– Chapter 11 Pt 1 : Communication

Instructor Background & Administrative Details

• Lecturer’s expertise lies in both linguistic anthropology and medical anthropology, making language‐related material a personal passion.

• Invites students to enroll in a full-semester, face-to-face “Language and Culture” course at Santiago Canyon College.

Overview of Chapter 11 (Communication)

• Core focus: multiple forms of human communication and what makes them distinct from (yet comparable to) communication in other species.

• Three broad analytic segments:

  1. How humans communicate (modes, media, embodied forms).

  2. Links between communication styles and social inequality (class, gender, race).

  3. Language change over vast time-scales (colonial era, globalization, thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of years earlier).

• Continuity with previous chapters: builds on earlier discussions of stratification (class, gender, race) by asking whether specific communication styles map onto those hierarchies.

Major Modes of Human Communication

• Spoken / Verbal language: organized system of sounds & symbols.

• Non-verbal & embodied communication:

  • Gestures, facial expressions, posture, physical proximity, etc.

  • Sign languages (visual‐gestural, grammatically complete systems).

  • Braille (tactile—raised dots enabling the blind to read; seen on elevators, bathrooms, diaper‐changing stations).

• Technologically mediated communication:

  • Traditional mass media (print, radio, TV).

  • Digital / social media (texting, video chat, social networks).

  • Emerging forms (emojis, GIFs, reaction buttons) that extend or replace words; class assignment already required students to experiment with emojis.

Human vs. Non-Human Communication

• Many species—ants, bees, birds, primates—convey information (danger, food, location).

• Even plants show neurological-like responses (e.g., to pain) and may trigger chemical signaling.

• Anthropological position: while communication is widespread, language (as defined below) is uniquely human in its complexity and systematicity.

Language as a System

• Defined as “a system of sounds and symbols” shared by a community.

• Arbitrariness: no inherent link between sign and meaning (e.g., the written letters “b-e-a-r” have no natural connection to the animal).

• Systemic relations: words gain meaning through their relationships to other words and cultural concepts (e.g., “panda bear” evokes other bears, bamboo, habitat, conservation debates).

Two Core Design Features Emphasized (out of ≈13 total)

1. Productivity (Creativity)

   • Ability to generate an effectively infinite number of messages from a finite set of sounds and grammatical rules.

   • Finite inventory: 26 Latin letters → ~30 phonemic sounds in English.

   • Illustrations of saying “I want to go home” in countless paraphrases: “I gotta bounce,” “Peace out,” “I’m done for the day,” silent peace-sign gesture, etc.

2. Displacement

   • Capacity to discuss entities/events not limited to the immediate here-and-now.

   • Examples:
     • Predicting a future traffic jam on California’s 405 Freeway.
     • Recounting last week’s homework deadline.

   • Enables talking about the distant past, hypothetical futures, or remote locations.

Case Study: The Pirahã Language (Brazil)

• Small hunter-gatherer band; language reportedly lacks a detailed counting system.

  • Same term used for 1, 2, or 3 objects; another term for “many.”

  • Future events seldom referenced linguistically; focus on immediate experience.

• Historically labeled “primitive” by outsiders, paralleling older racist hierarchies that ranked cultures.

• Anthropological rebuttal:

  • Absence of certain features (e.g., numbers, future tense) ≠ linguistic inferiority.

  • Pirahã speakers master Portuguese, proving cognitive capacity.

  • Language is “complex in its own context,” fulfilling all communicative needs of its society.

• Illustrates the ethical imperative to avoid ethnocentric judgments about language sophistication.

Foundational Theorist: Ferdinand de Saussure

• Swiss linguist who shifted focus from mere “naming” to the psychological dimensions of language.

• Key notion: every linguistic sign is dual:

  1. Concept (Signified) – the mental idea (e.g., the abstract notion of “tree”).

  2. Sound-image (Signifier) – the auditory/written form (e.g., “arbor,” “tree,” “baum”).

• The link is arbitrary yet standardized within a speech community.

• Saussure’s model underpins structural linguistics and later anthropological theories of meaning.

Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Implications

• Ranking languages perpetuates colonial and racist ideologies; anthropology rejects notions of “primitive” vs. “advanced” languages.

• Understanding displacement and productivity clarifies why humans can build culture, plan, and imagine.

