LING 1010 UCONN REVISION EXAM 2025/2026 QUESTIONS
WITH ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔What is phrenology; what was good about and what not? - ✔✔Phrenology is using
head bumps to determine character traits. Good because it promoted self-improvement,
but bad because it had no real bearing on reality.
✔✔Who advocated for phrenology? - ✔✔Franz Joseph Gall
✔✔Explain Jerry Fodor's criteria for modules (Hotel: Trivago) - ✔✔Domain specificity
(for specific task)
Mandatory, automatic (cannot block)
Informational encapsulation (no exchange between modules)
Shallow (we only know their output)
Speed (fast)
Subconscious (we're not aware of them or how they work)
✔✔Define the notion Structural Analogy - ✔✔different modules of the mind are
structured in the same way
✔✔Morpheme - ✔✔a meaningful unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful
units
✔✔A rule that changes /in/ to /im/ in front of /possible/ is called an... - ✔✔allomorphy
rule
✔✔We call a sign iconic: - ✔✔when aspects of the form are motivated by the meaning
✔✔Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a module in the sense of Jerry
Fodor's Modularity Theory?
A. Domain-specificity
B. Informational encapsulation
C. Classical conditioning - ✔✔C. Classical conditioning
✔✔(Nature-Nurture) Sociobiology/Evolutionary Psychology - ✔✔E.O Wilson, behavior is
rooted in social instincts (just like in ants). Does not justify racism or eugenics, but has
been twisted to those purposes.
✔✔(Nature-Nurture) Behavior Genetics - ✔✔Twins/adoption studies, talking about
heritability, etc.
✔✔What was the goal of the eugenics movement? - ✔✔selectively breeding humans, to
make a 'perfect society'
, ✔✔What is meant by prescriptive and descriptive linguistics? - ✔✔Prescriptive: How we
are 'supposed to' choose and pronounce words
Descriptive: How languages are really used.
✔✔What do we mean by the 'dual nature' of language? - ✔✔Language is both hidden
and observable.
Mind - Behavior as Mental Grammar - Utterances
✔✔What are the methods of linguistics? - ✔✔Spontaneous language data (collect
utterances)
Guided elicitation of utterances (get people to say certain things to learn what they are)
Grammaticality judgements (asking native speakers if a sentence is good)
Psycholinguistics (reaction experiments, eye tracking)
Neuroscience (brain imaging/mapping)
✔✔What are the functions of language? - ✔✔Organizing and expressing thoughts
Expressing emotions
Esthetic expression (ex. poetry, drama)
Information exchange / preservation
Social bonding, group identification
Control and constitution of reality.
✔✔What is language processing? - ✔✔understanding language and producing it
✔✔How many languages are there today? - ✔✔7000+
✔✔Multilingualism and globalization (of languages) - ✔✔Many people grow up with
multiple, but those languages are lost when they are forced to adopt dominant
languages to fit in with globalization.
✔✔The role of writing - ✔✔Not inherent, but it makes preservation of languages
possible
✔✔The relations between language and culture or thought - ✔✔Language is a part of
culture, but culture does not change the grammar of the language.
✔✔How (well) can we distinguish the notions dialect and language? - ✔✔Dialect : "Oh,
that's kind of hard to understand" (differences in details and pronunciation but not really
the words themselves)
Language: distinct words
✔✔Explain how human communication works - ✔✔Thoughts are linked to perceptible
things, then sounds/gestures are made to link that thought and a thing.
WITH ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔What is phrenology; what was good about and what not? - ✔✔Phrenology is using
head bumps to determine character traits. Good because it promoted self-improvement,
but bad because it had no real bearing on reality.
✔✔Who advocated for phrenology? - ✔✔Franz Joseph Gall
✔✔Explain Jerry Fodor's criteria for modules (Hotel: Trivago) - ✔✔Domain specificity
(for specific task)
Mandatory, automatic (cannot block)
Informational encapsulation (no exchange between modules)
Shallow (we only know their output)
Speed (fast)
Subconscious (we're not aware of them or how they work)
✔✔Define the notion Structural Analogy - ✔✔different modules of the mind are
structured in the same way
✔✔Morpheme - ✔✔a meaningful unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful
units
✔✔A rule that changes /in/ to /im/ in front of /possible/ is called an... - ✔✔allomorphy
rule
✔✔We call a sign iconic: - ✔✔when aspects of the form are motivated by the meaning
✔✔Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a module in the sense of Jerry
Fodor's Modularity Theory?
A. Domain-specificity
B. Informational encapsulation
C. Classical conditioning - ✔✔C. Classical conditioning
✔✔(Nature-Nurture) Sociobiology/Evolutionary Psychology - ✔✔E.O Wilson, behavior is
rooted in social instincts (just like in ants). Does not justify racism or eugenics, but has
been twisted to those purposes.
✔✔(Nature-Nurture) Behavior Genetics - ✔✔Twins/adoption studies, talking about
heritability, etc.
✔✔What was the goal of the eugenics movement? - ✔✔selectively breeding humans, to
make a 'perfect society'
, ✔✔What is meant by prescriptive and descriptive linguistics? - ✔✔Prescriptive: How we
are 'supposed to' choose and pronounce words
Descriptive: How languages are really used.
✔✔What do we mean by the 'dual nature' of language? - ✔✔Language is both hidden
and observable.
Mind - Behavior as Mental Grammar - Utterances
✔✔What are the methods of linguistics? - ✔✔Spontaneous language data (collect
utterances)
Guided elicitation of utterances (get people to say certain things to learn what they are)
Grammaticality judgements (asking native speakers if a sentence is good)
Psycholinguistics (reaction experiments, eye tracking)
Neuroscience (brain imaging/mapping)
✔✔What are the functions of language? - ✔✔Organizing and expressing thoughts
Expressing emotions
Esthetic expression (ex. poetry, drama)
Information exchange / preservation
Social bonding, group identification
Control and constitution of reality.
✔✔What is language processing? - ✔✔understanding language and producing it
✔✔How many languages are there today? - ✔✔7000+
✔✔Multilingualism and globalization (of languages) - ✔✔Many people grow up with
multiple, but those languages are lost when they are forced to adopt dominant
languages to fit in with globalization.
✔✔The role of writing - ✔✔Not inherent, but it makes preservation of languages
possible
✔✔The relations between language and culture or thought - ✔✔Language is a part of
culture, but culture does not change the grammar of the language.
✔✔How (well) can we distinguish the notions dialect and language? - ✔✔Dialect : "Oh,
that's kind of hard to understand" (differences in details and pronunciation but not really
the words themselves)
Language: distinct words
✔✔Explain how human communication works - ✔✔Thoughts are linked to perceptible
things, then sounds/gestures are made to link that thought and a thing.
