Shrichakradhar.

com BEGLA‐137

BEGLA‐137 : Language Through Literature

Guess Paper‐I

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Q. Discuss repetition as a rhetorical device.

Ans. Notice the repetition of the grammatical structure ʹYou must.. ..ʹ used by the mother to

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emphasize certain things the daughter has to do. An important part of oneʹs

communication is through gestures and the quality, the loudness, and the pitch of oneʹs

voice, but the language patterns in the example given above also convey the absolute

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necessity of doing certain things in time.

Apart from emphasis, we also repeat certain words, expressions or even sentences to
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produce a pleasing effect. For instance, let us read these lines from a nursery rhyme:

ʹPolly, ʹput the, ʹkettle ʹon.

ʹPolly, ʹput the ʹkettle ʹon,

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ʹPolly, ʹput the ʹkettle ʹon.

Weʹll ʹall ha= ʹtea.

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One of the functions of repetition here is the repetition of the rhythmic pattern, which is a
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common feature in nursery rhymes.

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In the case of a long speech, the listener usually finds it difficult to understand the main

points if the speaker does not repeat the things which he considers more important than the
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rest. In his speech on Mahatma Gandhiʹs death, Pandit Nehru repeated the word ʹlightʹ
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seven times. ʹLightʹ there almost stands for Gandhi: ʹThe light bas gone out of our lives and

there is darkness everywhere.ʹ

Darkness is the result of Gandhiʹs death because the light has gone out. This use of
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metaphor is part of the rhetorical devices in Nehruʹs speech.

Now read the following passage from the speech made in the British Parliament by Richard

Brinsley Sheridan (175 1‐1816), British dramatist and parliamentarian, on the impeachment

of Warren Ha: mgs, the first British Governor‐General of India.

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In looking round for an object fit to beheld out to an oppressed people, and to the world as

example of national justice, we are forced to fix our eyes on Mr. Hastings. It is he, my

Lords, who has degraded our fame, and blasted our fortunes in the East. It is he who has

tyrannized with relentless severity over the, devoted natives of those regions. It is he who

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must atone, as a victim, for the multiplied calamities he has produced.

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Q. What do understand by the term style? Discuss in brief.

Ans. Style may be simply defined as the manner in which things are said written. The

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choices that a speaker/writer makes as far as elements of language are concerned ‐ words,

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phrases, clauses, sentence‐types, etc. ‐ constitute the personʹs style or manner of expression.

There has always been a debate between those who believe that style and content (ʹmanner
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and matterʹ or ʹexpression and contentʹ) are inseparable and others who believe the two to

be not only separable, but also separately describable. However, now more and more
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scholars tend to agree that language performs several functions and that, depending on the

particular function (use/effect) one has in mind,one manipulates the elements of language.
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This manipulation of language by a speaker/writer constitutes his/her style.

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There is an ancient Indian saying according to which those who know how to speak have

no quarrels, just as those who know how to eat have no illness. Ancient Indian
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grammarians thought that a knowledge of grammar gave a person mastery over words or
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padasiddhi, which led to arthavichara or enquiry into meaning, which produced

philosophical knowledge or tatvajnana, which culminated inmokshasadhana or ʹself‐

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realization. A letter (of the alphabet) was called akshar‐indestructible. Bhartrihari, in his

Vakyapadiya talks about aksharalakshmi, the letter that is the veritable goddess of peace,
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plenty and prosperity.

In the western .tradition scholars have always put a great deal of emphasis on decorum

(propriety or appropriateness) as the chief element of style. The other important elements

that, directly or indirectly, contribute to decorum, are purity, clarity and ornament. These

elements of style may be represented as follows:

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Letʹs discuss them briefly.
Decorum refers to the quality of appropriateness. In daily life we always change our tone

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of voice, our gestures, not to speak of the words, to fit an occasion and the person we are

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talking to. So we do not make jokes at a solemn occasion or make a serious speech in our
sitting room at home. The universal rule, said Cicero, ʹin oratory as in life, is to consider
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propriety’.
In the west there is a long tradition of the study of oral delivery .Francis Bacon (1 56 1 ‐
1626), the English philosopher, statesman and essayist, suggested a scientific approach to
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the study of gestures. The tradition his not died to this day. The American linguist Edward
T. Hall studies physical, n~ ‐verbal expressions of ideas, which he calls silent language.
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Clarity helps intelligibility. Any confusion in expression leads to vagueness and ambiguity
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and this the speaker or writer must avoid at all costs.

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Purity refers to the language. The language of discourse should be correct. It should not
have errors of grammar or usage.
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Ornament provides decoration. It may not sometimes give us an impression of

superficiality, but neither in life nor in discourse need it always be so. The figures of speech
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that is, the use of words in ways other than their ordinary meanings to make word pictures
or comparisons.
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Q. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end.
The Space Being: One day there came strange news. Everybody was talking about it.
Round eyes, busy mouths, and frightened voices ‐ everybody was talking about it.
One of the stars of the night sky had begun to change. This star had always been a very tiny
star, of no importance at all. It had shone up there for billions and trillions and sillions of
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years in the Constellation of Orion, that great shape of the giant hunter that strides across
space on autumn and winter nights. In all its time this tiny star had never changed in any
way.
Now suddenly, it began to get bigger.

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Astronomers, peering through their telescopes, noticed it first. They watched it with

worried frowns. That tiny star was definitely getting bigger. And not just bigger. But bigger

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and Bigger and BIGger. Each night it was BIGGER.

Bigger than the Dog‐star, the large colored twinkler at the heel of the hunter Orion.

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Bigger than Jupiter the great blazing planet.

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Everybody could see it clearly, night after night as it grew and Grew and GREW.

They stared up with frightened faces.

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Till at last it hung there in the sky over the world, blazing down, the size of the moon, a

deep gloomy red. And now there could be only one explanation. The star was getting
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bigger because it was getting nearer. And nearer and NEARer and NEARER.

It was rushing toward the world.

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Faster than a bullet.

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Faster than any rocket.

Faster even than a meteorite.

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And if it hit the world at that speed, why, the whole world would simply be blasted to bits
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in the twinkling of an eye. It would be like an Express train hitting a bowl of goldfish.

No wonder the people stared up with frightened faces. No wonder the astronomers
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watched it through their telescopes with worried frowns.

But all of a sudden ‐ a strange thing!

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The star seemed to have stopped.

There it hung, a deep and gloomy red, just the size of the moon. It got no smaller. It got no

bigger. It wasnʹt coming nearer. But it wasnʹt going away either.

Now everybody tried to explain why and how this was. What had happened? What was

happening? What was going to happen?

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And now it was the next strange thing occurred ‐ the astronomers noticed it first.

In the middle of the giant star, a tiny black speck had appeared. On the second night this

speck was seen to be wriggling, and match bigger. On .the third night, you could see it

without a telescope. A struggling black speck in the center of that giant, red, gloomy star.

