DR. BHAWNA BHARDWAJ

1. Restoration Period in English History
The Restoration Period begins in 1660 A.D., the year in which King Charles-II was restored
to the English Throne.
• England, Scotland and Whales were united as Great Britain.
• Commercial prosperity and global trade increased for Britain.
• Literacy expanded to include the middle classes and even some of the poor.
The monarchical restoration was accompanied by the re-opening of English theatres (that
were closed during Cromwell’s Puritan regime) and the restoration of the Church of England
as the National Church. Now sacraments by all civil and military offices were taken in the
Anglicans Church and those who refused (Protestants and Roman Catholics) were not
allowed to hold the public offices
Charles had no legitimate heir. His brother James (a Catholic) was to ascend the throne after
Charles. The Parliament tried to force Charles to exclude his brother from the line of
succession. Charles ended his “exclusion crisis” by dissolving the Parliament. Once crowned,
James-II quickly suspended the Test Act (sacrament taken in Anglican Church) for he was a
Catholic.
In 1688 A.D., James’ son was born that alarmed the county because they did not want
another Catholic ruler. Secret plans were made to bring a Protestant Ruler. In 1688 A.D.
(same year), William of Orange and his wife landed in England with a small army and seized
power-an event known as the “Glorious/Bloodless Revolution”. James-II fled to France.
There were two main parties in England at that time-
• Tories- “Tory” is an Irish word meaning “Irish Rebel”. The Tory party included those who
favoured monarchy and supported king (Charles-II).
• Whigs- “Whig” is a Scottish word meaning “cattle driver”. Whig party included those who
opposed Charles-II and favoured Aristocratic succession for Monarchy.
Restoration Drama Characteristics
• Theatres were closed during the Puritan Age. During the Restoration Age, they re-opened
with new types of plays and performances which were different than the before.
• The theatres which were indoor were much smaller than the Elizabethan theatres. They
didn’t have a platform, but there was a picture frame stage with different sceneries. The
lighting was artificial and the actors would enter from the side.
• The audience was of middle class and upper-class people. Most of the features of
Restoration Drama are seen even today.
• The success of the plays of the Restoration period was dependent upon the strange staging
devices, weird plots, and dramatized language.
• Attention was increased to the commercial rather than artistic aspect of making theatre.
• Earlier Elizabethan texts like King Lear were given a happy ending.
• Horse-shoe shape was given to the theatres with an inclined stage; thus allowing more
people to enjoy drama.
Restoration Period Poetry Characteristics
The restoration poetry was most satirical, realistic and written in heroic couplet; of which
Dryden was the supreme master. He was a dominating figure of the Restoration Age. He
wrote poetries, prose and also dramas. For this reason, Restoration Age is also called the
“Age of Dryden”
Characteristics of Restoration Poetry
• MODERATION
Restoration poetry is considered moderate in the way it emphasises precision or economical
use of language and words.
• REALISM

2. The two lasting contributions of Restoration Period in English Literature are Realism and
Preciseness. Writers focused on creating a vivid and realistic representation of the corruption
they saw in their society. English writers tried to create a style that most resembled the way
that people actually spoke and wrote. Moreover, they stopped the use of classical allusion and
Latin quotations etc.
• REASON
One of the Restoration poetry characteristics is the reason. Instead of focusing on
Metaphysical ideas which most of the prior poetries had relied upon, it was inspired by many
scientific developments of the time. These scientific developments encouraged people to use
reason to solve problems. These three major features-Moderation, Realism and Reason made
Restoration poetry’s style also known as the classical school of poetry dominate English
Literature for more than a century.
Major Developments in Restoration Poetry
Following were the major developments in Restoration Poetry-
1. Restoration Vs Satire
Satire can be described as the literary art of belittling a subject by making it funny and
ridiculous and expressing the sense of amusement or disgust. The manner of the satirist is
very different from that of a lyrical poet. Since hatred and disliking are unlovely things, the
satirical poet usually avoids giving them direct expression. He makes frequent use of irony.
The Restoration Age is essentially the age of satire. The great influences of the time made
Restoration Age the age of satire. Judging and criticising became common in the society of
the age and this habit naturally gave birth to the spirit of satire. The open denial of false
spiritual authorities became a duty and pleasure of Restoration Poets. In ancient days, the
satirists were honoured. The study of such satirists encouraged Restoration Poets to write
satires. Moreover, French influence also encouraged satire and ultimately, it became a
fashion to write satires.
2. Mock-Epic
A mock-epic is that type of art which imitates in a sustained way, both the elaborate form and
the ceremonious style of the epic poem, but applies it to narrate an ignorable subject matter. It
draws on well-known themes. Thus mock-epic poetry is often able to form observations
about contemporary culture, religion and social issues in a funny and meaningful style.
Mock-epic poetry heavily draws on the technique of satire, which means that it uses irony,
overstatement and criticism to mock its original subject, usually in an impressive manner.
The outstanding example of English Mock-epic is Alexander Pope’s The Rape of Lock,
which is the best of all the mock-epic or mock-heroic poems.
Restoration Poets
• JOHN DRYDEN: He was the dominating figure of the Restoration Age. The poetry of
Dryden can be divided under three heads-Political satires, Doctrinal poems and The Fables.
The poetry of Dryden possesses all the characteristics of the Restoration Age and is
thoroughly representative of that age. His famous works are Absolem and Religio Laici.
• SAMUEL BUTLER: His most famous poem is Hudibras which is a bitter satire on
Puritanism and was successfully published into three parts. It achieved a lot of popularity.
Charles-II was so much pleased with him that he rewarded the author with a handsome cash
present.
• Other poets: Marvell and Oldham
Salient Features of Restoration Prose
Introduction
The Restoration Age was an important era in the development of English prose. It was the
period when English prose moved from antiquity to modernity. The prose before the
Restoration Age is characterised by word-excess, complexity etc. But prose in and after the

3. Restoration Age has the modern qualities of clarity, precision and simplicity. With the
development of Restoration Age, English prose moves speedily towards being strictly
functional. It cuts down all unnecessary ornamentation.
Features
• TRANSITION:
With the social change, linguistic change in the Restoration Age also went hand in hand.
With the stability in the society, came the stability in language. The period saw a transition
from the turbulence of antiquity to stability and balance of the new times. The transition was
the sum-total of many complex forces.
• CRITICAL INTEREST:
Critical interest in Restoration Prose was shown for the first time in the History of English
Literature. Although critical interest in the poetry was popular from a much earlier period,
such interest in prose is visible only in this period. Before this, the rules of English Grammar
and syntax were dynamic. In Restoration Age, the need for stabilising the English language
was voiced by many eminent writers like Dryden. They expressed the desire to clarity and fix
language once and for all.
We find, for the first time in history, writers discussing what is good and what is not. Their
new interest starts with Hobbes and the Royal Society. English prose written in Restoration
Age favours clarity, simplicity and utility against ornamentation, affection, turgidity etc. One
of the best examples is Sprat’s History of the Royal Society.
• DE-LATINISATION:
The transition from antiquity to modernity in English prose in Restoration Age was a
movement towards its “de-Latinisation”. English prose before the Restoration Age was
highly Latinised, both in diction (choice of words) and syntax (structure of the sentence).
This Latinisation results in complexity of style. The de-Latinisation of English prose around
after the Restoration Age meant the simplification and modernisation of English prose. It also
implied the bringing nearer of written language to the spoken language. In general, we can
say that English prose took a great leap forward from antiquity to modernity.
Factors Responsible for the Change
• THE ROYAL SOCIETY:
The most important of the factors for the development of Restoration prose was the
establishment of Royal Society in 1662 A.D. for the promotion of experimental science. It
was Charles-II, who granted the establishing of the Society. Courtiers were allowed to have
even private laboratories of their own. Establishment of Royal Society gave rise to important
factors that changed English prose from antiquity to modernity.
The language used by scientists to describe their experiments needed to be clear,
unimpassioned and almost mathematical. The plain language was used and recommended by
the members of the Royal Society had much influence upon contemporary men of letters. As
a consequence, simplicity in language was adopted by most of the eminent writers of the age.
• SERMONS:
The divines of the age also did as good work as the scientists for the simplicity of the prose.
The age is known for the great sermons written during it. Divines apart themselves from the
old style and expressed their sermons ineffective and simple English capable of being
understood and appreciated by the common people.
They didn’t treat their hearers as empty buckets to be pumped into nor did they have a taste
for the ornamentation and affection. Tillotson played a major role in affecting the change in
English prose. Dryden, one of the greatest masters of English prose, expressed that he had
learnt the style chiefly from Tillotson.
• MODERNISATION BY POPULARISATION OF LITERATURE:

4. Last but not least, was the modernising influence exerted on English prose by popularisation
of the Literature towards the end of 17th The expansion of the circle of readers as much
responsible for the simplification and stabilisation of English prose. The language employed
by the writers, with an eye on common people was naturally simple and clear enough.
Restoration Prose Writers
With the exception of the works of Dryden and Bunyan, the prose work of the Restoration
Age is of little moment. Dryden’s prose is almost entirely devoted to literary criticism and
Bunyan’s contribution shows the development of “prose allegory”. The remaining prose
writers deal with political, historical, theological and other miscellaneous subjects.
• JOHN DRYDEN: He is the representative writer of the Restoration Age. His important
work is Essay of Dramatic Poesie. He was also a great critic of the age
• JOHN BUNYAN: He is the only rival of Dryden in the Restoration Age. He wrote mainly
allegories. His important works are The Pilgrim’s Progress, The Holy War etc.
• SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE: He wrote little but grand. His chief works are Letters, Memoirs,
Miscellanea
Conclusion
Through the prose writings of Restoration, Age is not great in bulk. It shows a profound
change in style. In Dryden’s time, prose acquires a general utility and permanence; it is
smoothened and straightened, simplified and harmonised. It is that period when prose
acquires modernity from antiquity.
Anglo-Saxon literature (or Old English literature) encompasses literature written in Anglo-Saxon
(Old English) during the 600-year Anglo-Saxon period of Britain, from the mid-5th century to the
Norman Conquest of 1066. These works include genres such as epic poetry,
hagiography,sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles, and others. In all there
are about 400 survivingmanuscripts from the period, a significant corpus of both popular interest
and specialist research.
Some of the most important works from this period include the poem Beowulf, which has
achieved national epic status in Britain. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of early
English history. The poem Cædmon's Hymn from the 7th century is one of the oldest surviving
written texts in English.
Anglo-Saxon literature has gone through different periods of research—in the 19th and early 20th
centuries the focus was on the Germanic roots of English, later the literary merits were examined,
and today the interest is with paleography questions and the physical manuscripts themselves
such as dating, place of origin, authorship, and looking at the connections between Anglo-Saxon
culture and the rest of Europe in the Middle Ages.
#William_Wordsworth
Birth :1770
Death :1850
William Wordsworth is a romantic poet, a great pioneer of Romantic Movement.
poet of Nature
He was Poet of Laureate in 1798.
Famous work
The Solitery Reaper
The Daffodils
The Lucy Poem
The Prelude(Autobiography)
Lyrical Ballads with S.T.Coleridge.

