GATE Humanities and Social Sciences - English Practice Quiz

Question 1

Which pair of English words is a minimal pair demonstrating that /p/ and /b/ are separate phonemes?

Accepted Answer

pat – bat

Question 2

In a language, [h] occurs only syllable-initially and [ŋ] occurs only syllable-finally. There are no minimal pairs. Why is it problematic to conclude immediately that [h] and [ŋ] are allophones of one phoneme?

Accepted Answer

Because complementary distribution alone is insufficient when the sounds are not phonetically similar

Question 3

In English, [l] in "leaf" and [ɫ] in "feel" are best analyzed as

Accepted Answer

allophones of /l/ conditioned by syllable position

Question 4

Suppose in a language [t] occurs only word-initially before vowels, while [t̪] occurs only before dental consonants, and no minimal pairs exist. The most economical analysis is that [t] and [t̪] are

Accepted Answer

allophones of one phoneme

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