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On that: fifth night, the astronomers saw that it seemed to be either a bat, or a black angel,

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or a flying lizard ‐ a dreadful silhouette, flying out of the center of that giant star , straight

towards the earth. What was coming out of the giant star?

Each night, when the astronomers returned to their telescopes to peer up, this black flying

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horror was bigger. With slow, gigantic wing‐beats, with long, slow writhing’s of its body; it
was coming down through space, outlined black against its red star.
Within a few more nights, its shape had completely blotted out the red starʹ .The nameless,
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immense bat‐angel was flying down at the earth, like a great black swan. It was definitely
coming straight at the earth.
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It took several days to cover the distance.

Then, for one awful night, its wings seemed to be filling most of the sky. The moon peered
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fearfully from low on the skyline and all the people of earth stayed up, gazing in fear at the
huge black movement of wings that filled the night.
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Next morning it landed ‐ on Australia.

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Barrump!
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The shock of its landing rolled round the earth like an earthquake, spilling teacups in
London, jolting pictures off walls in California, cracking statues off their pedestals in
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Russia.
The thing had actually landed ‐ and it was a terrific dragon. Terribly black, terribly scaly,
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terribly knobbly, terribly homed, terribly hairy, terribly clawed, terribly fanged, with vast
indescribably terrible eyes, each one as big as Switzerland. There it sat, covering the whole
of Australia, its tail trailing away over Tasmania into the sea, its foreclaws on the headlands
of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Luckily, the mountains and hills propped its belly up clear of the
valleys, and the Australians could still move about in the pitch darkness, under this new
sky, this low queer covering of scales. They crowded towards the light that came in along

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its sides. Of course, whoever had been on a mountain‐top when the dragon landed had
been squashed flat. Nothing could be done about them. And there the hopor sat, glaring
out over the countries of the world.
What had it come for? What was going to happen to the world now this monstrosity had

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arrived?
(From Ted Hughes: The Iron Mart)

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What was the strange news?
Ans. One of the stars had started growing in size.

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Where do you find overstatement in the passage?

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Ans. The description towards the end of t5e passage: ʹ.....of course, whoever had been on a
mountain‐top when the dragon landed had been squashed flat,ʹ
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What is the constellation of Orion?
Ans. It is a brilliant constellation on the equator and has the figure of a hunter with
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a belt and a sword.
What happened to the star as days passed by?
Ans. The star looked bigger in size, because it got nearer the earth. Then it stopped ʹand a
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tiny black speck came out of its center and rushed towards the earth.
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Point out the similes used in the passage.

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Ans. ʹIt would be like an Express train hitting a bowl of goldfishʹ. ʹThe nameless immense
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bat‐angel was flying down towards the earth, like a great black swanʹ.
ʹBarmmpʹ is not an English word. Why has it been used in the passage?
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Ans. It indicates the sound produced when the ʹimmense bat‐angelʹ landed on the earth.
What technique helps the writer to convey the growing size of the star and the speed of
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its descent towards the earth?

Ans. Repetition of words and comparisons.
Explain the significance of epithets such as ʹa black angel, a dreadful silhouette, black
flying horror, a great black swan,ʹ etc.
Ans. The chain of epithets helps to portray a huge, black, dragon‐like creature flying
towards the earth

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Q. What do you understand by the term allegory, symbol and imagery?

Ans. ALLEGORY: An Allegory is a form of writing ‐ usually a story or a description ‐ in

which the persons, the places, the objects and the events have meanings and implications

beyond the literal meanings. If it is a story, it often implies a penetrating commentary on

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life and society. The characters in the story often represent ideas or qualities such as

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patience, purity, truth, falsehood, anger, jealousy, lust, greediness, etc. Allegory has been

sometimes defined as an extended or sustained metaphor because the theme is developed

by a series of metaphors, which continue throughout the story. Some famous examples of

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allegory are: Spenserʹs Faerie Queen, Bunyanʹs Pilgrimʹs Progress and Swiftʹs Gulliverʹs

Travels.

SYMBOL: A symbol can be a sign, a, mark, a word or an object looked upon as

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representing something. For example, we have mathematical symbols like + , ‐ , x, + , and

phonetic symbols for the various sounds. ʹRedʹ is usually a symbol danger and is therefore
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used as a traffic signal to indicate ʹstopʹ. A leaf, a branch, or a wreath of the olive tree, is a

symbol of peace. A flag is used as the distinctive symbol of a country.

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IMAGERY: Imagery may be defined as the representation of sense experience through

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language. The word ʹimageʹ often suggests a mental picture, and visual imagery is the most

frequent kind of imagery in literary writings. But an image may also represent asound, a
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smell, a taste, a tactile experience such as hardness, cold, etc., or an internal sensation such
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as hunger or thirst. The writer creates images by using vivid sensory details as in the

following examples:
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sight: a sparkling diamond

hearing: a shrieking siren

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taste: salty, buttered popcorn

smell: rotten eggs

touch: a slimy creature

It is easy to see that imagery uses colorful words with specific meanings to create a picture

in the readerʹs mind. The sentence, ʹThe dog made a noiseʹ, does not give the reader a very

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clear picture, but the sentence, ʹThe panting, struggling German Shepherd whimpered in

his agonyʹ, is a more effective image. You not only see and hear the dog, but also get the

impression of his suffering. Here are two statements which say almost the same thing.

Try to do great things.

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Hitch your wagon to a star.

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Although both statements say almost the same thing, one of them is somehow more

interesting than the other. The first one makes a straightforward statement without

appealing to our imagination. It uses literal language. The second example, on the other

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hand, makes the reader use his imagination to perceive a special image.

Q. What do you understand by the term simile, metaphor, synecdoche, metonymy, and
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personification?
Ans. Simile: A simile is an expression in which we make a comparison between two things
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to present an effective word‐picture, and use such words as like and as.
Example: When the white feet of the baby beat across the grass, The little white feet nod
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like white flowers in a wind They poise and run like puffs of wind that pass Over water
where the weeds are thinned. (From D.H. Lawrence: ʹBaby Running Barefootʹ)
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In the above example the babyʹs feet are compared to flowers bending forward and to puffs
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of wind blowing over water.

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Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which we use a name or a descriptive term or phrase

for an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. Whereas in a simile there is a
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direct comparison, a metaphor suggests a comparison between two things not usually
thought of as similar. We can say about a person that her absence was like a long winter.
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This would be a simile, but if we say that his greeting was ʹlacking in warmthʹ, or that ʹit
was a wintry greetingʹ this would be a metaphor. Other examples of metaphor:
i) The river snakes its way through the mountains.
ii) The ripe pumpkins were golden idols among the corn stalks.
iii) On their shining tracks the waiting diesel engines purred softly.

