142: Anthropological Linguistics Midterms (copy)

Anthropological Linguistics

“that subfield of linguistics which is concerned with the place of language in its wider social and cultural context, its role in forging and sustaining cultural practices and social structures” —William Foley’s (1997:3)

Anthropological Linguistics: Main Goals

The main goals are the documentation of grammatical structures, studying language as the medium of myths and historical narratives, and using language as a window on culture.

Worldview or Weltanshauung

the use of language as a window on culture

Linguistic Anthropology

Proposed by Dell Hymes and was 1st introduced in the late 1870’s

A more anthropological approach to the study of language — a subfield of anthropology

Linguistic Anthropology: Two Concerns

(1) Keep the study of language as a central part of anthropology instead of letting it “slip away” to linguistics departments; (2) broaden the concept of language beyond the narrow interest in grammatical structures.

Bigat

refers to the period of the day between sunrise and noon in Ilokano

Akhew

Bontoks use this word which means morning, specifically from 8-10 am

Bongbongo

Kankanaey use this word for the period between morning and sunset

Biggatna

The Tuwala use this word to describe mornings

Aghapa

Kalanguya use this word to describe mornings

Sunset

It is the moment the sun’s upper edge disappears below the horizon

Twilight

It is the period of time before sunrise and after sunset when the sky is still illuminated by the sun.

Emic

An insider’s perspective that focuses on how members of a culture understand and interpret their own experiences.

Etic

An outsider’s perspective that analyzes a culture using concepts and categories developed by the researcher.

Sociolinguistics

Focuses on how language functions as part of social institutions, shaped by and shaping identity, social norms, power dynamics, class, age, gender, and ethnicity

Ethnolinguistics

Focuses on the interrelationship between language and culture, specifically how language both shapes and reflects the cultural practices, social identities, and worldviews of an ethnic group.

Ethnosemantics

Studies how people categorize their world through language

Componential Analysis

Analyzes components of meaning to understand how words and concepts are organized

Cultural Schemas

Examines how shared cultural knowledge and concepts are encoded linguistically

Cultural Metaphors

Examines how cultural meanings and ideas are expresses though linguistic metaphors.

Pirahã

These people of the Amazon reportedly have words only for “one,” “two,” and “many,” challenging the idea that all languages have the same numerical concepts.

Pirahã Quantity Expressions

Quantities beyond two are expressed through approximation or context, such as “a few” or “many,” rather than exact counts.

Pirahã Culture and Counting

Their emphasis on immediate experience and practical life means abstract concepts like exact counting are not necessary in daily life.

Language as a Window into Culture

Language shapes how we perceive the world, while its vocabulary and grammar reveal what is important into culture.

Indigenous Taxonomies

Detailed taxonomies of flora and fauna in many Indigenous cultures reflect a deep connection to their environment.

Tzeltal Maya Plant Classification

The Tzeltal Maya of Chiapas have an elaborate system for classifying plants used in medicine, food, and rituals.

Tzeltal Maya Maize Classification

They distinguish types of maize by color, size, growth season, taste, and ceremonial use.

Ethnobotanical Knowledge

The detailed classification of plants reflects ethnobotanical knowledge embedded in language and culture.

Documenting and Preserving Cultural Heritage

Anthropological linguists document languages, especially endangered or nearly extinct languages, along with the cultural knowledge intertwined with them.

Language Documentation

Involves recording oral histories, traditional narratives, and cultural practices, not just creating dictionaries.

Importance of Cultural Heritage Preservation

Helps preserve a culture’s identity and unique ways of knowing the world for future generations.

Ongota Language

An endangered language in Ethiopia with fewer than 10 fluent speakers remaining.

K. David Harrison

Gay anthropologist who his team and him worked with remaining Ongota speakers to record oral histories, songs, traditional stories, and vocabulary.

Understanding Social Dynamics

The way people use language within a society reveals social hierarchies and relationships.

Forms of Address

People use different forms of address, such as “sir,” “buddy,” and “professor,” depending on context and their relationship with the person.

Linguistic Codes and Social Identity

Examines how linguistic codes are used to perform different social identities, such as gender, class, and ethnicity.

Addressing Real-world Issues

Anthropological linguistics has practical applications in education, public policy, and healthcare.

Language in Health Campaigns

Understanding a community’s language and communication patterns is vital for creating effective health campaigns.

