Deck 9: Language and Communication

Question 1

Roger is fascinated with learning the meanings of words.Roger has a keen interest in

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

Answer 1

B

Question 2

One way that young infants seem to identify words is by

A)paying attention to unusual combinations of syllables.
B)paying more attention to stressed syllables rather than unstressed syllables.
C)paying more attention to words they have never heard before.
D)paying attention to the meaning of words.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

One characteristic of language is that an infinite number of utterances can be produced from the vocabulary.This is referred to as

A)symbolism.
B)generativity.
C)displacement.
D)expressiveness.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The term phonology refers to

A)the sounds of a language.
B)the study of words and their meanings.
C)the structure of a language.
D)the study of how people use language to communicate effectively.

Question 5

________ is the study of how people use language to communicate effectively.

A)Phonology
B)Grammar
C)Semantics
D)Pragmatics

Question 6

________ is/are a system that relates sounds (or gestures) to meaning.

A)Pragmatics
B)Phonology
C)Semantics
D)Language

Question 7

Seven-month-old Julius hears this conversation:
John: I want to go swim.
John's dad: Do you want to swim in the pool?
John: No,I want to swim in the lake.
If Julius then hears the words "run" and "swim," what would you expect him to do?
(A) pay more attention to "run" than to "swim"
(B) pay more attention to "swim" than to "run"
(C) pay equal attention to "run" and "swim"
(D) say the words "run" and "swim"

Question 8

When seven- to eight-month-olds hear a word repeatedly in different sentences,later they

A)pay less attention to that word than to words they have not heard previously.
B)pay more attention to that word than to words they have not heard previously.
C)pay the same amount of attention to the previously heard word and new words.
D)cannot recognize sound patterns that they hear repeatedly.

Question 9

Which of the following is an example of a phoneme?

A)"bababababa"
B)the "ing" in "playing"
C)"Me go."
D)the "d" sound in "dog"

Question 10

The basic building blocks of language that are used to form words are called

A)morphemes.
B)grammars.
C)lexicals.
D)phonemes.

Question 11

Infants as young as ________ of age can distinguish phonemes.

A)one month
B)six months
C)one year
D)two years

Question 12

The sounds of a language are referred to as

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

Question 13

Syntax refers to

A)the sounds of a language.
B)the study of words and their meanings.
C)rules that specify how words are combined to form sentences,
D)the study of how people use language to communicate effectively.

Question 14

Infants pay more attention to

A)a referential style of language.
B)an expressive style of language.
C)adult-directed speech.
D)infant-directed speech.

Question 15

The rules used to specify how words are combined to form sentences are referred to as

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

Question 16

Six-month-old Seiko is growing up in a home where Japanese is the only language spoken.Is she likely to be able to discriminate speech sounds that are used in English but are not used in Japanese?

A)She is not likely to ever be able to discriminate them.
B)She is likely to be able to discriminate them now but will probably lose that ability when she gets older.
C)She is not likely to be able to discriminate them at this age but should be able to when she gets older.
D)She is likely to be able to discriminate them throughout her life.

Question 17

When using ________,adults speak slowly and with exaggerated changes in pitch and loudness.

A)a referential style
B)an expressive style
C)infant-directed speech
D)adult-directed speech

Question 18

Infants who are younger than six months of age

A)do not need to experience speech sounds in their environment to be able to discriminate them.
B)must experience speech sounds in their environment to be able to discriminate them.
C)can discriminate only the sounds found in their native language.
D)cannot discriminate any speech sounds,which explains why they cannot talk.

Question 19

The term semantics refers to

A)the sounds of a language.
B)the study of words and their meanings.
C)the structure of language.
D)the study of how people use language to communicate effectively.

Question 20

Which of the following is one of the ways in which language differs from simple communication?

A)Language has arbitrary units.
B)Language is not structured.
C)Language does not show displacement.
D)Language is not characterized by generativity.

Question 21

Babbling refers to

A)speech-like sounds that consist of a vowel and consonant but that have no meaning.
B)the production of vowel-like sounds such as "ooooooo" or "ahhhhhhh."
C)a pattern of rising and falling pitch.
D)a distinctive style of speech adults use when talking to infants.

Question 22

Vowel-like utterances such as "oooooooo" and "ahhhhhhh" are referred to as

A)babbling.
B)intonation.
C)infant-directed speech.
D)cooing.

Question 23

Intonation refers to

A)the production of vowel-like sounds.
B)the production of utterances that contain both vowel and consonant sounds.
C)a pattern of rising or falling pitch.
D)the repetition of a sound.

