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 ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2017-2018)
M.E.G.-4
Aspects of Language
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 Teachers/Tutors/Authors for the help and guidance
of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the Questions in given in the Assignments. We do not claim 100%

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accuracy of these sample answers as these are based on the knowledge and capability of Private Teacher/Tutor. Sample
answers may be seen as the Guide/Help for the reference to prepare the answers of the Questions given in the Assignment.

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As these Solutions And Answers are prepared by the Private Teacher/Tutor so the chances of error or mistake cannot be

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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 and for up-to-date

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and exact information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the
university.
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Write short notes on any two of the following:
(i) Theories of the Origin of Language

a r din
Ans. How And Why Did Language Originate? In linguistics, the origin of language is known as glottogony;
a
a technical term derived from the Greek roots of the same word. It refers to the ‘genesis of language’ or better put

m
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it as the ‘evolution of language’. So when did the language begin? It is an intriguing question and we may not find a
completely satisfying answer to this question. There are many theories that try to explain the origin of language and
some of those have traditional amusing names.

l
u d
The Divine Source Theory: According to this theory the language has been provided to humans by a divine

in ks
source. As there are different religions the divine source varies across the world. According to Christian belief, God
after creating the world created Adam and “whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name
n oo
s t
thereof” (Genesis, 2:19). According to Hindu mythology the language came from goddess Saraswati, wife of Brahma,
O b
creator of universe. For Egyptians it came from Thoth, for Babylonians the source was Nabu, and for Muslims it was

r -
Allah. The tower of Babel story says: “Because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth and from

.e o E
thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth (Genesis II: 9). It is an interesting fact that
f
almost every religion in the world has a story to say about the origin of language. Some experiments were also done

b d
to justify the existence of this theory, but these attempts proved to be futile.

we u a n
The Natural Sound Source Theory: This theory believes that the human language evolved from the natural
sound we hear or make. There are further divisions in this theory as natural sounds are infinite in numbers. Thus the
H
w Th
two famous theories are “bow-wow theory” and “yo-heave-ho” theory.
“Bow-Wow” Theory: This theory suggests the formation of words by imitating (echoing) natural sounds – also
known as onomatopoeia – like bow wow, cawcaw, cuckoo, buzz, hiss, rattle, screech, etc. But it failed to give a

w
logical explanation about the origin of the names of soundless objects – wood, stone – abstract ideas – truth, happiness,
after all language is not simply a set of words used to identify an object or a thing, it is more complicated than that.
Another argument against this theory says that language also impacts the way we hear and imitate natural sounds,
for example, in English a rooster crows ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’; in Hindi ‘kuk-ru-ka-roo’ and in German ‘kikeriki’.
“Yo-Heave-Ho” Theory: According to this theory the language evolved from the sounds made by person
involved in physical efforts – grunts, groan, and swear words – indicating that language developed in social context.
But again it fails to explain the various other aspects of language development. Apes have grunts and social call, but
they did not develop the capacity to speech.
The Pooh-Pooh Theory: The English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) believed that human language
developed from instinctive cries that human made to express emotions, such as fear, anger, pleasure, and pain. In
1871, in his book ‘Descent of Man’, Darwin first suggested this idea. According to him like human himself, his

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language evolved from the expression of emotion. For example, a feeling of contempt is expressed by puffing of air
out through the nostrils or the mouth and the results are the sounds like “pooh” or “pish”. The critics of Darwin, with
disgust, called this theory – the Pooh- pooh theory.
The Ding-Dong Theory: It was the famous linguist Max Muller, a contemporary of Darwin, who proposed the
ding-dong theory. According to Muller there is a mysterious correspondence between sounds and meanings. Small,
sharp, high things tend to have words with high front vowels in many languages, while big, round, low things tend to
have round back vowels! This is often referred to as sound symbolism. According to him, the primitive elements of
language were but reflex expression of human being induced by sensory impression. The most primitive words would
therefore be phonetic types rung out from the organism of the first man or men when struck with an idea.
So, it might be clear now that it is impossible to trace the origin of language. Another issue that intriguing in nature
is how often language was invented. Perhaps it was invented once, by our earliest ancestors — perhaps the first who
had whatever genetic and physiological properties needed to make complex sounds and organise them into strings.
This is called monogenesis. Or perhaps it was invented many times — polygenesis — by many people. We can

o
try to reconstruct earlier forms of language, but we can only go so far before cycles of change obliterate any
m
possibility of reconstruction. Many say we can only go back perhaps 10,000 years before the trail goes cold. So,

evolved due to following reasons:

. c
perhaps we will simply never know. But we can always guess the reason for its invention. The language must have

(b) For expression of thoughts, emotions and feelings.

r t
(a) For passing through factual information and command, or in other words, information talking.

