Deck 6: Language in Action

Question 1

A group of people who share one or more varieties of language and the rules for using any or all of those varieties in everyday communication is called a

A)linguistic community.
B)speech community.
C)community of practice.
D)competent community.

Answer 1

speech community.

Question 2

The R in MAR stands for

A)reality.
B)reaction.
C)repair.
D)restitution.

Answer 2

repair.

Question 3

The A of Dell Hymes' S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G mnemonic refers to

A)attitudes.
B)astuteness.
C)answers.
D)act sequence.

Answer 3

act sequence.

Question 4

The E of Dell Hymes' S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G mnemonic refers to

A)events.
B)ends.
C)efforts.
D)elements.

Question 5

In the 1960s, American linguistic anthropologist Dell Hymes began to develop a fieldwork methodology for studying language in its social and cultural contexts. This methodology was called

A)the ethnography of speaking.
B)ethnoscience.
C)speaking in context.
D)the new ethnography.

Question 6

The P of Dell Hymes' S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G mnemonic refers to

A)politeness.
B)posture.
C)presentation.
D)participants.

Question 7

A group of people who share a single language variety and focus their identity around that language is called a

A)linguistic community.
B)speech community.
C)community of practice.
D)competent community.

Question 8

If I understand and laugh along with Thai friends at a joke told in Thai, I will have achieved some degree of

A)linguistic competence.
B)communicative competence.
C)gestalt.
D)nirvana.

Question 9

The S of Dell Hymes' S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G mnemonic refers to

A)sense.
B)setting/situation.
C)syllables.
D)signs.

Question 10

A group of individuals who interact regularly, developing unique ways of doing things together (including, potentially, ways of speaking together), is called a

A)linguistic community.
B)speech community.
C)community of practice.
D)competent community.

Question 11

The way to "get" symbolic capital is to

A)be physically attractive.
B)earn a lot of money.
C)speak acceptably and "correctly" in any given situation.
D)live in a desirable neighborhood.

Question 12

Ottenheimer learned that her Japanese students did not ask questions during the class period, but instead came up after class to ask questions, because

A)in Japan, it is considered deeply embarrassing to have anyone know that you are confused.
B)they were concerned about their linguistic competence in English.
C)in Japan, it is considered rude to waste other students' time with individual questions.
D)they thought that the other students might laugh at them.

Question 13

A speaker's underlying ability to produce and recognize grammatically correct expressions is called

A)linguistic competence.
B)verbal competence.
C)communicative competence.
D)structural competence.

Question 14

The K of Dell Hymes' S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G mnemonic refers to the mood or spirit in which communication takes place. This is called the

A)key.
B)kinesics.
C)kiosk.
D)knowledge.

Question 15

The ability to speak a language well in a variety of social situations is called

A)linguistic competence.
B)verbal competence.
C)communicative competence.
D)poetic competence.

Question 16

The different varieties of a single language that are used for various purposes such as making a formal speech, telling a joke to friends, or discussing a scientific experiment, are called:

A)registers.
B)languages change too fast for dictionaries to keep up.
C)you need at least two dictionaries to learn another language thoroughly.
D)a good dictionary must include a thesaurus.

Question 17

Refusing dessert on the first offer, and assuming that there will be a second or even a third offer, is an example of

A)different modalities.
B)indirection.
C)symbolic capital.
D)mutual intelligibility

Question 18

Someone who demonstrates communicative competence can also lay claim to having accumulated

A)communicative capital.
B)economic capital.
C)symbolic capital.
D)linguistic competence.

Question 19

Bronislaw Malinowski was an anthropologist who wrote about the importance of attending to ______________ in the study of language.

A)denotation
B)context
C)form
D)morphology

Question 20

The acronym, S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G, proposed by Dell Hymes, was developed to assist in the

A)analysis of phonetic patterning.
B)analysis of infant vocalizations.
C)ethnography of speaking.
D)description of nonverbal communication.

Question 21

The N of Dell Hymes' S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G mnemonic refers to the expectations that speakers have about appropriateness of speech use. These are called the

A)nestings.
B)niceties.
C)normalities.
D)norms.

Question 22

The criterion of "mutual intelligibility" is a clear-cut way to distinguish a dialect from a language.

Question 23

The close study of actual conversational exchanges is called

A)symbolic analysis (SA).
B)phonological analysis (PA).
C)morphological analysis (MA).
D)conversation analysis (CA).

Question 24

The right to be listened to (acquired by acquiring symbolic capital)is a crucial source of power and influence in any given situation.

Question 25

Knowing the grammar and dictionary of a language is all that is required to use a language in everyday life.

Question 26

An approach whose goal is the discovery of those rules that help to legitimate particular conversational practices, as well as the ideas or ideologies that people have about languages and conversations, is called

A)exchange analysis (EA).
B)rule analysis (RA).
C)morphological analysis (MA).
D)discourse analysis (DA).

Question 27

A "rich point" is a phrase that refers to moments when things flow harmoniously and mutual understanding is close to perfect in a speech situation.

Question 28

Explain the difference between linguistic competence and communicative competence.

Question 29

Describe one of the cases of miscommunication described in your textbook.  Identify the components of Agar's MAR, which take place in the event as described.

Question 30

The I of Dell Hymes' S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G mnemonic refers to the channels that are used (speaking, writing, signing, etc.)as well as the varieties of language that speakers use (language, dialect, register, etc.). These are called the

A)impositionals.
B)inlays.
C)instrumentalities.
D)isms.

Question 31

The idea that situations affect the meanings of words is an important one in linguistic anthropology.

Question 32

Research indicates that university students see communication via texting using a cell phone and face-to-face communication as fundamentally different.  Using the SPEAKING acronym, identify the element of the speech event that is the site of the difference.  Then discuss the elements in which this difference might make changes.

Question 33

The G of Dell Hymes' S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G mnemonic refers to different kinds of speech acts or events. These are called the

A)genres.
B)graphemes.
C)gestures.
D)gravitations.