LANGUAGE IN CULTURE
•Language
–Means of transmitting information and sharing experiences
•Linguistics
–The modern scientific study of all aspects of language
ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE
•Linguistic Anthropology
–reconstructing ancient languages by comparing to contemporary descendants-historical
linguistics
–how universal features of all languages says something about the human brain
–how language differences reflect world view
–how speech reflects social relations
Language is a System of Symbols
•symbols are objects, events, speech sounds, written forms, gestures, which humans
attach meaning
•Symbols operate in changing fields of social relationships
•symbols are multivocal -- enables a wide range of groups & individuals to relate to
the same symbol in a variety of ways
LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
•Descriptive Linguistics or FORMAL LINGUISTICS
–study language as a formal system of rules
–a set of rules that can be studied apart from its context
•Historical Linguistics
•Ethnolinguistics
Descriptive Linguistics:
The Sound and Shape of Language
•Phonetics
–Study of the production, transmission, and reception of speech sounds
–About
6000 languages presently exist
Phonology
•Sounds
–Capability to make the sounds in any language
–Each individual is unique
•Phonemes
–Smallest classes of sound that change meaning
–Minimal-pair test
Morphology
•Morpheme
–Smallest unit of sounds that carry a meaning
•Words
–Giraffes (two morphemes)
–Giraffe (free morpheme)
–-s (bound morpheme, “plural”)
–Cats and dogs(each with two morphemes)
Syntax and Grammar
•Frame substitution
–Method used to identify syntactic units of language
•Syntax
–Rules or principles of phrase and sentence making
•Grammar
–Morphology + Syntax
Paralinguistic Features
•Body language and extralinguistic noises
At least 90% of emotional information in English is transmitted by “body language” and
tone of voice
Kinesics
System of notating and analyzing postures, facial expressions, and body motions that
convey messages
Historical Linguistics: Linguistic Change
•Linguistic divergence
–Development of different languages from a single ancestral language
•Language family
–Group of languages ultimately descended from a single ancestral language
Glottochronology
•Method of dating divergence in branches of language families
•Core vocabulary
Ethnolinguistics:
Language in its Cultural Setting
•Does
language influence the perception of reality and cultural behavior?
•Does
language reflect reality in a culture?
•Or,
is it both?
LINGUISTIC RELATIVISM and DETERMINISM
•Edward Sapir/Benjamin Lee Whorf – the “Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis”
–language & culture intrinsically linked
–"language is a guide to social reality... it powerfully conditions all our thinking about
social problems and processes."
Language and Thought
•Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
–Language predisposes people to see the world in a certain way guiding behavior
•Language reflects reality
–Rich vocabulary reflects a cultural focus
GRAMMAR AND CONSCIOUSNESS
•linguistic conditioning of behavior – “linguistic determinism”
•language is not simply a way of voicing ideas, but the very thing which shapes those
ideas
Lexicon and Focal Vocabulary
•lexicon – a vocabulary; a dictionary of terms
•focal vocabulary -- specialized set of terms & distinctions that are particularly important
to a certain group
•tell us something about world view, historical events, ideas, influences, perceptions
important to a particular group
•Inuit terms for snow; skiers terms for snow
Ethnolinguistics/Ethnoscience/Ethnosemantics
•“the new ethnography” (1960s)
•emics and etics
•maps of a lexicon and its focal vocabularies
•method of studying parts (domains) of a culture primarily on the basis of how they are
lexically encoded by native speakers
SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION
•Trace connections among linguistic and social variables
•speech – the way people use a language
•Linguistic features as markers of class divisions in society
•Languages in contact
Sociolinguistics
•Sociolinguistics - the study of the relationships between a language system (langue) and
speaking (parole) in a social and cultural context
•Study of the structure and use of language as it relates to its social setting
Ethnography of Communication
•the descriptive study of the use of language, deeply embedded in its cultural context
(Dell Hymes)
The acronym SPEAKING
•S – setting and scene
•P – participants
•E – ends: the desired or expected outcome
•A – Act: how form and content are delivered
•K – key: mood or spirit (serious, ironic, etc.)