• Technological innovations (emojis, Braille) illustrate language’s adaptability, showing that communication systems evolve alongside social change.

Real-World Relevance & Course Connections

• Investigating how dialects correlate with class or race links to sociolinguistics (e.g., AAVE, “uptalk,” “vocal fry”).

• Non-verbal cues crucial in cross-cultural medical settings (speaker’s background in medical anthropology).

• Digital literacy (emoji fluency) increasingly essential in globalized workplaces.

Numerical & Statistical References

• 26 Latin letters in English alphabet.

• Approx. 30 distinct phonemes in English.

• Historically posited 13 design features of human language; two (productivity & displacement) emphasized in this lecture.

Key Takeaways for Exam Preparation

• Memorize definitions & examples of productivity and displacement.

• Be able to articulate why language ≠ generic animal communication.

• Understand Saussure’s signifier/signified distinction and why arbitrariness matters.

• Recognize the Pirahã example as a case against labeling any language “primitive.”

• Be prepared to discuss how technological tools (Braille, emojis) exemplify language’s adaptability.

Ch 11 Pt 2 Language, Sound & IPA

Ferdinand de Saussure & The Mental Dimension of Language

• Recap of previous lecture:

  • Ferdinand de Saussure emphasized that language is a dual system of sounds / symbols (signifiers) and mental concepts (signifieds).

  • Naming is never a mere labeling; the spoken/written form TREE or ARBOR is inseparable from the mental picture, cultural associations, and the network of other words/sounds in the language system.

  • Example: Seeing a tree triggers ideas of nature, shade, wood, etc.; those ideas co-evolve with the choice of the word “tree” in English or “arbor” in another tongue.

The Human Vocal Apparatus (Physical Basis for Sound)

• Sound production is constrained by shared human anatomy:

  • Lungs (airflow: inhale/exhale)

  • Pharynx

  • Larynx & vocal cords (voicing vs. devoicing)

  • Nasal cavity

  • Oral cavity: tongue, teeth, lips

• Languages exploit different combinations of these articulators, giving every language its unique “soundscape.”

• Voicing illustration:

  • "bit" = voiced (vocal cords vibrate)

  • "pit" = voiceless (no vibration)

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) – A Universal Map of Sounds

• IPA = systematic chart that lists every attested speech sound in human languages.

• Two major grids:

  1. Vowel Quadrilateral – classified by tongue position & mouth openness.

  2. Consonant Table – classified by place (bilabial → glottal) and manner (plosive, nasal, trill, etc.) of articulation.

• Practical implication: Field linguists can document an unknown language by matching each new sound to an IPA cell.

Vowels (illustrated live in video)

• Dimensions:

  • Horizontal: front → central → back of the tongue.

  • Vertical: close (high), near-close, close-mid, open-mid, near-open, open (low).

• Demonstrations (speaker moved tongue & jaw):

  • Close-front /i/ ("e" in "beat"): mouth mostly closed, tongue front.

  • Open-mid-central /ʌ/ ("uh" in "strut"): jaw lower, tongue centered.

  • Open-back /ɑ/ ("a" in "spa"): widest aperture, resonance in throat.

Consonants (interactive clicks on IPA website)

• Places of articulation (outer → inner):

  1. Bilabial (both lips) – /p b m/.

  2. Labiodental (lip + teeth) – /f v/.

  3. Dental (tongue tip on teeth) – English /θ ð/.

  4. Alveolar (tongue on ridge) – /t d s z/.

  5. Post-alveolar & Retroflex – "sh" /ʃ/, rolled retroflex /ɖ ʈ/ in Hindi.

  6. Palatal – /j/ ("y"), /ɲ/.

  7. Velar – /k g ŋ/ far back of mouth.

  8. Uvular – "French r" /ʁ/.

  9. Pharyngeal – Arabic /ʕ ħ/.

1. Glottal – /h ʔ/ (glottal stop).

• Manners of articulation (airflow modification): plosive, nasal, trill, tap/flap, fricative, lateral fricative, click, ejective, implosive, etc.

• Video demos included:

  • Bilabial plosive /p/ – lips close & burst.

  • Labiodental nasal /ɱ/ – lip + teeth with nasal airflow.

  • Fricatives /f v/ – continuous friction.

