Chapter 10 Study Guide

Question 1

Logographic Writing (word-writing)

Answer 1

The symbols stand for whole words or morphemes.

Question 2

Syllabic Writing

Answer 2

Each symbol represents one syllable (show us how to pronounce the word). There will always be fewer symbols than with logographic writing. Japanese is primarily sybillic.

Question 3

Alphabetic Writing

Answer 3

Each symbol represents one specific phoneme.

Question 4

Diffusing (diffusion)

Answer 4

The process whereby a cultural item moves from one geographic area to another.

Question 5

The Rebus Principle

Answer 5

The process by which symbols, which once stood for whole one-syllable words, become symbols for those syllables, not the words they once represented. Supplemented the logographic principal an allows full writing systems to develop. This didn’t replace all logograms, however, and happened in conjunction with syllable use. Freed from original meaning of word.

Question 6

Logograms

Answer 6

Written symbols that represent a concept or word without indicating its pronunciation/doesn’t carry a specific phonetic value. 123 !@# are all examples of things that different languages recognize as the same concept mentally but a different word for.

Question 7

When a logogram resembles the thing it represents, it is sometimes called a pictogram or pictograph..

Answer 7

True, although b/c this is an impractical reality for a total language, it is more accurate to name these languages as Logophonetic langs, which typically are called logo-syllabic because they combine logograms and syllabic representations.

Question 8

Sumerian

Answer 8

The first writing system people (similar to marks found 9000 years ago).

Question 9

Stimulus Diffusion

Answer 9

The process by which an idea, but not the actual cultural item, spreads from one geographical area to another and is then adapted to the needs and practices of the receiving culture. Not the actual form of the writing system.

Question 10

Writing and speech patterns change at different rates.

Answer 10

True because if they changed at the same rate, old writings would soon become obsolete (300).

Question 11

Ideally, an alphabetic writing system would include one symbol for each identifiable sound in a language.

Answer 11

False: one grapheme (alphabetic symbol) per phoneme is the most ideal, otherwise there would be a crapper ton of letters. (300)

Question 12

Your book estimates that language preceded writing by at least one million years.

Answer 12

True (about two million)

Question 13

Unlike language, which is acquired naturally, writing must be formally learned.

Answer 13

True

Question 14

Logograms probably originated as icons of what they represented.

Answer 14

True?

Question 15

The earliest known true writing was discovered in China.

Answer 15

False (Sumeria).

Question 16

A logographic writing system would have a different symbol for each morpheme in the language.

Answer 16

True

Question 17

Writing systems were functional in Egypt and Sumeria some 6000 years ago.

Answer 17

True

Question 18

Your book estimates that Chinese college students know on the order of 5,000 logograms.

Answer 18

True

Question 19

Picture writing represents events and objects directly rather than representing some element of language.

Answer 19

True

Question 20

A recent edition of the great Chinese Dictionary has more than 50,000 logograms.

Answer 20

True (56k)

Question 21

People from one part of China may not be able to converse with people from another part, but they generally understand the same writing.

Answer 21

True (this is an example of how logograms are outside of language, being conceptual)

Question 22

Kanji and Romanji are the names of the two Japanese syllabaries.

Answer 22

False? Hiragana and Katakana? Hard to tell.

Question 23

Japanese syllabaries developed from Chinese logograms.

Answer 23

True

Question 24

Changing the current English writing to a syllabary would likely aid in the teach of reading and writing.

Answer 24

False? Not a primarily syllabic lang – contains logographs, syllabic, and alphabetic components.

Question 25

Many of the ‘silent letters’ in English, including the ‘gh’ of ‘tough’ were once pronounced.

Answer 25

True

Question 26

The authors maintain that some mismatches between sound and spelling in English are actually beneficial.

Answer 26

True: there are some logical rules within writing that would be called into question if you spelled everything as it sounds (how is S a plural marker if you can have a Z? Might and mite sound the same but have different meanings discernible by context. We would lose this distinction if we spelled them the same way).

Question 27

Egyptians were the first known people to use the alphabetic principle extensively.

Answer 27

False (the Greek, I believe)

Question 28

Phoenician and other Semitic languages were generally written with consonants only.

Answer 28

False (Northern Semitic Syllabary). They used syllabic systems (taken from Egyptian logographic writing), so I don’t think that it is primarily consonants.

Question 29

The earliest known New World writing was developed by Aztecs about three thousand years ago.

Answer 29

False (Olmec in New Mexico)

Question 30

Modern Arabic script is an example of what your book calls a logo-phonetic system.

Answer 30

False: it is alphabetic, as each symbol represents a phoneme (I believe).

Question 31

New world writing systems developed from those of the old world through a process called stimulus diffusion.

Answer 31

False (stim diffusion only carries the idea of writing. not the system. Diffusion is the one ye seek). OLD WORLD system may’ve been stim diff because it might have all developed from Sumerian.

Question 32

In Europe printing with movable type superseded block printing in the 15th century.

Answer 32

True (Gutenberg press).

Question 33

How old is the first true writing?

Answer 33

About fifty two hundred years old

Question 34

Why is writing second to speech?

Answer 34

Must be learned, writing is not universal, writing can’t come before speech.

Question 35

When a logogram resembles the thing it represents, it is called:

Answer 35

A pictogram.

Question 36

When a logogram resembles the thing it represents, it is called:

Answer 36

A pictogram.