5. Famous Quote
Ten thousand saw i at a glance
Tossing their heads in springhtly dance.
Child is father of man
I wandered lonely as a cloud.
Poetry Forms - Definitions and Examples
Sonnet - a short rhyming poem with 14 lines. The original sonnet form was invented in the
13/14th century by Dante and an Italian philosopher named Francisco Petrarch. The form
remained largely unknown until it was found and developed by writers such as Shakespeare.
Sonnets use iambic meter in each line and use line-ending rhymes.
Limerick - a five-line witty poem with a distinctive rhythm. The first, second and fifth lines,
the longer lines, rhyme. The third and fourth shorter lines rhyme. (A-A-B-B-A).
Haiku - This ancient form of poem writing is renowned for its small size as well as the precise
punctuation and syllables needed on its three lines. It is of ancient Asian origin.
Haiku's are composed of 3 lines, each a phrase. The first line typically has 5 syllables, second line
has 7 and the 3rd and last line repeats another 5. In addition there is a seasonal reference
included.
Narrative - A narrative poem tells the story of an event in the form of a poem. There is a
strong sense of narration, characters, and plot. It may be dramatic, with objectives and diverse
characters. Narrative poetry may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or
complex.
Epic - a lengthy narrative poem in grand language celebrating the adventures and
accomplishments of a legendary or conventional hero
Couplet - two lines of verse which rhyme and form a unit alone or as part of a poem.
Free Verse - A Free Verse Poem does not follow any rules. Their creation is completely in the
hands of the author. Rhyming, syllable count, punctuation, number of lines, number of stanzas,
and line formation can be done however the author wants in order to convey the idea. There is no
right or wrong way to create a Free Verse poem.
Acrostic - An acrostic poem is a poem where the one letter in each line spells out a word or
phrase vertically that acts as the theme or message of the poem. The word used for the acrostic
can be the name of the person you are writing the acrostic about, a message such as Happy
Birthday or a theme such as Acceptance, Love or Hope.
METAPHOR POEMS
People have used metaphors since the birth of mankind. Metaphors are a way to get around
censorship as well as to help us see truths that we may not be able to face if they were stated
plainly. It is a way to accentuate beauty as well as pain through this medium of the unstated
comparison. When you are reading an appropriate metaphor you are immediately drawn between
the truth of the comparison that is being alluded to. The ability to understand metaphoric
language opens the key to poetry of tremendous beauty.
ABC POEMS
An ABC poem is a poem where the first letter of each line is the subsequent letter of the alphabet.
The first line starts with A. The second line begins with B, and this continues for the rest of the
poem. Each line focuses on building upon the central topic of the poem, creating a specific mood,
feeling, or picture in the reader’s mind. There are various types of ABC (or Alphabet) poems.
Some use all 26 letters, while others only use 5-6 of the letters in alphabetical order.
Nature and Function of Poetry According to Philips Sidney
Q. Describe, the nature and function of poetry.

6. Ans. Sidney, following Aristotle's concept of Mimesis, defines poetry as an art of imitation. He explains imitation as
representation the aim of which is to teach, and to delight. He explains three kinds of poetry—(I) divinepoetry such as is to
be found in theBible (II) philosophical and moral poetry produced by ancient poets and (III) proper poetry thesort with
which Sidney is directly concerned. It is this third kind of poetry which imitates, it delights and teaches; and "moves" the
minds to goodness.
Then Sidney proceeds to elaborate the view that poetry is an imitation. The poet, like other men learning, imitates the objects
of Nature. However, thepoet goes beyond Nature. The poet is carried forward and upward by the vigour of his own
invention and imagination, in fact, build up another Nature. Thepoet either makes things better than those which exist in
Nature, or makes absolutely new forms such as do not exist in Nature before. The poet creates such new forms as the demi-
gods, Cyclops, and Furies. The world, which the poet depicts in his work, is more beautiful than thereal world. Poet’s world
is a golden world as distinguished from the brazen world of Nature. Thepoet portrays human beings of the kind who never
existed in Nature. Nature has- never created such a constant friend as Pylades, such a valiant man as Orlando, such a true
prince as Cyrus, so excellent a man in every way as Aeneas. All these men were created by poets. TheGreeks, says Sidney
were fully justified in giving to thepoet the titleof a "maker". To Sidney, therefore, a maker is a creator. Indeed, the creative
faculty is the highest gift with which man has been blessed; and this creative faculty is found in the poet to a greater extent
than in any other kind of man. Thus Sidney does not regard poetic imitation as something slavish. The poet's imitation of
Nature is not a servile imitation. His imitation of nature is not a tame copy of what is to be seen and found in real world. The
poet rises above this world of reality. As Sidney puts it, thepoet "transcends Nature". The imagination of the poet transmutes
and transfigures reality. Here of course, Sidney is on very firm ground. Thecreative aspect of poetry must be recognized;
and Sidney rendered great service to literary criticism by recognizing and emphasizing it.
Sidney defends poetry by pointingout that poetry was theearliest form of composition everywhere, and that for a long time
the philosophers of ancient Greece appeared to the world in the guise of poets, while even the historians readily borrowed
the poeticstyleof writing. Among the ancient Romans a poet was called "Vates", meaning a diviner or a prophet. The
ancient Greeks regarded thepoet as a "maker". The poet, says Sidney, imitates the"works of Nature, as do other artists and
men of learning. But the poet, while imitating Nature, transcends it and builds a new Nature. Poetry is superior to both
philosophy and history so far as teaching virtue and urging human beings to live virtuously. Thephilosopher teaches only by
precept, and thehistorian teaches only by example. Thepoet employs both the method of precept and the method of
example. Thephilosopher conveys virtue in an abstract manner. But thepoet conveys virtue by a concrete portrayalof
virtuous characters. The poet is therefore superior to the philosopher. As for the historian, he describes virtue and vice
through actual historical examples; but he has to remain tied to what has actually happened. The poet can mould the facts of
life in any way he likes so, he has a greater freedom than the historian. History describes what was actually done while
poetry tells what is fit to be said or what is fit to be done according to the law of probability or necessity. Besides, history
deals with the particular, while poetry deals with the universal. Quoting Aristotle, Sidney says that poetry is more
philosophical and more serious than history. Poetry is superior to philosophy becauseit has thepower to stir or move the
mind of thereader in a way philosophy cannot do. The poet wins the mind of thereader.
According to Sidney, Poetry teaches and delights; but that is not all. Sidney also points out thepower of poetry to move the
mind and to stir theheart. It is by its power to move the minds it influences the behaviour and conduct. After reading
Homer's Odyssey, and after going through theincident of Aeneas everybody would like to perform a deed of similar virtue.
Menenius Agrippa, thestatesman was able by using a poetical device in his oration, to avert a civil war in Rome. These
examples show that thepoet, using delight as his instrument, influences the mind of the readers more effectively than any
other art does. As virtue is themost excellent end of all worldly learning, so is poetry themost familiar way to teach virtue.
It is wrong to condemn or censure poetry in any of its forms, says Sidney. He then goes on to defend the various forms of
poetry and states thebenefits of pastoralpoetry, elegiac poetry, comic and satiric poetry, tragic poetry, heroicpoetry, etc.
Sidney speaks of lyrical poetry:"I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than
with a trumpet."
Sidney comes very close to Longinus' view about the power of poetry to "transport". In this respect, Sidney takes up a
position which links him with romantic poets though, on thewhole, he is a neo-classical critic. The only thing which jars
upon minds is Sidney's repeated emphasis upon the moral and didactic aim of poetry. But here it should be remembered the
context in which Sidney puts this emphasis on the moral aspect of poetry. Poetry was censured by the Puritans and it was
necessary for Sidney to meet thechallenge which men like Stephen Gosson were flinging at it.
Sidney regards poetry as themost fruitful form of knowledge and therefore as the monarch of all branches of learning. In
this way Sidney glorifies poetry and ranks it not only above philosophy and history but also above the sciences like
astronomy and geometry. He goes to theextreme when he says:"I still and utterly deny that thereis, sprung out of earth, a
more fruitful knowledge (than poetry). It is off the mark to assert that poetry is theprofoundest or themost fertile cause of
knowledge. Poetry has its rightful place as an art which offers delight, pleasure, and moral instruction, which reveals the
mysteries of the human mind and of human nature, which consoles in distresses and sorrows, which uplifts souls and
transports into another world and makes lives worth living. Similarly Sidney goes off themark when he says an astronomer,
a geometrician, or a physician may tell lies but a poet does not tell lies. We agree that a poet does not tell lies, but we do not
admit that a scientist tells lies either. A scientist, whether he is an astronomer, a geometrician, or a physician, aims wholly at
truth.
As regards thestylisticqualities of poetry. Sidney has some very useful suggestions to offer. He condemns theuse of gaudy
and ostentatious diction which he compares to a prostitutewho has tried to beautify herself by an excessive use of cosmetics.
He condemns theuse of far-fetched words which appear like strangers to readers. He also condemns the, fantasticdevices
which were used in his time to make thewriting appear attractive. He condemns those writers who maintained a collection of
high-sounding words. He censures the poets for drawing their metaphors from all kinds of miscellaneous sources such as the
stories of beasts, birds, and fishes. He also says that an excess in the use of metaphors is highly undesirable. A metaphor

7. should be used only to make an idea more clear and to convince a reader. Beyond that, it is a wasteof words to use
metaphors.
Another very important point which Sidney makes is that rhyme, or verse, or metre is not indispensable to poetry. Hesays,
"It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet", just as it is not a long gown which maketh an advocate. Thepoet is
recognized by thenotable images of virtues and vices which he offers in his work, and which impart both delight and
instruction. The work of a poet is distinguished by its delightful teaching. However, Sidney admits that a large majority of
poets have written in metre. Here we find it difficult to agree with Sidney. It is true that many other writers too have
regarded metre as an ornament of poetry and as a device which lends greater charm to poetry;but this is only a theoretical
position. Even Wordsworth declared that metre was not essential to poetry, and Coleridge in this respect agreed with
Wordsworth. Both these men took up the position that metre was not indispensable to poetry, but it was yet highly desirable
and even necessary. Now, to assert that poetry can dispensewith metre is an extreme position. This position is almost
untenable. Theactual practice of poets shows that metre is very much an integral part of poetry. Metreand verse are
certainly an ornament of poetry, but this ornament cannot be discarded without causing damage to it. Historical accounts and
philosophical propositions certainly do not become, poetry by being put into metre; but even themost imaginative nights of
the fancy and themost imaginative inventions, when clothed in words, do not become poetry unless they are clothed in
metrical language.
Points to Remember:
1. Poetry-an art of imitation
2. Poet transcends nature.
3. Poet is considered as a maker and a vote.
4. Law of probability and necessity.
5. Poetry has the power to move the mind.
6. Longinus’ view of poetry.
7. Where Sidney goes off the mark.
8. Stylisticqualities.
9. Conclusion.
*****
GRAMMAR*
*PUNCTUATION*
Punctuation (derived from the Latin punctum, a point) means the right use of putting in points or
stops in writing.
The following are the principal stops :
1) Full Stop or period ( . )
2) Comma ( , )
3) Colon ( : )
4) Question Mark ( ? )
5) Exclamation Mark ( ! )
Other marks in common use are the
★ Dash ( _ )
★ Parentheses ( )
★ Inverted Commas and Quotation Mark " ".
*1. Full Stop or period ( . )*
The full stop represents the greatest pause and separation. It is used to mark the end of a
declarative or an Iimperative sentence; as,
For Example :
★ Dear, patient, gentle, Nell was dead.
The full stop can be used in abbreviations, but they are often omitted in modern style.
★ M.A or MA
★ M.P or MP
★ U.N.O or UNO
*2- Comma (,)*
The comma represents the shortest pause, and is used:
1) To separate a series of words in the same construction ; as,
For Example:
★ England, France and Italy formed an alliance.