•I – instrumentalities: the dialect or language variety
•N – norms: speaking conventions
•G – genres: different types of performance (speech, joke, sermon, etc.)
Social Dialects
•Forms of a language
–Reflecting regions or social classes
–Similar enough to be mutually intelligible
–Social dialects (or sociolects) are language varieties that are correlated not so much with
geographic as with social space
–Examples – black English, Spanglish, inner city Boston, Newfie
Regional/Geographic Dialects
•Define people by where they live
•“southern” dialect
•“newfie”
The Great Ebonics Controversy
•Ebonics is an English dialect
•Oakland, CA school board adopts resolution to improve teaching of SE (Standard
English) through using Ebonics
•Strong emotional reaction ensued based on misunderstanding and outrage
•The real issue is whether SE can be best taught in certain school districts by using
Ebonics
Language and Gender
•Linguistic features as markers of social divisions in society
North American society
•Men and Women use English differently
•Language reflects traditional gender inequality
Are Women More Polite than Men? N. America
•Women typically use more polite speech
•Characterized by a high frequency of honorific and softening devices such as hedges
and questions
•“act like a lady” “respect those around you”
•Boys and men & the “masculine voice”
LINGUISTIC CODES AND SPEECH COMMUNITIES
•Speech communities – a real social unit within which speakers share a repertoire of
‘ways of speaking’
–may include one or several languages
•Members of such communities engage in verbal interaction that is not randomly
alternating between distinct LINGUISTIC CODES but choose systematically among
them and put them to specialized uses
Languages in Contact
•Diglossia
•Bilingualism
•Pidgins and creoles
DIGLOSSIA
•Speech communities in which two or more varieties of the same language are used by
some speakers under different conditions
•Classic Arabic of the Koran and diversified local forms of Arabic
•Java – Javanese and Bahasa Indonesia
BILINGUALISM
•“native-like” control of two languages
•A gradient
–Degrees or stages of bilingualism based on performance – the ability to understand and
produce meaningful utterances in the second language
Pidgin Languages
•a pidgin is a lingua franca that comes into use in situations where a group of individuals
with no language in common find a need to communicate
–a minimal language
–a mixed language, bulk of vocab usually from the language of the dominant power
–many pidgins are short-lived
Creole Languages
•a creole – a pidgin that remains in use and is expanded to serve the whole range of
functions necessary to a speech community – over the course of two or more generations
•Reflects hybrid origins
SPEECH EVENTS
•how individuals behave with speech in a specific, culturally defined situation
CODE SWITCHING
•Crystal (1987) suggests that code, or language, switching occurs when an individual
who is bilingual alternates between two languages during his/her speech with another
bilingual person
WHY CODE SWITCH?
•a speaker may not be able to express him/herself in one language so switches to the
other to compensate for the deficiency
•switching commonly occurs when an individual wishes to express solidarity with a
particular social group
•to create a special effect
CODE SWITCHING AS METACOMMUNICATION
•Code switching is an indirect form of social commentary
•code switching is a linguistic device for FRAMING verbal messages
•it is a fine-grained technique for identifying stretches of talk as particular kinds of
doings that are intended to accomplish particular kinds of work
Language Registers
•A variety of language that serves a particular social situation
•Monolingual code switching – styles of speaking
•The vernacular, the standard, the honorific
•Specifically defined varieties – scientific, legal, religious, intimate, etc.
LANGUAGE SHIFTS
•the social meaning communicated by language shifts
•reflexive statements about social structure
Language, Nationalism, Ethnicity
•Linguistic nationalism (text def.) – attempt by ethnic minorities and even countries to
proclaim independence by purging their languages of foreign terms or reviving unused
languages
Language Renewal Among the Northern Ute
•Anthropologist’s involvement in the Northern Ute Tribe affirming use of its ancestral
language
–Set up Ute language renewal program
–Established in-school program of Ute and English
–Prepared preliminary text of policy statement and handbook of Ute language
–Helped train language teachers
–Carried out research and published results
Language Planning and Identity
•Purification
•Revival
•Reform
•Standardization
•Modernization
A SPEECH EVENT IN A SPEECH COMMUNITY