All SOV languages make exclusive use of prepositions to mark location.
True
False
Language areas of the brain appear to develop in response to the presence of linguistic
signals.
True
False
The idea that situations affect the meanings of words is an important one in linguistic
anthropology.
a. True
b. False
A group of individuals who interact regularly, developing unique ways of doing things
together (including, potentially, ways of speaking together) is called a:
a. linguistic community.
b. speech community.
c. community of practice.
d. competent community.
The American Anthropological Association statement on ethics in fieldwork can be
summed up briefly as:
a. introduce no changes.
b. do no harm.
c. bring no money.
d. never lose your temper.
In his article, “A Goy in the Ghetto,” William Mitchell describes some of the challenges
he faced as an anthropologist learning to adjust to:
a. New Jersey accents.
b. styles of communication.
c. types of teasing.
d. different kinds of food.
The way to “get” symbolic capital is to demonstrate:
a. syntactic competence.
b. linguistic competence.
c. communicative competence.
d. alphabetic competence.
Below, the word _____ has an open vowel.
a) [dig] ” dig (He likes to dig holes.)
b) [pand] ” pond (We swim in the pond.)
c) [t k] ” tock (The clock goes tick tock.)ʌ
d) [tu] ” too (I use the IPA chart too!
According to linguistic anthropologist Bambi Schieffelin, the introduction of a
missionary-developed writing system to the Kaluli of New Guinea has resulted in a
shift in:
a. fishing techniques.
b. gardening techniques.
c. approaches to maintaining good health.
d. communicative practices and social stratification.
Recent reconstruction of Proto-Bantu suggests that it was first spoken in:
a. the Comoro Islands.
b. Madagascar.
c. the Sahel.
d. the Cameroon region.
The term used to refer to a set of ideas we have about the way things should be is
a) convention.
b) cultural focus
c) nostalgia
d) ideology
A speaker’s underlying ability to produce and recognize grammatically correct
expressions is called:
a. linguistic competence.
b. verbal competence.
c. communicative competence.
d. structural competence.
A good understanding of the mechanisms of language change allows you to:
a. see how biology determines language use.
b. understand the one-to-one connection between race and culture and language.
c. reconstruct ancestral languages from sets of daughter languages.
d. refute the Sapir/Whorf hypothesis.
The detailed description (as opposed to analysis) of the sounds of a language is called:
a) phonotactics.
b) phonemics.
c) phonetics.
d) phonography.
In cultural and linguistic anthropology, which of the following takes you into another
living human culture where you are expected to adapt and adjust your frames of
reference until you can understand and operate successfully within that cultural and/or
linguistic system?
a. interviews
b. archival research
c. fieldwork
d. geographic relocation
Grammars designed to provide rules that could create all of the possible sentences of a
language are called:
a. generative grammars.
b. prescriptive grammars.
c. descriptive grammars.
d. genetic grammars.
In Czech, the clock time of 10:30 is expressed by a phrase that translates as which of
the following?
a. half-past ten
b. half of eleven
c. early eleven
d. ten gone
Recent reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European suggests that it was first spoken in:
a. on river islands in central Europe.
b. coastal areas where fishing was plentiful.
c. the savannah..
d. a temperate, forested climate.
Berlin and Kay applied their color naming system in an even-handed way, with
consistent standards for all cultural groups.
a. True
b. False
Syntax is the branch of linguistics that investigates:
a. the origins of language.
b. style and genre in discourse.
c. how sounds are produced.
d. how sentences are structured.
The Mayan writing system was:
a. logographic.
b. syllabic.
c. logosyllabic.
d. a combination of logographic, syllabic, and logosyllabic strategies.
Anthropologists learn the languages of the people they are studying
a. only when they are doing linguistic anthropology.
b. in order to gain a clearer understanding of the behavior of those with whom they live.
c. for practical purposes, such as being able to ask for food or ask where the bathroom
is, rather than research purposes.
d. naturally, without a lot of effort.
Languages that cannot be classified into any existing language family are called what?
a. language loners
b. language isolates
c. language conundrums
d. language lexicons
A theory that language is the result of a complex set of theories that children create
about the linguistic stimuli they are exposed to is what kind of theory?
a. innatist theory
b. behaviorist theory
c. cognitivist theory
d. active construction of a grammar theory (or theory theory)
The acronym, S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G, proposed by Dell Hymes, was developed to assist in
the:
a. analysis of phonetic patterning.
b. analysis of infant vocalizations.
c. ethnography of speaking.
d. description of non-verbal communication.
A situation in which individuals and communities maintain their bilingualism on a
long-term basis is know as what?
a. stable bilingualism
b. transitional bilingualism
c. academic bilingualism
d. standardized bilingualism
The use of Mock Spanish in the children’s book series about the character Skippy Jon
Jones
a. cannot be racist, since it includes only positive images.
b. is a topic of discussion to which linguistic anthropology can contribute.
c. is of little interest to linguistic anthropologists, as it is not considered literature.
d. uses only correct Spanish words and grammar, and promotes true bilingualism.
When the Oakland School Board wanted to establish instruction in Ebonics, in addition
to English, they cited research arguing that Ebonics was a:
a. creole, descended from ancestral African languages.
b. pidgin, developed in West Africa during slavery.
c. pig latin, used in the Comoro Islands by children.
d. dialect, with high prestige in Chicago and Oakland.
When the Oakland School Board wanted to establish instruction in Ebonics, in addition
to English, they cited research arguing that Ebonics was a:
a. creole, descended from ancestral African languages.
b. pidgin, developed in West Africa during slavery.
c. pig latin, used in the Comoro Islands by children.
d. dialect, with high prestige in Chicago and Oakland.
A unit of writing that is surrounded by white space on a page is called a:
a. grapheme.
b. phoneme.
c. lexeme.
d. morpheme.
The term used to describe hand shape and orientation in phonemic analysis of American
Sign language is
a. dez
b. tab
c. sig
d. fist
Anthropologist Harriet Ottenheimer employed ethnosemantic analysis in order to learn
to:
a. order drinks in a caf in France.
b. ‘speak computer” at her university.
c. cook.
d. travel around Kansas City.
The use of the suffix {-ova} in Czech
a. indicates not only “femaleness’ but also a sort of “belonging to”.
b. has been embraced by young women in the 21st century as a way of celebrating their
heritage.
c. was rejected by feminists in the 1960s and is no longer used.
d. is identical to the English suffix “-ess” as in hostess or actress.