2025-03-26
STATE EXAM QUESTIONS (2024-2025)
ENGLISH LITERATURE
1. What is Literary Theory and Criticism? Identify Extrinsic and Intrinsic Categories of Literary Theory and Criticism.
2. Four Theories of Literary Criticism. M.H. Abrams’ classification: Universe (Mimetic); Audience (Pragmatic); Poet (Expressive); Poem (Objective).
3. Major Movements (Schools / Approaches) of Literary Criticism. (Include key terms and theories with short description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
4. Categories of Literary Criticism: Expository Approaches and Interpretive and Ideological Approaches to Literature.
5. Moral and Philosophical Criticism (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
6. New Criticism (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
7. Rhetorical Criticism (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
8. Archetypal Criticism (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
9. Feminist Criticism: Three Waves of Feminism; Traditional Gender Roles (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
10. Structuralism (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
11. Formalism (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
12. New–Historical Approach to Literature (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
13. Post-Colonial Approach to Literature (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
14. Ecocriticism (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
15. Eco-Feminism (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
16. Deconstructive Approach (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
17. Semiotics: Structural Linguistics (Ferdinand De Saussure, C. S. Peirce); Structural Anthropology (Claude Levi-Strauss); Barthes’ Semiotic Analysis; Sign vs. Symbol.
18. Mythological Criticism. Northrop Frye’s Theory of Myths;
19. Reader-Response Theory and Its Strategies: Textual, Experiential, Psychological, Social, and Cultural. (Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
20. Russian Formalism and the Bakhtin School (1915–1929). ((Include key terms and theories with description, major figures, benefits, limitations and critical questions).
21. Marxist Theories / Approach to Literary Criticism: Karl Marx (1818–1883); the Role of Ideology; Class System; the ‘Superstructure’ (Ideology, Politics) and the ‘Base’ (Socio-Economic Relations).
22. Psychoanalytic Approach to Literature: Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Unconscious Repressed Desire. Defense Mechanisms.
23. Psychoanalytic Approach to Literature: Carl Jung (1875–1961): the Archetypal Collective Unconsciousness.
24. Development of the English Prose: Chronological Overview of the Periods of English Novel including Famous English Writers.
25. Character in Prose: Explicit and Implicit Characterization. Techniques of Characterization.
26. Narrators and Narrative Situation, Narrative Voices. Structure of the Narrative.
27. Types of Prose Fiction; Epistolary Novel, Picaresque Novel, Historical Novel, Gothic Novel, Social Novel, Bildungsroman, Science Fiction, Graphic Novel.
28. Stylistic Devices, Figurative Language and Expressive Means in Literature.
29. Elements of Novel: Plot, Character, Setting, Theme, Mood, Tone, Point of View.
30. Main Characteristics and Literary Elements of Short Story
31. Literary Devices in Poetry.
32. Development of the English Poetry: The Chronological Overview of the Periods of English Poetry including Famous English Poets.
33. Forms of Poetry (Types of Poetry): Ballad, Ode, Sonnet, Haiku, Limerick, Acrostic, Free Verse, etc.
34. Elements of Poetry: Form, Sound, Imagery, Figurative Language
35. Poetic Structure: Poetic Line, Stanza, Verse, Enjambment Verse, Five Kinds of Rhythm, Five Basic Feet.
36. Sound Patterns (Rhyme, Rhythm, Meter, Foot, Word Sounds (Alliteration)
37. Lyric Poetry, Narrative Poetry, Descriptive Poetry.
38. Poetic Language: Word Choice / Diction, Imagery in Poetry. Five Types of Imagery
39. Meaning in Poetry: Denotation, Connotation, Images, Figurative Meaning
40. Classification of Dramatic Plays: Tragedy and Comedy.
41. Development of the English Drama: The Chronological Overview of the Periods of English Drama Including Famous Playwrights;
42. Types of Drama: Tragedy, Comedy, Problem Play, Farce, Comedy of Manners, Fantasy, Melodrama.
43. Aristotle's Six Elements of Drama
44. Modern Elements of Drama: Plot, Theme, Characters, Dialogue (Monologue, Soliloquy, Aside), Music / Rhythm, Spectacle (Special Effects), Script/Text, the Audience, the Playwright.
45. History of Drama (Greek Tragedy and Greek Comedy).
46. Drama in the Middle Age, Morality Plays and Interludes.
47. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Elizabethan Drama. Three Main Genres of Shakespeare's Dramatic Works: Comedy, History, and Tragedy.
