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ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2014-2015)

B.E.G.E.-102
The Structure of Modern English
Disclaimer/Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions given in the
Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Private Teacher/Tutors/Auhtors for the help and Guidance
of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the Questions of the Assignments. We do not claim 100% Accuracy
of these sample Answers as these are based on the knowledge and cabability of Private Teacher/Tutor. Sample answers
may be seen as the Guide/Help Book for the reference to prepare the answers of the Question given in the assignment. As
these solutions and answers are prepared by the private teacher/tutor so the chances of error or mistake cannot be denied.
Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/
Solutions. Please consult your own Teacher/Tutor before you prepare a Particular Answer & for uptodate and exact
information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the university.

Answer all the questions.

Q. 1. Write short notes on the following:
(i) The organs of speech
Ans. The various organs which are involved in the production of speech sounds are called speech organs (also
known as vocal organs). The study of speech organs helps to determine the role of each organ in the production of
speech sounds. They include the lungs, the vocal folds, and most importantly the articulators.
(ii) The semi-vowels of English
Ans. In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel (or glide) is a sound, such as English /w/ or /j/ ("y"), that is
phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.
Semivowels form a subclass of approximants. Although "semivowel" and "approximant" are sometimes treated as
synonymous, most authors agree that not all approximants are semivowels, although the exact details may vary from
author to author. For example, Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) don't consider the labiodental approximant [] to be
a semivowel, while Martnez-Celdrn (:2004) proposes that it should be considered one.
In addition, some authors consider the rhotic approximants [], [] to be semivowels corresponding to R-colored
vowels such as [d]. As mentioned above, the labiodental approximant [] is considered a semivowel in some
treatments, but not others. Central semivowels, such as Korean [j], are uncommon.
(iii) Stress in English
Ans. Word stress is your magic key to understanding spoken English. Native speakers of English use word stress
naturally. Word stress is so natural for them that they don't even know they use it. In English, we do not say each
syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly
(big, strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly.
Let's take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic. Do they sound the same when spoken? No.
Because we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable in each word. And it is not always the same syllable. So the shape of
each word is different.
This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion,
INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etc. The syllables that are not stressed are weak or small or
quiet. Native speakers of English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use word stress
in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension. Try to
hear the stress in individual words each time you listen to English - on the radio, or in films for example. Your first
step is to HEAR and recognise it. After that, you can USE it!

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(iv) Content words and grammatical words