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In the above examples, one thing is described as if it were something else. The river winds
through the mountains as if it were a snake, the pumpkins were golden idols, and the diesel
engines purred as if they were kittens.
Extended Metaphor: Once you can recognize metaphors, you will be able to appreciate

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their effectiveness in language. Sometimes a writer continues a metaphor over an entire
poem or any other piece of writing. This is called an extended metaphor. Extended

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metaphors are often easier to recognize because they continue over a longer stretch of
writing.

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Example: I remember once, as a kid, lying on my back watching clouds. Row upon row of

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factory‐perfect models drifted along the assembly line. There went a schooner, flag flying ‐,
and look, a snapping toy poodle with the most absurd cut! Next came chilly Greenland,
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with Labrador much too close for comfort. But the banana split was the best one of all.
In the example quoted above the writer uses a series of metaphors to form word pictures of
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various shapes of clouds floating overhead. The words may differ in range and meaning,
but they all describe clouds. We find that with the help of word pictures the writer makes
the scene vivid for us.
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Mixed Metaphor: Occasionally a writer combines two metaphors which do not normally
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go together. This is called a mixed metaphor.

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Example: Most of those at the gathering were friends and co‐workers who had toiled in the
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constituency vineyards trying to harvest votes in campaigns of yesteryears. To them,

Dalton Camp was a comrade in the trenches, sharing in victory, commiserating in defeat,
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and ready when called on.

In the example quoted above the political friends trying to gather votes are first described
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as harvesters collecting grapes and then as soldiers fighting in the trenches, though
harvesters and soldiers have nothing in common.
Synecdoche: Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part of an object refers to the
whole, or the whole to a part.
Examples: Has Mike got wheels? (meaning a car, a motorcycle or a bicycle)
Look at that skirt! (meaning a woman)

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Can you spare your wallet? (meaning some money from your wallet)
He is skilled at twisting another personʹs arm.(Coercing him by moral pressure)
Metonymy: Metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of an attribute or adjunct is
substituted for that of the thing meant.

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Examples: I enjoy reading Shakespeare. (his plays) A minister of the Crown. (the king)
Please clean the brass. (things made of brass) My friend plays Beethoven beautifully. (his

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music) The Oval Room was the source of the Watergate. (Office of the President of U.S.A.,
which is oval in shape).

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Personification: Personification is the giving of human characteristics, powers or feelings to

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inanimate (non‐living) objects or abstract qualities. In personification, as in metaphor, a
comparison is implied. The purpose of personification, like that of metaphor, is to make the
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description vivid.
Example: Busy old fool, unruly sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through
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curtains call on us?
Must to thy motion loversʹ seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch , go chide Late schoolboys and sour prentices, Go tell court‐
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huntsmen that the king will ride, Call country ants to harvest offices, Love, all alike, no
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season knows, nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
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Q. What are the types of compounds?

Ans. As we mentioned earlier, most compound words in English are either nouns or adjectives.
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Some verb compounds and adverb compounds are also to be found. All these types can be further

sub‐classified if we link the compounds to the sentences to which they are related. For example, the

compound heartbeat is a noun. It is related to the sentence ʹThe heart beatsʹ, where heart is the
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ʹsubjectʹ and beat is the ʹverbʹ. Hence we can sub‐classify it as the ʹsubject‐verbʹ type. Similarly, tax‐

payer is listed below as the ʹobject‐verbʹ type since it is linked to the sentence. ʹX pays taxʹ, where pay

is the ʹverbʹ and tax is the object. The compound day‐dream, which can be a noun or a verb, belongs

to the ʹverb adverbialʹ ( or ʹadverbial‐verbʹ) type, since it is related to the sentence X dreams during

the day. We give below a few examples of each type:

Noun compounds

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a) Subject‐verb type : sunrise, rainfall, earthquake

b) Verb‐subject type : crybaby, flashlight, popcorn, washing machine.

Adjective compounds

a) Object‐verb type : man‐eating (tiger) ; breathtaking (scenery)

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b) Adjective/adverb + present participle : everlasting, hardworking, sweet‐smelling

c) Adjective/adverb + past participle : handmade, long‐awaited, dry‐cleaned

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Verb compounds

a) Object‐verb type : proofread, sightsee, housekeep

b) Adverbial‐verb type: day‐dream, bottle‐feed, dry‐clean, sleep‐walk

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Adverb compounds: In adverb compounds, a word like style or fashion is added to nouns or

adjectives and There ‐fore looks more like a suffix.

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Examples: She sat down on the floor Indian‐style. He swims dog‐fashion. Sometimes in English a

distinction is made between a compound and a phrase which at first seem to refer to the same thing.

E. g. , a teacup and a cup of tea refer to different things: a teacup means ʹa cup in which tea is
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servedʹ, while a cup of tea means ʹa cup containing teaʹ. Similarly, a matchbox refers to ʹa box for

holding matchesʹ, while a box of matches refers to ʹa box containing matchesʹ.

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BEGLA‐137 : Language Through Literature

Guess Paper‐II

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Q. What are the uses of compounds?

Ans. Compounds are generally used when the speaker or writer feels that he can convey some

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meaning precisely and briefly by putting two words together. The alternative is to use a clause or a

sentence.

Because of this, compounds have been favorites with English speakers and writers. Some of these

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became successful, others disappeared after some time. For example, when, with Industrial

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Revolution, the nature of work of most people in England changed, and a sharp distinction came to

be made between working days in the factory or offices and rest days on Saturdays and Sundays,
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the word weekend was invented to describe the rest days. The invention was such an apt and short

substitution for ʹend of the week devoted to rest and recreationʹ that it immediately became a

success, and now several other languages have also borrowed it. (Note that weekend became a
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success in spite of the fact that, in the west, Sunday has always been viewed as the first day of the

week and not as the end of the week. ) Once weekend became a success, the need arose for
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distinguishing the other days of the week from the weekend, and the compound weekday came into
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being and was another success. Similar stories are associated with the growth of compounds like

railway, motor‐car, steamship, railway station, airport, etc. Some compounds have existed in
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English for such a long time that it is difficult to trace their history, e. g. , rainbow, snowstorm,
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hailstorm, earthquake, rainfall, Christmas (from Christʹs Mass), etc. In all these cases, the

substitutes would be long and clumsy. In modem times, many more very precise and picturesque
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compounds have been added to English and have become instant successes. Some of these are the

usual noun+noun combinations (e. g. ,firefy, skyscraper) while others combine a verb and its object
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(e. g. , spoilsport, killjoy). The growth of science and technology, newspapers, radio, TV, and other

forms of media, business and commerce, etc. has also contributed a large number of compounds

which have become very popular, e. g. , air‐conditioning, crime reporter, newscaster, newsprint,

newsreel, newsroom, videotape, photocopy, signature tune, steam engine, motorcycle, washing

machine, birth control, punch‐card, push‐button, streamline, computer‐designer, turn‐table, and

hundreds of others.

