Exam 5: Language

Consider the following English words that are similar except for the beginning sound: cat and rat. The /c/ and the /r/ are called __________.

John Lucy's research on the relationship among thought, language, and behavior showed that __________.

According to Herbert Terrace's research, chimpanzees are highly intelligent animals that can learn many signs, but cannot understand syntax.

Language is a system of symbols with standard meanings.

Nonverbal communication consisting of body motions and gestures is called kinesics.

The goal of ethnosemantics is to understand __________.

Linguistic variations within a single language such as differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, or syntax are termed dialects.

One goal of anthropological linguistics is to determine the number of phonemes that exist in different languages. This goal is accomplished by examining the use of __________.

Jane Goodall observed that chimpanzees in the wild communicate through __________.

What kind of information do people communicate nonverbally? What are some examples of behaviors that researchers interested in kinesics and proxemics would study? Why is it important to consider these forms of communication?

Does language influence social perceptions? In answering this question, examine such things as the conscious attempts to change what is perceived by many to be "gender-biased" language (terms such as fireman, policeman, Mrs., Miss, freshman, mankind). Also, do you think these attempts to change language will succeed, or are English speakers too set in their ways to change?

Most anthropologists maintain that language influences a person's thinking and worldview, but language does not determine thought.

At the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center at Emory University a chimpanzee named Lana was taught to communicate through a color-coded computer keyboard.

What is African-American Vernacular English? How did it emerge? How is it related to pidgin and creole languages? Discuss the controversies surrounding AAVE.

An example of a bound morpheme in English is __________.

According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, time is perceived the same way in all cultures.

Would it be possible to have a culture without a language? Discuss two theories about how language and culture evolved along with the human species.

How do variations in language relate to social hierarchies? Compare and contrast two examples from sociolinguistics that illustrate the relationship between language use and social standing.

Sociolinguists have found that societies that maintain social inequalities and hierarchies often have different forms of the same language that are used for addressing higher or lower status individuals, kin versus nonkin, and males versus females.

A unit of sound that distinguishes meaning in a particular language is a __________.