Deck 9: Development of Language and Communication Skills

Question 1

Sociolinguistic knowledge refers to

A)the rules for how words and grammatical markers are to be combined.
B)culturally specific rules about how a language should be structured and used in context.
C)the expressed meaning of words and sentences.
D)the study of the structure and development of children's language.

Answer 1

culturally specific rules about how a language should be structured and used in context.

Question 2

A language's phonology is its

A)types of birds that are arbitrarily called pidgins.
B)social customs for polite conversations.
C)rules for making words out of sounds.
D)set of basic spoken sounds.

Answer 2

rules for making words out of sounds.

Question 3

When a child advances from utterances such as "no he going" to "he not going," the child has made a gain in knowledge of

A)phonology.
B)syntax.
C)semantics.
D)pragmatics

Answer 3

syntax.

Question 4

In linguistics, BOUND MORPHEME is to FREE MORPHEME as ____ is to ____.

A)PURCHASE :: GIFT
B)TEMPORARY :: ENDURING
C)MEAT :: VEGETABLE
D)DEPENDENT :: INDEPENDENT

Question 5

The rules for making words out of sounds is a language's

A)syntax.
B)semantics.
C)morphology.
D)phonology.

Question 6

SEMANTICS is to PRAGMATICS as ____ is to ____.

A)MEANING :: MANNERS
B)SHRIEK :: HOWL
C)RANDOM :: SYSTEMATIC
D)INTAKE :: OUTPUT

Question 7

A child must acquire several types of knowledge about language. One kind is called the pragmatics of language, which refers to

A)the basic units of sound.
B)principles of when to say what and how to say it.
C)the basic meaningful units; i.e., words, past-tense markers, and plural markers.
D)the meaning of words and sentences.

Question 8

Molly is learning that "a" stands for the sound you hear when you say "apple" or "ant;" that "b" stands for the sound in "bat" and "ball;" and so forth. Molly is learning

A)phonemes.
B)morphemes.
C)syntax.
D)semantics.

Question 9

Which of these is NOT one of all languages' five universal components?

A)Reinforcement
B)Pragmatics
C)Syntax
D)Phonology

Question 10

In the Philippines, speakers move both eyebrows quickly up and down to give emphasis to what they say. This "eyebrow flash" is a type of

A)pragmatic.
B)morpheme.
C)phonology.
D)prelinguistic phase.

Question 11

Which term relates closely to language pragmatics?

A)Holophrase
B)Lexical contrast restraint
C)Sociolinguistic knowledge
D)Stereotype threat

Question 12

Which term is LEAST descriptive of human language?

A)Flexible
B)Inventive
C)Limited
D)Productive

Question 13

How many morphemes are in the word "dogs"?

A)One
B)Two
C)Four
D)None

Question 14

Roberto studies the structure and development of children's language. He is a

A)psycholinguist.
B)morphologist.
C)grammarian.
D)clinical psychologist.

Question 15

Toddler Todd habitually makes up original new words. This illustrates the ____ characteristic of language.

A)inventive
B)bilingual
C)overextension
D)object scope constraint

Question 16

The smallest meaningful language unit is called a

A)phoneme.
B)morpheme.
C)holophrase.
D)telegraphic statement.

Question 17

At a church service, Bonzo jumps up and shouts, while hundreds of people scowl disapprovingly. Bonzo's language ____ is/are inappropriate here.

A)morphology
B)bound morphemes
C)syntax
D)pragmatics

Question 18

PHONOLOGY is to SYNTAX as ____ is to ____.

A)CREOLE :: PIDGIN
B)SOUND :: RULE
C)POLITE :: COARSE
D)LISTENING :: READING

Question 19

Language syntax is like

A)randomly picking a chocolate from a box of candies.
B)a baseball umpire who knows all the rules.
C)saying polite farewells when leaving a party.
D)knowing how to open a parcel to get the object inside.

Question 20

When a child shows a preference for the nonsense word "blek" over "bkel," the child is showing evidence of having acquired

A)knowledge about the phonology of language.
B)semantic knowledge.
C)syntactic knowledge.
D)knowledge about pragmatics.

Question 21

Alfy suffers from aphasia, which is a disorder of

A)dietary deficiency of essential vitamins/minerals.
B)writing with a pencil in the hand.
C)sustaining attention over time.
D)language.

