Deck 6: Development of Language and Symbol Use

Question 1

Children's syntactic development refers to their learning of the:

A) meaning system and words of their language.
B) cultural rules for how their language is used.
C) rules for combining the words in their language.
D) sound system of their language.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Using signs to communicate is referred to as:

A) comprehension.
B) knowledge.
C) construction.
D) production.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The average 5-year-old child is _____ the average college student at the basic grammatical structure of his or her native language.

A) much less competent than
B) slightly less competent than
C) as competent as
D) more competent than

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Understanding what other people say is referred to as language:

A) comprehension.
B) knowledge.
C) construction.
D) production.

Question 5

Children's semantic development refers to their learning of the:

A) meaning system and words of their language.
B) cultural rules for how their language is used.
C) rules for combining the words in their language.
D) sound system of their language.

Question 6

In the English language, /d/ and /k/ are examples of:

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

Question 7

In the English language, _____ is an example of a morpheme.

A) the word called
B) the plural s
C) the sound /th/
D) the /r/ sound

Question 8

A _____ is a symbol.

A) word
B) person's smile
C) computer
D) colour

Question 9

In the English language, walked contains "walk" and "ed," which are both:

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

Question 10

Learning _____ is considered part of semantic development.

A) how to produce the "r" sound
B) the rules of negation
C) how to take turns during conversations with others
D) the contrast between the meanings of the words table and desk

Question 11

_____ is NOT a symbol.

A) Spoken language
B) A picture
C) A map
D) A facial expression

Question 12

The English language uses _____ of the approximately _____ sounds used in the world's languages.

A) 26; 50
B) 22; 400
C) 34; 75
D) 45; 200

Question 13

Morphemes refer to the:

A) rules for combining words of a language.
B) elementary units of sound.
C) pairs of words in a language that have the same sound but different meanings.
D) smallest units of meaning.

Question 14

The notion that an infinite number of sentences and ideas can be expressed through a finite set of words is referred to as:

A) production.
B) generativity.
C) construction.
D) infinitivity.

Question 15

Children's phonological development refers to their learning of the:

A) meaning system and words of their language.
B) cultural rules for how their language is used.
C) rules for combining the words in their language.
D) sound system of their language.

Question 16

Which type of development is NOT involved in learning language?

A) phonological
B) semantic
C) pragmatic
D) production

Question 17

Learning _____ is considered part of communicative competence.

A) how to produce the "r" sound
B) the rules of negation
C) how to take turns during conversations with others
D) the contrast between the meanings of the words table and desk

Question 18

The cultural practice of referring to ships as female is an example of something an individual would learn with _____ development.

A) semantic
B) metalinguistic
C) pragmatic
D) syntactic

Question 19

In the English language, syntactic development involves learning the difference between:

A) tree and grass.
B) tree and trees.
C) "The tree is growing in the grass" and "The grass is growing in the tree."
D) "The bees are in the tree" and "The bees are in the grass."

Question 20

This refers to the idea that using the finite set of words and morphemes in humans' vocabulary, we can put together an infinite number of sentences and express an infinite number of ideas.

A) comprehension
B) production
C) generativity
D) symbolic thought

Question 21

The perception of speech sounds as belonging to discrete categories is known as:

A) prosody.
B) voice onset time.
C) categorical perception.
D) word segmentation.

Question 22

The length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start vibrating is referred to as:

A) prosody.
B) voice onset time.
C) categorical perception.
D) word segmentation.

Question 23

There are more than _____ languages that are based on gestures.

A) 50
B) 150
C) 200
D) 300

Question 24

Language is:

A) neither species-specific nor species-universal.
B) species-specific.
C) species-universal.
D) both species-specific and species-universal.

Question 25

Which statement about children who are exposed to two languages from birth is NOT true?

A) Children exposed to two languages often confuse the grammar of the two languages.
B) Children exposed to two languages may appear to lag behind monolingual children on some language measures.
C) Children exposed to two languages tend to perform better than monolingual children on cognitive measures.
D) Children exposed to two languages correctly use the phonological systems of each language to pronounce words in that language and not words in the other language.

Question 26

Research conducted by Fernald on infants' comprehension of the meaning of the emotional tone of infant-directed speech indicated that:

A) infants cannot differentiate between positively toned and negatively toned speech.
B) although infants can differentiate between positively toned and negatively toned speech, they do not behave as if they comprehend the meaning of the emotional tone.
C) infants exhibit appropriate facial emotion when listening to positively toned and negatively toned speech.
D) infants can differentiate between positively toned and negatively toned speech only in their native language.

Question 27

Adults perceive speech sounds:

A) continuously.
B) categorically, when the sounds come from their native language, and continuously, when the sounds do not come from their native language.
C) categorically, perceiving all phonemic categories used in human language.
D) categorically, perceiving only phonemic contrasts used in their native language.

