Key Concepts in Kinship and Language Studies

Affinal

family relationships created through marriage

Age grades

groups of men who are close to one another in age and share similar duties or responsibilities

Age sets

named categories to which men of a certain age are assigned at birth

Band

the smallest unit of political organization, consisting of only a few families and no formal leadership positions

Big man

a form of temporary or situational leadership; influence results from acquiring followers

Bilateral cross-cousin marriage

a man marries a woman who is both his mother's brother's daughter and his father's sister's daughter

Bilateral descent

kinship (family) systems that recognize both the mother's and the father's "sides" of the family

Caste system

the division of society into hierarchical levels; one's position is determined by birth and remains fixed for life

Chiefdom

large political units in which the chief, who usually is determined by heredity, holds a formal position of power

Circumscription

the enclosure of an area by a geographic feature such as mountain ranges or desert or by the boundaries of a state

Codified law

formal legal systems in which damages, crimes, remedies, and punishments are specified

Egalitarian

societies in which there is no great difference in status or power between individuals and there are as many valued status positions in the societies as there are persons able to fill them

Feuds

disputes of long duration characterized by a state of recurring hostilities between families, lineages, or other kin groups

Ideologies

ideas designed to reinforce the right of powerholders to rule

Legitimacy

the perception that an individual has a valid right to leadership

Lineage

individuals who can trace or demonstrate their descent through a line of males or females back to a founding ancestor

Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage

a man marries a woman who is his mother's brother's daughter

Matrilineal

kinship (family) systems that recognize only relatives through a line of female ancestors

Nation

an ethnic population

Negative reinforcements

punishments for noncompliance through fines, imprisonment, and death sentences

Oaths

the practice of calling on a deity to bear witness to the truth of what one says

Ordeal

a test used to determine guilt or innocence by submitting the accused to dangerous, painful, or risky tests believed to be controlled by supernatural forces

Patrilineal

kinship (family) systems that recognize only relatives through a line of male ancestors

Peasants

residents of a state who earn a living through farming

Poro and sande

secret societies for men and women, respectively, found in the Mande-speaking peoples of West Africa, particularly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, and Guinea

Positive reinforcements

rewards for compliance; examples include medals, financial incentives, and other forms of public recognition

Proletarianization

a process through which farmers are removed from the land and forced to take wage labor employment

Raids

short-term uses of physical force organized and planned to achieve a limited objective

Ranked

societies in which there are substantial differences in the wealth and social status of individuals; there are a limited number of positions of power or status, and only a few can occupy them

Restricted exchange

a marriage system in which only two extended families can engage in this exchange

Reverse dominance

societies in which people reject attempts by any individual to exercise power

Segmentary lineage

a hierarchy of lineages that contains both close and relatively distant family members

Social classes

the division of society into groups based on wealth and status

Sodality

a system used to encourage solidarity or feelings of connectedness between people who are not related by family ties

State

the most complex form of political organization characterized by a central government that has a monopoly over legitimate uses of physical force, a sizeable bureaucracy, a system of formal laws, and a standing military force

Stratified

societies in which there are large differences in the wealth, status, and power of individual based on unequal access to resources and positions of power

Sumptuary rules

norms that permit persons of higher rank to enjoy greater social status by wearing distinctive clothing, jewelry, and/or decorations denied those of lower rank

Tribe

political units organized around family ties that have fluid or shifting systems of temporary leadership

Unilineal descent

kinship (family) systems that recognize only one sex-based "side" of the family

Arbitrariness

the relationship between a symbol and its referent (meaning), in which there is no obvious connection between them

Bound morpheme

a unit of meaning that cannot stand alone; it must be attached to another morpheme

Closed system

a form of communication that cannot create new meanings or messages; it can only convey pre-programmed (innate) messages

Code-switching

using two or more language varieties in a particular interaction

Creole

a language that develops from a pidgin when the pidgin becomes so widely used that children acquire it as one of their first languages.