8. ★ He lost lands, money, reputation and friends.
★ It was a long, dull and wearisome journey.
A Comma is generally not placed before the word preceded by and ; as,
2) To separate each pairs of words connected by and ; as,
For Example:
★ We should be devout and humble, cheerful and serene.
★ High and low, rich and poor, wise and foolish, must all die.
3) After a Nominative absolute ; as,
★ This done, she returned to the old man with a lovely smile on her face.
★ The wind being favourable, the squadron sailed.
4) To mark off a Noun or phrase in Apposition ; as,
★ Paul, the apostle, was beheaded in the reign of Nero
★ Milton, the great English poet, was blind.
5) To mark off words used in addressing people
★ Come into the garden, Maud
★ How are you, Mohan?
But when the words are emphatic, we ought to use the note of Exclamation; as,
★ Monster ! By thee my child's devoured !
6) To mark off two or more adverbs or adverbial phrases coming together ; as,
★ Then, at length , tardy justice was done to the memory of Oliver.
7) Before and after a participial phrase, provided that the phrase might be expanded into a
sentence, and is not used in a merely qualifying sense; as,
★ Caeser, having conquered his enemies, returned to Rome.
8) Before and after words phrases or clauses, let into the body of a sentence; as,
★ it is mind, after all, which does the work of the world.
★ His behavior, to say the least, was very rude.
★ He didn't , however, gain his object.
9) To indicate the omission of a word, especially a verb ; as,
★ He will succeed ; you, never.
★He was a Brahmin ; She, a Rajput.
*4. Colon ( : )*
The colon marks a still more complete pause than that expressed by the semi-colon. It is used (
Something with a dash after it)
1) To introduce a quotation ; as,
★ Bacon says : "Reading makes a full man, writing an exact man, speaking a ready man."
2) Before enumeration, example, etc ; as,
★ The principal parts of a verb in English are : the present tense, the past tense, and the past
participle.
3) Between sentences grammatically independent but closely connected in sense;
★ Study to acquire a habit of thinking : no study is more important.
*3. Semicolon (;)*
The semicolon represents a pause of greater importance than that shown by the comma. It is used
:
1) To separate the clauses of compound sentence, when they contain a comma; as,
★ He was a brave, large-hearted man, and we all honoured him.
2) To separate a series of loosely related causes; as,
★ Her court was pure ; her life serene;
★ God gave her peace ; her land reposed.
*5. Question Mark ( ? )*

9. The Question mark is used, instead of the full stop, after a direct question ; as,
★ Have you written your exercise?
★ If you prick us, do we not bleed?
★ And if you wrong us, shall we not have revenge?
★ If you trickle us, do we not laugh?
But Question Mark is not used after an indirect question ; as,
★ He asked me whether I had written my exercise.
*6. Exclamation Mark ( ! )*
The Exclamation mark is used after interjection and after phrases and sentences expressing
sudden emotion or wish ; as,
★ Alas! Oh dear !
★ What a terrible fire this is!
★ O, what a fall was there, my countryman ! Long live the king !
When the interjection O is placed before the Nominative of Address, the Exclamation Mark, if
employed at all, comes after the noun ; or it may be placed at the end of the sentence; as,
★ O father ! I hear the sound of guns.
★ O Hamlet, speak no more!
*7. Inverted Commas ( " " )*
Inverted commas are used to enclose the exact words of a speaker, or a quotation; as,
★ " I would rather die, " he exclaimed, " than join the oppressors of my country. "
★ Babar is said by Elphinstone to have been " the most admirable prince that ever reigned in
Asia."
If a quotation occurs within a quotation, it is marked by single inverted Commas; as,
★ " You might as well say," added the March Hare, "that 'I like what I get is the same thing as I
get what I like."
*9. Hyphen*
The Hyphen - a shorter line than the Dash - is used to connect the parts of a compound words ; as,
★ Passer-by
★ man-of-war
★ Jack-of-all-trades.
It is also used to connect parts of a word divided at the end of a line.
*8. Dash ( _ )*
The Dash is used:
1) To indicate an abrupt stop or change of thought ; as,
★ If my husband were alive_but why lament the past?
2) To resume a scattered subject; as,
★ Friends, Companions, relatives_all deserted him.
*10. Parentheses ( )*
Parentheses or Double Dashes are used to separate from the main parts of the sentence a phrase or
clause which doesn't grammatically belong to it; as,
★ He gained from Heaven (it was all he wished) a friend.
*11. Apostrophe ( ' )*
The Apostrophe is used:
1) To show the omission of a letter or letters; as,
★Don't, e'er , I've.
2) In the Genitive Case of Nouns.
3) To form the plural of letters and figures.
★ Dot your i's and cross your t's.
★ Add two 5's and four 2's.

10. ENGLISH_LITERATURE_WRITERS/POETS
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) English poet and playwright Famous plays include Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet,
Merchant of Venice and Hamlet. Shakespeare is widely considered the seminal writer of the English language.
Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) Anglo-Irish writer born in Dublin Swift was a prominent satirist, essayist and author. Notable
works include Gulliver’s Travels (1726), A Modest Proposaland A Tale of a Tub.
Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) British author best known for his compilation of the English dictionary. Although not the
first attempt at a dictionary, it was widely considered to be themost comprehensive – setting the standard for later
dictionaries.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) German poet, playwright, and author Notable works of Goethe include: Faust,
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and Elective Affinities.
Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) English author who wrote romantic fiction combined with social realism. Her novels include:
Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1816).
Honore de Balzac (1799 – 1850) French novelist and short story writer Balzac was an influential realist writer who created
characters of moral ambiguity – often based on his own real life examples. His greatest work was thecollection of short
stories La Comédie humaine.
Alexander Dumas (1802 – 1870) French author of historical dramas, including – TheCount of MonteCristo (1844), and The
Three Musketeers (1844). Also prolific author of magazine articles, pamphlets and travel books
Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) French author and poet Hugo’s novels include Les Misérables, (1862) and Notre-Dame de Paris
(1831).
Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) – English writer and social critic. His best-known works include novels such as Oliver Twist,
David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol.
Charlotte Bronte(1816 – 1855) English novelist and poet, from Haworth Her best known novel is ‘Jane Eyre’ (1847)
Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) – American poet, writer and leading member of the Transcendentalist movement.
Thoreau’s “Walden” (1854) was a unique account of living close to nature
Emily Bronte (1818 – 1848) English novelist Emily Bronte is best known for her novel Wuthering Heights (1847), and her
poetry
George Eliot (1819 – 1880) Pen name of Mary Ann Evans Wrote novels, The Millon the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861),
Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876)
Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher Famous works include the epic novels – War and Peace
(1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Tolstoy also became an influential philosopher with his brand of Christian pacifisms
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) Russian novelist, journalist and philosopher Notable works include Notes from
Underground, Crime and Punishment and The Idiot
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) Oxford mathematician and author Famous for Alice in Wonderland, Through theLooking Glass,
and poems like TheSnark
Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) American writer and humorist, considered the‘father of American literature’. Famous works
include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) English novelist and poet Hardy was a Victorian realist who was influenced by Romanticism.
He wroteabout problems of Victorian society – in particular, declining rural life. Notable works include: Far from the
Madding Crowd (1874), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895)
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) – Irish writer and poet. Wilde wrote humorous, satirical plays, such as ‘The Importanceof Being
Earnest‘ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’
Kenneth Graham (1859 – 1932) Author of the Wind in the Willows (1908), a classic of children’s literature
George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) Irish playwright and wit Famous works include Pygmalion (1912), Man and Superman
(1903) and Back to Methuselah (1921)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 – 1930) British author of historical novels and plays Most famous for his short stories about
the detective – Sherlock Holmes, such as The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) and Sign of Four (1890)
Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943) English conservationist and author of imaginative children’s books, such as theTales of Peter
Rabbit (1902)
Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922) French author Best known for epic novel l À la recherché du temps perdu (In Search of Lost
Time) published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927
William Somerset Maugham 1874 – 1965) British novelist and writer One of the most popular authors of 1930s Notable
works included TheMoon and Sixpence (1916), The Razor’s Edge (1944), and Of Human Bondage (1915)
P.G.Wodehouse (1881 – 1975) English comic writer Best known for his humorous and satirical stories about the English
upper classes, such as Jeeves and Wooster and Blandings Castle
Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) English modernist writer, a member of theBloomsbury group Famous novels include Mrs
Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928)
James Joyce (1882 – 1941) Irish writer from Dublin Joycewas one of most influential modernist avant-garde writers of the
Twentieth Century. His novel Ulysses (1922), was ground-breaking for its stream of consciousness style. Other works
include Dubliners (1914) and Finnegans Wake (1939)
D H Lawrence (1885 – 1930) English poet, novelist and writer Best known works include Sons and Lovers, TheRainbow,
Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) – which was banned for many years
Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976) British fictional crime writer Many of her books focused on series featuring her detectives
‘Poirot’ and Mrs Marple
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973) – Professor of Anglo-Saxon and English at Oxford University. Tolkien wrotethe best-selling
mythical trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Other works include, TheHobbit and The Silmarillion, and a translation of Beowulf

