Study Guide for Unit II

Ml-7 Linguistics Universals

1) TRUE/FALSE: Although part of the language could be innate, part of it must be dependent
on environmental factors
2) What is a principle (also sometimes called linguistic universal)? __
somethingthatistrueofallanonlyoflanguages
______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
3) There are several different kinds/distinctions amongst linguistics universals
a) Absolute universal: These are true in all cases (e.g., all languages have nouns)
b) Implicational universals: If a language has property A it also have property B (e.g., if a
language has a dual it also has a plural)
c) Disjunctive universals: For some property, all language have option A or option B (e.g.,
for the order of verb and object, languages are either OV or VO)
4) TRUE/FALSE: The existence of true language universals (i.e. language-specific universals)
has been used to support the innateness hypothesis.
5) There are several hypotheses about how these universals developed though. Match the
theories with their definitions
i) Historical explanation _____c____
ii) Functional explanation_____a____
iii) Anatomical explanation ____b_____
iv) Neurological explanation______e___
v) Cognitive explanation _____d____
a) Common design is caused by the functions that language has
b) All universals are grounded in the biological design of speech organs (we have universals
because we all have similar organs used to speak)
c) All languages have properties in common because they have all developed from one
language that was spoken far in the past
d) Says universal structure comes from general principles of cognition (we all have
universals because we all think in the same way)
e) Explains the structure of language in terms of the neurological structure of the brain and
how the brain processes information (we all have universals because our brains are setup
the same)

6) What is a parameter?
Astatementthatindicatesachoicebetween(oftentwo)possiblepropertiesofmental
grammars/languages
7) What is the head-complement parameter?
a) Heads and complements are optional portions of phrases
b) Heads precede their complements/heads follow their complements
c) Heads always dominate complements
d) All of the above
Example:
i) English- head first language
ii) Japanese- head last language
ML-8 Models of Language Acquisition
1) What is the ontogenetic inquiry into human knowledge?
a) It involves investigating how the mind develops in the maturing child
b) It includes the logical problem of language acquisition, i.e. how language acquisition is
possible
c) It ignores rationalist ideas, in favor of those thoughts created by empiricists
d) A and B only
e) A and C only
2) TRUE/FALSE: Chomsky claims that you can analyze each unique language system in terms
of (a) universal principles, and (b) parameters
3) TRUE/FALSE: According to individuals like Chomsky, it can be said that language
acquisition is just setting the value of the parameters (and learning the morphemes, or more
broadly: the lexicon).
4) TRUE/FALSE: The empiricists have a different theory. They claim that language acquisition
can be achieved with a general learning mechanism.
ML-9 Poverty of the Stimulus
1) Platos Problem states: Howdoweendupknowingsomuchonthebasisofsolittle
exposure?
This is also calledThepovertyofthestimulus___________.
2) Which alternative best summarizes the poverty of the stimulus argument?
a) Kids who are not exposed to a simplified form of language cannot acquire it

b) We have knowledge of facts about a language even in the absence of sufficient

experience
c) If children are not taught the rules of a language explicitly, they will become poor users
of that language
3) TRUE/FALSE: It would seem that the language input that the child is exposed to (the
stimulus) underdetermines the richness of the mental grammar that they end up with.
Input (experience) + innate knowledge (UG/LAD) output (mental grammar/knowledge of language)

4) TRUE/FALSE: We often refer to the structure-dependency of rules as an example of this

argument.
(For example: forming the question Is the boy [who is sick and who is living next door] not
coming to the party? requires reference to the hierarchical structure of the sentence. The rule
of question formation that places the auxiliary at the beginning of the sentence is this said to
be structure-dependent)
5) Which of the following is not true about the poverty of the stimulus argument?
a) It has never been criticized
b) While it is considered by a number of linguistics and philosophers to be one of the
strongest arguments for the Innateness Hypothesis, others have expressed some
skepticism
c) One problem with it is that there are not enough studies that show what is and isnt part
of a childs input
d) All of the above
ML-10 Properties of the Input
1) Which of the following is a property of the input?
a) Incompleteness (children are not, or are barely, exposed to very complicated sentences)
b) Limitedness (children are only exposed to a finite amount of data, dont hear all
sentences)
c) Diversity (different children are exposed to different data sets, different experiences)
d) Errors (children hear errors/bad sentences)
e) Lack of negative evidence (children are not informed about what is not grammatical,
parents correct for truth not for grammar)
f) Lack of instruction (children are not given explicit instruction, not really taught it)
g) All of the above
h) A and B only
i) A and C only
2) When we talk about a lack of negative evidence we often talk about motherese. What is
motherese? What do parents correct for when they speak to children?

