Deck 1: Introduction-Themes of Psycholinguistics

Question 1

Which is of primary interest to behaviorists?

A) the study of internal mental events such as feelings or images
B) the underlying processes involved in translating thought to speech
C) the role of experience in shaping language behavior
D) how the poverty of stimulus affects language acquisition

Answer 1

the role of experience in shaping language behavior

Question 2

Sociolinguists study the linguistic behavior of:

A) individuals with language disorders
B) individuals who are bilingual
C) prelinguistic children
D) individuals engaged in social interaction

Answer 2

individuals engaged in social interaction

Question 3

Function words, which include prepositions and conjunctions, are known as _______ words.

A) open-class
B) closed-class
C) tacit
D) explicit

Answer 3

closed-class

Question 4

The relationship between picked and up in the sentence "George picked the baby up" was seen as evidence against which theory?

A) semantic differential
B) associative chain
C) shaping
D) discontinuous constituent

Question 5

The way we construct and articulate utterances is known as:

A) language comprehension
B) language production
C) language acquisition
D) language development

Question 6

Chomsky used the sentence "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" to illustrate the point that:

A) the associative chain theory of language was invalid
B) each word in a sentence serves as a stimulus for the next word
C) we use meaning more than syntax in comprehending sentences
D) aphasia disrupts semantic relationships between words

Question 7

Analyzing garden path sentences reveals processes involved in:

A) interpreting the meaning of sentences that contain ambiguities
B) interpreting indirect speech requests
C) sentence production by individuals with language disorders
D) children's use of one-word phrases

Question 8

The branch of science that focuses on the origin, structure, and use of language is:

A) psycholinguistics
B) philosophy
C) cognitive science
D) linguistics

Question 9

Phonology refers to:

A) the grammatical arrangement of words within the sentence
B) the system of sounds in a language
C) the meanings of words and sentences
D) the social rules involved in language use

Question 10

The interdisciplinary field that studies the mind and mental processes is called:

A) psycholinguistics
B) philosophy
C) cognitive science
D) linguistics

Question 11

A tool to measure the associative meanings of words is:

A) the semantic differential
B) the associative chain
C) longitudinal investigation
D) discontinuous constituent

Question 12

Semantics deals with:

A) the grammatical arrangement of words within the sentence
B) the system of sounds in a language
C) the meanings of words and sentences
D) the social rules involved in language use

Question 13

When we say, "Can you open the door?" instead of "Open the door!" we are using rules of politeness. These rules are part of which aspect of linguistic knowledge?

A) syntax
B) pragmatics
C) phonology
D) semantics

Question 14

Syntax refers to:

A) the grammatical arrangement of words within the sentence
B) the system of sounds in a language
C) the meanings of words and sentences
D) the social rules involved in language use

Question 15

Words that function together in a sentence (such as called up) are called:

A) associative chains
B) semantic differentials
C) .garden paths
D) constituents

Question 16

Tacit knowledge of language is best illustrated by:

A) our ability to describe the relationships between two words
B) our ability to perform activities such as listening and speaking without fully understanding the processes involved in them
C) our ability to analyze the structure of a sentence
D) all of the above

Question 17

The study of how children develop language is known as:

A) language comprehension
B) language production
C) language acquisition
D) metalanguage

Question 18

Content words, which include nouns, verbs, and adjectives, are known as _______ words.

A) open-class
B) closed-class
C) tacit
D) explicit

Question 19

The way we perceive and understand speech is known as:

A) language comprehension
B) language production
C) language acquisition
D) language development

Question 20

The study of the relationship between the brain and language is termed:

A) aphasia
B) psycholinguistics
C) sociolinguistics
D) neurolinguistics

Question 21

Chomsky's claim regarding child language acquisition was that:

A) it cannot be explained simply in terms of the language that children hear
B) it requires a more sophisticated form of shaping than behaviorists claim
C) it is largely tacit rather than explicit
D) children require explicit grammatical instruction from parents or caregivers to learn the rules of language

Question 22

A research investigation in which data are collected repeatedly over periods of time is called a:

A) case study
B) longitudinal study
C) pragmatic study
D) cross-disciplinary study

Question 23

The intellectual tradition of empiricism primarily relies on:

A) the role of innate factors, rather than experience in studying behavior
B) argument as a means of evaluating hypotheses
C) the collection of data to evaluate hypotheses
D) the social rules involved in language use

Question 24

The field of psycholinguistics:

A) has made few advances since the cognitive revolution of the 1950s and 1960s
B) is far less diverse than the field of a few decades ago.
C) currently places far less emphasis on discourse and the lexicon than in earlier years
D) emphasizes interaction of innate mechanisms and environmental factors in language acquisition

Question 25

The poverty of stimulus argument refers to the fact that:

A) children can only learn one language at a time
B) children cannot learn language solely from the language samples they hear
C) children born into poverty learn language more slowly
D) children use single words to convey whole sentences