11. Vera Brittain (1893 – 1970) British writer best known for her autobiography – Testament of Youth (1933) – sharing her
traumatic experiences of the First World War
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940) American author Iconic writer of the‘jazz age’ Notable works include The Great Gatsby
(1925), and Tender Is the Night (1934) – cautionary tales about the ‘Jazz decade’ and the American Dream based on
pleasure and materialism
Enid Blyton (1897 – 1968) British children’s writer known for her series of children’s books – TheFamous Five and The
Secret Seven. Blyton wrotean estimated 800 books over 40 years
C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963) Irish / English author and professor at Oxford University Lewis is best known for The Chronicles
of Narnia, a children’s fantasy series. Also well known as a Christian apologist
Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961) Ground breaking modernist American writer. Famous works included For Whom The Bell
Tolls (1940) and A Farewell to Arms (1929)
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 – 1977) Russian author of Lolita (1955) and Pale Fire (1962)
Barbara Cartland (1901 – 2000) One of most prolific and best selling authors of the romantic fiction genre. Some suggest she
has sold over 2 billion copies worldwide
John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968) American writer who captured the social change experienced in the US around the time of the
Great Depression. Famous works include – Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952)
George Orwell (1903 – 1950) – English author. Famous works include Animal Farm, and 1984. – Both stark warnings about
the dangers of totalitarian states, Orwell was also a democratic socialist who fought in the Spanish Civil War, documenting
his experiences in “Homage to Catalonia” (1938)
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Irish avant grade, modernist writer Beckett wroteminimalist and thought provoking plays, such
as ‘Waiting for Godot’ (1953) and ‘Endgame‘ (1957). He was awarded theNobel Prizein Literature in 1969
Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) – French author, journalist, and philosopher. Associated with existentialism and absurdisim
Famous works included TheMyth of Sisyphus, TheStranger and The Plague
Roald Dahl (1916 – 1990) English author, best known for his children’s books, such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory, James and The Giant Peach and TheBFG
Aleksandra Solzhenitsyn (1918 – 2008) Russian author, historian and political critic Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1970 for his work in exposing thenature of Soviet totalitarianism. e.g, TheGulag Archipelago (1965-
67)
J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010) American author most influential novel TheCatcher in the Rye(1951) Wrote many short stories
for New Yorker magazine, such as “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”
Joseph Heller (1923 – 1999) American novelist, who wrotesatirical and black comedy His most famous work, is ‘Catch 22’
(1961) – a satire on the futility of war
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927 – 2014) Colombian author Wrote: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), The Autumn of the
Patriarch (1975) and
Love in the Time of Cholera (1985) Nobel Prize in Literature (1982)
Anne Frank (1929 – 1945) Dutch-Jewish diarist. Known for her diary ‘Anne Frank‘Published posthumously by her father –
recalling her life hiding from Gestapo in occupied Holland
Salman Rushdie (1947 – ) Anglo-Indian author. His works combine elements of magic realism, satire and historical fiction –
often based on Indian sub-continent. Notable works include Midnight’s Children (1981), Shame (1983) and Satanic Verses
(1988)
Stephen King (1947 – ) American author of contemporary horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy
One of the best selling authors of modern times
George R.R Martin (1948 – ) American author of epic fantasy series – A Song of Ice and Fire, – his international best-selling
series of fantasy, adapted for the screen as a Game of Thrones
Douglas Adams (1952 – 2001) British writer of humorous and abuser science fiction Adams wrotea best selling trilogy (of
five books) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to theGalaxy – which began as a BBC play
J.K.Rowling (1965 – ) British author of the Harry Potter Series – which has become the best selling book series of all time.
Her first book was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997). Rowling has also published adult fiction, such as The
Casual Vacancy (2012) and The Cuckoo’s Calling (2013)
Khaled Hosseini (1965 – ) Afghan born American writer. Notable works include: TheKite Runner (2003) A Thousand
Splendid Suns (2007) And theMountains Echoed (2013
#EARLY_POETS
Homer (c. 8th Century B.C. ) Considered the greatest of the ancient Greek poets Homer was the author of thetwo epic
poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey
Sappho ( c 570 BC) One of the first published female writers. Much of her poetry has been lost but her immense reputation
has remained. Plato referred to Sappho as one of the great ten poets.
Virgil (70 BC – 19 BC) Roman poet Wrote three epics Eclogues (or Bucolics), theGeorgics, and the Aeneid
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, is one of most influential European
works of literature. Danteis also called the “Father of the Italian language”
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400) considered the Father of English Literature Best known for Canterbury Tales (1475)
John Milton (1608 – 1674) English poet Best known for his epic poemParadise Lost (1667), written in blank verse – telling
the Biblical story of man’s fall. Also wroteAreopagitica (1644) in defense of free speech
William Blake (1757 –1827) English mysticand romantic poet, wroteSongs of Innocence and Songs of Experience Also
hand-painted many of his works
William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) English romantic poet from Lake District, many poems related to natures, such as his
Lyrical Ballads Samuel
Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834) English romantic poet. Author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kublai Khan

12. Percy ByssheShelley (1792 – 1822) English romantic poet Famous works include Queen Mab and Prometheus Unbound
John Keats (1795 – 1821) English Romantic Poet, best known for his Odes, such as Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Grecian
urn, Ode to Melancholy
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) American Transcendentalist poet and writer
Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892) Popular Victorian poet, wroteCharge of the Light Brigade, Ulysses, and In Memoriam
A.H.H
Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) American poet Wrote Leaves of Grass, a ground breaking new styleof poetry
Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) American female poet Led secluded lifestyle, and left legacy of many short vivid poems,
often on themes of death and immortality
Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941) Indian poet Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature for his work – Gitanjali
Robert Frost (1874 – 1963) – Influential American poet, one of most highly regarded of theTwentieth Century. Most famous
work ‘TheRoad Not Taken’ (1916)
MayaAngelou (1928 – 2014 ) – Modern American poet and writerENGLISH_LITERATURE_WRITERS/POETS
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) English poet and playwright Famous plays include Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet,
Merchant of Venice and Hamlet. Shakespeare is widely considered the seminal writer of the English language.
Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) Anglo-Irish writer born in Dublin Swift was a prominent satirist, essayist and author. Notable
works include Gulliver’s Travels (1726), A Modest Proposaland A Tale of a Tub.
Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) British author best known for his compilation of the English dictionary. Although not the
first attempt at a dictionary, it was widely considered to be themost comprehensive – setting the standard for later
dictionaries.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) German poet, playwright, and author Notable works of Goethe include: Faust,
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and Elective Affinities.
Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) English author who wrote romantic fiction combined with social realism. Her novels include:
Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1816).
Honore de Balzac (1799 – 1850) French novelist and short story writer Balzac was an influential realist writer who created
characters of moral ambiguity – often based on his own real life examples. His greatest work was thecollection of short
stories La Comédie humaine.
Alexander Dumas (1802 – 1870) French author of historical dramas, including – TheCount of MonteCristo (1844), and The
Three Musketeers (1844). Also prolific author of magazine articles, pamphlets and travel books
Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) French author and poet Hugo’s novels include Les Misérables, (1862) and Notre-Dame de Paris
(1831).
Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) – English writer and social critic. His best-known works include novels such as Oliver Twist,
David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol.
Charlotte Bronte(1816 – 1855) English novelist and poet, from Haworth Her best known novel is ‘Jane Eyre’ (1847)
Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) – American poet, writer and leading member of the Transcendentalist movement.
Thoreau’s “Walden” (1854) was a unique account of living close to nature
Emily Bronte (1818 – 1848) English novelist Emily Bronte is best known for her novel Wuthering Heights (1847), and her
poetry
George Eliot (1819 – 1880) Pen name of Mary Ann Evans Wrote novels, The Millon the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861),
Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876)
Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher Famous works include the epic novels – War and Peace
(1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Tolstoy also became an influential philosopher with his brand of Christian pacifisms
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) Russian novelist, journalist and philosopher Notable works include Notes from
Underground, Crime and Punishment and The Idiot
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) Oxford mathematician and author Famous for Alice in Wonderland, Through theLooking Glass,
and poems like TheSnark
Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) American writer and humorist, considered the‘father of American literature’. Famous works
include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) English novelist and poet Hardy was a Victorian realist who was influenced by Romanticism.
He wroteabout problems of Victorian society – in particular, declining rural life. Notable works include: Far from the
Madding Crowd (1874), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895)
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) – Irish writer and poet. Wilde wrote humorous, satirical plays, such as ‘The Importanceof Being
Earnest‘ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’
Kenneth Graham (1859 – 1932) Author of the Wind in the Willows (1908), a classic of children’s literature
George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) Irish playwright and wit Famous works include Pygmalion (1912), Man and Superman
(1903) and Back to Methuselah (1921)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 – 1930) British author of historical novels and plays Most famous for his short stories about
the detective – Sherlock Holmes, such as The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) and Sign of Four (1890)
Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943) English conservationist and author of imaginative children’s books, such as theTales of Peter
Rabbit (1902)
Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922) French author Best known for epic novel l À la recherché du temps perdu (In Search of Lost
Time) published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927
William Somerset Maugham 1874 – 1965) British novelist and writer One of the most popular authors of 1930s Notable
works included TheMoon and Sixpence (1916), The Razor’s Edge (1944), and Of Human Bondage (1915)
P.G.Wodehouse (1881 – 1975) English comic writer Best known for his humorous and satirical stories about the English
upper classes, such as Jeeves and Wooster and Blandings Castle

13. Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) English modernist writer, a member of theBloomsbury group Famous novels include Mrs
Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928)
James Joyce (1882 – 1941) Irish writer from Dublin Joycewas one of most influential modernist avant-garde writers of the
Twentieth Century. His novel Ulysses (1922), was ground-breaking for its stream of consciousness style. Other works
include Dubliners (1914) and Finnegans Wake (1939)
D H Lawrence (1885 – 1930) English poet, novelist and writer Best known works include Sons and Lovers, TheRainbow,
Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) – which was banned for many years
Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976) British fictional crime writer Many of her books focused on series featuring her detectives
‘Poirot’ and Mrs Marple
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973) – Professor of Anglo-Saxon and English at Oxford University. Tolkien wrotethe best-selling
mythical trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Other works include, TheHobbit and The Silmarillion, and a translation of Beowulf
Vera Brittain (1893 – 1970) British writer best known for her autobiography – Testament of Youth (1933) – sharing her
traumatic experiences of the First World War
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940) American author Iconic writer of the‘jazz age’ Notable works include The Great Gatsby
(1925), and Tender Is the Night (1934) – cautionary tales about the ‘Jazz decade’ and the American Dream based on
pleasure and materialism
Enid Blyton (1897 – 1968) British children’s writer known for her series of children’s books – TheFamous Five and The
Secret Seven. Blyton wrotean estimated 800 books over 40 years
C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963) Irish / English author and professor at Oxford University Lewis is best known for The Chronicles
of Narnia, a children’s fantasy series. Also well known as a Christian apologist
Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961) Ground breaking modernist American writer. Famous works included For Whom The Bell
Tolls (1940) and A Farewell to Arms (1929)
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 – 1977) Russian author of Lolita (1955) and Pale Fire (1962)
Barbara Cartland (1901 – 2000) One of most prolific and best selling authors of the romantic fiction genre. Some suggest she
has sold over 2 billion copies worldwide
John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968) American writer who captured the social change experienced in the US around the time of the
Great Depression. Famous works include – Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952)
George Orwell (1903 – 1950) – English author. Famous works include Animal Farm, and 1984. – Both stark warnings about
the dangers of totalitarian states, Orwell was also a democratic socialist who fought in the Spanish Civil War, documenting
his experiences in “Homage to Catalonia” (1938)
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Irish avant grade, modernist writer Beckett wroteminimalist and thought provoking plays, such
as ‘Waiting for Godot’ (1953) and ‘Endgame‘ (1957). He was awarded theNobel Prizein Literature in 1969
Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) – French author, journalist, and philosopher. Associated with existentialism and absurdisim
Famous works included TheMyth of Sisyphus, TheStranger and The Plague
Roald Dahl (1916 – 1990) English author, best known for his children’s books, such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory, James and The Giant Peach and TheBFG
Aleksandra Solzhenitsyn (1918 – 2008) Russian author, historian and political critic Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1970 for his work in exposing thenature of Soviet totalitarianism. e.g, TheGulag Archipelago (1965-
67)
J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010) American author most influential novel TheCatcher in the Rye(1951) Wrote many short stories
for New Yorker magazine, such as “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”
Joseph Heller (1923 – 1999) American novelist, who wrotesatirical and black comedy His most famous work, is ‘Catch 22’
(1961) – a satire on the futility of war
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927 – 2014) Colombian author Wrote: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), The Autumn of the
Patriarch (1975) and
Love in the Time of Cholera (1985) Nobel Prize in Literature (1982)
Anne Frank (1929 – 1945) Dutch-Jewish diarist. Known for her diary ‘Anne Frank‘Published posthumously by her father –
recalling her life hiding from Gestapo in occupied Holland
Salman Rushdie (1947 – ) Anglo-Indian author. His works combine elements of magic realism, satire and historical fiction –
often based on Indian sub-continent. Notable works include Midnight’s Children (1981), Shame (1983) and Satanic Verses
(1988)
Stephen King (1947 – ) American author of contemporary horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy
One of the best selling authors of modern times
George R.R Martin (1948 – ) American author of epic fantasy series – A Song of Ice and Fire, – his international best-selling
series of fantasy, adapted for the screen as a Game of Thrones
Douglas Adams (1952 – 2001) British writer of humorous and abuser science fiction Adams wrotea best selling trilogy (of
five books) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to theGalaxy – which began as a BBC play
J.K.Rowling (1965 – ) British author of the Harry Potter Series – which has become the best selling book series of all time.
Her first book was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997). Rowling has also published adult fiction, such as The
Casual Vacancy (2012) and The Cuckoo’s Calling (2013)
Khaled Hosseini (1965 – ) Afghan born American writer. Notable works include: TheKite Runner (2003) A Thousand
Splendid Suns (2007) And theMountains Echoed (2013
#EARLY_POETS
Homer (c. 8th Century B.C. ) Considered the greatest of the ancient Greek poets Homer was the author of thetwo epic
poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey
Sappho ( c 570 BC) One of the first published female writers. Much of her poetry has been lost but her immense reputation
has remained. Plato referred to Sappho as one of the great ten poets.

14. Virgil (70 BC – 19 BC) Roman poet Wrote three epics Eclogues (or Bucolics), theGeorgics, and the Aeneid
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, is one of most influential European
works of literature. Danteis also called the “Father of the Italian language”
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400) considered the Father of English Literature Best known for Canterbury Tales (1475)
John Milton (1608 – 1674) English poet Best known for his epic poemParadise Lost (1667), written in blank verse – telling
the Biblical story of man’s fall. Also wroteAreopagitica (1644) in defense of free speech
William Blake (1757 –1827) English mysticand romantic poet, wroteSongs of Innocence and Songs of Experience Also
hand-painted many of his works
William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) English romantic poet from Lake District, many poems related to natures, such as his
Lyrical Ballads Samuel
Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834) English romantic poet. Author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kublai Khan
Percy ByssheShelley (1792 – 1822) English romantic poet Famous works include Queen Mab and Prometheus Unbound
John Keats (1795 – 1821) English Romantic Poet, best known for his Odes, such as Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Grecian
urn, Ode to Melancholy
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) American Transcendentalist poet and writer
Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892) Popular Victorian poet, wroteCharge of the Light Brigade, Ulysses, and In Memoriam
A.H.H
Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) American poet Wrote Leaves of Grass, a ground breaking new styleof poetry
Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) American female poet Led secluded lifestyle, and left legacy of many short vivid poems,
often on themes of death and immortality
Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941) Indian poet Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature for his work – Gitanjali
Robert Frost (1874 – 1963) – Influential American poet, one of most highly regarded of theTwentieth Century. Most famous
work ‘TheRoad Not Taken’ (1916)
MayaAngelou (1928 – 2014 ) – Modern American poet and writer
MCQs with #answer_keys
(English literature)
___________________________

1. Chaucer served in the English army under which king ?
(a) Henry iii
(b) Edward ii
(c) Edward iii
(d) Richard ii
2. Which of the tale tellers has a conspicuous hairy wart ?
(a)The coachman
(b) The miller
(c) The tailor
(d) The weaver
3. How many plays did William Shakespeare write ?
(a) 36
(b) 37
(c) 38
(d) 39
4. The line " to be or not to be " comes from which play ?
(a) Macbeth
(b) twelfth night
(c) A midsummer Night's dream
(d) Hamlet
5. Which famous Shakespearean play does the quote, " my salad days, when I was green in
judgment " come from ?
(a) antony and cleopatra
(b) hamlet
(c) The winter's tale
(d) The merry wives of Windsor
6. In what year was the first Folio published ?
(a) 1626
(b) 1621

15. (c) 1623
(d) 1629
7. Which river is associated with Shakespeare's birth ?
(a) The Thames
(b) The Avon
(c) The Tyburn
(d) The seven
8. In 1613 The Globe theater burned down during a production of which play ?
(a) king John
(b) Richard II
(c) Henry viii
(d) Henry V
9. Who among these characters says this " it is no sin to deceive a Christian ?
(a) shylock
(b) Shakespeare
(c) Barabus
(d) Jew of Malta
10. Pick the place where Twelfth Night has been set ?
(a) Kingdom of Denmark
(b) Kingdom of illyria
(c) Venice
(d) Beach Island
11. Gratiano and Nerrissa are the characters in ?
(a) house of fame
(b) merchant of Venice
(c) king Lear
(d) Othello
12. " HORATIO I AM DEAD " find the literary device employed here ?
(a) prolepsis
(b) anagnorisis
(c) hamartia
(d) aporia
13. In " Tempest " who attempts to rape Miranda ?
(a) ferdinand
(b) caliban
(c) trinculo
(d) alonso
14. " Ripeness is all " occurs in ?
(a) hamlet
(b) king Lear
(c) Macbeth
(d) Othello
15. " Full Fathom five thy father lies " where do we find these lines ?
(a) A midsummer night's dream
(b) A winter's tale
(c) The taming of the shrew
(d) The Tempest
16. " Readiness is all " occurs in ?
(a) Julius Caesar
(b) Othello
(c) Macbeth

16. (d) Hamlet
17. Whom did Charles lamb call " a prose Shakespeare" ?
(a) Thomas heywood
(b) Thomas Middleton
(c) Thomas dekker
(d) Thomas kyd
18. Who is called the dickens of Elizabethan age ?
(a) Thomas heywood
(b) John Marston
(c) Thomas dekker
(d) George Chapman
19. Who coined the phrase "Marlowe's mighty line" ?
(a) Samuel Johnson
(b) Ben Johnson
(c) Mathew Arnold
(d) Richard Steele
20. Which play of Shakespeare is a " conversation play " ?
(a) measure for measure
(b) much ado about nothing
(c) Twelfth night
(d) All's well that ends well
21. " Life of Shakespeare " is written by ?
(a) Sidney Lee
(b) Philip Sidney
(c) Marlowe
(d) spencer
22. Who completed Christopher Marlowe's " Hero and Leander " ?
(a) Ben Johnson
(b) Shakespeare
(c) Chapman
(d) heywood
23. In which tale of Chaucer, a daughter is killed by her father ?
(a) The monk's tale
(b) The physician's tale
(c) The friar's tale
(d) The clerk's tale
24. In whose story, the character of Griselda appear ?
(a) The clerk's tale
(b) The Reeve's tale
(c) The miller's tale
(d) The friar's tale
25. Who is known as the Chaucer of Scotland ?
(a) William Dunbar
(b) Robert Henryson
(c) John lydgate
(d) Gavin Douglas
26. The schoolmaster by Roger Ascham is a/an ?
(a) morality play
(b) human ideal
(c) educational treatise
(d) all of the above

17. 27. Who is known as the connecting link between Chaucer and Spenser ?
(a) Henry Howard
(b) Thomas Sackville
(c) Roger Ascham
(d) Sir Thomas Wyatt
28. When did the Great fire of London take place ?
(a) 1610
(b) 1606
(c) 1640
(d) 1666
29. Chaucer was called " the earliest of the Great moderns" and was also called, " The morning
star of the Renaissance ". Who initiated these remarks ?
(a) Kittredge
(b) Hudson
(c) Albert
(d) Pope
30. Which literary form, developed in the fifteenth century, personified vices and virtues ?
(a) The short story
(b) The heroic epic
(c) The morality play
31. What was the duration of hundred year's war ?
(a) 1300 to 1350
(b) 1337 to 1453
(c) 1302 to 1343
(d) 1337 to 1437
32. In which year Chaucer was imprisoned by the French ?
(a) 1360
(b) 1357
(c) 1378
(d) 1385
33. " All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand " line is taken from ?
(a) act ii scene i
(b) act v scene i
(c) act iii scene ii
(d) act iv scene iii
34. We suddenly see England, " a noble and puissant nation, rousing herself like a strong man
after sleep and shaking her invincible locks ".
This statement is associated with ?
(a) Shakespeare
(b) Queen Elizabeth
(c) Milton
(d) Ben Johnson
35. Edmund Spenser's only prose work is ?
(a) Shepherd's Calender
(b) The Faerie Queene
(c) view of the state of Ireland
(d) Colin clouts come home again
36. Real Bible is written in ?
(a) Latin
(b) English
(c) Hebrew

