ANTH 114

The pristine myth

The idea that the Americas were sparsely populated without any complex building.

Romanticism

A period and style of art that engaged in the pristine myth and portrayed the untouched American wilderness in a rose-tinted manner.

Proto-language

Proposed parent-language from the study of modern languages.

Genetic diversity

An assumption made based on words that suggests relatedness between languages.

Structural diversity

The differences in languages based on their unique structures.

Language relativity

The idea that the language you speak can shape your worldview.

Linguistic functionalism

The concept that if there isn’t a certain thing, there wouldn’t be a word for it.

Count nouns vs non-count nouns

Distinction in nouns based on the ability to use 'a/an' in front of them.

Ethnocentrism

The evaluation of other cultures based on the standards of one's own culture.

Historical Particularism

The idea that every culture has its own history, opposing ethnocentrism.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The theory that language shapes how people think.

Holism

Studying society, culture, and language as interconnected wholes.

Native speaker

A person who grew up learning a language at a very young age.

Settler colonialism

The establishment of dominance by ruling countries through moving large groups of people.

Structuralism

Studying relationships and systems between parts and their integration in language.

Dialect

Language variation specific to a given region or social group.

Dialectology

The study of language variation particular to social groups.

Isoglosses

Varieties of speech occurring only in specific areas.

Dialect boundary

The point where multiple isoglosses collide.

Language death

A metaphor for the endangerment of languages through various categories.

Language revitalization

The process through which languages are changed to signify different identities.

Phonology

The study of sound systems in languages.

Morphology

The study of word part systems in languages.

Syntax

The study of word order in languages.

Semantics

The study of meanings as a linguistic system.

Semiotics

The study of signs and symbols in communication.

Linguistic competence

Our knowledge about language systems.

Linguistic performance

How we actually speak in real situations.

Sociolinguistics

The study of language in relation to its social context.

Code switching

The practice of alternating between different languages or dialects in conversation.

Comparative Historical Linguistics

The comparison of languages in present to predict historical language developments.

Acrolect

The most formal and prestigious variety of a language within a speech community.