1. According to usage-based theorists, ‘children acquire language first and foremost by understanding how others use language’ (Tomasello, 2009:86). This approach is an example of ______.

1. utilitarianism
2. functionalism
3. social cognition
4. social interactionism

2. Early communication is dyadic, in the sense that it involves ______.

1. two participants
2. three participants
3. one participant and an object
4. two participants and an object

3. The act of pointing is underspecified. Successful interpretation therefore relies on the infant’s ability to ______.

1. attract the adult’s attention
2. determine the adult’s intentions
3. engage in dyadic interaction
4. vocalize at the same time as pointing

4. Child combinations of a word-plus-gesture are an important feature of early communication because they ______.

1. increase collaborative engagement
2. go beyond collaborative engagement
3. increase the specificity of utterances
4. decrease the specificity of utterances

5. Holophrases express a communicative intention via ______.

1. two or more separate words in the same utterance
2. three or more separate words in the same utterance
3. indivisible units of language comprising one or more words
4. indivisible units of language comprising two or more words

6. Within the usage-based approach, three types of early multi-word constructions are recognized: word combinations, pivot schemas, and ______.

1. imperative constructions
2. full phrases
3. holophrases
4. item-based constructions

7. A pivot schema comprises a pivot word. These words occur ______.

1. in a variable order with the slot being filled by a single category of word (e.g. noun or adjective or verb)
2. in a variable order with the slot being filled by potentially different categories of words (e.g. noun, adjective, verb)
3. in a fixed order with the slot being filled by a single category of word (e.g. noun or adjective or verb)
4. in a fixed order with the slot being filled by potentially different categories of words (e.g. noun, adjective, verb)

8. The sentences Katy wrote a poem and Katy wrote demonstrate that the verb write is ______.

1. transitive
2. intransitive
3. bitransitive
4. detransitive

9. The transitivity bias is demonstrated by errors where ______.

1. an intransitive verb is used in a transitive frame
2. an intransitive verb is used in a bitransitive frame
3. a transitive verb is used in an intransitive frame
4. a transitive verb is used in a bitransitive frame

10. In the usage-based approach, children achieve syntactic productivity via three mechanisms: distributional analysis, analogy and ______.

1. type frequency
2. token frequency
3. categorization
4. overgeneralization

11. In the usage-based account, type frequency refers to the number of times that a linguistic form occurs in a given slot. High type frequency ______.

1. protects the child from producing errors
2. allows linguistic generalizations to be made
3. counteracts the effects of high token frequency
4. counteracts the effects of linguistic generalizations

12. Syntactic bootstrapping refers to the use of ______.

1. type frequency to infer a word’s syntactic properties
2. a syntactic frame to infer the type of words within it
3. a word’s meaning to infer its syntactic properties
4. a syntactic frame to infer the meaning of a word

13. A conservative learner would ______.

1. never use a structure they had not first heard someone else using
2. first use a new structure in a highly restricted range of frames
3. use token frequency but not type frequency to acquire new structures
4. use type frequency but not token frequency to acquire new structures

14. According to usage-based theory, if a structure becomes entrenched, then ______.

1. repetitions are more likely to occur
2. repetitions are less likely to occur
3. errors are more likely to occur
4. errors are less likely to occur

15. According to usage-based theory, if a structure is pre-empted, then ______.

1. repetitions are more likely to occur
2. repetitions are less likely to occur
3. errors are more likely to occur
4. errors are less likely to occur