CHAPTER 16
Language and Communication
Chapter Preview
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What Is Language?
How Is Language Related to Culture?
How Did Languages Change?
What Is Language?
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The single most important symbol in culture is
language- without the ability to communicate
and share one’s culture there would be no
culture.
Most all intelligent organisms have some form
of communication with other members of their
species.
Language is a system for the communication
using sounds or gestures that are put together
in meaningful ways according to set rules.
Through language, people can transmit their
culture from one generation to the next.
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A signal is an instinctive sounds or
gesture that carries a natural or self
evident meaning. Often signals can be
used with languages but they are not
learned they are innate.
 Coughing, screaming
The Nature of Language
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All languages not matter which one use
no more than about 50 sounds and
they are all used to communicate
information to one another.
There are approximately 6,500
languages worldwide today.
Linguists (those who study all aspects
of language) have found that all
languages are organized in the same
basic manner.
Linguistics
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The study of linguistics is divided into
three main components.
1.) Descriptive
2.) Historical
3.) Sociolinguistics
Descriptive Linguistics
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This branch of linguistics involves
unraveling a language by recording,
describing, and analyzing all of its
features. These linguists focus on:
 Phonology
 Morphology
 Syntax
 Grammar
Phonology
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Phonology is the study of language
sounds.
 Phonetics is the study of the
production, transmission, and
reception of speech sounds.
In linguistics, phonemes are the
smallest classes of sound that make a
difference in meaning.
 Example: Butter vs. Budder
Morphology
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Morphology is the study of the patterns or
rules of word formation in a language (including
such things as rules concerning verb tense,
pluralization, and compound words).
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Morphemes are the smallest units of
sound that carry a meaning compared to
phonemes which can alter meaning but
have no meaning by themselves.
• Example: Cow(s) the “s” carries a
meaning of plural.
Syntax & Grammar
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As mentioned each language has patterns
or rules by which the symbols are used.
This is known as syntax- the rules or
principles of phrase and sentence making.
To best understand the entire formal
structure one must analyze the grammar of
the language.
Grammar- the entire formal structure of a
language consisting of all observations
about the morphemes and syntax.
To recap: studying a
Language
The descriptive linguist must:
1. Isolate the phonemes, or the
smallest classes of sound that make
a difference in meaning.(phonology)
2. Determine all groups or
combinations of sounds that seem
to have meaning. (morphology)
3. See how morphemes are put
together to form phrases or
sentences. (syntax & grammar)
Historical Linguistics
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Historical linguists study not only
historical or dead languages but also
current languages because languages
change as culture changes.
Specialists in this field investigate
relationships between earlier and later
forms of the same language, study
older languages for developments in
modern ones, and examine
interrelationships among older
languages.
How Do Languages
Change?
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Languages are constantly
transforming— new words are adopted
or coined, others are dropped, and
some shift in meaning.
Languages change for various reasons:
 selective borrowing by one language
from another
 the need for new vocabulary to deal
with technological innovations or
altered social realities.
Historical Linguistics
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In trying to determine language relationships a
classification must be developed to better track
similarities and close/distant relationships from
one language to the next.
Language families are the best way to
organize these relationships. They are groups
of languages descended from a single ancestral
language.
Each language family shows the linguistic
divergence of a language to the next over
several thousand years. Better described as
the development of different languages from a
single ancestral language.
English and the IndoEuropean Language Family
Glottochronology
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While describing changes that have
occurred within languages linguists
have gone as far to determine the
dates for divergence. This method
known as glottochronology is a
method for identifying the approximate
time that languages branched off from
a common ancestor.
It is based on analyzing core
vocabularies.
Core Vocabularies
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In language, pronouns, lower numerals, and
names for body parts and natural objects
are known as core vocabularies.
This method is based on the assumption
that certain core words change slowly over
time and at a constant rate. By the
comparison of two related languages it can
be calculated, mathematically, when the two
diverged.
Linguistic Nationalism
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Similar to dramatic cultural change is
the change of languages. These can
change or become entirely lost in the
presence of a more dominant
language.
To secure a limited change in a nations
language is linguistic nationalism-the
attempt by ethnic minorities, and even
countries to proclaim independence by
purging their languages of foreign
terms.
Sociolinguistics
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Sociolinguistics is the study of the
relationship between language and society,
examines how social categories (such as
age, gender, ethnicity, religion, occupation,
and class) influence the use and
significance of distinctive styles of speech.
Gendered speech is distinct male and
female syntax exhibited in various
languages around the world.
Dialects
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Sociolinguists are also interested in
dialects-varying forms of a language that
reflects particular regions, occupations, or
social classes and that are similar enough
to be mutually intelligible.
