Deck 10: Communication and Language

Question 1

It is estimated that __________ percent of the world's languages are endangered.

A) 50 to 90
B) 30 to 50
C) 90 to 95
D) 15 to 25

Answer 1

50 to 90

Question 2

Any system of communication consists of publicly accepted __________ by which individuals try to share private experiences.

A) symbols
B) beliefs
C) ideas
D) facts

Answer 2

symbols

Question 3

The earliest writing systems are about __________ years old.

A) 6,000
B) 2,000
C) 3,000
D) 10,000

Answer 3

6,000

Question 4

The fact that there are thousands of languages tells us that language is __________.

A) not completely biologically determined
B) not affected by cultural variation
C) arranged primarily by geography
D) the most difficult aspect of cultural anthropology

Question 5

While English has 26 letters,it has __________ significant sounds.

A) about 40
B) only 15
C) around 100
D thousands of

Question 6

A study comparing Japanese and American facial expressions found that __________.

A) the two had similar expressions in private, but the Japanese participants tried to mask their feelings in front of authority figures
B) the two had similar expressions in public, but the American participants were more expressive when they thought they were alone
C) participants of both cultural groups were careful to mask their feelings in front of authority figures
D) participants of the two cultural groups had nearly identical facial expressions, both in public and in private

Question 7

Why can we not use the languages of nonliterate societies to learn about the origins of language?

A) Their languages are not simpler or less developed than our own.
B) Their written histories do not go far enough back in time.
C) They were often developed more recently than written languages.
D) Languages of nonliterate societies change too quickly to be any use for study.

Question 8

In Robert Schrauf's comparative study,which group was used to represent immigrants with the greatest retention of their native language?

A) third-generation immigrants
B) second-generation immigrants
C) first-generation immigrants
D) fourth-generation immigrants

Question 9

Nonhuman vocal systems are often referred to as __________ systems,because they do not combine different calls to produce new meanings.

A) closed
B) absolute
C) limited
D) restricted

Question 10

What is the major cause of the disappearance of native languages?

A) The languages are no longer being taught to children.
B) They are not able to create new terms to keep up with technological advances.
C) Most nations have outlawed the use of indigenous languages.
D) It is nearly impossible to learn a language without an associated writing system.

Question 11

How many mutually unintelligible languages have been identified?

A) more than 6,000
B) 2,000 to 3,000
C) fewer than 1,000
D) 4,000 to 5,000

Question 12

What is a protolanguage?

A) spoken reconstructed language from which modern languages derived
B) the simplest form of language known, with no tenses or number terms
C) the language that early Homo sapiens is believed to have spoken
D) the rudimentary language used by the apes and monkeys

Question 13

Research has shown that English people from higher-class backgrounds tend to have more __________ speech,conforming more to what is considered standard English.

A) homogeneous
B) inductive
C) deductive
D) heterogeneous

Question 14

To what language family does English belong?

A) Indo-European
B) Indo-Iranian
C) Latin
D) Sanskrit

Question 15

The controversial Sapir-Whorf hypothesis proposes that __________.

A) language affects how individuals in a society perceive and conceive reality
B) culture has a strong influence on how we speak languages
C) languages reflect the values, attitudes, and beliefs of the society
D) language and culture have no measurable influence on each other

Question 16

Children learn spoken language at __________.

A) about the same age in all cultures
B) a relatively later age in simpler societies
C) a wide range of ages, but with no correlation with societal complexity
D) a relatively later age in more complex societies

Question 17

Why is it so difficult to pinpoint the emergence of the earliest languages?

A) Written language only appeared about 5,000 years ago.
B) Modern apes have a rudimentary language, so it must date to at least the divergence of the human and ape lineages.
C) There are clear structural differences in the brains of people who speak and people who don't, but we have no fossilized evidence of brain structure.
D) Every culture reports that they have been able to speak since the beginning of time.

Question 18

What does it mean to say that a word or sound is arbitrary?

A) One cannot just guess the meaning from the sound.
B) It has the same meaning in nearly all languages.
C) The word's meaning is the opposite of what it sounds like.
D) The meaning of the word has changed over the years.

Question 19

Animal systems,such as sound or odor,represent __________ but not __________.

A) communication; language
B) symbolism; communication
C) messages; symbolism
D) language; messages

Question 20

Which feature is shared by all creole languages?

