Lesson 13 revision quiz

Are signals and signs necessarily linked to a biological need?

• Signals – no, signs – no

• Signals – yes, signs – yes

• Signals – yes, signs – no

• Signals – no, signs – yes

Choose one option that is NOT a component of meaning

• Signified

• Signifier

• Referent

• Definition

“A concept is simultaneously richer and poorer than the thing it denotes”. What does it mean?

• The concept “tree” applies to all trees, but does not capture the richness of an individual tree

• The concept “tree” may be interpreted differently, but the tree itself exists objectively

• The concept allows people to understand that what they are looking at is a tree

• Concepts are useful, but also they are vague

Select the statement that is NOT correct

• A posteriori concepts are based on experience

• A priori concepts are formed before any sort of experience with the world

• If a priori concepts exist, they may influence the way we perceive the world

• If a posteriori concepts exist, then all human languages must share the same features

Who suggested that space and time may be a priori concepts that we are born with, rather than a property of the real world around us?

• Noam Chomsky

• Immanuel Kant

• Steven Pinker

• Ferdinand de Saussure

The idea that children are already born with some understanding of language (more precisely, grammar):

• Linguistic empiricism

• Linguistic nativism

• Linguistic relativism

• Universal language

The idea that children’s language can violate rules of grammar of a local adult language, but never violates principles of universal grammar (which means that their grammar mistake may be “legal” in some other adult language) is known as:

• Poverty of the stimulus (POS) argument

• The continuity hypothesis

• Linguistic empiricism

• Mentalese

Select the statement that is NOT consistent with the idea that language influences thought

• There are no concepts without language

• Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

• Mentalese – the “language of thought”

• Linguistic empiricism: we learn language through trial and error

The idea that the language we speak may determine (or at least influence) the way we think is known as

• The continuity hypothesis

• Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

• The poverty of the stimulus (POS) argument

• Universal grammar

What does “indeterminacy of translation” mean?

• That we can never be certain that a translation is correct

• That translation is always vague

• That translation is not the best way for people to understand each other

• That translation is a core component of communication