(c) For maintaining social circle on friendly level, also called as ‘phatic’ communication.
ing
(d) For aesthetic purpose like poetry.
(e) For psychological reasons like relieving nervous tension.
a ad
m e
To understand language better, let us have a look on its different characteristics.
(iii) Criteria for classification of consonants.
R
y e
Ans. Criteria for the Detailed Description and Classification of Consonants: It is necessary for us to

d
focus on the few basic points in order to understand the description and classification of consonant sounds. These
points are:
in ks
l
stream.
t u
(a) Lung air is used for the production of consonant sounds by most of the languages across the globe. Usually
n oo
languages use egressive air stream for the production of sounds and these air streams are called pulmonic air

O b
s r
(b) Vibration of vocal cords produces number of sounds called voiced sounds, and those sounds which are
-
.e o
produced without the vibration of vocal cords are called unvoiced sounds.
f E
(c) Rising of soft palate cause velmic closure resulting in the production of oral sounds, while lowering of soft

b d
palate does not cause velmic closure which becomes the cause of the production of nasal sounds.

we u an
(d) Place of articulation depends on the sound produced, and is determined by the passive articulators like teeth
and palate.
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w Th
(e) The manner of articulation means, how sound has been produced, i.e. the closure and the narrowing used in
the production.
Q. 2. Write in detail, giving examples whenever appropriate, on stress and rhythm of connected

w
speech in English.
Ans. Stress and Rhythm in Connected Speech
Introduction
We have looked at the different levels of stress, namely, primary stress/accent and secondary stress. Primary
stress is largely influenced by the loudness and pitch movement and secondary stress is characterised only by the
extra breath force. As we know that in English words there is more than one syllable, however, there are words which
only have one syllable, out of which one syllable is supposed receive the primary stress. Let us look at the different
aspects of rhythm in language and also in general.
Rhythm: Speech is perceived as a sequence of events in time, and the word rhythm is used to refer the way
these events are distributed in time. Obvious examples of vocal rhythms are chanting as part of games (for example,

3
children calling words while skipping, or football crowds calling their team’s name) or in connection with work (e.g.
sailor’s chants used to synchronies the pulling on an anchor rope). In conversational speech the rhythms are vastly
more complicated, but it is clear that the timing of speech is not random. An extreme view (though a quite common
one) is that English speech has a rhythm that allows us to divide it up into more or less equal intervals of time called
feet, each of which begins with a stressed syllable: this is called the stress-timed rhythm hypothesis. Languages
where the length of each syllable remains more or less the same as that of its neighbours whether or not it is stressed
are called syllable-timed. Most evidence from the study of real speech suggests that such rhythms only exist in very
careful, controlled speaking, but it appears from psychological research that listeners' brains tend to hear timing
regularities even where there is little or no physical regularity.
Influence of Stress on Rhythm in English: Stress is very important factor in making of speech rhythm. In
fact, rhythmic group comprises with stressed syllable followed by unstressed syllable which is again followed by a

m
stressed syllable. If two sentences have same number of unstressed vowels between two stressed vowels they will
follow a regular rhythmic pattern, but this is not possible in all the cases as the number of unstressed syllables between

o
two stressed syllables may not be same always. It is the nature of words that decides how many syllablees are to be

c
stressed. If there is more number of content words in speech or in a sentence there will be more number of stressed

.
syllables. If there is large number of stressed syllables, the sentence will have a heavier and slower rhythm and if the

t
stressed syllables are few it will have a lighter and faster rhythm. In a regular speech, stress depends on the meaning

g
speaker wants to convey. The importance of meaning in determining the stress is to such an extent that it may leave
a content word unstressed and structure word stressed.

vertical lines.
a r in
Let us consider following sentences to understand it properly. Rhythmic groups are indicated by the use of
d
1. I' want to/' go to/'Delhi to-/'morrow
a
2. 'Tell him to/'go to the /'market
3. 'Make me some/'puppets for the /'show
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In above examples the rhythmic groups are closely held together. This suggests the lack of pause between the
different rhythmic groups of the sentence.

l
u d
in ks
Let us now look at the different types of stress pattern in English language. The vertical lines beside every
sentence represent the stressed syllables and the horizontal lines denote the unstressed syllables.
n oo
1. 'brown 'dog //
2. 'Try a'gain /-/
3. 'Show me'yours /-/
s t O b
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.e o E
4. It's 'broken -/-
5. 'Give him some 'food /- -/ f
6. 'Follow my a'dvice /- - -/
b d
we u a
7. She 'isn't on the 'phone -/- - - /
8. I'gave it to her - / - - -
H
n
w Th
9. We 'shan't be in 'time for the 'play -/- - /- -/
10. I'wonder if he'll 'ask me in ad'vance -/- - -/- - /
11. He 'did his 'best to 'save the 'child. -/-/-/-/

w 12. He 'wants you to 'write her a 'letter to'morrow. -/ --/--/--/-

Weak Forms in English: English is very different language in having special, reduced “weak” forms for many
“function” words, such as pronouns, prepositions and auxiliary verbs. These “weak” forms are used in all styles of
speech in a vast majority of cases. Many authors claim that one of the tell-tale signs of a foreign accent is the use of
“strong” forms where they are not needed. Also, using “weak” forms adds to the general fluency of a speaker’s
English. It must be remembered that quite often “weak” forms are also considered to be one of the reasons for non-
native speakers’ having considerable problems understanding native English spoken in a normal, conversational manner.
Therefore, knowing about “weak” forms can be also useful for listening comprehension.
Contracted Forms: Contractions or contracted forms are those words which have been shortened. The most
common example is the one when we add the auxiliary verb “not” to another auxiliary verb in negative sentences: do
+ not = don’t; were + not = weren’t; is + not = isn’t.

