Deck 9: Change and Choice

Question 1

Which of the following best defines the meaning of "genetically related" languages?

A)languages spoken by people who are genetically related
B)languages spoken by members of the same race
C)languages thought to have developed from a common ancestor language
D)languages belonging to the a single language community

Answer 1

languages thought to have developed from a common ancestor language

Question 2

Recent reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European suggests that it was first spoken in

A)on river islands in central Europe.
B)coastal areas where fishing was plentiful.
C)the savannah.
D)a temperate, forested climate.

Answer 2

a temperate, forested climate.

Question 3

The borrowing of words such as rouge and garage from French into English is example of which of the following kinds of language change?

A)internal change
B)external change
C)language degradation
D)language stasis

Answer 3

external change

Question 4

The gradual loss in English of the - ly ending on adverbs such as quickly and slowly is example of which of the following kinds of language change?

A)internal change
B)external change
C)language degradation
D)reanalysis

Question 5

An example of change in response to contact and borrowing between language is

A)the development of such English words as "terrific" and "blog."
B)the misanalysis in English of "I'm all shook up" as "emulsha cup."
C)the use of the French [ʒ] sound in English words like "rouge."
D)the regularization of the English plural "fish" to "fishes."

Question 6

In the 1950s, Morris Swadesh developed an approach to dating how long ago two languages split apart. This technique is called

A)lexicography.
B)lexicogenetics.
C)glottochronology.
D)chronolinguistics.

Question 7

Using more than one dialect (or language)in a single conversation is referred to as

A)codeswitching.
B)portmanteau construction.
C)code talking.
D)dialectology.

Question 8

When a creole is developed, the language that provides the bulk of the vocabulary for the creole is known as a(n)________ language.

A)mock
B)external
C)isolate
D)lexifier

Question 9

Which of the following are most easily borrowed between languages?

A)words
B)sounds
C)grammatical forms
D)phonemes

Question 10

A good understanding of the mechanisms of language change allows you to

A)see how biology determines language use.
B)understand the one-to-one connection between race and culture and language.
C)reconstruct ancestral languages from sets of daughter languages.
D)refute the Sapir/Whorf hypothesis.

Question 11

Theoretical linguists rely on the idea of a ________, or innate grammar, to explain how children form creoles out of pidgins.

A)calque
B)phyla
C)bioprogram
D)cognate

Question 12

Cognates are

A)words that can have more than one meaning depending on the individual.
B)words with exactly the same pronunciation and meaning in different languages.
C)words that are used by the elite members of a society to mark their status.
D)words related by descent from a common language.

Question 13

A situation where two or more varieties of the same language are used by speakers in different kinds of settings is called

A)slang.
B)diglossia.
C)lexochronotology.
D)bilingualism.

Question 14

The difference between language and dialect has mostly to do with

A)strict linguistic measures of mutual intelligibility.
B)the number of words that are shared.
C)social and political attitudes of the speakers.
D)how long ago two groups of speakers split apart.

Question 15

In which model of bilingualism do people gradually abandon their bilingualism in favor of a dominant language?

A)transitional bilingualism
B)stable bilingualism
C)codeswitching
D)diglossia

Question 16

Recent reconstruction of Proto-Bantu suggests that it was first spoken in

A)the Comoro Islands.
B)Madagascar.
C)the Sahel.
D)the Cameroon region.

Question 17

The splitting of the word hamburger into the morphemes ham and burger after it was borrowed from German into English is an example of which of the following?

A)diglossia
B)voicing
C)language degeneration
D)reanalysis

Question 18

The use of Mock Spanish in the children's book series about the character Skippy Jon Jones

A)cannot be racist, since it includes only positive images.
B)is a topic of discussion to which linguistic anthropology can contribute.
C)is of little interest to linguistic anthropologists, as it is not considered literature.
D)uses only correct Spanish words and grammar and promotes true bilingualism.

Question 19

Languages that cannot be classified into any existing language family are called

A)language loners.
B)language isolates.
C)language conundrums.
D)language lexicons.

Question 20

The word ___________ is an example of both a coined word and a word which has experienced meaning shift.

A)bogus
B)butterpillar
C)spam
D)uptight

Question 21

Languages and dialects are more accurately described as flexible collections of linguistic practice rather than concrete unchanging entities

Question 22

Monolingualism is quite rare in countries throughout the world.

Question 23

Nonaccommodating bilingualism is a very interesting response to a particular context. Describe a case of nonaccommodating bilingualism, and identify the context of this practice.

Question 24

Compare and contrast transitional and stable bilingualism. Discuss the role of language ideology in these two sorts of bilingual situation.

Question 25

In 1996, the Oakland School board set off a controversy with a resolution to recognize AAVE (or "Ebonics" as a "primary language" of African American students in the district. Describe the support offered by linguistics for this resolution, and the obstacles which this resolution faced. In your opinion, can the support successfully challenge these obstacles?

Question 26

"Proto-World" is a highly developed reconstructed protolanguage.

Question 27

Once we have reconstructed a protolanguage, we should be able to infer something about the culture of the people who spoke the language and the region in which it may have been spoken.

Question 28

A particular dialect generally becomes accepted as a "standard" because

A)it is genetically superior to others.
B)it changes more rapidly than others.
C)it is used by the socially "right" people.
D)it changes less slowly than others.

Question 29

Although languages generally change very slowly, one example of rapid change in language is the development of

A)dialects.
B)cognates.
C)protolanguages.
D)pidgins.

Question 30

In cases of nonaccommodating bilingualism, speakers of one language cannot understand anything that speakers of the other language say.

Question 31

Internal change tends to be more slow and predictable than external change in language.

Question 32

Briefly describe the process of recreating a proto-language. Explain what we can hypothesize as part of this process, and why we must mark proto-language morphemes with an asterisk rather than transcribing them as we do living languages.

Question 33

A creole is a language that

A)developed as a trade language.
B)developed from a pidgin.
C)has no grammar.
D)is native to no one.

Question 34

When the Oakland School board wanted to establish instruction in Ebonics, in addition to English, they cited research arguing that Ebonics was a

A)creole, descended from ancestral African languages.
B)pidgin, developed in West Africa during slavery.
C)pig Latin, used in the Comoro Islands by children.
D)dialect, with high prestige in Chicago and Oakland.

Question 35

A pidgin is a language that

A)developed as a trade language.
B)developed from a creole.
C)has no grammar.
D)lasts many generations.

Question 36

A situation in which individuals and communities maintain their bilingualism on a long-term basis is known as

A)stable bilingualism.
B)transitional bilingualism.
C)academic bilingualism.
D)standardized bilingualism.

Question 37

A protolanguage is a language that more closely corresponds to the deep structures in the brain.