Deck 9: Language and Communication

Question 1

The identification and description of the distinctive sounds of a language is called:​

A)​morphemes
B)​syntax
C)​grammar
D)​phonetics

Answer 1

​phonetics

Question 2

Which of the following is the least significant for learning in humans?​

A)​observation
B)​imitation
C)​language
D)​instinct

Answer 2

​instinct

Question 3

The sounds and gestures of language are classified as:​

A)​proxemics
B)​signs
C)​metaphors
D)​symbols

Answer 3

​symbols

Question 4

Approximately how many languages exist today?​

A)​about 600
B)​about 60,000
C)​about 1,600
D)​about 6,000

Question 5

The smallest unit of sound that carries a meaning in a language is called a:​

A)​morpheme
B)​phonology
C)​phone
D)​phoneme

Question 6

Twentieth-century linguists have focused studies on:​

A)​formulating laws and understanding the regular principles of language
B)​the collection and preservation of existing languages
C)​the development of theories and the collection of existing languages
D)​the reasoning process behind language construction and the development of theories

Question 7

The rules or principles of phrase and sentence making in a language are called the:

A)​linguistics
B)​grammar
C)​phonology
D)​syntax

Question 8

Language is specifically a system of communication composed of:​

A)​signals and gestures
B)​sounds and signals
C)​sounds and gestures
D)​abstract ideas

Question 9

What is the greatest strength of modern descriptive linguistics?​

A)​objectivity of its methods
B)​advances of its theories
C)​growth and popularity of the subdiscipline
D)​importance of descriptive linguistics in the global economy

Question 10

The language of Samoan is part of the family of languages called:​

A)​Indo-European
B)​Romance
C)​Slavic
D)​Oceanic

Question 11

Which of the following would best be classified as a symbol?​

A)​scream
B)​sneeze
C)​handshake
D)​tears

Question 12

Which of the following statements about language is incorrect?​

A)​All human languages are fundamentally organized in similar ways.
B)​No human language uses more than about fifty sounds.
C)​Sign languages function relatively the same as spoken language except sound is substituted for hand and body movement.
D)​All languages can be considered very simple and standardized in form.

Question 13

Descriptive linguistics primarily provides information on all of the following except:​

A)​the language's relationship to other languages
B)​the structure of a language
C)​various types of instinctive calls in a language
D)​the unique linguistic repertoire of a language

Question 14

During the age of exploration, there was estimated to be approximately how many languages existing?

A)​12,000
B)​25,000
C)8,500
D)​120,000

Question 15

If you were sent out to decipher an unwritten language, which area of linguistics would be the most useful to you?​

A)​analytical linguistics
B)​ethnolinguistics
C)​descriptive linguistics
D)​historical linguistics

Question 16

The smallest unit of sound that can make a difference in meaning is called a:​

A)​morpheme
B)​phonology
C)​phone
D)​phoneme

Question 17

Which of the following is not a main branch of linguistics?​

A)​descriptive linguistics
B)​historical linguistics
C)​language in a cultural setting
D)​gestural linguistics

Question 18

The roots of linguistics trace back to:​

A)​India
B)​Mesopotamia
C)​Egypt
D)​Peru

Question 19

In the word heated, how many morphemes are there?​

A)​0
B)​1
C)​6
D)​2

Question 20

Some chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans have been taught:​

A)​American Sign Language
B)​International Sign Language
C)​African Sign Language
D)​Animal Sign Language

Question 21

During the past 500 years, approximately how many of the world's languages have become extinct due to warfare, epidemics, and colonialism?​

A)​less than 150
B)​4,000
C)​6,000
D)​500

Question 22

The language family that includes English is approximately how old?​

A)​6,000 years
B)​500 years
C)​10,000 years
D)​50,000 years

Question 23

Approximately how many people speak English as a foreign language?​​

A)​200 million
B)​372 million
C)​973 million
D)​1.5 billion

Question 24

What was the primary problem with the original Arapaho public school language instruction program?​

A)​Students were not able to gain linguistic fluency from the classroom.
B)​Arapaho elders did not support language training in school.
C)​There were various native languages being taught in school and no focus.
D)​Not all students attending the school were true Arapaho.

Question 25

In the past, one of the most powerful forces for linguistic change has been:​

A)​colonialism
B)​industrialism
C)​exploration
D)​migration

Question 26

What is the greatest linguistic risk that is posed by the growing popularity of the Internet?​

A)​development of slang words
B)​loss of face-to-face communication
C)​decline in linguistic diversity
D)​loss of written languages

Question 27

Distinct male and female patterns of speech are called:​

A)​ethnolinguistics
B)​gendered speech
C)​dialectic speech
D)​code switching

Question 28

What is meant by the term click languages?​

A)​languages that are spoken by very specialized groups of people worldwide
B)​languages that are being learned by young children and are imperfectly delivered
C)​languages that are used to teach instinctual skills, associated with animal training
D)​languages that use a specific set of consonant sounds associated with Africa

Question 29

​In North America, how many of the original indigenous languages are extinct?

