Question 1

Sapir and Whorf argued that all humans share a single set of universal grammatical categories.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 2

What is the study of the sounds used in speech?

Accepted Answer

A)  phones 
B)  phonology 
C)  phonetics 
D)  phonemes 
E)  phonemics

Question 3

Phonology is the study of speech sounds.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 4

Syntax refers to the rules that dictate the order of words in a language.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 5

All languages and dialects are equally effective as systems of communication, regardless of whether or not they carry greater or lesser symbolic capital.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 6

Which of the following statements about chimpanzee call systems is NOT true?

Accepted Answer

A)  Like language, they include displacement and cultural transmission. 
B)  They are stimuli dependent. 
C)  They consist of sounds that vary in intensity and duration. 
D)  Calls cannot be combined when multiple stimuli are present. 
E)  They consist of a limited number of sounds.

Question 7

In this chapter, an alternative to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that cultural changes lead to changes in language.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 8

What term refers to the arrangement and order of words into sentences?

Accepted Answer

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

Question 9

Recent research on the origins of language suggests that a key mutation might have something to do with it. Comparing chimp and human genomes, it appears that

Accepted Answer

A)  a speech-friendly mutation occurred among Neandertals in Europe and spread to other human populations through gene flow. 
B)  chimps lack the tongue-rolling gene that all humans have, which might explain why they struggle to achieve clear speech. 
C)  the speech-friendly form of the gene FOXP2 took hold in humans some 150,000 years ago. 
D)  chimps share with humans all the genetic propensities for language but lack the language-activation mutation. 
E)  the speech mutation occurred even before the hominin line split from the rest of the hominids.

Question 10

Studies investigating differences in the way men and women talk are examples of sociolinguistics.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 11

Bourdieu argues that languages with the highest symbolic capital are those that are better systems of communication.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 12

Just as in other areas of anthropology, the study of language involves investigating what is or isn't shared across human populations and why these differences or similarities exist. The linguist Noam Chomsky has argued that the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language, so that all languages have a common structural basis. He calls this set of rules

Accepted Answer

A)  linguistic structuralism. 
B)  generalities. 
C)  the universal grammar. 
D)  a global mental map. 
E)  the evolutionary linguistic imprint.

Question 13

Kinesics is the study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and facial expressions.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 14

A key feature of language that helps explain anthropologists' continued interest in studying it is that it

Accepted Answer

A)  helps them distinguish between the more and less evolved human races. 
B)  rarely changes, so it provides a good window into linguistic uses of the past. 
C)  enables us to compare human and nonhuman primate linguistic grammars. 
D)  is always changing. 
E)  tells us a lot about the present, although nothing about the past.

Question 15

What is pidgin?

Accepted Answer

A)  a set of languages believed to be most like the original human language, spoken by a small population of Indian Ocean islanders 
B)  a partial language that results from primitive tribes' attempts to learn the language of a modern industrialized state 
C)  metalanguage, developed by computer programmers, that has yielded valuable insights into the workings of the human brain 
D)  a rhythmic sublanguage present in any human language as the result of a universally shared mutation 
E)  a mixed language that develops to ease communication between members of different cultures in contact, usually in situations of trade or colonial domination

Question 16

Focal vocabularies are found only in non-Western societies like the Eskimo and the Nuer.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 17

Recent genetic research suggests that a speech-friendly mutation took hold in humans around 150,000 years ago.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 18

What is the term for the ability to create new expressions by combining other expressions?

Accepted Answer

A)  displacement 
B)  phonemic utility 
C)  diglossia 
D)  productivity 
E)  morphemic utility

Question 19

Words that clearly descend from the same ancestral word are known as

Accepted Answer

A)  cognates. 
B)  subgroups. 
C)  synonyms. 
D)  homonyms. 
E)  daughters.

Question 20

What is an example of what Bourdieu calls symbolic domination in the context of language use?

Accepted Answer

A)  the fact that in a stratified society, even people who do not speak the prestige dialect tend to accept it as standard or superior 
B)  Chomsky's insistence that the universal grammar defines all culture 
C)  focal vocabulary contrasts among groups 
D)  in an egalitarian society, the promotion of linguistic diversity 
E)  pride in one's linguistic heritage, regardless of what the majority thinks

Exam 10: Language and Communication

Sapir and Whorf argued that all humans share a single set of universal grammatical categories.

What is the study of the sounds used in speech?

Phonology is the study of speech sounds.

Syntax refers to the rules that dictate the order of words in a language.

All languages and dialects are equally effective as systems of communication, regardless of whether or not they carry greater or lesser symbolic capital.

Which of the following statements about chimpanzee call systems is NOT true?

In this chapter, an alternative to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that cultural changes lead to changes in language.

What term refers to the arrangement and order of words into sentences?

Recent research on the origins of language suggests that a key mutation might have something to do with it. Comparing chimp and human genomes, it appears that

Studies investigating differences in the way men and women talk are examples of sociolinguistics.

Bourdieu argues that languages with the highest symbolic capital are those that are better systems of communication.

Kinesics is the study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and facial expressions.

A key feature of language that helps explain anthropologists' continued interest in studying it is that it

What is pidgin?

Focal vocabularies are found only in non-Western societies like the Eskimo and the Nuer.

Recent genetic research suggests that a speech-friendly mutation took hold in humans around 150,000 years ago.

What is the term for the ability to create new expressions by combining other expressions?

Words that clearly descend from the same ancestral word are known as

What is an example of what Bourdieu calls symbolic domination in the context of language use?