Question 24

Most children say their first words at about ________ of age.

A)6 months
B)12 months
C)18 months
D)24 months

Question 25

A cochlear implant is a device that picks up on speech sounds and

A)relays them to the auditory cortex.
B)amplifies them.
C)converts them to electrical impulses that stimulate nerve cells in the ear.
D)alters the sound frequencies.

Question 26

A child's ability to make connections between new words and referents so rapidly that he or she cannot be considering all possible meanings for the new word is referred to as

A)overregularization.
B)underextension.
C)overextension.
D)fast mapping.

Question 27

As children develop the ability to use symbols,they begin to talk and

A)no longer make underextension errors.
B)no longer make overregularization errors.
C)begin to be able to differentiate phonemes.
D)begin to use gestures.

Question 28

The production of the first words is linked to the ability to

A)use symbols.
B)produce vowels.
C)produce consonants.
D)use intonation.

Question 29

The production of syllables that contain vowels and consonants is called

A)cooing.
B)babbling.
C)fast mapping.
D)intonation.

Question 30

Which of the following is TRUE of infant-directed speech?

A)Infants prefer adult-directed speech to infant-directed speech.
B)Only mothers use infant-directed speech.
C)Infant-directed speech seems to attract the infant's attention.
D)The use of infant-directed speech makes it more difficult for infants to identify speech sounds.

Question 31

Cochlear implants are

A)more successful with older children.
B)more successful with younger children.
C)more successful with children who have no hearing whatsoever.
D)effective for all children with hearing impairment.

Question 32

Celia has noticed that her seven-month-old daughter has recently begun to raise and lower the pitch of her voice when she babbles so she sometimes sounds as if she is asking questions.Celia's daughter has added ________ to her babbling.

A)cooing
B)repetition
C)vowel sounds
D)intonation

Question 33

Cooing refers to

A)single syllable utterances consisting of a consonant and vowel.
B)the production of vowel-like sounds such as "ooooooo" or "ahhhhhhh."
C)the repetition of a sound such as "dahdahdahdahdah."
D)a pattern of rising and falling pitch.

Question 34

You visit your friend Amy and her six-month-old son,Joey.You notice that when Amy talks to Joey she speaks slowly and with exaggerated changes in pitch and loudness.You think to yourself

A)"Amy had better stop talking that way or Joey is never going to learn to speak properly."
B)"Amy's making it easier for Joey to perceive the important sounds of our language by talking to him the way she does."
C)"Amy's correct to speak differently to Joey than she does to adults,but she should be speaking more quickly and with fewer changes in pitch and loudness."
D)"It bugs me when Amy talks that way to Joey,but it's not going to affect how well Joey perceives language,either positively or negatively."

Question 35

Jenny just had her first baby and is wondering when he will begin producing different kinds of sounds.Which of the following should she expect him to produce first?

A)babbling
B)intonation
C)first word
D)cooing

Question 36

Meredith has just begun to be able to use symbols to represent actions and objects.You would expect her to use

A)gestures but not words.
B)words but not gestures.
C)words and gestures.
D)neither words nor gestures.

Question 37

Cochlear implants

A)are beneficial for adults who lose their hearing after mastering language but do not help deaf children learn language.
B)enhance language development in young children,but for some more than others.
C)allow deaf children to develop language skills as good as those of hearing children.
D)make other forms of language therapy for deaf children unnecessary.

Question 38

Which of the following is TRUE of the development of babbling?

A)Infants produce complex speech sounds before simpler sounds.
B)Intonation is added to later babbling.
C)Early babbling contains combinations of many different sounds.
D)Babbling is the production of vowel-like sounds.

Question 39

Many children experience a naming explosion at

A)12 months of age.
B)15 months of age.
C)18 months of age.
D)24 months of age.

Question 40

As infants develop,

A)babbling shifts from single syllable utterances to combinations of different sounds.
B)the average length of each babbled sound decreases.
C)babbling tends to become more constant in pitch.
D)they shift from babbling to cooing.

Question 41

Overextensions

A)occur more often when children are producing words than when they are comprehending words.
B)occur when children define a word too narrowly.
C)are not influenced by feedback from parents.
D)become more common as children get older.

Question 42

Barry tells his three-year-old son,Billy,the name of an unfamiliar object.You would expect Billy to

A)use rules to link the word with its meaning.
B)not use any rules to determine the meaning of the word.
C)need to hear the new word many times before he learns its correct meaning.
D)systematically evaluate all possible hypotheses regarding the correct meaning of the word.

Question 43

Which of the following is the best example of an overextension?

