Grammar and Deep Structure – Transformational Generative Grammar MCQs

Grammar and Deep Structure – Transformational Generative Grammar (MCQ)

1. The theory of Transformational Generative Grammar was first proposed by: (UGC NET 2017)

A) Ferdinand de Saussure

B) Noam Chomsky

C) Leonard Bloomfield

D) M.A.K. Halliday

Ans: B) Noam Chomsky

2. In Chomsky’s grammar, “deep structure” primarily represents: (PGTRB 2018)

A) Phonetic form of a sentence

B) Underlying syntactic and semantic relations

C) Actual spoken utterance

D) Morphological variants

Ans: B) Underlying syntactic and semantic relations

3. “Surface structure” in TG grammar refers to: (SET 2019)

A) Mental representation only

B) Abstract meaning alone

C) The actual arrangement of words in the spoken or written sentence

D) Historical development of language

Ans: C) The actual arrangement of words in the spoken or written sentence

4. In the sentence pair “John opened the door” and “The door was opened by John”, TG grammar would say: (UGC NET 2016)

A) Different deep structures, same surface structure

B) Same deep structure, different surface structures

C) Both same deep and surface structure

D) Neither deep nor surface related

Ans: B) Same deep structure, different surface structures

5. “Kernel sentences” in TG grammar are usually: (PGTRB 2019)

A) Highly complex sentences

B) Basic, simple active declarative sentences

C) Only interrogative sentences

D) Only passive sentences

Ans: B) Basic, simple active declarative sentences

6. A transformation in TG grammar is a rule that: (SET 2018)

A) Creates vocabulary lists

B) Converts one structure type into another

C) Deletes all nouns

D) Deals with spelling only

Ans: B) Converts one structure type into another

7. Which of the following is an example of a transformational rule? (UGC NET 2018)

A) N → boy

B) VP → V NP

C) S → NP VP

D) Statement → Question

Ans: D) Statement → Question

8. Phrase Structure Rules mainly generate: (PGTRB 2020)

A) Deep structures

B) Surface phonology

C) Orthography

D) Loanwords

Ans: A) Deep structures

9. In early TG grammar, which two components were central? (SET 2017)

A) Phonetic and pragmatic

B) Phrase structure and transformational rules

C) Historical and comparative

D) Stylistic and rhetorical

Ans: B) Phrase structure and transformational rules

10. “S → NP VP” is an example of a: (UGC NET 2015)

A) Transformational rule

B) Phrase structure rule

C) Phonological rule

D) Semantic rule

Ans: B) Phrase structure rule

11. In TG grammar, “NP” stands for: (PGTRB 2017)

A) Nominal Phrase

B) Noun Phrase

C) Number Phrase

D) Nucleus Phrase

Ans: B) Noun Phrase

12. The distinction between “competence” and “performance” was introduced by: (UGC NET 2016)

A) Saussure

B) Bloomfield

C) Chomsky

D) Jespersen

Ans: C) Chomsky

13. Linguistic “competence” in TG framework means: (SET 2019)

A) Actual speech behaviour

B) Ideal speaker-hearer’s knowledge of language

C) Only writing skills

D) Only reading skills

Ans: B) Ideal speaker-hearer’s knowledge of language

14. “Performance” in TG grammar refers to: (PGTRB 2018)

A) Underlying mental grammar

B) Actual use of language in concrete situations

C) Only written tests

D) Dictionary meaning

Ans: B) Actual use of language in concrete situations

15. In the sentence “The boy is eating an apple”, “is eating” is analysed in TG grammar as: (UGC NET 2017)

A) NP

B) VP

C) Aux + V

D) Deep structure only

Ans: C) Aux + V

16. Which of the following is a common transformation in English? (SET 2018)

A) Inversion in questions

B) Change of tense system

C) Creation of adjectives

D) Borrowing words

Ans: A) Inversion in questions

17. “Passivization” in TG grammar is: (PGTRB 2019)

