Deck 2: Language and Communication

Question 1

What constitutes the basis for modern public debate regarding the use of male-gendered language in everyday communication?

Answer 1

(on pp. 28-30)

Question 2

How do certain social groups use reverse discourse to transform a stigmatized word into a source of empowerment and grassroots mobilization for positive change?

Answer 2

(on p. 40)

Question 3

Why do men in the English-speaking nations such as the United States and England, assert their masculinity by using nonstandard language associated with physical prowess, toughness, violence, and an anti-authoritarian identity?

Answer 3

(on pp. 42-43)

Question 4

Explain how women sometimes use standard language as a strategy for economic upward mobility.

Question 5

Why does the theory of performativity reject the notion that we have only one true self?

Question 6

How does one's social and economic class affect how men and women communicate with each another?

Question 7

Why do words undergo semantic transformations and often lose their original meanings and associations?

Question 8

How are speech and expression forms of action?

Question 9

What do asymmetries in derogatory language suggest about different groups?

Question 10

How are the terms lady and gentlemen frequently used asymmetrically?

Question 11

Despite the growing popularity of nonsexist language in contemporary American daily life, why does the use of the generic he still persist today?

Question 12

How has the primacy of males as the norms influenced medical testing for drugs and animal-model research?

Question 13

How does nonparallelism in language determine the marital status of women but not men in Western societies?

Question 14

How do hairstyles represent an important example of symbolic communication beyond words?

Question 15

In English, why are some nouns like boats and "alma mater" gendered?

Question 16

Why are names for electrical and plumbing equipment in English gendered?

Question 17

Explain how the gender-neutral pronoun Yo appeared unexpectedly from African American youth in Baltimore in the late 20^th century.

Question 18

Why has the term mankind persisted despite the increase in the use of the word "humankind" in scholarly texts and popular writing since 1970?

Question 19

What are the different grammatical alternatives that people use to avoid using the generic he in the English language?

Question 20

How can both jock and "burnout" boys achieve status without using either standard language (jock boys) or nonstandard language (burnout boys)?

Question 21

Which scholar stated that a word is "a bridge thrown between myself and another?"

A) Sigmund Freud
B) Casey Miller
C) Mikhail Bakhtin
D) Michel Foucault
E) Ronald Adler

Question 22

Which national magazine became the first one to make feminist viewpoints accessible to the general public?

A) Bitch
B) Ms.
C) Bust
D) Elle
E) Self

Question 23

In 1597, the Bishop John King made which one of the following comments about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden:

A) "The Lord had but one paire of men and women in paradise."
B) "The Lord had but one paire of young men and women in paradise.
C) "The Lord had but one paire of women in paradise."
D) "The Lord had but one paire of men in paradise."
E) "The Lord had but one paire of married men and women in paradise."

Question 24

In linguist Penelope Eckert's study on high school students, where was the high school named "Belten High" located?

A) Detroit
B) Dearborn
C) Lansing
D) Grand Rapids
E) Ypsilanti

Question 25

Which group wore earrings to signify a feminine form of adornment during the 1950s?

A) Rock musicians
B) Athletes
C) Housewives
D) Hippies
E) Gay men

Question 26

Which setting provided linguist Scott Kiesling with his research on communities of practices?

A) Catholic seminary
B) An American sorority
C) UNICEF High School club
D) High school debate society
E) A U.S. fraternity

Question 27

Which landmark study that analyzes women's oppression was published by French philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir?

A) The Dialogic Imagination
B) The Second Sex
C) Gender Trouble
D) Gender and Discourse
E) The Lenses of Gender

Question 28

In her 1994 study, anthropologist and linguist Janet Hill studied women who spoke a combination of which indigenous language and Spanish?

A) Spanish and Kikapú
B) Spanish and Mixe
C) Spanish and Garifuna
D) Spanish and Nahuatl
E) Spanish and Itza

Question 29

Which of the following scholars were the first to contend that people's gender remains a work in progress?

