LING 115 LINGUISTICS MIDTERM 2 COMPLETE
STUDY GUIDE WITH SOLVED QUESTIONS
◉ What's the problem with saying that two speakers speak the same
language if they use the same grammar and vocabulary?
Norwegian and Danish are very similar yet they are considered two
separate languages.
Every speaker of a language has slightly different grammar rules and
vocabulary.
The different dialects of Urdu are so different that the speakers
cannot understand each other.
Papua New Guinea has an extraordinary number of languages that
are difficult to classify by family.
Answer: Every speaker of a language has slightly different grammar
rules and vocabulary.
◉ What's the problem with the Mutual Intelligibility Hypothesis?
,Norwegian and Danish are very similar yet they are considered two
separate languages.
Every speaker of a language has slightly different grammar rules and
vocabulary.
The different dialects of Urdu are so different that the speakers
cannot understand each other.
Papua New Guinea has an extraordinary number of languages that
are difficult to classify by family.
Answer: Norwegian and Danish are very similar yet they are
considered two separate languages.
◉ Which of the following has approximately 40 mutually
unintelligible dialects?
Arabic
Jamaican Creole
Scots
,English
Answer: Arabic
◉ The Papua New Guinea varieties Lusi and Kove are considered by
the people who speak them to be the same language because their
grammar and vocabulary are almost identical.
True
False
Answer: False
◉ The end points of a dialect continuum are easily defined as
separate languages.
True
False
Answer: True
◉ Listening to how people speak, there is no way to say where
Spanish ends and French begins on the Spain/France border.
, True
False
Answer: True
◉ How do speakers decide when they are speaking the same
language?
Lexico-statistics
Mutual Intelligibility
Grammar and Cognates
Social/Political Power
Answer: Social/Political Power
◉ A researcher chooses 200 words from two varieties at random. If
89% of the words in that sample are cognates, then:
The speakers of those varieties consider themselves to be speaking
dialects of the same language.
STUDY GUIDE WITH SOLVED QUESTIONS
◉ What's the problem with saying that two speakers speak the same
language if they use the same grammar and vocabulary?
Norwegian and Danish are very similar yet they are considered two
separate languages.
Every speaker of a language has slightly different grammar rules and
vocabulary.
The different dialects of Urdu are so different that the speakers
cannot understand each other.
Papua New Guinea has an extraordinary number of languages that
are difficult to classify by family.
Answer: Every speaker of a language has slightly different grammar
rules and vocabulary.
◉ What's the problem with the Mutual Intelligibility Hypothesis?
,Norwegian and Danish are very similar yet they are considered two
separate languages.
Every speaker of a language has slightly different grammar rules and
vocabulary.
The different dialects of Urdu are so different that the speakers
cannot understand each other.
Papua New Guinea has an extraordinary number of languages that
are difficult to classify by family.
Answer: Norwegian and Danish are very similar yet they are
considered two separate languages.
◉ Which of the following has approximately 40 mutually
unintelligible dialects?
Arabic
Jamaican Creole
Scots
,English
Answer: Arabic
◉ The Papua New Guinea varieties Lusi and Kove are considered by
the people who speak them to be the same language because their
grammar and vocabulary are almost identical.
True
False
Answer: False
◉ The end points of a dialect continuum are easily defined as
separate languages.
True
False
Answer: True
◉ Listening to how people speak, there is no way to say where
Spanish ends and French begins on the Spain/France border.
, True
False
Answer: True
◉ How do speakers decide when they are speaking the same
language?
Lexico-statistics
Mutual Intelligibility
Grammar and Cognates
Social/Political Power
Answer: Social/Political Power
◉ A researcher chooses 200 words from two varieties at random. If
89% of the words in that sample are cognates, then:
The speakers of those varieties consider themselves to be speaking
dialects of the same language.
