Discovering Anthropology: week 3

Linguistic Anthropology


Outline

Overview of linguistic anthropology

How language shapes our world

Non-verbal communication

A conversation with Koko

http://www.youtube.com/v/SNuZ4OE6vCk

Questions from film (use reading)

• Is Koko really communicating with Penny?– What elements of communication are

there?– Which are missing?

• Which word from last week describes a possible problem with this approach?

Full documentary about Koko available in YouTube playlist

http://www.youtube.com/v/OuUAPVFFCRQ

Speaking in Tongues

Class Activity

• List all the languages your can use• What other languages are there?

• Try to think of a wide range

• What do these languages have in common?


Linguistic anthropology is the study of language and speech in both contemporary and past cultures

Linguistic Anthropology is composed of four basic branches.

• Historical linguistics deals with the emergence of language and how languages have changed and diverged over time. • Descriptive linguistics is the study of the sounds (phones), sound systems, grammar, syntax, and the meanings that are attached to words in specific languages. • Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and social relations. As an example, sociolinguists might study how one's social standing affects his or her language usage.• Ethnolinguistics is the examination of the relationship between culture and language and how the two interact and influence one another.


Language is a system of sounds that, when put together according to certain rules, results in meanings that are intelligible to all speakers

“Cultural Anthropology” Havilland (1993)


Human Languages

There are about 5,000-6,000 different languages spoken in the world today.

The imprecision in this estimate is largely due to the fact that some dialects are in the process of diverging and it is not clear that they have reached the stage of being separate languages.

If two people find each other's speech unintelligible, they are usually thought to be speaking different languages rather than dialects.

What are the most commonly spoken languages?Language

Ethnologue (2009 estimate)

Estimated ranking

Mandarin 845,000,000 1

English 428,000,000 2

Spanish 429,000,000 3

Hindi/Urdu

182,000,000 Hindi,

460,600,000 UrduArabic 221,000,000† 5

Bengali 181,000,000 6

Portuguese 178,000,000 7

Russian 144,000,000 8

Japanese 122,000,000 9

German 90,300,000 10

Evolution of the Alphabet

Evolution of Language


Human Languages

Disappearing languages…

• There are around 900 native languages spoken by the 5-10 million people of New Guinea and its neighbouring islands (roughly 1/6 of all languages being spoken by far less than 1% of the world's people).

• About 2,000 languages now have less than 1,000 speakers

• Globally, the rate of language loss now is one every two weeks

Source: O’Niel 2007

Globalisation Exercise

pages 54-5 in reading pack

make notes of your answers, as if for an essay

Globalisation of English

Official language in 52 countries as well as many small colonies and territories.

1/4 to 1/3 of the people in the world understand and speak English to some degree.

Language of international diplomacy.

Dominant language in electronic communication. About 75% of the world's mail, telexes, and cables are in English. Approximately 60% of the world's radio programs are in English. About 90% of all Internet traffic is as well.

Break Time

Humanity and Language

Language and culture together are critical to the development of human individuals

• Language is our primary means of communication.• Language is transmitted through learning, as part of enculturation.• Language is based on arbitrary, learned associations between words and the things they represent.• Only humans have the linguistic capacity to discuss the past and future in addition to the present.• Language has both social and cultural context.

Evolution of Human Language • Complex language developed between 2 million (H.Ergaster) and 100,000 years ago (early H. Sapiens), maybe even 40,000 years ago (H.Sapiens Sapiens)• It shaped our brain, vocal tract, ears, respiratory tract, mouth and nasal passages

Broca’s Area

Broca’s = syntax – i.e. combing words into coherent, grammatically correct sentences

Wernicke’s Area

Wernicke’s = recognising words and their meaning

Vocal Tract

Humans have a dramatically lowered larynx. • puts the base of the tongue in the throat cavity• allows movement of the tongue to modify simultaneously the shape of the throat and mouth hence: • exquisite vowel and pitch control• But it also causes us to choke to death!• Although primates use call systems, their vocal tract is not suitable for speech.