Ans. In linguistics content words are words such as nouns, most verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that refer to some
object, action, or characteristic. Content words contrast with function words, which function primarily to express the
grammatical relationships between other words in a sentence. Content words are open class words, meaning that
new content words can be added to the lexicon easily. In relation to phonology, content words adhere to the minimal
word constraint, while function words do not. A word, such as a preposition, a conjunction, or an article, that has
little semantic content of its own and chiefly indicates a grammatical relationship. Also called form word, functor.
Grammatical words is a word, such as a preposition, a conjunction, or an article, that has little semantic content
of its own and chiefly indicates a grammatical relationship. Also called form word, functor.
Q. 2(a). What are diphthongs? How are they different from pure vowels? Discuss, giving examples.
Ans. A diphthong also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same
syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the
speech apparatus) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. For most dialects of English, the phrase "no highway
cowboys" contains five distinct diphthongs. Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue or other
speech organs do not move significantly and the syllable contains only a single vowel sound. For instance, in English,
the word ah is spoken as a monophthong /Y:/, while the word ow is spoken as a diphthong /a /. Where two adjacent
vowel sounds occur in different syllables-for example, in the English word re-elect-the result is described as hiatus,
not as a diphthong.
Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation. However,
there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single-vowel
sounds (phonemes).
Grammatical word is a word, such as a preposition, a conjunction, or an article, that has little semantic content
of its own and chiefly indicates a grammatical relationship. Also called form word, functor.
Pure vowels articulate a single vowel phoneme. Dipthongs articulate combined vowel phonemes. According to
the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), there are eight dipthong vowels. These are vowels that combine vowel
sounds to create a double sound. Dipthong consonants fit the same definition, a doubling of consonant sounds, and
are more familiar to most people. Some familiar consonant dipthongs, which provide an orientation for understanding
vowel dipthongs, are sh, ch, th, pl, sn, st, as in sheet, church, these, place, snack, and street.
The eight English vowel dipthongs are represented by the vowel sounds in "stay" "try" "toy" "fear" "there"
"sure" "mouth" and "nose." The IPA alphabet signifies these eight dipthongs with symbols, some of which I can't
represent here. Others are signified as follows. The dipthong (double sound) in stay is signified as eI; try is aI; fear
is I schwa; there is e schwa. The links below give complete IPA dipthong information.
Q. 2(b). What are fricatives? Describe the fricatives of English.
Ans. Fricative, in phonetics, a consonant sound, such as English f or v, produced by bringing the mouth into
position to block the passage of the airstream, but not making complete closure, so that air moving through the
mouth generates audible friction.
Fricatives (also sometimes called "spirants") can be produced with the same positions of the vocal organs as
stops; bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar, and uvular consonants. In addition to the f and v sounds,
examples of fricatives in English are s as in "sitter," z as in "zebra," and the two th sounds as in "think" and "this."
In English language each place of articulation has a pair of phonemes (one fortis and one lenis). However, there
is one exception, the glottal h.
In the table below you can see the system of fricatives phonemes of English.The fricatives f and v
Examples: fan, van, safer, saver, half, halve etc.
These fricatives are labio-dental because the lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth. The fricative noise is
not strong especially in the case of v.
Examples: thumb, thus, ether, father, breath, breathe etc.
In the case of dental fricatives and the tongue is placed inside the teeth with the blade touching the inside of
upper teeth. It is not placed between teeth as many teachers teach their students. The fricative noise is also weak as

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in case of the fricatives f and v.

Q. 3(a). Mark the primary stress in the following words, and state how many syllables are there in each
words.
(i) about vi attitude
Ans. about vi
(ii) bring vii engineer
Ans. bring viii
(iii) introduction viii photograph
Ans. Photograph
(iv) refugee ix artistic
Ans. artistic
(v) authority x biological
Ans. authority x
Q. 3(b). Choose the correct prefix from the prefixes given in brackets to express the kind of meaning
indicated for each of the words given below:
(i) contented (mal-, dis-, un-) negative
Ans. dis
(ii) warn (post-, re-, fore-) before time
Ans. post
(iii) oceanic (trans-, inter-) across
Ans. trans
(iv) author (co-, pro-, bi-) joint
Ans. co
(v) active (ultra-, over-, hyper-) extremely
Ans. hyper
(vi) friend (be-, un-, over-) to make friends with
Ans. be
(vii) code (un-, mis-, de-) reverse the action
Ans. de
(viii) forest (un-, dis-,de-) deprive of
Ans. deforest
(ix) structure (over-, above-, super-) that which is above something else
Ans. above
(x) nuclear disarmament (super-, counter-, pro-) in favour of something
Ans. super
Q. 4(a). Fill in the blanks with determiners such as much, every, most, either, any, a few, more, enough,
neither, some, a little, both, no, many
(i) My brother had good news for me.
Ans. a few
(ii) Do you have information about the lost child?
Ans. any
(iii) I had ..of his nonsense. Now I will not tolerate anything.
Ans. a little
(iv) If these arguments were sound, then of the two conclusions might be drawn.
Ans. both
(v) .passengers were heard complaining against the poor service on the flight.
Ans. every
such as much, every, most, either, any, a few, more, enough, neither, some, a little, both, no, many(

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(vi) He had absolutelyknowledge about the postponement of the examination.