A) the use of double negatives
B) a restricted set of color terms
C) an inclusion of gendered nouns
D) the use of a past tense

Question 21

Based on linguistic and archaeological research,the speakers of proto-Indo-European are believed to have lived around modern-day __________.

A) Ukraine
B) Pakistan
C) Israel
D) Zimbabwe

Question 22

A dictionary most closely approximates a language's __________.

A) lexicon
B) grammar
C) syntax
D) phonology

Question 23

Which of these statements is true of global literacy?

A) Only recently has universal literacy become a goal for most countries.
B) Globalization has spread almost universal literacy around the world.
C) Today, literacy rates for men and women are comparable throughout the world.
D) Literacy refers only to reading and writing in one's native language.

Question 24

In general,the borrowing of __________ from another language is much more common than the borrowing of __________.

A) words; grammar
B) morphs; words
C) grammar; syntax
D) syntax; morphs

Question 25

What do linguists mean when they refer to grammar?

A) unconscious principles that predict how most people talk
B) prescriptive rules that people are supposed to follow when speaking
C) geographical variation within a single language
D) traits in a person's speech that serve as clues to their education and status

Question 26

Which of these is an example of a bound morpheme?

A) er
B) the
C) bl
D) I

Question 27

Which of the following findings would best support the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

A) a language that lacks gendered pronouns is associated with an acceptance of fluid gender roles
B) multilingual individuals have trouble code-switching in some situations
C) men and women have identical internal syntax and grammar, but choose to speak differently
D) all languages represent the same basic ideas, just in different ways

Question 28

Which is true of the core vocabularies of languages?

A) All languages have core vocabularies of about the same size.
B) More ancient cultures have larger core vocabularies.
C) More socially diverse societies have larger core vocabularies.
D) More complex societies have larger core vocabularies.

Question 29

Pauses,shrugs,vocal communication,and facial expressions all contribute to __________.

A) paralanguage
B) metalanguage
C) symbolic language
D) body language

Question 30

Which society would probably have the fewest basic color terms?

A) a society whose people have darker eyes
B) a society located near the north pole
C) a relatively "primitive" society
D) a more complex society

Question 31

In which of the following situations would you expect the speaker's language to feature regular consonant-vowel alteration?

A) a society in which babies are held for most of the day
B) a culture living in a heavily forested environment
C) a subculture restricted to only women
D) an illiterate society with no formal educational system

Question 32

At birth,an infant can distinguish __________.

A) between all the sounds of all the languages in the world
B) between all the sounds used in his or her parents' language
C) only the difference between male and female vocal registers
D) the sounds made only by his or her mother's voice

Question 33

If a language has a basic color term for "yellow" it is most likely also to have a color term for __________.

A) red
B) orange
C) brown
D) green

Question 34

In addition to geographical separation,how do different dialects become completely different languages?

A) social restrictions preventing regular communication between the two groups
B) intentional distinction by the speakers of the two groups
C) educational differences between speakers of the two dialects
D) religious beliefs restricting the use of one of the dialects

Question 35

Historical linguists are interested in __________.

A) comparing certain languages to determine if they were derived from a common ancestral language
B) how people spoke in ancient times
C) how the role of body language differs between different historical periods
D) comparing how the number of basic color words increases in a society over time

Question 36

Which statement is true of syntax?

A) Speakers of a language are usually not consciously aware of the rules of syntax.
B) The rules of syntax are only learned through formal education.
C) A language's syntax changes more quickly than its vocabulary.
D) All languages follow the same basic rules of syntax.

Question 37

Why do some linguists argue that the evidence for an innate grammar is weak?

A) Children learn features like word order at different times, depending on their importance in their native language.
B) Children across cultures start creating short sentences at very different ages.
C) Most children learn basic syntax early, but building their vocabulary takes many years.
D) Across cultures, children understand individual words but do not understand grammar rules until formally taught them in school.

Question 38

By what age can you expect your little sister to understand the difference between "me eat cookie" and "cookie eat me"?

A) 18 to 24 months
B) 16 months
C) 12 to 18 months
D) 10 months

Question 39

Which of the following is true of gender differences within languages?

