Linguistic Anthropology
The Development of Structuralism
Wilhelm von Humboldt
• Language is the
medium through which
humans perceive the
world
• There is a relationship
between a nation’s
language and its
character
(1767 – 1835)
Wilhelm von Humboldt
• The “outer form” of a
language consists of the raw
material – the sounds – used
to make different languages
• The “inner form” is the pattern
– the structure – of the
grammar and the meanings
given to the raw material
• It is the “inner form” that
distinguishes languages from
one another
Wilhelm von Humboldt
(ca. 1830)
Wilhelm von Humboldt
• Language is dynamic, not static.
• Language is an activity, not a product of activity.
• A language is not a set of actual utterances produced
by speakers…
• It is the underlying principles or rules that made it
possible for speakers to produce such utterances.
• A “Structural” conception of language.
Ferdinand de Saussure
• Language is a structured
system that can be viewed
• synchronically (as it exists at
any one time)
• diachronically (as it changes
over time)
(1857–1913)
Ferdinand de Saussure
• parole – the way a
particular person
speaks
parole
parole
parole
langue
parole
• langue – the system of
rules that makes it
possible for a person to
know how to speak
parole
parole
Ferdinand de Saussure on Signs
• Language is a symbolic system
that depends upon “signs”
• “Signified” – an abstract mental
concept
• “Signifier” – a material "soundimage" (i.e., an utterance, a
written word, a picture)
• the process of signification is
what gives meaning to an
expression
Fredinand de Saussure
• Wanted to counter prescriptive linguistics – as a
program for telling people how they should use their
language (“standard”)
• His interest was in descriptive linguistics – to describe
how people actually use language (nonstandard”)
• Language is a “social fact” (à la Durkheim)
• Language is a sequence of sounds that carry meaning
The Structure of Sentences
paradigmatic
• “The dog threw up on the
rug.”
syntagmatic
• When a sign in one slot
affects what happens in
another slot
• What can substitute for
“dog”? For “rug”?
• “The dog slept on the rug.”
• Animate vs. inanimate
nouns
• “The dog marinated on the
rug.”
Michael Agar, Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation, 1994
Franz Boas
• Preserve native languages
before they are lost forever
• Develop a comprehensive
system of synchronic
description
– Sounds
– Grammar
– Dictionary
Linguistics a s a way to study culture
Franz Boas
(1858-1942)
Leonard Bloomfield
• Studied MalayoPolynesian
(Austronesian)
languages, especially
Tagalog
• Showed that the
techniques of historical
linguistic techniques
applied equally well to
non- western languages
(1887-1949)
Leonard Bloomfield
• Language (1933)
becomes the standard
textbook of American
linguistics
• Linguistic phenomena
could properly and
successfully be studied
when isolated from
their nonlinguistic
environment
Leonard Bloomfield
• Heavily influenced by behavioralism
• Investigate only empirically observable phenomena
• Study what people say to one another and how they
respond
The Behaviorist Approach
Focus only on what can be observed
Stimulus
Response
in between lies
“a black box”
Bloomfield’s Behaviorism
• The elements of language can be studied in isolation
from the nonlinguistic environment – you study
sound systems and grammar, not semantics
• A child learns language by listening to and then
repeating what others have said
• No speculation about what is going on in a person’s
head when they are using language