Deck 8: Thinking, Reasoning and Language

Question 1

The basic meaningful units of any language are called ________.

A)phonemes
B)morphemes
C)semantics
D)sound bytes

Answer 1

morphemes

Question 2

The sounds t, th, and sh are ________.

A)morphemes
B)phonemes
C)semantics
D)sound bytes

Answer 2

phonemes

Question 3

The English language has ________ phonemes.

A)more than 100
B)between 60 and 75
C)between 40 and 45
D)no more than 15

Answer 3

between 40 and 45

Question 4

Which of the following statements is true about language?

A)It is not symbolic.
B)It can be written, spoken, or signed.
C)It is incapable of an infinite set of meaningful utterances.
D)It has no set structure or rules that must be obeyed.

Question 5

The rules that determine how sounds and words can be combined and used to communicate meaning within a language are collectively known as ________.

A)morphemic rules
B)phonemic rules
C)linguistic relativity
D)syntax

Question 6

The meanings derived from words or sentences are collectively known as the ________ of language.

A)semantics
B)proxemics
C)syntatics
D)pragmatics

Question 7

Newspaper headlines, such as "Two Convicts Evade Noose, Jury Hung", may strike us as funny. From the perspective of language, this is because the phrase or headline

A)is impossible to interpret.
B)has ambiguous meaning.
C)has no literal interpretation.
D)lacks subject-verb agreement.

Question 8

To say that using and interpreting language typically requires little attention is to say that it is ________.

Question 9

The smallest units of speech that are meaningful are referred to as

A)phonemes.
B)lingmemes.
C)anomias.
D)morphemes.

Question 10

The basic units of sound in a language, which are called ________, vary in number from one language to the next.

Question 11

What is wrong in the following sentence? "Eggs the ham and green delicious are."

A)Phonemes
B)Morphemes
C)Syntax
D)Dialect

Question 12

You are learning Russian in preparation for a trip next summer. Although you are doing a good job recognising the written signs you need to know, you are having trouble with the sounds of the Russian language. Which of the following aspects of language is giving you trouble?

A)Syntax
B)Phonemes
C)Morphemes
D)Audiograms

Question 13

How many morphemes are there in the sentence "I wanted it"?

A)Three
B)Four
C)Six
D)Five

Question 14

Language is based on basic sound units called ________.

A)morphemes
B)semantics
C)registers
D)phonemes

Question 15

________ is a system of communication that combines symbols according to rules and in a way that conveys meaning.

Question 16

According to the textbook, different languages contain different numbers of phonemes. The fewest number of phonemes found in any language mentioned by your authors is about ________.

A)8
B)15
C)26
D)40

Question 17

We often do not consider the complexity of language. This is in part because

A)language acquisition is easy.
B)language acquisition requires little practise.
C)our use of language is generally taken for granted.
D)humans do not often consider complex phenomena.

Question 18

The ambiguity of language is BEST illustrated by which of the following examples?

A)Calling a friend about whom you are worried
B)Disagreements about the interpretations of laws
C)Telling someone what time a party starts
D)Giving instructions for an exam

Question 19

Much of our language use serves non-informational purposes, such as

A)establishing or maintaining social relationships.
B)telling the barista that we want a skinny latte.
C)advising a friend what time to show up at a party.
D)providing directions to an event.

Question 20

Let's say we could teach a dolphin to understand the difference between the sentences "The parrot kissed the dolphin" and "The dolphin was kissed by the parrot". If this were demonstrated, it might mean the dolphin had an understanding of ________.

A)phonemes
B)morphemes
C)syntax
D)pragmatics

Question 21

Because language is arbitrary, it allows great ________ in conveying complex ideas and thoughts.

Question 22

A ________ marker is a grammatical element that modifies words by adding sounds that change their meanings.

A)phonetic
B)phonemic
C)morphological
D)syntactic

Question 23

The textbook authors note that the word for mother in most languages begins with an "m" or "n" sound. They speculate that this may be because

A)these phonemes tend to be the first that children acquire.
B)all languages have the same origin.
C)these are the most common phonemes in all languages.
D)they all derive from the Latin word mater.