Question 22

Children around the world learn their parents' language at the same average pace. These "linguistic universals" suggest to nativists that

A)language learning is based on the infantile diet.
B)similar language instruction is given in all cultures.
C)the brain is biologically programmed to learn language.
D)empiricism best explains the learning of language.

Question 23

In Malawi, Africa, people talk fast, and, during pauses, they chime in with what they think the other person will say next. This is a language

A)fast-mapping.
B)underextension.
C)overregularization.
D)pragmatic.

Question 24

Apes' usage of symbolic codes and sign languages rises to the level of a human at the age of

A)one year.
B)two and a half years.
C)four years.
D)six years.

Question 25

"Language is such an innate skill that children will invent their own even when they never hear a standard language." This statement is from a(n)

A)nativist.
B)empiricist.
C)psychoanalyst.
D)socioculturalist.

Question 26

"Children acquire language through imitation and reinforcement." This is the viewpoint of a(n)

A)interactionist.
B)nativist.
C)Piagetian cognitive developmentalist.
D)empiricist.

Question 27

A brief slogan that describes the nativist position on language acquisition would be,

A)"Maturate!"
B)"Imitate!"
C)"Gravitate!"
D)"Ruminate!"

Question 28

A linguistic universal is

A)a word that has the same meaning in all languages.
B)a language from which all other languages evolved.
C)an aspect of language development that all children share.
D)an error made by children in learning a language.

Question 29

Nativist Noam Chomsky argued that each child is born with a language acquisition device (LAD), which

A)controls attention so that language can be imitated.
B)serves as an imaginary playmate, especially for boys.
C)provides positive reinforcement when words are heard.
D)biologically prepares the brain to process language.

Question 30

In nativist theories of language development, the basic rules of grammar that characterize all languages are known as

A)syntax.
B)LMC.
C)LAD.
D)universal grammar.

Question 31

Empiricism is LEAST able to explain which aspect of children"s language acquisition?

A)Successful parental encouragement of more talking
B)Development of syntax/grammar
C)Flexibility regarding which language is acquired
D)Deliberate parental teaching of new words to the child

Question 32

Chatty can talk fine, but he has trouble understanding what he hears. Which part of the brain is most likely injured?

A)Hypothalamus
B)Broca's area
C)Wernicke's area
D)Bill Clinton's "truth center"

Question 33

The meanings of internet messages can be misinterpreted because the typed words lack ____ such as gestures, intonational cues, or facial cues.

A)fast-mapping
B)nonverbal signals
C)recasts
D)free morphemes

Question 34

Chomsky proposed that

A)reinforcement is needed for normal language development.
B)language arises from unknown supernatural influences.
C)there is an inborn linguistic processor for language.
D)language develops via imitation and social interaction.

Question 35

The spontaneous use of language is done by

A)no living creatures of any species.
B)apes but not by humans.
C)humans but not by apes.
D)by humans and also by apes.

Question 36

According to the empiricist perspective of language development, the mechanisms that most influence language development include all of the following EXCEPT

A)imitation.
B)reinforcement.
C)corrections.
D)habituation.

Question 37

Silent Snell understands what he reads or hears, but he can't speak. Snell's brain may be injured in

A)Broca's area.
B)Wernicke's area.
C)the cerebellum.
D)the medulla.

Question 38

Children utter novel sentences that they have never heard. This originality in speech ____ the empiricist theory.

A)strongly supports
B)mildly supports
C)is theoretically neutral toward
D)disconfirms

Question 39

"Baby hear, baby say." This slogan represents the ____ theory of language development.

A)Freudian psychoanalytic
B)Piagetian
C)empiricist
D)nativist

Question 40

BROCA'S AREA is to WERNICKE'S AREA as ____ is to ____.

A)MENTAL IMAGERY :: VISUAL PERCEPTION
B)SPEAKING :: LISTENING
C)STABILITY :: TREMORS
D)PAST :: FUTURE

Question 41

When talking to their baby, Mr. and Mrs. Phiri speak slowly in sing-songy baby talk. This is called

A)hyperbolic receptive language.
B)metalinguistic vocalization.
C)primatological regression.
D)motherese.

Question 42

For interactionists, language's main function is to

A)provide employment for language teachers.
B)discourage inappropriate evocations of parentese.
C)foster emotional bonds between parent and child.
D)communicate ideas among people.

Question 43

"Negative evidence" in early language acquisition

A)confuses the child and retards speaking.
B)means that parents ignore the child's mistakes.
C)means that a parent detects the child's error and helps with its correction.
D)punishes the child's errors but gives emotional support.

