Info session on Anthropology Honours

(Go through “visitors’ entrance” from Regent Walk, tell receptionist where you’re going, and she will buzz you through. Go up stairs to first floor. Room is in that corner above reception.)

Wednesday, March 14, 1pm Committee Rm. 3 in

U-Office

Phonemes

Minimal meaningful contrast in sound.

Smallest meaningful difference in sounds.

“The units which we call ‘phonemes’ are in themselves of no importance: it is the differences among them that count.”

Phonetics

Description of all the sounds in a language

Phonology is the study and theory of sounds in Language

Vocal tract

Points of articulation

IPA chart

Phonetics websiteswww.abdn.ac.uk/langling/resources/phonetics.html

www.paulmeier.com/ipa/charts.htmlor

www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ipa/

Speech Accent Archivehttp://accent.gmu.edu/

The speech accent archive presents speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed.

top stop little kitten hunter

Phonetics studies and describes perceptible differences

Phonemics analyses meaningful contrasts in sound

Voiced vs. unvoiced is a meaningful contrast in English, carries a heavy functional load

Bit - pit

Done - ton

Could - good

Minimal Pairs highlight phonemic contrasts

Not all differences are meaningful

Aspiration in English is not meaningful

Top - stop

th t

Redundantly associated with voiceless

tab - tap

b - p or ph

Hindi /tali/ = “key”/thali/ = “strip”/kap/ = “cup”/kaph/ = “phlegm”/ph l/ = “fruit”/p l/ = “moment”/b l/ = “strength”

Other languages contrast aspirated and unaspirated

Korean /keda/ = “fold”/kheda/ = “dig out”

StressEnglish: present, object, construct, implant,

Pitch/Tone Chinese

Length Korean: il “day” i:l “work”

seda “to count” se:da “strong”pam “night” pa:m “chestnut”

German: die Stadt, der Staat

More examples of phonemic contrasts

etics

System-external description and analysis

Victor Turner’s first stage of ritual analysis (observe behaviour)

Biological genealogies in kinship (parents & children)

emics

System-internal description and analysis

Explains social or cultural elements according to indigenous definitions/categories

Victor Turner’s third stage of ritual analysis (interpretation following internal logic of the culture)

Kinship terms (how the natives classify their relatives)

Etic Kin terms

Ego

MZF

B ZMBD MBS

M MBFZ FB

MZD MZS

S

FZD FZS FBD FBS

DD DS SD SD

DMBDD MBDDFZSD FZSS

Emic Kin terms (English)

Ego

auntfather

brother sistercousin cousin

mother uncleaunt uncle

cousincousin

son

cousincousincousin cousin

grand-daughter

grand-son

grand-daughter

grand-son

daughtercousin cousincousin cousin

Emic categories of kinship(Hawaiian)

Etic distinctions

External frameworks or universal classificatory grids

• Linguistic typologies (e.g., analytic, inflecting, agglutinating, polysynthetic)

• Linnaean classification of plants & animals (genus, species)

• Disease (medical pathology)

But are these just our (Western) emic categories, deployed universally?

emics

Not the natives’ model Boas’s secondary rationalization, Turner’s exegetical models

Emic models, like phonemes, are constructions formalized by the analyst on the basis of distinctive features present in indigenous usage

Hanunoo pronouns

Etic distinctions inelegant and inaccurate

(person, number, gender, inclusive vs. exclusive)

I - 1st, sing we-1st, pl

you - 2nd, sing & pl.

s/h/it - 3rd, sing (fem/masc/neut) they-3rd, pl.

Emic categories are Minimal membership, nonminimal membership

Inclusion of speaker, exclusion of speaker

Inclusions of hearer, exclusion of hearer

Categories not overt in native consciousness

Emic paradigms

/t/ and /d/ are in meaningful contrast, so are /p/ - /t/ - /k/

Morphological paradigm: ljublju, ljubish, ljubit

An analogy to cultural paradigms is age grades.

In Maasai culture: child, junior, warrior, junior elder, elder

Info session on Anthropology Honours

(Go through “visitors’ entrance” from Regent Walk, tell receptionist where you’re going, and she will buzz you through. Go up stairs to first floor. Room is in that corner above reception.)

Wednesday, March 14, 1pm Committee Rm. 3 in

U-Office