  • Clicks (dental, alveolar, etc.) – characteristic of some southern African languages.

  • Ejectives (e.g., /kʼ/) – common in many Mayan languages.

Biological Evolutionary Angle

• The hyoid bone (U-shaped in front of neck) is a critical anchor for tongue & laryngeal muscles.

  • Fossil record: fully modern form appears \approx 2.5\ \text{million years} ago, signalling the potential emergence of articulate speech in early Homo.

  • Fragile: fractures can cause speech deficits; forensics uses hyoid damage as evidence in strangulation/hanging cases.

  • Injuries observed in high-impact sports (e.g.
    MMA) illustrate its vulnerability.

Phonemes – The Smallest Meaning-Distinguishing Sounds

• Definition: minimal contrastive units of sound; substituting one with another can change meaning.

• English examples:

  • /p/ vs. /f/: "pit" ≠ "fit" → two distinct phonemes.

• Cross-linguistic variation:

  • Certain Papua New Guinea languages treat [p] and [f] as allophones of a single phoneme (no meaning change).

  • Hindi contrasts retroflex /ɖ ʈ/ with dental /d t/; mispronunciation alters meaning drastically for native listeners.

• Insight: Phonemic inventory is language-specific; foreign accents often arise from applying one’s native phoneme set to a new language.

Practical & Conceptual Take-Aways

• Saussure’s insight: linguistic sounds are systemic; their value comes from relationships inside the language network.

• IPA offers a universal “periodic table” for speech, enabling:

  • Precise transcription, language documentation, speech therapy.

  • Cross-cultural phonetic training & accent reduction.

• Biological constraints (hyoid bone & vocal tract) shape & limit the possible range of human speech, yet cultures realize that potential in diverse ways.

• Recognizing phonemic differences is crucial for:

  • Accurate language learning & translation.

  • Avoiding miscommunication or social faux-pas.

  • Linguistic fieldwork and preserving endangered languages.

• Ethical/forensic dimensions: knowledge of vocal anatomy aids criminal investigations and medical diagnostics.

Ch 11 Pt 3 Language, Culture & Communication – Study Notes

Phonology & Sound Differentiation

• Languages encode meaning through their “smallest contrastive sound units” (phonemes).

  • Speakers whose first language collapses two English phonemes into one may carry that merger into English → foreign-accent perception.

• Example:

  • Certain Asian languages treat the English /l/ and /r/ as the same phoneme; therefore the contrast L vs. R is not “automatic” for those speakers.

  • Result → pronunciations such as “lice” ≈ “rice.”

• Key idea: Accent ≠ linguistic deficiency; it reflects differences in the native phonological inventory.

Lexicon, Vocabulary & Ethnosemantics

• Vocabulary / Lexicon = culturally specific inventory of words.

• Ethnosemantics studies how meanings of words embed cultural experience & history.

  • Mesoamerican Tzotzil-speaking people:

  • Word Bitsim = “horse.”

  • Compound Tinek\;Bitsim (“native horse”) actually denotes deer.

  • Historical logic:

    1. Pre-colonial era: no horses → deer labeled “Bitsim.”

    2. Post-Spanish contact: true horses appear → “Bitsim” reassigned; “Tinek Bitsim” coined to preserve reference to native deer.

  • Conclusion: Lexical shifts offer a timeline of colonial encounters and environmental change.

Focal Vocabulary

• Definition: Dense clusters of words elaborating areas of particular cultural significance.

• Examples:

  • High-latitude societies: nuanced snow terminology.

  • Coastal Southern California surf culture: multiple specialized terms for water sports maneuvers, swell types, board designs, etc.

• Focal vocabularies reveal what a society pays attention to, monetizes, or ritualizes.

Grammar & Syntax

• Grammar = rules for arranging words into meaningful strings.

  • English default: SVO (Subject–Verb–Object).

  • Example: “I (S) love (V) you (O).”

• Cross-linguistic variation:

  • Linguists identify 6 logically possible basic word orders among world languages: {\text{SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OSV, OVS}}.

  • The rarest are OSV and OVS (< 5 documented natural languages).

  • An OSV rendition of “I love you” ≈ “You I love.”

• Significance:

  • Highlights arbitrariness of syntactic conventions.

  • Demonstrates creative range for constructing artificial languages.