A) Women seem to be more concerned with "correctness" than men.
B) Men seem to be more concerned with "correctness" than women.
C) Women use more descriptive words than men.
D) Men use more descriptive words than women.

Question 40

Which of the following strongly predicts an immigrant group's likelihood of retaining their native language into the third generation?

A) living in tightly knit communities
B) visiting relatives in their homeland
C) marriage within their cultural group
D) separate schools for their children

Question 41

Why do men and women likely speak differently even within a shared language and culture?

A) Boys and girls grow up in somewhat different cultures, leading to cultural differences in adulthood.
B) Girls are innately capable of developing a larger vocabulary than boys.
C) Boys are consciously taught to use dominant, forceful patterns of speech, while girls are not.
D) Adult men and women rarely interact outside the home, leading to subtle cultural differences in behavior and speech.

Question 42

Why might someone code-switch between their own language and the language of a politically more powerful society?

A) The dominant culture's language is seen as a symbol of high status and upward mobility.
B) It is inevitable that the dominant culture's language will soon be taught in schools, so it is easier to adopt it right away.
C) They do not fully understand the dominant language, and revert back to their native language as needed.
D) Only certain members of society are permitted to speak the dominant culture's language.

Question 43

Which of the following types of nonverbal communication appears to be culturally universal?

A) facial expressions
B) the distance between two speakers
C) movement of the hands while speaking
D) amount of eye contact

Question 44

How does language reflect social status? Give three specific examples in which members of different social positions use different forms of language.

Question 45

Where is a protolanguage's point of origin most likely to be found?

A) where there is the greatest diversity of related languages and dialects
B) the point geographically closest to Africa, where humans originated
C) where the language is spoken with the most precise grammatical usage
D) the place where the written record for the language is the oldest

Question 46

Compared to people in simpler societies,people in complex societies __________.

A) commonly have a larger overall vocabulary due to a greater number of technical specialties
B) commonly have fewer terms for basic colors
C) commonly have the same number of general terms for plants, but more terms for specific plants
D) usually have more names for specific animals, but the same number of general animal terms

Question 47

Compared to people in simpler societies,people in complex societies __________.

A) commonly can give a larger number of general, or life-form, terms for plants and animals
B) commonly have fewer terms for plants but many for animals
C) commonly have the same number of general terms for plants, but more terms for specific plants
D) usually have more names for specific plants, but the same number of general plant terms

Question 48

Do you believe that grammar is universal? Support your answer with information learned from the study of pidgin,creole,and children's acquisition of language.

Question 49

Although gorillas and chimpanzees appear to have the capacity for symbolic communication,human language is a unique communication system because __________.

A) its spoken and symbolic nature permits an infinite number of combinations of meaning
B) it relies heavily on body language more than other animals
C) it requires fewer phonemes than other primate communication systems
D) it is more effective than animal call systems

Question 50

Why does the study of ape language capabilities advance the understanding of human language?

A) Apes have at least some of the capabilities of language, which helps us better understand the evolution of human language.
B) Apes are capable of everything short of verbal language, which helps us improve communication with deaf people.
C) It is clear that apes can only mimic human sign language, which indicates that human language is truly unique to our lineage.
D) Ape language abilities are closer to humans than to other primates, which adds to our knowledge of the human family tree.

Question 51

Children commonly pluralize words incorrectly,such as "mans," "deers," and "mouses." What does this suggest about the grasp of linguistic rules?

A) They have an intuitive understanding of morphology.
B) Children have a very simplistic understanding of grammatical rules.
C) They must learn each word as an individual unit of vocabulary, and cannot apply general rules.
D) Children understand free morphemes but not bound morphemes.

Question 52

Consider the value of writing and literacy to a society. What limitations can you imagine would be present in everyday life in a completely illiterate society? How does a difference in writing and literacy affect overall social inequality?

Question 53

How does the early speech pattern of children compare to creole languages?

A) The errors children make are consistent with the grammar of creoles.
B) Children seem to have an innate grammar in their own language, while creole languages lack a basic grammar.
C) Creole languages have a simple but consistent grammar, but children's early speech errors have no particular pattern.
D) Creole languages have more complex grammatical structure than that seen in childhood speech.

Question 54

Explain how the field of historical linguistics traces cultural connections through related languages.

Question 55

Compare and contrast human and nonhuman communication.