrases to fill in the blanks to complete the
passage above.

(A) more / for the first time in many seasons it does not appear / increased / and it
seems that most

(B) fewer / as in the past, it appears / in fact decreased / but it seems that only a
small proportion

(C) fewer / for the first time in many seasons it appears / in fact decreased / but it
seems that most

(D) more / this season as well, it appears / in fact decreased / but it seems that a
large proportion

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Q. 9 Reorder the sentences in (1) – (5) such that they form a coherent
paragraph.
(1) In fact, dozens of languages today have only one native speaker still
living, and that person's death will mean the extinction of the language: It
will no longer be spoken, or known, by anyone on earth.
(2) Many languages are falling out of use and are being replaced by others
that are more widely used in the region or nation, such as English in
Australia or Portuguese in Brazil.
(3) Many other languages are no longer being learned by new generations
of children or by new adult speakers.
(4) An endangered language is one that is likely to become extinct in the
near future.
(5) Unless the trends are reversed, these endangered languages will become
extinct by the end of the century.
(Adapted from What is an Endangered Language by A. Woodbury.)

(A) 2 3 1 4 5

(B) 2 3 5 4 1

(C) 4 1 5 2 3

(D) 4 2 3 1 5

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Q. 10 The first (P1) and the last (P6) parts of a single sentence are given to you.
The rest of the sentence is divided into four parts and labelled L,M,N,O.
Reorder these parts so that the sentence can be read correctly and select
one of the sequences below.
P1: For a little while…
L: it was a common belief
M: right after the treaty of Versailles
N: that Germany had caused World War I not just by her actions
O: held by analysts and politicians alike
P6: … but by also encouraging Italy in her own aggressions.

(A) LMNO

(B) MLON

(C) LNMO

(D) MOLN

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Q.11 – Q.15 Multiple Select Question (MSQ), carry TWO mark each (no negative marks).

Q. 11 After Florentino Ariza saw her for the first time, his mother knew before
he told her because he lost his voice and his appetite and spent the entire
night tossing and turning in his bed. But when he began to wait for the
answer to his first letter, his anguish was complicated by diaorrhea and
green vomit, he became disoriented and suffered from sudden fainting
spells, and his mother was terrified because his condition did not resemble
the turmoil of love so much as the devastation of cholera. Florentino
Ariza’s godfather, an old homeopathic practitioner who had been Tránsito
Ariza’s confidant ever since her days as a secret mistress, was also alarmed
at first by the patient’s condition, because he had the weak pulse, the
hoarse breathing, and the pale perspiration of a dying man. But his
examination revealed that he had no fever, no pain anywhere, and that his
only concrete feeling was an urgent desire to die. All that was needed was
shrewd questioning, first of the patient and then of his mother, to conclude
once again that the symptoms of love were the same as those of cholera. He
prescribed infusions of linden blossoms to calm the nerves and suggested a
change of air so he could find consolation in distance, but Florentino Ariza
longed for just the opposite: to enjoy his martyrdom.
(Adapted from Love in a Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.)
The author of the passage is implying that:

(A) Homeopathy cures love.

(B) The doctor could not distinguish between love and cholera.

(C) The doctor could distinguish between love and cholera.

(D) The symptoms of love and cholera are similar.

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Q. 12 Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political
and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that
individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original
cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on
indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a
failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather
the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly
and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our
language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.
(Adapted from Politics and the English Language by George Orwell.)
The illustration of the man who takes to drink is used to underscore which
of the following ideas in the passage above?

(A)
Political and economic causes control deterioration of language.

(B) Foolish thoughts are enabled by inaccurate language.

(C) Effect of an action becomes the cause in a cyclic pattern.

(D) Drinking enables people to have foolish thoughts and slovenly language.

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Q. 13 It is a pity that Caste even today has its defenders. The defences are many.
It is defended on the grounds that the Caste System is but another name
for division of labour, and if division of labour is a necessary feature of
every civilised society, then it is argued that there is nothing wrong in the
Caste System. Now the first thing to be urged against this view is that Caste
System is not merely division of labour. It is also a division of labourers.
Civilised society undoubtedly needs division of labour but nowhere is
division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into
watertight compartments, grading them one above the other. This division
of labour is not spontaneous or based on natural aptitudes. Social and
individual efficiency requires us to develop the individual capacity and
competency to choose and to make his own career. This principle is
violated in so far as it involves an attempt to appoint tasks to individuals in
advance, not on the basis of trained original capacities, but on that of birth.
Industry undergoes rapid and abrupt changes and an individual must be
free to change his occupation and adjust himself to changing
circumstances, to gain his livelihood. (Adapted from Annihilation of Caste
by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.)
Which of the following observations substantiate the arguments found in
the passage above?

