Chapter 9: Language

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. According to most experts in the field, what is the primary purpose of language?

a. control

b. communication

c. identification

d. isolation

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: What Is Language?

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Which of these is a type of linguistic domain?

a. psycholinguistics

b. production

c. pragmatics

d. lexical recognition

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Structure of Language

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Why is it important that language elements are related to each other hierarchically?

a. Having a leveled structure makes it easier to encode and comprehend a variety of phonemes.

b. A strictly hierarchical structure helps us to differentiate between spoken and written messages.

c. A leveled structure allows us to invent new phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that others can understand and respond to.

d. Hierarchical structure allows infants to acquire language systematically--first nouns, then verbs, then modifiers, and so on.

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Structure of Language

Difficulty Level: Hard

4. Choose the correct hierarchy of language processing.

a. sounds or letters > words > phrases > sentences

b. words > sounds or letters > phrases > sentences

c. sentences > phrases > sounds or letters > words

d. phrases > sentences > words > sounds or letters

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Structure of Language

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Meaning is to ______ as grammar is to ______.

a. semantics; pragmatics

b. phonology; syntax

c. syntax; semantics

d. semantics; syntax

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Structure of Language

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. How many phonemes are in the word “hill”?

a. one

b. two

c. three

d. four

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Language Form: Phonology and Orthography

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. What are the smallest representations that convey meaning and grammatical properties?

a. phonemes

b. morphemes

c. orthographs

d. words

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Morphology: Language Interface of Form, Syntax, and Semantics

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. How many morphemes are in the word “pans”?

a. one

b. two

c. three

d. four

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Morphology: Language Interface of Form, Syntax, and Semantics

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. Morphemes that can stand alone are ______, whereas ______ morphemes must be attached to other morphemes.

a. singular; plural

b. free; bound

c. plural; singular

d. free; plural

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Morphology: Language Interface of Form, Syntax, and Semantics

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. Which of the following is a way that humans use morphemes?

a. to change to the past tense

b. to switch to a different language

c. to change storage from short-term to long-term memory

d. to emphasize the importance of something

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Morphology: Language Interface of Form, Syntax, and Semantics

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. You are reading a story, and you notice the sentence, “The fly birds home.” What type of problem does this sentence have?

a. orthographic

b. morpheme-related

c. phoneme-related

d. syntax-related

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Syntax (Grammar)

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. The sentence “The man gave a cloud to his friend” has questionable ______.

a. syntax

b. morphemes

c. semantics

d. orthography

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Semantics (Meaning)

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. According to psycholinguistics, was Shakespeare correct when he wrote “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”?

a. Most psycholinguistic theories disagree with Shakespeare on this point.

b. Most psycholinguistic theories agree with Shakespeare on this point.

c. It depends on if the speaker or reader is multilingual and has multiple conceptions of what a rose is.

d. It depends on whether the term “rose” is being used as a noun or a verb.

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Semantics (Meaning)

Difficulty Level: Hard

14. You hear your classmate say, “I’m just going to hang around until class starts.” Which aspect of language structure helps you understand that your classmate means "waiting" and not actually hanging from a doorway?

a. pragmatics

b. syntax

c. morphology

d. semantics

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Semantics (Meaning)

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. The subfield of linguistics that examines the use of language within particular contexts is called ______.

a. semantics

b. syntax

c. orthography

d. pragmatics

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Pragmatics (Using Language)

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. Problems with language comprehension are to ______ aphasia as problems with language production are to ______ aphasia.

a. Broca’s; Wernicke’s

b. Wernicke’s; Broca’s

c. Chomsky’s; Skinner’s

d. Skinner’s; Chomsky’s

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: How Do We Process Language?

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. Broca’s aphasia is associated with damage to the left ______, whereas Wernicke’s aphasia is associated with damage to the ______.

a. superior frontal cortex; posterior part of the temporal lobe

b. posterior part of the temporal lobe; inferior frontal cortex

c. inferior frontal cortex; posterior part of the temporal lobe

d. posterior part of the temporal lobe; superior frontal cortex

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: How Do We Process Language?

Difficulty: Easy

18. Jonathan attends a psychology lecture. He spends 98% of class time listening to his professor and classmates and 2% of class time asking questions. Jonathan's primary role in this situation is ______.

a. language comprehender

b. language reproducer

c. semantic structurer

d. lateral thinker

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Language Comprehensions

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. When you are having a conversation with someone, you often do not stop between words to emphasize that you are saying distinct words. This is known as ______.

a. specialization

b. coarticulation

c. functionalism

d. lateralization

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Language Perception

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. Sierra's psychology professor asks her to demonstrate categorical perception for the class. This would involve listening to ______.

a. random sounds and perceiving them along a continuum

b. random sounds and recognizing them as separate categories

c. spoken words and recognizing them as separate categories

d. spoken words and perceiving them along a continuum

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Language Perception

Difficulty Level: Medium

21. An issue in language comprehension due to variation in how phonemes are produced is known as ______.

a. functionalism

b. coarticulation

c. specialization

d. invariance problem

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Language Perception

Difficulty Level: Easy

22. While sitting in class listening to your professor’s lecture, a student sneezes. Miraculously, you still understand the point the professor was attempting to make. This illustrates ______.

