Exam 1: Origins of Human Language

The system of symbols, agreed upon by a community of language users, that conveys specific meaning is known as

A 2009 study by Feher et al. showed that, over the course of several generations, the songs of birds raised by isolates become remarkably similar to those of normal adult birds. These results support the

The theory of universal grammar claims that

Jasmine is a 9-year-old whose IQ is lower than that of her peers. She also produces incoherent speech and demonstrates grammatical difficulties as well. In addition, she has trouble generating certain facial gestures and humming a jingle. Her younger sister is learning language normally and appears to have no other deficits. Identify the most likely explanation for Jasmine's condition and why you arrived at your answer.

The theoretical perspective that humans' ability to learn language is not the result of innate or genetically based predisposition that evolved specifically for language, but an aspect of our cognitive abilities, including general abilities of learning and memory is known as

The awareness between two or more individuals that they are paying attention to the same thing is known as

_______ is the set of rules that determines how linguistic elements, such as words, can be combined to convey meaning.

What is duality of patterning, and how is this feature beneficial for a communication system?

Viki, a chimpanzee, can produce only four indistinct words of spoken English, whereas Alex, a parrot, can clearly pronounce more than 100 words. Can we conclude from this that Alex's linguistic capabilities are superior to Viki's? Why or why not?

Explain how Williams Syndrome (WMS) aids us in understanding how human language is organized in the brain.

Which of Hockett's design features of human language can also be attributed to honeybee communication?

What empirical evidence suggests that bees have an innate dance "dialect?"

A comparison of birdsong with human language suggests that

Which animal is able to gesture in a flexible way to indicate its intention?

Given a choice between two buckets in which only one bucket contains a treat, a chimpanzee will be _______ likely to choose a bucket that a human reached for _______ a bucket that a human pointed to.

Refer to the figure. Figure A demonstrates how a hearing individual might use a gesture, along with speech, to describe rolling downhill. Figure B demonstrates how someone using sign language might gesture to convey the same action. What do the images tell us about how each individual uses gestures to convey information? Why is this an important distinction in linguistics, and how does it allow sign languages to resemble spoken languages in terms of their expressive power?

Hare and Tomasello found that chimpanzees will reach for a bucket containing a treat if a human reaches for the same bucket-but not if the human points to the bucket to signal the presence of a treat in it. This suggests that chimpanzees do not understand the

_______ is a genetic disorder in which some language functions seem relatively intact, while other complex cognitive abilities are markedly impaired.

Compare the language learning outcomes of: 1) a human infant raised by adoptive parents who speak a language other than that of the infant's birth parents with 2) the sounds produced by rhesus macaque monkeys raised by Japanese macaques, instead of their biological parents.

The cultural transmission view of language change holds that