Language and Culture

1. Language and Culture Language, Communication, and Culture

2. Introduction to Language, Communication, and Culture • How is language related to culture? • How is a language related to a culture? • Both questions are valid, and we look at the issues through several lenses: • Kinesics and paralanguage • Ethnolinguistics and code switching • Similarities and differences between human and animal communication.

3. Nonverbal Communication • There are two basic types of nonverbal communication • Kinesics involves the all-too-familiar body language: facial expression, gestures, even eye contact • Paralanguage are the vocalizations that often accompany speech: slurs, tones of voice, nonmeaningful utterances including “um” and “uh”

4. Kinesics: Gestures • Kinesics: System of analyzing postures, facial expressions, “body language” • See that thumbs up? This gent likes whatever you’re doing. Buying his brand of coffee, perhaps? • In other countries, it would mean—well, you know! (Need a hint? Think middle finger) • This is one example how the same gesture might mean different things in different cultures.

5. Kinesics: Facial Expressions • Social smiles are commonplace, though women may do so more than men—a matter of expected social sensitivity • Frowns express frustration, sometime cynicism, as this cartoon suggests—if you smile, you’re naïve • Facial expressions and eye contact are the most widely used forms of kinesics; gestures are also frequent

6. Gesture Call Systems: Paralanguage • Paralanguage consists of extralinguistic noises accompanying language • Voice qualities: tone, slur (cartoon), other background noises • Vocalizations: Identifiable noises turned on and off at short intervals—”uh,” “um,” other kinds of hesitation

7. More Paralanguage • Vocal characteristics: Sound production such as laughing • Vocal qualifiers: Tone or pitch-”Get Out!” • Segregates: “Shh!” “Oh oh,” “hmmm!” (cartoon) among others

8. Historical Linguistic Techniques • When tracing the history of language, linguists have no writing to rely upon • Several techniques have been developed to trace the probable changes • Glottochronology: the reconstruction of past languages on the assumption that 14% of a language changes every 1000 years • Core vocabulary: Comparison of words for common objects based on similarity • A list of words is compiled for each of two languages that refer to objects that are common everywhere: body parts, sun, rain, stones, trees, and others • The closer the vocabulary—cognates or similar words between two languages, the more closely related the two languages are thought to be.

9. Models of Language Change • Language Family • Group of languages descended from a single ancestral language • Example: Indo-European is descended from Proto-Indo-European • Family Tree Model: a model that emphasizes the derivation of language from a common source • Wave Model: A model that emphasizes borrowing across contemporary languages

10. Ethnolinguistics • Definition: Study of relationship between language and culture • Named after Edward Sapir (top) and Benjamin Lee Whorf (bottom), the • Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states thatlanguage, • By providing habitual “grooves” of expression • Predisposes people to see world in certain ways • Thus guiding thinking and behavior

11. Ethnolinguistics: Do Languages Structure Cultures. . . • Example of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis; • Hopi: Conception of time as processes, not discrete units • For example, Hopi would not divide time into seconds or hours • Nor would they perceive time as object, such as wasting time

12. Or Do Cultures Structure Language • The Nuer of the Sudan are cattle herders • Children are named after cattle, and poetry is composed about them • More than 400 words are related to cattle • In our own culture, we have a militaristic vocabulary; we make a killing on Wall Street, we bomb the exam, we have a war on drugs, cancer, poverty, you name it • So we have a chicken and egg question • Does language condition culture • Or does culture condition language?

13. Ethnolinguistics: Some Areas of Research • Kinship terms: The terms father and mother may be extended to uncles and aunts. More on this later • Gender-based meanings: When women say “I’m sorry,” are they taking responsibility for the problem or are they regretting the situation, as Deborah Tannen argues. • We have several social dialects in this country, ranging from Afro-American speech to “Spanglish” (Spanish-English word combinations) to regional dialects from the U.S. South, y’all, to Bostonian bahgains.

14. Code Switching: Martin Luther King • We change our speech styles to fit the occasion • Code Switching: Switching style of speech according to occasion and audience • Martin Luther King, Jr., was a master in code switching, ranging from standard discourse in formal settings (Washington Monument, 1963, I Have a Dream speech upper photo) • To informal discourse in black settings (Here delivering a sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia)

15. Language Origins: Interspecies Comparison • When language began is anyone’s guess • Defining communication and comparing different communication systems is a first step • Chimpanzees have used American Sign Language and computer buttons to convey messages somewhat like languages • But speech organs have long since deteriorated, so we have at best indirect evidence.

