Deck 4: Encoding Messages: Spoken Language

Question 1

Newspeak is

A) a format journalists use in lead articles.
B) jargon used by teenagers in the 1950s.
C) a totalitarian language described by Orwell.
D) a term for 21st century linguistic changes predicted by futurists.

Answer 1

a totalitarian language described by Orwell.

Question 2

Which of the following is a characteristic of language?

A) rule-governed
B) productive
C) uses symbols
D) All of the above are characteristics of language

Answer 2

All of the above are characteristics of language

Question 3

A symbol differs from other kinds of signs in that

A) it is arbitrary and conventional.
B) it consists of a signified and a signifier whereas other signs do not.
C) there is a natural connection between a symbol and its meaning.
D) there is no difference between a symbol and other kinds of signs.
Symbol and sign are two different terms for the same idea.

Answer 3

it is arbitrary and conventional.

Question 4

Which of the following statements best describes linguistic productivity?

A) All of the words within a language mirror reality.
B) People who speak different languages experience the world differently.
C) Language develops through direct imitation of the sentences of others.
D) Humans can process and generate entirely novel sentences.

Question 5

Linguistic relativity means that

A) all of the words within a language mirror reality.
B) people who speak different languages experience the world differently.
C) language develops through direct imitation of the sentences of others.
D) humans can process and generate entirely novel sentences.

Question 6

Which of the following statements describes the experiment used in the Carmichael study?

A) Children were asked to spell words as rapidly as possible.
B) Subjects who spoke different languages had to come up with strategies for communicating with one another.
C) Pictures labeled with different words were flashed rapidly on a screen.
D) Young children had to make up words for novel objects.

Question 7

According to linguistic determinism

A) natural signs are more powerful than conventional signs.
B) language determines thought.
C) people who use correct grammar get better jobs and are perceived as more honest than those who make grammatical errors.
D) the ability to understand and use language is innate.

Question 8

Which of the following is a conclusion from the Carmichael study?

A) We seldom think in words; instead we think in images
B) We store many visual memories in words.
C) People are able to store more images than words.
D) Memorized information is not affected by schematic default options.

Question 9

Who where Sapir and Whorf?

A) Linguists who studied the relationship between thought and language
B) Two of the most important of the Port Royal Grammarians
C) The developers of CMM theory
D) The developers of speech act theory

Question 10

__________ is a simple language deliberately invented so that people new to an area can communicate with those who live in that area is

A) Dialect
B) Pidgin
C) Lingua franca
D) Argot

Question 11

When criminals use secret words so that police can't understand what they mean, they are using

A) a dialect.
B) pidgin.
C) lingua franca.
D) argot.

Question 12

In English, "b" and "p" are separate

A) morphemes.
B) phonemes.
C) syntactic structures.
D) pragmatic rules.

Question 13

Which is NOT true of the word boys?

A) It contains two morphemes
B) It contains one bound and one unbound morpheme
C) It is made up of a single phoneme
D) All of the above

Question 14

The kind of linguistic knowledge that allows us to interpret others' communication intent and to make socially acceptable language choices is

A) semantic knowledge.
B) pragmatic knowledge.
C) phonological knowledge.
D) syntactic knowledge.

Question 15

__________ knowledge allows us to pronounce familiar words correctly and know how unfamiliar words sound.

A) Phonological
B) Semantic
C) Syntactic
D) Pragmatic

Question 16

Which kind of linguistic knowledge allows us to recognize how the addition or subtraction of a morpheme can change meaning?

A) phonological knowledge
B) semantic knowledge
C) syntactic knowledge
D) pragmatic knowledge

Question 17

A speech act is

A) the social intent of a speaker when he or she produces an utterance.
B) a tendency to use language to put on an act by assuming inappropriate social roles.
C) a random nonverbal behavior.
D) a sequence of behaviors that fit together and that have a beginning, middle, and end.

Question 18

A __________ speech act commits a speaker to a future line of action.

A) directive
B) commissive
C) assertive
D) declarative

Question 19

The cooperative principle states

A) we should use polite forms with strangers.
B) ambiguous communication carries no meaning.
C) we must follow basic conversational maxims if conversation is to work.
D) you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.

Question 20

CMM theory helps us understand

A) how individuals use context to assign pragmatic meaning.
B) how morphemes are learned and stored mentally.
C) how men and women communicate differently.
D) how ambiguity functions psychologically.

Question 21

Which of the following describes how classroom discourse differs from conversation?

A) Topics are relatively impersonal
B) It is nonreciprocal and less egalitarian
C) It is publicly accessed
D) All of the above

Question 22

Dr. Smith's letter of recommendation for Jane consists of one sentence: "Jane always came to class." Dr. Smith has violated which conversational maxim?

A) quality
B) quantity
C) relevancy
D) manner

Question 23

John never answers a question directly. Although he stays on topic, he hems and haws and is far from clear. He violates which maxim?

A) quality
B) quantity
C) relevancy
D) manner

Question 24

Which is true of gender and communication?

