Chapter 7: Language and Communication

Q100-121 (22 total)

100. What is language?

B. A rule-governed symbolic system used to communicate meaning.

101. What is a prelinguistic development?

A. A developmental behavior preceding conventional spoken words, such as cooing, babbling, gestures, and joint attention.

102. What is a phoneme?

B. The smallest sound unit that can distinguish meaning in a language.

103. What is a morpheme?

A. The smallest meaningful linguistic unit.

104. Which example correctly distinguishes a phoneme from a morpheme?

A. The /b/ sound is a phoneme; the plural suffix “-s” in “cats” is a morpheme.

105. Which statement best describes early language comprehension?

B. Receptive language often develops ahead of expressive language, so infants and toddlers may understand words before they can say them.

106. What is semantics?

B. The study of meaning in words and linguistic expressions.

107. What is an overextension?

B. Using a word too broadly, such as calling every four-legged animal “dog.”

108. What is an underextension?

B. Applying a word to a narrower category than its conventional meaning, such as using “dog” only for the family pet.

109. What is syntax?

A. The rules governing how words combine into phrases and sentences.

110. What is pragmatics?

A. The rules governing how language is used in social contexts, including conversational turn-taking and adjusting speech to listeners.

111. What is phonology?

A. The sound system and patterns of a language.

112. What is morphology?

A. The study of meaningful word parts and how words are formed.

113. A child says “goed” instead of “went.”

What does this most likely demonstrate?

B. Overregularization, in which a child applies a regular grammatical rule to an irregular form.

114. Which statement best describes the behaviorist view of language development?

A. Language is learned partly through imitation, reinforcement, and environmental input.

115. Which statement best describes the nativist view of language development?

B. Humans have biologically based capacities that support language acquisition.

116. Which statement best describes the interactionist view of language development?

C. Language develops through interactions among biological capacities, cognitive development, and social-linguistic experience.

117. What is the whole-object assumption in early word learning?

A. A new word is initially assumed to refer to an entire object rather than just one of its parts or properties.

118. What is mutual exclusivity?

B. The tendency to assume that a novel label refers to an object or category that does not already have a known label.

119. What does the taxonomic or categorizing constraint suggest about early word learning?

A. Children may extend a label to other objects of the same kind or category, rather than only to things that are associated with the original object.

120. Which statement about bilingualism is most accurate?

B. Bilingual children may distribute vocabulary across languages and show some cognitive advantages on certain tasks, but outcomes vary by experience and task.

121. What can research on bilingualism and the brain suggest?

A. Using two languages can involve neural systems supporting language selection and control, and language experience can shape brain organization.