Motherese(orparentese)istheparticularwaythatmothers/parents/caretakersspeaktochildren;
parentstypicallycorrectchildrenforcontentorsuperficialgrammaticalerrors
3) What do we mean by negative evidence?
a) Evidence that comes from parents have a nasty response to what children say
b) Evidence that comes from being told that certain strings that do not belong to the
language, that is, that they are not grammatical sentences
(Dont confuse this with indirect negative evidence, which comes from the language
learner herself noting that certain string appear not to occur.)
4) What is the subset principle?
a) It suggests that children choose the broadest initial hypothesis
b) It suggests that children choose the narrowest initial hypothesis
c) It suggests that children avoid all hypotheses
5) Which of the following are true?
a) There is some doubt that the input stimuli are as poor as Chomsky and his followers
claim
b) There is evidence that some general learning strategies could help explain how children
formulate the rules for grammaticality
c) A and B
ML-11 Stages of Language Acquisition
1) Briefly describe the 5 characteristics of language acquisition.
a) ____________________________________________________________
b) ____________________________________________________________
c) ____________________________________________________________
d) ____________________________________________________________
e) ____________________________________________________________
2) We determine the stage of acquisition a child is in by:
a) Their age
b) Their mean length of utterance
c) Their weight
3) Peter Eimas found in habituation studies that 2 week old infants are capable of categorical
perception. This means that they:
a) distinguish phonetic categories of voice in ba/pa sequences
b) babble in the patterns of classical languages
c) babble in the patterns of their mothers language

Micro stages of Acquisition

Stage 1 (0-8 weeks): Basic biological noises, reflexive noises (ex: crying because they are
hungry)
Stage 2 (8-20 weeks): Cooing (go, ga)
Stage 3 (20-30 weeks): Vocal play, syllables
In stages 1-3, children make sounds from all languages
Stage 4 (25-50 weeks): Babbling
Stage 5 (9-18 months): Melodic utterances
Stage 6 (1-1.5 years): Holophrastic Stage=one word stage
Stage 7 (1.5 -2 years): Two-word stage
Stage 8 (2-2.5 years): Telegraphic stage
In class, the underlined, bold stage were called macro stages.
4) TRUE/FALSE: We will see that perception is always ahead of production (understanding) no
matter what the circumstances are
5) TRUE/FALSE: The acquisitional stages show a pattern of (biological) maturation which in
turn suggests that language acquisition is guided by a language instinct
ML-12 Critical Period Effects
1) TRUE/FALSE: Plasticity is the ability of the brain to recover from brain damage, and up
through age 5 the plasticity of the brain is extraordinary.
2) What is a critical period?
Aperiodduringwhichexposuretoinputmustbepresentinordertodevelopacertain
skill/capacity/typeofknowledge
3) TRUE/FALSE: If you moved to a new country when you were younger than 7 you would be
able to learn the language without a foreign accent, and it would be impossible to distinguish
the difference between you and a native speaker of the language.
4) TRUE/FALSE: In addition to critical periods in language acquisition, we also see that there
are critical periods related to the acquisition of other skills, such as binocular vision in both
people and cats.
5) What did Eric Lenneberg propose?
a) He suggested that language acquisition is related to height
b) He suggested that language learning abilities decline as you get older
c) He suggested that language is not universal
d) None of the above
6) TRUE/FALSE: The ability that Genie could not properly acquire was syntax

ML-13 Second Language Learning

1) TRUE/FALSE: The following correctly matches the exercise hypothesis and the maturational
state hypothesis with their definitions.
Exercise hypothesis: late learning is supported by acquiring a first language early in life
Maturational state hypothesis: exercise is irrelevant; language learning declines with
maturation
2) The most important factor for success of second language learning is:
a) Length of exposure
b) Age of exposure
c) Number of speakers that a language has
3) According to Derek Bickerton, which of the following is true?
a) UG was preceded by a more elementary innate grammar
b) This more elementary grammar is referred to as proto-language
c) Properties of proto-language include: words for concrete concepts, simple phonology
(CV syllables), no recursion; use of melody (hyper-intonation); and use of gesture
d) All of the above
4) TRUE/FALSE: Proto-language is a mental capacity that evolved before the emergence of
UG/LAD. Also it develops in the child before UG/LAD develops. In the development of the
child proto-language accounts for the one and two-word stage.
ML-14 How Children Create New Languages
1) TRUE/FALSE: Languages never change.
2) TRUE/FALSE: As a result of language change, one language may split into several daughter
languages. If this process repeats, we get a group of languages (called language families) that
share a common ancestor language.
3) Which of the following statements is false?
a) If languages develop in the same area, this can lead to language contact or influence back
and forth
b) Code switching is something that occurs when speakers switch between different
languages
c) Language contact may lead to the birth of new language-like systems (pidgins) or even
languages (creoles)
d) All of the above are actually true, none of those statements is false
e) All of the above are FALSE
4) For various reasons, groups of people speaking different languages are often coming into
social contact, and they then need to communicate with each other. When there is a common

language they all know, even though its not their native language, they will use that
language for communication. This language is called
a) English
b) Lingua franca
c) Pidgin
d) Creole

A standard language used for communication between speakers of different languages

5) If there is no lingua franca, a __pidgin____ will develop.