A) Women talk more than men.
B) Men talk more than women.
C) In friendly, same-gender dyads, men talk more than women.
D) In task-oriented cross-gender groups, men talk more than women.

Question 25

John and Sandra Condry asked people to interpret why a newborn was crying. Those who were told the baby was a girl assumed the baby was

A) complaining.
B) afraid.
C) angry.
D) in pain.

Question 26

Which of the following describes the tendency to add fragments like "right?" or "ok?" at the end of a sentence?

A) tag question
B) qualifier
C) disclaimer
D) semantic overload

Question 27

The hall of mirrors effect refers to the idea that

A) over time, physical appearance becomes more and more important in determining status, eventually overpowering other status indicators such as use of prestige dialects.
B) over time, modest claims about male/female differences become exaggerated, and hypotheses are assumed to be facts.
C) in groups, less dominant members take on the language patterns of more dominant members.
D) as relationships develop, members of couples tend to speak alike, copying each other's phrasing and timing.

Question 28

Ling belongs to a __________ culture therefore, it is not necessary to spell out messages explicitly and she seldom says things she believes listeners already know.

A) direct
B) high-context
C) expressive
D) formal

Question 29

In equivocal communication

A) messages can be interpreted in more than one way.
B) men and women spend the same amount of time talking.
C) verbal and nonverbal messages bear equal weight.
D) meanings are clear and unambiguous.

Question 30

Empirical studies show that the use of verbal immediacy

A) increases ratings of a speaker's competence.
B) makes the speaker seem dissimilar to the audience.
C) has no effect on perceptions of how relaxed the speaker is.
D) All of the above

Question 31

Which of the following actions is something most people do in conversational closings?

A) signal the interaction is at an end
B) reassure their conversational partners that the interaction has been successful
C) establish conditions for future interaction
D) All of the above are used in conversational closings

Question 32

One of the goals of most communication schools is to train and encourage students to use newspeak.

Question 33

According to chapter four, language and thought are relatively independent; most thought is not linguistic.

Question 34

The term "natural language" refers to spoken language.

Question 35

Natural languages are made up primarily of natural rather than conventional signs.

Question 36

According to the principle of linguistic productivity, we learn language by memorizing specific word combinations.

Question 37

The word dog is an example of a signifier; the idea of a dog is an example of a signified.

Question 38

Numbers are examples of symbols.

Question 39

Most language speakers can easily articulate the rules that govern their language.

Question 40

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis outlines the maxims that must be followed for cooperative communication.

Question 41

Euphemisms are extremely direct and often shocking word choices.

Question 42

Jargon is specialized language known to in-group members.

Question 43

A phoneme is the smallest unit of the semantic subsystem of language.

Question 44

A list of all the words of a language is known as a lexicon.

Question 45

A person's ideas about what kinds of communication match his or her personal identity is called a life script.

Question 46

Classroom discourse is more scripted than conversation.

Question 47

Sometimes people send indirect messages by intentionally violating conversational maxims.

Question 48

Conversational endings are less structured than other parts of a conversation and do little social work.

Question 49

Women have been found to use more qualifiers than do men.

Question 50

Boys engage in much more trouble talk than do girls.

Question 51

Boys' play often involves boasting, mocking insults, and teasing.

Question 52

Research on girls' play shows that girls' games often focus on matters of inclusion and exclusion.

Question 53

Rapport talk is more characteristic of men than of women.

Question 54

There is research to show that men are more likely than women to emerge as leaders in short encounters, but, in longer encounters, gender differences decrease.

Question 55

"Women's language" refers to the way women are supposed to talk, whereas "the language of women" is the way women actually talk.

Question 56

Immediate language is personalized language that builds a close connection between speaker and listener.

Question 57

Lakoff showed that while metaphors are frequently used by poets and writers, they are seldom used (and can have very adverse effects if they are used) in conversations.

Question 58

What is language? What are its four characteristics? Explain and give an example of each.

Question 59

Explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. What are its two corollaries? Give examples of the Sapir- Whorf hypothesis. Do you agree or disagree with it?

Question 60

What is linguistic productivity? What conclusion do linguists draw from the fact that language is productive?

Question 61

What are the four subsystems of language discussed in the text? What is the smallest unit of each subsystem? What does mastering the rules governing each subsystem enable us to do?

Question 62

What is a speech act? Why do we need to understand speech acts in order to communicate? Give at least one example of a single word or phrase that might have two or more speech acts associated with it. What kind of information do people use to determine the meaning of a speech act from a specific utterance?

Question 63

According to CMM theory, what four levels of context must we take into account during communication? Give an example of a pragmatic rule at each of the four levels.

Question 64

What four types of questions should you ask yourself to determine the rules of any form of discourse?

Question 65

What factors does Aries cite when she cautions us to be wary of the generalizations we make about gender differences in communication?

Question 66

Explain and give an example of each of the following kinds of language. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using each kind? Kinds: ambiguous language, abstract language, euphemistic language, metaphorical language, immediate language.