Case Study: Creating Klingon

• Linguist (Marc Okrand) drew on globally rare syntactic patterns to craft Klingon for Star Trek.

  • Adopted OSV word order.

  • Mined un-common phonemes & morpheme structures for an alien aesthetic.

• Outcomes:

  • Full teaching grammars, online courses, fan-generated neologisms.

  • Illustrates that even fictional languages must obey internally consistent rules for uptake.

Bliss Symbols – A Universal Graphic Code Attempt

• Inventor: Charles K. Bliss (Jewish refugee, experienced WWII).

• Vision: a non-verbal, ideographic system enabling cross-lingual peace & understanding.

• Reality:

  • Limited mainstream adoption.

  • Unexpected success decades later in Canadian special-education classrooms for children with learning disabilities.

  • Bliss upset that usage diverged from original intent → reveals languages are social property; creators relinquish control once communities adopt them.

Principle: Language as a Social System

• No single individual can permanently dictate meaning.

• Communal usage, reinterpretation, and evolution trump authorial control (applies equally to Klingon & Bliss symbols).

Non-Verbal & Embodied Communication

• Sign Languages

  • Multiple, distinct, non-mutually-intelligible systems (ASL, BSL, DSL, etc.).

  • Each has unique lexicon and grammar; e.g., sign for “tree” differs across ASL & BSL.

  • Acquisition requires formal learning—not simply intuitive gesturing.

• Kinesics (Body Movement)

  • Gestures: peace sign, crossed arms, thumbs-up, etc.

  • Posture: standing upright vs. slouching conveys confidence, fatigue, respect.

  • Eye contact / avoidance: culturally variable interpretations (honesty, aggression, respect).

• Silence as Communication

  • Carries contextual meanings (anger, contemplation, deference, uncertainty).

  • Western Apache (Arizona) ethnography (1960s-70s):

  • Silence used in encounters with strangers, during courtship, in mourning, after verbal offenses.

  • Function: manage social uncertainty & evaluate others before engagement.

Media Anthropology vs. Critical Media Anthropology

• Media Anthropology

  • Describes & compares different media forms (TV, radio, internet, social media) across cultures.

• Critical Media Anthropology

  • Focuses on power & inequality embedded in media production, representation, and consumption.

  • Questions: Who controls platforms? How are identities portrayed? What structural inequities are reinforced or challenged?

• Intersectional insight: A selfie posted online can be both a cultural artifact (media anthropology) and a political statement about visibility & agency (critical perspective).

Key Takeaways & Exam Reminders

• Phonemic distinctions (e.g., L/R) shape accent; absence ≠ defect.

• Vocabulary shifts (Bitsim) narrate historical contact & environmental change.

• Focal vocabularies signal culturally salient domains (rocks, surf).

• Only <5 languages employ OSV/OVS → rare but real; leveraged for fiction (Klingon).

• Any constructed language still needs coherent phonology + syntax + lexicon.

• Language meaning escapes unilateral control (Bliss symbol case).

• Master both verbal and non-verbal modes for holistic anthropological analysis.

• Distinguish descriptive media studies from critiques of power in media landscapes.

Ch 11 Pt 4 Media Power, Digital Divide, & the Sapir-Whorf Lens

Media Anthropology vs. Critical Media Anthropology

• Media Anthropology

  • Studies how different kinds of media are used across distinct cultural contexts.

  • Example: Comparing the popularity or absence of Twitter in one society versus another.

• Critical Media Anthropology

  • Shifts focus from the form of media to power, empowerment, and marginalization produced by media use.

  • Core questions:

  • Does a medium (e.g.
    Twitter) empower everyday people to speak, vent, or share stories?

  • Does that empowerment translate to tangible social or economic gains?

  • How might the same medium reinforce inequality by constraining whose voices circulate or are taken seriously?

Identity Construction Through Media

• Media (adverts, TV shows, social media) transmit ideals of body image and identity.

  • Example (Belize):

  • Teenage girls exposed to U.S. soda commercials and American TV internalize the “Coca-Cola-bottle” body ideal.

  • Example (Japan; Tasibel case in textbook):

  • Soap operas depict a shift from the "stay-at-home" woman to the professional woman, encouraging new gender identities.

The Digital Divide

• Definition: Unequal access to communication technologies (devices, connectivity, electricity, know-how) that reproduces or deepens social inequality.

