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  SHORT ANSWERS - OEDIPUS REX BY SOPHOCLES SHORT ANSWERS - OEDIPUS REX BY SOPHOCLES   QUESTION NO. 1 Answer the following questions.  (i) How did Oedipus save Thebes before becoming its king? Ans. A Sphinx had been terrorizing Thebes for and undisclosed amount of time. It placed a great plague over Thebes and refused to remove it until someone correctly answered its riddle. Many heroes attempted to answer the riddle, but each one was eaten alive after answering incorrectly. When Oedipus answered the Sphinx, it killed itself. (ii) What was the riddle posed by Sphinx to Oedipus? Ans. The riddle posed by Sphinx to Oedipus was, "What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening?" When Oedipus gave the correct answer, "man", the Sphinx threw itself off a cliff and died. (iii) Why do the Thebans come to Oedipus? Ans. A procession of priests, who are in turn surrounded by the impoverished and sorrowful citizens of Th...

  Discuss the concept of Semantics and elaborate Name-Sense-Reference Semantics is the study of meaning in language. We know that language is used to express meanings which can be understood by others. But meanings exist in our minds and we can express what is in our minds through the spoken and written forms of language (as well as through gestures, action etc.). phonological, morphological and syntactic processes are organized in such a way that we can convey meaningful messages or receive and understand messages. ‘How is language organised in order to be meaningful?’ This is the question we ask and attempt to answer at the level of semantics. Semantics is that level of linguistic analysis where meaning is analysed. It is the most abstract level of linguistic analysis, since we cannot see or observe meaning as we can observe and record sounds. Meaning is related very closely to the human capacity to think logically and to understand. So when...

  The theory of Componential Analysis in Semantics Linguistic semantics is also used by anthropologists called ethnoscientists to conduct formal semantic analysis (componential analysis) to determine how expressed signs—usually single words as vocabulary items called lexemes—in a language are related to the perceptions and thoughts of the people who speak the language. Componential analysis tests the idea that linguistic categories influence or determine how people view the world; this idea is called the Whorf hypothesis after the American anthropological linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf, who proposed it. In componential analysis, lexemes that have a common range of meaning constitute a semantic domain. Such a domain is characterized by the distinctive semantic features (components) that differentiate individual lexemes in the domain from one another, and also by features shared by all the lexemes in the domain. S...

  What is morphology? Discuss the kinds and types of Morphology Morphology is the study of morphemes, which are the smallest significant units of grammar. According to Bloomfield, it is the study of the constructions in which sound forms appear among the constituents. Dorfman defines morphology as the study of the ways and methods of grouping sounds into sound-complexes or words. Morphology is a level of structure between the phonological and the syntactic. It is complementary to syntax. Morphology is the grammar of words; syntax is the grammar of sentences. One accounts for the internal structure or form of words; the other describes how these words are put together in sentences. The English word ‘unkind’ is made up of two smaller units: ‘un’ and ‘kind’. These are minimal units that cannot be further sub-divided into meaningful units. Such minimal, meaningful units of grammatical description are generally referred to as morphemes....

  Phonetics - The Study of Speech Sounds Phonetics has been defined as the science of speech sounds. It is a branch of linguistics and deals with the sounds produced by human beings in their speech behaviour. In speaking trial listening a complex of activities is involved : there is the production of speech which is the result of simultaneous activities of several body organs. These activities are aimed at creating disturbances in the air. The inhaled air acts as source of energy setting the outside air vibrating so that the sound thus generated is carried along to the ears of the listener. The auditory process is set in motion which is again a complicated process involving auditory organs; perception of speech segments which involves discarding the non-significant features from the significant or distinctive features and perceiving only those that are meaningful. ‘Even a single speech sound combines a large number of disti...