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The construction of compounds follows no definite rules. There is no definite relationship which

can be said to hold between the two elements of a compound word. For example, a rocking chair is

a chair that rocks, but a walking stick is not a stick that walks but a stick used while walking. This

does not mean that we can put together any two words and the result will be a compound. If there

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is a book lying on the table which I want, I canʹt ask you to get me the table‐book. The relationship

between the objects denoted by the two words must be of a more permanent and substantial nature.

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For example, I can speak of a table leg even if at the moment of speaking it is not attached to a table,

since it is clear from its shape, etc. that a table is where it will be (is supposed to be, etc. ) attached.

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Q. What is a Compound?

Ans. A compound is a single word made up of two (or more) smaller words (or ʹbasesʹ). The
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compound can belong to any part of speech but most compounds in English are nouns or
adjectives; compound pronouns (everybody, everything, etc. ), compound verbs, compound
prepositions (e. g. , into, instead of: etc. ) and compound adverbs(upside down, inside out) are few
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in number. Being a single word, a compound behaves like any simple word belonging to the same
part of speech. E. g. , a compound noun like boyfriend forms its plural by taking an ‐s at the end like
any other simple noun: boyfriends (and not boy ‐friends); an adjective compound like breathtaking
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is modified by more and most in the comparative and the superlative degree like any other simple
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adjective, and so . on. The two bases of a compound are closely associated with each other in
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meaning as well as pronunciation. Their close association in meaning can be shown by the
following: the two words that make up a compound do not keep their separate meanings; rather,
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the compound refers to a single object or action. Usually, the first word modifies the second (in
noun compounds) but different kinds of relationships can exist between the words. The meaning of
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a compound cannot be derived from the meanings of its bases: the meaning is something new
which comes from putting the two bases in some kind of relationship with each other, and
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sometimes by supplying some missing elements. For example, a boy3iend is not just ʹa friend who is
a boyʹ. It does not refer to friends of boys; it also does not refer to all the friends of a girl who are
boys. It has a very special meaning: it refers to a flavored male companion of a girl or young
womanʹ. Note that the italicized portions of this meaning cannot be derived from the parts of the
compound. In this sense, like phrasal verbs, compounds are also idioms. Some other examples of
this type are the following: a darkroom is not any room which is dark but a special room for

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developing photographs; White house is not any white house but the official residence of the
American President, a blackbird is not any bird that is black but a special bird found in Europe and
America (not totally black in color), and so on. This close association between the two elements of a
compound is sometimes, but not always, reflected in writing. Compare, e. g. , a darkroom vs. a dark

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room, a blackbird vs. a black bird. While darkroom and blackbird are compounds. a dark room and
a black bird are adjective + noun constructions, or noun phrases. The close association between the

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bases in a compound is also reflected is pronunciation. In the noun phrase a ʹdark room, both dark
and room are stressed, but the compound ʹdarkroom has only one stress ‐ on the first syllable dark.
This is true of most compound and noun phrase pairs. We can show the stress pattern of some of

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the pairs as follows: a ʹblackbird (compound) vs. a ʹblack ʹbird (phrase); ʹWhite House (compound)
vs. a ʹwhite ʹhouse (phrase); a ʹdarkroom (compound) vs. a ʹdarkroom (phrase), and so on. Putting
the stress on the first element only is an indication that the entire compound is a single unit and that
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the second element is not a separate word. Most compounds tend to have the main stress on the
first element, e. g. , ʹcarbon‐paper, ʹpaper‐clip, ʹmotor‐car, flower pot.
We must, however, mention that some compounds retain the main stress on the second part (e. g. ,
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after ʹnoon, bank ʹholiday). The number of such cases is relatively small.
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Q. What are adverb particles and prepositions discuss.

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Ans. You may have noticed that we have always used the term ʹadverbʹ with the term ʹparticlesʹ.
The reason is that the tern1 ʹparticleʹ actually refers to all minor parts of speech, especially those
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which do not change their form (for number, person, case, tense, etc. ), which are short, and which
ic

function as relation words. Thus prepositions, conjunctions and certain adverb words are all
particles. Though all three are sometimes confused, we shall concern ourselves in this unit only
hr

with adverbs and prepositions.

There are a few particles which occur only as prepositions; hence there is no possibility of confusing
them with adverbs. Some of these are against, among, as, at, beside, for, from, into, like, of; onto,
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upon and with. These words always come at the beginning of a prepositional phrase, as in
He went to Bombay against his fatherʹs wishes.
He was sitting beside the driver.
He was among the people who attacked me.
They cannot occur as adverbs: the following sentences which use them as adverbs are
ungrammatical:

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Shrichakradhar. com BEGLA‐137

He went to Bombay against.

He was sitting beside.

He was among.

Since these words are not adverbs they cannot occur in verb + adverb particle constructions. There

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are no phrasal verbs containing them. Whenever you come across them, you can be sure they are

functioning as prepositions.

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Just as there are some particles that never function as adverbs, there are some that never function as

prepositions: they always occur as adverbs. Some of them are:

aback, ahead, apart, aside, away, back forward, forth, out (in British English),

.
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together. Sentences in which they are used as prepositions are ungrammatical:

The soldiers marched ahead. (Adverb; sentence grammatical)

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* He was ahead the others. (Prep. ; ungrammatical)

I put the book aside. (Adverb; grammatical)

* I put the book aside the table. (Prep. ; ungrammatical)

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There are, however, some particles that can occur both as adverbs and prepositions.

Some of these are: about, above, across, after, along, around, by, down, in, ox on, out (American
k

English), over, past, round, though, under, up. The following sentences show the use of some of

them:
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As stated above, prepositions are also particles. (Adverb)

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The sun is above the horizon. (Prep. )

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Turn over the page. (Adverb)

The sky is over our heads. (Prep. )

hr

We are still a long way off (Adverb)

He fell off the ladder. (Prep. )

Thus there are three categories of particles: those which occur only as prepositions, those which
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occur only as adverbs, and those which occur both as prepositions and adverbs.

The particles that occur in phrasal verbs belong either to the second or the third category. The

following combinations all contain of the second category.

Since these particles occur only as adverbs, we have no problem in recognizing them: take aback

(surprise and confuse), get ahead (advance, prosper), take apart (separate into pieces), set aside

(disregard), put forward (offer an idea, suggestion, etc. ), set out (start), etc.

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The following phrasal verbs contain particles of the third category. They can sometimes cause
difficulty as they may be confused with prepositions:
He took off his coat.
(Compare: He took the coat off the hook. )

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There is not much difficulty in this example, since in ʹtook off his coatʹ, off clearly modifies the verb
took, and took off has the idiomatic meaning ʹremovedʹ (a garment)

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Hence 0ffis an adverb particle and took of is a phrasal verb. When off is a preposition it indicates a
relationship between two entities, e. g. , in the sentence in brackets where it shows the relationship
between coat and hook.

