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Fill in the Blank Questions
1. While humans have an internalized systems of rules that constitutes a basic linguistic ________, this might not be reflected in the actual use of language, referred to as ________.
competence; performance (p. 271)
2. ________ development is the ability to organize words into grammatical sentences.
Syntactic (p. 278)
3. A tacit agreement whereby the speaker agrees to connect new information to what the listener already knows is called the ________.
given–new contract (p. 280)
4. ________ speech does not take the listener’s perspective into account.
Egocentric (p. 285)
5. ________ dyslexia affects the ability to recognize words as entire units, whereas _______ dyslexia affects the ability to read letter-by-letter.
Surface; phonological (p. 289)
Short Answer Questions
1. What did Noam Chomsky mean when he said language is infinite?
Chomsky considered language to be infinite because it consists of grammatical rules, which al-lows for an infinite combination of words, even if not all of the possible combinations make sense. Furthermore, the notion of recursion enables an infinite number of utterances to be constructed. (pp. 269, 276–277)
2. Why were kernel sentences originally believed to be easier to understand and recall? Why did that belief start to fade?
Kernel sentences were considered to be easier to understand because they required fewer trans-formations to understand than other types of sentences. However, it came to light that other variables, some as simple as sentence length, may be what made sentences with optional trans-formations harder to remember and understand. (pp. 270–271)
3. Which language capabilities are more important in a language teacher: competence, performance, or both? Briefly explain why.
Both would be best, because a language teacher must not only know the rules of the language (competence), but must also be able to produce the language accordingly (performance). (p. 271)
4. What is LAD?
A language acquisition device is a part of the innateness hypothesis. It is assumed to contain the principles of universal grammar for every natural language. Humans are born with this knowledge, which explains and allows for the rapid language acquisition observed in children. (p. 272)
5. What is the “poverty of the stimulus” argument in your own words?
The “poverty of the stimulus” argument states that the examples of speech upon which children must rely to determine the rules of language are too replete with errors and not comprehensive enough to be able to provide an adequate stimulus for language acquisition. (p. 272)
6. Describe the two lines of evidence that suggest that the stimulus of speech does influence language acquisition.
First, children who receive corrective feedback from those they are communicating with use this feedback. Secondly, a child who is exposed to more complex speech will later use more complex speech than a child who is exposed to simpler speech. (p. 275)
7. What is a given–new contract? What happens to communication if this contract is violated?
A given–new contract is an implicit agreement among discussants whereby a speaker agrees to link new information to information that the listener already knows. If this contract is violated, then comprehension is difficult or even impossible. (p. 280)
8. At his daughter’s wedding, the father of the bride makes a longwinded and confusing but honest and pertinent speech. Which of the four conversational maxims is he adhering to and which is he ignoring?
He is adhering to the maxims of relation and quality because the speech was relevant and honest, respectively. However, the fact that the speech was not concise violates the maxim of quantity. Finally, the maxim of manner is violated because the speech was confusing. (p. 281)
9. What is the relationship between egocentric speech and inner speech? According to Vygotsky, what is the function of inner speech?
Egocentric speech, a child’s speech that does not take into account the viewpoint of others, later becomes inner speech as the child grows. Vygotsky believed that this inner speech provides a person with an efficient means of regulating thought and behaviour. (pp. 285–286)
10. How do experiments on frames of reference, such as Levinson et al. (2004), support linguistic relativity?
Experiments examining frames of reference demonstrated that people’s frame of reference influenced how they mentally represented space. Because the frame of reference used in people’s thought processes was grounded in linguistic conventions, these results show an interaction between language and cognition. (pp. 298–299)