Question 28

Which piece of evidence is the LEAST convincing for the critical-period hypothesis?

A) Abdelleh's language ability never fully developed.
B) Different neural mechanisms are used to process a second language by individuals who learned a second language in infancy and those who learned a second language after puberty.
C) The most proficient English speakers among immigrants to the United States are those who began learning English before age 7 years.
D) Adults are more likely than children to experience permanent language impairment as a result of brain damage.

Question 29

Which statement about infant-directed speech is TRUE?

A) Infant-directed speech is used in all cultures.
B) Infant-directed speech is used only by mothers.
C) Infant preference for infant-directed speech may be a result of its emotional tone.
D) Infant-directed speech applies only to spoken languages; sign language by mothers who are deaf does not have any characteristics of infant-directed speech.

Question 30

Johnson and Newport's study of the English proficiency of Korean and Chinese immigrants in the United States demonstrated that knowledge of English grammar was associated with the:

A) length of time individuals had lived in the United States.
B) age at which individuals began learning English.
C) individuals' motivation to learn English.
D) length of time individuals had lived in the United States and the age at which individuals began learning English.

Question 31

For the majority of people who are right-handed, language is primarily represented in:

A) the left hemisphere of the brain.
B) the right hemisphere of the brain.
C) the left and right hemispheres of the brain equally.
D) either hemisphere of the brain, as individuals differ greatly as to which part of their brain controls language.

Question 32

In regard to their ability to learn language, nonhuman primates:

A) have essentially no ability to learn how to use words to communicate.
B) can learn vocabulary and symbol combinations, but the communicative system they can acquire is not generally considered to be a language.
C) naturally use language to communicate with other members of their species, although their languages are not as complex as human languages.
D) do not have the vocal apparatus for producing speech, but when they are taught a sign language, they are able to learn a complex language.

Question 33

Which statement about infant-directed speech is NOT true?

A) Infant-directed speech affects infants' attention to language.
B) Infant-directed speech is necessary for language mastery.
C) Infants learn new words better when the words are presented in infant-directed speech.
D) Infants prefer infant-directed speech to adult-directed speech, even when it is in an unfamiliar language.

Question 34

The fact that language learning is achieved by typically developing infants across the globe indicates that language is:

A) species-specific.
B) species-universal.
C) pragmatic.
D) syntactic.

Question 35

Which statement is the BEST evidence of a critical period for language development?

A) Adults who are deaf and who learned ASL as their native language are more proficient than those who learned ASL as a second language.
B) Genie eventually learned to comprehend and speak English after intensive training.
C) Adults are more likely than children to suffer permanent language impairment from brain damage.
D) The length of time Chinese and Korean immigrants had been in the United States was more strongly associated with their English proficiency than was the age at which they had come to the United States.

Question 36

The fact that only humans acquire language in the normal course of development indicates that language is:

A) species-specific.
B) species-universal.
C) pragmatic.
D) syntactic.

Question 37

The characteristic intonation patterns, tempo, rhythm, and cadence with which a language is spoken are referred to as:

A) harmony.
B) melody.
C) accent.
D) prosody.

Question 38

The utterances of nonhuman communicators are considered to have limited or no _____, which is a defining feature of language.

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

Question 39

Which statement is the BEST advice for parents who want their child to learn a second language?

A) As long as the child is exposed to the second language for an extended period of time, it does not matter when exposure to the language begins.
B) Wait to expose the child to a second language until he or she is old enough to be motivated to learn the language.
C) Expose the child to the second language as early as possible.
D) Begin exposure to the second language well after you are sure the child has learned the native language completely and proficiently.

Question 40

The period before approximately age 5 years is considered to be the _____ period for language development.

A) critical
B) acceptable
C) exclusive
D) suitable

Question 41

Which statement is an indicator that babbling by older infants depends on experience?

A) Babies babble sounds that are not in their native language.
B) Infants who are deaf babble vocally and manually.
C) French adults were able to distinguish between babbling by babies from French-speaking families and babbling by babies from Arabic- and Cantonese-speaking families.
D) Infants and toddlers who babble do so in their native language.

Question 42

What is the average age at which infants begin to babble?

A) 8 weeks
B) 5 months
C) 7 months
D) 10 months

Question 43

Research examining the association between infants' ability to detect differences among speech sounds at the age of 6 months and their later language skills has demonstrated that 6-month-old infants:

A) who were better able to detect differences scored higher on some tests of language skills at later ages.
B) who were better able to detect differences scored lower on some tests of language skills at later ages.
C) varied in their ability to detect differences, but there was no association between this ability and later language skills.
D) did not vary in their ability to detect differences, and thus there was no association between this ability and later language skills.