Question 24

A group of deaf children was discovered after a terrible earthquake had nearly destroyed the town. The children had been hiding together for nearly a month.When an interpreter was brought in, she could not make sense of the signs she saw, yet the children were clearly communicating with one another. What is the most likely explanation?

A)The children were engaged in cryptophasia.
B)The children were just pretending to use sign language.
C)The interpreter was not fluent in signed English.
D)The children had developed a form of homesign.

Question 25

In most cases, the rules of syntax

A)are the same across different languages.
B)are the same across different dialects.
C)are perfectly applied in conversation.
D)are rarely followed in real-world language.

Question 26

Our co-worker says, "It's awful in here". To understand what she means, we must

A)take into account extralinguistic information, such as location and facial expressions.
B)examine the grammatical structure of her comment.
C)examine the morphemes in the statement to determine the smaller units of meaning in the sentence.
D)ignore nonverbal cues so that we are not distracted.

Question 27

The rule in English that adjectives usually come before nouns is part of ________.

A)semantics
B)surface structure
C)syntax
D)grammatics

Question 28

Email can often lead to misunderstandings. This is because

A)it lacks extralinguistic information.
B)people misspell more often with email than with pen-and-paper writing.
C)of decreasing literacy levels.
D)most people read email more rapidly than other written forms.

Question 29

________ refers to the rules of a language that guide us in the proper ways to construct a sentence.

Question 30

What is missing when a student who skips class copies notes from another student?

A)Extralinguistic information
B)Syntax clues
C)Morphological markers
D)Phonesthemes

Question 31

The term dialect is used to indicate

A)distinct and different languages found in the same country.
B)language forms that are based on another language, but that do not have a syntactic structure of their own.
C)variations of the same language based on geographical or ethnic similarities.
D)variations of a language that follow no structural patterns.

Question 32

Using words like hee-haw or cock-a-doodle-doo to describe the sound that a donkey or rooster might make provides us with examples of ________.

A)onomatopoeia
B)anomia
C)a morphological marker
D)a dialect

Question 33

Although extralinguistic information is not a formal part of language, it does serve the purpose of

A)generally providing entertainment value, which captures our attention.
B)providing literal and factual information.
C)assisting in interpretation.
D)distracting us from the emotional aspects of communication.

Question 34

When speakers of English add "ed" to a verb to indicate past tense, they are applying a

A)morphological marker.
B)dialectical marker.
C)phoneme.
D)prefix.

Question 35

Why do people speak in different dialects?

A)The culture and environment in which a person is raised affects the way they communicate linguistically.
B)Dialects represent grammatical errors that are reinforced by one's surroundings.
C)People in different areas have genetic variations that impact the way their brains interpret language skills.
D)People from different countries naturally speak different languages, and that is all a dialect really is.

Question 36

Social context and the use of gestures and facial expressions by the speaker are examples of ________ information.

Question 37

Language is a very complex form of communication that separates humans from other animal groups. For this reason, ________ theorists believe that language must offer humans an adaptive advantage.

A)psychoanalytic
B)cognitive
C)evolutionary
D)behaviourist

Question 38

Which of the following is an example of onomatopoeia?

A)Car
B)Grass
C)Hair
D)Buzz

Question 39

A person from one part of the United States might ask you for a glass of "soda", while a person from a different region might ask for a glass of "pop"; a third person might ask for a "coke", while a fourth would request a glass of "tonic". All of these individuals want the same thing, but the variation in how they request it demonstrates a

A)dialect.
B)colloquialism.
C)semantic error.
D)phonemic shift.

Question 40

If you didn't already know sign language and you observed two deaf persons using signs, you would probably

A)have an easy time deciphering their conversation.
B)understand little to nothing about what was being communicated.
C)have to rely on their facial expressions.
D)be able to join in the conversation after a few minutes.

Question 41

The case of Genie and her failure to acquire meaningful language ability best supports

A)the nativist approach.
B)the limitations of bilingualism.
C)metalinguistic deficiency.
D)the critical period theory.