A)using the word "house" to refer only to the family's house
B)hearing the unfamiliar word "shoe" and concluding that it refers to objects that are worn on feet
C)using the word "horsie" to refer to all four-legged creatures
D)saying "I goed" instead of "I went"

Question 44

Fast mapping denotes the phenomenon that

A)words are associated with objects so rapidly that children are not systematically evaluating all possible meanings of a word.
B)children have identified concepts prior to language;words are used as symbols to denote these concepts.
C)children are more likely to learn words consisting of sounds they have already mastered.
D)children often understand words before they are able to produce them in their own speech.

Question 45

What is the single most important factor in growth of a child's vocabulary?

A)Heredity
B)What language the child is speaking
C)The ability to hear sounds
D)The child's language environment

Question 46

When Utsav is riding in the car with his mother,he will point at buses,vans,bikes,and trucks and say "car." This is an example of

A)an overextension.
B)an underextension.
C)fast mapping.
D)overregularization.

Question 47

Kim has an expressive style of learning language.Ellie has a referential style of learning language.You would expect to find that

A)Kim knows more words that are names
B)Kim knows more social phrases
C)Kim knows an equal number of social phrases and words that are names
D)Kim and Ellie's vocabularies both contain equal numbers of words that are names

Question 48

Hannah uses the word cat to refer only to her cat,not to other cats.Hannah's mistake is an example of

A)fast mapping.
B)overregularization.
C)overextension.
D)underextension.

Question 49

Youngsters with a referential style of language-learning

A)use language primarily as a social tool.
B)have a high percentage of question words (what,where) in their vocabularies.
C)have vocabularies that are dominated by the names of objects,persons,or actions.
D)have balanced vocabularies containing words used for questions,social-interactions,and names.

Question 50

Two-year-old Michael already knows the meaning of the word dog.One day when he is at a park with his mother,they see a dog and his mother points to the dog and says,"That's a collie." Michael is likely to conclude that

A)his mother does not know what a dog is.
B)all dogs are called collies.
C)a collie is a special type of dog.
D)collie refers to some part of the dog,such as its head or tail or neck.

Question 51

Eighteen-month-old Lenny's vocabulary contains some words that are names for objects but also has many social phrases such as "I want it" and "Go away." Lenny has a(n) ________ style of learning language.

A)intellectual
B)fast mapping
C)referential
D)expressive

Question 52

Phonological memory is

A)the ability to remember speech sounds briefly.
B)the ability to remember the meanings of words.
C)the ability to remember context in which a word was used.
D)the ability to remember unfamiliar words.

Question 53

Children with expressive language-learning styles

A)have vocabularies that primarily consist of the names of objects,people,and actions.
B)have vocabularies that consist of many social phrases.
C)use language as an intellectual tool.
D)have vocabularies that contain few question words such as "what."

Question 54

When young children are learning new words,they

A)require many presentations of the new word to learn the correct referent.
B)systematically consider all possible hypotheses about the connection between the word and the correct referent.
C)are more likely to learn an object's name when adults look at the object while saying its name.
D)do not use sentence cues.

Question 55

Defining a word too narrowly is known as

A)an overextension.
B)an underextension.
C)fast mapping.
D)overregularization.

Question 56

When children make the mistake of defining a word too broadly,it is referred to as

A)overregularization.
B)overextension.
C)underextension.
D)fast mapping.

Question 57

According to the rules that young children use to learn the meanings of new words,when Ravisha points to a picture of a boy in a blue shirt and says "boy" her 13-month-old son will assume that the word "boy" refers to

A)the boy.
B)the boy's shirt.
C)the color blue.
D)the book that Ravisha is reading.

Question 58

Which of the following is a CORRECT statement concerning the rules children use to learn new words?

A)If an unfamiliar word is heard in the presence of objects that already have names and objects that do not,the word refers to one of the objects that does not have a name.
B)A name refers to a part of an object,not the whole object.
C)A name refers to one particular object not to all objects of the same type.
D)If an object already has a name and another name is presented,the new name is incorrect.

Question 59

Eighteen-month-old Zach's vocabulary consists mainly of words that are the names of objects,persons,or actions.Zach has a(n) ________ style of learning language.

A)expressive
B)referential
C)social
D)fast mapping

Question 60

Children with a referential style of learning language use language mainly as a(n) ________ tool whereas children with an expressive style of learning language use language primarily as a(n) ________ tool.

