anth 2351 - week 6 - hcc learning web
TRANSCRIPT
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1
Language
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Taal
Tungumál
linguagem
ভাষা
keel
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World Languages
! How many languages do you think are spoken in the world today?
! 1 (English - the rest is gibberish)
! 100-200
! 5000-6000
Why so imprecise? Languages are constantly
diverging, combining, and dying
The Most Common Languages in the World
Rank Language # of Speakers # of Countries
1 Mandarin (Chinese) 874,000,000 16
2 Hindi 366,000,000 17
3 Spanish 358,000,000 43
4 English 341,000,000 104
5 Bengali 207,000,000 9
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Language is Symbolic Culture
! Language is not instinctual - it must be learned
! Humans communication is COMPLEX!
Use of Language
! SH!T I�m 3!
! Researchers have shown that in the U.S. 60% of children between 3-4 years old commonly use swear words
! This is up dramatically from 10 years ago (when it was closer to 35 %)
! Parents tend to swear more while at the same time telling their children not to...however, children lack an understanding of the underlying context
Characteristics of language
time depth - past / present future tense
Most non-human primates have CALL SYSTEMS that lack time depth
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Characteristics of Language
Conventionality The idea that words
are conventionally connected to the things for which they stand.
What color is this?
Population: 604
Race: 99.7 % Scotch-Irish
Language: Restoration English
Characteristics of language
displacement - the capacity to speak of things and events that are not present
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Characteristics of language
productivity - the capacity to generate new expressions…and to have them be understood
REFUDIATE EMBIGGEN, D’OH, MEH
Non-human communication
Koko the gorilla
learned over 1,000
words and could use
them to discuss:
- memories
- feelings
- new ideas productivity
Language is abstract
! The abstract quality of symbols inhibits our ability to think about and convey the full meaning of personal experience
Chair
Computer
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What about these?
! �������!
! Freedom
! Love
Honorifics (language of rank)
In Japanese
-san
-dono
-sama
-kun
-chan
Structure of language
Phones – different speech sounds (across all languages
Phonemes – significant sound contrasts in a given language Beat
Bet
Bat
Bit
But
Bought
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Phonemes Contrasting sounds May differ between
languages In English /v/ and /b/
are different sounds Not in Spanish
No /th/ sound in Japanese or French
Spin vs pin
Morphemes
Units of sound that have meaning in a language
-s : in English, this makes something plural
-er : often refers who does something (teach-er)
Isolating vs. Agglutinating languages
English - floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters)
Inuit – qasuirrsarvigssarsingitluinarnarpuq (35 letters) NOT the longest word in the language
Universal grammar Idea described by Noam
Chomsky All human brains have a
language blueprint This is why (he would say)...
All societies have a language All kids learn their language at
the same time
Deep structure surface structure
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Pirahã counterexample
No recursive structure (eg. Bill, who knew Ralph, who was related to Jane, who used to date Mark, who once owned a pigeon, said that Joe thought that Ralph was stupid)
Only ten phonemes
Number terms restricted to �a few, some, many�
But…lots of meaning in stress, intonation, rhythm
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Language affects the way we think
He/she in English (Not so in Palaung)
Past vs. present tense
Language and space
We have two ways of describing the position of things in space:
Egocentric
Geographic
Guugu Yimithirr
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Focal vocabulary
Focused diversity of language that is common among some cultures or subcultures
Inuit: 100 words for snow? No, but they have 18
Nuer of Sudan: 45 words for cattle
Lexicon of Beer in Germany
Germans in Munich have a vocabulary of more than 70 words to describe the strength, color, fizziness, clarity, and age of beer because beer is so central to their culture.
Jargon
Sports vs science In science, jargon is considered to be elitist and
exclusionary In sports, it is expected in all discussions
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Focal vocabulary is always growing (and shrinking) Often used words or phrases tend to become
simplified Automobile car Video Cassette Recorder VCR Television TV Handheld Cellular phone Cell phone Personal Computing Machine PC
Words that roughly mean “good”: swell, fab, rad, ace, beast, choice, cool beans (Urban dictionary has over 400 words)
Sociolinguistics The relationship between language and culture
Disglossia - high versus low versions of language Castilian Spanish Educated versus uneducated
Dialects are often viewed as being superior or inferior
Language is a powerful path to wealth and success
Planet Earth Narrators
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Labov's study Asked people at different
department stores in NY where the men's clothing was (knowing where it was)
Asked twice (provoking an enunciation)
Got different average responses at different stores
62%
51%
20%
How many sounds?
Ten Rent French Section
Lecture
Affect
Best
Test
Languages and Dialects
Grammatical constructions used by the socially dominant group are considered a language, and deviations from them are often called dialects.
Pidgin - A language of contact and trade composed of features of the original languages of two or more societies.
Creole - A first language that is composed of elements of two or more different languages.
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Reggae
Reggae music makes use of PATOIS – creole or mixed language of west African languages and English
Examples ”A fe me cyar.” (It’s my car)
"Bwaay! Mi ded tink de test was eazy.”
"Is the dutty duppy man dweet.”
Genesis 1:26
"Mek we mek mankine fi stay like how we stay; mek we mek dem fi fayva we; and mek dem rule ova all di fish dem inna di sea and all di bird whe’ up a sky an ova di cow dem and ova all di eart, and ova everyting that crawl pon di eart.”
“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Bringing it Back Home: English Only
As of 2011, thirty-four states have enacted legislation to make English their official language.
Both the US House and Senate have voted to make English the national language or require the federal government to conduct its official business in English.
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Bringing it Back Home: English Only
You decide:
In the United States, how closely is language linked to American identity and to ethnic identity?
The United States has never had an official national language. Are there good reasons why this should change?