Language Sound Systems Quiz

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What does the author suggest is a factor contributing to ease of speech sounds?

Length and accent

Climate and soil conditions

Rest positions of the organs (correct)

Anatomy of speech organs

What does the author assert as a focus for further exploration?

Unproven environmental factors affecting sound change

Anatomy of speech organs as a key to sound shift

Psycho-physical research on comfort in phonetic performance (correct)

Correlations of sound change with climate and soil conditions

What does the author claim about correlations of sound change with environmental factors?

They are usually proven and decisive

They have a minimal impact on sound change

They are often incorrect and indecisive (correct)

They are always related to climate and soil conditions

What is considered as the explanation for the pursuit of comfort in speech sounds?

Infinitesimal shifts in phonetic performance Signup and view all the answers

What does the author imply about ease of speech sounds?

It depends on a variety of circumstances unique to each individual Signup and view all the answers

What does the author suggest is a key aspect for understanding the greater or lesser comfort in speech sounds?

Psycho-physical research on comfort in phonetic performance Signup and view all the answers

What is the fundamental question that arises in the pursuit of ease in idiolects?

Why do speakers not go about it more quickly? Signup and view all the answers

What is the unsolved actuation riddle mentioned in the passage?

Explaining why changes were not actuated sooner. Signup and view all the answers

According to the passage, what does Paul attribute the actuation of a change to?

Chance Signup and view all the answers

What does the 'avalanche mechanism' typically explain, according to the passage?

The stickiness of snow Signup and view all the answers

What does Paul covertly slip into his theory, according to the passage?

'Avalanche mechanism' Signup and view all the answers

What does the hypothesis that speakers like to conform to the idiolects of their interlocutors contribute to, according to the passage?

Both initial resistance and subsequent yielding Signup and view all the answers

'Chance is here invoked illegitimately' refers to which specific process in the passage?

'Actuation of a specific change' Signup and view all the answers

What does Paul attribute occasional losses of balance and beginnings of infinitesimal change to?

Chance Signup and view all the answers

What explanation does the author provide for why language fails to change?

Conformity Signup and view all the answers

Language Sound Systems Quiz

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