4
 As we can see, some letters have been missed out and replaced by an apostrophe – that’s how contracted forms
work.
Of course, contracted forms are by no means limited to the ones with “not”. Other words, such as is, are, and will,
are often contracted. For example, we’ll = we will; he’s = he is; they’re = they are.
Use of Strong Form of Grammatical Words: A brief description of weak forms in English has already been
provided. It is interesting to know that these grammatical words have strong forms which are not stressed in many
contexts. For example, initial and final positions in a sentence – “How could he do it?” ('hau k?d hI'du'It) Strong forms
of these words are stressed in following situation:
(a) When weak-form is contrasted with other word. e.g. “The ‘gift’s ‘for him not’ from him.”
(b) With coordinated use of preposition. e.g. I travel to and from Delhi a lot.
(c) When weak-form is used to emphasise. e.g. “You 'must be 'here before 'ten”.

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(d) When weak-form is ‘cited’ or ‘quoted’. e.g. “You always say an 'apple not a apple.”
Q. 3 Describe some of the minor processes of word formation in English and their contribution to the
enrichment of the English word-store.

c
Ans. The Process of Word-formation: In English language we see new words coming into dictionary very
o
t .
frequently. In recent pasts words like criminalise, and marginalise have been introduced. Such formations of words
are based on fixed rules and not on arbitrary basis. Let us examine these rules of word- formation in detail.

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r
Simple, Complex, and Compound Words: Words can be categorised as simple, complex, and compound

in
words depending upon the nature of combination of morphemes. If there is just a realisation of a free morpheme, it

a d
can be called as a simple word. A combination of free morpheme and grammatical or bound morpheme will make up

a
a complex word and a combination of two or more free morphemes and one or more bound morphemes will make up

m e
a compound word. There are some cases wherein a complex word can be just a combination of two or more bound

R
morphemes. For example, word ‘local’. ‘Local’ is a combination of loc + al, linguistics consider ‘loc’ as a morpheme,

a combination of two or more bound morphemes.

in ks
y e
but there is no independent use of ‘loc’, it must be a realisation of a bound morpheme. Thus a complex word can be

d
Affixes, Stems, Roots: Morphemes that combine to make a word are also identified as separate elements. The
l
t u
three categories in which these elements are categorised are affixes, stems and roots.
n oo
As said earlier a complex word is, either a combination of one free morpheme and one or more bound morphemes
O b
s
or two or more bound morphemes. The free morpheme in a word is called ‘base’ of the complex word. In case

r -
wherein a complex word is a combination of two or more bound morphemes, the base cannot be a free morpheme. In

.e fo E
such a case the base is a bound morpheme, and is called ‘bound base’. And those bound morphemes which attach
themselves either at the beginning or at the end of the base are called ‘affixes’. Affixes are of two types—prefixes
b d
and suffixes. Prefixes are those which are attached before the base and suffixes are those which are attached after

we u an
the base. Common examples of prefixes are im-, de-, etc. and the examples of suffixes are -fy, and -ly, etc. Bases are

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not always a free morpheme or a bound morpheme, but sometimes they can also be a combination of free and bound

w Th
morphemes. ‘Stem’ is the synonym of ‘base’, i.e. stems are either a free morpheme, or bound morpheme or a
combination of free and bound morphemes to which affixes are attached to make a new word.

w Inflectional and Derivational Morphology: One of the most important and perhaps universal classifications
of morphemes is derivational and inflectional morphemes.
1. Derivational morphemes make new words from old ones. Thus creation is formed from create, but they are
two separate words. Derivational morphemes generally
(a) change the part of speech or the basic meaning of a word. Thus -ment added to a verb, forms a noun (judg-
ment). Re-activate means “activate again.”
(b) are not required by syntactic relations outside the word. Thus un-kind combines un- and kind into a single new
word, but has no particular syntactic connections outside the word—we can say he is unkind or he is kind or
they are unkind or they are kind, depending on what we mean.

5
 (c) are often not productive—derivational morphemes can be selective about what they’ll combine with, and
may also have erratic effects on meaning. Thus the suffix -hood occurs with just a few nouns such as brother,
neighbour, and knight, but not with most others. e.g., *friendhood, *daughterhood, or *candlehood. Furthermore
“brotherhood” can mean “the state or relationship of being brothers,” but “neighbourhood” cannot mean “the
state or relationship of being neighbours.”
(d) typically occur between the stem and any inflectional affixes. Thus in governments,
-ment, a derivational suffix, precedes -s, an inflectional suffix.
(e) in English, may appear either as prefixes or suffixes: pre-arrange, arrange-ment.
2. Inflectional Morphemes: Vary (or “inflect”) the form of words in order to express grammatical features,
such as singular/plural or past/present tense. Thus boy and boys, for example, are two different forms of the “same”

m
word; the choice between them, singular vs. plural, is a matter of grammar and thus the business of inflectional
morphology.
Inflectional Morphemes generally

c
(a) do not change basic meaning or part of speech, e.g., big, bigg-er, bigg-est are all adjectives.
o
.
(b) express grammatically required features or indicate relations between different words in the sentence. Thus

t
in Lee love-s Kim: -s marks the 3rd person singular present form of the verb, and also relates it to the 3rd

g
r
singular subject Lee.