18. (d) Dutch
*Miscellaneous Facst/Information for Literary Students*_
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
1.Geoffrey Chaucer = The Father of English Literature
2.Geoffrey Chaucer = The Father of English Poetry
3.Geoffrey Chaucer = The Father of English Language
4.Geoffrey Chaucer = The Morning Star of the Renaissance
5.Geoffrey Chaucer = The First National Poet
6.Venerable Bede = The Father of English Learning.
7.Venerable Bede = The Father of English History
8.King Alfred the Great = The Father of English Prose
9.Aeschylus = The Father of Tragedy
10.Nicholas Udall = The First English Comedy Writer
11.Edmund Spenser = The Poet’s poet (by Charles Lamb)
12.Edmund Spenser = The Child of Renaissance
13.Edmund Spenser = The Bridge between Renaissance and Reformation
14.Gutenberg = The Father of Printing
15.William Caxton = Father of English Press
16.Francis Bacon = The Father of English Essay
17.John Wycliffe = The Morning Star of the Reformation
18.Christopher Marlowe = The Father of English Tragedy
19.William Shakespeare = Bard of Avon
20.William Shakespeare = The Father of English Drama
21.William Shakespeare = Sweet Swan of Avon
22.William Shakespeare = The Bard
23.Robert Burns = The Bard of Ayrshire (Scotland)
24.Robert Burns = The National Poet of Scotland
25.Robert Burns = Rabbie
26.Robert Burns = The Ploughman Poet
27.William Dunber = The Chaucer of Scotland
28.John Dryden = Father of English criticism
29.William of Newbury = Father of Historical Criticism
30.John Donne = Poet of love
31.John Donne = Metaphysical poet
32.John Milton = Epic poet
33.John Milton = The great master of verse
34.John Milton = Lady of the Christ College
35.John Milton = Poet of the Devil’s Party
36.John Milton = Master of the Grand style
38.John Milton = The Blind Poet of England
39.Alexander Pope = Mock heroic poet
40.William Wordsworth = The Worshipper of Nature
41.William Wordsworth = The High Priest of Nature
42.William Wordsworth = The Poet of Nature
43.William Wordsworth = The Lake Poet
44.William Wordsworth = Poet of Childhood
45.William Wordsworth = Egotistical Sublime
46.Samuel Taylor Coleridge = The Poet of Supernaturalism
47.Samuel Taylor Coleridge = Opium Eater
48.Coleridge & Wordsworth = The Father of Romanticism

19. 49.Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey = Lake Poets
50.Lord Byron = The Rebel Poet
51.Percy Bysshe Shelley = The Revolutionary Poet
52.Percy Bysshe Shelley = Poet of hope and
regeneration
53.John Keats = Poet of Beauty
54.William Blake = The Mystic Poet
55.John Keats = Chameleon Poet
56.Lord Alfred Tennyson = The Representative of the Victorian Era
57.George Bernard Shaw = The greatest modern dramatist
58.George Bernard Shaw = The Iconoclast
59.Jane Austen = Anti-romantic in Romantic age
60.Lindley Murray = Father of English Grammar
61.James Joyce = Father of English Stream of Conscious Novel
62.Edgar Allen Poe = Father of English Mystery play
63.Edgar Allen Poe = The Father of English Short Story
64.Henry Fielding = The Father of English Novel
65.Samuel Johnson = Father of English one Act Play
66.Sigmund Freud = A great Psycho-analyst
67.Robert Frost = The Poet of Terror
68.Francesco Petrarch = The Father of Sonnet (Italian)
69.Francesco Petrarch = The Father of Humanism
70.Sir Thomas Wyatt = The Father of English Sonnet
71.Henry Louis Vivian Derozio = The Father of Indian-Anglican Sonnet
72.William Hazlitt = Critic’s Critic
73.Charles Lamb = The Essay of Elia
74.Arthur Miller = Mulk Raj Anand of America
75.Addison = The voice of humanist Puritanism
76.Emerson = The Seneca of America
77.Mother Teresa = The Boon of Heaven
78.Thomas Nash = Young Juvenile
79.Thomas Decker = Fore-runner of Humorist
80.Homer = The Father of Epic Poetry
81.Homer = The Blind Poet
82.Henrick Ibsen = Father of Modern theatre
83.Rabindranath Tagore = Indian National Poet
84.Nissim Ezekiel = The Father of Indian English Poetry
#Realism
Realism is the fact of being faithful to reality. It was a movement away from romantic
illusion, in order to get closer to the social and psychological reality of the time. It is the
belief there can be a correspondence between reality and its representation.
Reality is a subject matter: the life of ordinary people in ordinary situations - for instance
the bourgeois middle-class as exceptional people are not realistic. Balzac talked about
every classes of society but very often, he selected.
Reality is also a matter of verisimilitude: how characters are determined by their
environment, chronological narratives, psychological dimension of the characters,
presence of an omniscient narrator.
Genres within the Canterbury Tales

20. Fabliau
A short verse tale with coarse humor and realistic or obscene descriptions that show a part of life
in middle and lower class people
Chivalric Romance
A tale of courtly love where in such tales, the knights exhibit nobility, courage, and respect for
the ladies and the ladies exhibit elegance and modesty back.
Exempelum
A short narrative verse or prose that teaches a moral lesson or reinforces a doctrine or religious
belief.
Arthurian Romance
A type of work where a knight in the age of the legendary King Arthur goes on a quest
Beast Fable
A short story in verse or prose in which animals are the main characters and exhibit human traits.
Satire
A literary work or technique that attacks or pokes fun at vices and imperfections.
Burlesque
A literary work or technique that mocks a person, place, or thing , or an idea by using sarcasm or
irony.
Low Comedy
A type of comedy that is generally physical rather than verbal. Usually focuses on ordinary folk.
Breton Lay
A Fourteenth Century English narrative poem in rhyme about courtly love that contains the
elements of the supernatural.
Allegory
A literary work or technique that describes secondary or symbolic meaning to characters, events,
objects and ideas.
Paradise Lost
EPIC POEM BY MILTON
Paradise Lost, epic poem in blank verse, one of the late works by John Milton, originally issued
in 10 books in 1667 and, with Books 7 and 10 each split into two parts, published in 12 books in
the second edition of 1674.
Many scholars consider Paradise Lost to be one of the greatest poems in the English language. It
tells the biblical story of the fall from grace of Adam and Eve (and, by extension, all humanity) in
language that is a supreme achievement of rhythm and sound. The 12-book structure, the
technique of beginning in medias res (in the middle of the story), the invocation of the muse, and
the use of the epic question are all classically inspired. The subject matter, however, is distinctly
Christian.
The main characters in the poem are God, Lucifer (Satan), Adam, and Eve. Much has been
written about Milton’s powerful and sympathetic characterization of Satan. The Romantic poets
William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley saw Satan as the real hero of the poem and applauded
his rebellion against the tyranny of Heaven.
Many other works of art have been inspired by Paradise Lost, notably Joseph Haydn’s oratorio
The Creation (1798) and John Keats’s long poem Endymion. Milton wrote a companion piece,
Paradise Regained, in 1671, which dramatizes the temptation of Christ.

21. 40 Commonly Used and Popular English Idioms*
A blessing in disguise
Meaning: A good thing that initially seemed bad
A dime a dozen
Meaning: Something that is very common, not unique
Adding insult to injury
Meaning: To make a bad situation even worse
Beat around the bush
Meaning: Avoid sharing your true viewpoint or feelings because it is uncomfortable
Beating a dead horse
Meaning: giving time or energy to something that is ended or over
Bite the bullet
Meaning: To get an unfavorable situation or chore over with now because it will need to get
finished eventually
Best of both worlds
Meaning: The choice or solution has all of the advantages of two contrasting things at the same
time
Biting off more than you can chew
Meaning: Not having the capacity to take on a new assignment or task that is just too taxing
By the skin of your teeth
Meaning: Just barely making it
Don’t judge a book by its cover
Meaning: Not judging something by its initial appearance
Doing something at the drop of a hat
Meaning: Doing something at the moment of being asked
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
Meaning: Not to count on something happening until after it’s already happened
Caught between a rock and a hard place
Meaning: Making a choice between two unpleasant choices
Costs an arm and a leg
Meaning: Something that is overpriced or very expensive
Cutting corners
Meaning: Not performing a task or duty correctly in order to save time or money
Devil’s advocate
Meaning: To take the side of the counter-argument, or offer an alternative point of view
Feeling under the weather
Meaning: Not feeling well, or feeling sick
Fit as a fiddle
Meaning: Being in good health
Getting a taste of your own medicine
Meaning: Being treated the way that you have been treating others
Getting a second wind
Meaning: Having energy again after being tired
Giving the benefit of the doubt
Meaning: Believing someone’s story without proof even though it may seem unbelievable
Giving someone the cold shoulder
Meaning: ignoring someone
Going on a wild goose chases
Meaning: doing something that is pointless
Heard it on the grapevine
Meaning: Hearing rumors about someone or something
Hitting the nail on the head

22. Meaning: Performing a task with exactness
Killing two birds with one stone
Meaning: Accomplishing two different tasks in the same undertaking
Letting someone off the hook
Meaning: Not holding someone responsible for something
Letting the cat out of the bag
Meaning: Sharing information that was intended to be a secret
No pain, no gain
Meaning: You have to work hard in order to see results
On the ball
Meaning: Doing a good job, being prompt, or being responsible
Once in a blue moon
Meaning: Something that doesn’t happen very often
Piece of cake
Meaning: A task or job that is easy to complete
Pulling someone’s leg
Meaning: Joking with someone
Speak of the devil
Meaning: When the person you have just been talking about arrives
Stealing someone’s thunder
Meaning: Taking credit for someone else’s achievements
Straight from the horse’s mouth
Meaning: Reading or hearing something from the source
The last straw
Meaning: The last difficulty or annoyance that makes the entire situation unbearable
The elephant in the room
Meaning: An issue, person, or problem that someone is trying to avoid
Throwing caution to the wind
Meaning: Being reckless or taking a risk
Your guess is as good as mine
Meaning: To not know something
**20 Familiar English Idioms**
A snowball effect
Meaning: Something has momentum and builds on each other, much like rolling a snowball
down a hill to make it bigger
An apple a day keeps the doctor away
Meaning: Apples are healthy and good for you
Burning bridges
Meaning: Damaging a relationship beyond repair
Every dog has his day
Meaning: Everyone gets their chance to do something big
Fit as a fiddle
Meaning: Excellent health
Go down in flames
Meaning: To fail in a spectacular manner
Getting a second wind
Meaning: Having energy again after being tired or worn out
Having your head in the clouds
Meaning: Day dreaming, not paying attention
He/She is off their rocker
Meaning: Someone who is acting crazy or not thinking rationally
It’s always darkest before the dawn

