language Flashcards
(13 cards)
What is the smallest unit of sound in language?
a) Morpheme
b) Phoneme
c) Syntax
d) Semantics
Answer: b) Phoneme
Which of the following is NOT a property of human language?
a) Communicative
b) Arbitrary
c) Static
d) Generative
Answer: c) Static
What does the linguistic determinism hypothesis suggest?
a) Language and thought are completely independent.
b) Language shapes the way people think.
c) Thought shapes the structure of language.
d) Language has no influence on thought.
Answer: b) Language shapes the way people think.
Which stage of language development is characterized by “telegraphic speech”?
a) Babbling
b) Vocabulary spurt
c) Two-word sentences
d) Grammatical structure
Answer: c) Two-word sentences
What is Chomsky’s universal grammar theory?
a) Language is learned entirely through social interactions.
b) Children are born with innate neural structures for acquiring language.
c) Language is developed through reinforcement and punishment.
d) Language acquisition is entirely dependent on exposure.
Answer: b) Children are born with innate neural structures for acquiring language.
Which heuristic involves comparing an object/event to a prototype?
a) Availability heuristic
b) Representativeness heuristic
c) Optimistic bias
d) Confirmation bias
Answer: b) Representativeness heuristic
What is the smallest unit of meaning in language?
a) Phoneme
b) Morpheme
c) Syntax
d) Pragmatics
Answer: b) Morpheme
Which of the following is an example of displacement in language?
a) Referring to an object in front of you.
b) can refer to things removed in space and time
c) Using gestures to communicate.
d) Mimicking animal sounds.
Answer: b) Can refer to things removed in space and time
What is a limitation of the behaviourist view of language development?
a) It ignores the role of social interactions.
b) It assumes children cannot create new grammatical sentences.
c) It does not account for innate neural structures.
d) It overemphasizes the role of reinforcement.
Answer: c) It does not account for innate neural structures.
Which stage of language development typically occurs at 18-24 months?
a) Babbling
b) First words
c) Vocabulary spurt
d) Grammatical structure
Answer: c) Vocabulary spurt
What is the Interactionist view of language development, and why is social interaction important?
The Interactionist view suggests a mix of innate sensitivity to speech properties and implicit learning of specific language rules.
Social interactions are crucial for language acquisition, as passive exposure to language is insufficient for learning.
How does the Behaviourist view explain language development, and what are its limitations?
The Behaviourist view explains language development through operant conditioning, reinforcement, punishment, generalization, and imitation.
However, it faces limitations, such as parents not correcting grammar often, children creating new grammatical sentences, overgeneralization errors, and the ability of children who cannot speak to still understand language.
What is Chomsky’s Universal Grammar theory, and what evidence supports it?
Chomsky’s Universal Grammar theory (Nativist theory) argues that children are born with an innate language acquisition device (LAD) containing neural structures for acquiring language.
Evidence includes infants’ ability to distinguish phonemes from all languages, the creation of sign language in deaf schools in Nicaragua, and innate neural circuits for processing language.