Ans. such as much
(vii) of the shirts he bought have proved to be good.
Ans. some
(viii) Here is water in the jug for everyone.
Ans. enough
(ix) The head is the sensitive part of the body.
Ans. most
(x) He spends time teaching than doing research.
Ans. most
Q. 4(b). Distinguish between the following, giving examples:
(i) A free morpheme and a bound morpheme
Ans. In morphology, a bound morpheme is a morpheme that appears only as part of a larger word; a free or
unbound morpheme is one that can stand alone. A bound morpheme is also known as a bound form, and similarly a
free morpheme is a free form. Many roots are free morphemes, e.g., ship- in "shipment", while others are bound.
Roots normally carry lexical meaning. Words like chairman that contain two free morphemes (chair and man) are
referred to as compound words.
Affixes are always bound in English, although languages such as Arabic have forms which sometimes affix to
words and sometimes can stand alone. English language affixes are almost exclusively prefixes or suffixes. E.g.,
pre- in "prefix" and -ment in "shipment". Affixes may be inflectional, indicating how a certain word relates to other
words in a larger phrase, or derivational, changing either the part of speech or the actual meaning of a word.
Every morpheme can be classified as either free or bound. These categories are mutually exclusive, and as such,
a given morpheme will belong to exactly one of them.
Free morphemes can function independently as words (e.g. town, dog) and can appear with other lexemes (e.g.
town hall, doghouse).
Bound morphemes appear only as parts of words, always in conjunction with a root and sometimes with other
bound morphemes. For example, un- appears only accompanied by other morphemes to form a word. Most bound
morphemes in English are affixes, particularly prefixes and suffixes, examples of suffixes are: tion, ation, ible, ing,
etc. Bound morphemes that are not affixes are called cranberry morphemes.
Bound morphemes can be further classified as derivational or inflectional.
Derivational morphemes, when combined with a root, change either the semantic meaning or part of speech of
the affected word. For example, in the word happiness, the addition of the bound morpheme -ness to the root happy
changes the word from an adjective (happy) to a noun (happiness). In the word unkind, un- functions as a derivational
morpheme, for it inverts the meaning of the word formed by the root kind.
Inflectional morphemes modify a verb's tense or a noun's number without affecting the word's meaning or class.
Examples of applying inflectional morphemes to words are adding -s to the root dog to form dogs and adding -ed to
wait to form waited. In English, there are eight inflections.
(ii) A count noun and a mass noun
Ans. A "count noun" is a noun that can be counted with a number. For example, "kitten" is a count noun because
you can count how many kittens there are in a group. In general, people, animals, discrete objects, and units of
measurements are all count nouns.
"Mass nouns" are nouns that can't be counted numerically, but can only be measured as an amount. For example,
"water" is a mass noun because you cannot count how much water you have; you can only measure it. You would
say, "I have two liters of water," not, "I have two waters."
Count nouns are compared using the word "fewer." You would say, "I have fewer kittens than you do." Mass
nouns are compared with "less." You would say, "I have less water than you do."
(iii) A finite verb and a non-finite verb
Ans. Finite Verbs are those verbs that have a definite relation with the subject or noun. These verbs are usually

