Deck 4: Language and Communication

Question 1

What do sociolinguists study?

A)Bipedalism
B)Speech in its social context
C)The universal grammar of language
D)Cognitive capacity for language
E)Cross-cultural phonemic distinctions

Answer 1

Speech in its social context

Question 2

What term refers to the specialized set of terms and distinctions that are particularly important to certain groups?

A)Syntactical vocabulary
B)Spatial vocabulary
C)Focal vocabulary
D)Vernacular vocabulary
E)Temporal vocabulary

Answer 2

Focal vocabulary

Question 3

The study of the forms in which sounds combine to form words and their meaningful parts is known as

A)phonology.
B)syntax.
C)morphology.
D)lexicon.
E)grammar.

Answer 3

morphology.

Question 4

Which statement about nonhuman primate calls is not true?

A)They occur in response to environmental stimuli.
B)Calls demonstrate linguistic productivity.
C)They are automatic and cannot be combined.
D)Calls vary in intensity and duration.
E)Call systems produce a limited number of sounds.

Question 5

What does the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis argue?

A)The degree of cultural complexity is related to the effectiveness of languages as systems of communication.
B)The languages people speak influence the way they think.
C)The Hopi do not use three verb tenses; thus, they have no concept of time.
D)Culture determines what language is able to describe.
E)All humans are endowed with the ability to use language.

Question 6

Linguistic displacement is

A)the ability to use the rules of language to produce entirely new expressions.
B)the lexical difference between a protolanguage and a daughter language.
C)the ability to respond to environmental stimuli.
D)the linguistic dimension of culture shock.
E)the ability to talk about things that are not present.

Question 7

Berlin and Kay's (1969/1992) cross-linguistic study of color terminology revealed that

A)basic color terms tended to evolve in a particular order.
B)color terminology was least developed in areas with a history of using dyes and artificial coloring.
C)all languages included sixteen basic color terms.
D)the languages of cultivators in Papua New Guinea and foragers in Australia had more basic color terms than did European and Asian languages.
E)there are only two basic color terms, black and white.

Question 8

In a stratified society, even people who do not speak the prestige dialect tend to accept it as standard or superior.This phenomenon is referred to as

A)diglossia.
B)creolization.
C)symbolic domination.
D)hypercorrection.
E)style shifting.

Question 9

Most professional linguists regard BEV as what?

A)A protolanguage
B)A distinct language
C)A linguistic anomaly
D)A dialect of English
E)An inferior version of English

Question 10

What term refers to the minimal sound contrasts that distinguish meaning in a language?

A)Morphemes
B)Phonemes
C)Syntax
D)Grammar
E)Diglossia

Question 11

What term refers to the arrangement and order of words in phrases and sentences?

A)Syntax
B)Lexicon
C)Grammar
D)Phonology
E)Morphology

Question 12

Which linguist has argued that all human languages have a common structural basis and that all humans have similar linguistic abilities?

A)Edward Sapir
B)Benjamin Lee Whorf
C)William Labov
D)Noam Chomsky
E)Deborah Tannen

Question 13

Deborah Tannen's research on the speech habits of men and women has revealed that

A)there are no discernible differences between the way men and women use language.
B)men tend to make eye contact more frequently than women.
C)women tend to recite information in an attempt to solidify their position in a social hierarchy.
D)men rely more on nonverbal gestures than do women.
E)women tend to use language to build social connections with others.

Question 14

What is the term for all of a language's morphemes and their meanings?

A)Syntax
B)Lexicon
C)Ethnosemantics
D)Ethnoscience
E)Phonology

Question 15

The study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and expressions is called:

A)ethnosemantics.
B)biosemantics.
C)protolinguistics.
D)phonemics.
E)kinesics.

Question 16

Which of the following is a minimal pair in Standard American English?

A)pit/bit
B)fat/get
C)goof/off
D)ped/pedal
E)gal/legal

Question 17

In which region of the United States do people not speak with an accent?

A)New England
B)West Coast
C)Southeast
D)Midwest
E)Regional speech variations exist throughout the United States.

Question 18

In his study of New York department store employees, Labov found that

A)/r/ was pronounced most frequently by workers in the upper-middle-class store (Saks).
B)/r/ was pronounced most frequently by workers in the middle-class store (Macy's).
C)/r/ was pronounced most frequently by workers in the lower-middle-class store (S.Klein's).
D)workers in all three stores pronounced /r/ with the same frequency.
E)none of the workers with whom he interacted pronounced /r/.