a. the phoneme restoration effect

b. coarticulation application

c. speech invariance

d. the morphological inviolability effect

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Language Perception

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. A dictionary is arranged in alphabetical order. It seems as though our mental lexicon is organized primarily according to ______.

a. when we learned each word

b. alphabetical order

c. frequency of use

d. difficulty of comprehension

Learning Objective: 9-4: How do we acquire language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Lexical Recognition and Access

Difficulty Level: Easy

24. Chomsky contended that there is a difference between ______ structure, which comes from phrase structure rules, and ______ structure, the linear order that we produce

a. deep; surface

b. surface; deep

c. lexical; deep

d. surface; phoneme

Learning Objective: 9-4: How do we acquire language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Interpreting Sentences: Syntactic Analysis

Difficulty Level: Easy

25. According to the ______ approach, we construct one syntactic structure based on a set of parsing principles that focus on syntactic information alone.

a. syntax-second

b. syntax-first

c. semantic-first

d. semantic-second

Learning Objective: 9-4: How do we acquire language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Interpreting Sentences: Syntactic Analysis

Difficulty Level: Easy

26. Your friend is telling you a story about Tom. She says, “Tom proposed to his girlfriend last night. She said yes!” You assume that “she” refers to Tom’s girlfriend because of ______ inference.

a. semantic

b. anaphoric

c. syntactic

d. morphemic

Learning Objective: 9-4: How do we acquire language?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Beyond the Sentence: Texts and Discourse

Difficulty Level: Medium

27. According to Garrett et al. (1975, 1988, 1989), language production proceeds through a series of processes: ______, ______, and ______.

a. formulation; syntax; articulation

b. articulation; conceptualization; functionalization

c. conceptualization; formulation; articulation

d. conceptualization; formulation; speech segmentation

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Making Mistakes: Speech Errors

Difficulty Level: Easy

28. In trying to say the tongue twister “She sells sea shells by the seashore”, you accidentally say, “She shells she shells by the seashore.” This is an error of ______.

a. addition

b. anticipation

c. shift

d. deletion

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Making Mistakes: Speech Errors

Difficulty Level: Medium

29. You are talking to your mother, telling her that you have been working hard and that you need to e-mail a completed assignment to your professor. You accidentally say, “I have to e-mail my professor to my assignment.” This is an error of ______.

a. anticipation

b. exchange

c. shift

d. perseveration

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Making Mistakes: Speech Errors

Difficulty Level: Medium

30. You are watching the news, and you recognize a famous politician from several other newscasts. You insist that you know her name, but you just cannot remember it. This is known as the ______ state.

a. slip-of-the-tongue

b. Freudian-slip

c. tip-of-the-tongue

d. access inaccessible

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Separation of Semantics, Syntax, and Form

Difficulty Level: Medium

31. According to Garrod and Pickering (2004), the mechanism through which alignment of the phonological, syntactic, semantic, and situational models occurs is ______.

a. perseveration

b. anticipation

c. coarticulation

d. priming

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Dialogue: Production and Comprehension Together

Difficulty Level: Easy

32. DeCasper et al. (1994) found that fetuses could distinguish between old and new stories in the womb. The researchers measured this through ______.

a. amniotic fluid

b. heart rate

c. blood work

d. neurotransmitter levels

Learning Objective: 9-4: How do we acquire language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Typical Language Development

Difficulty Level: Easy

33. In language development, language ______ typically lags behind language ______.

a. comprehension; production

b. production; comprehension

c. recognition; acquisition

d. acquisition; production

Learning Objective: 9-4: How do we acquire language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Typical Language Development

Difficulty Level: Easy

34. With which of these statements would most psychology researchers agree?

a. Other animals communicate, but humans are the only animals that truly understand and use language.

b. Other animals understand and use language, but humans are the only animals that truly communicate.

c. Humans and other primates can understand and use full-fledged language, but other species cannot.

d. We now understand that many types of animals use language, including bees, chimpanzees, songbirds, African grey parrots, and others.

Learning Objective: 9-5: How does human language differ from animal communication?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Human Language and Animal Communication

Difficulty Level: Medium

35. According to Hockett, what do bee dances and human speech have in common?

a. Neither features a direct connection between sound and meaning.

b. Both produce signals that soon vanish.

c. Both can use one-of-a-kind combinations.

d. Neither can communicate about things that are in the past or future.

Learning Objective: 9-5: How does human language differ from animal communication?

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Comparing Human Language to Animal Communication

Difficulty Level: Medium

36. Which animal demonstrates a “language” that may be closest to that of humans?

a. domesticated dogs

b. domesticated cats

c. songbirds

d. mice

Learning Objective: 9-5: How does human language differ from animal communication?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Comparing Human Language to Animal Communication

Difficulty Level: Easy

37. What do dogs’ communication methods and songbirds’ communication methods have in common?

a. Both can make sounds that indicate danger.

b. In both cases, the males make sounds that attract females.

c. Dogs and songbirds both communicate in structurally complex ways.

d. Neither can use sounds to indicate different behaviors.