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Q. How to recognize prepositions and conjunctions?
Ans. Second, some words function both as prepositions and conjunctions. See whether the word is
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followed by a noun or noun‐like expression, or by a clause. If the word is followed by a clause
(except of the type mentioned above), it is a conjunction. e. g.
They will leave after lunch. (After: preposition)
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They will leave after they have eaten. (After: conjunction)

I met him the day before your arrival. (Before: preposition)
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I met him the day before you arrived. (Before: conjunction)

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You thus see that the test for a preposition is whether it is followed by an object.
Sometimes you may find that a preposition is at the end of a clause or a sentence, and is not
h

followed by a noun or noun‐like expression as object, as in the following sentences:

ic

What is he standing on?

The man they were looking for has been found.
hr

How, then, do we know that on and for are functioning as prepositions?

Though the prepositions are not followed by objects in these sentences, we know that they have
objects. In the first sentence the object is what, since, the question is really as follows:
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He is standing on what?
In other words, a preposition is identified by the fact that it always has an object: the object may
follow it or it may be elsewhere in the sentence, but so long as an object can be identified for the
word, it is an indication that the word is a preposition.
Some words belonging to Class Two are: above, across, after, before, behind, below, down, in, on,
over, than, under and without.

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Q. What do you mean by Auxiliaries and main verbs?

Ans. How do you distinguish between an auxiliary and a main verb? First, you may note that a
main verb can occur by itself in some other sentence where no auxiliary occurs with it. For example,
in the first verb phrase we have quoted, ought to have, have is the main verb, ought (to) the

m
auxiliary. (Have can occur as a main verb without an auxiliary, as in I havenʹt any money. Similarly,
the main verb of the verb phrase would persuade occurs by itself in the sentence He persuaded me

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to come. This shows that a main Verb can occur without an auxiliary; an auxiliary, on the other
hand, cannot occur without a main verb (either present or understood). Secondly, whenever a verb
phrase contains more than one verb (remember that auxiliaries are also verbs), the last verb in the

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phrase is the main verb; all other verbs are auxiliaries.
Thus in the verb phrase must (open) have seen the last verb seen is the main verb; must and have are
auxiliary verbs; open is not a verb and therefore does not count.
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Why do auxiliaries occur with main verbs sometimes and not at other times? The answer to this
question is as follows:
a) Some auxiliaries occur with main verbs because certain constructions are not possible without
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them. For example, the negative and interrogative forms of sentences with simple verb phrases
always require the use of the auxiliary DO. The negative form of the sentence She dances well
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is She doesnʹt dance well; ‐ the interrogative form is Does she dance well?
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b) Most auxiliaries occur with main verbs when we wish to express certain kinds of meanings.
Different auxiliaries express different kinds of meanings. As we shall see in the next section
h

when we do not wish to express these meanings, we use the simple form of the verb. For
ic

example I have some new clothes means what it says (that I actually am the owner of some new
clothes); I ought to have some new clothes, on the other hand, means that I do not actually have
hr

new clothes and it is desirable that I should have some.

Q. Discuss about the four distinctions relevant to the use of articles.

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Ans. Count Nouns vs. Mass Nouns: In your school years, you have read about different types of
nouns: common nouns, proper nouns, material nouns, abstract nouns, collective nouns, etc. For
learning the use of articles, it is not necessary to remember all these types separately. We will
divide all the nouns into two basic types: proper nouns and common nouns. We wiU include
collective, abstract and material nouns in the category of common nouns and will red vide this
category into two basic types : count and mass. Our classification of nouns is, therefore, as follows :

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Shrichakradhar. com BEGLA‐137

Count Nouns vs. Mass Nouns: In your school years, you have read about different types of nouns:
common nouns, proper nouns, material nouns, abstract nouns, collective nouns, etc. For learning
the use of articles, it is not necessary to remember all these types separately. We will divide all the
nouns into two basic types: proper nouns and common nouns. We will include collective, abstract

m
and material nouns in the category of common nouns and will re‐divided this category into two
basic types : count and mass. Our classification of nouns is, therefore, as follows :

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.
70 ar
Thus, there are the following three types of nouns:

1 Proper noun
94 dh
2a Common count nouns
2b Common mass nouns

Proper nouns occur with articles only in some very special cases which we shall ignore in this unit.
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We shall concentrate only on common nouns, which occur with the articles much more frequently

and present the greatest difficulty to the learner.

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The use of articles with common nouns depends, in more than one way, on whether the noun is a
count noun or a mass noun. The distinction between count and mass nouns is drawn as follows.
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Some now‐9 is such that they denote individual items. Chair, book, country, flag, etc. are such
h

nouns. When they occur in the plural they denote more than one of the same object. Each item (each
ic

chair, each book, etc. ) is, however, a separate object and the total canʹ be counted (two chairs, ten
books, etc. ) Mass nouns are those nouns which denote some material, quality, emotion, feeling,
hr

abstract idea, collection of items, etc. In English, these things are viewed as forming a mass which
cannot be separated into different items and therefore cannot be counted.

For this reason, they are ʹsometimes also called Uncountable or Non‐count nouns. Such nouns are
S

singular in form and always take a verb in the singular, but, unlike singular count nouns, they
cannot occur with the indefinite article. Some examples of mass nouns are water, cloth, bread, gold

(materials); kindness, mercy, flexibility(qualities); anger, passion, hate, love (emotions and feelings);
motion, Difficulty, beauty (abstract ideas); furniture, information, audience (collection of items); etc.

It should be noted that the equivalents of some of these nouns in other languages may be count
nouns because in those languages their meanings are seen as consisting of countable items and not

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Shrichakradhar. com BEGLA‐137

of an uncountable mass. For example, the equivalents of information and furniture in some Indian

languages may be count nouns and may be used in the plural, but in English these words are mass
nouns and have no plurals.
When we wish to speak of one item, or different items, belonging to such a mass, we use a

m
countable noun (like piece, item, bit, etc. ) with the mass noun, e. g. , a piece or an item of furniture,
pieces of information, loaves of bread, etc.