Question 44

Parents' motherese, or child-directed speech,

A)quits abruptly when the toddler begins to use grammar.
B)gradually includes more complex sentence constructions as the child improves language competencies.
C)is triggered by hormonal changes in the mother's body.
D)is flatter in vocal tone than adult-to-adult speech.

Question 45

Which factual statement is LEAST relevant to Lenneberg's sensitive-period hypothesis?

A)Severely neglected children have language problems.
B)Learning a new language is hard for adults.
C)Immigrants' young children learn the host country's language very fluently.
D)Pragmatics are social conversational customs.

Question 46

For interactionist theory, grammatical speech

A)is learned by imitating good speakers on TV.
B)is needed socially for the child to organize knowledge.
C)develops from an innate language acquisition device.
D)is learned from grammar lessons taught by the parent.

Question 47

The combination viewpoint, which partially accepts both the nativist and learning theories, is the ______ perspective.

A)pidgin
B)instructional
C)interactionist
D)holophrastic bootstrapping

Question 48

Regarding the young child's language acquisition, which term does NOT belong with the other three?

A)Stereotype threat
B)Recast
C)Negative evidence
D)Expansion

Question 49

Details of the LAD/LMC (language acquisition device/;anguage-making capacity) are unspecified and unknown; this tends to ____ the nativist position on language.

A)strengthen
B)mix empiricism with
C)be neutral theoretically with respect to
D)weaken

Question 50

Interactionist theorists note parallels between patterns of early language development and the child's

A)phenotypic expressions of canalized genotypes.
B)advances in general cognitive development.
C)resistance against syntactical bootstrapping.
D)resilience against abuse or neglect.

Question 51

Caucasians in New Mexico hear much Spanish, yet they do not learn it unless they talk with Spanish speakers. This illustrates the importance of

A)"feeding the pidgins."
B)object scope constraint.
C)morphological knowledge.
D)active conversation.

Question 52

Lenneberg's sensitive-period hypothesis states that language

A)is most effectively acquired during childhood.
B)has a special capacity to offend others emotionally.
C)is prone to being forgotten when the brain is shocked.
D)enables "touchy" people to be offended easily by comments.

Question 53

Aphasias show less recovery in adults than in children. This fact ____ the sensitive-period hypothesis.

A)supports
B)is theoretically neutral toward
C)obscures
D)disconfirms

Question 54

Infants learn from parents that conversing involves taking turns when talking. This exemplifies a(n)

A)environmental/social support for language development.
B)phenotypic expression of a canalized genotype.
C)lexical contrast constraint.
D)expression of grammatical morphemes.

Question 55

A toddler says telegraphically, "Kitty eat," and his mom then says, "Our Kitty eats food at the bowl." This is a(n)

A)processing constraint.
B)motherese naming explosion.
C)expansion.
D)recast.

Question 56

Which sequence correctly arranges languages from simplest to most advanced?

A)Formal language :: pidgin :: creole
B)Creole :: formal language :: pidgin
C)Creole :: pidgin :: formal language
D)Pidgin :: creole :: formal language

Question 57

"Baby talk" that is directed toward an infant is called

A)fast-mapping free morphemes.
B)morphological coo-knowledge.
C)two-way semantics.
D)motherese.

Question 58

What special language event happened in Nicaragua after the Sandinista regime took power in 1979?

A)Deaf children were mainstreamed into regular schools.
B)A sign language was developed at schools for the deaf.
C)Russian was made the official language of Nicaragua.
D)Educators tried to teach Spanish to apes and monkeys.

Question 59

The interactionist perspective implies that infants are not able to use words denoting past or future until

A)they are able to think about remote past or future time.
B)they have learned how to read time from clocks.
C)the punctuality principle is appreciated by the child.
D)after the child is reminded by others to attend to time.

Question 60

The language development theory that emphasizes the principles of sensitive periods and linguistic universals is the

A)nativist theory.
B)empiricist theory.
C)interactionist theory.
D)learning theory.

Question 61

While the infant's speech becomes increasingly proficient and complex, his or her use of gestures

A)declines.
B)continues at a stable level.
C)changes in an erratic and unpredictable direction.
D)increases.

Question 62

The idea that conversations with older companions foster language development is most like the theory of

A)Piaget.
B)Vygotsky.
C)Erikson.
D)Bandura.