n
(c) are productive. Inflectional morphemes typically combine freely with all members of some large class of
i
a d
morphemes, with predictable effects on usage/meaning. Thus the plural morpheme can be combined with

a
nearly any noun, usually in the same form, and usually with the same effect on meaning.

m e
(d) occur outside any derivational morphemes. Thus in ration-al-iz-ation-s the final -s is inflectional, and appears

R
at the very end of the word, outside the derivational morphemes -al, -iz, -ation.
(e) in English, inflectional affixes are only suffixes.
The Inflectional Morphology of English

d
in ks
y e
Let us discuss in detail the inflection morphology of English by describing the paradigm of all regular parts of
l
speech.

t u
n oo
Inflectional Morphology of English Nouns: English nouns can be categorised into two major categories –
O b
s
proper nouns, and common nouns. Proper nouns are those which have a unique identity and common nouns are those
which refer to a person, place, or a thing.
r -
.e o E
To understand inflectional morphology of noun, let us first examine two grammatical rules that apply on English
nouns: f
b d
(a) The Number Rule: According to this rule, one can choose between singular and plural references. If a noun

we u a n
is supposed to be singular, we can choose Singular bound morpheme and if it is supposed to be plural, we can
choose Plural bound morpheme.
H
w Th
(b) The Case-formation Rule: According to this rule one noun can be combined with other in order to
signify possession. In case we want to express that noun N2 belongs to N1, we can choose bound morpheme

w Possession with N1.

These are the two rules which apply in the paradigm formation of English nouns. In the case of proper noun only
second rule is applicable because we do not have the choice of numbers in case of proper nouns. But a proper noun
can also be used in a plural form, only it is used as common noun. This gives us two paradigm of proper noun:
● Common Case - Proper noun + COMMON, examples – Ram, Sam, etc
● Possessive Case - Proper noun + POSSESSIVE, examples – Ram’s, Sam’s, etc.
Paradigm of Common Nouns: Common nouns can be categorised in to ‘count’ nouns and ‘mass’ nouns. Count
nouns are those which can be counted, thus count nouns, for example house, bikes, cars, etc. and mass nouns are
those which cannot be counted like love, peace, anger, etc. Paradigm of count nouns involves both the rules stated
above, i.e. number and case rules. This can be made clear with the following chart:

6
 Rule I SINGULAR PLURAL
COUNT NOUN + SINGULAR COUNT NOUN + PLURAL
Cat + SINGULAR = ‘Cat’ Cat + PLURAL = ‘Cats’
Dog + SINGULAR = ‘Dog Dog + PLURAL = ‘Dogs’
Horse + SINGULAR = ‘Horse’ Horse + PLURAL = ‘Horses’
Rule II Common Case Possessive Case
COUNT NOUN + COMMON COUNT NOUN + POSSESSIVE
Cat + COMMON = ‘Cat’ Cat + POSSESSIVE = ‘Cat’s’
Dog + COMMON = ‘Dog’ Dog + POSSESSIVE = ‘Dog’s’
Horse + COMMON = ‘Horse’ Horse + POSSESSIVE = ‘Horse’s’
Rule I and II (Apply in that order)
Singular Number + Common Case
Cat + SING + COMMON = ‘Cat’
Singular Number + Possessive Case
Cat + SING + POSSESSIVE = ‘Cat’s’
o m
Dog + SING + COMMON = ‘Dog’
Horse + SING + COMMON = ‘Horse’
Dog + SING + POSSESSIVE = ‘Dog’s’
Horse + SING + POSSESSIVE
. c
= ‘Horse’s’
Plural Number + Common Case
Cat + PLU + COMMON = ‘Cats’
r
Plural Number + Possessive Case
Cat + PLU + POSSESSIVE = ‘Cats’
ting
Dog + PLU + COMMON = ‘Dogs’
Horse + PLU + COMMON = ‘Horses’ a
Dog + PLU + POSSESSIVE = ‘Dogs’

ad
Horse + PLU + POSSESSIVE = ‘Horses’

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Paradigm of Mass Noun: The mass nouns do not have any plural inflection, as these nouns cannot be counted.
Mass nouns are, however, different from zero plural count nouns. Some count nouns do have zero plural, but they can
still be counted. Mass nouns do not have case inflection either. Thus mass nouns do not have any paradigm form.

d
in ks
Inflectional Morphology of English Pronouns: Pronouns are the words used as a replacement of noun. For

l
example, words like – he, she, it, they, I, me, mine, you, yours, etc. Such pronouns are called personal pronouns. There

u
is another form of pronoun which is called indefinite pronouns. Indefinite pronouns refer to the words like somebody,
n oo
s t
someone, etc. Personal pronouns are marked by following grammatical rules:
O b
(a) The Case Rule: According to this rule a personal pronoun can be used in nominative and objective or

r -
possessive forms. Such use of pronouns depends on the function of noun, which may vary from the subject

.e o
of verb to the object of verb or it may combine with pronouns to show that N2 is the possession of N1 (N2
= Pronoun, N1= Noun)
f E
d
(b) The Person Rule: According to this rule pronouns can function as a first person (the speaker), the second
b
we u an
person (the addressee) or the third person (the third party).
(c) Gender Rule: According to this rule pronouns can function as a masculine, a feminine, and a neuter.