A)​150
B)​700
C)​300
D)​75

Question 30

Individuals in a society vary on how they use language based on all of the following factors except:

A)​gender
B)​ethnicity
C)​height
D)​class

Question 31

Why is linguistic diversity important?​

A)​It is the only way some people can communicate with each other.
B)​It is associated with cultural diversity, essential to the survival of our species.
C)​It allows us to use innovative ways of communicating to perfect language.
D)​We need (and use) many languages to fully express a globalizing culture.

Question 32

Technically, all dialects are:​

A)​languages
B)​subcultural languages
C)​partial languages
D)​codes

Question 33

French attempts to purge their language of non-French words are an example of:​

A)​selective borrowing
B)​linguistic nationalism
C)​linguistic semanticism
D)​teleological borrowing

Question 34

Accelerated Second Language Acquisition, used as part of the Arapaho language program, uses what innovative technique to aid in language learning and retention?​

A)​visualization
B)​displacement
C)​auditory prompts
D)​gendered speech

Question 35

More than 80 percent of Internet users are speakers of how many world languages?​

A)​2
B)​5
C)​10
D)​17

Question 36

English is part of what subgroup of languages?​

A)​Germanic
B)​Latinate
C)​Slavic
D)​Greek

Question 37

Which of the following is an Indo-European language?​

A)​Sami
B)​Basque
C)​Komi
D)​English

Question 38

Approximately what number of people claims English as their native language?​

A)​200 million
B)​400 million
C)​150 million
D)​700 million

Question 39

All of the following are reasons that S. Neyooxet Greymorning chose Bambi as a good film to be translated to Arapaho and used as a linguistic tool except:​

A)​It involved speaking animals, which is a traditional way of teaching among the Arapaho.
B)​It uses childlike language and phrases that make it useful as a teaching tool.
C)​It is a story with which most reservation children were already familiar.
D)​It had been translated to Arapaho already and was easily available for the program.

Question 40

The study of the relationship between language and society is called:​

A)​sociolinguistics
B)​sociological linguistics
C)​social linguistics
D)​structural linguistics

Question 41

It is estimated that what percentage of our total human communication takes place nonverbally?​

A)​25
B)​35
C)​60
D)​95

Question 42

What kinds of information are transmitted through the gesture-call system?​

A)​reason and abstract thought
B)​emotions and intentions
C)​actions and motivations
D)​warfare and aggression

Question 43

Nonverbal communication and paralanguage are two components of:​

A)​a written language
B)​linguistic relativity
C)​paranormal language
D)​a gesture-call system

Question 44

The existence of over 200 words for the potato that reflects the potato's many uses in the Aymara language of highland Bolivia and Peru is an example of:​

A)​code switching
B)​linguistic relativity
C)​a dialect
D)​gendered speech

Question 45

What do we call the cross-cultural study of human perception and use of space?​

A)​gesture-call system
B)​conversational distance
C)​kinesics
D)​proxemics

Question 46

About 70 percent of the world's languages are:​

A)​tonal languages
B)​paralanguages
C)​extinct languages
D)​indigenous languages

Question 47

The method for notating and analyzing body language is called:​

A)​proxemics
B)​kinesics
C)​gesture-call
D)​glottochronology

Question 48

Hall identified what four categories of proxemicallyrelevant space?​

A)​intimate, friendly, neutral, aggressive
B)​intimate, personal-casual, social-consultive, public distance
C)​sexual, friendly, casual, alien
D)​friendly, passive, unfriendly, aggressive

Question 49

The ability to comprehend two languages but express oneself in only one is known as receptive or what type of bilingualism?​

A)​passive
B)​reciprocal
C)​auditory
D)​cognitive

Question 50

In which of the following countries, based on perceived linguistic dominance, would you most expect speakers to not see the need for a second language?​

A)​Peru
B)​United States
C)​Belgium
D)​Mexico

Question 51

Changing from one mode of speech to another as the situation demands, whether from one language to another or from one dialect of a language to another, is called:​

A)​ethnolinguistics
B)​bilingualism
C)​linguistic determination
D)​code switching

Question 52

​Studies show the intended tone of an e-mail communication is perceived correctly about what percentage of the time?

A)​77
B)​21
C)​56
D)​6

Question 53

What is an "eyebrow flash"?​

A)​a smiley face
B)​a signal made with two fingers
C)​using one's hands to cover and then reveal the eyes
D)​rapid eyebrow movement

Question 54

A human being has about 50 facial muscles and can make about how many facial expressions?

