Menti Questions ANTH/LING Exam 1

English is the National Language of the US (T/F)

English is the National Language of the US (T/F)

False (multilingual founders, official lang in 1996)

Words have fixed meanings (T/F)

False (context dependent)

Most people use multiple varieties of language (T/F)

True

What does “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy” mean?

• Languages are spoken by people with power

• Languages and dialects are social constructs

• Languages are recognized by the government

Cahokia and Cliff Palace are archeological sites that prove that the United States was sparsely populated before European settlement (T/F)

False

The Pristine Myth is the belief that the Americas were untouched and barely inhabited at the time of European Settlement (T/F)

True

Languages being members of different language families is an example of what kind of diversity according to Mithun?

Genetic

The hearsay particle in Yup’ik is an example of the relation between linguistic structures and world view according to Mithun because…

In Yup’ik speakers often have to indicate if the thing they are sharing is their own words, passed along, and the reputability of the source.

Franz Boas believed that all cultures and languages pass through the same stages of development, and some are more advanced than others. (T/F)

False

In Anthropology, Holism means only looking at humanity through a single lens. (T/F)

False (look from all lenses)

Sapir and Whorf both believed that

• Studying language is integral to studying culture

• Language use is often linked to unconscious patterns

What is true about the Sapir-Whorf Hypothosis

True: It was used by psycholinguists to disprove linguistic relativity

False:

Linguistics and anthropologists love it
It was written by Sapir and Whorf
It is the only definition of linguistic relativity

When languages start borrowing words from other languages, they are at risk of going extinct (T/F)

False

By 2050 experts project that there will only be 20 Native languages spoken in the United States (T/F)

True

Settler Colonialism is

True: A reason for language loss among native people

False:

Better than other kinds of colonization

Not applicable to the situation in the United States

Only applicable to the situation in the United States

Language Revitalization is important because

• it increases linguistic and cultural diversity

• it helps Native groups resist the forces of settler colonialism

• it foster community

According the De Saussure the relationship between signifier and signified in a sign is

Arbitrary

According to generative linguistics the sentence “colorless green ideas sleep furiously” is

True:

Nonsensical but still grammatical
Evidence for the importance of grammar in the study of linguistics

False:

Evidence for the importance of context

William Labov prompted department store workers to say “fourth floor” to study the relation between pronunciation and class identity (T/F)

True

Linguistic Ethnography is mostly a quantitative method of research (T/F)

False

According to Sapir all social behavior involves communication (T/F)

True

Which of the following would be an example of a gesture according to Sapir?

• The words that I use

• Seeing a ling forming in a shop and joining it

• Sarcastic intonation while speaking

• Not wearing white at a wedding

Sarcastic intonation while speaking

According to Sapir, what makes social behavior unconscious?

True: When people know the form but not the function of a behavior

False:

• When thoughts are repressed

• When we break social rules

• When the researcher knows more than their subjects

According to Sapir, social scientist should only study the function of behavior if it is widely known (T/F)

False

What are the 3 parts of Peirce’s sign

Interpretant, representamen, object

For Peirce meaning can be related to the physical world (T/F)

True

The relationship between representamen and object is called the

Ground

In an Index, the relation between the representamen and the object is

Often causal, but not replication

How many syllables are in “caramel” for different people is an example of a…?

Variable

Pronouncing “caramel” with two syllables instead of three is a…?

Variant

Not everyone says caramel the same way, there are different ways of speaking is an example of…

Variation

Working class Boston Speech is an example of…

Variety and Variation

A cocktail umbrella representing a beach umbrella is an example of a…

Icon

A jager bomb representing a “frat boy” is an example of a…

Index

A drink tasting like a tropical vacation is an example of a…

Index

The word “beer” representing a fermented wheat beverage with hops is an example of a…

Symbol

Gumperz is a Variationalist Linguist (T/F)

False (Interactionalist)

Variationalist Linguistics is useful for understanding…

True: How variants correlate statistically to regional and social identity

False:

• How language is used in conversations

• How people feel about their linguistic choices

Code switching is when a language user intentionally changes the variety they are using during a conversation (T/F)

True

Interactional linguistics is useful for understanding…

True: How language varieties are used in everyday contexts

False":

• Distribution of linguistic variants

• The history of different speech varieties

• The grammar judgement of a language user

Linguistic Repertoire is…

True: All of the linguistic forms associated with a register

False:

• The identiy associated with a register

• The grounding relationship of a register

• The metaphoric use of register

A register is a linguistic repertoire that is associated with particular social practices and with persons who engage in such practices (T/F)

True

Registers don’t change over time

False

The social domain of a register is

The people who recognize it

Not:

• The way people use it

• The sounds of an accent

According to Agha, it is possible to empirically study values as things people have inside them (T/F)

False (study evaluation)

“People who speak RP sound classy” is an example of

• A metapragmatic stereotype of use

• Evaluative behavior

• A part of enregisterment

Shakespeare wrote in Old English (T/F)

False (Early Modern English)

Which of the following is true about standard languages?

• People speak standard languages

• Standards are the correct way to speak

• Standards are models of speech

• Standard languages have always existed

Standards are models of speech

The homogenization of linguistic diversity is called…

Leveling

American English came from a specific region of England (T/F)

False (many different regions, immigration)

British people in the 1700s thought American English was…

Unified

NOT: incorrect, diverse, the same as British english

Creole Languages

Have native speakers

False:

• Are another name for Pidgins

• Don’t have fully developed grammar

• Aren’t spoken in the US anymore

Negative politeness is

When you try to respect peoples freedom and space (Korean)

NOT: when you are polite but do not mean it; when you compliment people; when you are negatively impacted by your politeness

Positive politeness is

When you affirm people’s identities and values (Black)

NOT: when you enjoy being polite; when you get something out of being polite

Which are examples of bivalent indexes?

A. Wine talk indexing upper class identity

B. Coffee talk indexing upper and lower class identities

C. Doc martins indexing working class and upper class identities

B and C

In the Bailey Article, the Korean shop owners use positive politeness more than negative politeness (T/F)

False

American English is influenced by African Languages (T/F)

True

The Great Migration is important to understand AAE as

A. Many features of AAE are similar to dialects in the South

B. AAE features spread across the country

C. AAE developed more after its speakers left the South

A and B

Double Consciousness is a term used by DuBois to describe how Black people

Are aware of how white people view them and know their own experience

NOT: can cross the color line

“She be working” is an example of

Habitual Aspect

Which of the following is NOT a critique of how variationist linguistics studies AAE?

• They don’t account for ideologies of AAE in the Black community

• They don’t account for codeswitching

• They don’t consider AAE to be grammatical

• They don’t account for the language use in context

They don’t consider AAE to be grammatical

According to Morgan, what was the ruling of the King Case on AAE

AAE was a different dialect that GAE and the speakers of AAE need different treatment in school
NOT: AAE is not a real language

Labov’s 1985 study found that Black Philadelphians

Spoke increasingly differently than white philadelphians
did NOT account for code switching

Which of the following is NOT a discussion of race highlighted by Morgan when discussing theories of AAE among Black writers

• AAE is influenced by African Languages

• AAE is reflective of “slave speech”

• AAE is similar to other Southern dialects

• AAE is a language of resistance

AAE is similar to other Southern dialects