48. Literary Periods of British Literature. Romanticism, Victorian Period.
49. Modernism in English and American Literature.
50. Literary Periods of British Literature: Renaissance and Reformation, the Enlightenment.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
51. Language and Linguistics. Speech, Language, and Speaking.
52. Semiotics, Structural Linguistics (Ferdinand De Saussure, C. S. Peirce); Structural Anthropology (Claude Levi-Strauss); Barthes’ Semiotic Analysis; Sign vs. Symbol.
53. Classical and Medieval Linguistics. Linguistics as a Descriptive and a Prescriptive science.
54. Language as a Communication Code. The Language Code: encoding and decoding.
55. The Sign. Types of Signs. The Nature of Linguistic Sign: the signified and the signifier.
56. The Science of Linguistics. Branches of Linguistics.
57. Levels of Linguistic Analysis: phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
58. Morphology: Free morphemes (lexical and functional), bound morphemes (derivational and inflectional). Allomorph. Zero morphemes.
59. Typological Classifications of Languages Based on Morphology
60. Syntax. Lexical (or syntactic) Categories of Speech (parts of speech); syntactic ambiguity.
61. Synchronic and Diachronic study of Linguistics.
62. The structuralist perspective to Linguistics. Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic relations of Language System.
63. The Chomskyan revolution: Generative grammar. The influence of Chomsky on English Language. The evolution of generative grammar.
64. Semantics: The lexicon and lexemes. Semantic relativity. Semantic features.
65. Pragmatics and its Basic Concepts (Utterance, Context, Entailment, Grice’s theory of implicature, Deixis and Presupposition). Politeness theory.
66. Nature of Speech Act Theory (Performative Verbs; Locutionary, Illocutionary and Perlocutionary Acts)
67. Aspects of Semantic Change: Causes, Nature and Results of Semantic Change. The Semantic Field Theory
68. Structural Approaches to the Study of Meaning: History of Componential Approach to Meaning. Geoffrey Leech’s Version of Representing these Components
69. Types of Discourse. Tools used in Discourse Analysis.
70. Basics of Minimalist Theory of Syntax as developed by Noam Chomsky
71. Three Universal Principles of Syntax that Apply to all Languages
72. Valency and Collocation in Linguistics
73. Dimensions of Meaning (Reference, Denotation, Connotation, Lexical and Grammatical Meanings)
74. Dimensions of Meaning (Homonymy, Polysemy, Context, Classification and Sources)
75. Grammatical Categories of the Adjective and Adverb
76. Word Formation Processes
77. Definition of Discourse, its Origin, Earliest Studies of Discourse Analysis
78. Major Concepts in Discourse Analysis (Text, Context, Speech and Writing)
79. Cohesion and Coherence. Types of Lexical and Grammatical Cohesion
80. Hyponymy. Hyponyms. Hypernyms
81. Deixis. Referential Deixis. Spatial Deixis. Temporal Deixis
82. Genetic Classifications of Languages
83. The Dialects in Old English. Old English Written Records
84. Historical Impact on the Language. The Conquests of Britain and their Effect on the Linguistic Situation
85. Early Modern English Period. Shakespeare’s Contribution to the English Language
86. Contributions of the Prague School to the Study of Language (R. Jakobson: functions of language, N. Trubetzkoy: Principles of Phonology)
87. London School of Linguistics. Systemic Functional Linguistics by M. Halliday
88. Concept of embodied cognition in Cognitive Linguistics, its challenges on traditional views of language. Provide specific examples of embodied conceptual metaphors and their linguistic manifestations.
89. Eleanor Rosch's Prototype Theory and its significance for Cognitive Linguistics.
90. Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Conceptual metaphors and linguistic metaphorical expressions
91. Image schemas and their role in Cognitive Linguistics. Describe at least three common image schemas and show how they structure both literal and metaphorical meanings in language. How do image schemas relate to embodied cognition?
92. Fauconnier and Turner's Conceptual Blending Theory and explain how it differs from and extends Conceptual Metaphor Theory.
93. Compare and contrast three cognitive approaches to grammar: Construction Grammar, Cognitive Grammar (Langacker), and Embodied Construction Grammar. What fundamental assumptions do they share, and how do they differ in their theoretical frameworks and analytical focus? Provide examples illustrating the distinctive contributions of each approach.
94. Explain Mental Spaces Theory.
95. Explain the concept of phonological processes in generative phonology.
96. Describe the development of X-bar theory within the Principles and Parameters framework. How did this theory address previous limitations in phrase structure grammar?
97. What is the relationship between semantic transparency and morphological productivity?
98. Name and describe the following word-forms: clipping, abbreviation, blending, back-formation, truncation, reduplication?
99. Explain the meaning of the following terms: lexeme, morph, morpheme, base, stem, root.
100. Explain the meaning of the following: variable, invariable words, free or bound morphemes, paradigms and word families.