Chapter 4 Test Bank

KNOWLEDGE OF KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

Multiple Choice

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. A hypothetical common ancestral language of two or more living languages is called a

a) genealogical language.

b) kinship language.

c) proto-language.

d) prelanguage.

4. 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.

5. _____________ refers to the structure of speech sounds

a) Cognates

b) Parole

c) Phonology

d) Syntax

6. How words fit together to make meaningful units is called

a) phonology.

b) morphology.

c) syntax.

d) cognates.

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

a) phonology.

b) morphology.

c) ethnography.

d) sociolinguistics.

8. 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.

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

a) symbol

b) langue

c) sign

d) parole

10. 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.

11. According to anthropologist Sherry Ortner’s analysis, the American flag is an example of a(n)

a) key scenario.

b) sign.

c) elaborating symbol.

d) summarizing symbol.

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

a) ethnography.

b) sociolinguistics.

c) ethnoscience.

d) biological determinism.

13. 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.

Fill in the Blank

14. The set of sounds and movements that animals make to communicate is called a ____________________.

call system

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

philology

16. ____________________ are words or objects that stand for something else.Signs

17. The idea that people speaking different languages perceive or interpret the world differently because of differences in their languages is ____________________.

linguistic relativity

18. ____________________ and ____________________ are regional or social variations of a single language.

Accents / dialects

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

Sociolinguistics

True/False

20. 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

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

a) True

b) False

22. Languages change very slowly, taking generations or even centuries.

a) True

b) False

23. According to Edward Sapir, languages may be different but the way we think about the world is basically the same.

a) True

b) False

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

a) True

b) False

COMPREHENSION OF FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS

Multiple Choice

25. Which of the following is a feature of language?

a) It is stable.

b) It is inherently illogical.

c) It consists of sounds organized into words according to some sort of grammar.

d) Its written and spoken forms are usually the same.

26. 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.

27. What was Jacob Grimm’s hypothesis about similarities across languages?

a) Many modern languages evolved from a few (or even one) language.

b) Human brains innately produce certain patterns in communication.

c) Colonialism resulted in the eradication of more unique languages.

d) There are no consequential similarities between languages.

28. Which of the following is not an explanation as to why animal call systems are distinct from human language?

a) Children do not learn them from their parents.

b) They are nearly always the same within a species.

c) Call systems are stimuli dependent.

d) Calls cannot be combined to produce a new call with a different meaning.

29. 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

30. For pastoral groups such as the Dinka and the Nuer, the cow symbolizes the body of society, making it what kind of symbol?

a) metaphor

b) summarizing symbol

c) narrative symbol

d) elaborating symbol

31. Talking about sports as a battlefield is an example of

a) a summarizing symbol.

b) a simile.

c) a metaphor.

d) an elaborating symbol.

32. 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.

33. Which of the following is an explanation as to why America has so many accents and dialects?

a) standardized school curriculums

b) the spread within mass media

c) patterns within peer groups

d) the persistence of gender stereotypes

34. 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.

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

a) language death.

b) phonetics.

c) the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.

d) language ideology.

36. When Zambia became independent from British colonial rule, why did they choose several official languages instead of just one?

a) No one could agree which language was the most appropriate.

b) They held a national ranked election.

c) In practice, everyone was likely to know one of the languages, encouraging national identity.

d) The government wished to avoid the creolization of languages and so encouraged the separate development of multiple languages.

Fill in the Blank

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

chimps / gorillas

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

langue / parole

39. In ____________________, a pidgin language that mixes local languages and English with simplified grammar has become a national language.

Papua New Guinea

40. Many scholars argue that language death will have as much an impact on ____________________ diversity as on linguistic diversity.

cultural

True/False

41. 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

42. 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

43. All languages express three tenses (past, present, and future) in their structure.

a) True

b) False

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

a) True

b) False

APPLICATION OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONCEPTS

Multiple Choice

45. 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

46. If you were a linguistic anthropologist interested in language ideologies in an American city, how would you devise your study?

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 the accents and dialects people use and which are considered superior or inferior.

47. 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

48. If Benjamin Whorf was 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 literacy rates in urban and rural communities in the United States

49. 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 are more polite than men.

d) builds certainty and trust.

Short Answer

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

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

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

Essays

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

54. 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.

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

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS

Essays

56. 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?

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

58. 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?

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