1) Dean experienced a seizure, during which he was unable to think of the name of things or
objects. Dean’s seizure likely resulted in
A) aphasia.
B)
... [Show More] agnosia.
C) anomia.
D) apoplexia.
Answer: C
2) Our tendency to take language for granted was illustrated by the authors with the example of a
professor for whom a seizure caused anomia or
A) the inability to name things.
B) the ability to see words, but not process their meaning.
C) the ability to see words in colour.
D) the inability to hear.
Answer: A
3) The ambiguity of language is BEST illustrated by which of the following examples?
A) Telling someone what time a party starts
B) Giving instructions for an exam
C) Disagreements about the interpretations of laws
D) Calling a friend about whom you are worried
Answer: C
4) Which of the following statements about language is TRUE?
A) It is symbolic.
B) It can be written, spoken, or signed.
C) It is capable of an infinite set of meaningful utterances.
D) All of the above.
Answer: D
5) The authors provide a brief conversation between two students discussing tickets for a game. The
inferences we make about this discussion indicate that
A) the ways in which language can be interpreted are extremely limited.
B) our ability to understand “slang” is very limited because it is a cognitively taxing event.
C) most language use is quite literal.
D)our ability to understand language requires implicit skills in accessing knowledge and
interpreting phrases.
Answer: D
6) Newspaper headlines, such as “Killer Sentenced to Die for Second Time in 10 Years,” may strike
us as funny. From the perspective of language, this is because the phrase or headline
A) lacks subject-verb agreement.
B) has no literal interpretation.
C) has ambiguous syntax.
D) is impossible to interpret.
Answer: C
7) As symbol systems of communication, most languages
A) are arbitrary in the relationship between words and meaning.
B) do not have concepts that are unique to just one particular language.
C) can be translated to another without impaired meanings of complex concepts.
D) generally match sounds to the meaning of words.
Answer: A
8) Language is
A) a communication system that requires little implicit processing.
B) rarely ambiguous.
C) a symbol system of communication.
D) a communication system that includes words, but not gestures.
Answer: C
9) Carl is reading the newspaper and laughs when he sees the headline “Drunk Gets Nine Months in
Violin Case”. From the perspective of language, Carl most likely finds this humourous because
the phrase or headline
A) lacks subject-verb agreement.
B) has ambiguous syntax.
C) has no literal interpretation.
D) has ambiguous word interpretations.
Answer: D
10) Much of our language use serves non-informational purposes, such as
A) maintaining social relationships.
B) telling the barista that we want a skim latte.
C) providing directions to an event.
D) advising a friend what time to show up at a party.
Answer: A
11) We often do not consider the complexity of language. This is in part because
A) our use of language is generally automatic.
B) language acquisition requires little practice.
C) language acquisition is easy.
D) humans do not often consider complex phenomena.
Answer: A
12) The area of psycholinguistics that focuses on the sounds people use when then speak and listen
to language is called
A) morphology.
B) phonology.
C) syntax.
D) semantics.
Answer: B
13) The area of psycholinguistics that focuses on the meanings of words and sentences is called
A) morphology.
B) phonology.
C) syntax.
D) semantics.
Answer: D
14) The area of psycholinguistics that focuses on how words are combined to form sentences is
called
A) morphology.
B) phonology.
C) syntax.
D) semantics.
Answer: C
15) Dr. Doolittle is studying the order in which children around the world learn to make the speech
sounds used in their native languages, to see if there are common patterns. Dr. Doolittle's field of
study is most probably
A) morphology.
B) phonology.
C) syntax.
D) semantics.
Answer: B
16) Mado is sad that she has lost the French-Canadian that her French-Canadian parents spoke in her
childhood. She knows many French-Canadian words, but she has forgotten how to put them
together into real French-Canadian sentences. Mado seems to have a problem with FrenchCanadian
A) morphology.
B) phonology.
C) syntax.
D) semantics.
Answer: C
17) What are the basic units of sound that compose the words in a language?
A) lingmemes.
B) morphemes.
C) phonemes.
D) anomias.
Answer: C
18) In psycholinguistics, phonemes are
A) the basic rules of grammar.
B) the basic brain structures.
C) the basic units of meaning.
D) the basic units of sound.
Answer: D
19) Consider the English word "rereading." Which of these is one PHONEME in that word?
A) “read”
B) “re”
C) “r”
D) “rea”
Answer: C
20) Name the smallest units of speech that contain meaning.
A) Lingmemes
B) Morphemes
C) Phonemes
D) Anomias
Answer: B
21) Consider the English word "rereading." Which of these is one MORPHEME in that word?
A) Reading
B) Re
C) R
D) Rea
Answer: B
22) Basic units of sound are called ; basic units of meaning are called .
A) phonemes, syntax
B) phonemes, morphemes
C) morphemes, phonemes
D) morphemes, syntax
Answer: B
23) Almost all words in any language contain more than .
A) phonemes, syntax
B) phonemes, morphemes
C) morphemes, phonemes
D) morphemes, syntax
Answer: B
24) A study of morphology shows the first words babies learn to speak in any language typically
refer to
A) actions they enjoy doing (eat, run, play).
B) how things look or feel (red, big, hot).
C) how they feel (hungry, frightened, lonely).
D) specific objects or people (mama, doggie, truck).
