Language

1. Chapter 5 Language

2. Language The system of arbitrary vocal symbols we use to encode our experience of the world. Linguistics The scientific study of language. Linguistic Anthropology The study of patterns of language use in social and cultural context.

3. It is important for communication during fieldwork. It can be lifted out of context and studied in its own right (transcriptions, tapes). It is used to encode a people�s understanding of the world, of themselves.

4. Word-for-word translation doesn�t work. All languages are full of alternative ways of speaking. Communication across diversity requires negotiation of a common code.

5. Some things that are easy to say in language A are difficult to say in language B. BUT Languages regularly overlap and intersect in ways that make it possible to communicate when speakers of different languages meet. Speakers also rely on gesture and context to help convey meanings.

6. Linguistic anthropology Explains why we can learn new languages and translate from one language to another. Highlights the variety of expressive resources available in any language. Shows different patterns of discourse in any one language.

7. Language The system of arbitrary vocal symbols we use to encode our experience of the world. Speech Spoken language. Human communication The transfer of information from one person to another; can take place without the use of words, spoken or otherwise.

8. Design features of language: openness displacement arbitrariness duality of patterning/multilevel patterning semanticity prevarication

9. 1. Openness Human language is creative. Speakers can freely create new messages never before uttered, and can be understood by other speakers of the same language.

10. Human vs. ape vocal communication HUMANS OPEN SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE CLOSED CALL SYSTEM 6 calls: Laughing Sobbing Screaming Crying with pain Groaning Sighing APES NO SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE IN THE WILD CLOSED CALL SYSTEM Few calls Each call is tied to a particular situation. Calls cannot be freely recombined to make new messages.

11. In human groups, open symbolic language and closed calls integrate smoothly with each other when we speak. This suggests that they co-evolved alongside each other (Deacon, 1997).

12. 2. Displacement Humans can talk about absent or nonexistent objects, and about past or future events, as easily as we can discuss our current situation. Nonhuman primates, using closed call systems, cannot do this. Their calls concern only the here and now.

13. 3. Arbitrariness There is no necessary link between a particular sound in a language and a particular meaning. This means that any particular link between a particular sound and a particular meaning in a particular language is arbitrary. Ape call systems lack arbitrariness.

14. 4. Duality of patterning/multilevel patterning Human symbolic language is patterned at more than one level. The call systems of nonhuman primates appear to be patterned at only one level.

15. Examples of multilevel patterning: Hockett spoke of only 2 levels: sound meaning Modern linguists recognize at least 5 levels: phonology (sounds) morphology (words/ morphemes) syntax (sentences) semantics (meaning relations within lexicon) pragmatics (use)

16. 5. Semanticity Linguistic signals are associated with aspects of the physical, cultural, and social world of speakers. Every such association is selective�it highlights some features, downplays other features. Closed ape call systems appear to lack semanticity.

17. Semantics Relations within the lexicon of a language. Semanticity Relations linking the lexicon of a language to the outside world. Semantics is not the same as semanticity.

18. 6. Prevarication Linguistic messages can be: false. meaningless, in the logician�s sense ( e.g., �A is not A.�). We can tell lies. We can write poetry. We can form scientific hypotheses.

19. Example of prevarication: �Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.� Is this statement a lie? Does this proposition illustrate logical contradiction?

20. Example of prevarication: �The bones found at the Hadar site in Ethiopia belonged to an extinct ancestor of modern human beings.� A scientific hypothesis is neither true nor false; it is a candidate for truth or falsehood. We test it against nature to confirm whether it is correct or incorrect.

21. Linguistic relativity Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf: �Language shapes the way we see the world.� Their followers formulated the so-called �Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.�

22. What does it mean to say that language shapes the way we see the world? What is �language�? What counts as �shaping�? What counts as �the way we see the world�?

23. Perhaps �language� means �grammar�: a set of rules that aim to describe fully the enduring patterns of language used in a particular community. Perhaps �shapes� means �determines�: to fix in a form that never changes. Perhaps �the way we see the world� means �the way we speak (language), the way we think (cognition), the way we act (behavior).

24. Linguistic determinism Grammar determines the way we see the world. Also called the �strong version� of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Makes a very dramatic claim. Clearly false. Why?

25. Linguistic determinism is false because: It assumes that every language has only one set of grammatical forms. But this is not true. Every language has a lot of internal grammatical diversity. This is called heteroglossia.

26. It assumes that all people are monolingual (i.e., fluent in only one language). But this is not true. Most people in most parts of the world speak more than one language to varying degrees of fluency. This is called polyglossia.

27. If the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is false, does linguistic relativity exist in any form?

28. Yes. Not grammar, but discourse shapes the way we see the world. �The way we see the world� is visible in discourse genres (speech styles), for example: poetry storytelling sermons political stump speeches baby talk

29. What happens when languages come into contact? Pidgin A language with no native speakers that develops in a single generation between members of communities that possess distinct native language.

30. When speakers of a pidgin language passed that language on to a new generation of speakers, linguists traditionally referred to the language as a creole. Today, we know that things are more complex:

31. Creolization can take place any time after a pidgin forms. Creoles can exist without having been preceded by pidgins. Pidgins can remain pidgins for long periods and undergo linguistic change without acquiring native speakers. Pidgin and creole varieties of the same language can coexist.

32. Heteroglossia seems as widespread among speakers of pidgins and creoles as among speakers of other languages.

33. Linguistic inequality In colonial or postcolonial settings, the colonizer�s language is often considered to be superior to pidgin or creole languages. This is an example of linguistic inequality: making value judgments about other people�s speech in a context of dominance and subordination.

34. Language habits of African Americans William Labov�s studies in the 1960s showed that inner-city African American children were not linguistically deprived. But is this version of African American English the only �authentic� version? Linguistic anthropologists have shown that the speech of African Americans is characterized by heteroglossia.

35. Language ideology A marker of struggles between social groups with different interests, revealed in what people say and how they say it.

36. Linguistic anthropologist Marcyliena Morgan argues that the language ideology of African American English stresses indirectness. African Americans spoke differently when not in the company of whites. But they also developed a counterlanguage based on indirectness that they used before audiences of African Americans and outsiders.

37. Deborah Tannen on speech patterns of men and women in the United States Joel Kuipers on ritual speech of women and men in Sumba, Indonesia, in the 1980s

38. Language revitalization Attempts by linguists and activists to preserve or revive languages with few native speakers that appear to be on the verge of extinction.

39. Maintaining or reviving endangered languages faces many obstacles, including the concern of parents who care less about preserving a dying language than they do about their children becoming literate in a world language that will offer them a chance at economic and social mobility.