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However, it is important to remember that usage is more important than grammaticality. The

sentence, .
Give us two . tears, ‐ please is incorrect because speakers English don’t accept it. But, in contrast,

.
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Get us two coffees is quite acceptable to most American speakers of English.
Another point to be noted about the count‐mass distinction is that the sake word maybe a count
noun in one use and a mass noun in another use. This depends on whether we view the meaning as
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consisting of different items or as an indivisible mass. For example, stone is a count noun in the

sentence They were throwing stones at the bus, but a mass noun in the sentence The building is
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made of stone. Most mass nouns become count nouns when we are talking of kinds or varieties of

things. For example, metal is a mass noun in This vase is made of metal, but a count noun in
Copper and silver are both metals.
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Singular vs. Plural Nouns: As stated above, count nouns can occur either in the singular or in the
99 a

plural. When they occur in the singular they must be accompanied by an article. or some other
h

determiner; when in the plural, a determiner is not necessary, but if a determiner occurs it is either
the or one of the plural determiners (e. g. , these, those, some, few, etc. ).
ic

Some nouns always occur in the plural, e. g. , cattle, people, police, scissors, etc. ; hence they do not
occur with a 1 an, the indefinite article. They always take a plural verb and &e therefore not like
hr

mass nouns. When we want to count them, we have to add a special word with some of them (e. g. ,
ten head of cattle, fifty policemen, two pairs of scissors, but ten people), hence they are not all like
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count nouns either. We can therefore say that the count‐mass distinction does not apply to them.
General vs. Particular reference: When talking about things, we can either talk about them in

general (i. e. , as a class) or in particular (about one or a certain number). Talking generally about
ants, we can say

Ants are social insects or

An ant is a social insect.

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Talking about ants in particular, we can say

I watched the ants crawling on the floor or

An ant is crawling up your back.

There are various ways of making the reference general or particular and articles play a role in

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them. We shall see this role below.

Definite vs. Indefinite Meaning: This distinction applies only when we are talking about particular

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things. We talk about them in the definite way if we are sure that the hearer or reader knows which

particular things we are talking about; otherwise we talk about them in the indefinite way. We

generally use the definite article in the former case and the indefinite article in the latter case. For

.
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example, if I have lost my dog and I ask Raju ʺHave you seen the dog?ʺ I am sure that Raju knows

that 1 have a dog, that I have lost it and that I am talking about the same dog. If I am not sure of
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these things, and if Raju is just someone walking along the road where the dog was last seen, 1 am

more likely to ask him, ʺHave you seen a dog passing this way?ʺ In this question, I do not assume

that Raju knows which dog I am talking about.

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All these four distinctions are required for describing the use of articles and their meanings in

English. After you have done the following exercises and mastered the distinctions, we shall go on
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to give you the rules regarding the use of articles in English.

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h
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BEGLA‐137 : Language Through Literature

Guess Paper‐III

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Q. Discuss articles as Determiners.

Ans. We said above that an article is a determiner and that a determiner is a word which marks a

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noun. What do we mean by a determiner ʹmarking a nounʹ? We mean that determiners occur with

nouns so regularly that whenever a determiner occurs we can be sure that the accompanying word

is a noun. There is, however, one caution to be exercised. The determiner does not always stand

.
immediately before a noun : sometimes there are other words between the determiner and the

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noun. Examples: a low hill, the entire valley, a good harvest, the kidney‐bean flowers, etc. Therefore

when we say that a determiner occurs with a noun, we do not mean it occurs immediately before a
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noun: what we mean is that it occurs in the same phrase. If a phrase begins with a determiner, a

noun is sure to follow, immediately, or after a few adjectives. The entire structure consisting of the

determiner, the adjectives, and the noun (e. g a low hill, the entire valley, etc. ) is called a noun
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phrase. A noun phrase may also consist of only a determiner and a noun (e. g. a shower, the house),

or just a noun. But though a noun may occur without a determiner, a determiner cannot occur
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without a noun even if separated from it by other words. That is the reason for saying that
99 a

determiners occur with nouns. Articles are determiners; therefore they occur with nouns. When an

article does not occur with a noun, some other determiner may occur with it. The two, however,
h

cannot occur together. We cannot, for instance, say this a man or my the house. It is also possible
ic

that no determiner may occur with a noun. In the passage quoted above, the following nouns occur

without any article or other determiner:

hr

Corn, woman, supper, dinner, rain, coins, pieces, fives, salt, sadness, help, hunger
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Q. Discuss the characteristics of structure words in use.

Ans. We have shown how structure words can be distinguished from lexical words on the basis of

meaning. We shall now describe some characteristics of the use of structure words which also help

us to distinguish them from lexical words.

Frequency of Occurrence: If you count the structure words that we have underlined in the first

paragraph of James Thurberʹs passage, you will find that they constitute nearly half of the total

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number of words in the passage. Some of the structure words occur again and again.

For example, the article a occurs 13 times and the 10 times. Similarly, other structure words like all,

this, he, it, etc. also occur repeatedly. If you continue counting these words in the rest of the

passage, you will find that the total occurrences of each structure word add up to quite a few. No

m
lexical word occurs in the passage as many times, though some words like microscope, look, etc. do

occur again and again. The higher frequency of structure words becomes more apparent as you

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increase the size of the passage. It has been calculated that, on an average, one‐third or more of the

words occurring in a text are structure words.

Another characteristic of structure words is that they occur with equal frequency in all kinds of

.
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styles and varieties of English. This characteristic is not found in the use of content words. The kind

of content words that will occur in a particular passage is determined by various factors, e. g. , the
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subject matter, the choice of style, the level of education of the person addressed, and so on. Content

words that occur in a discussion on politics are unlikely to occur in a discussion on physics; the

content words that one uses when talking informally to oneʹs friends are different from the content
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words that one uses when delivering a fonnal lecture (even if their meanings are similar). Structure

words, on the other hand, always remain the same. There are no substitutes for articles. Pronouns,
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prepositions, auxiliaries, etc. in English. Hence their frequency is the same in every style and every

use except perhaps in such specialized cases as the language of telegrams where structure words
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are often dropped to save on cost.

h

Closed Class Membership: As we stated earlier, structure words belong to different parts of
ic

speech: some are articles, some pronouns, some prepositions, some auxiliaries, some conjunctions,

and so on. It is to be noted that each of these categories contains only a few words. There are two
hr

articles, 25‐30 pronouns, 60‐70 prepositions, 35‐40 conjunctions 15‐16 auxiliaries and a few other

words. The total number of structure words in English is not more than 200‐250. This number is

very small when compared to thousands and thousands of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
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Why is this so? Why are there only a few structure words but thousands upon thousands of lexical

words? The answer is very simple. Lexical words denote objects, actions, qualities, etc. and there are

thousands upon thousands of these in the world; structure words denote relations between these

and there are only a few of these relations. The situation is somewhat similar to arithmetic: there are

thousands and thousands of numbers but only a few relations (or operations, like addition,

subtraction, multiplication and division) that exist between them.

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It is this which leads to the open class membership of lexical words and closed class membership of

structure words. New words are added to the class of nouns, verbs, etc. all the time because new

objects are discovered new kinds of actions, or combinations of actions, are seen or imagined; new

qualities, or combinations of qualities, are experienced, and so on. However, no new words are

m
added to the class of pronouns, articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, etc. because the functions these

classes of words perform (e. g. , the relations that prepositions show between objects denoted by

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nouns) always remain the same or vary only over long periods of time.

