Chapter 9 Flashcards
What is the definition of language?
A form of communication that is based on a systematic set of learned symbols and signs shared among a group and passed on from generation to generation.
What is a dialect?
A way of speaking in a particular place associated with region, social class, and ethnic group.
What is linguistics anthropology and what does it study?
It is the scientific study of language. It studies human communication, especially non-Western languages.
What are the differences between human and non-human languages?
Productivity, displacement, and non-human primates rely on a call system.
What is productivity?
The ability to create an infinite number of novel and understandable messages.
What is displacement?
The ability to communicate about the past, the future, and imaginary things.
What are the formal properties of verbal languages?
Phonemes, morphemes, syntax (grammar), and lexicon or vocabulary.
What is focal vocabulary?
Words that refer to important features of a particular culture. Example: different ways of starting a conversation.
What is semantics/ethno-semantics?
The study of meaning of words, phrases, and sentences (in a particular culture). In anthropology we study ethno-semantics.
What is an example of ethno-semantics?
Free speech movement (Martin Luther King…etc.)
What is heteroglossia?
Leaning how and what to speak in a particular social situation.
What are the types of non-verbal communication?
Sign language, gestures which are usually movements of hands, greetings (formal and informal), and silence.
When does the Western Apache of Arizona use silence?
Meeting a stranger, early stages of courting, coming home after long absence, and getting cussed out.
What is an example of focal vocabulary?
The word ‘show’ Circumpolar languages, ‘camel’ in Arabic, and ‘rain’ in Bengali.
What is silence?
It is a form of non-verbal communication related to status, power, and culture.
What are the different types of body language?
Cultural inscriptions of the body, cultural specific, eye contact, color of clothing, and head covering.
What is an example of non-verbal communication in a culture?
In Japan, bowing is a sign of respect or gratitude.
What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (linguistic relativity principle)?
A perspective that language has the power to shape the way people see the world and our behaviour.
What is an example of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
A language that has different pronouns for men and women forces its speakers to think of men and women as radically different kinds of beings.
What is sociolinguistics?
The study of how cultural and social contexts shape language.
What is a cultural constructionist argument?
A person’s context and social position shape the content, form and meaning of their language.
How did the origin and history of language come about?
Proto-Indo-European language (10,000 - 50,000 years ago) is the hypothetical early parent language. It is believed several languages today have developed from a single language.
What is historical linguistic?
The study of language change through history.
What is concept of language family?
Languages descended from a parent language.
