ANTHRO 7 Midterm Study Guide

How do we make the sounds of language?

(Phonology) Phonetic charting is a map of the articulation of the sounds of a language - the closer they are on the chart the more similar they tend to be

What is Manually Coded English or Signed English?

An artificial language where sign must follow the structure of spoken English, morpheme by morpheme, word for word. In contrast to natural sign languages, Manually Coded Sign Languages are artificial languages invented by hearing individuals to teach deaf people a spoken language.

What are the four sub-fields of Anthropology?

Archaeology Physical Anthropology Cultural Anthropology Linguistic Anthropology

What is cultural relativism? Ethnocentrism?

BOTH: are frames of reference, ways of seeing and interpreting the world, necessary, comparable, and diverse Cultural Relativism: acknowledging the legitimacy of different frames of reference - the idea that differences exist among cultural systems, that different cultural systems can make as much sense as our own, and we can learn and understand these different systems. Ethnocentrism: refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of any other frame of reference other than your own. - The belief that ones own culture is superior to others, not understanding different systems on your own terms

What is an affix?

Bases form the foundations of words, and affixes attach to bases. Affix means attach to. The morpheme "sing" in English is a base and the morphemes "-er" and "-s" are affixes. Affixes cannot stand alone they need to be attached to morphemes.

Berlin and Kay and color systems.

Berlin and Kay suggested that all languages had a common underlying system for identifying and naming colors. They also suggested that systems with more terms for colors were evolutionarily more "advanced" than those with fewer terms for colors. Stage 1. Languages with two color terms (black and white) Stage 2. Languages with three color terms (black, white, and red) Stage 3. Languages with four color terms (black, white, red, and green or yellow) Stage 4. Languages with five color terms (black, white, red, green, and yellow) Stage 5. Languages with six color terms (black, white, red, green, yellow, and blue) Stage 6. Languages with seven color terms (stage 5 colors plus brown) Stage 7. Languages with eight or more color terms (stage 6 colors plus purple, pink, orange, and/or gray)

What factors determine the sounds of most consonants? What about vowels?

Consonants: - Point of Articulation (Where we modify the flow of air) - Manner of Articulation (How we modify the flow of air) - Whether they are voiced or voiceless Vowels: "height" of tongue "place" of tongue "round-ing" of lips

Descriptive grammar?

Describes a language on its own terms - the way that people use it - w/out judging whether the utterance is correct or incorrect Boas and anthropologists in the 1900's

What kind of relationship is there between language and culture?

Different languages appear to encapsulate different worldviews. The distinction between words, phrases, and sentences is often quite different in different languages.

What do we learn when we learn about other languages? Does it help us understand other cultures? Does it help us understand ourselves?

Different languages encapsulate different world views. •Language is a window into culture (Boas) •Language is a cultural map (Conklin, Frake...) •Language is a guide to social reality (Sapir/Whorf) -Linguistic relativity: grammar influences thought •A well-accepted idea -Linguistic determinism: grammar determines world view Still controversial •Language is a framing device (Lakoff) -Helps us to organize and frame our experience of the world-And to express our experience of the world

What does "emic" mean? What does "etic" mean?

Emic - (Insiders pov) Native speakers think of their sounds of their language as "phonemics" Etic - (Outsiders pov) Outsiders think in terms of "phonetics"

Examples of SVO languages include

English, French, Russian, Swahili, and Thai.

What are free morphemes? What are bound morphemes? Allomorphs?

Free Morphemes: Morphemes that can stand alone Bound Morphemes: Morphemes that must be attached to other morphemes Allomorphs: Are variant forms of a morpheme. Sometimes allomorphs are predictable; sometimes they are not. EX: Allomorphs of the English morpheme "not." improbable impossible implacable illegal illegitimate illogical indescribable intolerant insensitive im-used with words that begin with [p] il-used with words that begin with [l] in-used with words that begin with [d], [t], or [s]

Affect displays, emblems, regulators, etc.

Gestures add meaning or emphasis but are not essential elements of the message Emblems: Direct verbal translation Illustrators: Depict or illustrate what is being said Affect displays: Convey emotion Regulators: Control or coordinate interaction, for example, indicating that it is someone's turn to talk Adaptors: Expressions of restlessness or unease, facilitate the release of tension

How does frame substitution help us understand syntax? (page 106 of TB)

It can be applied to any language. It is very useful if you do not know anything about the language you are trying to learn. Different languages may have very different substitution frames, and they may arrange them in ways that you are not prepared for. All languages appear to have substitution frames for subjects, objects, and verbs; not all languages arrange these categories in the same order. Different languages may have very different substitution frames, and these may be arranged in ways that new learners do not expect. Obligatory categories in languages are grammatical categories that must be expressed in speaking, and one must learn the substitution frames associated with them. Ambiguous sentences represent situations in which alternative substitution frames can produce the same set of words.