(A) Newer generations are unable to change and move away from low-paying
family professions, even with changed economic circumstances.

(B) Sedentary desk jobs are considered to have more value and are in greater
demand than those involving manual labour.

(C) The government’s jobs guarantee programme makes low-level management
jobs available across all industries to all graduates in the nation.

(D) A bus driver becomes an app creator and, in the course of one month, reaches
one million downloads on Playstore with a four-star rating.

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Q. 14 Imagine that you’re in a game show and your host shows you three doors.
Behind one of them is a shiny car and behind the others are goats. You pick
one of the doors and get what lies within. After making your choice, your
host chooses to open one of the other two doors, which inevitably reveals a
goat. He then asks you if you want to stick with your original pick, or
switch to the other remaining door. What do you do? Most people think
that it doesn’t make a difference and they tend to stick with their first pick.
With two doors left, you should have a 50% chance of selecting the one
with the car. If you agree, then you have just fallen afoul of one of the most
infamous mathematical problems – the Monty Hall Problem. In reality,
you should switch every time which doubles your odds of getting the car.
Over the years, the problem has ensnared countless people, but not, it
seems, pigeons. The humble pigeon can learn with practice the best tactic
for the Monty Hall Problem, switching from their initial choice almost
every time. Amazingly, humans do not!
(Adapted from an article by Ed Yong in Discover Magazine.)
Which of the following conclusions follow from the passage above?

(A) Humans calculate the probability of independent, random events such as the
opening of a door by dividing the specific outcomes by the total number of
possible outcomes.

(B) Humans find it very difficult to learn to account for the host’s hand in making
the event non-random and, thereby, changing the outcome of the event.

(C) Calculating probabilities is difficult for humans but easy for pigeons; which is
why the pigeons succeed where the humans fail.

(D) Humans are governed by reason, but pigeons are irrational and only interested
in the outcome and will do whatever it takes to get food.

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Q. 15 The truth is that, despite the recent success of car-makers P and Q, India’s
automobile industry is in a state not that different from the bad old days of
the license-permit quota raj when two carmakers dominated a captive
domestic market with substandard vehicles and with very little, if any,
research and development, and low to negligible productivity growth. High
tariff barriers have certainly induced foreign automobile makers to enter
the Indian market by setting up local operations, but this so-called “tariff
jumping” foreign investment has produced an industry that is inefficient,
operating generally at a low scale, and whose products are not globally
competitive either in terms of cost or of innovation. It is noteworthy that
the automobile parts industry, which has faced low tariffs (as low as
12.5%) and has been largely deregulated, has been characterised by higher
productivity and much better export performance than the completely-
built units’ sector in the years since liberalisation.
(Adapted from an Op-Ed in The Mint.)
Which of the following statements can be inferred from the above?

(A) Low tariff barriers increase productivity.

(B) Tariff jumping leads to increases in productivity.

(C) Deregulation has worked for the automotive parts industry and therefore should
be applied to completely-built units.

(D) P and Q do not invest enough in research and development.

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Q.1 – Q.14 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry ONE mark each (for each wrong
answer: – 1/3).

Q.1 Which of the following is NOT demonstrated by studies with Great Apes
like Koko and Washoe and Sarah?

(A) The capacity to produce rule-governed, novel messages.

(B) The capacity for symbolic communication.

(C) The manual dexterity for signing.

(D) The ability to teach other members of the species.

Q.2 The meaning relax or calm down for the word ‘chill’ is an example of what
kind of semantic change?