Language and Legal Systems

Understanding language and dialect differences helps ensure that legal systems are fair to speakers of different languages and dialects.

Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

The roots of anthropological linguistics are closely tied to the development of American anthropology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Franz Boas

Often considered the “father of American anthropology.” He pioneered cultural relativism.

Cultural Relativism

Franz Boas argued that cultures should be understood on their own terms, rather than judged against an external standard.

Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf

Students of Franz Boas who further developed his ideas into a controversial but influential theory involving Linguistic Determinism and Linguistic Relativism.

Mid-to-Late 20th Century

The field shifted from grand, universal theories like the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis to specific, ethnographic studies of language in use, focusing on how language functions as a social tool in everyday life rather than simply documenting language structures.

Dell Hymes

A pivotal figure who helped bridge the foundational era and modern approaches. Hymes (1927–2009) established the ethnography of communication, developed the SPEAKING model, and introduced the concept of communicative competence.

Ethnography of Communication

An approach established by Dell Hymes that treats communication as a cultural phenomenon, focusing on how communication occurs within its social and cultural context.

SPEAKING Model

A framework developed by Dell Hymes for analyzing communicative events, encouraging researchers to look beyond grammar and consider the social context.

Communicative Competence

Dell Hymes argued that knowing how to use language appropriately is as important as knowing its grammatical rules.

Alessandro Duranti

A leading figure in modern linguistic anthropology, known for his work on language as a cultural resource and social practice. His influential textbook, Linguistic Anthropology, helped define and shape the modern discipline.

Language as a Cultural Resource and Social Practice

Alessandro Duranti emphasizes that language is used in social interactions, where conversation, participation, and meaning are shaped. Communication is not only about exchanging information but is a constitutive part of culture and social reality.

Harriet Ottenheimer

A key scholar who connects language, culture, and creative expression. She researched the intersection of language and music, particularly the blues and languages of the Comoro Islands, and her work in ethnopoetics has been influential. Her textbook, The Anthropology of Language, is widely used by students entering the field

Ethnopoetics

The study of oral traditions and how they are structured to be meaningful and aesthetic.

William A. Foley

A distinguished linguist and anthropologist specializing in Papuan and Austronesian languages. His work combines detailed descriptive linguistics with an anthropological understanding of cultural context. His textbook, Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction, provides a comprehensive overview of the field.

Descriptive Linguistics

The documentation of a language’s grammar and phonology, combined with an understanding of its cultural context in Foley’s modern approach.

Left–Right Disorientation

A difficulty in instantly distinguishing left from right, especially under stress or when asked quickly. Studies show that about 15–30% of people experience this difficulty (McKinley et al., 2015).

Guugu Yimithirr

An Aboriginal language of Australia in which speakers do not use words like left and right. Instead, they use cardinal directions such as north, south, east, and west. For example, “move your cup to the left” would be expressed as “move your cup to the north.” This means speakers must always know the cardinal directions, even without a compass.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Developed by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, it claims that language influences thought and perception. It is not a single theory but consists of two related positions.

Linguistic Determinism

The stronger, more rigid version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It posits that a language’s structure completely determines or controls how speakers think and perceive the world. This view has been debated and mostly debunked.

Linguistic Relativism

The more moderate and widely accepted version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It argues that a language’s structure influences or affects a speaker’s worldview or cognition without strictly determining it. A language can make certain thoughts easier to express or perceptions more salient, without making others impossible.

Hopi Language

A Native American language spoken by about 5,000 Hopi people in the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. It belongs to the Uto-Aztecan language family.

Whorf’s View of Hopi Time

He claimed that the Hopi language lacked English-like tense markers such as past, present, and future, and instead expressed time as manifested vs. manifesting.

Whorf’s Conclusion on Hopi Time

He argued that the lack of tense grammar in Hopi meant that the Hopi people lacked a concept of linear time, supporting linguistic determinism.

Malotki’s Findings on Hopi Time

Malotki (1983) showed that Hopi has rich ways of expressing time through adverbs, nouns, and temporal markers. Modern scholars argue that Whorf overstated the influence of language on thought.

Color Perception

Russian has two words for blue, goluboy (light blue) and siniy (dark blue). Experiments showed that Russian speakers were faster at distinguishing shades of blue compared to English speakers, showing that vocabulary can sharpen perception.

Goluboy

Russian word for light blue.

Siniy

Russian word for dark blue.