Question 44

The fact that certain sounds are more likely to appear together than are others is referred to as:

A) prosody.
B) pragmatics.
C) word segmentation.
D) distributional properties.

Question 45

Infants' sensitivity to the distributional properties of the speech they hear helps them:

A) pick words out of speech streams.
B) differentiate between speech sounds and nonspeech sounds.
C) pay more attention to their mothers' speech than to other people's speech.
D) attend to paternal speech patterns.

Question 46

Which statement about the results of Janet Werker's research on 6- to 12-month-old infants' ability to distinguish between speech sounds that are not important in their native language is TRUE?

A) Infants of all ages were able to distinguish between the speech sounds.
B) Infants of all ages were unable to distinguish between the speech sounds.
C) Infants who were 6 to 8 months old were unable to distinguish between the speech sounds, but 10- to 12-month-olds were able to make the distinctions.
D) Infants who were 6 to 8 months old were able to distinguish between the speech sounds, but 10- to 12-month-olds were unable to make the distinctions.

Question 47

Infants likely learn _____ from the distributional properties of language.

A) that the distinction between /ba/ and /pa/ is important in their language
B) the meaning of the sound produced by -ed as in walked
C) that the sound "ch" frequently comes before the sound "oo" but never before the sound "b"
D) the meaning of the sound produced by s in runs

Question 48

The Eimas and colleagues study that examined infants' comprehension of speech sounds varying between /b/ and /p/ used which technique?

A) habituation
B) preferential listening
C) examination of facial expressions
D) violation of expectancy

Question 49

Which of the following has been established by studying people's response to speech sounds?

A) voice onset time
B) prosody
C) speech perception
D) categorical perception

Question 50

Which ability is subject to perceptual narrowing?

A) infant-directed talk
B) sound discrimination
C) word segmentation
D) metalinguistic knowledge

Question 51

Six-month-old Liana, 9-month-old Joshua, and 11-month-old Sadie all live in English-speaking homes in English-speaking communities. Which statement is MOST likely to be true of their abilities to discriminate among sounds that are found in Mandarin Chinese but are not found in English?

A) Liana will be the most able.
B) Sadie will be the most able.
C) Liana and Joshua will be equally able, and both will be more able than Sadie.
D) Joshua and Sadie will be equally able, and both will be more able than Liana.

Question 52

Infants' preparation for speaking does NOT include:

A) practice producing sounds.
B) games like peek-a-boo.
C) following an adult's gaze when the adult is talking.
D) discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech.

Question 53

Which speech sound is LEAST likely to be uttered by an infant who has not yet begun to babble?

A) goo
B) gaga
C) aaah
D) oooh

Question 54

Which statement about infants' ability to distinguish between speech sounds is TRUE?

A) Newborns can discriminate between only those speech sounds they have heard before.
B) Newborns possess an innate ability to discriminate between speech sounds they have never heard before.
C) Babies must learn to distinguish between speech sounds as they learn which contrasts are important for their native language.
D) Babies gain the ability to distinguish between speech sounds that are not used in their native language as they mature.

Question 55

_____ is the phenomenon that, in any language, certain sounds are more likely to appear together than are others.

A) Distributional properties
B) Voice onset time
C) Categorical perception
D) Word segmentation

Question 56

Which statement about the vocalizations and babbling of infants who are deaf is TRUE?

A) Until approximately 6 months of age, infants who are deaf produce vocalizations similar to those of hearing infants.
B) The vocal babbling of infants who are deaf begins at the same time as that of hearing babies.
C) Infants who are deaf exposed to ASL begin babbling manually at about 12 months of age.
D) Infants who are deaf do not engage in vocal babbling.

Question 57

The Eimas and colleagues study that examined infants' comprehension of speech sounds demonstrated that 1- and 4-month-old infants differentiated between:

A) /pa/ with a VOT of 60 ms and /pa/ with a VOT of 80 ms.
B) /ba/ with a VOT of 20 ms and /pa/ with a VOT of 40 ms.
C) /pa/ with a VOT of 20 ms and /pa/ with a VOT of 40 ms.
D) /ba/ with a VOT of 60 ms and /pa/ with a VOT of 80 ms.

Question 58

Baby X lives with his family for 6 months and then is adopted by a family that lives in a different country and speaks a different language. According to research, in regard to Baby X's ability to distinguish among speech sounds in his new environment, it is likely that Baby X will be able to:

A) make only distinctions that were relevant in his native environment.
B) make distinctions in his new environment but show greater ability in the sounds that are similar to those heard in his native environment.
C) make distinctions in his new environment with nearly the same proficiency as in his native environment.
D) develop the ability to make distinctions in his new environment over his first year.

Question 59

Using the distributional properties of language is an example of what type of learning?

