Cultural Anthropology Chapter 4 Quiz

Arbitrariness

the relationship between a symbol and its referent (meaning), in which there is no obvious connection between them

Bound morpheme

a unit of meaning that cannot stand alone; it must be attached to another morpheme

Closed system

a form of communication that cannot create new meanings or messages; it can only convey pre-programmed (innate) messages

Code-switching

using two or more language varieties in a particular interaction

Creole

a language that develops from a pidgin when the pidgin becomes so widely used that children acquire it as one of their first languages. Creoles are more fully complex than creoles

Critical age range hypothesis

research suggesting that a child will gradually lose the ability to acquire language naturally and without effort if he or she is not exposed to other people speaking a language until past the age of puberty. This applies to the acquisition of a second language as well

Cultural transmission

the need for some aspects of the system to be learned; a feature of some species’ communication systems

Design features

descriptive characteristics of the communication systems of all species, including that of humans, proposed by linguist Charles Hockett to serve as a definition of human language

Dialect

a variety of speech. The term is often applied to a subordinate variety of a language. Speakers of two dialects of the same language do not necessarily always understand each other

Discreteness

a feature of human speech that they can be isolated from others. Displacement: the ability to communicate about things that are outside of the here and now

Duality of patterning

at the first level of patterning, meaningless discrete sounds of speech are combined to form words and parts of words that carry meaning. In the second level of patterning, those units of meaning are recombined to form an infinite possible number of longer messages such as phrases and sentences

Gesture-call system

a system of non-verbal communication using varying combinations of sound, body language, scent, facial expression, and touch, typical of great apes and other primates, as well as humans

Historical linguistics

the study of how languages change

Interchangeability

the ability of all individuals of the species to both send and receive messages; a feature of some species’ communication systems

Kinesics

the study of all forms of human body language

Language

an idealized form of speech, usually referred to as the standard variety

Language death

the total extinction of a language

Language shift

when a community stops using their old language and adopts a new one

Language universals

characteristics shared by all linguists

Larynx

the voice box, containing the vocal bands that produce the voice

Lexicon

the vocabulary of a language

Linguistic relativity

the idea that the structures and words of a language influence how its speakers think, how they behave, and ultimately the culture itself

Middle English

the form of the English language spoken from 1066 AD until about 1500 AD

Minimal response

the vocal indications that one is listening to a speaker

Modern English

the form of the English language spoken from about 1500 AD to the present

Morphemes

the basic meaningful units in a language

Morphology

the study of the morphemes of language

Old English

English language from its beginnings to about 1066 AD

Open system

a form of communication that can create an infinite number of new messages; a feature of human language only

Oralist approach

an approach to the education of deaf children that emphasizes lip reading and speaking orally while discouraging use of signed language

Palate

the roof of the mouth

Paralanguage

those characteristics of speech beyond the actual words spoken, such as pitch, loudness, tempo

Pharynx

the throat cavity, located above the larynx

Phonemes

the basic meaningless sounds of a language

Phonology

the study of the sounds of language

Pidgin

a simplified language that springs up out of a situation in which people who do not share a language must spend extended amounts of time together

Pragmatic function

the useful purpose of a communication. Usefulness is a feature of all species’ communication systems

Pragmatics

how social context contributes to meaning in an interaction

Productivity/creativity

the ability to produce and understand messages that have never been expressed before

Proxemics

the study of the social use of space, including the amount of space an individual tries to maintain around himself in his interactions with others

Register

a style of speech that varies depending on who is speaking to whom and in what context

Semanticity

the meaning of signs in a communication system; a feature of all species’ communication systems

Semantics

how meaning is conveyed at the word and phrase level

Speech act

the intention or goal of an utterance; the intention may be different from the dictionary definitions of the words involved

Standard

the variant of any language that has been given special prestige in the community

Symbol

anything that serves to refer to something else

Syntax

the rules by which a language combines morphemes into larger units

Taxonomies

a system of classification

Universal grammar (UG)

a theory developed by linguist Noam Chomsky suggesting that a basic template for all human languages is embedded in our genes

Unbound morpheme

a morpheme that can stand alone as a separate word

Vernaculars

non-standard varieties of a language, which are usually distinguished from the standard by their inclusion of stigmatized forms