We thus notice that the class of structure words consists of a small number of words which occur

very frequently. The class of lexical words, on the other hand, consists of a very large number of

.
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words which occur very infrequently.

Structure Words As Structural Markers: A characteristic of the use of structure words is that they
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always occur with content words belonging to the major parts of speech (nouns, verbs, etc. ). Just as

content words by themselves cannot form a sentence (remember ʹNever see microscopeʹ!), function

words also cannot form a sentence by themselves (can you imagine a sentence like ʹI all the that I
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my I couldʹ?) Structure words have to be combined with lexical words to make good sentences.

There are certain definite ways (ʹrulesʹ) in which structure words combine with lexical words. For
k

example, articles combine only with nouns, auxiliaries combine only with verbs, prepositions

always precede nouns or noun phrases, conjunctions always join elements of the same type, etc.
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Because of these definite rules of combination, we can always use a structure word to tell the part of
h

speech of its accompanying word. For example, wherever an article occurs we can be sure that the
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accompanying word will be a noun, since articles always occur with nouns, never with verbs,

adverbs, etc. Similarly wherever an auxiliary occurs we can be sure that the accompanying word
hr

will be a verb, since auxiliaries occur only with verbs. In other words, articles are markers of nouns

and auxiliaries are markers of verbs. All structure words function as markers of some grammatical

category or the other. In this capacity, they are called ʹstructural markersʹ.
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Q. Read Paragraphs 1,2 &3 again, and answer the following questions:

You know that I once wrote a book called The Discovery of India. I was engaged in that quest long

before I wrote that book. It was not mere curiosity that led me to that quest. I was engaged in many

activities and I wanted a proper reconciliation between my activity and my thought. Thought

without action is abortion. Action without thought is folly. Of course, we sometimes act on some

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impulse or irrepressible urge. If suddenly you throw a brick at me and my hand goes up to protect

myself, it is an automatic, instinctive action and not a result of deliberate thought. Our living is

conditioned by a series of automatic actions from morning till night. Anything we do outside that

common‐range of actions, however, has to be preceded by some measure of thinking. The more

m
action and thought are allied and integrated, the more effective they become and the happier you

grow. There will then be no inner conflict between a wish to do something and inability to act or

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between thinking one way and acting in another. The happiest man is he whose thinking and action

are co ‐ordinated. Happiness, after all, is an inner state of mind. It is little dependent on outside

environment. Happiness has very little to do, for instance, with whether you are rich or not rich.

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Some of the most miserable persons I have come across in my life are the rich people. It is true that

poverty makes one miserable in a very acute way. But my point is that it is not wealth but co‐
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ordination of oneʹs thought and action which removes inner conflicts. It is in that way that

integration of personality is achieved.

What is the meaning of ʹengagedʹ in Paragraph I? Give another meaning of the word.
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Ans. It means ʹemployed busilyʹ, another meaning is ʹbound by promise of marriageʹ, e. g. , Rita is

engaged to Sailesh.
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What is the difference in the meanings of ʹquestʹ and ʹdiscoveryʹ? How are they related?

Ans. ʹQuestʹ is the ʹsearchʹ for something. ʹDiscoveryʹ is finding out something. Usually a quest is an
99 a

attempt to discover something.

h

In Paragraphs 1 and 2, there are three words reconciliation, integrated and co‐ordinated which
ic

refer to the desired relationship between thought and action. First, point out the difference in the

meaning of these words. Then say how they are related

hr

Ans. ʹReconciliationʹ means bringing tyo actions (here ʹthoughtʹ and ʹactivityʹ) into agreement.

ʹIntegratedʹ means ʹcombined into a wholeʹ. ʹCo‐ordinationʹ means ʹmaking different parts function

togetherʹ. There is a common element in the meanings of the three words. All of them refer to two
S

or more parts working together.

In Paragraph 1, the word ʹabortionʹ has been used. What is its literal meaning? Explain the

extended sense in which it is used in the passage.

Ans. ʹAbortionʹ literally means ʹmiscarriage of birth, the delivery of fetus in the first 28 weeks of

pregnancy before it is fully developedʹ. In the passage it means failure of a project or action,

referring to thought which does not lead to action.

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Nehru says that we sometimes act on an ʹirrepressible urgeʹ, that is, under the influence of a

strong desire that we cannot check. What is the difference between ʹimpulseʹ and ʹinstinctive

actionʹ?

Ans. ʹimpulseʹ is a sudden tendency to act without thinking. ʹInstinctive actionʹ is an automatic

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action which is the result of inborn tendencies, like ʹthe herd instinctʹ in animals.

Find out words in Paragraphs 1 and 2 which mean the following: ~ ‐

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a. desire to know: curiosity

b. happening by itself without thought: automatic

c. intentional: deliberate

.
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How does an inner conflict arise in a person?

Ans. When there is a desire to do something and at the same time an inability to act, or when one
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thinks in one way but has to act in another way.

What example of instinctive action is given in Paragraph 2? Can you give another example

yourself?
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Ans. If you suddenly throw a brick at me, I raise my hand to protect myself.

Another example would be: When we happen to touch a very hot object,
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we immediately withdraw our fingers from it.

What does the word ʹenvironmentʹ mean in Paragraph 3?

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Ans. Surrounding objects and conditions; the circumstances of oneʹs life.

h

How does Nehru prove that happiness does not depend on oneʹs being rich?
ic

Ans. Some of the most miserable persons Nehru met were rich people.
hr

Q. Choose the correct word out of the two given in brackets and fill in the blanks in the

sentences below:

1. Le Corbusier, a Frenchman, was the ……architect………. . of Chandigarh, (builder/architect)

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2. The vulture is flying over the fields, looking for it’s ………prey…… (prey/victims)

3. …………spies……………were employed to find out the secret places where the enemies

kept their ammunition. (spies/detectives)

4. President Reagan of the U. S. A. and President Gorbachov of the U. S. S. R. discuss

important matters with the help of …interpreters………. . (translators/interpreters)

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5. The ………painter……. . made an attractive signboard showing the way to our college.

(artist/painter)

6. Assam has a large wild‐life …sanctuary…………. . (sanctuary/colony)

7. His relatives got him admitted to an/a ……Asylum……………. . because he had been

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behaving abnormally. (Asylum/reformatory)

8. You can get him admitted to a technical …institute…………. . If he wants to learn electronics

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engineering. (academy/institute)

9. What is the city ……corporation…………. doing about the repair of roads?

(corporation/municipality)

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10. We have a number of scheduled ……tribes…………. in India who has been given a special

status in the Constitution. (Species/tribes)

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Q. What is overlap in concrete nouns? Discuss objects, persons, places and organization.

