Anthro week 9-10 cards
Defining launguage
Humans use launguage to interact with one another in socially meaningful ways
Launguage is a principle method of human comunication
Launguage is a SYMBOLIC system expressing meaning through SOUNDS and/or GESTURES and/or WRITTEN WORDS
How is a persons speech influeced?
By Biologocal, cultural, social or political factors
We use our mouths, throats to produce sounds
Gender, socio-economic status, level of education and geographic region infuence the way we speak and provide additional information to listeners
Launguage is also bound up in relationships in which power is constantly negotiated.
Who we are and where we come from shapes our speech and the way we interact with others
Greetings across the world
-Whats up?
-How are you?
-Have you eaten rice yet?
-Have you eaten? (Asking weather someone has eaten and asking after someones well-being is similar and rituals of hospitatlity are important, Food is often central in welcoming a visitor)
Index signs def
Expressions that carry meaning directly related to the response
Ex- Monkey using an alarm call (scream)
Symbols def
Have no apparent or natural connection to the meaning (ex-launguage)
Humans have been able to fully develop a system of symbolic communication in ways that non human primates have not....
-Ability to talk about something in a symbolic way or about the past or future
-Ability to lie/decieve using launguage
-Can talk about things today they have never talked about before and create new phrases ans sentences in nearly infiniate forms
Launguage Orgins:
Human launguage likley began as a system of gestures
Bipedalism likely played a role
Trust was nessesary for the developnment of a communication system that relied on signals could be faked
Brain development and mouth/throat anatomy
Humans are the only primates who are born with fully developed brain structures for aquirring and processing launguage
3 structures to help the human brain process launguage:
1- Wernickles area- Thought to be where the brain primarily processes spoken launguage
2- Brocas area- produces launguage
3- Geschwinds territory- Allows the brain to undertstand different qualities of lauguage simultaneously (spoken+written)
Linguistics vs linguistic anthropology:
Focus on the units of construction of a particuar launguage vs. the cultural context in which launguage is used
Launguage, social life and culture are intertwined
Phonetics def
What sounds are used in the launguage?
Phonemics def
How do these sounds convey meaning?
Morpheme def
How words are structured to make meaning
Syntax def
How units of speech are put together to create sentences
Pragmatics def
Body launguage, facial expressions and other non verbal means of communication are nessesary to understand the true meaning of words/sentences
Utterance def
Uninterupted sequence of spoken or written launguage, depends on the context within which it is spoken
Who is the speaker? What is the listeners relationship with the speaker? What is the time/place of the utterance?
Paralanguage def
Refer to all of the ways we express meaning through sounds beyond our word
Is a subset of semantics,since it gives us information about meaning (ex- accent, intonation, tempo, volume, pitch)
Paralanguage can be motified depending on the context (ex- newscaster)
2 main types of Paralanguage
1- Voice qualities- background characteristics of a persons voice, including pitch, rhythm, the articulation and the types of lip movements
2-Intentional sounds humans make to express themselves but are not actual words (ex. "hmmmmm")
Each launguage has its own set of meanings attached to its paralaunguage and changes depending on the context
Silent launguage def
Very spesific set of non-verbal cues such as gestures, body movements, facial expressions that is accquired by speakers of a launguage
It is shared amoung members of a culture (vs paralaunguage which develops based on a persons experience)
EX- nodding your head to mean yes
Silent launguage can be easilly misunderstood if used incorrectly in a spesific culture
Proxemics def
Form of non verbal communication
How people use the space around them when communicating
How close members of a culture stand to one another based on their relationship or how space is organized in homes and cities
Varies amoung cultures
Intimate = 6 inches
Perosnal = 1.5-4 feet
Social = 4-7 feet
Public distance = 12-25 feet
Kinesics def
Cultural use of body movements
The meaning of some gestures such as smiling are nearly universal
People of different cultures use different gestures to signift different things
The meaning of kinesic gestures are not always the same cross-culturally
Ethnolingustics def
Subfield of lingustic anthropology
The study of the relationship between a launguage and the cultural behaviour of its speakers
Sapir- Whorf Hypotheis def
Lingustic relativity principle
Considers that people who speak different launguages may experience the world in distinct ways
Lingustic determinism def
Launguage directly determines a persons worldview
CULTURAL MODELS def
Shape our thought patterns and provide shared frames of refference
ex- illness ans war in the english launguage
They are of interest to anthropologists because they provide an undertsanding of worldviews
Gendered launguage def
Men and women learn to use different speech patterns based on the cultural expectations
ex- freqent use of tag questions at the end of a statement to decreace its assertivness or forcefullness in english
speech community def
group based on area of residence or common sub culture that shares launguage patterns (pronunciation, vocab ect)
occur naturally as part of membership in a given social group but also may be manipulated consioucly
Ex- Newfoundland english and queer sub communities
Code switching def
Switching from one launguage used in a group to another
Multilingual/bilingual people might code switch within a single sentence
Launguage registers def
different levels of formality in a single launguage
Can switch between registers multiple times depending on the context or who someone is interacting with
Some launguages have multiple levels of formality in order to show respect to those with higher social status
ex- Usted vs tú (spanish) and vous vs tu (French)
Launguage in the digital age
Development of the internet and other communication devices have had a huge impact on the way we communicate
Writing has been altered (shorthand abreviations such as LOL) which can have an impact on spoken launguage
Relying on written communication sometimes causes questions about true intent
Absence of non verbal cues leads to the use of emojis to express more complex meaning
Meanings associated with these online launguages changes with time (ex-lol)
Different cultures have their own digital launguages and various registers exist in launguges used online (messaging friends vs emailing professors)
Pidgin launguage def
Mixes certain fetures of two or more launguages for communication
Crede launguage def
When Pidgin launguage remians relevent and becomes the dominant launguage of a group
Launguage change and loss:
Fewer than 7,000 launguages are currently spoken in the world and approx 2,000 are in danger
Launguages can dissapear due to genocide, to evolution of a new launguage or becomes deliberate suppression by a dominant culture (residential school system in Canada)
Oppressive treatement caused the decline of not only launguage but also culture
Launguage encodes all of a cultures information
Some launguages that were critically endangered are now being revitaized
(Te reo Mauri, Black foot, Welsh, Louisianna french ect..)