Deck 11: Communication: Sharing What We Need to Know

Question 1

The one feature shared by human language and the communication system of the bees is:

A) displacement
B) duality
C) productivity
D) arbitrariness

Answer 1

displacement

Question 2

Being able to communicate about things not present in space or time is called:

A) displacement
B) duality
C) productivity
D) arbitrariness

Answer 2

displacement

Question 3

The fact that human language is made up of sounds that are combined into many units of meaning is called:

A) displacement
B) duality
C) productivity
D) arbitrariness

Answer 3

duality

Question 4

The fact that human language can generate a virtually infinite number of combinations of units of meaning is called:

A) displacement
B) duality
C) productivity
D) arbitrariness

Question 5

When we say human language is arbitrary we mean:

A) it is actually without much meaning
B) we make up the rules of language as we go along
C) a language has no relationship to the culture that uses it
D) it uses symbolic representations of meanings

Question 6

Human language seems to be best described as:

A) entirely a cultural phenomenon
B) largely biologically based
C) an interaction between biological potential and cultural input
D) a built-in instinctive set of responses set off by particular environmental stimuli

Question 7

The "able" in "reasonable"
Is an example of a:

A) phoneme
B) morpheme
C) prefix
D) sound unit

Question 8

The communication systems of nonhuman species consist of a finite number of signals for a finite number of specific meanings. Such systems are said to be:

A) open
B) arbitrary
C) symbolic
D) closed

Question 9

The communication of chimpanzees is non-referential except with regard to:

A) sources of food
B) sources of danger
C) emotional states
D) information dealing with sexual activity and reproduction

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT used as evidence for the investigation of the time of emergence of human language?

A) endocasts of fossil brains
B) examination of the cells of ancient brains
C) reconstruction of vocal apparatus
D) logical guesses as to when a complex language was required

Question 11

Vocal tract reconstructions show that the tract of the australopithecines was like that of:

A) apes
B) Homo erectus
C) modern human children
D) modern human adults

Question 12

Modern human vocal tracts seem to appear at the time of:

A) Australopithecus
B) Homo erectus
C) archaic Homo sapiens
D) anatomically modern Homo sapiens

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT an established reason for the failure of attempts to teach chimpanzees to speak a human language?

A) differences in their vocal tracts
B) differences in their facial muscles
C) differences in the basic structure of their brains
D) differences in their tongue muscles

Question 14

So far, some substitute for spoken human language has been taught to all but:

A) chimpanzees
B) bonobos
C) baboons
D) orangutans

Question 15

Chimpanzees and other apes have brains complex enough to learn the rudiments of human language because:

A) they lead complex lives requiring such brains
B) they are closely related to humans
C) they are clearly on the way to eventually evolving into humanlike species
D) they use complex communication in the wild only it hasn't been observed

Question 16

About how many different languages are spoken in the world today?

A) millions
B) about 3000
C) around 150
D) about a dozen main ones with lots of subgroups and dialects

Question 17

Cognates are words:

A) that are similar in different languages because of borrowing
B) that are similar in different languages because of coincidence
C) that are similar in different languages because of common descent
D) that differ among languages and so show those languages are not related

Question 18

Words for ____________ are not normally cognates?

A) body parts
B) scientific ideas and technologies
C) numbers
D) family relationships

Question 19

Which of the following language features has been shown to be directly related to the cultural system that uses the language?

A) phonemes
B) morphemes
C) rules of grammar
D) word meanings and categories

Question 20

The words and categories a society uses to organize and talk about important aspects of their world is called:

A) a folk taxonomy
B) cultural relativity
C) world view
D) phonemic inventory

Question 21

The study of cultural categories and word meanings is called:

A) folk taxonomy
B) ethnography
C) ethnosemantics
D) descriptive linguistics

Question 22

Why do Eskimo languages have so many more specific words for types of snow than does English?

A) they have more scientific knowledge about snow
B) there are more kinds of snow in the Arctic
C) snow is more important to them
D) they have slightly a different visual perception of their world

Question 23

The features of a society's language are most directly related to:

A) the natural environment in which they live
B) how far they have progressed evolutionarily
C) their natural environment and cultural history in interaction
D) the structures of their brains and sense organs

Question 24

What are the four characteristics of the human communication system? Briefly define each.

Question 25

Evaluate the communication of honeybees in terms of the four features of the human communication system.

Question 26

What is the evidence that human language has a biological basis?

Question 27

Why do we say that the word "unbelievable"
is composed of three morphemes? What are they?

Question 28

Explain why "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously"
sounds like a real, meaningful sentence but "Furiously sleep ideas green colorless"
does not.

Question 29

What do we mean when we say human language is referential? Why is this important?

Question 30

What kinds of evidence have been examined to try to determine the time of origin of modern human language? What answer to this question do these suggest?

Question 31

Why have attempts to teach apes to speak human language failed?

Question 32

What is the evidence that apes taught to sign or use symbols on a computer are communicating in a real human language?

Question 33

If apes don't use a humanlike language in the wild, why are we able to teach them to use one?

Question 34

What major type of evidence do we use in trying to classify and reconstruct languages?

Question 35

In English, nouns have no gender. In French, Spanish, and German-among many others-nouns are conceived of as masculine, feminine, or neuter. This is an example of what phenomenon? How would you account for such differences?

Question 36

Address the claim that written languages are more advanced that unwritten ones.

Question 37

Under what circumstances does it appear that writing was invented?