Learning Objective: 9-5: How does human language differ from animal communication?

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Comparing Human Language to Animal Communication

Difficulty Level: Medium

38. Which of these feats was Alex the African grey parrot capable of?

a. He could map words onto referent objects.

b. Alex had a vocabulary of nearly 1,000 words.

c. He could distinguish between objects of different colors.

d. Alex could refer to future events rather than always speaking in the present tense.

Learning Objective: 9-5: How does human language differ from animal communication?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Attempts to Teach Animals Human Language

Difficulty Level: Medium

39. What was especially unusual about Loulis the chimpanzee's communication abilities?

a. Loulis used an artificial language based on plastic symbols.

b. He was the first chimp who could follow simple written instructions.

c. Loulis was the first chimpanzee to understand and use sign language.

d. He learned sign language from other chimpanzees.

Learning Objective: 9-5: How does human language differ from animal communication?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Attempts to Teach Animals Human Language

Difficulty Level: Medium

40. Your textbook states that Sarah the chimpanzee “had a ‘reading’ and ‘writing’ vocabulary of nearly 130 words.” Why are the words “reading” and “writing” in quotation marks?

a. Although Sarah could read well, her written messages tended to be disjointed.

b. Sarah could follow and create simple written instructions, but it is unlikely that she could understand written messages in the way that humans do.

c. Sarah pretended to read and write to please the humans around her, but she had no understanding of words or sentences.

d. To gain attention and funding, Sarah's trainers taught her to imitate reading and writing even though she had no understanding of the messages.

Learning Objective: 9-5: How does human language differ from animal communication?

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Attempts to Teach Animals Human Language

Difficulty Level: Hard

True/False

1. We are able to produce and understand a potentially infinite number of sentences.

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Structure of Language

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. All phonemes are letters of the alphabet.

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Language Form: Phonology and Orthography

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. The Swedish, English, Chinese, and Zulu languages all use the same phonemes.

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Language Form: Phonology and Orthography

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Morphemes are the smallest representations that convey meaning and grammatical properties.

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Morphology: Language Interface of Form, Syntax, and Semantics

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Bound morphemes must be attached to other morphemes.

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Morphology: Language Interface of Form, Syntax, and Semantics

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. Syntax is the level of representation at which there are rules that specify the ordering of words.

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Syntax (Grammar)

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. The subfield of linguistics that examines the use of language within particular contexts is called pragmatics.

Learning Objective: 9-2: How do we get from a string of sounds or marks on a page to something meaningful?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Pragmatics (Using Language)

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. People who cannot comprehend language as a result of a brain injury are likely to have damage to the left inferior frontal lobe.

Learning Objective: 9-4: How do we acquire language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: How Do We Process Language?

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. Wernicke’s aphasia is diagnosed when patients can produce language but have great difficulty understanding language that is directed at them.

Learning Objective: 9-3: How do we go from thoughts to spoken language?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: How Do We Process Language?

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. The most famous and intensive attempts to teach language to animals have involved African grey parrots.

Learning Objective: 9-5: How does human language differ from animal communication?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Attempts to Teach Animals Human Language

Difficulty Level: Easy

Short Answer

1. Compare and contrast Broca’s aphasia and Wernicke’s aphasia. Specifically, indicate the brain areas involved in each and explain how these conditions affect language abilities.

Learning Objective: 9-1: What is language?

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: How Do We Process Language?

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. Your professor has asked you to give a three-minute talk to a group of first-year psychology students. Your topic is “The Organization of the Mental Lexicon.” Explain what you would include in your talk and what practical suggestions you would give students to make the most of their mental lexicons.

Learning Objective: 9-4: How do we acquire language?

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Lexical Recognition and Access

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. You have been invited to be a research assistant for a study that will attempt to improve infants’ language acquisition. Based on what you have read in this chapter, explain what behaviors you would want parents and infants to engage in and why those behaviors would speed language acquisition.

Learning Objective: 9-4: How do we acquire language?

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Typical Language Development

Difficulty Level: Hard

4. Scientists’ views of whether human language acquisition comes from nature or nurture have changed over time. Explain how thinking on this issue has developed. Cite the theories of Skinner, Chomsky, and the interactionists in your answer.

Learning Objective: 9-4: How do we acquire language?

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Nature or Nurture: Mechanisms for Learning Words and Syntax

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. Describe researchers’ attempts to teach human language to African grey parrots, dogs, and chimpanzees. Explain in what ways those animals’ communication differs from human language. If you could study animal communication in any type of animal, which would you choose? Explain how your answer relates to what you have learned in this chapter.

Learning Objective: 9-5: How does human language differ from animal communication?

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Attempts to Teach Animals Human Language

Difficulty Level: Hard