Antho 101 Chapter 3

Which of these statements about languages globally is FALSE?

English has more speakers than any other language in the world.

Which of these is the term for any sequence of phonemes that carries meaning?

Morpheme

Speaking linguistically, morphemes are another name for words.

false

Gestures, written words, and speech are all forms of

media.

What is a lingua franca?

A second language learned to permit communication between speakers of different languages

Which of the following are sociolinguistics concerned with?

All of these are of interest to sociolinguistics.

In what way is language critical to humanity?

All of these are reasons language is critical to humanity.

Which of these languages is used the most widely in international commerce, global media, and popular culture?

English

All forms of human communication have multimedia potential.

False

Every language has an infinite number of words; this is what makes languages so productive. a. True

False

From a linguistic perspective, some languages are superior to others due to their greater vocabulary and ease of use.

False

Which of these statements related to the study of sociolinguistics is FALSE?

Gender is the only social characteristic that is not consistently reflected in speech patterns and norms for communication within any given culture.

The food names squash, maize, hominy, avocado, and tapioca all have Native American origins. This is because

Indians of the Americas were the first peoples to domesticate these foods.

What does the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis state?

Language has a powerful influence on the thought patterns in any particular culture.

Languages can differ in their

Languages vary in all of these.

Within the U.S., the most superior dialect in a linguistic sense is

None of these are true in a linguistic sense.

What are the two areas within the study of grammar?

Patterns of sound combinations and their meanings

What did Edward Hall's pioneering work in the area of proxemics find?

People communicate messages by how far apart they stand.

Which of these is NOT a key property of language that distinguishes it from the communication systems of other animals?

Proper grammar

1. Why is it chimpanzees cannot speak human words very well?

Their vocal tract is different from ours.

For the speakers of any language, grammatical knowledge is unconscious.

True

Not all languages recognize the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants.

True

The workings of the human mind depend on the knowledge of some language.

True

With training, any human can utter any of the sounds found in any language.

True

Which of these is an argument AGAINST the validity of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

World views change much more quickly than does language.

As a semantic domain, divisions of color

are different in different cultures.

Variations in pronunciation and vocabulary that exist among the speakers of a language are termed

dialects.

Every language has a limited number of sounds and rules for combining them to create units of meaning. This characteristic of language is called

discreteness.

Humans have the ability to talk about things, times and places that are not within their immediate experience. The term for this is

displacement.

All languages use the same set of phonemes.

false

English today has more native speakers than any other language.

false

No human facial expressions or body movements are universally understood.

false

The fact that, globally, people's world views change much more rapidly than language is dramatic proof of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

false

Speakers of any language share knowledge of the sounds, rules for combining them, words, and the rules for combining them into meaningful sentences. This combined and shared knowledge is referred to as

grammar.

Taken to its extreme, an implication of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is that

human rational thought and reason are partially an illusion.

The nature and meaning of the relationships among people who consider themselves kin or family

is culturally constructed

Linguists use slash marks (//) to show that a particular sound is a

phoneme.

The unique individual sounds that make a difference in the meanings of words are called

phonemes.

A set of words (such as violet, red, and blue) that belong to an inclusive class (color) is a concept called

semantic domain.

The culturally defined situation within which interaction occurs, and the individuals who are parties to the interaction, make up what sociolinguists refer to as the

social context.

Pleasure, sadness, and anger are shown by similar facial expressions everywhere in the world. This is evidence that

these expressions may have a biological basis.

Many languages spoken in Africa and Southeast Asia have words that change in meaning depend on the pitches with which they are spoken. These languages are called

tone languages.

The text suggests that ____ presents the greatest potential for misunderstanding for people within the same culture and from different cultures.

touching and other nonverbal communication

A language is only likely to survive if it has a community of speakers who act as linguistic role models for children.

true

Free morphemes are the linguistic elements that are most easily transmissible across different languages.

true

Language provides a model for describing and analyzing a culture's classification of reality.

true

Native languages are the products of historical contacts and interactions among peoples.

true

The semantic domain of "fish" is unlikely to be as elaborate among peoples who live in the desert as among coastal peoples.

true

Whorf believed the Hopi people had a different perception of the passage of time than English speakers.

true