A) A phonological process

B) A syntactic transformation

C) A semantic rule

D) A morphological process only

Ans: B) A syntactic transformation

18. In TG terms, “deletion” and “insertion” are types of: (UGC NET 2018)

A) Phonemes

B) Derivational morphemes

C) Transformations

D) Idioms

Ans: C) Transformations

19. In TG grammar, the process of deriving a “wh-question” like “What did you see?” from “You saw what” involves: (SET 2020)

A) Wh-movement and auxiliary inversion

B) Only deletion

C) Only substitution

D) Only passivization

Ans: A) Wh-movement and auxiliary inversion

20. “TG” in grammar stands for: (PGTRB 2021)

A) Theoretical Grammar

B) Transformational Generative Grammar

C) Traditional Grammar

D) Transitional Grammar

Ans: B) Transformational Generative Grammar

21. In TG grammar, “recursiveness” refers to the property by which: (UGC NET 2019)

A) Words change spelling

B) Rules can apply repeatedly to generate infinite sentences

C) Sounds fade away

D) Texts are translated

Ans: B) Rules can apply repeatedly to generate infinite sentences

22. The idea that grammar is a system of rules generating an infinite set of sentences is central to: (SET 2016)

A) Behaviourist linguistics

B) Structural linguistics

C) Generative grammar

D) Comparative philology

Ans: C) Generative grammar

23. TG grammar’s emphasis is mainly on: (PGTRB 2018)

A) Etymology

B) Native speaker’s intuition and competence

C) Only written forms

D) Orthography and script

Ans: B) Native speaker’s intuition and competence

24. “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax” is a key work by: (UGC NET 2015)

A) Halliday

B) Bloomfield

C) Chomsky

D) Saussure

Ans: C) Chomsky

25. In earlier TG models, deep structure was claimed to determine: (SET 2018)

A) Only phonology

B) Only morphology

C) Core meaning of a sentence

D) Handwriting style

Ans: C) Core meaning of a sentence

26. Which of the following is TRUE about “deep structure”? (PGTRB 2019)

A) It is directly spoken

B) It is an abstract level represented before transformations

C) It is a phonetic representation

D) It is identical to orthography

Ans: B) It is an abstract level represented before transformations

27. “Surface structure” is obtained from deep structure through: (UGC NET 2017)

A) Morphological spelling rules

B) Transformational and phonological rules

C) Historical change

D) Only lexical substitution

Ans: B) Transformational and phonological rules

28. The move from “Standard Theory” to “Extended Standard Theory” in generative grammar involved greater attention to: (SET 2020)

A) Literature

B) Semantics and deep structure relations

C) Phonetics only

D) Orthography

Ans: B) Semantics and deep structure relations

29. Which of the following is NOT typically captured by phrase structure rules alone? (PGTRB 2020)

A) Basic constituent order

B) Movement in questions

C) Hierarchical structure

D) Basic phrase types

Ans: B) Movement in questions

30. A transformation like “Negation” converts: (UGC NET 2018)

A) Noun into verb

B) Affirmative structure into negative structure

C) Past into present

D) Singular into plural

Ans: B) Affirmative structure into negative structure

31. The sentence “Mary seems to be happy” involves in TG terms: (SET 2019)

A) Raising transformation

B) Passivization

C) Wh-movement

D) Deletion

Ans: A) Raising transformation

32. In TG grammar, structural ambiguity arises when: (PGTRB 2017)

A) Words are misspelled

B) One surface structure corresponds to two different deep structures

C) Two surfaces share one deep structure

D) There are no verbs

Ans: B) One surface structure corresponds to two different deep structures

33. “Flying planes can be dangerous” is ambiguous because: (UGC NET 2016)

A) It has unclear spelling

B) It has two possible deep structures

C) It has no verb

D) It is ungrammatical

Ans: B) It has two possible deep structures

34. Generative grammar is called “generative” because it: (SET 2018)

A) Generates sound waves

B) Can generate all and only grammatical sentences of a language

C) Generates new alphabets

D) Produces dictionaries

Ans: B) Can generate all and only grammatical sentences of a language

35. TG grammar views grammar as: (PGTRB 2018)

A) A finite list of all sentences

B) A finite system of rules

C) A set of proverbs

D) A historical record

Ans: B) A finite system of rules

36. In TG grammar, “subjacency” and “island constraints” are related to: (UGC NET 2019)

A) Phonology

B) Restrictions on movement transformations

C) Lexical borrowing

D) Word formation

Ans: B) Restrictions on movement transformations

37. “Government and Binding” theory is a later development within: (SET 2021)