• Dimensions discussed:

  1. Connection type

  • High-speed home Internet (ethernet/Wi-Fi via modem & router) vs. mobile-data-only access.

  • Study cited: Families below the poverty line disproportionately rely on mobile data only, whereas low–moderate income families more often have high-speed broadband.

  1. Hardware quality

  • Basic ISP-issued routers may leave “dead zones” in large homes; mesh routers remedy this.

  • Even with service, inadequate hardware can hamper work/education (e.g.
    instructor needing better routers to livestream lectures).

  1. Electricity infrastructure

  • In some countries: frequent outages hinder device recharging, adding a new layer of divide.

  1. Educational impact

  • Students with limited data struggle to complete homework online.

  1. Civic participation

  • Reliable access influences ability to obtain information on voting/elections.

  1. Parental mediation

  • Ongoing debate: Optimal screen time, adult guidance, and setting limits for children.

Language, Diversity, & Inequality

• Two major foci introduced:

  1. Language & Culture (Sapir-Whorf‐related ideas)

  2. Critical Discourse Analysis (to be covered later)

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Linguistic Relativity)

• Historical note: Edward Sapir (teacher) & Benjamin Lee Whorf (student); later scholars formulated the “hypothesis.”

• Core claim (mild version):

  • Language influences how people perceive, categorize, and behave in the world.

• Strong (deterministic) version: Language determines cognition and perception.

• Anthropology generally engages the milder version.

Industrial Fire-Insurance Examples (Whorf’s Case Studies)

1. “Empty” Gasoline Drums

   • Sign read “Empty Drum.”

   • Worker inferred “no hazard,” lit a cigarette, discarded it; fumes (not liquid) ignited → fire.

   • Shows how the semantic focus on “empty” masked flammable vapors.

2. Limestone Distiller

   • Installer reasoned “limestone” ends with “stone” → concluded it cannot burn.

   • Heated unit to high temps; chemical properties caused ignition.

   • Language category “stone” distorted risk assessment.

• Analytical takeaway: Lexical categories guide risk perception → shape behavior (lighting cigarette, heating apparatus) → yield material consequences (fires, explosions).

Reflexive Questions for Application

• Can you identify everyday instances where word choice alters judgment or behavior?
  (e.g.
  “diet” vs.
  “sugar-free,” “pre-owned” vs.
  “used”).

Interconnections & Implications

• Media power + Digital divide + Linguistic framing co-produce inequality:

  • Access (or lack thereof) to digital platforms influences who hears a marginalized voice.

  • Even when access exists, linguistic framing within those platforms shapes interpretation and response.

• Cross-disciplinary relevance:

  • Sociology: social stratification via tech access.

  • Education studies: homework gap, e-learning readiness.

  • Communication studies: framing effects, critical discourse.

• Ethical dimension:

  • Ensuring equitable tech infrastructure is tied to educational justice and civic participation.

  • Scholars must stay alert to how terminology (“empty,” “stone,” “smart,” “dumb”) reproduces harmful assumptions.

Ch 11 Pt 5 Sapir–Whorf, Sociolinguistics & Discourse: Comprehensive Notes

Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis

• Core idea: Relationship between language and thought lies on a spectrum.

  • Mild (a.k.a. “linguistic relativity”) – language influences how we think.

  • Extreme (“linguistic determinism”) – language determines thought and behavior.

  • Metaphors used: language as a “prison/straight-jacket.”

  • If you speak Californian American English, you are presumed to think like other Californian English speakers.

• Instructor reminder: Other SCC classes cover the mild interpretation; today’s lecture stresses how the deterministic view is considered too extreme by most scholars.

• Invitation: Students asked to submit personal examples that illustrate any version of Sapir–Whorf for extra credit.

Sociolinguistics

• Etymology breakdown: “socio” (social) + “linguistics” (scientific study of language).

• Focus: How language use reflects the speaker’s social background (gender, race, profession, age, class).

  • NOT about how language shapes thought; rather, how language indexes who we are.

Classic Class-Based Study – R-Dropping in New York City

• Researcher: (implicitly) William Labov in 1960s NYC.

• Method: Observe sales clerks in three department-store strata:

  • Saks Fifth Avenue – upper class.