Silent communication - Kenesic systems, gestures.

Kinesics: The study of body movements, facial expressions, and gestures •Kineme with allokines •Kinemorphs—meaningful units of visual expression •Later, kinemorphs were abandoned as a concept, kineme comes to mean both the minimal and the meaningful units

What is grammatical gender?

They are categories into which words (usually nouns) are classified in a language. In English, it is just another kind of categorization scheme, in this case used for nouns. For words like moon, sun, fire, and so on in French, German, and Dyirbal could also be considered examples of grammatical gender. Each one is either masculine or feminine.

How many vowels and consonants do languages have?

Vowels: 8.7 Consonants: 22.8

American Sign Language (ASL)

Was originally developed from French Sign Language. Gallaudet and Clerc began to mold French Sign Language into a new American system. At first, it was called "Old Signed English". You could say that American Sign Language and British Sign Language are as different from one another as spoken English is from spoken Japanese. ASL is very different from spoken American English Vocabulary •Syntax •Time-Topic-Comment versus Subject-Verb-Object •Question formation •Facial gestures and handedness are factors

Who was Benjamin Whorf?

Whorf worked with Sapir to influence the way anthropologists think about linguistic determinism. Whorf was a student of Sapir who was a student of Franz Boas. Whorf studied Native American languages under Sapir and described the relationship between language, thought, and perception. He developed the principle of linguistic relativity where he suggested that if different languages possess different grammatical categories, then those categories should oblige speakers to think along certain lines, as laid out by the categories, and make it more difficult (perhaps even impossible?) for them to think in ways not provided by those categories.

What is Linguistic Determinism?

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think The view that your language affects and determines your ability to perceive and think about things as well as to talk about them.

What are "roots"?

is a morpheme (or word) that serves as the underlying foundation for other words.

Anthropology and professional ethics.

look at page 12 of TB and lectures to ANSWER THIS

What are the different kinds of affixes?

prefixes, infixes, suffixes, circumfixes, reduplication, interweaving, and portmanteaus.

Agar compares Strong Whorf to

the idea that language is a prison, providing no escape (i.e., absolute linguistic determinism),

Agar compares Weaker Whorf to

the idea that language is a room, providing specific ways of seeing but letting you leave, enter other rooms, and return to your original room, shifting perspectives as you go (i.e., much closer to the idea of linguistic relativity)

What is phonology? Phonetics? Phonemics?

Phonology is the study of language sounds. Every language uses a different collection of sounds. Phonemics analyzes the way sounds are arranged in a language (phonemes) Pays attention to ways those variations are grouped or separated. Phonemics pays attention to the ways that those variations are grouped together or separated. Phonetics identifies and describes language sounds in detail (phones). Phonetics pays attention to the tiniest details in the way language sounds are produced. It helps me identify and pronounce the French "r." Phones or the sound is represented in [ ] square brackets Phonemes are represented in / / slant brackets

Generative grammar?

Set of rules that could be used to produce language Generates all possible sentences of a language. Noam Chomsky 1950's

Prescriptive grammar?

Specific rules for using language and grammar. Provides a model of 'proper' speech used by many school teachers today

What are the elements of human culture?

Technology, Economic Organization, Social Organization, Political Organization, Ideology (Belief System), Aesthetics (Artistic Expression) Culture is not possible without language

What is the McGurck effect?

That language affects our visual perception and visual effects how we perceive and see language.

What is syntax?

The area of linguistic anthropology that examines and describes the ways that words are arranged into phrases and sentences. Syntax provides the means by which you can learn to arrange words into sentences. And syntax can help to explain why some sentences can look the same but actually be quite different, like the two sentences with which we started this section.

What is the Whorfian Hypothesis? aka Sapir-Whorf? aka Whorf-Sapir?

The concept of linguistic determinism. The proposal that the language one speaks determines or heavily influences the thoughts one can think of the aliency of different categories of thought.

What is orality?

The idea that only spoken language is "real" language; a common linguistic ideology.

What is Linguistic Relativity?