6) Which of the following are characteristics of pidgins?

a) It does not have a stable vocabulary
(different people may prefer to use different words, especially those from their own
language)
b) It does not have a consistent word order
(people tend to use the word order of their own language)
c) It does not have embedded clauses (no recursion)
d) It does not have consistent use of function words
(i.e. use of determiners, tense markers, etc.)
e) All of the above
7) When children are exposed to pidgin as their native language, a creolelanguagedevelops.
This process is called __________creolization.
8) Which of the following are characteristics of creoles?
a) They have stable vocabularies
b) They have consistent word order
c) They have embedded clauses
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d) There is consistent use of function words

e) In other words all of the above choices are true, and creole is a full-fledged language
created from a pidgin
9) TRUE/FALSE: While we believe that pidgins and creoles seem to support the Innateness
Hypothesis, empiricists argue that there is little evidence for sudden leaps from pidgins to
creoles.
ML-15 Sign Languages
ML-16 Delayed Acquisition of Sign Language
ML-17 The Birth of New Sign Languages
1) What do we mean by modality?
a) A channel which is used to convey language
b) A model of language acquisition
c) A type of verb
2) English uses an auditory channel, but if this is unavailable, people switch to the visual
modality (this is the modality used by sign language)
3) TRUE/FALSE: Sign languages are man-made, artificial languages. They have been
consciously designed by people.
4) TRUE/FALSE: Children acquiring a sign language use UG/LAD to acquire it
(in other words signs languages are full-fledged natural languages).
5) Which of the following are common misconceptions about sign languages?
a) Signing is a form of gesturing
b) There is complete iconicity (all words resemble exactly what they describe)
c) There is one universal sign language
d) They are a word-for-word translation of spoken languages
e) All of the above
f) There are no misconceptions
6) Which of the following statements is true about sign languages?
a) What we actually see is that words (signs) of sign languages show only limited iconicity
b) What we actually see is that there are different sign languages (ASL, BSL, LSQ, ISN)
c) What we actually see is that sign language is not a visual representation of a spoken
language
d) All of the above
e) None of the above
7) TRUE/FALSE: All deaf people in the world use the same system of gestures to communicate
8) TRUE/FALSE: The grammar of a sign language follows the principles and parameters of
Universal Grammar (UG).
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9) We have established that sign languages are independent from spoken languages (they use a
different modality), but they are equivalent in the following ways:
a) Both have emerged spontaneously
b) Both change over time
c) Both display variation (stylistic, personal, dialectal)
d) Both display arbitrariness in the relation between form and meaning, allowing for a level
of analysis of what can call phonology
e) Both have a lexicon with many words
f) Both display means to enrich the lexicon
g) Both have a system of syntax
h) All of the above
10) Which of the following are true about acquisition of sign languages?
a) The stages are similar for sign languages and spoken languages
b) There is both vocal and manual babbling
c) They go through the same stages as speaking children (holophrastic, telegraphic,
grammar explosion)
d) There are critical period affects (there is a foreign accent if acquisition starts after
puberty)
e) All of the above
f) None of the above
11) What is a critical period? Does it apply to sign language?
_____________________________________YES_____________________________________
________________________________________________________
12) If there is no input at all, home sign develops. In this system, a set of gestures will emerge
that is used by both the child and their caretakers. These gestures are either natural iconic
gestures for daily things, or they are adopted by the deaf children from the natural gesturing
that people do.
13) Are there cases in which new sign languages have come into existence in recent times so that
we can actually study this process? Describe an example of such a case.
__________________________YES________________________________________________
_________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

Answers to Study Guide II

ML-7 Universals and Innateness
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

true
something that is true of all an only of languages
true
i c; ii a; iii - b; iv e; v d
A statement that indicates a choice between (often two) possible properties of mental
grammars/languages
7) b
ML-8 Models of Language Acquisition
1)
2)
3)
4)

d
true
true
true

ML-9 The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument

1) - How do we end up knowing so much on the basis of so little exposure?
- The poverty of the stimulus
2) b
3) true
4) true
5) a
ML-10 Properties of the Input
1) g
2) Motherese (or parentese) is the particular way that mothers/parents/caretakers speak to
children; parents typically correct children for content or superficial grammatical errors
3) b
4) b
5) c
ML-11 The Stages of Language Acquisition
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

see beginning of chapter

b
a
true
true
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ML-12 Critical Period Effects

1) true
2) a period during which exposure to input must be present in order to develop a certain
skill/capacity/type of knowledge
3) true
4) true
5) b
6) true
ML-13 Second Language Learning
1)
2)
3)
4)

true
b
d
true

ML- 14 How Children Create New Languages

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)

false
true
d
b
pidgin
e
creole language; creolization
e
true

ML-15 Sign Languages

ML-16 Delayed Acquisition of Sign Language
ML-17 The Birth of New Sign Languages
1) a
2) visual
3) false
4) true
5) e
6) d
7) false
8) true
9) h
10) e
11) yes
12) home sign
11

13) yes

12