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the main verb of a clause or sentence and can be changed according to the noun. They are used only in present and
past tense. They can be indicative of passive or active voice and also of number (singular or plural).
She walks home. - Here we see that the finite verb is walks and the pronoun is 'she'.
She walked home. - Here we can see how the verb changed/modified to change the tense of the sentence.
These verbs cannot be the main verb of a clause or sentence as they do not talk about the action that is being
performed by the subject or noun. They do not indicate any tense, mood or gender. They are used as nouns, adverbs
and adjectives. They are also used to form non-finite clauses which are simply dependent clauses that use non-finite
verbs.
He loves camping in the woods. - Here the non-finite verb is camping and it is used as a noun. These kind of nonfinite verbs are called Gerunds.
I need to go to sleep. - Here the non- finite verb phrase is to sleep, it is acting as a noun. Non-finite verbs that use
'to' before them are called Infinitives.
The sleeping dog caused a delay. - The nonfinite verbs that have '-ing' or '-ed' as suffixes and cause the verb to
come an adjective are called Participles.
(iv) A defining and a non-defining adjective clause
Ans. Sometimes the relative pronoun or the relative adverb introducing an adjective clause is understood and is
hence omitted.
Examples are:
This is all I have. (= This is all that/which I have.)
Here is the camera I promised to give you. (= Here is the camera which / that I promised to give you.)
The reason she hates me is unknown to me. (= The reason why she hates me is unknown to me.)
An adjective clause may be defining or non-defining.
A defining adjective clause clearly identifies its antecedent whereas a non-defining adjective clause merely
gives some information. In writing, non-defining adjective clauses are always separated by commas.
Examples of defining relative clauses are:
There are the keys that you were looking for.
This is the house that Jack built.
Examples of non-defining relative clauses are:
Susan, who is a well-known social activist, is a brave woman.
Here the adjective clause 'who is a well-known social activist' merely gives some additional information about
Susan. Hence it is a non-defining adjective clause.
(v) Explicit and implicit negation
Ans. Natural language has a rich landscape of negative expressions. There are a number of dimensions we can
use to classify negative expressions into groups. In the current paper, following Clark (1976), we make a distinction
between negation in the asserted meaning and negation in the non-asserted content (also see Horn 1996); also
following Clark (1976), we call the first group explicit negation, and the second implicit negation. Under Clark's
classification, explicit negation in English includes expressions like scarcely, hardly, few, seldom, little, and only, as
well as more obviously negative expressions like no, not, and never. Implicit negation, on the other hand, includes
expressions like forget, fail, doubt, and deny (see also Fodor, Fodor, and Garrett, 1975). It is already clear from these
examples that, by explicit negation, we do not mean morphologically explicit or overt negation. Before we discuss
how these two groups are justified, however, we define what we mean by assertion and non-assertion.
Matching bias in conditional reasoning consists of a tendency to select as relevant cases whose lexical content
matches that referred to in the conditional statement, regardless of the presence of negatives. Evans (1983)
demonstrated that use of explicit rather than implicit negative cases markedly reduced the matching bias effect on
the conditional truth table task. In apparent contrast, recent studies of explicit negation on the Wason selection task
have failed to find evidence of logical facilitation. Experiment 1 of the present study strongly replicated the Evans
(1983) findings and extended them to three forms of conditional statement. Experiments 2 and 3 showed further that
the use of explicit negatives removed completely the matching bias effect on the Wason selection task. However,

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consistent with other recent studies, this elimination of bias didnotlead to facilitation of correct responding. The
findings are interpreted as providing evidence that matching bias reflects a linguistically cued relevance effect.
Q. 5(a). Pick out the verbs in the following sentences and say whether they are transitive intransitive:
(i) They looked very anxious.
Ans. looked
(ii) I bought a new shirt and pants for the wedding of my sister.
Ans. bought
(iii) He spoke at the top of his voice.
Ans. Spoke
(iv) The watchman was yawning in the morning.
Ans. yawing
(v) His father scolded him for his poor performance in the examination.
Ans. scolded
Q. 5(b). Complete the following sentences with the clauses mentioned in the brackets:
(i) Ravi works for a company..(adjective clause)
Ans. which
(ii) I was late..(adverb clause)
Ans. once
(iii) We hope ..(noun clause)
Ans. you are good
(iv) She is the teacher..(adjective clause)
Ans. of Science
(v) None of the students understood ..(noun clause)
Ans. English
Q. 5(c). Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the words given in the brackets. State whether the
affixes attached to the words are inflectional or derivational.
(i) The (kind) of the stranger (save) my father's life.
Ans. kindness, saved
(ii) Sunil and Sunita are(happy), married.
Ans. happing
(iii) Adit is an (obey) son, much to his parents (satisfy)
Ans. obeying, satisfied

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