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Merge in Universal Grammar

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Questions and Answers

According to Chomsky, what is Universal Grammar?

A set of grammatical rules derived from Latin
A behaviorist perspective on language acquisition
A universally shared property of all languages
A theory of language acquisition (correct)

Who were the 13th century speculative grammarians?

Linguists who studied the breadth of worldwide linguistic variation
Behaviorists who discarded the idea of a universal grammar
Philosophers who believed in a universally shared property of all languages
Grammarians who postulated universal rules underlying all grammars (correct)

What was the Scottish school of universal grammarians known for?

Developing a universal grammar based on Latin
Distinguishing themselves from the philosophical language project (correct)
Studying the behaviorist perspective on language acquisition
Discarding the idea of a universal grammar

What did Otto Jespersen argue about the early grammarians' formulation of universal grammar?

They tried to derive too much from Latin (D) Signup and view all the answers

According to the theory of Universal Grammar, what is the basic postulate?

There are innate constraints on what the grammar of a possible human language could be (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is the Poverty of the Stimulus argument?

The argument that children are not exposed to enough linguistic stimuli to acquire language (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is the main proposition of the theory of Universal Grammar?

There are universal properties of natural human languages (D) Signup and view all the answers

What is the abbreviation UG* used for in the context of this text?

The subset of Universal Grammar that is specific to language (A) Signup and view all the answers

What does Chomsky mean by 'merge' in the context of Universal Grammar?

The mechanism for combining symbols in a particular way (D) Signup and view all the answers

What is the main argument in favor of the idea that language acquisition involves genetic endowment, external data, and principles not specific to the Faculty of Language?

Children understand syntactic categories before they can produce them (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is the meaning of the term 'I-languages' in the context of this text?

The brain states that correspond to knowing how to speak and understand a particular language (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is Merge and why is it important in Universal Grammar?

Merge is a universal property independent of genetics and environment that causes language to be the way it is. (C) Signup and view all the answers

What are linguistic universals and how are they studied?

Linguistic universals are generalizations extracted from a variety of grammars and studied through the analysis of the reasons behind certain linguistic behaviors. (A) Signup and view all the answers

What are the three leading hypotheses for how language evolved, as presented by Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch?

The second hypothesis states that the Faculty of Language is a derived adaptation for language. (D) Signup and view all the answers

What is the main point of debate among syntacticians regarding Universal Grammar?

Whether UG constraints are essentially universal due to being 'hard-wired'. (D) Signup and view all the answers

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