  • Macy’s – middle class.

  • S. Klein – lower class.

• Key variable: Pronunciation of /r/ in phrases like “fourth floor.”

  • Dropping the r ( “fawth floah” ) correlated with lower socioeconomic status.

  • Maintaining the r signaled higher status.

• Conclusion: Tiny phonetic choices act as class markers; speech reveals class position even without explicit statements.

“Dude” and Homosociality (Scott Kiesling, 2004)

• Time line of popularity: 1980s\rightarrow1990s\rightarrow early 2000s.

• Findings:

  • Initially a male-to-male greeting showing solidarity—“we’re tight, we’re cool,” without sexual implications.

  • Conceptual term introduced: Homosociality = same-gender intimacy minus sexual attraction.

  • Later adopted by young women for similar non-sexual camaraderie; still retains a “cool” index.

• Sociolinguistic takeaway: Single lexical items can construct and maintain social bonds and boundaries.

Discourse & Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

• Discourse (general): Culturally patterned ways of using language in discussion/argument.

  • Example (race discourse in U.S.): Terms like “people of color,” “color-blind.” These are not universal labels; they are culturally specific ways of framing race.

• Critical Discourse Analysis:

  • Adds a lens of power relations & inequality.

  • Language patterns can create, maintain, or expose power imbalances.

Case Study – Doctor–Patient Interaction

• Typical U.S. discourse elements: Doctor asks “How do you feel? Where does it hurt?” Patient answers, negotiates treatment, etc.

• CDA highlights micro-features that signal power:

  • Interruptions – doctor repeatedly cutting patient off = physician asserting authority.

  • Topic shifts – clinician steering conversation away from patient concerns reveals hierarchical control of agenda.

  • Strategic silence – who can leave silences hanging? Also a marker of dominance/submission.

Identity Markers in Everyday Speech

• Tag Questions

  • Structure: Declarative sentence + short interrogative tag (e.g.

  • “The weather’s nice today, isn’t it?”)

  • In U.S. English, statistically more frequent in female speech—taken as an index of “female identity.”

  • Shows how identity categories (gender) manifest in micro-syntax.

Linguistic Performance

• Concept: Speech is a performance laden with culturally recognizable cues.

  • Features like hedges (“maybe,” “I’m not sure,” “it might be…”) may convey uncertainty in one culture (e.g., Western clinic) but respect & openness to multiple truths in another culture.

• Example mentioned: Interaction between Mohawk patients and Western doctors—hedges misinterpreted as indecisiveness rather than cultural politeness.

• Anthropological implication: Misreading performance cues can lead to misdiagnoses, strained rapport, and further power imbalance.

Translation & Cross-Cultural Semantics

• Rule: Never translate word-for-word; sometimes you must translate the concept.

• Problems:

  • Source language may have a term with no exact target equivalent.

  • Same form can have different meanings across cultures.

• Illustration via LGBTQ vocabulary in Chinese vs. U.S. English:

  • Loan translations: “gay rights,” “lover” directly borrowed.

  • Phrase “coming out” possesses a workable Chinese counterpart, showing partial concept alignment yet culturally distinct nuances.

Big-Picture Connections & Implications

• Sapir–Whorf → raises philosophical/ethical questions about cognitive freedom vs. linguistic constraints.

• Sociolinguistics & CDA → illuminate structural inequalities (class, gender, race) reproduced through everyday talk.

• Practical stakes: Healthcare, education, and intercultural communication depend on recognizing these linguistic patterns to avoid marginalization and to improve equity.

• Ethical reminder: Analysts must remain aware of their own linguistic biases to prevent imposing dominant discourse norms on minority speakers.

Ch 11 Pt 6 Language, Identity, and Globalization Lecture Notes

Key Terminology: “Coming Out” in Chinese Context

• Chinese renderings for “coming out” (LGBTQ+ community):

  • 出櫃 – “coming out of the closet.”

  • 現身 – “to appear/manifest oneself.”

  • 走出來 – “to step out.”

• Popular label for homosexual people in Taiwan & Hong Kong: 同志 (Tongzhi)

  • Communist‐era sense: “comrade/fellow citizen.”

  • Contemporary semantic shift → “gay person.” Mainland youth also increasingly adopt this usage.