Geographical boundaries can often create a
dialects as can economics. One of the
most significant dialects in recent history is
the emergence of AAVE (Ebonics, black
English)
 “African American Vernacular English”
AAVE
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Having a negative misconception of
what AAVE is in the United States by
non-AAVE speakers is that the
language is lazy and incorrect English.
AAVE is highly structured mode of
speech with rules of sounds and
sequences similar to that of any other
dialect or language.
To better adjust in mainstream society
those who use AAVE might practice
code-switching.
Code Switching
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This is having and using the ability to change
from one level of a language to another as the
situation demands. This could be from one
language to another or from one dialect to the
next.
People speaking minority based dialects may
be forced to better adapt if they code switch into
the standard dialect from their own personal
dialect choice.
Scotland has had similar issues with “Scots
English” which is also now recognized as a
formal dialect.
Ethnolinguistics
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The study of the relation between language
and culture or ethnolinguistics uses the
idea that distinctions encoded into one
language are unique to that language
(linguistic relativity).
Languages are known to divide the color
spectrum differently. While some may divide
based on 7 like in the English others such
as the Northern Mexico Native Indians
combine the colors green and blue.
Linguistic Determinism
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This is the idea that language to some
extent shapes the way in which we
view and think about the world around
us. Sometimes called the Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis after its originators Edward
Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee
Whorf.
Gesture-Call System
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Gestures are facial expressions and bodily
postures and motions that convey intended
as well as subconscious messages.
Human speech is apart of the gesture call
system.
 Gesture component consists of body
motions used to convey messages.
Inherited from and shared with
primates, humans too use this
system. It consists of extra
linguistic noises involving various
voice qualities and vocalizations.
 The study of this body languages is
known as kinesics.
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Gestures
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A division of kinesics known as
Proxemics is the cross-cultural study
of humankind’s perception and use of
space.
Founded by Edward Hall who coined
the term, he found that different
cultures have unique ways of dividing
and utilizing space.
He identified four categories of spatial
use.
Proxemics
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Intimate (0-18 in)
Personal-Casual (1.5-4 ft)
Social-Consultive (4-12ft)
Public (12+ ft)
Paralanguage
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Another aspect of the gesture call
system is that of paralanguage which
describes voice effects that accompany
language and convey a meaning
perhaps apart from the spoken word.
They are extralinguistic noises that
accompany language.
 Example:crying,laughing, signing,
grunting, moaning.
Tonal Languages
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Languages in which the sound pitch of
a spoken word is an essential part of its
pronunciation and meaning are known
as tonal languages.
Roughly 70% of the world’s languages
fall into this category.
English is a non-tonal language
however, tones in English can convey
an attitude or ask a question but not
change the meaning of the words.
Whistled Speech
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Another traditional system of communication and
used to expand acoustic space is whistled speech,
or whistled language, an exchange of whistled words
using a phonetic emulation of the sounds produced in
spoken voice.
The whistled sound can far outreach the human voice
and can be picked up far as 8 kilometers.
More than likely begin in response to music making
through whistling. It is also a dying practice.
Origin of Language: One
Theory
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It is difficult to accurately determine when and
how language began. However new research
can possibly help to narrow down the question.
One theory is that early hominines, began using
gestures to communicate intentions within a
social setting.When Homo erectus moved out of
the tropics, they needed to plan and
communicate to survive seasons of cold
temperatures.
By the time archaic Homo sapiens appeared,
finely controlled movements of the mouth and
throat had given rise to spoken language.
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Another theory is that Neanderthals (as
discussed in chapter 4) had the gene
for language known as FOXP2. Other
scientists argue there is no 1 gene for
language.
It is know that by the time archaic
Homo sapiens appeared, finely
controlled movements of the mouth and
throat had given rise to spoken
language.
Displacement
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Primatologists have been able to teach and
communicate with both chimpanzee’s as well
as orangutans after teaching these apes sign
language.
Most interesting is the phenomenon of
displacement- the ability to refer to things and
events removed from time and space.
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“In a week I will go to the zoo”
This refers to a place, activity, and time not in
the near future.
Speech to Writing
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The oldest “known” writing systems are
those of cuneiform at 5,500 yrs ago and
hieroglyphics at 3,500 yrs ago.
Recent discovery suggests 8,600 yrs
ago in China.
Writing Systems are set(s) of visible
or tactile signs used to represent units
of language in a systematic way.A set
of visible or tactile signs used to
represent units of language in a
systematic way.
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Many writing systems will be recorded
by an alphabet which is a series of
symbols representing the sounds of a
language arranged in a traditional order