LING 1010 UCONN EXAM SCRIPT 2025/2026 QUESTIONS
WITH ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Structural Analogy - ✔✔• proposes that the organization of different modules is
expected to be analogous (parallel)
• Different modules of the mind are structured in the same way
• It is to be expected that a highly complex organism like the human brain (and mind)
must display multiple use of the same 'tricks'
✔✔Standard Social Science Model - ✔✔• This is essentially the 'blank slate' view which
has dominated the social sciences for long)
• The same mechanisms are thought to govern how one acquires a language, how one
learns to recognize emotional expressions, how one thinks about incest, or how one
acquires ideas and attitudes about friends and reciprocity
o Because the mechanisms that govern reasoning, learning, and memory are assumed
to operate uniformly
✔✔Sociobiology - ✔✔social behavior of other animal species, including humans, is also
rooted in social instincts, suggested that human behavior is seriously based on genetic
inheritance
• people know how to behave socially, not because they learn it, but because they
follow their instincts
✔✔Evolutionary Psychology - ✔✔renamed from sociobiology, idea that the mind (just
like the body) has developed in the course of evolution, specifically when (early)
humans were facing the challenges of life as hunters and gatherers
✔✔Heritability - ✔✔the extent to which variation in a trait can be attributed to genes
✔✔Monozygotic Twins - ✔✔identical twins (1 egg split)
✔✔Twin Studies (Monozygotic) - ✔✔o given that monozygotic twins received different
nurture, if they share mental traits more than two random individuals, these shared traits
must be rooted in genetic properties
✔✔Eugenics - ✔✔• The science of improving a human population by controlled
breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.
• Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race
✔✔Sign - ✔✔• Any 'package' of FORM and MEANING
• The form is what can be produced and perceived
• The meaning is whatever the form 'stands for' or 'refers to'
• Two types are symbols and icons
✔✔Pierce and de Saussure - ✔✔Founding fathers of semiotics?
, ✔✔Symbol - ✔✔If the relationship between the form and the meaning of a sign is
arbitrary we call that sign a
✔✔Iconic Sign - ✔✔when that relation is not arbitrary, the form is motivated by the
meaning
✔✔Symbolic Capacity - ✔✔Because linguistic signs are typically SYMBOLS (i.e.
arbitrary) _________________ is the ability to use signs
✔✔Prescription - ✔✔how (according to 'authorities') we are supposed to choose and
pronounce our words, and form our sentences
✔✔Description - ✔✔how languages are actually used
• Linguistics is in the business of this
✔✔Phonology, Syntax, Semantics - ✔✔Three dimensions of a word?
✔✔Morpheme - ✔✔minimal package of form, meaning and category
• Minimal' because it cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts
✔✔Free Morpheme - ✔✔morphemes that can occur on their own as a word (cat, dog,
table, father, crocodile)
✔✔Bound Morpheme - ✔✔"Word pieces" (re-, un-, -able, -hood)
Also called AFFIX (prefix, suffix)
✔✔Morphology - ✔✔The grammatical module that is responsible for building complex
words; Builds words from morphemes
✔✔Syntax (Proper) - ✔✔Builds sentences from words
✔✔Answer: if we distinguish words from sentences, then for each of those two units we
have three modules (phonology, semantics and 'syntax') - ✔✔Why do we say that there
are 6 grammatical modules (plus the lexicon)?
✔✔Complex words - ✔✔consist of more than one meaningful part: read-able, un-fair,
un-read-able-ity, arm chair factory, etc,
• Each minimal meaningful part is called a morpheme
✔✔Simplex Words - ✔✔words with one meaningful part
✔✔Phonetics - ✔✔studies how sounds are produced, their acoustic properties and how
they are perceived
WITH ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Structural Analogy - ✔✔• proposes that the organization of different modules is
expected to be analogous (parallel)
• Different modules of the mind are structured in the same way
• It is to be expected that a highly complex organism like the human brain (and mind)
must display multiple use of the same 'tricks'
✔✔Standard Social Science Model - ✔✔• This is essentially the 'blank slate' view which
has dominated the social sciences for long)
• The same mechanisms are thought to govern how one acquires a language, how one
learns to recognize emotional expressions, how one thinks about incest, or how one
acquires ideas and attitudes about friends and reciprocity
o Because the mechanisms that govern reasoning, learning, and memory are assumed
to operate uniformly
✔✔Sociobiology - ✔✔social behavior of other animal species, including humans, is also
rooted in social instincts, suggested that human behavior is seriously based on genetic
inheritance
• people know how to behave socially, not because they learn it, but because they
follow their instincts
✔✔Evolutionary Psychology - ✔✔renamed from sociobiology, idea that the mind (just
like the body) has developed in the course of evolution, specifically when (early)
humans were facing the challenges of life as hunters and gatherers
✔✔Heritability - ✔✔the extent to which variation in a trait can be attributed to genes
✔✔Monozygotic Twins - ✔✔identical twins (1 egg split)
✔✔Twin Studies (Monozygotic) - ✔✔o given that monozygotic twins received different
nurture, if they share mental traits more than two random individuals, these shared traits
must be rooted in genetic properties
✔✔Eugenics - ✔✔• The science of improving a human population by controlled
breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.
• Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race
✔✔Sign - ✔✔• Any 'package' of FORM and MEANING
• The form is what can be produced and perceived
• The meaning is whatever the form 'stands for' or 'refers to'
• Two types are symbols and icons
✔✔Pierce and de Saussure - ✔✔Founding fathers of semiotics?
, ✔✔Symbol - ✔✔If the relationship between the form and the meaning of a sign is
arbitrary we call that sign a
✔✔Iconic Sign - ✔✔when that relation is not arbitrary, the form is motivated by the
meaning
✔✔Symbolic Capacity - ✔✔Because linguistic signs are typically SYMBOLS (i.e.
arbitrary) _________________ is the ability to use signs
✔✔Prescription - ✔✔how (according to 'authorities') we are supposed to choose and
pronounce our words, and form our sentences
✔✔Description - ✔✔how languages are actually used
• Linguistics is in the business of this
✔✔Phonology, Syntax, Semantics - ✔✔Three dimensions of a word?
✔✔Morpheme - ✔✔minimal package of form, meaning and category
• Minimal' because it cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts
✔✔Free Morpheme - ✔✔morphemes that can occur on their own as a word (cat, dog,
table, father, crocodile)
✔✔Bound Morpheme - ✔✔"Word pieces" (re-, un-, -able, -hood)
Also called AFFIX (prefix, suffix)
✔✔Morphology - ✔✔The grammatical module that is responsible for building complex
words; Builds words from morphemes
✔✔Syntax (Proper) - ✔✔Builds sentences from words
✔✔Answer: if we distinguish words from sentences, then for each of those two units we
have three modules (phonology, semantics and 'syntax') - ✔✔Why do we say that there
are 6 grammatical modules (plus the lexicon)?
✔✔Complex words - ✔✔consist of more than one meaningful part: read-able, un-fair,
un-read-able-ity, arm chair factory, etc,
• Each minimal meaningful part is called a morpheme
✔✔Simplex Words - ✔✔words with one meaningful part
✔✔Phonetics - ✔✔studies how sounds are produced, their acoustic properties and how
they are perceived