H
(d) The Number Rule: This rule allows pronoun to be two different forms, i.e. singular and plural.

w Th
Thus keeping in mind these rules we can present the paradigm of pronouns as followings:
Person Number Gender Case

wFirst

Second
Singular
Plular
Nom.
I
we
you
Obj.
me
us
you
Ist Poss
my
our
your
2nd Poss
mine
ours
yours
Masc. he him his
Third Singular Fem. she her hers
Neut it its
Plular they them their theirs

7
 Indefinite pronouns do not have any number inflection; they only show case inflection like someone-someone’s,
etc.
Inflectional Morphology of English Adjectives: Degree rule is the only grammatical rule with morphological
result that applies on adjectives. According to this rule the base adjective morphemes can combine with degree
morphemes i.e. superlative degree and comparative degree, to show inflection.
There are several adjectives which do not add nay suffixes in their superlative and comparative state, instead
they add ‘most’ and ‘more’. There are some other adjectives which in their comparative and superlative forms are
completely unrelated to their base adjectives. For example, ‘good’ in comparative and superlative forms is ‘better’
and ‘best’.
These adjectives are not taken into consideration when presenting the morphological paradigm of adjective as:
Base Positive Comparative Superlative

Sweet sweet +
POSITIVE =
sweet +
COMPARATIVE =
sweet +
SUPERLATIVE =
o m
c
sweet sweeter sweetest

t .
Inflectional Morphology of Adverbs: Like adjective, adverbs also have only one rule for morphological
consequence, i.e. the degree rule. Adverbs share their inflectional paradigm with adjectives, in fact there are number
g
same degree of inflection.

a r
of adjectives which function like adverb without any change in form like fast, short, hard, etc., and thus also have

din
Inflectional Morphology of English Verbs: In English language verbs can be categorised into three categories:

a
(a) Full Verbs: These are the main verbs in the sentence for example jump, hit, eat, walk, etc.

m
(b) Modal Verbs: These are the auxiliaries like can, could, shall, should, etc.
e
(c) Primary Verbs: These are both auxiliaries and full verbs. There are only three primary verbs, they are be,
R
have, and do.

d y e
Grammatical rules of morphological consequence which applies on English verbs are:
(a) The Person and Number Rule: According to this rule there is a change in the form of primary and full

in ks
verbs depending upon the number and person of nouns.
l
t u
(b) The Tense Rule: This rule refers to the change in the form of verb depending upon the reference of time
n oo
in the sentence, i.e. past and present. Verbs do not undergo any changes in future tense. Thus we have only

O b
two bound morphemes for this – PRESENT and PAST.

s r -
(c) The Aspect Rule: This rule refers to the continuous and perfect form of tense.

.e o
(d) The Voice Rule: This rule is about the active and passive voice of the verb. In active voice, noun is the

f E
subject of verb by whom action has been performed and in passive voice noun becomes the affected person
and corresponds to the object of verb:
b d
Paradigm of Full Verbs: Full verbs can further be divided as regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs are

we u a n
those which have four forms, i.e. base (work), -s (works), -ing (working), and past (worked). Irregular verbs are of

H
two types–(a) Those which appears in all five forms. For example verbs like ‘write’ - write, writes, writing, wrote and

cutting.
w Th
written. (b) Those which appear in only three forms. For example, verb like ‘cut’ has only three forms—cut, cuts, and

Paradigm of Modal Verbs: Modal verbs do not show any inflection due to the above four rules, and thus they

w
cause change in the forms of full verbs.
Paradigm of Primary Verbs: Primary verbs are used both as main verbs and auxiliary verbs. Consider as
sentence “What did he do?” here did is the auxiliary and do is the main verb. These verbs change their forms
according to the above rules. For example, in person singular number ‘be’ becomes ‘am’ in present tense, ‘was’ in
past tense; in first person plural number, second person singular and plural number, and third person plural number it
becomes ‘are’ in present tense and ‘were’ in past tense.
Derivational Morphology
Unlike inflectional morphology, in derivational morphology there is no need to stick with the constant demarcation
between affixes and bound morpheme, because more or less they are the same thing. One reason behind this is that,
in derivational morphology grammatical or bound morpheme is always treated as an affix. A derivational affix shows
following characteristics:

8
 (a) When a derivational affix is combined with a lexical word, a new lexical word is created.
(b) The meaning of the stem is modified in an arbitrary manner when attached with a derivational affix.
(c) The attachments of derivational affixes are before the attachment of inflectional affixes in a complex word
containing both derivational and inflectional affixes.
(d) Derivational affixes are capable of changing the grammatical form of the stem.
(e) Unlike inflectional affixes, derivational affixes could be both prefixes and suffixes.
Classification of Derivational Affixes
Classifications of derivational affixes are bit difficult in comparison with the classification of inflectional affixes,
because derivational affixes do not restrict themselves with one grammatical category. One derivational affix can
combine with words of different grammatical categories, for example, prefix dis- can be combined with noun (disorder),
with verb (disobey), etc. Another important fact is that, if a derivational affix is combined with the word of a particular
grammatical category, it does not mean that same affix can be combined with all the words of that grammatical

o m
category. For example, -er (a suffix) when attached with verbs creates actor noun such as player, killer, etc. buter
cannot be combined with all the verbs in English to create an actor noun. It is difficult for us to imagine words like
dieer, undestander, etc.

