LING 1010 TEST QUESTIONS WITH
DETAILED VERIFIED CORRECT ANSWERS
Which of the following provides evidence in favor of modern Nativism?
Parents do not teach language to children in the way that we typically think of explicit teaching
Williams Syndrome leads to the following pattern of symptoms:
There is substantial effect on general intelligence, and there are no (or few) effects on language
"Martha and me are going to the movies tonight" is a sentence that many speakers of English
would say, even though some writing teachers or critics would say it is incorrect. To the
speakers who use it, this sentence is:
Grammatical
Which of the following counts as tactic knowledge of language?
A mental grammar
Hypolingualism is:
a language disorder
The Poverty of the Stimulus argument says that"
The evidence contained in the Primary Linguistic Data (PLD) is insufficient to learn the
target grammar
In the 'ass camouflage construction' (ACC), the phrase 'My ass' shows third-person subject
agreement (as in (i)), but is referred back to by anaphoric pronouns with first-person
agreement (as in (ii)).
(i) My ass AM in trouble
*My ass AM in trouble
, (ii) My ass is in trouble. I might get fired.
*My ass is in trouble. It might get fired.
This shows that the ACC is:
Subject to grammatical rules that aren't taught to children.
What is the role of Universal Grammar in the Poverty of Stimulus argument?
Universal Grammar is the basis for the innate knowledge posited by the Poverty of Stimulus
argument.
In some cultures, parents talk to their children in a special manner, also known as child-
directed speech (CDS). However, there are also many cultures where parents do not use
CDS. Which of the following is correct about CDS?
There is almost no correlation between the parents' use of CDS and the child's grammatical
knowledge
A baby is born in Mongolia to parents who speak Mongolian. The baby is immediately
adopted by a couple who speak Finnish and is brought to Finland. The baby learns Finnish,
and not Mongolian. What does this tell us about the debate between modern Empiricism
and modern Nativism?
Because the child's language was influenced by experience, both nativists and empiricists
would predict this result.
Which of the following is an example of the use of RECURSION?
Nominal compounding
Why do linguists engage in descriptive grammar?
Because they want to understand a speaker's knowledge of their language
Which of the following claims is a language misconception?
Young children learn their language only if their caregivers teach it to them.
DETAILED VERIFIED CORRECT ANSWERS
Which of the following provides evidence in favor of modern Nativism?
Parents do not teach language to children in the way that we typically think of explicit teaching
Williams Syndrome leads to the following pattern of symptoms:
There is substantial effect on general intelligence, and there are no (or few) effects on language
"Martha and me are going to the movies tonight" is a sentence that many speakers of English
would say, even though some writing teachers or critics would say it is incorrect. To the
speakers who use it, this sentence is:
Grammatical
Which of the following counts as tactic knowledge of language?
A mental grammar
Hypolingualism is:
a language disorder
The Poverty of the Stimulus argument says that"
The evidence contained in the Primary Linguistic Data (PLD) is insufficient to learn the
target grammar
In the 'ass camouflage construction' (ACC), the phrase 'My ass' shows third-person subject
agreement (as in (i)), but is referred back to by anaphoric pronouns with first-person
agreement (as in (ii)).
(i) My ass AM in trouble
*My ass AM in trouble
, (ii) My ass is in trouble. I might get fired.
*My ass is in trouble. It might get fired.
This shows that the ACC is:
Subject to grammatical rules that aren't taught to children.
What is the role of Universal Grammar in the Poverty of Stimulus argument?
Universal Grammar is the basis for the innate knowledge posited by the Poverty of Stimulus
argument.
In some cultures, parents talk to their children in a special manner, also known as child-
directed speech (CDS). However, there are also many cultures where parents do not use
CDS. Which of the following is correct about CDS?
There is almost no correlation between the parents' use of CDS and the child's grammatical
knowledge
A baby is born in Mongolia to parents who speak Mongolian. The baby is immediately
adopted by a couple who speak Finnish and is brought to Finland. The baby learns Finnish,
and not Mongolian. What does this tell us about the debate between modern Empiricism
and modern Nativism?
Because the child's language was influenced by experience, both nativists and empiricists
would predict this result.
Which of the following is an example of the use of RECURSION?
Nominal compounding
Why do linguists engage in descriptive grammar?
Because they want to understand a speaker's knowledge of their language
Which of the following claims is a language misconception?
Young children learn their language only if their caregivers teach it to them.
