Complete Test Bank Linguistic Anthropology Ch4

1.

Animal call systems

A)

express information about things that are not currently in their present environment

B)

fail to communicate in response to real-world stimuli

C)

do not combine calls to make new call meanings

D)

are highly irregular among primates

2.

Koko and Washo were two primates who had learned

A)

call sounds

B)

American Sign Language

C)

Morse code

D)

English

3.

Words that came from the same ancestral language and originated from the same word are called

A)

loan words

B)

synonyms

C)

cognate words

D)

phonology

4.

_____________ refers to the structure of speech sounds

A)

Cognates

B)

Parole

C)

Phonology

D)

Syntax

5.

How words fit together to make meaningful units is called

A)

phonology

B)

morphology

C)

syntax

D)

cognates

6.

The study of grammatical categories, such as tense and word order, is called

A)

phonology

B)

morphology

C)

ethnography

D)

Sociolinguistics

7.

When anthropologists study the way people use language in real settings rather than as a set of grammatical rules, they are focusing on

A)

parole

B)

langue

C)

phonetics

D)

morphology

8.

A stoplight is a visual example of which of the following?

A)

symbol

B)

langue

C)

sign

D)

parole

9.

Anthropologist Sherry Ortner distinguished three kinds of culturally powerful symbols that include all of the following except

A)

narrative symbols

B)

key scenarios

C)

summarizing symbols

D)

elaborating symbols

10.

According to anthropologist Sherry Ortner's analysis, the American flag is an example of

A)

a key scenario

B)

a sign

C)

an elaborating symbol

D)

a summarizing symbol

11.

The study of how people classify things in the world is called

A)

ethnography

B)

sociolinguistics

C)

ethnoscience

D)

biological determinism

12.

A language of mixed origin that developed from a complex blending of two parent languages is called

A)

a pidgin language

B)

creole

C)

slang

D)

language ideology

13.

The set of sounds and movements that animals make to communicate is called a call systems.

14.

The approach that compares ancient texts and documents to analyze long-term linguistic change is called philology.

15.

Signs are words or objects that stand for something else.

16.

Brent Berlin and Paul Kay found that if a language had only three color terms, they would always be black (dark), white (light), and red.

17.

Words that differ by only one single sound contrast, like in the case of “ban,” “man,” and “pan,” are called minimal pairs.

18.

Sociolinguistics is the study of how sociocultural norms and contexts shape language use in society.

19.

Most mammals use some form of call system to communicate with others of their species. Dogs and chimpanzees share an additional linguistic characteristic because they can communicate simple combinations of ideas about things they are not currently seeing.

A)

True

B)

False

20.

Most people are unaware of the structure of a language until someone speaking it makes a mistake.

A)

True

B)

False

21.

Languages change very slowly, taking generations or even centuries.

A)

True

B)

False

22.

According to Edward Sapir, language is the symbolic guide to culture.

A)

True

B)

False

23.

America's pattern of gender inequality is built into our linguistic practices.

A)

True

B)

False

24.

Which of the following is a feature of language?

A)

it is rarely used to communicate

B)

it is not systematic

C)

it consists of sounds organized into words according to some sort of grammar

D)

it is only used by the civilized races

25.

In evolutionary terms humans are distinct from other primates with respect to their ability to use language because we

A)

have much larger brains

B)

can learn American Sign Language

C)

can speak using a larynx

D)

have much smaller brains

26.

When language speakers use slang or metaphor, they are engaging in which concept suggested by French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure?

A)

langue

B)

parole

C)

cognate

D)

phonology

27.

For pastoral groups such as the Dinka and the Nuer, the cow acts as which kind of symbol?

A)

metaphor

B)

summarizing symbol

C)

narrative symbol

D)

elaborating symbol

28.

Talking about sports as a battlefield is an example of

A)

a summarizing symbol

B)

a simile

C)

a metaphor

D)

an elaborating symbol

29.

The key scenario differs from other kinds of symbols because it

A)

helps us talk about difficult emotions

B)

synthesizes everything important to society in a single symbol

C)

implies how people should act

D)

explains complex relationships in a single symbol

30.

Linguists refer to mixed languages with a simplified grammar that people rarely learn as a mother tongue as

A)

a pidgin language

B)

a creole language

C)

language ideology

D)

slang

31.

