Test Bank for - Matthew Traxler (All Chapters) Chapter 1 1. Ps...

Test Bank for Introduction to Psycholinguistics, 1e Matthew Traxler (All Chapters) 1 / 4

Chapter 1

• Psychologists who study mental processes, neural processes, and behaviors associated with language

are called

• linguists
• anthropologists
• biologists
• psycholinguists

• Which of the following is not one of Hockett's design features?
• plausibility
• semanticity
• arbitrariness
• duality of patterning

• Which of Hockett's design features refers to the ability to combine symbols in new ways to express

new meanings?

• arbitrariness
• generativity
• duality of patterning
• semanticity

• Which of Hockett's design features refers to the ability to talk about events that are removed in time

and space from a given act of speaking?

• duality of patterning
• semanticity
• plurality
• displacement

• Which of Hockett's design features refers to the fact that languages consist of a limited number of

symbols?

• specificity
• duality of patterning
• discreteness
• generativity

• Which of Hockett's design features is most closely related to the word "meaning"?
• specificity
• duality of patterning
• semanticity
• arbitrariness

• What would happen if onomatopoeia were a dominant characteristic of language?
• Speakers would not be able to refer to events that occurred in the past.
• Most words referring to large objects would use the deep end of the speech register.
• Most nouns would refer to concrete objects.
• Languages would have a limited number of symbols.
• / 4

• Which of the following statements about language is false?
• Languages that have more phonemes are better able to convey meaning than languages that have

fewer phonemes.

• Languages with widely different phoneme inventories are equally good at conveying meaning.
• Languages have limited numbers of symbols.
• Some languages have more phonemes than others.

• Which of the following statements about language is false?
• Different languages use different ways to signal when an event occurred. Some languages use

suffixes on verbs. Some languages use adverbs.

• All natural languages are capable of displacement.
• All natural languages are capable of generating completely novel expressions.
• Languages that lack tense markers on verbs are incapable of referring to past events.

• Which of the following characteristics do non-human communication systems share with human

language?

• Semanticity.
• Arbitrariness.
• Grammar.
• A and B.

• Which of the following terms is used to describe the naturally occurring set of rules or principles

that governs the way a language can combine symbols to make expressions?

• lexicon
• prescriptive grammar
• descriptive grammar
• functionality

• The kind of grammar that is taught in junior high school English class in the United States is
• lexical-functional grammar
• prescriptive grammar
• head-driven phrase structure grammar
• descriptive grammar

• If you want to sound like a well-educated, upper class, literate speaker of your native language,

which grammar should you use?

• lexical-functional grammar
• prescriptive grammar
• head-driven phrase structure grammar
• descriptive grammar

• The kind of grammar that most language scientists are interested in most of the time is
• lexical-functional grammar
• prescriptive grammar
• head-driven phrase structure grammar
• descriptive grammar
• / 4

• The grammatical rule that says "adjectives and nouns must agree in number and gender in Spanish"

belongs to which type of grammar?

• lexical-functional grammar
• prescriptive grammar
• head-driven phrase structure grammar
• descriptive grammar

• Which of the following is a theory of the mental representation of language?
• grammar
• onomatopoeia
• phonemes
• alarm calls

• Language characteristics like number agreement and adjective position are determined by
• personal preference
• prescriptive grammar
• descriptive grammar
• chance

• Which characteristic of language allows you to place a component inside another component of the

same type?

• recursion
• displacement
• reference
• recession

• Which language characteristic is associated with discrete infinity?
• number agreement
• recursion
• displacement
• reference

• Which language characteristic does Pirahã lack?
• number agreement
• recursion
• displacement
• reference

• Which of the following proposes the closest connection between human and non-human language

abilities?

• the discontinuity hypothesis
• the precursor hypothesis
• the theory of evolution by natural selection
• the continuity hypothesis

• Which of the following proposes that human language abilities represent a clean break from other

communication systems?

• the discontinuity hypothesis
• / 4