Creoles

Creoles are more fully complex than creoles.

Critical age range hypothesis

Research suggesting that a child will gradually lose the ability to acquire language naturally and without effort if he or she is not exposed to other people speaking a language until past the age of puberty. This applies to the acquisition of a second language as well.

Pragmatics

How social context contributes to meaning in an interaction.

Productivity/creativity

The ability to produce and understand messages that have never been expressed before.

Proxemics

The study of the social use of space, including the amount of space an individual tries to maintain around himself in his interactions with others.

Register

A style of speech that varies depending on who is speaking to whom and in what context.

Semanticity

The meaning of signs in a communication system; a feature of all species' communication systems.

Semantics

How meaning is conveyed at the word and phrase level.

Speech act

The intention or goal of an utterance; the intention may be different from the dictionary definitions of the words involved.

Standard

The variant of any language that has been given special prestige in the community.

Symbol

Anything that serves to refer to something else.

Syntax

The rules by which a language combines morphemes into larger units.

Taxonomies

A system of classification.

Universal grammar (UG)

A theory developed by linguist Noam Chomsky suggesting that a basic template for all human languages is embedded in our genes.

Unbound morpheme

A morpheme that can stand alone as a separate word.

Vernaculars

Non-standard varieties of a language, which are usually distinguished from the standard by their inclusion of stigmatized forms.

Cultural transmission

The need for some aspects of the system to be learned; a feature of some species communication systems.

Design features

Descriptive characteristics of the communication systems of all species, including that of humans, proposed by linguist Charles Hockett to serve as a definition of human language.

Dialect

A variety of speech. The term is often applied to a subordinate variety of a language. Speakers of two dialects of the same language do not necessarily always understand each other.

Discreteness

A feature of human speech that they can be isolated from others.

Displacement

The ability to communicate about things that are outside of the here and now.

Duality of patterning

At the first level of patterning, meaningless discrete sounds of speech are combined to form words and parts of words that carry meaning.

Second level of patterning

Units of meaning are recombined to form an infinite possible number of longer messages such as phrases and sentences.

Gesture-call system

A system of non-verbal communication using varying combinations of sound body language, scent, facial expression, and touch, typical of great apes and other primates, as well as humans.

Historical linguistics

The study of how languages change.

Interchangeability

The ability of all individuals of the species to both send and receive messages; a feature of some species' communication systems.

Kinesics

The study of all forms of human body language.

Language

An idealized form of speech, usually referred to as the standard variety.

Language death

The total extinction of a language.

Language shift

When a community stops using their old language and adopts a new one.

Language universals

Characteristics shared by all linguists.

Larynx

The voice box, containing the vocal bands that produce the voice.

Lexicon

The vocabulary of a language.

Linguistic relativity

The idea that the structures and words of a language influence how its speakers think, how they behave, and ultimately the culture itself (also known as the Whorf hypothesis).

Middle English

The form of the English language spoken from 1066 AD until about 1500 AD.

Minimal response

The vocal indications that one is listening to a speaker.

Modern English

The form of the English language spoken from about 1500 AD to the present.

Morphemes

The basic meaningful units in a language.

Morphology

The study of the morphemes of language.

Old English

English language from its beginnings to about 1066 AD.

Open system

A form of communication that can create an infinite number of new messages; a feature of human language only.

Oralist approach

An approach to the education of deaf children that emphasizes lip reading and speaking orally while discouraging use of signed language.

Palate

The roof of the mouth.

Paralanguage

Those characteristics of speech beyond the actual words spoken, such as pitch, loudness, and tempo.

Pharynx

The throat cavity, located above the larynx.

Phonemes

The basic meaningless sounds of a language.

Phonology

The study of the sounds of language.

Pidgin

A simplified language that springs up out of a situation in which people who do not share a language must spend extended amounts of time together.

Pragmatic function

The useful purpose of a communication. Usefulness is a feature of all species' communication systems.