Question 42

Should Serina be surprised that her 10-month-old infant understands her command to pick up her rattle?

A)Yes, because most infants don't develop true comprehension until after their first birthday.
B)No, because most infants can comprehend hundreds of words by their first birthday.
C)Yes, because although most infants can produce hundreds of words before their first birthday, comprehension usually lags behind.
D)No, because infants' comprehension of their world precedes their production ability.

Question 43

By the age of 10 months, an infant will generally

A)use only the phonemes of the native language of adult speakers around them.
B)be in the cooing stage of vocalisation.
C)have a vocabulary of approximately 100 words.
D)speak in two-word "sentences".

Question 44

When a child applies a word in a much narrower sense than is needed-for example, thinking that the word "house" refers only to their own house-they are engaging in ________.

A)overextension
B)overregulation
C)undergeneralisation
D)underregulation

Question 45

Your friend's six-month-old baby has begun to vocalise long strings of repeated syllables in a continuous stream. For example, the baby vocalises "Malamalamalamalamala". This baby is in the ________ stage.

A)cooing
B)babbling
C)syllables
D)holophrastic speech

Question 46

Babies engage in intentional vocalisations that sound meaningful, but are not. This is referred to as ________.

A)babbling
B)telegraphic speech
C)holographic speech
D)two-word utterances

Question 47

Which of the following was the individual who was chained to a potty chair in the back of a bedroom and deprived of social interaction until she was 13 years old?

A)Helen Keller
B)Genie
C)Noam Chomsky
D)Raymond

Question 48

By the time children reach ________, they have usually acquired most of the syntactic rules of their language.

A)preschool
B)kindergarten
C)first grade
D)second grade

Question 49

Because our snap judgements are probably "good bets", the tendency to use heuristics and intuition might be considered ________.

A)adaptive
B)a maladaptation
C)a failure of cognitive miserliness
D)too risky to use

Question 50

A key difficulty in explaining how language evolved is the ________ phonemes, words, and rules of syntax.

A)consistency of
B)arbitrariness of
C)resemblance of meaning to
D)rigidness and uniformity of

Question 51

Linda's three-month-old infant keeps saying "ga-ga" and "doh-doh". Should she be worried?

A)Yes; parents should not encourage nonsense language in their infants, because it can lead to language problems later on.
B)Maybe; her three-month-old should be saying at least a couple of words by now.
C)No; this behaviour is called babbling and it is normal for infants.
D)No, although the infant should start to string these syllables together to form words in the next month or two.

Question 52

Babies can hear inside the womb

A)by the second month.
B)no earlier than the seventh month.
C)by the fifth month.
D)only after the sixth month.

Question 53

Your family dog is named "Happy". Any time your young child sees a dog, she calls out "Happy". This is an example of ________.

A)overgeneralisation
B)undergeneralisation
C)incorrect word meaning
D)comprehension before production

Question 54

Marcy is having lunch with her mother when a friend stops by the table to say hello. "Marcy, this is my friend, and her name is Marcy, too", the mother says. The child looks up and says, "You can't be named Marcy. That is my name." In a linguistic sense, this example demonstrates

A)overregulation.
B)overextension.
C)underregulation.
D)undergeneralisation.

Question 55

Newborn infants show a preference for

A)the English language.
B)the Spanish language.
C)their mother's native language.
D)any language if it is spoken by a familiar voice.

Question 56

When babies use nonsense syllables in a conversational tone, they are engaging in ________.

Question 57

Using the ________ procedure, researchers have found that infants can recognise sounds to which they were exposed in utero.

A)habituation
B)high-amplitude sucking
C)auditory cliff
D)Cat in the Hat

Question 58

By the time they are roughly one-year old, babies tend to use the ________ of their native language when babbling.

Question 59

Which of the following represents the most accurate statement about how children learn language?

A)Reduplicative babbling precedes the syllables stage of vocalisation.
B)Children can produce many more words than they can understand.
C)Comprehension of words precedes production.
D)Most children recognise their own names as early as two months.