A) Candace West and Don Zimmermann
B) Penelope Eckert and Scott Kiesling
C) Annabelle Mooney and Betsy Evans
D) Casey Miller and Kate Swift
E) Marion Pitts and Keith Phillips

Question 30

What type of speech in the English language provides men with power and prestige?

A) Standard language
B) Middle-class speech
C) Working-class speech
D) Nonstandard language
E) Ebonics

Question 31

Which one of the following words doesn't have a meaningful parallel term?

A) Ladies
B) Bridegroom
C) Heroine
D) Widower
E) Slut

Question 32

Which one of the following expressions is not gendered in the English language?

A) Mother Tongue
B) Mover and shaker
C) Mommy Jeans
D) Mother Earth
E) Alma Mater

Question 33

Which one of the following is not an unmarked category?

A) Atheists
B) Men
C) Heterosexual
D) White
E) Able-Bodied

Question 34

In which city did Elaine Statko and Margaret Troyer conduct their research on the use of the gender-neutral pronoun "yo" by African American youth in school?

A) Annapolis
B) Rockville
C) Aberdeen
D) Baltimore
E) New Carrollton

Question 35

Which one of the following scholars asserted that sexist language has the "effect of minimizing women's importance and diverting attention away from their very existence"?

A) Sigmund Freud
B) Brian Earp
C) William Roscoe
D) Julia T. Wood
E) George Lakoff

Question 36

Which is the appropriate gender-neutral alternative to the phrase "Men Working"?

A) Men and Women Working
B) Males and Females Working
C) Guys Working
D) They are Working
E) People Working

Question 37

What word would not describe the original meaning of the word "queer"?

A) Suspicious
B) Odd
C) Gay
D) Eccentric
E) Dubious

Question 38

How did Western societies traditionally regard the process of communication?

A) Passive
B) Active
C) Neutral
D) Aggressive
E) Gendered

Question 39

Who stated that gender identities emerge through "a stylized repetition of acts"?

A) Sandra Bem
B) Sally McConnell-Ginet
C) Kimberly Hause
D) Judith Butler
E) Jack Halberstam

Question 40

Who wrote a popular bestseller that claimed men and women's speech differences were intrinsic?

A) Lois Gould
B) John Gray
C) Roxane Gay
D) Ruth La Ferla
E) Charlene Muehlehard

Question 41

When do most scholars believe that the use of some sexist language began declining in the American society?

A) About 2000
B) By 1960
C) Since 1990
D) Around 1945
E) Since 1970

Question 42

Which expression does not represent an example of a male-generic term?

A) Mankind
B) Lumberjack
C) Homemaker
D) Manned
E) Masterful

Question 43

Where in the Bible does the reader first encounter the primacy of men in the text?

A) The Book of Numbers
B) The Book of Exodus
C) The Book of Job
D) The Book of Genesis
E) The Book of Ruth

Question 44

What word in Spanish is supposed to be the contemporary equivalent to the English-language title Ms.?

A) Sa.
B) Sra.
C) Srta.
D) Doña
E) Ud.

Question 45

Which one of the following is an activity that does not allow "burnout boys" to demonstrate their masculinity?

A) Rumbling
B) Working on cars
C) Drinking Alcohol
D) Reading
E) Dirt-Biking

Question 46

In modern English, the term "guy" refers only to men.

Question 47

People in Finland, Hungary, and Azerbaijan speak a language that uses different pronouns for she and he.

Question 48

The title Miss originally was an abbreviation of the "mistress".

Question 49

The study of how symbols or messages are acknowledged is often known as communication theory.

Question 50

The Gullah language spoken by some African Americans in rural South Carolina represents a fusion of various West African languages.

Question 51

A stylized act is an act that is regarded as predictable and ubiquitous.

Question 52

Gender represents a notion based on repetitive series of acts.

Question 53

Author John Gray wrote a popular book that highlights the notion that men's and women's communication differences are natural.

Question 54

Linguists Penelope Eckert and Scott Kiesling discovered that speech often differs within groups of females and males based on race.

Question 55

The term "slut" has a significant parallel word.