Chapter 9

Question 1

What is language?

Answer 1

System of arbitrary vocal symbols we use to encode our experiences of the world and of one another

Question 2

What is Dialect?

Answer 2

Way of speaking in a particular place associated with region, social class, ethnic group

Question 3

What are the features that distinguish human language from communication between other living beings?

Answer 3

Productivity: ability to create an infinite number of novel and understandable messages
Displacement: ability to communicate about past, future and imaginary things

Question 4

What do non human primates rely on to communicate?

Answer 4

Call system

Question 5

Formal properties of verbal language?

Answer 5

Phonemes, Morphemes, syntax, lexicon

Question 6

What does linguistic anthropology study?

Answer 6

Aspects of human communication, verbal and non-verbal languages, role of language is mass media, changes of languages.

Question 7

Focal vocabularies and an example.

Answer 7

Words that refer to important features of a particular culture.
Ex. Snow in circumpolar languages, Camel in Arabic

Question 8

Semantics

Answer 8

Study of meanings of words, phrases, sentences

Question 9

Ethno-semantics

Answer 9

meaningful words and phrases in specific cultural contexts

Question 10

Heteroglossia

Answer 10

Coexistence of multiple varieties of specific language

Question 11

What is the use of silence often related to?

Answer 11

Status, power, culture

Question 12

What are ways the body can convey meaning?

Answer 12

Tattoos, piercing, dress, fair, odours.

Question 13

What does a head covering signify in Kuwait versus Egypt?

Answer 13

Wealth (Kuwait) and being a good muslim (Egypt).

Question 14

Who introduced linguistic relativity? What does it mean?

Answer 14

Franz Boas. Each language should be studied on its own terms and not in relation to European languages.

Question 15

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

Answer 15

Language has the power to shape the way we see the world

Question 16

What is part of the linguistic relativity principle?

Answer 16

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, structure of given language will affect the way speaker withink, language determines how we see the world and our behaviour. (Linguistic Determinism)

Question 17

What is Sociolinguistics?

Answer 17

The study of how cultural and social contexts shape language.

Question 18

What is a cultural constructionist’s argument?

Answer 18

A person’s context and social position shape the content, form and meaning of their language

Question 19

Sociolinguistics examines language in relation to:

Answer 19

Class, gender, ethnicity, age, profession, sexual orientation.

Question 20

What is an example of studying language in relation to age?

Answer 20

Kogals in Japan, teen girls who dress very specifically and challenge female norms through speech.

Question 21

What is the hypothetical early parent language?

Answer 21

Proto-Indo European

Question 22

Where do the earliest written languages come from?

Answer 22

Mesopotamia, Egyptand China

Question 23

What is a pidgin? How is it associated with colonialism?

Answer 23

Languages comprising two or more other languages, not written. Came from communication need in trade and contact.

Question 24

What is an example of a pidgin language?

Answer 24

Tol Pisin of Papua New Guinea (English, Samoan, Chinese, Malaysian)

Question 25

What is a creole?

Answer 25

Elaborated and expanded pidgin language

Question 26

What was Lord Macaulay’s position of Colonialism in India in 1835?

Answer 26

Want to form a class of people who are racially Indian but “English in opinions, morals”, etc…

Question 27

What are some examples of nationalist language policies? What do they promote?

Answer 27

Soviet promotion of Russian and suppression of indigenous languages, english only movement in US, bilingualism in Canada, Urdu as nation language for east pakistan and west pakistan. They all promote ethnic assimilation.

Question 28

What are the categories of endangered languages?

Answer 28

Language shift: speakers have limited vocab.

Endangerment: fewer than 10000 speakers

Near extinction: fewer elders alive

Extinction: no competent speakers

Question 29

Why is it important for anthropologists to know the local languages?

Answer 29

Communicate when doing fieldwork, understanding language can help understand culture, see through informants perspective.

Question 30

What are some challenges with linguistic anthropology fieldwork?

Answer 30

Some words can not be translated through languages, observer can alter speaker’s language use.

Question 31

What is special about the Piraha of Brazil?

Answer 31

Their language questions the universality of human language. Lacks displacement feature. Not many words related to time, no past tense verbs, no numbers, only speak one language, little art.

Question 32

Who studied the Piraha?

Answer 32

Daniel Everett

Question 33

What is an example of big data use in linguistic anthropology?

Answer 33

Cell phone call study analyzing call trends in European country

Question 34

What is narrative therapy?

Answer 34

Used to treat refugees. Allows survivors to recount their stories. Success depends on openess of culture (worked well for Bosnian refugees)

Question 35

What is an example of silence being related to social status?

Answer 35

Daughter in law has lowest status in house so doesn’t speak much (Rural Siberia).

Question 36

What is media anthropology?

Answer 36

cross-cultural study of communication through electronic media and print media

Question 37

What is critical discourse analysis?

Answer 37

approach within linguistic anthropology that examines how power and social inequality are reflected in and reproduced through verbal language

Question 38

What are logographs?

Answer 38

Symbols that indicate words, syllables or sounds