A)adult-directed;child-directed
B)child-directed;adult-directed
C)intellectual;social
D)social;intellectual

Question 61

When Angela says "Me down" instead of "I would like to get down," she is using

A)overregularization.
B)a grammatical morpheme.
C)telegraphic speech.
D)underextension.

Question 62

Which child showed overregularization?

A)Rachel,who said "I goed to the store"
B)Whitney,who said "Me go"
C)Clarissa,who said "I went to the store"
D)Isabelle,who said "I go to the store every day"

Question 63

________ are words or endings of words (such as -ed or -ing) that make a sentence grammatical.

A)Overextensions
B)Underextensions
C)Grammatical morphemes
D)Overregularizations

Question 64

Nicole is being raised in a home where both English and Spanish are spoken.She is likely to

A)learn language at the same rate as a child who is learning only one language.
B)learn language more slowly at first because she will mix words from the two languages but will be as proficient or better in language skill than monolingual children later in childhood.
C)learn language more quickly at first because she is exposed to more words but have less proficient language skills than monolingual children later in childhood.
D)be delayed in her language growth throughout infancy and childhood.

Question 65

You are on a committee formed to make a recommendation to a school system about how to best help non-English-speaking children master both academic content and English.Based on research in this area,what language would you recommend be used for instruction?

A)English only
B)the children's native language only
C)both English and the children's native language
D)either English or the children's native language,it does not matter which one is used

Question 66

Which of the following is an example of overregularization?

A)mans
B)women
C)children's
D)mice

Question 67

Which of the following is positively related to the size of a child's vocabulary?

A)having parents who speak to the child infrequently
B)reading written material
C)rarely asking children questions
D)viewing cartoons on television

Question 68

Joanne and Dennis want to do all they can to expand their preschooler son's vocabulary.Which of the following would you recommend to them?

A)When reading stories,simply read the story and do not ask him questions.
B)Have him watch Sesame Street regularly.
C)Have him watch Sesame Street only occasionally.
D)Have him watch many cartoons.

Question 69

The production of two-word speech

A)usually occurs around the first birthday.
B)is haphazard and is not based on any rules.
C)follows rules that are very different from language to language.
D)often is called telegraphic speech.

Question 70

Children use rules such as "agent + action," "action + object," "action + location," and "attribute + entity" to

A)form grammatical morphemes.
B)form two-word sentences.
C)use semantic bootstrapping.
D)produce overregularizations.

Question 71

A child who says "I am eating my lunch" instead of "Me eat" is using

A)telegraphic speech.
B)overextension.
C)overregularization.
D)grammatical morphemes.

Question 72

Which of the following statements is TRUE regarding the influence of the environment on language development?

A)The frequency of parental speech is not related to the size of a child's vocabulary.
B)Naming objects that are the focus of a child's attention is not related to word learning.
C)Children who are passively exposed to television shows such as cartoons have larger vocabularies than other children.
D)Questioning children while reading to them forces them to identify the meanings of new words.

Question 73

A language's rules for combining words to create sentences are referred to as

A)telegraphic speech.
B)semantic bootstrapping.
C)grammatical morphemes.
D)syntax.

Question 74

Bilingual children

A)have lower IQ scores than monolingual children.
B)do not understand the fine points of grammar as well as monolingual children.
C)are at a linguistic disadvantage when they begin elementary school.
D)are more likely than monolingual children to understand that words are simply arbitrary symbols.

Question 75

Which of the following is an example of telegraphic speech?

A)"Baby hungry"
B)the "ing" in "kicking"
C)using the word "car" to refer to trucks,vans,and automobiles
D)using the word "dog" to refer only to the family dog

Question 76

Children's use of grammatical morphemes is based primarily on

A)learning individual words.
B)the use of rules.
C)inflection.
D)telegraphic speech.

Question 77

Berko's classic study in which she showed children a nonsense object labeled a "wug" and then presented the child with a picture of two of these objects to see how the child would supply the plural form of "wug" demonstrated that preschool

A)children's use of grammatical morphemes is based on rules.
B)children do not use inflection.
C)children's language is not based on rules.
D)children acquire a rule for using "un + verb" to reverse or stop the action of a verb.

Question 78

________ occurs when children apply rules to words that are exceptions to the rule.

A)An underextension
B)An overextension
C)Overregularization
D)Semantic bootstrapping

Question 79

________ refers to using only words directly relevant to meaning.

A)Semantic bootstrapping
B)A grammatical morpheme
C)Overregularization
D)Telegraphic speech

Question 80

Who is most likely to be using telegraphic speech?

A)nine-month-old Linda
B)18-month-old Lorna
C)three-year-old Lucinda
D)five-year-old Louisa