A) statistical learning
B) habituation
C) perceptual learning
D) instrumental conditioning

Question 60

Which phrase does NOT describe a characteristic of babbling by older infants?

A) independent of experience
B) repeated simple consonant-vowel combinations
C) can be vocal or manual
D) similar rhythm and intonation patterns as native language

Question 61

The number of words children know is NOT related to:

A) the number of words that they hear.
B) their caregivers' vocabularies.
C) their socioeconomic status.
D) their genetic predisposition to acquire language.

Question 62

Infants generally begin to associate words with their referents:

A) at 3 months of age.
B) at 12 months of age.
C) well before they can produce any words.
D) with explicit instruction by their caregivers.

Question 63

Which word is LEAST likely to be the first word for a Canadian English-speaking child?

A) dada
B) run
C) kitty
D) car

Question 64

Which word is MOST likely to be a first word for a Canadian English-speaking child?

A) mama
B) go
C) bunny
D) tree

Question 65

Baby Reginald is holding a new toy. As he holds it, his father repeatedly says, "Ball." Baby Reginald must figure out whether the word ball describes the object he is holding, the colour of the object, the sound the object makes when it is squeezed, or the way the object moves on and off the floor when he drops it. Baby Reginald is encountering the problem of:

A) reference.
B) intersubjectivity.
C) orientation.
D) prosody.

Question 66

The period in which infants use one word at a time is referred to as the:

A) pragmatic period.
B) period of telegraphic speech.
C) period of overextension.
D) holophrastic period.

Question 67

Which word is generally the first word spoken by infants who speak Cantonese?

A) mommy
B) hi
C) milk
D) no

Question 68

Which utterance is an example of holophrastic speech?

A) "Milk."
B) "Need milk."
C) "Got milk?"
D) "Can I please have some milk?"

Question 69

Which word is generally the first word spoken by infants who speak English?

A) daddy
B) hi
C) milk
D) no

Question 70

Which statement about infants' early word production is NOT true?

A) The proportion of nouns in very young children's vocabulary is related to the proportion of nouns in their mothers' speech to them.
B) The rate of vocabulary development is associated with the amount of speech infants hear.
C) One-word utterances typically have the same meaning as adults' single words.
D) Highly educated mothers have children with larger vocabularies than those of children with less-educated mothers.

Question 71

The words a child can say are referred to as the child's:

A) distributional properties.
B) productive vocabulary.
C) categorical perception.
D) word segmentation.

Question 72

Intersubjectivity refers to:

A) judgments made across time periods.
B) the sharing of a common focus of attention by two individuals.
C) infants' ability to determine meanings of words from context.
D) use of the grammatical structure of an entire sentence to figure out meaning.

Question 73

Which example illustrates an overextension?

A) Julia uses the word cup for any container that holds liquid, including vases and birdbaths.
B) Elizabeth substitutes easier sounds for ones that are hard to say, such as tuck for stuck.
C) Eddie expresses his desire for his parents to read to him by using a single word, book.
D) Robbie leaves out difficult parts of words, as when he uses tend for the word pretend.

Question 74

The process of rapidly learning a new word simply from hearing the contrastive use of a familiar and the unfamiliar word is known as:

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

Question 75

Bergelson and Swingley demonstrated that when 6-month-old infants were shown pictures of common items and researchers named one item, infants:

A) could point to the named item.
B) behaved the same whether the word was in their native language or not.
C) did not recognize the label.
D) looked at the correct picture more often than at the other picture.

Question 76

Avi is 13 months old and has a large vocabulary for her age. The words she can say are referred to as her:

A) distributional properties.
B) productive vocabulary.
C) categorical perception.
D) word segmentation.

Question 77

Which sequence lists the periods of language development in the CORRECT chronological order?

A) telegraphic speech, holophrastic speech, three-word utterances, complex sentences
B) telegraphic speech, holophrastic speech, complex sentences, three-word utterances
C) holophrastic speech, telegraphic speech, complex sentences, three-word utterances
D) holophrastic speech, telegraphic speech, three-word utterances, complex sentences

Question 78

Toddler Seth calls all his stuffed animals, including teddy bears, bunnies, dogs, and ducks, "bear." When shown pictures of a teddy bear and a toy stuffed rabbit and asked to point to the bear, which behaviour is Seth's MOST likely response?

A) He will point to both the rabbit and the bear.
B) He will point to neither the rabbit nor the bear.
C) He will point to only the bear.
D) It is unclear whether he will point to the bear or the rabbit, but he will point to one and only one of the objects.

Question 79

Which word is one of the first words spoken in Mandarin and Cantonese?

A) daddy
B) hi
C) milk
D) no

Question 80

Which type of word is generally the MOST prominent among the first words Canadian English-speaking children learn?

A) noun
B) verb
C) adjective
D) preposition