Anthropology

speech community

a community of speakers sharing a common grammar and vocabulary, as well as a set of understandings about how language is used in different situations.

language

a complex, systematized form of communication involving the use of vocal or gestural units (words or signs) that can be combined and recombined in larger structures (sentences) that can convey an infinite array of complex meanings.

dialect

a form of language specific to a particular region.

FOXP2

a gene on chromosome number seven that is found in many vertebrates; sometimes called "the language gene" because the human mutation seems to be associated with language.

metaphor

a linguistic idiom using something concrete to think and talk about something more abstract.

incantation

a patterned set of phrases or sentences used to compel a magical result.

vernacular

dialects that are not necessarily regional but associated with specific social categories such as groups based on ethnicity, age, or gender.

mirror neurons

special brain cells that seem to enable mimicry.

performativity

the functional power of language to make things happen.

language socialization

the social contexts in which language is learned as well as the role of language in social learning.

communication

the transfer of information from a sender to a receiver; can be voluntary or involuntary, simple or complex.

naming ceremony

a public ritual that officially grants personhood by bestowing a name.

protolanguage

a very simple set of gestures or utterances that may have preceded the development of human language.

linguistic universals

common elements found in all human languages, attributable to human anatomy, perception, and cognition.

language ideologies

specific ideas about language that are widespread in a culture, including how language is acquired, how it varies across social groups, how it changes over time, etc.

folk taxonomies

systems of categories that people use to organize their knowledge of the world.

code-switching

the practice of tacking back and forth between various linguistic styles depending on contexts and interlocutors.

language acquisition

the process of learning a language.

language revitalization

the process of reviving an endangered or dormant language using strategies such as immersion schools and master-apprentice programs.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

the theory that the particular language you speak influences how you think about reality.

linguistic relativity

the way that language varies across cultures, reflecting different environmental, historical, and sociocultural conditions.