Question 63

Baby Barney points at a dump truck to interest others in looking at it, too. This is called a(n) ____ gesture.

A)declarative
B)imperative
C)dumpsterative
D)gestational

Question 64

Ebony's parents are very articulate, provide an environment that is rich in verbal stimuli, and spend a great deal of time talking with Ebony. Her parents state that when Ebony was only four months old, she started to speak in "sentences" that were three or four words long. Developmentalists would be most likely to

A)accept this as true if he or she supports the nativist view.
B)accept this as true if he or she supports the learning view.
C)reject this as false, regardless of his or her viewpoint.
D)accept this as true if he or she accepts the interactionist view.

Question 65

The fact that coos sound the same regardless of whether the young infant can hear suggests that they

A)convey self-generated meanings for adult listeners.
B)develop with maturation of the brain and vocal organs.
C)are a reflection of the parents' recasts and extensions.
D)arise from the infant's mutual exclusivity constraint.

Question 66

Which of these is LEAST involved in language development, according to the interactionist perspective?

A)Brain development
B)Vocalizations of family pets
C)The child's actions and linguistic utterances
D)The linguistic environment

Question 67

____ are the baby's earliest vocalizations other than crying, and they appear by the age of two months.

A)Babbles
B)Transformational lexical phonemes
C)Prelinguistic fast-mappers
D)Coos

Question 68

Preverbal infants' understanding of words they hear is

A)much greater than most parents believe.
B)at the same average level as parents' estimates.
C)lower than parents believe because infants interpret nonverbal cues such as parents' gestures.
D)suppressed due to confusion from the naming explosion.

Question 69

The infant is in the ____ during the first year of infancy.

A)holophrastic phase
B)primordial period
C)ethereal epoch
D)prelinguistic phase

Question 70

The prelinguistic phase in infancy ends when the child

A)utters her first meaningful words.
B)succeeds in toilet-training.
C)walks without assistance.
D)first shows signs, however indirectly, of using grammar.

Question 71

You are in an airport and hear three 11-month-old babies babbling, each from a different racial/ethnic background (Asian, Hispanic, and European). The babbling of each of these infants will

A)sound very similar because maturation is the major determinant of language acquisition in the first year.
B)consist mainly of vowel sounds because consonant sounds don't usually emerge until 12 months of age.
C)consist mainly of two-word phrases (telegraphic speech).
D)sound very different, with each child's babbles sounding quite similar to the language heard in the child's home.

Question 72

The infant uses imperative gestures to get others to

A)notice the infant's ideas.
B)expand pidgins into vocables.
C)fulfill the infant's requests.
D)initiate communication via telegraphic speech.

Question 73

For infants, DECLARATIVE GESTURES are to IMPERATIVE GESTURES as ____ is to ____.

A)BROCA'S AREA :: WERNICKE'S AREA
B)LISTENING :: SPEAKING
C)ATTENTION :: COMMAND
D)COOPERATION :: COMPETITION

Question 74

An infant first begins to prefer his or her own mother's voice to the voice of female strangers by the age of

A)three days.
B)three weeks.
C)three months.
D)six months.

Question 75

Identify the correct developmental sequence, from earliest to last, in the appearance of these vocalizations:

A)babbles :: holophrases :: coos.
B)holophrases :: babbles :: coos.
C)coos :: babbles :: holophrases.
D)holophrases :: coos :: babbles.

Question 76

Five-month old Cinderella is enjoying vocalizing with her mother and gets her attention by saying "bababababababa." Cinderella's behavior is referred to as

A)turn-taking.
B)cooing.
C)babbling.
D)holophrasing.

Question 77

Toddler Todd says, "Kitty eated food," so mom says, "Yes, Kitty ate her food." The error correction is called a

A)expansion.
B)negative reinforcer.
C)holophrase.
D)fast-mapping linguistic universal.

Question 78

Attention to human speech can be demonstrated in infants

A)during the embryonic prenatal stage.
B)within days after birth.
C)by the age of two months.
D)by the age of six months.

Question 79

Infants use hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate with others by the average age of

A)two weeks.
B)two months.
C)five months.
D)nine months.

Question 80

The goal of the infant's declarative gestures is to

A)make others grant the infant's requests.
B)practice telegraphic speech, leading to its mastery.
C)establish the boundaries of lexical contrast constraint.
D)direct others' attention toward an object or event.