ANTH Chapter 6 + Language and Communication

what is FirstVoices?

helps Indigenous people upload audio, documents, and image files. Helps with keeping their languages alive

what is language?

a symbolic system of arbitrary sounds that, when put together according to a certain set of rules, convey meaning to its speakers (from the Latin word *lingua* which means tongue)

peach cultures vs. coconut cultures?

soft on the outside, open and friendly, and more than willing to discuss personal issues with complete transfers, but hard on the inside and will not discuss much deeper personal questions (e.g., United States, Brazil, etc.)

vs.

hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Hard to get to know, but over time they open up (e.g., Russia, Germany, etc.)

what is descriptive linguistics?

interested in sound and meaning structure of languages

what is historical linguistics?

concerned with how languages have changed over time

what is sociolinguistics?

study the relationship between language and society

what is ethnolinguistics?

concerned with the relationships between language and culture

what is a speech community?

 people who share a set of norms about how to speak and expectations about how language is used (the longer these communities are isolated, the more their communities are unique)

what is linguistic borrowing?

languages borrow from one another for need and prestige

what are prosodic features? (paralanguage)

auditory qualities of language such as intonation, stress, loudness, and rhythm, that help interpret the meaning of words

what are proxemics?

* The way people perceive and use space (Edward T. Hall)
* Four types of distance:
* Intimate, personal, social, and public (from smallest to largest)

what are high-context cultures?

*  communication is indirect, relying heavily on the context to convey meaning
* Collectivist, emphasize personal relationships, and strive for harmony and consensus 
* See silence as useful as it gains a better understanding of communication partners

what are low-context cultures?

* cultures in which communication is direct and unambiguous, meaning is conveyed by the words themselves 
* Individualist, task-focused, and less likely to make decisions for emotional or social reasons
* Avoids silence at all costs

what are proverbs?

express encoded values and attitudes about appropriate behaviour (e.g., “ask and you shall be heard”)

what are honorifics?

words or phrases that show respect and thus encode social status (e.g., Mr., Miss., and Mrs.)

what does the reciprocal use of first names indicate?

friendly, informal relationship between equals

what does the reciprocal use of titles followed by last names indicate?

formal relationship (roughly the same status)

what does the nonreciprocal use of first names indicate?

people of unequal social status

what are genderlects?

varieties of speech associated with particular genders

what is uptalk?

* the use of a rising, questioning intonation when making statements
* Men are least likely to do it the more successful they are
* Women are more likely to do it the more successful they are

what are backchannels?

minimal responses to a speaker that serves to continue the conversation or to show agreement

what is rapport-talk ?

seeks to establish connections, negotiate relationships, and reach agreement (used more by women)

what is report-talk?

more competitive, less social, more individualistic, and aimed at controlling the flow of talk

what is mutual intelligibility?

when speakers can readily understand each other, they speak the same language

what is the dialect continuum?

 a chain of speech variants that are mutually intelligible between adjacent geographic areas, but the ends are mutually unintelligible

what is lingua franca?

a common language that people use to communicate when they do not share the same native or first language (English is the most common)

what is pidgin?

a simplified language used as a means of communication

what is creole?

a pidgin that has become a mother tongue or native language

what are mixed languages?

a language that results from the fusion of two languages, in which the grammatical elements comes from one and much of the vocabulary from the other

what is a dialect?

a regional or class variation of a language

what is the standard language?

the variety of language spoken in public that receives the most institutional support

what is an accent?

manner of pronunciation of words

what is the received pronounciation?

the accent of the standard language (is the most prestigious)

what is diglossia?

the situation in which two languages or forms of the same language are spoken by people in the same language community at different times and places

what is code switching?

speakers of two or more languages or varieties of one language switch between the two, depending on the social construct

what is the community of practice?

a group of people within a large society who interact regularly around specialized interests

what is the sapir-whorf hypothesis?

Since language influences thoughts and perception, it also influences behaviour

what are the two main ideas of the sapir-whorf hypothesis?

linguistic determinism and linguistic relativism

what is linguistic determinism?

* the language you speak determines the way you perceive the world around you
* Strong determinism: language actually determines fault
* Weak determinism: language simply influences thought

what is linguistic relativism?

each language classifies the world in its own unique or culturally relative way

what is the digital divide?

the differences between those who have access to information technologies and the skills use them and those who do not

what is the systematic organization of language? (from smallest to largest)

phonetics

phonology

morphology

syntax

semantics

pragmatics

what are phonetics?

sounds (etic)

what is phonology?

the meaning of sounds (phonemes → emic) (e.g., the s at the end of a word means plural)

what is morphology?

the rules by which sounds are put together to create the meaning of words (words)

what is syntax?

the rules by which words are combined to create sentences

what are semantics?

the literal meaning of sentences

what are pragmatics?

the meaning of the sentences in context. The context of other sentences and the social context in which they are spoken.

what is paralanguage?

It is not what you say but how you say it (e.g., voices cracking, nervous ticks, speech modulation, rapid eye movement, etc.)

what is haptic communication?

How people interact through touch

what are indexicals?

* items that mark features of the speakers or hearers identity
* Includes pronouns, kinship terms, forms of address, and speech levels
* How we refer to people or address them is a sensitive indicator of how we evaluate people

what is the power semantic?

* Determines which form of address / pronoun will be used on the basis of the difference in social status (or power) between the speaker and addressee
* The T of intimacy and the V of formality (From French Tu or Vous)