language and culture midterm

covers OTT chapters 1-5

comparative

attempting to gather and compare information from cultures across time and location to find underlying similarities and differences

cultural relativity

different cultural systems make as much sense as your own, and no one culture “makes more sense” or is “superior”

ethnocentrism

using your own cultural system to interpret others, believing your own culture makes more sense

holistic

getting the most broad view possible, via the four-field tradition and being interdisciplinary

theoretical linguistics

study of language from a structural POV, and without concern for a language’s cultural contexts

cognitive anthropology/ethnoscience/ethnosemantics

analyzing vocabulary to learn about systems of meaning and perception

componential analysis

a method for finding culturally important features of a language by how words are distinguished in a semantic domain

cultural emphasis

an important aspect of a culture that’s often reflected in a language’s vocabulary

deictic

specifying the location of something from the speaker’s POV, pointing; many languages are egocentric

hypocognition

lack of ideas that you need to talk about something, especially if you don’t have a frame for it in your native language

linguistic determinism

your language affects your ability to perceive, think, and talk about certain things

linguistic relativity

knowing one language doesn’t let you predict how another language categorizes the world

principle of linguistic relativity

speakers of different languages will have different worldviews, articulated by Whorf

prototype theory

categories can be graded and some members of a category can be more central than others

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

the concept of linguistic determinism; Weaker Whorf indicates that language subtly influences you, Stronger Whorf indicates that language forces you to think a certain way

semantic domain

an area of meaning in a language (plants, animals, etc.)

acoustic phonetics

study of physical properties of sounds

affricate

stop + fricative

allophone

a variant form of a morpheme; a member of a group of sounds that all form a single phoneme

alveolar

sound modified with tip of the tongue and the alveolar/gum ridge

alveopalatal

sound modified with tip of the tongue behind the alveolar/gum ridge

approximant

a sound where there is little obstruction in airflow

articulated

sounds modified in the vocal tract

articulatory phonetics

study of how speech sounds are produced

auditory phonetics

study of how sounds are perceived

click

a voiceless stop where air is released inward

complementary distribution

a pattern where allophones of a phoneme are distributed between differing word environments

consonant

a sound with audible restriction in airflow

diacritic

a type of phonetic symbol used to indicate additional modification of sounds (~ for nasalization, : for lengthening)

emics

cultural analysis of subjectively relevant, internally verifiable units of culture

etics

cultural analysis of objectively identifiable, externally observable units of culture

fricative

sound made with friction in air stream

glottal

sound modified in the glottis

glottis

space between the vocal cords

ideophone

sounds/words that imitate other sounds in a language (such as onomatopoeias)

implosive

voiced stop where air is released inward

labiodental

sound modified with lower lip + upper teeth

larynx

location of the vocal cords, which modify air and create sound waves

allomorph

variant form of a morpheme

bound morpheme

morpheme that must be attached to another morpheme

circumfix

a bound morpheme that attaches simultaneously to the beginning and end of a base form

deep structure

in a generative grammar, underlying grammar produced by phrase structure rules that let you produce sentences

derivation

process of creating new words (cat → catty)

descriptive grammar

grammar designed to describe the structure and patterning of a language on its own terms

free morpheme

a morpheme that can stand alone

generative grammar

grammar designed to provide rules that can generate all the possible sentences of a language

hierarchy

the specific order in which affixes can be attached to bases

infix

a bound morpheme inserted in the middle of a base form

inflection

modifying existing words (cat → cats)

interweaving

a morpheme is interspersed throughout a base form

morphological analysis

the analysis of word structure, including identifying morphemes and analyzing how they’re arranged into words

obligatory category

grammatical category that must be expressed when speaking (such as singular or plural case in English)

phonological rules

in a generative grammar, rules that assign specific sounds to a surface-level sentence so it’s pronounceable

phrase structure rules

in a generative grammar, rules that produce deep structure sentences

prescriptive grammar

grammar designed to serve as a model of “proper” speech

reduplication

process of creating an affix from an existing base form and attaching it to a base

root

a word/morpheme that serves as underlying foundation for other words

stem

word/morphemes that is/are derived from a root and additional affixes can be attached

substitution frame

grammatical frame into which you can place related words; useful for finding relationships between word groups

surface structure

in a generative grammar, the actual sentences produced in a language

transformational rules

in a generative grammar, rules that transform deep structure sentences into different formants (like statement → question)

adaptor

a gesture that facilitates the release of body tension

affect display

a gesture that conveys emotion

allokine

a variant of a kineme

chereme

SL equivalent of a phoneme in spoken language

dez

prime that describes hand shape/orientation

emblem

gesture with a direct verbal translation

gesture

movement accompanying speech; manual and nonmanual gestures

illustrator

gesture that depicts or illustrates what is verbally said

kineme

minimal unit of visual expression

kinesics

study of body movements, facial expressions, gestures

modality

physical “channel” through which a language is expressed; oral/aural, visual/gestural, tactile

proxemics

study of how people perceive and use space

regulator

gesture that controls/coordinates interaction

SEE1

Seeing Essential English, Manually Coded English that requires reproducing the exact structure of spoken English

SEE2

Signed Exact English, Manually Coded English that requires reproducing the exact structure of spoken English

orality

ideology that only spoken languages are “real” languages

prime

in SL analysis, an element of a sign corresponding to phonological elements, akin to phonemes; categorized by hand shape, placement, movement

sig

prime that describes hand movement

tab

prime that describes hand placement