Ans. Overlap in concrete nouns: There are groups of concrete nouns ‐ standing as names for
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objects, places and persons ‐ which overlap in their meanings. But they also differ according to their

special function or use, the place they are generally found in, and the nature of their work.
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Objects

i) Take this group of nouns which stand for concrete objects: stool, chair, table, sofa, bench Can
99 a

you spot the word in this list which, does not belong to this group? It is table. All the other
h

words refer to objects used for sitting on. But we generally do not use a table for that purpose.
ic

The overlap of meaning in the other words is that they are all used for sitting on.

ii) Take another example. Look at these words: book, dictionary, encyclopedia, copybook Which
hr

is the odd word in the group? It is copybook. All the other words refer to books that are meant

to be read.
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iii) Now here is another group of nouns which are also names of objects: cupboard, wardrobe, safe,

vault They are all used for keeping things in. But we can distinguish them by saying what is

generally kept in each.

Cupboard: clothes, cups, plates, food, etc.

Wardrobe: clothes

Safe: money and other valuables

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Vault: valuables

There is still some overlap in the case of cupboard and wardrobe. They may both be used for

keeping clothes. Similarly, a safe and a vault can both be used for keeping valuables.

Now letʹs see where we would generally expect these things to be found:

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Cupboard: in the house, or in an office.

Wardrobe: in the house or in the room of a hotel.

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Safe: in the house, or at the cashierʹs desk in a bank, shop, etc

Vault: at the bank.

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There is still some overlap in these words. The first three can all be found in the house. We can

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make the difference clear through definitions:

A cupboard is a set of shelves with doors, used for keeping clothes, cups, plates, food, etc.
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A wardrobe is a cupboard with pegs, shelves, etc. for a personʹs clothes.

A safe is a fireproof and burglarproof box inʹ which money and other valuables are kept.

A vault is an underground room or cellar used asa place of storage for valuables.
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Notice the difference between wine and liquor. Both words refer to alcoholic drinks. But wine is

made from grapes. Sherry and champagne are wines. The word liquor refers to any alcoholic drink.
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Persons: We have seen how there is an overlap in the meaning of certain nouns used for things, but
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in fact they are used in different contexts. Now letʹs see certain groups of words denoting persons.

i) Look at these words:

h

Pilot, driver, chauffeur

ic

They all refer to persons who drive vehicles. But each word is used in a particular context.

A pilot operates the controls of an aircraft.

hr

A driver drives a taxi or a bus.

A chauffeur is paid to drive a privately owned car.

S

ii) Take another set of words:

Friend, colleague, ally, acquaintance, classmate

All these words refer to people in some kind of relationship with you. They are known to you or

work with you in some way. But beyond this common meaning, each word has a special context.

Letʹs see what these contexts are:

A friend is a person who is not a relation but whom you know and like well.

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A colleague is one who works with you and usually has similar rank and duties.

An ally is a person or state united to another by treaty, etc.

An acquaintance is a person you have met personally, but whom you know less intimately or

closely than a friend.

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There are many more words like the ones we have discussed till now, which are generallyconfused

or misused. We cannot possibly deal with all of them.

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But letʹs take some of the more important ones in which the overlap is much greater and the

difference is subtler or more difficult to point out.

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iii) Comedian, clown, joker) jester

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A comedian is an actor who plays comic parts in plays, broadcasts, or TV.

A clown is a person (especially in a circus) who makes a living by performing amusing or foolish
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antics or tricks.

A jester is a person who jests, especially (in olden times) a man whose duty it was to amuse the

court in which he was employed.

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A joker is a person who is fond of making jokes.

So a comedian, a clown, a jester and a joker are alike in the sense that they all amuse people by their
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words and actions, but the words, in fact, refer to different types of people.
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iv) Client, customer

A client is a person who gets help or advice from a lawyer or any professional man.
h

A customer is a person who buys things at a shop.

ic

v) Staff, crew, team

The word staff refers to a group of assistants working together under a head.
hr

The word crew refers to all persons working on a ship, aircraft, train, etc.

The word team refers to a number of persons playing together and forming one side in some games
S

like football, cricket, and hockey.

Places and Organizations

We have seen how the words for objects and persons may overlap in respect of their meaning. Now

letʹs consider words used for places and organizations.

i) Look at these words:

School, college, university

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You are not likely to confuse; the words school and college. We know that a school is an institution

for educating children; there are primary schools and secondary schools. The highest class is Class

XII. But a college is an institution for higher education.

A university is an institution for the promotion and spread of advanced learning. It confers degrees

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and is engaged in academic research. It may of course have a number of colleges in it. Sometimes a

division of a university for the study of a particular subject is also called a school, like the School of

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Humanities at Indira Gandhi National Open University.

ii) Clinic, nursing home, hospital.

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All of these are places where patientsʹ diseases are diagnosed . and treated. But their size and scope

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and the facilities offered may differ.

A clinic is part of a hospital or institution where medical advice and treatment are given for
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instance a dental clinic for the treatment of diseases of the teeth.

A nursing home is usually a privately owned establishment, smaller than a hospital, where persons

who are ill may be cared for or operated on. A hospital is a place where people are treated for their
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illness or injuries.
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Q. In the following sentences, the italicized words are used in an extended sense. State whether
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the extension is from living to non‐living (personification) or vice‐versa. Also say in a few words

what idea from the literal use has been transferred.

h

a. He is a budding poet.
ic

A bud is a young tightly rolled up flower before it opens. A budding poet is one who is just

beginning to develop his talent. (Extension from non‐living to living)

hr

b. Hari flared up.

When something flares up, it suddenly burns with a bright flame for a short time. Similarly,
S

Han showed sudden anger. (Non‐living to living)

c. ʹOnce upon a time the Babus of Nayanjore were famous landholders. . . . Kailas Babu, our

neighbor, is the last relic of this extinct magnificence. . . . Before he grew up, his family had

=ached its lowest ebb. ʹ (Tagore: ʹBabus of Nayanjoreʹ).

The flow of the sea away from the shore is called the ʹebbʹ. The sea reaches its lowest level

during the ebb. Kailas Babuʹs family had reached its lowest state. (Non‐living to abstract)

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d. The Susta (river) ʹchatters over stony ways and babbles on the pebblesʹ. (Tagore: ʹHungry

Stones)

When people talk rapidly and at length, we say they are chattering ʹBabblingʹ also refers to

people talking quickly and foolishly. Similarly, the river makes continuous sounds when it runs

m
gently over rounded stones. (Living to nonliving)

e. ʹThe South Wind whispered in his ears. ʹ (Tagore: The Kingdom of the Cardsʹ).

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Wspering is ʹspeaking with noisy breath but not with voice, so that only a person close by can

hearʹ. The south wind made a soft sound of the same type. (Living to non‐living:

.
personification)

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f. This is the brain of the computer.

The brain is the organ of the body which controls thought and feeling. The brain of the
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computer is where its operations are controlled. (Living to nonliving)
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