The idea that the structure of all language influences the way people see the world -Language is a rut we follow - hard to change -Thinking is limited by language The idea that languages are different, arbitrary systems and that knowing one language does not allow you to predict how another language will categorize and name the world

What distinguishes one consonant from another?

The places of articulation (side to side) and the manners of articulation (up and down) AND Whether it is voiceless or unvoiced (left column) or voiced (right column)

What is derivation?

The process of creating new words.

What is inflection?

The process of modifying existing words.

What is proxemics?

The study of how people use and perceive space American use: Intimate: 0-1.5 ft Personal: 1.5-4 Social: 4-12 Public: 12 + Cowboy Proxemics: how cowboys use space 6ft: working/talking/standing side to side = close together for them campfire: close, shoulder to shoulder to keep warm Imagine getting to theatre seats and the small space there is. It has gotten smaller and smaller thru the years.

Evidence of linguistic relativity?

The way different languages divide and name the rainbow colors when light is refracted through a prism American: 6; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple

What are 'frames of reference'?

The ways we see, interpret, and understand the world.

What is Linguistic Capital? What is Linguistic Competence? What is Communitive Competence?

Linguistic Capital or Symbolic Capital: Related to the idea of communicative competence is the idea of symbolic capital, a term coined by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1991). If you think of money as a kind of economic capital, then you can think of communicative competence as a kind of symbolic capital. You can accumulate symbolic capital (communicative competence) like money. Symbolic capital "buys" you (or establishes your claim to) position and power in social, cultural, and political contexts. Symbolic capital involves every aspect of language, from pronunciation (accent), word choice, and grammar to styles of speaking or signing. Symbolic capital even includes spelling and writing styles. Having a lot of it means people will assume that you have the right to be listened to in a conversation and that what you say actually matters. This is important because the right to be listened to is a crucial source of power and influence in any situation. Linguistic Competence: The term linguistic competence was defined in 1965 by theoretical linguist Noam Chomsky (1965) to describe a speaker's underlying ability to produce and recognize grammatically correct expressions. It is all about grammatical correctness. Communicative Competance: The term communicative competence was coined in 1966 by linguistic anthropologist Dell Hymes (1927-2009) in order to develop a more inclusive way to think about and describe the way people use language in real situations. The concept of communicative competence refers to a speaker's ability to speak a language well in a variety of social situations. It means knowing how grammar, vocabulary, and even accent can change depending on whom you are speaking to and in what situation. It means knowing about status and power relationships and how they affect what you can say and how you can say it and knowing how your ideologies—your taken-for-granted ideas and stereotypes about language, gender, ethnicity, social class, relative power, and more—can affect the way you speak to and listen to the people around you.

What is a minimal pair? What is a phoneme? What are allophones?

Minimal Pair: A pair of words in which a difference in sound makes a difference in meaning, and it is the clearest and easiest way to identify phonemes in a language. (ex: both and boat in English) Phoneme: -The smallest contrastive unit of sound in a language. Phones that make a difference and contrast with one another. If you change a phoneme, you change the meaning. Phonemes do not carry meaning but build into larger units that do. (voiced and voiceless in English "bus" and "buzz") if u change them, you change the meaning! Do not mean anything by themselves (ex: "zz" and "ss" does not mean anything." -Heard as a single sound by insiders "zz" and "ss." - Contrasts are not predictive! Allophone: It is a variant form of phonemes. They are members of a group of sounds that together form a single phoneme.

What is morphology? What are morphemes?

Morphology: is the analysis of words and how they are structured. Morphological Analysis: -identifying (and describing) morphemes -analyzing the way morphemes are arranged in words. Morpheme: is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. A word can include one or more morphemes. Example: "helpful" is made up of two English morphemes and "unhelpful" is made of 3. How it helps u learn a language: If you know that a helper is a person who helps, then you can also guess that a farmer is a person who farms. The trick to identifying morphemes in a language is to find the minimal units of meaning to find minimal units of meaning is to compare words or even short phrases that seem to pattern similarly. EX: farm farmer farmers walk walker walkers work worker workers

Are some dialects or languages "better" than others?

No

Does a "faithful" translation always convey the same meaning as the original?

No

Vocal sounds that accompany speech but aren't words?

Paralanguage Examples: Voice qualities •Loudness, tone of voice •Pitch, speed, rhythm •Vocal modifications: •whispering, cooing, breathy voice, rising intonation Vocal segregates (or vocal gestures) •Stand on their own•uh-huh, mhmm, shhhh, throat-clearing •Ideophones? •Bam, pow, slurp!.