JARAMOGI OGINGA ODINGA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 
(KISII LEARNING CENTRE) 
UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS 2013 
(KISII LEARNING CENTRE) 
UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS 2013 

1ST YEAR SECOND SEMESTER EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF 
ARTS IN LINGUISTIUCS 
COUSRSE CODE: ALN 808 
TITLE: SOCIOLINGUISTICS 

INTRUCTIONS: Answer question 1 and any other TWO. 

1. 
Discuss the phases through which Ferguson’s (1959) notion of diglossia has 
evolved in the attempt to accommodate emerging diglossic phenomena 
around the globe. 
2. 
Discuss the extent to which the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is an apt 
characterization of the human mind, language and reality. 
3. 
Explain why the delineation between language and dialect may be described 
as a wild goose chase. 
4. 
Explain how the social background of interlocutors determines the use of 
linguistic forms in a communicative event. 
5. With illustrations from languages you are familiar with, show how language 
contact impacts on morphology, semantics and phonology