Buwaya (Crocodile)

In the Philippines, this is often used as an insult for people who are matakaw at gahaman, including corrupt politicians. The meaning developed over time from the crocodile’s earlier respected status in Filipino folklore.

Crocodiles in Filipino Folklore

Long ago, crocodiles were respected as spirit guardians of rivers. Ancestors called them Lolo or Nuno out of respect and believed they carried the spirits of the dead and guarded rivers.

Sobek

It is the crocodile god of Ancient Egypt, believed to protect the Nile, ensure good harvests, and punish those who disrespected him.

Spanish Influence on Crocodile Symbolism

According to the text, when the Spanish came, crocodiles became associated with evil and greed. Over time, buwaya became an insult for people who are greedy and gluttonous, changing the crocodile’s image from a respected spirit to a political insult.

Ethnoscience

Refers to how people in different cultures classify and organize knowledge about the world around them, especially in relation to nature, plants, animals, and the environment.

Hanunóo

A people of the Philippines with more than 1,600 terms for plants, classifying them not only by species but also by their usefulness, such as medicine, food, and ritual.

Folk Taxonomy

The way local or traditional communities categorize things (e.g., plants, animals) based on cultural logic rather than scientific classification.

Fish Classification

In many fishing villages, locals distinguish dozens of types of fish that outsiders may simply call “fish.” They may have separate names for tuna at different life stages.

Cultural Categorization

The broader systems of classification unique to each culture, shaping how members perceive and organize reality.

Whales in Cultural Categorization

Western science groups whales as mammals, while many folk systems categorize them as “fish” because they live in the sea.

Time

Different languages have different ways of conceptualizing and talking about time. Some languages treat time as linear (past → present → future), while others see it as cyclical or event-based.

English Conceptualization of Time

English speakers commonly conceptualize the future as being ahead or in front, as shown in the expression “looking forward to the future.”

Aymara People

An indigenous group native to the Andes region of South America, primarily found in Bolivia, Peru, and northern Chile.

Aymara Conceptualization of Time

Aymara speakers conceptualize the past as “in front” because it is visible and known, and the future as “behind” because it is unseen and unknown.

Nayra

An Aymara word meaning “eye” / “front” that refers to the past.

Qhipa

An Aymara word meaning “back” / “behind” that refers to the future.

Aymara Spatial Metaphor for Time

When talking about the past, Aymara speakers point forward; when talking about the future, they point backward, showing a “mirror-image” of the usual spatial metaphor for time.

Space

Languages can influence how we orient ourselves in space. Languages differ in using relative terms (“left/right”) versus cardinal directions (“north/south”). Some Australian Aboriginal languages rely solely on cardinal directions, shaping their spatial awareness.

Tzeltal People

An indigenous Maya group primarily living in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, speaking a language of the Western Maya subgroup.

Tzeltal Spatial Orientation

Tzeltal people use cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) to describe locations, even indoors. Unlike English speakers who often rely on body-centered coordinates (“left/right”), Tzeltal speakers constantly track cardinal directions. For example, instead of “Put the cup on your left,” they might say “Put the cup on the northern side of the table.”

Color

The way a language divides the color spectrum can influence how speakers perceive and remember colors. Although humans can see the same range of colors, languages categorize them differently. Some have only two basic color terms (light/dark), while others have many more, shaping how people perceive and distinguish colors.

Himba

They are a people of Namibia whose language uses fewer but different basic color categories than English. English has 11 basic color terms, while the language was documented as having five basic color categories.

Zoozu

A Himba color term referring to dark or black.

Vapa

A Himba color term referring to white or light.

Buru

A Himba color term referring to blue or greenish.

Dambu/Dumbu

A Himba color term referring to yellow

Serandu

A Himba color term referring to red

Himba Augmented Color Terms

A 2022 study by Mylonas et al. found that the Himba now have at least seven distinct color categories using a new computer-based method. This is the first documented case of major color-term augmentation in any language. Cultural factors, rather than perceptual mechanisms alone, drive the expansion of color terms and improve communication about color, showing that language is dynamic and shaped by cultural interaction.

Burou

A Himba augmented term for bluish

Grine

A Himba augmented term for greenish

Vinde

A Himba augmented term for brownish

Dani People

The people of New Guinea have only two basic color terms, one for light/warm colors and one for dark/cool colors.

Mili

A Dani color term referring to cool and dark colors, including blue, green, and black.

Mola

A Dani color term referring to warm and light colors, including red, yellow, and white.