. c
Meaning based classifications of derivational affixes i.e. dis- as a negative affix and -er as an actor affix does not
work well in case of derivational prefixes. Though, it seems to work fine with derivational prefixes. But in case of

r t
suffixes it does not proves to be fruitful because, every derivational suffix imposes a different effect on the stems
g
and sometimes same suffix changes the meaning of different stem in different manner. For example, as we have

in
seen that -er derives actor noun when attached to a verb like player - one who plays, but when -er is attached to a
word like teenage to become teenager, the above description fails.
a ad
Another way of classifying the derivational affixes is on the basis of the relating new words to their ‘syntactic

m e
interpretation’. For example, words derived from the attachment of derivational suffix ‘-able’, when related to their

R
syntactic interpretations tell us - “that which can be….” For example, ‘breakable - which can be broken’; ‘drinkable

y e
- which can be drunk’, etc. But this approach too, cannot be generalized as it does not tell us anything about the

d
meaning of the derived word, like is case of readable, it tells something which can be read, but readable means

in ks
something which is worth reading, something which can be read with enjoyment.

l
following points in mind:

t O b u
In the dark shadows of confusion regarding the classification of derivational affixes, it would be better if we keep

n oo
(a) Try to use meaning in case of prefixes, as long as it proves to be helpful.

s r
(b) Classification of derivational suffixes involves two stages–(a) Classification on the basis of grammatical
-
.e o
categories like noun suffixes, verb suffixes, etc. (b) Classification of these sub-categories again on the basis
of stem.
f E
d
Derivational Prefixes: Number of derivational prefixes is not much. Some common examples are negative
b
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prefixes like dis-, un-, in-, etc. Apart from adding the negative effect, prefixes are also used for several other purposes.
Following are the ways in which prefixes can modify the meaning of the stem:
H
(a) Negative: Common prefixes are un-, a-, in-, dis-, and non-.

w Th
(b) Reversal and Deprivation: The well known example is de-, as in dethrone. Apart from de, dis- and un- are
also used for this purpose. Examples are, disown, disconnect, unpack, etc.

w (c) Disparagement: Common examples are mal- mis-, pseudo-, etc., these are also called pejorative affixes
because, when combined with stem they add meanings like sad, wrong, false, etc.
(d) Expressing Number: bi-, mono-, semi-, etc.
(e) Expressing Degree: arch-, co-, extra-, etc.
(f) Expressing Size: micro-, mini-, macro-, etc.
(g) Expressing Rank: super-, sub-, under-, etc.
(h) Expressing Time and Order: ex-, fore-, pre, etc.
(i) Expressing Location: fore-, inter-, super-, sub-, etc.
(j) Expressing Attitude: pro-, anti-, counter-, etc.
(k) Expressing Orientation: counter-, anti-, etc.

9
Derivational Suffixes
Let us first classify derivational suffixes on the basis of grammatical categories of the resulting or the product
words.
(a) Noun Suffixes: Those suffixes which create nouns, for example, -hood, -dome, -ism, -ship, etc.
(b) Adjective Suffixes: These suffixes when combine with stem create adjectives. For example, -ful, -ish, -
less, etc.
(c) Noun-adjective Suffixes: These suffixes when added to stem create words, which can be used as both
noun and adjectives. Examples are -ese, -ian, -ist, etc.
(d) Verb Suffixes: These suffixes produce verbs when added to stem. Some common examples are -fy, -ize,
-en, etc.
(e) Adverb Suffixes: These suffixes when added to stem create adjectives. For example, -ward, -wise, -ly, etc.

stem.
A. Noun suffixes can be classified into three sub-categories:
o m
Let us again classify each of these categories into various sub-categories based on the grammatical orientation of

●
-dom, -eer, -er, -ery, -hood, etc.

. c
Denominal Noun Suffixes: These suffixes when added to noun stem produce nouns. Examples are -age,

●
are -dom, -er, -hood, -ness, etc.

r t
Deadjectival Noun Suffixes: These suffixes when combined with adjective stem produce nouns. Examples

ing
Deverbal Noun Suffixes: These suffixes when added to verb stem produce nouns. Examples are -age, -
ant, -action, -ee, -er, -ment, etc.

a
B. Adjective suffixes can also be further classified into three categories:
ad
m e
● Denominal Adjective Suffixes: These suffixes produce adjectives when added to noun stem. Examples
are -al, -ful, -ial,- -ical, -less, -ly, etc.
R
For example, -ish.

in ks
y e
● Deadjectival Adjective Suffixes: These suffixes create adjectives when combined with adjective stem.

d
● Deverbal Adjective Suffixes: These suffixes when attached with verbs create adjectives. Examples are -

l
able, -ant, -ent, -ful, -ive, etc.