23. Meaning: Things always get worse before they get better
It takes two to tango
Meaning: One person usually isn’t the only responsible party
Like riding a bike
Meaning: Something that you never forget how to do
Like two peas in a pod
Meaning: Two people who are always together
Run like the wind
Meaning: To run really fast
Through thick and thin
Meaning: Everyone experiences hard and good times
Time is money
Meaning: Work faster or more efficiently
Weather the storm
Meaning: Enduring a trial or hardship
Can’t make an omelet without
breaking some eggs
Meaning: You can’t make everyone happy
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink
Meaning: You can’t force someone to make what is seemingly the right decision
Clouds on the horizon
Meaning: Trouble is coming or is on its way
Gulliver's Travels
NOVEL BY SWIFT
ARTICLE CONTENTS
Gulliver’s Travels, original title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, four-part
satirical work by Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift, published anonymously in 1726 as
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. A keystone of English literature, it was
one of the books that gave birth to the novel form, though it did not yet have the rules of the
genre as an organizing tool. A parody of the then popular travel narrative, Gulliver’s Travels
combines adventure with savage satire, mockin English customs and the politics of the day.
#Summary
The book is written in the first person from the point of view of Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon
and sea captain who visits remote regions of the world, and it describes four adventures. In
the first one, Gulliver is the only survivor of a shipwreck, and he swims to Lilliput, where he
is tied up by people who are less than 6 inches (15 cm) tall. He is then taken to the capital city
and eventually released. The Lilliputians indulge in ridiculous customs and petty debates.
Political affiliations, for example, are divided between men who wear high-heeled shoes
(symbolic of the English Tories) and those who wear low ones (representing the English
Whigs), and court positions are filled by those who are best at rope dancing. Gulliver is asked
to help defend Lilliput against the empire of Blefuscu, with which Lilliput is at war over
which end of an egg should be broken, this being a matter of religious doctrine. Gulliver
captures Blefuscu’s naval fleet, thus preventing an invasion, but declines to assist the
emperor of Lilliput in conquering Blefuscu. Later Gulliver extinguishes a fire in the royal
palace by urinating on it. Eventually he falls out of favour and is sentenced to be blinded and
starved. He flees to Blefuscu, where he finds a normal-size boat and is thus able to return to
England.
Gulliver’s second voyage takes him to Brobdingnag, inhabited by a race of giants. A farm
worker finds Gulliver and delivers him to the farm owner. The farmer begins exhibiting
Gulliver for money, and the farmer’s young daughter, Glumdalclitch, takes care of him. One

24. day the queen orders the farmer to bring Gulliver to her, and she purchases Gulliver. He
becomes a favourite at court, though the king reacts with contempt when Gulliver recounts
the splendid achievements of his own civilization. The king responds to Gulliver’s
description of the government and history of England by concluding that the English must be
a race of “odious vermin.” Gulliver offers to make gunpowder and cannon for the king, but
the king is horrified by the thought of such weaponry. Eventually Gulliver is picked up by an
eagle and then rescued at sea by people of his own size.On Gulliver’s third voyage he is set
adrift by pirates and eventually ends up on the flying island of Laputa. The people of Laputa
all have one eye pointing inward and the other upward, and they are so lost in thought that
they must be reminded to pay attention to the world around them. Though they are greatly
concerned with mathematics and with music, they have no practical applications for their
learning. Laputa is the home of the king of Balnibarbri, the continent below it. Gulliver is
permitted to leave the island and visit Lagado, the capital city of Balnibarbri. He finds the
farm fields in ruin and the people living in apparent squalor. Gulliver’s host explains that the
inhabitants follow the prescriptions of a learned academy in the city, where the scientists
undertake such wholly impractical projects as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers. Later
Gulliver visits Glubbdubdrib, the island of sorcerers, and there he speaks with great men of
the past and learns from them the lies of history. In the kingdom of Luggnagg he meets the
struldbrugs, who are immortal but age as though they were mortal and are thus miserable.
From Luggnagg he is able to sail to Japan and thence back to England.
In the extremely bitter fourth part, Gulliver visits the land of the Houyhnhnms, a race of
intelligent horses who are cleaner and more rational, communal, and benevolent (they have,
most tellingly, no words for deception or evil) than the brutish, filthy, greedy, and degenerate
humanoid race called Yahoos, some of whom they have tamed—an ironic twist on the
human-beast relationship. The Houyhnhnms are very curious about Gulliver, who seems to
be both a Yahoo and civilized, but, after Gulliver describes his country and its history to the
master Houyhnhnm, the Houyhnhnm concludes that the people of England are not more
reasonable than the Yahoos. At last it is decided that Gulliver must leave the Houyhnhnms.
Gulliver then returns to England, so disgusted with humanity that he avoids his family and
buys horses and converses with them instead.
Animal Farm
NOVEL BY ORWELL
Animal Farm, anti-utopian satire by George Orwell, published in 1945. One of Orwell’s
finest works, it is a political fable based on the events of Russia’s Bolshevik revolution and
the betrayal of the cause by Joseph Stalin. The book concerns a group of barnyard animals
who overthrow and chase off their exploitative human masters and set up an egalitarian
society of their own. Eventually the animals’ intelligent and power-loving leaders, the pigs,
subvert the revolution. Concluding that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more
equal than others” (with its addendum to the animals’ seventh commandment: “All animals
are equal”), the pigs form a dictatorship even more oppressive and heartless than that of their
former human masters.
Short Questions and Answers of Linguistics
How is linguistics a Science?

25. Linguistics is the scientific study/ systematic study of language. In linguistics the method is
applied by making observations, testing hypotheses and deriving theories. So, linguistics is a
science but social science not a practical science.
What is meant by Syn-chronic and Diachronic study of language?
Syn-chronic study of language is the study of language at a fix point or present but Diachronic
study of language is the study of language change or study of language through history.
How does Ferdinand De Saussure make a distinction between Langue and Parole?
According to Ferdinand de Saussure the distinction between langue and parole is that langue is
the structure of language in the mind/grammar of language in mind and the parole is the speech or
written language.
What does Noam Chomsky mean by Competence?
According to Noam Chomsky competence mean the linguistic knowledge of the native speaker to
understand and speak.
How does Noam Chomsky argue about Performance?
According to Noam Chomsky the performance is the actual use of language in concrete situation.
It is like Parole as described by Ferdinand de Saussure.
What is LAD according to Chomsky?
According to Noam Chomsky the LAD (Language Acquisition Device) is instinctive mental
facility to acquire and speak language.
What are different Organs of Speech?
The different Speech Organs are teeth, lips, tongue, nasal cavity, alveolar ridge, hard palate,
velum (soft palate), uvula and glottis etc.
What is meant by Received Pronunciation (RP)?
Received Pronunciation (RP) means the standard accent of British English Language. It is
associated with formal speech.
Differentiate between Dialect and Idiolect.
Dialect is variety of language used by a social or regional group and Idiolect is the variety of
language used by an individual.
Define Register.
Register is the use of variety of language by the group of peoples of different professions like
lawyers and doctors etc.
Define Syntax.
Syntax is the arrangement of word to create a phrase or sentence in language. It is grammar or the
rules to construct a sentence.
Differentiate between Pidgin and Creole.
Pidgin is the mixture of multi languages used by traders as second language and Pidgin when
used by the peoples as first language it becomes Creole or Linguafranca.
What are Bound and Free Morphemes?
Bound Morphemes are element of a word with prefixes or suffixes cannot stand alone as a word
but Free Morphemes stand alone, a single morpheme as a word.
What is multilingualism? Give examples.
Multilingualism means use of two or more languages by an individual or society. for example
Punjabi and Urdu or Sindhi, Punjabi and Urdu etc.
What is code switching and code mixing?
Code Switching is using more than one language and changing from one language to another but
Code Mixing is using more than one language as mixture, use of multi languages in one sentence.
What is language lateralization?
Language lateralization refers to the functions of the left and right hemispheres in the brain and
distinct functions of left and right hemisphere.
What is the difference between derivational morpheme and inflectional morpheme?

26. Inflectional morpheme is a morpheme that does not change the category of the word like smaller
from small these both are adjectives. For example: great greater, tall taller, old older and short
shorter.
Derivational morpheme is a morpheme that change the category of the word like movement from
move here movement is a noun and move is a verb. Improve improvement, easy easily and
entertain entertainment.
What is the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds?
Voiced sounds are those in which vocal chords vibrate and in voiceless sounds vocal chords do
not vibrate. For example “v, m, n, b and d” are voiced and “s, h and f” are voiceless.
What are in-fixes?
In-fixes are affixes that inserted nor in beginning neither at the end but in the base word. For
example: cupsful from cupful.
What is Hyponymy?
The semantic relation of words between specific words and its general or broader term is called
Hyponymy. For example Rose and flower, gaze and see, Mango and fruit.
What is elision? Discuss briefly.
Elision in linguistic is the omission of sounds of vowel, consonant, syllable, word or phrase for
the easy pronunciation.
Language can be described as a cognitive ability. Discuss briefly
Language can be described as cognitive ability because through learning the grammatical rules
and vocabulary we can speak language. For example second language learning through
grammatical method.
Define the scope of Morphology with examples.
In morphology we study the structure of word or shape of word. Morphology helps us to
understand structure of words easily. For example balls consist of ball+s, clothes consist of
cloth+es in these words the morphemes s and es show the plural form of a word.
List and elaborate parameters for the description of English vowel sounds.
Vowel parameters used in the description of English vowel sounds are tongue height, tongue
advancement and lips’ position. That tongue movement is high, mid or low, tongue advancement
is towards front, center or at the back and lips’ position is rounded or non rounded.
Differentiate between free morpheme and bound morpheme?
Free morpheme is an independent morpheme, it is a minimal meaningful unit and bound
morpheme is dependent morpheme, its meaning depends upon other morpheme. For example;
‘dogs’ here ‘dog’ is free morpheme and ‘s’ is bound morpheme which shows plural form.
How would you define pitch movement in language?
Pitch movement is created through the vibration of vocal folds.
Compare behaviorist and cognitive theories of language learning.
Behaviorist theory base on the stimulus-response that does something and have reward or
punishment.
Cognitive theory base on understanding, that you understand the rules of language and can speak
or write that language.
Define connotative and denotative meaning with examples.
Denotative meanings are the dictionary meanings or precise, basic and specific meanings, and
connotative meanings are the associations with the word like metaphor and symbolic meanings.
Define Alveolar sounds. Give examples.
Alveolar is the ridge behind the teeth and alveolar sound is produced when blade of tongue touch
or near to touch the alveolar ridge. For example; the consonant sound of d, t and n.
Define syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations with examples.
The syntagmatic is concern the positioning of the words and phrases or lateral positioning.
Paradigmatic is concerning the substitution words or vertical relation. For example; syntagmatic:
He goes to the school. To the school he goes. Paradigmatic: He goes to the school. He goes to the
home.