• “Queer” in Traditional Chinese: 酷兒 (kuer, “cool person”) → playful, positive spin, illustrating cross-cultural reinterpretation.

Language Origins & Human Capacity

• Two prerequisites for speech:

  • Cognitive: enlarged brain enabling abstract, complex reasoning.

  • Physiological: development of the hyoid bone → controlled articulation.

• Spoken language likely emerged < 3 \times 10^{6}\ \text{years} ago in early humans.

Historical Linguistics

• Focus: diachronic change—word birth/death, borrowing, family trees.

• Example: English descends from the West Germanic branch.

  • Arrival linked to West Germanic incursions into England (≈ 5^{\text{th}}\text{–}6^{\text{th}} c.).

• Method: reconstruct proto-languages, map diffusion, track sound shifts.

Writing Systems & State Formation

• First true writing: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

• Functions (functionalism: Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown):

  • Census, taxation, elite record keeping in centralized “civilizations.”

• Caveat: Inca Empire thrived without conventional script → writing ≠ universal prerequisite for complex polities.

Colonialism, Nationalism & Language Policy

• Nationalism: ideology demanding patriotic loyalty to the nation-state.

  • Implemented via school language standardization, media, policy.

• Historical coercion examples:

  • Native American boarding schools (USA) forbade Indigenous languages.

  • Taiwan under Japanese, then KMT Chinese rule: promotion of Japanese/ Mandarin; suppression of local tongues.

  • Sami reindeer herders (Northern Europe): pressured to adopt state languages.

• Result: linguistic suppression, identity struggle, and grassroots resistance.

Contact Languages: Pidgin & Creole

• Pidgin

  • Emerges in colonial trade zones among mutually unintelligible groups.

  • Borrowed jargon + simplified grammar; no native speakers.

  • Hypothetical 19-cent. Hawaiʻi example combining Chinese, Portuguese, Hawaiian.

• Creole

  • When a pidgin becomes children’s L1; grammar stabilizes; full linguistic system.

• Both index colonial economies, labor mobility, and cultural hybridization.

Globalization & the Spread of English

• “Most globalized language” ≠ “most native speakers.” English is the premier global lingua franca.

  • Dominant in international business, higher education, parts of diplomacy (UN working language).

• Localization → “World Englishes”: Singlish, Philippine English, Australian/New Zealand English, American English, etc.

  • Schematic: \text{English}{\text{UK}} \rightarrow {\text{English}{\text{US}},\ \text{English}_{\text{AUS}},\dots}

Language, Politics & Education

• Boarding-school era (USA, early 20^{\text{th}} c.): Navajo & other Native children punished for heritage speech.

• Post-school generations prioritized English for mobility, encouraged children to leave reservations for schooling.

• Contemporary paradox (≈ 2014\text{–}2015): Navajo Nation presidential candidates criticized for limited Navajo proficiency; rules relaxed amid debate over linguistic qualifications vs. colonial legacy.

• Similar dilemmas appear globally wherever minority languages meet state hegemony.

Language Endangerment & Preservation

• Status spectrum: Safe → Vulnerable → Endangered → Moribund → Extinct (0 speakers).

• Hotspot: Australia-Pacific; Papua New Guinea alone hosts 700\text{–}800 mutually unintelligible languages.

• Two clashing views:

  1. Social-Darwinian: linguistic death = natural “survival of the fittest.”

  2. Cultural-relativist / Sapir-Whorf view: each language encodes unique worldview; loss = cultural & cognitive impoverishment → thus worth preserving.

• Linguistic-anthropological response: documentation, revitalization, orthography development, community curricula.

Theoretical Connections & Implications

• Functionalism: cultural traits (e.g., writing, school policies) interpreted by the social roles they fulfill.

• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: language shapes (strong or weak) thought/perception → underpins preservation arguments.

• Power & Hegemony: state language policies consolidate control; minority pushback fuels sociolinguistic resistance movements.

• English-driven globalization:

  • Advantages: cross-border communication, economic integration.

  • Risks: linguistic homogenization, marginalization of small languages.

• Ethical stakes: scholars must balance documentation with community autonomy; revitalization bolsters cultural sovereignty.

Key Dates, Figures & Numbers

• Emergence of articulated speech: < 3 \times 10^{6}\ \text{years} ago.

