Grice's Maxims
Imagine the following conversation between friends, both of whom know that chocolate is bad for dogs.
A: What should I give my dog to eat since I’ve run out of dog food?
B: Definitely anything chocolate will be good for him.
Which of Grice's conversational maxims is B flouting?
Quantity, Quality, Relation, or Manner?
Quality
Select the best definition of morphology
A. the study of word structure and word formation
B. the study of how languages change over time
C. the study of alphabets and other kinds of writing systems
A. the study of word structure and word formation
Which kind of spatial coordinate system do English speakers use?
A. relative
B. absolute
C. both of these
D. neither of these
C. both of these
Across cultures, the emergence of color terms in languages follows a predictable pattern. If a language only has three color terms, which of the following colors would it be most likely to include a label for?
A. blue
B. red
C. green
D. orange
B. red
In which hemisphere of the brain is most language processing carried out?
A. right hemisphere
B. left hemisphere
C. frontal lobe
D. both hemispheres
B. left hemisphere
Which of the following violates Grice’s Maxim of Relation (or Relevance) when given as an answer to the question “Where was your class this morning?”
A. The sun was shining today.
B. I had class in the psychology building but on my way I went into the chemistry building instead.
C. I don’t know, do you?
D. In my refrigerator.
A. The sun was shining today.
What is the name given to the hypothesis that all languages share some universal properties that limit the variation we see across languages?
A. the Universals Hypothesis
B. Universal Grammar
C. Linguistics
D. the Crosslinguistic Hypothesis
B. Universal Grammar
Words like right and left represent this kind of spatial coordinate system:
A. relative-egocentric
B. relative-geographic
C. absolute-egocentric
D. absolute-geographic
A. relative-egocentric
What core system of number cognition does grammatical number reflect?
A. approximate numerosity for large sets
B. exact numerosity for large sets
C. approximate numerosity for small sets
D. exact numerosity for small sets
D. exact numerosity for small sets
True or False: Languages may group nouns (or the objects they label) into grammatical gender categories in different ways.
True
A friend is telling you about what they did over the weekend and leaves out details of the weekend that they recorded on Snapchat. You know that they are purposefully not adding the specific information in their story even though you saw what happened on their story. Which one of Grice's maxim is your friend violating? Quantity, Quality, Relation, or Manner?
Quantity
Which area of linguistics is about the rules that language users draw from to construct full and grammatical sentences?
A. morphology
B. pragmatics
C. syntax
D. metaphor
C. sytax
True or False: The spatial metaphors that speakers of a language use for time are related to cultural artifacts like their writing system.
True
What aspect of number cognition do humans have a capacity for that other species lack?
A. approximate numerosity for small sets
B. approximate numerosity for large sets
C. exact numerosity for small sets
D. exact numerosity for large sets
D. exact numerosity for large sets
Which of the following is a true statement about why languages change over time?
A. Groups of speakers become separated and their language gradually drifts apart.
B. Invading armies impose their language on the groups of people they have subdued and the languages mix.
C. Technology changes and languages update to keep up with the times.
D. All of these are true.
D. All of these are true.
Imagine that you encounter your professor somewhere outside of class and you ask how you did on the last homework assignment. Your professor responds by pointing at the sky and saying "Isn't the falling snow beautiful?" Which of Grice's Maxims does your professor seem to be flouting? Quantity, Quality, Manner, or Relation?
Relation
In this course we consider language as:
A. a social skill that enables humans to alert others of danger
B. a cultural artifact developed through shared history
C. a collection of words and phrases that a given community uses
D. a complex cognitive skill that humans use to communicate
D. a complex cognitive skill that humans use to communicate
Words like north and south represent this kind of spatial coordinate system:
A. absolute-egocentric
B. relative-egocentric
C. absolute-geographic
D. relative- geographic
C. absolute-geographic
What plays a role in the development of color terms?
A. biology and culture, but not gender
B. biology
C. culture
D. gender
A. biology and culture, but not gender
The following sentence can have two different meanings:
She identified it by its bark.
The linguistic phenomenon that underlies this observation is called:
A. arbitrariness
B. lexical ambiguity
C. structural ambiguity
D. synonym
B. lexical ambiguity
You encounter your friend Lulu and ask if she knows where a mutual acquaintance, Max, is. Lulu responds by saying "Well, he didn't meet me for lunch at the restaurant today like he was supposed to." Which of Grice's Maxims does Lulu seem to be flouting? Quantity, Quality, Manner, or Relation?
Quantity
True or false: The following statement is an example of a descriptive approach to language.
"Canadian English is a substandard dialect of English."
False
Which of the following issues are Bowerman and Choi interested in?
A. how children perceive time
B. how children learn about spatial relationships
C. how children learn to count
D. how children learn color terms
B. how children learn about spatial relationships
Imagine that a new language is found that only has terms for the colors orange and green.
Which of the following claims best fits with the idea of Linguistic Relativity?
A. Because they have no other color terms, speakers are unable to conceptualize or differentiate colors other than green and orange.
B. The lack of other color terms has no effect on the way speakers process colors.
C. The lack of color terms likely influences the way speakers process colors.
D. The lack of color terms is a product of culture rather than a failure to conceptualize different colors.
C. The lack of color terms likely influences the way speakers process colors.
There are two morphemes in the word happiness: "happy" and "ness." Which of these is a bound morpheme?
A. ness
B. happy
C. both
D. neither
A. ness