A)​37
B)​175
C)​4,500
D)​7,000

Question 55

If language does mirror cultural reality, then it would follow that changes in a culture will sooner or later:​

A)​be reflected in changes in the language
B)​be corrected by a more conservative linguistic base
C)​be adapted to preexisting language structures
D)​cause a language to go extinct

Question 56

Edward Hall pioneered the study of:​

A)​proxemics
B)​kinesics
C)​gesture-call system
D)​linguistic nationalism

Question 57

Human speech is always embedded within a:​

A)​gesture-call system
B)​glottal-click context
C)​morphological grammar
D)​linguistic relativism

Question 58

The idea that each language provides particular grooves of linguistic expression that predispose speakers of that language to perceive the world in a certain way is known as:​

A)​Chomskian linguistics
B)​Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
C)​transformational-generative grammar
D)​deconstructionism

Question 59

Noam Chomsky, in an oft-quoted saying that reveals the common relationship between language and power, says that "a dialect is a language without a(an) . . ."​

A)​army
B)​weapon
C)​government
D)​monarchy

Question 60

Which of the following is a difference between Hopi and English?​

A)​Hopi can express that the event talked about is a regular thing that generally occurs.
B)​English primarily structures thinking and behavior with a focus on the present.
C)​Hopi does not have verbs.
D)​Hopi apply numbers to time but not to counting.

Question 61

A language in which the sound pitch of a spoken word is an essential part of its pronunciation and meaning is called what type of language?​

A)​tonal
B)​whistled speech
C)​code switching
D)​paralanguage

Question 62

Which of the following is not an endangered tradition?​

A)​talking drum
B)​whistled speech
C)​Khoisan "click" languages
D)​tonal languages

Question 63

​Why is speech unique to humans?

A)​Great apes do not have the anatomy to speak like humans.
B)​No one has pioneered a way to teach great apes.
C)​Great apes are not interested in speaking to us.
D)​We are not able to hear the vocal ranges expressed by great apes.

Question 64

All human cultures require language.​

Question 65

What is the role of tone in nontonal languages?​

A)​There is no tone in nontonal languages.
B)​Tone is used to indicate attitude and feeling.
C)​Tone is used to change the meaning of the word.
D)​Tone shifts by person and is usually not used to convey any meaning.

Question 66

What was the purpose of wampum belts?​

A)​to designate who would be the next chief
B)​to hold up symbolic clothing
C)​to give the speaker magic powers
D)​to represent important messages

Question 67

Humans are biologically programmed for language.​

Question 68

How many adults worldwide cannot read or write?​

A)​1 million
B)​8 million
C)​479 million
D)​775 million

Question 69

Being able to refer to events that occurred at another time and in another place is called:​

A)​displacement
B)glottochronology
C)​historical chronology
D)​linguistic relativism

Question 70

Mandarin Chinese has all of the following contrasting tones except:​

A)​flat
B)​rising
C)​falling
D)​whistling

Question 71

Although nonhuman primates can use language, the distinction is that they do not cognize symbols.​

Question 72

Which of the following was a fully developed early writing system?​

A)​Iroquois wampum belts
B)​Chinese tortoise shells
C)​Egyptian hieroglyphics
D)​Inca quipus

Question 73

Found within about thirty thirty languages worldwide, this type of speech uses a phonetic emulation of the sounds:​

A)​gendered speech
B)​whistled speech
C)​phonetic speech
D)​click speak

Question 74

What anatomically allows the characteristic human sound of speech?​

A)​the compete separation of air and food pipes
B)​the raised position of the larynx and epiglottis
C)​the lowered position of the larynx and epiglottis
D)​the existence of the pharynx

Question 75

American Sign Language is a fully developed language.​

Question 76

Which of the following statements about the origins of language is not correct?​

A)​Neandertals had the neurological and anatomical features necessary for speech.
B)​Spoken language may have emerged from gestural language by increasing emphasis on the mouth and throat.
C)​The soft tissues of the vocal tract are well preserved in the fossil record.
D)​We do not know precisely when the crossover to spoken language began.

Question 77

All human languages use the same set of sounds.​

Question 78

The Rosetta stone allowed linguistic researchers to decode which linguistic system?

A)​Egyptian hieroglyphics
B)​Aztec stelae
C)​Maya temple drawings
D)​Mesopotamian cuneiform

Question 79

An alphabet is best defined as:​

A)​a collection of sounds that make up a language
B)​a series of symbols representing sound and arranged in traditional order
C)​a specific linguistic structure that is arranged in a grammatical order
D)​a collection of words and symbols used to express meaning for communication

Question 80

Which of the following is not a benefit of spoken language over gestural language?​

A)​You do not have to stop action to use your hands.
B)​You can talk in the dark and not be visible.
C)​You can speak even though visual attention is diverted elsewhere.
D)​You are much closer to the other person with spoken than gestural language.