(A) Metaphor

(B) Metonymy

(C) Synecdoche

(D) Pejoration

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Q.3 Match the following communication systems (P-T) to their type (i-vi) and
select the correct sequence:

P Bird song (i) Indexical and discrete

Q ☺ ☼ ♂ ;-) ♥ ♫  (ii) Symbolic and continuous

R Footprints on the beach (iii) Symbolic and discrete

Direction indication in bee
S (iv) Indexical and continuous
dance

T Bird calls (v) Iconic and discrete

(vi) Iconic and continuous

(A) P-(iii), Q-(v), R-(i), S-(ii), T-(iv)

(B) P-(v), Q-(vi), R-(ii), S-(iv), T-(iii)

(C) P-(iv), Q-(v), R-(iii), S-(ii), T-(vi)

(D) P-(ii), Q-(vi), R-(v), S-(iii), T-(i)

Q.4 Statistical learning in language development in infants refers to
_____________.

(A) calculating regularities in speech to isolate words

(B) early mathematical knowledge that infants can demonstrate

(C) infant data that researchers use to understand language growth

(D) learning to differentiate phonemes as they are used in spoken words

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Q.5 If ‘Aam Aadmi’ is translated as ‘Mango Man’, which type of ambiguity
does the translation demonstrate?

(A) Lexical

(B) Syntactic

(C) Morphological

(D) Morphosyntactic

Q.6 While most of the historically known writing systems in India tend to write
from left to right, identify the one which writes from right to left.

(A) Kharoṣṭhī

(B) Brāhmī

(C) Śāradā

(D) Grantha

Q.7 Identify the pair of words with a circumfix from the list below.

(A) enlighten, embolden

(B) enquiring, inquiring

(C) transformation, transportation

(D) reduced, repeated

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Q.8 Which of the following sets illustrates sound symbolism in English?

(A) mash, splash, bash, crash

(B) flash, shine, sear, glimmer

(C) duck, suck, luck, tuck

(D) forte, piano, allegro, crescendo

Q.9 Voice Onset Time (VOT) is an acoustic cue used by our auditory-
perceptual systems. Which of the following sounds can be identified using
VOT?
(i) Voiced Stops
(ii) Unvoiced Stops
(iii) Prenasalised Stops
(iv) Aspirated Stops
(v) Ejective Stops

(A) (i), (ii), (iv) but NOT (iii) and (v)

(B) (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) but NOT (v)

(C) (iv), (v) but NOT (i), (ii) and (iii)

(D) (i), (iii), (v) but NOT (ii) and (iv)

Q.10 In syntactic terms, which of the following is the odd one out?

(A) Belle struck the Beast as incompetent.

(B) Belle regarded the Beast as incompetent.

(C) Belle identified the Beast as incompetent.

(D) Belle viewed the Beast as incompetent.

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Q.11 Which of the following speech errors is NOT expected in natural
languages? The items that are swapped are indicated in capitals. The
intended phrase is tight-ly pack-ed.

(A) tighKly paTed

(B) Pightly Tacked

(C) PACKly TIGHTed

(D) tightED packLY

Q.12 Language isolates are languages that ____________________.

(A) are not known to be related to any other languages

(B) are spoken in isolated parts of the world

(C) have no dialectal or sociolectal varieties

(D) are separated geographically from other members of their family

Q.13 On the new ₹2000 note, how many languages can be found in the language
panel displaying the denomination of the note?

(A) Fifteen

(B) Sixteen

(C) Seventeen

(D) Eighteen

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Q.14 How many unique morphemes can be isolated in this sentence?

(A) Twelve

(B) Ten

(C) Sixteen

(D) Eleven

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Q.15 – Q.20 Multiple Select Question (MSQ), carry ONE mark each (no negative marks).

Q.15 “I look forward to visiting teachers”. What does this sentence
demonstrate?

(A) Syntactic ambiguity

(B) Semantic role ambiguity

(C) Lexical ambiguity

(D) No ambiguity

Q.16 Which of the following pairs of words do NOT stand in troponymous
relationship?

(A) lisp-talk

(B) limp-walk

(C) dream-sleep

(D) wait-fidget

Q.17 Which of the following areal/typological feature(s) may be seen in a vast
majority of the languages of South Asia?

(A) Compound Verbs

(B) Retroflexed Sounds

(C) Non-nominative Subject Case

(D) Agglutinative Morphology

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Q.18 Three different ways of writing a single word in the Mayan script are given
below. The glyphs (i-iii) are of a single word [ba’lam] meaning ‘jaguar’.
What can we conclude about the Mayan writing system from the examples
provided?

