ANTH1220 Week 4

Why is there anthropological interest in language?

Language is a means to communicate in the field, language is an object of study in itself. Language illuminates culture, and there is a distinction between language

When did language evolve?

Between 200,000 and 50,000 years ago

Washoe

Chimpanzee that was able to do 150 signs

Lana

Chimpanzee that used lexigrams

Koko

Chimpanzee that was able to do 1000 signs

Nim Chimpsky

Chimpanzee that cast doubt on earlier projects to see if chimpanzees could learn a language such as sign language

Gesture-Call System

A type of nonhuman communication, monkeys and apes have call systems.

Jane Goodall

Primatologist and Anthropologist who has been studying chimpanzees in the wild since 1960

In English, what percentage of emotional information is conveyed in body language?

90%

Kinesics

The study of postures, facial expressions, motions. Some aspects are universal while others are not

Proxemics

The study of how people use space to communicate. This area is rife for cross-cultural miscommunication

What are the design features of the human language?

Openness, Displacement, Prevarication, Arbitrariness, Duality of Patterning, Semanticity

Openness

A human language design feature, allows speakers to produce and understand an infinite number of novel utterances

Displacement

A human language design feature, the capacity to communicate about things, actions or ideas that are not present in the immediate time or space

Prevarication

A human language design feature, the ability to intentionally produce meaningless, deceptive, or false messages like lying using language

Arbitrariness

A human language design feature, the principle that there is no natural, interent, or logical connection between the sound of a word and its meaning

Duality of Patterning

A human language design feature, the ability of the human language to form a vast number of meaningful words by combining a small set of meaningless sounds or signs

Semanticity

A human language design feature, it allows specific sounds, words, or signs to directly represent specific meanings, objects, ideas or actions

What did John Locke and B. F. Skinner suggest in how we acquire/learn language?

Language was learned through conditioned response and feedback

What did Rene Descartes and Noam Chomsky suggest in how we acquire/learn language?

Language was learned through innate predisposition

What did Noam Chomsky (only him) suggest in how we acquire/learn language?

The Language Acquisition Device was a concept introduced that suggests humans are born with a natural ability to learn language. That there was a window of opportunity for language learning

Phonology

The study of the sounds of a language, specifically focusing on how sounds are organized in the mind to create meaning

Morphology

The study of the smallest units of language that convey meaning, concerns morphemes

Bound Morpheme

Occur in combinations with other morphemes. For example, un in unhappy

Free Morpheme

Independent morphemes that can stand alone as words. For example, dog and happy

Syntax

Rule for combining words and sounds to make sentences and phrases

Semantics

The study of the meaning of symbols, words, phrases and sentences in relation to beliefs, context, patterns of thought, etc.

Ethnosemantics

The study of how a specific group of people uses words to categorize their reality

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Language shapes the way a person experiences the world. Supports moderate linguistic relativity, but not linguistic determinism

Doublespeak

A euphemism in bad faith, concealing the truth a little, For example, collateral damage, friendly fire, enhanced interrogation, terrorist, ethnic cleansing, pre-emptive strike, etc.

What is colour perception influenced by?

Culture and it affects language and vice versa

Metaphor

A linguistic idiom where we use what we know about something concrete to think and talk about something abstract. We take something concrete to talk about something abstract. It is the primary way we create complex meaning in language and is not necessarily universal

Performative language

A type of language that is used to perform actions in the world. For example, I order, I promose, I warn, etc.

Ritual language

A type of language that is often performative, but even ordinary statements used in everyday settings can be used to bring about action

Language Ideologies

A system of beliefs about how language features relate to social features and what they reveal about the people who use them

Speech communities

Smaller groups who use language in ways unique to that group

Dialect

A form of language specific to a particular region

Vernacular

Dialects that are associated with social categories

Code switching

Using different languages, dialects, vernaculars in different contexts

Pidgin

A language with no native speakers that develops in a single generation between members of communities that possess distinct native languages. A makeshift language for communication between groups without a common tongue

Creole

A pidgin can evolve into this. It develops froma pidgin when it becomes the main/first language of a generation

Sociolinguistics

The study of language in its social context

Pragmatics

Rules for using language appropriately in a speech community

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

Psychologists in the 1960s (incorrectly) believed that it was a defective pseudolanguage causing linguistic deprivation among urban black children in the US.

Deborah Tannen

Researched that patterns of speech between men and women varied. American men and women use language for different purposes, and that problems occur when each gender assumes the other is operating the same speech rules they are