ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE

Linguistic Anthropologyreconstructing ancient languages by comparing to contemporary descendants-historical linguisticshow universal features of all languages says something about the human brainhow language differences reflect world viewhow speech reflects social relations

Language is a System of Symbols

symbols are objects, events, speech sounds, written forms, gestures, which humans attach meaningSymbols operate in changing fields of social relationshipssymbols are multivocal -- enables a wide range of groups & individuals to relate to the same symbol in a variety of ways

LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Descriptive Linguistics or FORMAL LINGUISTICS

study language as a formal system of rulesa set of rules that can be studied apart from its context

Historical LinguisticsEthnolinguistics

Language in its Social & Cultural Settings

• Does language

influence the perception of reality and cultural behavior?

• Does language reflect reality in a culture?

• Or, is it both?

LINGUISTIC RELATIVISM and DETERMINISM

Edward Sapir/Benjamin Lee Whorf – the “Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis”

language & culture intrinsically linked"language is a guide to social reality... it powerfully conditions all our thinking about social problems and processes."

Language and ThoughtSapir-Whorf hypothesis

Language predisposes people to see the world in a certain way guiding behavior

Language reflects reality

Rich vocabulary reflects a cultural focus

GRAMMAR AND CONSCIOUSNESS

linguistic conditioning of behavior – “linguistic determinism”language is not simply a way of voicing ideas, but the very thing which shapes those ideas

Lexicon and Focal Vocabularylexicon – a vocabulary; a dictionary of terms

focal vocabulary -- specialized set of terms & distinctions that are particularly important to a certain group

tell us something about world view, historical events, ideas, influences, perceptions important to a particular group

Inuit terms for snow; skiers terms for snow

Ethnolinguistics/Ethnoscience/

Ethnosemantics“the new ethnography” (1960s)emics and eticsmaps of a lexicon and its focal vocabulariesmethod of studying parts (domains) of a culture primarily on the basis of how they are lexically encoded by native speakers

SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION

Trace connections among linguistic and social variablesspeech – the way people use a languageLinguistic features as markers of class divisions in societyLanguages in contact

SociolinguisticsSociolinguistics - the study of the relationships between a language system (langue) and speaking (parole) in a social and cultural contextStudy of the structure and use of language as it relates to its social setting

Ethnography of Communication

the descriptive study of the use of language, deeply embedded in its cultural context (Dell Hymes)

The acronym SPEAKINGS – setting and sceneP – participantsE – ends: the desired or expected outcomeA – Act: how form and content are deliveredK – key: mood or spirit (serious, ironic, etc.)I – instrumentalities: the dialect or language varietyN – norms: speaking conventionsG – genres: different types of performance (speech, joke, sermon, etc.)

Paralinguistic FeaturesBody language and extralinguistic noises

At least 90% of emotional information in English

is transmitted by “body language” and tone of

voice

Kinesics System of notating

and analyzing postures, facial expressions, and body motions that convey messages

Social DialectsForms of a language

Reflecting regions or social classesSimilar enough to be mutually intelligibleSocial dialects (or sociolects) are language varieties that are correlated not so much with geographic as with social spaceExamples – black English, Spanglish, inner city Boston, Newfie

Regional/Geographic Dialects

Define people by where they live“southern” dialect“newfie”

Language and Gender

Linguistic features as markers of social divisions in society

North American society • Men and Women use English differently• Language reflects traditional gender

inequality

Are Women More Polite than Men? N. America

Women typically use more polite speechCharacterized by a high frequency of honorific and softening devices such as hedges and questions“act like a lady” “respect those around you”Boys and men & the “masculine voice”

Languages in ContactDiglossiaBilingualismPidgins and creoles

DIGLOSSIASpeech communities in which two or more varieties of the same language are used by some speakers under different conditionsClassic Arabic of the Koran and diversified local forms of ArabicJava – Javanese and Bahasa Indonesia

BILINGUALISM“native-like” control of two languagesA gradient

Degrees or stages of bilingualism based on performance – the ability to understand and produce meaningful utterances in the second language

Pidgin Languagesa pidgin is a lingua franca that comes into use in situations where a group of individuals with no language in common find a need to communicate

a minimal languagea mixed language, bulk of vocab usually from the language of the dominant powermany pidgins are short-lived

Creole Languagesa creole – a pidgin that remains in use and is expanded to serve the whole range of functions necessary to a speech community – over the course of two or more generationsReflects hybrid origins

SPEECH EVENTShow individuals behave with speech in a specific, culturally defined situation

LINGUISTIC CODES AND SPEECH COMMUNITIES

Speech communities – a real social unit within which speakers share a repertoire of ‘ways of speaking’

may include one or several languages

Members of such communities engage in verbal interaction that is not randomly alternating between distinct LINGUISTIC CODES but choose systematically among them and put them to specialized uses

CODE SWITCHINGCrystal (1987) suggests that code, or language, switching occurs when an individual who is bilingual alternates between two languages during his/her speech with another bilingual person

WHY CODE SWITCH?a speaker may not be able to express him/herself in one language so switches to the other to compensate for the deficiencyswitching commonly occurs when an individual wishes to express solidarity with a particular social groupto create a special effect

CODE SWITCHING AS METACOMMUNICATION

Code switching is an indirect form of social commentarycode switching is a linguistic device for FRAMING verbal messagesit is a fine-grained technique for identifying stretches of talk as particular kinds of doings that are intended to accomplish particular kinds of work

Language RegistersA variety of language that serves a particular social situationMonolingual code switching – styles of speakingThe vernacular, the standard, the honorificSpecifically defined varieties – scientific, legal, religious, intimate, etc.

LANGUAGE SHIFTS

the social meaning communicated by language shiftsreflexive statements about social structure

Language, Nationalism, Ethnicity

Linguistic nationalism – attempt by ethnic minorities and even countries to proclaim independence by purging their languages of foreign terms or reviving unused languages

Language Planning and Identity

PurificationRevivalReformStandardizationModernization

A SPEECH EVENT IN A SPEECH COMMUNITY

Discourse, Subjectivity, Power

Discourses Ways of talking about the worlda system of representationCodes and conventionsrules and practices that produced meaningful statements and regulated discourse in different historical periods

about language and practiceDiscourse is "a group of statements which provide a language for talking about ...a particular topic at a particular historical moment."  "Discourse, Foucault argues, “constructs the topic.  It defines and produces the objects of our knowledge.  It governs the way that a topic can be meaningfully talked about and reasoned about.”

Discourse, Subjectivity, Power

Discourse -- the bearer of various subject positionsSubject positions -- specific positions of agency and identity in relation to particular forms of knowledge and practiceSubjectivity --produced within discourse, subjected to discourse.subject position--[for us to become the subject of a particular discourse,  and thus the bearers of its power/knowledge] we must locate ourselves in the position from which the discourse makes most sense, and thus become its 'subjects' by subjecting' ourselves to its meanings, power and regulation.

Discourse, Subjectivity, Power

power follows from our casual acceptance of the "reality with which we are presented" Power a field of possibilities in which several ways of behaving, several reactions and diverse comportments may be realizedthe totality of practices, by which one can constitute, define, organize, instrumentalize the strategies which individuals in their liberty can have in regard to each other.

Discourse, Gender, Powersexuality and the body -- sites of power and politicssocially imposed structures that objectified sexual identity and gender differencessocially imposed structures that shape gender relations and behavior