Chapter 5 –
Language and Culture
abgdezhqi
klmnxopr
stufcyw
Top left: Greek
Bottom left: Cherokee
Middle: Arabic
Top right: Russian
What is language?
A system of symbols with standard
meanings.
Allows humans to communicate and is
the main vehicle of transmission of
culture.
Language provides context for symbolic
understanding.
Other Communication
Human:
Direct
• Body language (kinesics), tone of voice, personal space
(proxemics), gesture
Indirect
• Writing, mathematics, music, painting, signs
Nonhuman:
Sounds, odors, body movements
Call systems, ethologists
ASL – American Sign Language
Nonhuman Communication - ASL
American Sign Language taught to
chimps and gorillas
Physiologically and developmentally similar
to humans.
Chimps taught: Lana, Nim, Kanzi, Washoe
Gorillas taught: Koko
Nonhuman Communication Washoe
Born 1965
Taught ASL 1966
Mastered 100s of
signs
First nonhuman to
learn language
Nonhuman Communication - Lana
Taught with
keyboard, 1970s
Able to use and
combine signs
Nonhuman Communication - Koko
1970s, first gorilla
taught ASL
IQ of 85 at 4 years
old
Koko learning ASL
Koko on AOL
Nonhuman Communication –
Nim Chimpsky
1980s taught ASL
Wouldn’t initiate
conversation
Never signed to
other chimps
Nim Chimpsky and
his namesake, the
famed linguist Noam
Chomsky
Nonhuman Communication - Kanzi
1980s, communicates
with lexigrams
Vocabulary of 90
symbols
Could understand
English
Command of syntax
Nonhuman Communication –
Jane Goodall
Gombe Game
Reserve
Chimps need
stimulus to make
sounds
Since 1960s
Animal v. Human Communication
Four differences:
Productivity (infinite expressions)
Displacement (past, present, future)
Arbitrariness (no link between word and sound)
Combining sounds (phonemes)
• Dime versus dine or lock versus rock in English
• English has 45 phonemes; Italian 27; Hawaiian 13
• Nonhuman animals cannot combine sounds (1:1
correspondence of sounds)
Anatomy of Language
Brain
Size
Laterality
Wernicke’s area
Broca’s area
Motor cortex
Motor cortex
Anatomy of Language
Respiratory System
Larger lung capacity
Larynx, pharynx
Tongue, lips, nose
Hyoid
Structure of Language
Phonology (sounds)
Morphology (words)
Syntax (sentence structure)
Semantics (meaning)
Pragmatics or grammar (rules)
Structure of Language - Phonology
The study of sounds of a language.
No human language uses all the sounds humans
can make.
IPA – International Phonetic Alphabet
Phonemes and phones
/l/ and /r/ = phonemes (English has 40)
/p/ and /ph/ = phones
Ghoti = fish (tough, women, position)
Other sounds
Tones, nasals, clicks (Genesis in the !Kung language)
Structure of Language - Morphology
Morphemes are the smallest units of
language.
Words (dog, cat) = free morphemes
Prefixes (un-, sub-)
= bound morphemes
Syllables (-s, -ly )
Declining and conjugating
Verbs are conjugated (am, are, is)
Nouns are declined in some languages
• Latin, Greek, German, Russian, etc.
• Word form changes based on position in sentence.
Structure of Language - Syntax
Rules for how to put together sentences and
phrases.
Six possible arrangements, based on Subject, Verb,
Object
English is SVO = The girl will hit the boy.
Forming questions: English = V1SV2O?
Structure of Language - Syntax
Example of syntax
Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky:
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Verb
Noun
Adjective
Structure of Language - Semantics
The meaning of symbols, words, phrases,
and sentences of a language.
Ethnosemantics and kinship terms
Aunt/uncle versus non-gendered cousin
Evolution of Language
Old Theories:
“bowwow” and “ding-dong”
Locke, B.F. Skinner, Descartes
New Theories:
Noam Chomsky
• Universal and generative grammar
• Principles and parameters
Creoles, pidgins, and Ebonics
Sapir-Whorf
Historical Linguistics
Focuses on how language changes over time
and how languages relate to one another.
Anthropologists are interested in cultural
features that correlate with language families.
Reconstruction of languages:
Proto-Indo-European
Sino-Tibetan
Linguistic divergence
Gradual or by force
PIE
Historical Linguistics – Old English
Compare Old, Middle, and Modern
English
Beowulf (Old English):
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas.
Lo, praise of the prowess of peoplekings of spear-armed Danes, in days
long sped, we have heard, and what
honor the athelings won! Oft Scyld
the Scefing tore the mead-bench
from squadroned foes, from many a
tribe awing the earls.
Historical Linguistics –
Middle English
The Canterbury Tales (Middle English):
This worthy lymytour, this noble Frere,
He made alwey a maner louryng chiere
Upon the Somonour, but for honestee
No vileyns word as yet to hym spak he.
This worthy limiter, this noble friar,
He turned always a lowering face, and dire,
Upon the summoner, but for courtesy
No rude and insolent word as yet spoke he.
Descriptive Linguistics
Also called structural linguistics
Tries to discover the rules of phonology,
morphology, and syntax of another
language, especially those with no
written dictionary or grammar.
Seeks to discover language rules that
are not written down but are
discoverable in actual speech.
Sociolinguistics
Like descriptive linguistics in a way, in that
sociolinguists are concerned with the
ethnography of speaking—cultural and
subcultural patterns of speech variation in
different social contexts.
Examples:
Pronunciation and dialects
Honorifics and social status
Gender differences
Multilingualism
Fun Stuff
Language as art
Calligraphy
Illumination
Left to Right:
Chinese
Greek
Arabic
English
Fun Stuff
Internet and English
… as a tool of mass communication
… as a way to propagate non-standard English
… as a dialect, or a linguistic event?
Romeo & Juliet - IM style