The use of mock Spanish reinforces a common impression that Hispanic people are socially inferior. This is an example of the power of which of the following?

A)

language death

B)

phonetics

C)

Morphology

D)

language ideology

32.

The US government's prohibition of Native American children speaking their indigenous languages in Indian schools has contributed most profoundly to

A)

ethnocentrism

B)

cultural relativism

C)

language death

D)

language ideology

33.

Although all primates use some form of call system, some, such as chimps and gorillas, are known to be capable of more complex communication than a simple call system.

34.

Ferdinand de Saussure made a distinction between the formal rules of language (langue) and the ways people speak it (parole).

35.

Linguistic relativity is the idea that people speaking different languages perceive the world differently.

36.

On the island of Java in Indonesia, nearly every sentence marks a person's social position between speaker and listener.

37.

Although language is one of the most rule-bound aspects of human culture, it is also one of the least conscious.

A)

True

B)

False

38.

Because of the widespread use of mass media today, sociolinguists have found increasing homogeneity in the use of language in the United States.

A)

True

B)

False

39.

Elaborating symbols and summarizing symbols work in opposite ways.

A)

True

B)

False

40.

Countries find it relatively easy to decide what language its citizens will speak.

A)

True

B)

False

41.

If Jakob Grimm, who developed what has come to be known as Grimm's law, were analyzing the historical relationships among the so-called dialects of Chinese (such as Cantonese and Mandarin), what data would he be looking for in his linguistic fieldwork?

A)

the characters used by people who spoke these different dialects

B)

the average height, weight, and cephalic index of speakers of these several dialects

C)

whether the speakers they surveyed knew any other non-Chinese languages

D)

how the speakers of each dialect pronounce different words with similar meanings in the several dialects

42.

If you were a linguistic anthropologist interested in language change in smaller American cities, building on William Labov's studies from the 1980s, what method would you use?

A)

compare text messages, instant messages, and Twitter entries from people of different ages

B)

compare the professional slang of people in different occupations

C)

analyze similarities and differences in the use of modern technology among people in different age groups

D)

record how younger people, middle-aged people, and senior citizens pronounce ordinary American words

43.

If you were conducting a symbolic analysis of TV programs and wanted to identify a key scenario such as the Horatio Alger myth, which of the following would you focus on?

A)

the presence or absence of wealth as a sign of social status in particular programs

B)

plots that are repeated in many of the programs that American viewers interpret as commonplace social experiences

C)

the different dialects spoken by different cast members

D)

the symbolic use of power in modern American culture

44.

If Benjamin Whorf were trying to find further proof that grammar shapes the way people perceive the world, which of the following would not be a focus of his research?

A)

the structure of tenses in English and other languages spoken in the United States

B)

the number of basic color terms compared with English

C)

the structure of person pronouns in the several languages

D)

the density of the population in the several communities

45.

If you studied speech patterns such as those analyzed in Robin Lakoff's study of gendered speech, you might find that “talking like a lady”

A)

contributes to gender equality in the workplace

B)

marginalizes women's voices in work contexts

C)

demonstrates that women and men are equal

D)

builds certainty and trust

46.

If you wanted to study how athletes and non-athletes used language differently on your campus, how would you go about finding this out?

47.

According to linguistic anthropologists, why don't our pets actually understand a rudimentary form of English?

48.

How can language mark our social position and status? In your answer apply the theory of language ideology.

49.

How is communication between animals (call system communication) different from human language?

50.

To what extent do our American English grammatical categories shape the ways we anticipate events that occur in the world around us? Consider, for example, how the use of the English pronouns “he,” “she,” and “it” affects social relationships.

51.

How do language ideologies marginalize groups of people? Give an example to illustrate your answer.

52.

With the rise of Facebook during the past decade, new terms have entered American English. How can there be language changes if we are not consciously aware that we are changing the way we speak?

53.

How can language be used to marginalize people who are not currently in high-status positions?

54.

In England, the dialect one speaks marks you as a person of a very specialized social class. What is it about our regional or social dialect that allows people to classify us and view us through unflattering stereotypes?

55.

How does understanding that men and women speak differently, even though they both speak American English, help us to understand patterns of social behavior?