(i) (ii) (iii)

(A) The glyphs can be logograms, mean whole words.

(B) The glyphs can be syllabic.

(C) The glyphs use the rebus principle, part sound part meaning.

(D) The glyphs can be alphabetic, spelling out sounds.

Q.19 Identify symptom(s) of phonological dyslexia.

(A) The inability to map letters to sounds.

(B) The inability to pronounce made-up or nonsense words.

(C) The inability to tell homographs apart.

(D) The inability to recognise semantic mismatches.

Q.20 Creolisation and creoles are characterised by which of the following?

(A) Creolisation is the process of elaborating Pidgin languages.

(B) Creolisation happens when a Pidgin is learned by young children as a first
language.

(C) Creoles have elaborated grammars but somewhat limited vocabulary.

(D) Creole vocabulary is expansive but the grammar is limited and variable.

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Q.21 – Q.25 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry TWO mark each (for each wrong
answer: – 2/3).

Q. 21 In the following sentence, you are required to identify the type of aphasia
and select the correct sequence from the options given below.
Use of jargon and words that have no meaning are typical of ___________
aphasia, while the inability to differentiate between actives and passives is
seen in _________ aphasia; some patients use circumlocutions for simple
words and this is known as ________ aphasia; in patients with __________
aphasia, production and comprehension may be reasonably preserved, but
the ability to repeat an utterance is disrupted.

(A) Wernicke’s, Broca’s, Anomic, Conduction

(B) Broca’s, Wernicke’s, Conduction, Dysphonia

(C) Anomic, Conduction, Broca’s, Wernicke’s

(D) Dysphonia, Anomic, Wernicke’s, Broca’s

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Q. 22 Match the dialogues in (P-S) to the Gricean Maxim (i-v) that has been
flouted to create humour.

- Excuse me, do you know what time it is? Maxim of
P. (i)
- Yes. Relation

- How many surrealists does it take to screw
Maxim of
Q. in a light bulb? (ii)
Manner
- Fish.

- Do you believe in clubs for young men? Maxim of
R. (iii)
- Only when kindness fails. Quantity

- Why did the General fly to Panama? Maxim of
S. (iv)
- Because the fighting is over. Quality

Maxim of co-
(v)
operation

(Adapted from Attardo, 1990)

(A) P-(iii), Q-(i), R-(ii), S-(iv)

(B) P-(i), Q-(v), R-(ii), S-(iii)

(C) P-(i), Q-(iii), R-(iv), S-(v)

(D) P-(iv), Q-(ii), R-(iii), S-(i)

Q. 23 Sign languages have long been used by the deaf communities to
communicate amongst themselves. Which of the following is correct?

(A) Sign language shows duality of patterning with meaningless gestures combining
to create single signs.

(B) Signs in sign languages are dominantly iconic and transparent with respect to the
meaning they encode.

(C) Children who are hearing-impaired do not converge on a language without
instruction in signing and/or speaking.

(D) Sign languages are pidgin like, rudimentary communication systems.

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Q. 24 In the sentence “The gunman sprayed the building with bullets”, the
preposition phrase (PP) ‘with bullets’ is attached to
_______________________ .

(A) ‘sprayed’, because it meets the selectional restriction of ‘sprayed’

(B) ‘sprayed’, because it serves as the adjunct of the verb ‘sprayed’

(C) ‘the gunman’, because the gunman has the gun

(D) ‘the building’, because of proximity

Q. 25 Consider the sentence “Little children marched past the church sang”.
Assume the starting rule of the context free grammar describing the
language to be S→NP VP, where S is the start symbol, NP is the noun
phrase and VP is the verb phrase. For the given sentence, how many words
does VP contain?

(A) One

(B) Two

(C) Three

(D) Four

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Q.26 – Q.40 Multiple Select Question (MSQ), carry TWO mark each (no negative marks).

Q.26

AJ

S0 S1 S2
DT NN

The above figure shows what is called a finite state machine. The machine
reads one word at a time and transitions to a new state. The states are
indicated by boxes and the transitions by arrows. There are three states S0,
S1 and S2 and the last is the final state (indicated by two coincident boxes).
The text beside each arrow means the following: DT = determiner (a, an,
the), AJ = adjective, NN = noun. The machine starts at S0 and on seeing a
determiner (DT) enters the state S1. Then if it sees an adjective (AJ), it
remains in the same state. But at state S1 if it sees a noun (NN), it enters the
final state. The final state is also called the “accept” state. No other states or
state transitions are defined or permitted.
Which of the following will cause the machine to enter S2, the accept state?