• West Germanic influx into England: 5^{\text{th}}\text{–}6^{\text{th}} century CE.

• Navajo election language controversy: 2014 \text{–} 2015.

• Papua New Guinea languages: 700 \leq N \leq 800.

Ch 11 Pt 7 Language Change, Disappearance & Evolution – Lecture Notes

Dying & Disappearing Languages

• Two analytic stances discussed:

  • Darwinian / evolutionary view: languages “die” because they fail to remain competitive—analogous to biological species that cannot secure enough “speakers” (parallel to population sizes in ecology).

  • Cultural-loss view: the death of a language equals the irreversible loss of unique cultural knowledge, values, world-views, and histories.

• Shared premise of both positions: once a language disappears, the cultural insights encoded in its lexicon, idioms, classification systems, oral literatures, etc., are practically unrecoverable.

• Ethical implication: urgency to preserve or at least document endangered languages before extinction.

Documentation Efforts

• Linguistic anthropologists and field linguists actively travel worldwide to work with small speech communities.

• Preferred media for archiving:

  • High-quality video/audio recordings to capture phonetics, prosody, embodied cues.

  • Written transcriptions, dictionaries, grammars.

• Goal: create permanent, accessible corpora for researchers and the originating community.

Case Study: Ng (South Africa)

• Lecturer shares a short video (low-resolution) on the “Ng” language.

  • Classified as a click language; incorporates several click consonants previously examined through the IPA consonant chart.

• Serves as an illustrative, anthropological example of language endangerment on the African continent.

• Apology for technical quality underscores difficulties in sourcing visual data on marginalized languages.

Emergence of New Lexicon

• Contrasts the disappearance theme with the continual birth of lexical items.

• Oxford English Dictionary (OED) policy:

  • Updates “every quarter,” i.e., four times per year.

  • Admits neologisms after evidence of widespread, sustained usage.

• Illustrates that languages are simultaneously shrinking (through death) and expanding (through innovation).

Selected Neologisms Added to OED

• 2013 update included “selfie” (self-photograph taken with a handheld device and shared on social media).

• Additional contemporary entries highlighted:

  • “brohug” (transcript spells “brohuk”): an affectionate hug exchanged between male friends (“bro” or “bra”).

  • “starchitect” (transcript spells “starkitech”): a celebrity-status architect whose fame influences project desirability and cultural capital.

  • “glamping”: “glamorous camping” that merges outdoor activity with luxury amenities; anecdote of a student bringing couches and a TV to the campsite.

• Pedagogical function: show living evidence of lexical dynamism.

Chapter 11 Recap

Part 1 – Modes of Communication

• Verbal, non-verbal, and embodied communication (gesture, posture, facial expression).

• Role of technological media in shaping how messages are produced and interpreted.

Part 2 – Language, Culture & Inequality

• Explored how linguistic practices reflect and reproduce social hierarchies.

• Introduced three core analytic frameworks:

  • Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis (linguistic relativity / determinism).

  • Sociolinguistics (correlates linguistic variation with social variables such as class, gender, ethnicity, age).

  • Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (interrogates power, ideology, and hegemony embedded in discourse).

• Students are expected to distinguish:

  • “Discourse” (structured ways of talking/writing that construct social reality) from “language” in the purely grammatical sense.

  • Sociolinguistic methodology (variationist, quantitative, ethnographic) versus CDA’s critical-theory orientation.

Language Change Drivers

• Human evolution: biological and cognitive capacities enabling complex symbolic systems.

• Colonialism: language shift, lingua francas, and the imposition of colonial languages.

• Globalization: intensified contact, code-switching, hybridization, accelerated spread of neologisms.

Course Engagement & Extra-Credit Opportunities

• Instructor created a Q&A discussion board (Summer 2019 cohort).

  • Posting a question each week can yield extra credit.

  • Responding to or extending instructor prompts qualifies for additional points.

• Acknowledges limitations of online learning (absence of face-to-face immediacy) but emphasizes cultivating a supportive, dialogic “virtual classroom culture.”

Pedagogical & Philosophical Takeaways

• Balancing preservation (endangered languages) with celebration of innovation (neologisms) offers a holistic view of linguistic vitality.

• Encourages students to engage critically with theoretical frameworks and to participate actively in knowledge exchange, embodying anthropology’s collaborative ethos.