16. Language Origins: Fossil Evidence • Did Neanderthals have language? A humanlike hyoid bone, which anchors the tongue, was found in Kebara Cave, Israel • Endocasts indicating size of cerebrum and possible Broca’s area have been found among Homo habilis remains • Another indication is the flat surface at the skull base, suggesting the larynx was too high to enable language; nonhuman primates also have a flat skull base and high larynxes • Basic conclusion: no one really knows when language got its start

17. Features of Language Shared with Other Species • Nevertheless, language does share some features with the communication systems of other animals. • We look at some examples, such as gibbons, stickleback courtship, and bee dances indicating the location of a nectar source

18. Common Features of Language and Nonhuman Communication • Arbitrariness • Productivity • Interchangeability • Displacement • Specialization • Cultural Transmission

19. Arbitrariness • Definition: Absence of intrinsic relation between communication element (speech sound) and thing or event to which it refers (referent) • Iconic Relationship: Existence of such a relationship between element (e.g. gesture) and its referent • Importance: Utterance is not “married” to meaning, such as this gibbon’s warning call

20. Arbitrariness (Examples) • Example [k], [æ], and [t] are not meaningful in and of themselves • Meaning emerges when sounds are combined: • [kæt] “cat” has one meaning (feline, the one who caught a mouse) • [tæk] “tack” has another (small nail) • [ækt] “act” has a third (dog and pony show) • Even then, this string is language specific (English), not intrinsic

21. Arbitrariness (Across Languages) • Evidence of Arbitrariness: Diverse Languages • “Cat” has different pronunciations in different languages • Similarities are the product of common roots and/or diffusion from one language to another

22. Productivity (Definition) • Productivity is the capacity for elements of communication system to be combined to form new meanings which the speaker and listener may never have learned before, yet understands perfectly • Try this exercise: the top figure is a wug • Now here are two of them • There are two ____ • If your response was [wəgz] you produced an entirely new—and correct--utterance

23. Productivity: Jabberwocky Riddle • From Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll • ‘Twas brillig and the sllthy toves • Did gyre and gimble in the wabe • Identify: • The nouns • The verbs • The adjectives

24. Productivity: The Answers • The nouns: surely the article the is a dead giveaway for toves and wabe • The verbs: ‘twas is poetic English for “it was,” and the helping verb did uncovers gyre and gimble • The adjectives: Doesn’t the –y ending of slithy suggest an adjective, similar to slimy? And ’twas suggests brillig to be another one.

25. Productivity: Language Learning • Language drills use the principle of productivity • English: I am, you are. . . • Spanish: Yo soy, tu eres. . • Productivity simply involves taking a few elements (phonemes, morphemes, even syntax) and generate unlimited combinations of expressions

26. Productivity Among Other Species: Bee Dance • When a scout bee has discovered a flower or other nectar source, she returns and tell the other bees where it is with a dance • Their figure-eight tell the other bees the direction and distance of the pollen source • The waggle of the tail also indicates the direction • Amount of pollen brought back indicates pollen available there • Productivity involves variations of speed of the dance, the amount brought back, and the waggle.

27. Interchangeability • Definition: Use of same communication system to send and receive messages • Illustrative Counterexample: Three-spined stickleback fish courtship (see diagram) • Female elicits male response by presenting distended belly • Male performs zigzag dance around female • She follow him to nest • Male point to nest on arrival • Female enters nest, male rubs abdomen, • She discharges eggs, and male fertilizes them with sperm

28. Displacement (Definition) • Ability to refer to things and events not present, nonvisible, intangible, or nonexistent • Not present: Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco • Not visible: Termites in sealed mound • Intangible: math equations, square roots • Nonexistent: dragons, unicorns

29. Displacement (Importance) • Ability to represent unseen parts of world • Part of toolmaking ability: to conceive a design (above) • Bee Dance • Scouting bee gives information on non-present blossoms • Direction of dance relative to sun: indicates direction of source • Length of tail waggle: distance of source • Other bees act on this information even though they cannot see the flower or blossom

30. Cultural Transmission • Learning of an element of communication (speech sound, gestures) • Bees and stickleback acquire behavior genetically • Dogs learn by conditioning, do not pass learning on • Chimpanzees do learn by imitation and pass it on: e.g., termite fishing.

31. Specialization • Definition: Ability to transmit message with minimal physical effort • Language is the most specialized of all communication systems • Examples of unspecialized communication • Chimpanzee displays • Bee dance • Stickleback courtship

32. Conclusion • Language is the basis of culture • Knowledge of linguistics is prerequisite to knowing how cultures function • We have looked at the following: • Descriptive Linguistics • Language, Culture, and Society • Comparative Human-nonhuman Communication • One question remains: does culture condition language, or does language condition culture: the old chicken-egg question. • There are many similarities between human and animal communication