Chapter 9 - Linguistic Anthropology and Language Study

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers essential terminology from the lecture on linguistic anthropology, including branches of linguistics, nonverbal communication, and socio-cultural language dynamics.

Linguistics

The systematic study of all aspects of language, with roots tracing back more than $2,000$ years to ancient language specialists in India.

Descriptive Linguistics

A branch of linguistics that involves unraveling a language by recording, describing, and analyzing all of its features, including structure and unique repertoire.

Phonetics

The systematic identification and description of the distinctive sounds in a language, rooted in the Greek word phone (meaning “sound”).

Phonology

The study of language sounds.

Phonemes

The smallest units of sound that make a difference in meaning in a particular language.

Minimal-pair test

A process used by linguists to isolate phonemes by finding two short words that appear exactly alike except for one sound, such as bit and pit.

International Phonetic Alphabet

A linguistic standard consisting of $107$ letters, $52$ diacritics, and $4$ prosodic marks used to transcribe different languages.

Morphology

The study of the patterns or rules of word formation in a language, including verb tense, pluralization, and compound words.

Morphemes

The smallest units of sound that carry meaning in a language, distinct from phonemes which have no meaning by themselves.

Syntax

The patterns or rules by which morphemes or words are arranged into phrases and sentences.

Grammar

The collection of all observations about a language's morphemes and syntax.

Historical Linguistics

The study of how languages change over time, investigating relationships between earlier and later forms of the same language and interrelationships among older languages.

Language Family

A group of languages descended from a single ancestral language, such as the Indo-European family.

Linguistic Divergence

The process by which a single ancestral language separates into distinct “daughter” languages over a long period, such as the Germanic subgroup.

Linguistic Nationalism

The attempt by ethnic groups or countries to maintain or reclaim unique identity by purging their vocabularies of foreign terms.

Sociolinguistics

The study of the relationship between language and society, examining how social categories like age, gender, ethnicity, and class influence speech styles.

Gendered Speech

Distinct male and female speech patterns that vary across social and cultural settings.

Dialects

Varying forms of a language that reflect particular regions, occupations, or social classes and are similar enough to be mutually intelligible.

Code Switching

The process of changing from one mode of speech to another as the situation demands, such as moving from formality to informality or one language to another.

Ethnolinguistics

The study of the relationships between language and culture, and how they mutually influence and inform each other.

Linguistic Relativity

The idea that the words and grammar of a language are directly linked to culture and affect how speakers perceive and think about the world.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The theory that each language provides particular grooves of linguistic expression that predispose speakers to perceive the world in a certain way.

Receptive Bilingualism

The ability to comprehend two languages but express oneself in only one; also known as passive bilingualism.

Gesture-call system

A shared primate system of communication embedded in human speech that provides the frame for interpreting what a speaker is saying through emotions and intentions.

Kinesics

The study of nonverbal signals in body language, including facial expressions and bodily postures and motions.

Proxemics

The cross-cultural study of social space, coined by Edward Hall, which reveals distinctive cultural standards for distance in social interaction.

Paralanguage

The component of the gesture-call system consisting of voice effects that accompany speech, such as giggling, sighing, pitch, and tempo.

Tonal Languages

Languages where distinctive sound pitches are an essential part of pronunciation and key to the meaning of words, making up about 70 \text{\text{%}} of the world’s languages.

Whistled Speech

A traditional telecommunication system used to expand acoustic space by using phonetic emulation of sounds produced in the spoken voice, such as Silbo.

Displacement

A distinctive feature of human language that allows for the ability to refer to events removed in time and space.

Writing System

A set of visible or tactile signs used to represent units of language in a systematic way.

Alphabet

A series of symbols representing the sounds of a language, named after the first two letters of the Greek writing system, alpha and beta.