t
C. Noun-adjective suffixes can have two forms

O bu
n oo
● Denominal Noun-adjective Suffixes: These suffixes when added to noun stem produce words which can

s
be used both as noun and adjectives. Examples are -ese, -an, -ist, etc.
r -
.e
● Deadjectival Noun-adjective Suffixes: When added to adjectives these suffixes can produce words which

fo E
can be used as both adjectives and nouns. For example, -ist.
D. Verb suffixes also have two forms:
b d
we n
● Denominal Verb Suffixes: These suffixes produce verbs when combined with noun stem. Examples are -
fy, -ize, etc. u a
H
● Deadjectival Verb Suffixes: When added to adjective stem, these suffixes create verbs. Example of such

w Th
suffixes are -en, ify, -ize, etc.
E. Adverb suffixes can be categorised in to three forms:

w
● Denominal adverb suffixes: When added to noun stems these suffixes are capable of producing adverbs.
Examples are -ward, -wise, etc.
● Deadjectival adverb suffixes: These suffixes produce adverbs when added to adjective stem. For example,
-ly.
● Deadverbial adverb suffixes: When added to adverb stem these suffixes are capable of producing adverbs.
For example, -ward.
Q. 4. What is a standard language? Discuss in detail the process of language standardization.
Ans. Standard language is a specific variety or dialect chosen from the different varieties and dialects spoken in
different region by different people, of the same language which is considered to be correct in every sense, may it be
phonological, lexical, or syntax. There are various scholars and intellectuals who do not support the concept of
standard language as it is always the language associated with elite and powerful class of the society, thus it might

10
become the tool of exploitation. Moreover, it would not be an entirely natural process to pick one variety as standard
and leaving various others. It cannot be done without prejudice and biasness. It might make other dialects and
varieties of the language disappear. But there are people who advocate this concept saying that different dialects of
language may eventually evolve as different languages and the source language might get lost in the pages of history.
As happened with the parent Indo-European language. Apart from this standardization of language, helps in unifica-
tion of people belonging from different region and speaking different dialects of the same country. It also makes
communication and interaction easier.
The Process of Standardisation
Let us discuss the process if language standardisation in respect with English. Standardisation of English involves
four different stages:
(1) Selection of East Midland Dialect as standard or dominant variety.
(2) The acceptance of functions of the standard.
(3) The elaboration of the functions of the standard.
(4) Codification.
Selection of Standard Variety
o m
. c
It was East of Midland dialect of English which was commonly used by the merchant class of London, which
later become popular within London. This dialect was very much similar to the dialect spoken by lower class, except

r t
few differences like merchant class would say 'mill' with /i/ as in pin while lower class used ‘mell’ with /e/ as in pen.

ng
One of these varieties become dominant after 1930. The reason was that this variety was used in government and
i
a
official documents. And the rest was done by printing press.

ad
The other reason behind the popularity of East Midland was the two universities namely Oxford and Cambridge.
Students from all over England would come together in these universities which are just few miles from London. This

different dialect.
Acceptance of the Standard
m
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accelerated the use of this dialect to a great extent, because of its usefulness in interaction with people who spoke a

uld
in ks
East Midland dialect became a written standard variety, by middle if 15th Century, among those who wrote
official documents. This standard was established in literature by the 16th Century.

n oo
t
Once the literary standard was established there was a necessity of linguistic norms. And after the establishment

O b
of linguistic norms, people started considering other dialects as inferior and something comical. One such dialect was

s r
Kentish. This shows the attitude of people toward the standard variety. By the end of 16th Century the standard
-
.e o
variety was well acceptance in the society.
Elaboration of Function
f E
b d
Once the standard variety crossed the first two stages of the process there was the need of its maximum usage

we u an
in different domain of society like law, government, literature, religion, education and so on. These different domains
were previously using Latin and French for the purpose of written and spoken communication.
H
w Th
In order to make new standard appropriate for all these domains, each groups of specialists like lawyer,
administrators, writers etc., contributed the structure and adding new meanings. This leads to the variation in register.
The main reason was the difference in the style of different individuals. The influence of French and Latin can often

w
be noticed.
Following are the major elaboration of function of the new standard variety.
(a) English, for the first time, was used in government and law in 1362.
(b) By the 16th Century English was accepted in literature. Though this status was achieved after a long
controversy. Many felt that English is not suitable for the creation of great literary works, some said it was ‘barbarous’.
Though there were people who considered English to be as good as other languages. After a long controversy, it was
decided that English will be given the status of “language of eloquence, only after introducing one thousand loan
words from Latin. This controversy dissolved by the end of 1580 and English was declared as a language of eloquence.
And the literary creation by the poets like Shakespeare, Sidney and Spencer further proved the eloquence of English.

11
 (c) In 16th Century Biblical translation and preparation of other Christian texts were done that to in English.
(d) English as a language was used to cultivate prose in such a large manner that 17th Century has been called
the century of prose. Also the use of English started in the fields like science. Many scientific research paper were
written in English. Other writings like journals, essays and political pamphlet also started using English as the language
for written communication.
(e) English after replacing Latin become the language of education. Several grammar schools were established
and eventually church started to lose its control over the institution of learning and literary. Protestant reformation also
played an important role in prompting English as the language of religious instruction. Latin was renewed but, this time
it was classical Latin, this further helped English to climbs its ladder. Due to grouping interest in classical Latin many
scholars started translating Latin literature in to English which in turn made English popular among common people.
English was eventually accepted as the language of teaching.
Codification

o m
This stage serves as the tools in fulfilling the second goal of the process of standardisation i.e. attainment of

. c
minimum variation. It means, in practical use, the elimination of different variations from the language and also
stopping the unwanted change in language. This stage of the process of standardisation is accompanied by a group of

as correct and they eliminate those which seems to be undesirable.