Question 60

The case of Genie allows us to draw few conclusions about language development. Discuss the obstacles to such understanding relevant to this case.

Question 61

________ insight refers to our awareness of how language is structured and used.

A)Metacognitive
B)Metalinguistic
C)Linguistico-pragmatic
D)Semantico-linguistic

Question 62

The best predictor of whether someone will achieve fluency in a second language is

A)motivation.
B)IQ.
C)age of acquisition.
D)the simplicity of the second language's structure.

Question 63

Ben has a friend who is deaf and was born to deaf parents who used sign language. It is most likely that his friend

A)developed sign language in much the same way Ben learned to speak.
B)learned sign language as a whole rather than a series of stages.
C)has not learned to sign because he can lip read.
D)developed a secret language with his parents that only they can understand.

Question 64

Proponents of the imitation theory of language acquisition suggest that this model is the simplest for explaining the varieties of how children gain language skills. These theorists are banking on which principle of critical thinking to support their views?

A)Ruling out rival hypotheses
B)Replicability
C)Occam's Razor
D)Extraordinary claims

Question 65

One explanation for the difficulty of second language acquisition among adults is that when someone learns a second language in adulthood, they use different ________ than those who learn a second language in early childhood.

Question 66

Henry hears German spoken in his home, but he is exposed only to English in school. It is likely that Henry will

A)fail to experience difficulties in either language.
B)have improved metalinguistic ability.
C)show metalinguistic deficits.
D)have difficulties in vocabulary, but not syntax.

Question 67

Sign language requires the signer to use the face, hands, body, and ________ to communicate.

Question 68

A ________ period is a time during which people are more receptive to learning and can acquire knowledge more easily.

A)critical
B)sensitive
C)receptive
D)potentiated

Question 69

________ means that there are an infinite number of unique sentences to be created by combining words in novel ways.

Question 70

According to famed linguist Noam Chomsky, humans have an innate ability to understand and produce language through a device he called

A)syntax synthesiser (SS).
B)grammar grabber (GG).
C)language acquisition device (LAD).
D)language learning system (LLS).

Question 71

Spoken English and American Sign Language have ________ syntactic structures.

Question 72

Which aspect of language is analogous to an assignment in which children are given a bag containing glue, popsicle sticks,and rubber bands,and then allowed to create as many things as they can?

A)Imitation
B)Production
C)Generativity
D)Holophrase

Question 73

Which of the following is the most accurate statement regarding sign language and talking?

A)Learning a sign language speeds up the process of learning to talk.
B)Deaf children who rely on sign language rarely acquire any true vocal skills.
C)Children who are partially deaf and who use sign language have the worst chance of learning to talk because they use sign language as a "crutch".
D)Research has found that only deaf children who get cochlear implants ever truly learn to talk effectively.

Question 74

Even those who are well-skilled at reading lips can pick up only about ________ per cent of what is being said, because most of our verbal expression is done inside of the mouth.

A)5-10
B)10-20
C)20-30
D)30-35

Question 75

According to research, which of the following aspects of language is the least susceptible to the effects of age?

A)Syntax
B)Pronunciation
C)Vocabulary
D)Pragmatics

Question 76

When psychologists say language is generative, they mean that

A)children learn syntax gradually.
B)language acquisition is solely a function of nurture.
C)language is a function of social pragmatics.
D)a limited number of symbols can be used to create an unlimited number of sentences.

Question 77

Susan would like her child to learn a second language. If she wants the child to be fluent in the second language, research suggests that she should begin instruction no later than age ________.

A)three
B)five
C)seven
D)ten

Question 78

Many children who are deaf, who are born to hearing parents, invent their own signs when they are not instructed in formal sign language. This is known as ________.

Question 79

The ________ account holds that language is not a specialised ability, but rather an application of overall skills that children employ to navigate their world successfully.

Question 80

Which of the following is true of sign language?

A)There is one universal form of sign language.
B)Most deaf babies are born to deaf parents.
C)There are complex syntax structures.
D)It lacks generativity.