Anth Language and Culture

Linguistic Competence

Internal, technical, rule-based understanding of language

Grammar Vocabulary Sentence Structure

Communicative Competence

Broader ability to use language in real-world scenarios

Understanding social contexts and how to use language effectively

Multifunctionality

Words, forms, structures can have different meaning in different contexts

One linguistic element performs multiple roles in communication

Language Ideologies

The spoken and unspoken attitudes, judgements, and beliefs people hold about language

4 features of language ideologies

• Tend to serve interests one those in power

• multiple and multi-facteed

• may or may not be acknowledged

• link forms of talk with forms of social structure

Practice

language is largely pre-determined, but it is through use that it changes

Indexicality

Language’s ability to sign or ‘point’ to something else

Pure indexicality

word or feature points to the immediate context

Referential indexicality

word or feature points to the context and also signals some social context.

Example of both pure and referential indexicality

Yinz - refers to the group of people and also indicates the speaker is from Pittsburgh

are mode/modality the same

Yes they mean the same thing

Modality/modes

a particular way of conveying meaning

different ways we might convey meaning

examples of modes

• speech

• gestures

• whistles

• images

• writing

semiosis

the process of making meaning through signs

how all of the modalities in a given interaction convey meaning

multi-modal discourse

2 different messages conveyed by 2 different modalities

double-voiced discourse

language that carries multiple voices or perspectives

Example: if you quote or use someone else’s ideas/words

animator

the person physically producing the speech

author

the person who composed the words being spoken

principal

the person or institution whose beliefs are being represented by the speech

participation framework

Erving Goffman’s idea about the concept of a ‘speaker’

Not always just one person there are different roles

Conversation analysis

All the context you need to understand a conversation is the previous utterance

adjacency pairs

phrases that come together

example: How are you? I’m fine and you?

representational gestures

gestures with traditional or iconic meaning

• ie making the symbol for getting the bill at a restaurant

deictics

gestures that refer to physical space in some way

• ie pointing and asking who is that

beats

gestures with no conventional meaning

• ie clapping hands when yelling at someone

difference between whistled and signed languages

sign = autonomous

whistle = based on a spoken language

LAD

language acquisition device

• all humans have an innate ability to learn language

• located somewhere in the brai

who came up with the LAD

Noam Chomsky

UG

universal grammar

• set of rules that are universal across language

• its built in to the brain

• similar to a switchboard

  • we acquire language like a switchboard

what does language acquisition lead to

linguistic competence

language gap

• idea that depending on contextual circumstances, certain children don’t develop language thee way others might

• due to certain children being disadvantaged in their education

issues with language gap

• oversimplification of educational inequality - ignores other factors

language socialization

• how languages interact with each other

• how language itself evolves

factors attributed to language gap

• English not l1

• parents not fluent speakers

• socioeconomic status

deficit mindset

Franz Boas

Father of ‘American Anthropolgy’

• Crusade against scientific racism

• non-linear development of language and culture

Edward Sapir

• Student of boas

• believed in strong influence of language on thought

• worked on language classification

language classification 

which languages might be related to each other and have similar history

Dorothy D.Lee

• Student of students of boas

• similar ideas to Whorf

Benjamin Lee Whorf

• Student of sapir

• took linguistics as a hobby

• works with hopi language

sapir-whorf hypothesis

• never actually used by sapir or whorf - coined by Harry Hoijer

• argues a relationship between language and thought

• strong and weak

empty drums

• whorf investigates a warehouse and finds the full gasoline barrels behind fire safe doors. Finds a loading dock where workers smoke on break and the empty barrels are all there. - empty barrels more flammable to cigarettes than full ones (gas vs liquid)

• idea of ‘empty drums’ that are dangerous but don’t seem so

• language impacts how we see world - drums are empty therefore safe

strong sapir whorf

language leads to specific, limited subset of thoughts

language determines though

weak sapir whorf

language, culture, and thought all influence each other

language influences thought

whorfian scale (linguistic relativity hypothesis)

how likely a word or structure is to prime your thinking

• scale from 0-1

• no relativity to maximum relativity

• 0 = everyone aware of it (like the sun)

• 1 = completely different from person to person

every word or concept falls somewhere on the scale

codability

Describing a concept in any language

translatability

Conveying the same meaning in a different language

important distinction for wharfian scale (same as sapir wharf)

Don’t say it measures translatability or codability - that is wrong

3 types of research into linguistic relativity 

• language in general

• linguistic structures

• language use

language-in-general

how does ‘having’ language influence cognitive abilities

theory of mind

linguistic structures

how does the presence/absence of trait in a language influence its speakers’ thoughts

• semantic domains

• grammatical categories

theory of mind

presumption that there are other people who think similarly to you out there in the world

language use

how habits of language use can influence thought and interpretation

3 terms for sapir wharf hypothesis

• sapir whorf hypothesis

• wharfian hypothesis

• language relativity hypothesis

speech community

A group of people who share a language variety and the norms for using it.

gumperz on speech community

1. Frequent group member interaction

2. Shared ‘verbal repetoire’

3. Shared norms of use-language ideologies

problems with speech communities

• emphasis on language 

• emphasis on consensus

• ignorance of the margins

• ignorance of the individual

• identity as static categories

• interpretation trumps participant understanding 

community of practice

unified by ‘mutual engagement’ in an endeavor t

three criteria for community of practice

1. Mutual engagement

   1. regular interaction with each other

2. A joint enterprise

   1. shared goal

3. A shared repetoire

how do speech communities differ from communities of practice

• Speech Community: Defined by shared linguistic norms.

  • this means there is mutual understanding of the language being used and the culture associated with it

• Community of Practice: Defined by shared social practices and activities.

• Speech Community: More fixed, homogeneous view of members.

• Community of Practice: More dynamic, flexible, practices shift with interaction.

• Speech Community: Focus on language as a system.

• Community of Practice: Focus on language as social action/identity.

speech networks

structure of a relationship

how deep is the relationship between you and another individual in the community

strong speech networks

family, close friends

weak speech networks

someone you might know by name but not closely - cashier you see often

multiplex speech networks

people who you know via multiple dimensions

uniplex speech networks

a coworker that only you know

a ta/professor that you only know in class

diglossia

code-switching

code-mixing

linguistic convergence

start to speak in the same way as someone else

linguistic divergence

start to speak in a different way to someone else because you don’t want to be assoicated with them