r t
scholars. These scholars use the method of prescription i.e. they retain those elements of language which are evaluated

ing
a
In 1582 and 1655 in Italy and France respectively Academies were established for taking care of variant and

ad
changes in language. Such need was also felt in England by people like Dryden, Sueit and Defoe. By the middle of
18th Century there were not many supporters for such institution. This resulted in the recommended of substitutes to

important among these books was Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary. m

y e Re
Academy. As a result certain books were composed by scholars and literary men. The most famous as well as

d
Dr. Johnson’s dictionary is not only important in the realm of spelling of words in standard variety but also in the

in ks
realm of words and meaning. Dr. Johnson in his dictionary prepared a list of all words in Standard English along with
l
popularity.

t O bu
their meanings in alphabetical order. It become one of the much appreciated word of the era and also gained enormous
n oo
s
18th Century saw an outburst in interest in codification of English grammar. In this period appeared Priestley’s

r -
The Rudiment of English Grammar (1761), Loweth’s A Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762) and John

.e fo E
Ash’s Grammatical Institutes (1763). Apart from these there were many more. These treaties aimed:
(a) codify the principle of language and reduce it to rule.
b d
(b) settle dispute point and decided cases of divided usage.

we
(c) Point out common errors.

H
u a n
In 18th Century certain structures of English were eliminated and the correct form of it was introduced. The

w Th
relationship between English spelling and pronunciation is arbitrary. In 16th century some scholars like Hart argued
that the pronunciation of words should be according to the spellings, however, this was rejected by Mulcaster.

w
Advancement of technologies in writing system too, did not support the uniformity of relationship between spelling
and pronunciation. By the end of 18th Century English saw the emergence of pronouncing dictionary which was the
result of codification of different levels of structure. Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary which had already been codified the
spelling so that the change was to be made in the way of pronunciation. Dr. Johnson himself advocated that pronunciation
should be according to spellings. John Walker took this further and it in to his “A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary”
published in 1791.
The process of standardisation of English was very much influenced by social class and different community. The
role of power associated with language and specific class cannot be ignored while understanding this complete
process of standardisation.

12
 Q. 5 Analyse the following extract of a poem by Tennyson using the tools given to you in Block 9 of
your Course.
Ring out, wild bells
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The flying cloud, the frosty light: The faithless coldness of the times;
The year is dying in the night; Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring out false pride in place and blood,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The civic slander and the spite;
The year is going, let him go; Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring in the common love of good.

m
Ring out the grief that saps the mind Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
For those that here we see no more; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring
Ring
out the thousand wars of old,
in the thousand years of peace.

c o
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life, .
Ring in the valiant man and free,

t
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;

g
Ring out the darkness of the land,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

a r in
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Ans.‘Ring Out Wild Bells’, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is a poem that emphasises on his popular phrase, “Old
d
order changeth, giving place to new”. This poem of eight quatrains, i.e. each stanza consisting of four lines, is a plea
a
for transition, for good. A part of In Memoriam, A. H. H., the title of the poem, “Ring Out, Wild Bells”, itself suggests

m
y e Re
ringing out, or bidding goodbye. On the other hand, 'Bells' also indicates welcoming something new. On analysing the
title, it is apparent that the poem is about bidding goodbye to the old, and welcoming the new.
The phrases, ‘flying cloud’ and ‘frosty light’ are symbolic of a cold and windy winter evening. 'The year is dying

d
in the night' suggests it to be The New Years’ eve as the year is dissolving with the onset of night and the poet tells us

in ks
to let the night pass and bring an end to the year. The second stanza talks about bidding adieu to the old year by ringing
l
t u
bells, and at the same time, ringing those bells to salute the New Year, a new beginning. ‘Ring, happy bells, across the
n oo
snow’, again indicates the cold winter month of January. The poet tells the reader to do away with falsehood, and with

O b
the New Year, make a new beginning and embrace the truth.

s r
The third stanza is an entreaty to mankind in general, to let go of all their pent up sorrow for those who are no
-
.e o
more with us, as they now rest in peace. Also, the prolonged bitter quarrel between the rich and the poor must be done

f E
away with and all fellow human beings must together rectify their past mistakes and put an end to class differences.

d
In the fourth stanza, ‘Slowly dying cause’, refers to customs or reasons which are now futile and prove to be a
b
we u an
hindrance to change. All old conflicts must be forgotten and replaced with more virtuous ways of living. Every person
must be good to each other and be guided by fresh and ethical laws, which are harmful to none. We must turn our

H
backs on materialistic objectives which make us indulge in immoral desires. Cynicism and suspicion must be bid

w Th
farewell to and melancholic tunes must be rung out. Instead, medieval melodies of minstrels must be rung in.
The final three stanzas tell us conceit, regionalism, spitefulness and other human vanities must be banished and

w
replaced with love for humanity and good for the society. Honesty and righteousness must prevail. The desire for
peace must overrule greed, lust and wars. Darkness must be eradicated forever by the kindness and love in the
human heart. All men will be free and gallant. These lines are attestation to Tennyson's belief that no man is inherently
evil, and that the ability to love resides in every human. ‘Ring in the Christ that is to be’ is suggestive of never losing
Faith, as the ultimate redemption lies in God as He is the Almighty and heals all. This highlights the poet’s attachment
to his Faith and demonstrates his conviction that salvation is achievable only on surrender to God.
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13