27. What is Displacement in the study of language?
Displacement in the study of language is language’s capability to communicate those things
which are not present at that time.
What are minimal pairs?
Minimal pairs are the pair of words which differs only single phonological element and have
different meanings. For example; tall and fall, sale and safe, and bit and bat.
°°Introduction to Linguistics.
°°Branches of Linguistics°°°
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Language is concerned with human life, behavior, society, and so forth.
Hence, we have had a number of sub-fields of linguistics called branches of linguistics. Let us have fundamental ideas of the
major branches of linguistics as stated below.
1.Microlinguistics:
Microlinguistics is a sector of linguistics that interests itself with the study of language systems in theabstract, without
concern to the meaning or notional quantity of linguistic expressions. Microlinguistics covers thebasic elements of a
language. This is also referred to as theoretical linguistics. Theoretical linguistics coats the study of thestructural aspects of
language under thebroad level of grammar. Grammar is divided into few patterns. Another name, levels of linguistics.
•Phonetics---Sounds
•Phonology---Phonemes
•Morphology---Word formation
•Syntax----------Sentence structure
•Semantics----Textual meaning.
•Pragmatics---Contextual meaning
2.Macrolinguistics:
Macrolinguistics concerned with the way languages are cultivated, stocked in the brain, and used for various functions;
interdependence of language and culture; physiological and psychological mechanisms affected in language behavior.
Actually, macro linguistics is not only a field concerned with language but also disciplines such as psychology, sociology,
neurology, computational, and applied are also diverted with language. Below branches of macro linguistics.
•Psycholinguistics--mind.
•Sociolinguistics----society
•Anthropological---Human history
•Computantial------Computer
•Applied linguistics -----Education
•Neurolinguistics--------Brain
•Cognitive---------Cognition
•Discourse--How a sentence is spoken and written.
•Question> What is Renaissance? Discuss the characteristics of Renaissance.
#Answer
#Renaissance means #rebirth. Here rebirth indicates the revival of classical thoughts. The
Renaissance started in Italy in the 13th century and which came to England in the second half of
the 14th century.
The characteristics of Renaissance are explained below:-
1. Revival of Classical knowledge
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there was a revival of classical learning. The ideals of the
classical Greek literature attracted the men of the renaissance. The rebirth of classical works is
the keynote of the Renaissance.
2. Admiration of beauty
The Renaissance spirit is marked with a growing sense of beauty. Before Renaissance the
praising of beauty was ugly thing but with the flow of Renaissance, beauty became the integral
part of life and women were regarded as adorable creatures.
3. Rise of humanism
Renaissance scholars of the classics, called humanists revived the knowledge of the Greek
language and gave birth to a new culture that is Humanism. The term Humanism includes
revolutionary qualities of liberal thinking. In the era of Renaissance, men were discovering
themselves. Human life and human affairs began to occupy the writer’s mind in greater measure.
To the Renaissance people mankind became the centre of Universe.
4. Curiosity for unknown

28. The Renaissance period age is marked by the enrichment of knowledge. The people were
passionate to discover unknown. Only living through breathing was not life to them. People were
ready to embrace death, if necessary, in pursuit of knowledge.
5. Desire for power and wealth
The Renaissance period is well-known for its expansion of empire and growth of economy. That
was why most of literary works of the Renaissance period reflect this spirit.
6. Fall of Christianity
The Renaissance freed the minds of men from the shackles of religion. People thought that Bible
is not enough for life. Avoiding the influence of Bible, they took shelter under the new
knowledge of classics. To some extent they became secular in spirit.
7. Spirit of Individuality
Individualism is a social theory advocating the liberty, rights, or independent action of the
individual. It highlights human reason, ability, and the type of person one should strive to be. In
the Renaissance individualism is flourished properly.
8. Love for adventure
The thrust for adventure was the common in the Renaissance people. The influence of the spirit
of discovery and adventure ran through all the literature of Renaissance spirit. It was an age of
great curiosity for heroic adventure.
9. Love for Travel
In the era of Renaissance, we notice geographical exploration and interest for travel. People felt
that they could not live without travel.
10. Material advancement
The Renaissance age was an age of materialism and bold enjoyment of life. England’s trade and
commerce flourished and the country grew rich and prosperous.
Summing up, we can say that the age of Renaissance is a glorious period. It is like sunrise after a
long period of darkness. It is an age of great thought and great action, an age which appeals to the
eye, the imagination and the intellect.
*40 Commonly Used and Popular English Idioms*
A blessing in disguise
Meaning: A good thing that initially seemed bad
A dime a dozen
Meaning: Something that is very common, not unique
Adding insult to injury
Meaning: To make a bad situation even worse
Beat around the bush
Meaning: Avoid sharing your true viewpoint or feelings because it is uncomfortable
Beating a dead horse
Meaning: giving time or energy to something that is ended or over
Bite the bullet
Meaning: To get an unfavorable situation or chore over with now because it will need to get finished eventually
Best of both worlds
Meaning: The choice or solution has all of theadvantages of two contrasting things at the same time
Biting off more than you can chew
Meaning: Not having thecapacity to take on a new assignment or task that is just too taxing
By the skin of your teeth
Meaning: Just barely making it
Don’t judge a book by its cover
Meaning: Not judging something by its initial appearance
Doing something at thedrop of a hat
Meaning: Doing something at themoment of being asked
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
Meaning: Not to count on something happening until after it’s already happened
Caught between a rock and a hard place
Meaning: Making a choice between two unpleasant choices
Costs an arm and a leg
Meaning: Something that is overpriced or very expensive
Cutting corners
Meaning: Not performing a task or duty correctly in order to save time or money

29. Devil’s advocate
Meaning: To take the side of the counter-argument, or offer an alternative point of view
Feeling under the weather
Meaning: Not feeling well, or feeling sick
Fit as a fiddle
Meaning: Being in good health
Getting a tasteof your own medicine
Meaning: Being treated the way that you have been treating others
Getting a second wind
Meaning: Having energy again after being tired
Giving the benefit of the doubt
Meaning: Believing someone’s story without proof even though it may seem unbelievable
Giving someone the cold shoulder
Meaning: ignoring someone
Going on a wild goose chases
Meaning: doing something that is pointless
Heard it on the grapevine
Meaning: Hearing rumors about someone or something
Hitting the nail on thehead
Meaning: Performing a task with exactness
Killing two birds with one stone
Meaning: Accomplishing two different tasks in the same undertaking
Letting someone off the hook
Meaning: Not holding someone responsible for something
Letting thecat out of thebag
Meaning: Sharing information that was intended to be a secret
No pain, no gain
Meaning: You have to work hard in order to see results
On theball
Meaning: Doing a good job, being prompt, or being responsible
Once in a blue moon
Meaning: Something that doesn’t happen very often
Piece of cake
Meaning: A task or job that is easy to complete
Pulling someone’s leg
Meaning: Joking with someone
Speak of the devil
Meaning: When theperson you have just been talking about arrives
Stealing someone’s thunder
Meaning: Taking credit for someone else’s achievements
Straight from the horse’s mouth
Meaning: Reading or hearing something from the source
The last straw
Meaning: The last difficulty or annoyance that makes the entire situation unbearable
The elephant in theroom
Meaning: An issue, person, or problem that someone is trying to avoid
Throwing caution to the wind
Meaning: Being reckless or taking a risk
Your guess is as good as mine
Meaning: To not know something
**20 Familiar English Idioms**
A snowball effect
Meaning: Something has momentum and builds on each other, much like rolling a snowball down a hill to make it bigger
An applea day keeps thedoctor away
Meaning: Apples are healthy and good for you
Burning bridges
Meaning: Damaging a relationship beyond repair
Every dog has his day
Meaning: Everyone gets their chance to do something big
Fit as a fiddle
Meaning: Excellent health
Go down in flames
Meaning: To fail in a spectacular manner
Getting a second wind
Meaning: Having energy again after being tired or worn out
Having your head in the clouds
Meaning: Day dreaming, not payingattention

30. He/She is off their rocker
Meaning: Someone who is acting crazy or not thinking rationally
It’s always darkest before thedawn
Meaning: Things always get worse before they get better
It takes two to tango
Meaning: One person usually isn’t the only responsible party
Like riding a bike
Meaning: Something that you never forget how to do
Like two peas in a pod
Meaning: Two peoplewho are always together
Run like the wind
Meaning: To run really fast
Through thick and thin
Meaning: Everyone experiences hard and good times
Time is money
Meaning: Work faster or more efficiently
Weather thestorm
Meaning: Enduring a trial or hardship
Can’t make an omelet without
breaking some eggs
Meaning: You can’t make everyone happy
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink
Meaning: You can’t force someone to make what is seemingly the right decision
Clouds on the horizon
Meaning: Trouble is coming or is on its way

#VOWEL
A vowel sound is a sound which is produced by the'vocal cords' with relatively little restriction of the 'oral cavity', forming
the prominent sound of a syllable.
In Spanish and English, there are five letters corresponding to thevowel sounds /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/. However, there are 12
vowel sounds in English - known as monothongs. Among them, eight is diphthongs and four is triphthongs.
What are diphthongs and triphthongs?
#Diphthong is actually thecombination of two vowels. That's to say, a diphthong is a complex sound which begins with the
sound of one vowel and ends with the sound of another vowel such as - ae, and so on.
#Triphthong is basically the combination of three vowels. That's to say, a triphthongis a more complex sound which
contains three vowels as in - eau, ooe and so on.
#Classification_of_vowels
Vowels are mainly classified into four aspects given below step by step.
1. Tongue height
2. Tongue position
3. Lip rounding
4. Length
#Tongue height
The tongue height refers to how high or low our tongue is. Thus, we can say /a/ a low vowel sound, /e/ is an intermediate
vowel sound, and /i/ is a high vowel sound. This can be noticed when we pronouncethese vowels.
#Tongue position
As a matter of fact, when we make the vowel sound, our tongue goes in a specific position inside the mouth. For instance, if
we make the vowel sounds /i/ and /u/, we notice that our tongue moves back. However, when we make the vowel sounds /i/
and /a/, we notice that our tongue moves down.
#Lip rounding
It refers to the position of our lips. When we make the sound of /i/, thecorners of our mouth are further apart. We may call it
a spread vowel sound. When we make the sound of /u/, our lips get rounded. On the other hand, when we make the sound of
/a/, our lips become neither spread nor rounded, so we may say that it's un unrounded vowel or neutral.
#Length
There are two types of /i/ in English.
Number one is /i:/
Second one is /i/
The number one /i:/ makes a longer sound because of using the colon( which makes its sound longer as in (heat = hi:t).
The second one /i/ makes a shorter sound because of not having the colon( as in (hit = hIt).