(A) The blue sky

(B) A vast blue sky

(C) The sky

(D) A very blue sky

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Q. 27 Which of the following has/have been observed in speech perception
experiments?

(A) Speech perception experiments with infants show that they are sensitive at birth
to the rhythmic properties of their language, as well as the difference between
stress-timed and syllable-timed languages.

(B) Infants and adults show categorical perception of consonant sounds, that is, the
ability to treat what is a continuous acoustic feature as discrete.

(C) Infants are sensitive to sounds that are not part of the phonemic inventory of the
language(s) to which they are exposed, but older children and adults are not.

(D) The Phoneme Restoration effect seen in speech perception experiments (where
people hear phonemes that have been replaced by noise or a cough) shows that
speech is perceived as linear.

Q. 28 Language games are a way to manipulate spoken words as the following
examples from three languages show. Identify the correct statement(s)
below about language games.

GAME WORD
LANGUAGE USUAL GLOSS
WORD FORM FORM
rice
Bakwiri kóndɪ̀ ndɪ́kò
one person
kɔ̀mɔ́
mɔ̀kɔ́
pɪg lætɪn ɪgpe ætɪnle Pig Latin
English
kʌntri ʌntrike country
kāi chāl-lai kāpmāi chāpmāl-lai What’s up?
Marathi
mərāʈhi məpmərāʈhi Marathi

(A) The intent is to disguise or conceal conversation.

(B) Words are manipulated systematically using defined rules.

(C) The game manipulation targets varying units of the phonological form.

(D) Only children use language games.

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Q. 29 What can be said about the intent and nature of prescriptive rules for
languages?

(A) Provide criteria for written language.

(B) Characterise the universal grammar of languages.

(C) Characterise inter-dialectal differences.

(D) Encode changes to spoken language.

Q. 30 The use of singular they was voted ‘the word of the decade’ by linguists.
Which of the following motivates the singular use?

(A) The use of they in the singular replaces the sex specific he and she pronouns.

(B) Using gendered pronouns can lead to gendered interpretations of the messages.

(C) Sometimes the gender information is not known and it is easier to use they than
he/she.

(D) English is a sexist language.

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Q. 31 Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) is an extended Pidgin/Creole language.
Words borrowed from English are modified in various ways. Given the
word list below, study the phonological modifications and choose the correct
generalisation(s).
ENGLISH TOK PISIN GLOSS
da:ns da:nis dance
kæpsaιz kapsait capsize
stændbaι sambaι standby
spiə supia spear
bəli:v bilip believe
aʊtsaιd aʊtsaιd outside

(A) Only single onsets permitted.

(B) Vowel epenthesis to create syllable nuclei.

(C) Fortition of fricatives to stops.

(D) Obligatory null codas.

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Q. 32 Consider the following set of Phrase Structure Rules in a toy grammar:
[Note: T is tense, P is preposition, V is verb and N is noun; they project
their respective phrasal units TP, PP, VP and NP]
TP → NP T VP
VP → (Adverb) V (TP) (PP)
PP → P NP
NP → (Determiner) (Adjective) N
Which of the following sentences can be generated by these rules?

(A) The golden bells are probably ringing in the church.

(B) Bells ring to let believers know that mass will begin.

(C) The golden bells in the church always ring for prayers.

(D) The silent bells say that the pastor has not visited the bell tower.

Q. 33 Evaluate the following according to the three principles of the Binding
Theory and choose the correct statement(s).
(Note: the subscripted <i> indicates co-reference between the arguments
that bear them.)

(A) The sentence Everyone who meets Tagorei admires himi is permitted by the
principles of the Binding Theory.

(B) The sentence Every one of his followers says that hei likes Tagorei is ruled out
by the Binding Theory.

(C) The sentence Tagorei seems to ask himselfi about effects of education is
permitted by the Binding Theory.

(D) The sentence Everyone who meets himi admires Tagorei is ruled out by the
Binding Theory.