A) Structuralism

B) Generative grammar

C) Functional grammar

D) Traditional grammar

Ans: B) Generative grammar

38. In Government and Binding, “D-structure” and “S-structure” roughly correspond to earlier notions of: (PGTRB 2021)

A) Lexeme and morpheme

B) Deep structure and surface structure

C) Competence and performance

D) Phonetics and phonology

Ans: B) Deep structure and surface structure

39. A phrase marker or tree diagram in TG grammar visually represents: (UGC NET 2018)

A) Phonetic transcription

B) Hierarchical constituent structure

C) Only tense system

D) Prosody

Ans: B) Hierarchical constituent structure

40. The sentence “The girl who sang won the prize” involves, in TG analysis: (SET 2019)

A) Simple sentence only

B) Relative clause transformation

C) Passivization

D) Wh-question

Ans: B) Relative clause transformation

41. In TG grammar, “underlying form” is another way to refer to: (PGTRB 2019)

A) Surface structure

B) Deep structure

C) Phonetic transcription

D) Orthographic form

Ans: B) Deep structure

42. Which of the following best distinguishes traditional grammar from TG grammar? (UGC NET 2017)

A) Traditional grammar is rule-based, TG is not

B) Traditional grammar is prescriptive; TG is descriptive and generative

C) Both are prescriptive only

D) Both ignore sentence structure

Ans: B) Traditional grammar is prescriptive; TG is descriptive and generative

43. The idea that a child has an innate “Language Acquisition Device” (LAD) is associated with: (SET 2018)

A) Skinner

B) Chomsky

C) Bloomfield

D) Halliday

Ans: B) Chomsky

44. In TG, “selectional restrictions” relate to: (PGTRB 2020)

A) Phonetic environment

B) Semantic compatibility of verbs with their arguments

C) Orthographic rules

D) Syllable structure

Ans: B) Semantic compatibility of verbs with their arguments

45. In “Transformational Generative Grammar”, the term “generative” contrasts most directly with: (UGC NET 2019)

A) Finite

B) Enumerative

C) Ambiguous

D) Dynamic

Ans: B) Enumerative

46. “The shooting of the hunters was terrible” is structurally ambiguous because TG grammar allows: (SET 2020)

A) Two phonologies

B) Two deep structures: hunters shooting vs. hunters being shot

C) Two orthographies

D) Two tenses

Ans: B) Two deep structures: hunters shooting vs. hunters being shot

47. “The cat is easy to please” vs “The cat is eager to please” show, in TG terms: (PGTRB 2021)

A) Same underlying structure

B) Different underlying structures despite similar surfaces

C) No deep structure

D) Only phonological difference

Ans: B) Different underlying structures despite similar surfaces

48. The aim of TG grammar in relation to “deep structure” and “surface structure” is to: (UGC NET 2020)

A) Treat them as unrelated

B) Explain how surface forms derive from underlying structures

C) Replace semantics with phonology

D) Ignore ambiguity

Ans: B) Explain how surface forms derive from underlying structures

49. In modern generative grammar, the earlier notion of deep structure has been: (SET 2021)

A) Completely abandoned with no replacement

B) Reinterpreted and distributed across different levels like D-structure, LF

C) Turned into phonology only

D) Identified with spelling

Ans: B) Reinterpreted and distributed across different levels like D-structure, LF

50. Overall, the study of grammar and deep structure in TG has highlighted: (PGTRB 2022)

A) Only prescriptive rules of correctness

B) The mental, rule-governed nature of language and underlying relations between sentences

C) Only historical change

D) Only vocabulary lists

Ans: B) The mental, rule-governed nature of language and underlying relations between sentences