Question 19

Linguists believe that

A)only 120 languages are now spoken in the world.
B)the number of languages spoken in the world is increasing rapidly.
C)nothing can be done to preserve linguistic diversity.
D)all people should study English in order to facilitate cross-cultural communication.
E)the world's linguistic diversity has been cut in half over the past 500 years.

Question 20

Regular shifting between "high" and "low" variants of a language is known as

A)displacement.
B)diglossia.
C)semantics.
D)kinesics.
E)lexicon.

Question 21

Syntax refers to the rules that dictate the order of words in a language.

Question 22

All human nonverbal communication is instinctive and thus not influenced by culture.

Question 23

After being spoken for generations, pidgins may develop into

A)focal vocabularies.
B)syntaxes.
C)protolanguages.
D)creole languages.
E)diglossias.

Question 24

What genetic difference has been found between humans and chimpanzees that is likely responsible for the human capability for speech?

A)A mutation in the FOXP2 gene
B)A mutation in the microcephalin gene
C)A mutation in the hyoid
D)A mutation in the lungs
E)A mutation in the tongue

Question 25

What are minimal pairs used to identify?

A)Phonemes
B)Phones
C)Aspiration
D)Allomorphs
E)Bound morphemes

Question 26

BEV is a distinct language.

Question 27

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? To what extent is it valid?

Question 28

What are the three key characteristics of human language? Discuss whether call systems and ASL-using nonhuman primates display these characteristics.

Question 29

What is Quillpad?

A)A recording device for the recovery of endangered languages
B)A device that translates handwritten notes into typed text
C)A device that transcribes spoken text into typed text
D)A service that converts phonetically spelled South Asian languages into local-language script
E)A service that translates a Google page into the language of your choice

Question 30

What is BEV? How does it compare to SE?

Question 31

Phonology is the study of speech sounds.

Question 32

What term refers to languages that have descended from the same ancestral language?

A)Descendant languages
B)Sibling languages
C)Daughter languages
D)Brother languages
E)Protolanguages

Question 33

How do people communicate without speaking?

Question 34

What are the key structures of language? Why is it important to know and understand these features?

Question 35

How are socioeconomic, ethnic, and gender differences reflected in language? Give specific examples.

Question 36

The Romance languages (e.g., French, Spanish) belong to which of the following language families?

A)Mixe-Zoque
B)Indo-European
C)North Caucasian
D)Dravidian
E)Austro-Asiatic

Question 37

What do historical linguists study? How is historical linguistics relevant to anthropology?

Question 38

The study of sounds used in speech is known as

A)historical linguistics.
B)sociolinguistics.
C)phonology.
D)morphology.
E)ebonics.

Question 39

Which of the following statements best describes the use of language by apes?

A)Only humans are capable of learning and using language.
B)Apes use American Sign Language in the wild.
C)Apes cannot be taught to use American Sign Language.
D)Only chimpanzees can learn American Sign Language.
E)Apes can learn American Sign Language and have shown the capacity for cultural transmission, productivity, and displacement, although there is still a gap between human and other ape language capabilities.

Question 40

What are focal vocabularies? Why do they exist?

Question 41

Studies investigating differences in the way men and women talk are examples of sociolinguistics.

Question 42

All languages and dialects are equally effective as systems of communication.

Question 43

Sociolinguistics has demonstrated that men lack the linguistic capacity to distinguish between slight variations in color.

Question 44

The term diglossia is used to refer to linguistic groups that use only two basic color terms (black and white or dark and light).

Question 45

Historical linguists study similarities and differences between languages spoken today in order to make inferences about long-term linguistic change.

Question 46

The frequency with which people smile varies cross-culturally.

Question 47

Kinesics is the study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and expressions.

Question 48

The term protolanguage is used to refer to the limited communication systems of nonhuman primates.

Question 49

A close relationship between languages does not necessarily mean that their speakers are closely related biologically or culturally.

Question 50

Most English speakers recognize the phonetic contrast between the [p^h] in pin and the [p] in spin.

Question 51

Focal vocabularies are found only in non-Western societies.

Question 52

Language is transmitted through enculturation.

Question 53

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that speakers of simple languages are unable to think in sophisticated ways.

Question 54

Nonhuman primate call systems demonstrate linguistic productivity, combining calls to produce new expressions.

Question 55

Creole languages are commonly found in regions where different linguistic groups came into contact with one another.

Question 56

Labov argued that all humans share a universal grammar.

Question 57

Historical linguists study linguistic performance by categorizing speakers as inadequate, competent, or highly proficient.