Deck 12: Language Development

Question 1

The sequence of words in a sentence is organized according to:

A)Malapropisms
B)The cerebellum
C)Wernicke's area
D)Syntax
E)Good continuity

Answer 1

Syntax

Question 2

Bees communicate the location of food with a:

A)Sequence of clicking sounds
B)Waltz
C)Waggle dance
D)Chemical messenger
E)Foxtrot

Answer 2

Waggle dance

Question 3

Compared with human language, the communication of bees is:

A)Ineffective in communicating the location of food
B)Incomprehensible
C)Inflexible
D)Devoid of units of meaning
E)Painful

Answer 3

Inflexible

Question 4

If an English baby was adopted at birth into a Chinese-speaking family, then the language acquired by the baby would be:

A)Chinese, but the baby would take much longer to learn than would a native Chinese baby
B)Chinese
C)English
D)A kind of Creole language that is a hybrid between English and Chinese
E)Sign language

Question 5

The speech sound that is made when a person utters a word is called a:

A)Morpheme
B)Semantic unit
C)Vocabulary
D)Unit
E)Wug

Question 6

If a system of communication combines ______ with semantics, then it deserves to be called "language."

A)Units of meaning
B)Words
C)Vocabulary
D)Syntax
E)Intentionality

Question 7

In the context of language, pragmatics relates to:

A)Making an interpretation beyond literal meaning
B)Making a decision based on common sense instead of rigidly adhering to rules
C)Being a pragmatist
D)Being overly literal
E)Using sign language

Question 8

Babbling is:

A)A combination of semantic units
B)The baby's first language
C)Meaningful to experts
D)A combination of vowels and consonants
E)Governed by syntax

Question 9

How many words constitute the typical vocabulary of a child aged two years?

A)10
B)50
C)300
D)2000
E)6000

Question 10

How many words constitute the typical vocabulary of a child aged 6 years?

A)300
B)1000
C)14000
D)30000
E)50000

Question 11

In the context of language research, LAD refers to:

A)A boy who is in the early stages of learning language
B)Language acquisition device, an innate mechanism that allows language to be acquired very rapidly
C)A theory developed by B.F. Skinner that explains how language acquisition is based on reinforcement
D)The growth spurt in vocabulary that occurs around 5 years of age
E)Linguistic associative development

Question 12

At the early stages of language acquisition, babies utter single words in combination with gestures to communicate sentence-like meaning. These utterances are known as:

A)Gestural
B)Empty phrases
C)Telegraphic speech
D)Syntactic
E)Holophrases

Question 13

At about 5 years of age, children say things like, "I sitted down in the chair." A distinctive feature of the utterance is:

A)Overregularization
B)Overextension
C)That it does not follow conventional rules of syntax
D)That it is meaningless
E)That it reveals innate knowledge of the -ed rule

Question 14

According to Baldwin and Moses (1994), vocabulary depends greatly on:

A)An innate vocabulary acquisition mechanism
B)Reinforcement
C)Shaping
D)A capacity for joint attention
E)Sensitive parenting

Question 15

An example of overextension is:

A)Adding -ed to the stem of irregular verbs to form the past tense
B)Addressing the mailman as "Daddy"
C)Omitting grammatical inflexions
D)Conveying meaning with a single word combined with a gesture
E)Being overly ambitious in trying to explain all aspects of language development according to a theory based on genetics

Question 16

Which of the following was viewed by Chomsky as grounds for refuting Skinner's theory of language development?

A)Skinner was merely an armchair theorist
B)Reinforcement doesn't work
C)Shaping is implausible
D)Rats and pigeons are unable to talk
E)Language is generative

Question 17

In the context of Chomsky's theory, "deep structure" relates to:

A)Universal grammar
B)The brain stem
C)Broca's area
D)Brodmann area 17
E)Overregularization

Question 18

Goldin-Meadow and Mylander (1990) discovered that children born with severe hearing impairment:

A)Can produce language but cannot comprehend language
B)Can communicate in a way that is governed by universal grammar
C)Possess syntax but not semantics
D)Begin talking at about the same age as typically developing children
E)Sometimes spontaneously develop a gestural form of communication that adheres to syntactical rules

Question 19

In the context of research into language development, "connectionism" refers to:

A)Children experiencing joint attention with their parent
B)Computer simulations of language usage
C)Grasping how words can be joined together to generate meaning that is greater than the component words
D)Assembling a string of words according to rules of syntax
E)A focused and intense conversation between two people

Question 20

Computer simulations of language development have yielded amongst other things:

A)Overregularization
B)Support for LAD
C)Universal grammar
D)Transformational grammar
E)Holophrases

Question 21

When talking to babies and young children, adults usually speak shorter and simpler sentences. This is known as:

A)LAD
B)LASS
C)Infant-directed talk
D)Being patronizing
E)Talking down to children

Question 22

In the context of theories of language development, what is LASS?

A)A critical period for learning language
B)A structure in the brain that enables children to rapidly learn the specifics of their language and to map between natural grammar and universal grammar
C)A female child who is precocious in learning language
D)A popular educational technique that is used for teaching language in schools
E)A theory on how aspects of the social environment are adapted in a way that helps young children to acquire language

Question 23

According to Tomasello (2003), language development is intimately linked with children's:

A)Special interests
B)Head circumference
C)Developing understanding of the mind
D)Developing mathematical abilities
E)Good fortune in attending a school that has high quality teaching and excellent resources

Question 24

According to Tomasello, children learn the formal properties of language:

A)Thanks to a language acquisition device
B)In the process of learning to communicate with people
C)In school
D)From their genes
E)From grammar lessons with their parents