Answer: D
25) The study of how words are combined together to form grammatical sentences and phrases is
called
A) morphology.
B) phonology.
C) syntax.
D) semantics.
Answer: C
26) In psycholinguistics, syntax is the study of
A) the meanings of words and phrases.
B) the basic sounds of a language.
C) how words are combined into sentences.
D) developing more effective computer languages.
Answer: C
27) Which of these areas of psycholinguistics is most directly related to the fact that "the boy ate the
chicken" and "the chicken ate the boy" mean very different things?
A) morphology.
B) phonology.
C) syntax.
D) semantics.
Answer: C
28) The English language has phonemes.
A) no more than 15
B) more than 100
C) between 60 and 75
D) between 40 and 45
Answer: D
29) Language is based on universal sound units called
A) phonemes.
B) morphemes.
C) semantics.
D) registers.
Answer: A
30) How many morphemes are there in the sentence “I predicted it”?
A) 4
B) 6
C) 5
D) 7
Answer: C
31) You are learning Russian in preparation for a trip next summer. Although you are doing a good
job recognizing the written signs you need to know, you are having trouble with the sounds of
the Russian language. Which of the following aspects of language is giving you trouble?
A) Phonemes
B) Morphemes
C) Syntax
D) Semantics
Answer: A
32) The system of rules that governs how we assign meaning to the morphemes we use is called
A) semantics.
B) syntax.
C) phonology.
D) regularization.
Answer: A
33) The system of rules that governs how we combine words to form grammatical sentences is called
A) semantics.
B) syntax.
C) phonology.
D) regularization.
Answer: B
34) The basic meaningful units of any language are called
A) phonemes.
B) morphemes.
C) semantics.
D) registers.
Answer: B
35) The sounds t, th, and sh are
A) phonemes.
B) morphemes.
C) semantics.
D) registers.
Answer: A
36) What are the smallest units of meaning in a language?
A) Phonemes
B) Morphemes
C) Semantics
D) Registers
Answer: A
37) When speakers of English add “ed” to a verb to indicate past tense, they are applying
A) a dialectical marker.
B) a prefix.
C) a morpheme.
D) a phoneme.
Answer: C
38) Which of the following is NOT one of the four levels of analysis that we use in producing
language?
A) Phonemes
B) Morphemes
C) Semantics
D) Syntax
Answer: C
39) Hawaiian words tend to consist of repetitions of only a few phrases (such as kakahiaka for
morning) because the language contains a very small number of .
A) phonemes.
B) morphemes.
C) grammatical rules.
D) phonesthemes.
Answer: A
40) is to putting together a meal as is to menu items.
A) Phonesthemes; phonemes
B) Syntax; morphemes
C) Morphemes; phonemes
D) Syntax; phonemes
Answer: B
41) From the following items, choose which is the BEST example of syntax.
A) A textbook
B) A conversation
C) PowerPoint bullets
D) A lecture
Answer: A
42) In most cases, the rules of syntax
A) are the same across different languages.
B) are rarely followed in real-world language.
C) are perfectly applied in conversation.
D) are the same across different dialects.
Answer: B
43) According to the Cross-Linguistic table 8.2 in your book, which phoneme is distinct in Arabic
but not English?
A) R and L
B) K and Kh
C) D and T
D) S and Z
Answer: B
44) The term dialect is used to indicate
A) variations of a language that follow no structural patterns.
B) distinct and different languages found in the same country.
C)language forms that share a common origin, but that have varied pronunciation,
vocabulary, and syntax.
D)language forms that are based on another language, but that do not have a syntactic
structure of their own.
Answer: C
45) Rosario lives in southern Italy and Genero lives in northern Italy. Both speak Italian and can
understand each other, but their language varies according to their geographical areas. What
feature of language reflects these variations?
A) Phonesthemes
B) Syntax
C) Dialect
D) Extralinguistic information
Answer: C
46) are grammatical elements that modify words by adding sounds to them that
change their meaning (such as adding s for plural).
A) Syntax
B) Dialectical qualifiers
C) Phonesthemes
D) Morphological markers
Answer: D
47) Mike is from British Columbia and Mary Ann is from Nova Scotia. Mike sometimes makes fun
of Mary Ann’s “maritime accent” and the way she pronounces certain words. In this example,
Mike is noticing differences in .
A) syntax.
B) dialect.
C) morphemes.
D) phonesthemes.
Answer: B
48) Your friend sends you a text message on your cell phone that says “This is just horrible!” In
order to interpret what your friend is meaning, you often need to help you
understand what is going on.
A) phonesthemes
B) syntax
C) extralinguistic information
D) dialect
Answer: C
49) Successful communication
A) rarely requires nonverbal information from the speaker.
B) depends mainly on the literal and accurate interpretation of words.
C) depends exclusively on language content.
D) depends on the reasoning abilities of the listener.
Answer: D
50) E-mail can often lead to misunderstandings. This is because
A) people misspell more often with e-mail than with pen-and-paper writing.
B) of decreasing literacy levels.
C) most people read e-mail more rapidly than other written forms.
D) it lacks extralinguistic information.
Answer: D
51) Although extralinguistic information is not a formal part of language, it does serve the purpose of
A) generally providing entertainment value, which captures our attention.
B) assisting in interpretation.
C) distracting us from the emotional aspects of communication.
D) providing literal and factual information.
Answer: B [Show Less]