Test Bank for A Concise Introduction to

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Test Bank for A Concise Introduction to Linguistics, 6e Bruce Rowe, Diane Levine (All Chapters)

Chapter 1 The Nature of Communication True/False Questions

• Linguistic competence refers to the subconscious knowledge of one’s language.

Answer: T

2. Language is dependent on hearing or speech. Answer: F

• In Chapter 1, we discuss various types of animal communication because

comparison of those systems of communication can aid us in understanding

human communication. Answer: T

4. All animals have a language. Answer: F

5. Bird calls tend to be species specific. Answer: F

6. Bird songs tend to be species specific. Answer: T

7. All researchers now agree that apes can learn language. Answer: F

8. A person who stutters has a problem with linguistic competence. Answer: F

• The fact that many new words are added to English each year demonstrates that

English, like any language, is an open system. Answer: T

• Birds and bees generally learn most of their communication systems from other

members of their social groups. Answer: F

• The terms language and communication can be used interchangeably because

they mean the same thing. Answer: F Stuvia.com - The Marketplace to Buy and Sell your Study Material

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• One difference between apes’ use of sign “language” and a human’s use of

language, is that apes seldom initiate communication whereas humans, including

young children, frequently initiate communication with others. Answer: T

13. Humans communicate in both verbal and nonverbal ways. Answer: T

14. Redundancy in a message helps overcome “static”. Answer: T

15. Bird songs are generally more elaborate than birdcalls. Answer: T

• The characteristic of languages that allow people to coin new words as needed is

called discreteness. Answer: F

• Linguistic forms, such as words or sentences, have an arbitrary relationship to

their meaning. Answer: T

• Compared to nonhuman communication, human linguistic communication tends to

be stimulus-bound. Answer: F

• The fact that a person can talk about the past or anticipate the future illustrates the

characteristic of language called displacement. Answer: T

• Some researchers believe that Kanzi processes a basic understanding of simple

grammar. Answer: T

• Alex the parrot, as well as the apes that have been used in language experiments,

have been able to learn language at the level of about a five-year-old human.

Answer: F

• Culture shock occurs when a person interacts with a person or people from a

foreign culture and disorientation and anxiety occurs when social expectations are not met because of a lack of knowledge of the norms of the other’s culture.

Answer: T Stuvia.com - The Marketplace to Buy and Sell your Study Material

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• Ethnocentrism is the act of judging other cultures by the standards of that culture

and not by the standards of one’s own culture. Answer: F

• Broca’s area of the brain controls the larynx, lips, tongue, and other areas of the

digestive and respiratory systems involved with oral and facial fine motor skills in

the production of language. Answer: T

• Broca’s area of the brain is the main areas of the brain involved in the

comprehension of speech and the selection of lexical items. Answer. F.

• Marc Hauser, W. Tecumseh Fitch, and Noam Chomsky believe that many

nonhumans share with humans what they call the faculty of language in the

narrow sense (FLN). Answer: F

• Recursion is the process whereby any linguistics unit can be made longer by

embedding another unit in it. Answer: T

• The concept of Theory of the Mind refers to a person’s ability to know exactly what

other people are thinking. Answer: F

Multiple Choice Questions

• Communication always includes the transmission of
• Ideas.
• Thoughts.
• Emotions.
• Information.

Answer: d

• Although there might be universal aspects of all languages that are innate, specific

languages are

• Also strictly innate.
• Mostly innate.
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• Innate if they are a first language and learned if they are a second

language.

Answer: c

• The mostly subconscious knowledge of the grammar and lexicon of one’s language is

called

• Linguistic competence.
• Linguistic performance.
• Linguistic patterns.
• Linguistic systematics.

Answer: a

• Stuttering would be a problem with
• Linguistic competence.
• Linguistic performance.
• Linguistic patterns.
• Linguistic systematics.

Answer: b

• King George VI, actress Marilyn Monroe, and Sir Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of

the United Kingdom during World War II and again from 1951 to 1955) as well as many

other famous people were stutterers. Stuttering is a problem with:

• The tongue being too thick.
• The subconscious knowledge of the language (linguistic competence).
• The ability to deliver linguistic competence; that is, a problem of linguistic

performance.

• Wernicke’s area of the brain.

Answer: c

• The following is not a delivery system of language
• Writing. Stuvia.com - The Marketplace to Buy and Sell your Study Material

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