note
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Quiz - Language pitfalls
Quiz questions:
1. What kind of ambiguity is present in the sentence "Visiting professors can be interesting"?
- a) Lexical ambiguity
- b) Syntactic ambiguity
- c) Referential ambiguity
- d) No ambiguity
2. Which of the following examples best illustrates the concept of vagueness?
- a) "Bank" can denote a financial institution or a riverbank.
- b) "He saw the man with the telescope."
- c) "She is a rich person." (Unclear at what level of wealth someone counts as "rich")
- d) "The mind is located in the brain."
3. What kind of linguistic pitfall is used in the sentence "These freedom fighters were brutally oppressed by the repressive regime"?
- a) Ambiguity
- b) Vagueness
- c) Loaded language
- d) Category mistake
4. Which of the following examples contains a category mistake?
- a) "The table is brown."
- b) "Democracy is angry about the election results."
- c) "This book is interesting."
- d) "Some people are tall."
5. What kind of definition is it when, for a study, a scientist stipulates: "We define 'chronic pain' as pain that lasts longer than three months"?
- a) Reportive definition
- b) Stipulative definition
- c) Precising definition
- d) Persuasive definition
Answers:
- b) Syntactic ambiguity (Unclear whether the professors are visitors or whether it is about visiting professors)
- c) "She is a rich person." (Unclear at what level of wealth someone counts as "rich")
- c) Loaded language
- b) "Democracy is angry about the election results."
- b) Stipulative definition