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Q. 34 Given the facts (i-iv) about the World Cup, evaluate the statements using
truth conditions and the truth tables of connectors to find the ‘false’
statement(s).
(i) Argentina has won the World Cup twice: 1978, 1986
(ii) Germany has won it four times: 1954, 1974, 1990, 2014
(iii) France has won it twice: 1998, 2018
(iv) Japan has never won it

(A) If [Argentina won the World Cup in 1986] then [Germany won it in 1998].

(B) [Germany didn’t win the World Cup in 1986] and [France won it in 1990].

(C) [Argentina didn’t win the World Cup in 1986] or [Japan has never won the
World Cup].

(D) If [Argentina didn’t win the World Cup in 1978] then [France won it in 1990].

Q. 35 For which of the following sentence(s) can the assigned presupposition (P)
hold?

(A) Who discovered the Silverback Slug in 1960?
P: Someone discovered the Silverback Slug in 1960.

(B) If she had drunk coffee this morning, she would have been more alert.
P: She had not drunk coffee.

(C) Ruchi’s parents returned to Alaska over the summer.
P: Ruchi’s parents had been to Alaska sometime before the summer.

(D) The police ordered the students to stop drinking.
P: The students were drunk.

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Q. 36 Consider carefully the following data from four languages. Which
deduction(s) can plausibly be made using the methods of comparative
reconstruction?

LANGUAGE LANGUAGE LANGUAGE LANGUAGE GLOSS
A B C D

due bi dó doi two

naso nosa srón nas nose

fratello anaia bráthair frate brother

padre aita pathair pata father

sette zazpi seacht sapte seven

orecchio elarri cluas ureche ear

dieci hamar deich zece ten

(A) Languages A and D are closely related.

(B) Language A is distantly related to Language C.

(C) Language D is distantly related to Language B.

(D) Languages A,B,C and D are all unrelated languages.

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Q. 37 Analyse the following Shakespearean sentences, and observe the differences
between Early Modern English and Modern English – that is, how you
would say these sentences today. What can we say in precise, grammatical
terms about the syntactic changes that have occurred?

Thou marvell’st at my words Macbeth, Macbeth, III.ii

Macbeth doth come. Third Witch, Macbeth, I.iii

Wilt thou use thy wit? Claudio, Much Ado About Nothing, V.i

Do you fear it? Cassius, Julius Caesar, I.ii

Knows he not thy voice? First Lord, All’s Well That Ends Well,
IV.i

Didst thou not say he comes? Baptista, Taming of the Shrew, III.ii

Can’st not rule her? Leontes, Winter’s Tale, II.iii

What sayst thou? Olivia, Twelfth Night, III.iv

What dost thou say? Othello, Othello, III.iii

Whom overcame he? Boyet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, IV.i

(A) The agreement forms of Early Modern English included a different form for 2nd
person, singular subjects.

(B) In wh- and yes-no questions the main verb can raise to Head, CP
[Complementizer Phrase].

(C) Pronominal forms are unchanged from Early Modern into Modern English.

(D) Auxiliary verbs could raise to T [Tense] in Early Modern English but not main
verbs.

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Q. 38 The following utterances were produced by a child aged 3 years.
(i) Put him in the bathtub.
(ii) We eated gummy bears.
(iii) Thank you for giving us these books.
(iv) I don’t know … I knowed her!
(v) He bited my finger. (After correction: He bitted my finger.)
(vi) I runned in the water.
(vii) I rided on an elephant.
Which of the following statement(s) can be deduced from the data?

(A) The child differentiates between lexical and non-lexical categories of English.

(B) The child has acquired the Spec-Head and Complement-Head orders of English.

(C) The child has acquired case marking in English.

(D) The child has not yet acquired the rule of past tense formation in English.

Q. 39 The human speech production system is characterised by which of the
following?

(A) A laryngeal source

(B) A vocal tract that acts as a filter

(C) A vocal tract that acts as a resonator

(D) A laryngeal resonator

Q. 40 Which of the following kinds of evidence are offered in support of an
innateness view of the human language ability?

(A) All humans, no matter how primitive their societies, have the capacity for
language.

(B) Children learn the language(s) in their environment without explicit instruction.

(C) Speakers of all languages are capable of producing and understanding an infinite
number of sentences.

(D) All languages and their grammars change through time.

END OF THE QUESTION PAPER

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