Primate LanguageCall systems

Call systems consist of a limited number of sounds that are produced in response to specific stimuli (e.g. food or danger)

Calls cannot be combined to produce new calls.

Calls are reflexive in that they are automatic responses to specific stimuli.

Complex Language

Humans language is hugely more complex

Concrete things–People–places –Etc

Abstraction–Truth–Evil–God–Masculinity–Space

Social LearningEnculturation and knowledge transmission

Children acquire culture

Experience is stored and transmitted

Reality encoded in language

Precise communication

Detailed, precise transmission

• Past, present and future• Speculation• Interpretation• Efficient transmission

Properties of language

Transmission of thought

Multimedia potentialDiscretenessArbitrarinessProductivityDisplacement


Multimedia potential

Human language can be reproduced in forms that make transmission viable, effective and efficient

• Writing• Speech• Gestures• Internet• TV


Discreteness

Units of language with infinite combination

• Units of language (e.g.. alphabet)• Rules for combining units

Father – Warden – Assume – Nature

• Units only convey meaning when combined in recognised, conventional codes (e.g.. words)


Arbitrariness

Words are symbols (semiotics)

• Words have associated meanings• Coded references to

–Objects–People–Sensory experiences–Qualities–Actions–Emotions–Etc.

• I love you = Te amo = J t’aime = Wo ai ni – the meaning is the same


Productivity

Creation of novel sentences (and their understanding)

• Turning a finite number of words into infinite meaning• Requires shared understanding of components and rules • Most people have no conscious awareness of these rules


Displacement

Ability to discuss things remote in time and space

• The symbolic nature of language provides an abstraction from reality• An object does not have to be present to talk about it• We have symbols for space, time, possibility, etc.• Language allows imagination

Language and culture

Classification of reality

• Categories of the natural and social world – Objects– People– Other life forms– Events

• Based on similarities and differences • What is considered significant


Classification of realityNorth American Livestock Farmers Classification of Animals

Cattle Horses Swine Description

Cow Mare Sow Female

Bull Stallion Boar Male

Steer Gelding Barrow Male - Mature - Neutered

Calf Foal Piglet Newborn – Regardless of sex

Heifer calf Filly Gilt Female - Immature

Bull calf Colt shoat Male - Immature


Classification of reality

• Labels are given to objects, qualities, and actions that we see as most important• This makes it easier for us to communicate complex information about these subjects

Grammar

•Grammar refers to all the knowledge shared by those who are able to speak and understand a given language” (Peoples and Bailey)

•Linguistically there is no such thing as bad grammar (e.g. apostrophe’s)

–This does not mean that it is not important culturally!

Dialect and accent•Variations in grammar due to geographical region, class or subculture are called dialects

–E.g. Geordie, Cockney, ‘Street’–Queen’s English–Professional dialects (legal, medical)

•Accent is the way words are pronounced

•Both lead to symbolic capital My Fair Lady (Bourdieu)


Language as a reflection of culture

• Vocabularies and language use carry information in their own right •Language acts to create identity – to denote same and different



• Semantic Domain–A set of words that belong to an inclusive class (chair, table, cabinet, etc. = Furniture)–Can be subdivided into hierarchy of inclusiveness

• How a culture creates and divides semantic domains reflects the values of that culture.

(e.g.Snow)



• Even ‘Natural Domains’ are culturally relative• Kinship – divided differently by different cultures

–UK = Aunts & uncles and nieces & cousins (but not divided by father’s or mother’s side)e.g. In some cultures maternal uncle’s daughters are ‘mother’, whilst paternal uncle’s daughters are ‘sisters’.



“Cultures divide up the world differently, forming categories and classifications of natural and social reality out of the objective properties of things. These differences are reflected in the language of the bearers of the culture.” (Peoples & Bailey, 2003,

p.55)

Question

How do new technologies affect language?

Non-verbal language

Group work

Describe different hand signals that are used

Where and when are they used?Who uses them?Why are they used instead of language?

Next week…

Cultural Anthropology

Discovering Anthropology: week 3

Education

Transcript of Discovering Anthropology: week 3