Chapter Eleven Flashcards
Communication
The process of sending and receiving meaningful messages
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
Productivity
A feature of human language whereby people are able to communicate a potentially infinite number of messages efficiently
Call System
A form of oral communication among nonhuman primates with a set repertoire of meaningful sounds generated in response to environmental factors
Displacement
A feature of human language whereby people are able to talk about events in the past and future
Big Data
Sets of information including thousands or even millions of data points that are often generated from internet and communication sources, such as cell phone use, facebooking, and retweeting
Phoneme
A sound that makes a difference for meaning in a spoken language
Ethnosemantics
The stody of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences in particular sign language cultural contexts
Sign Language
A form of communication that uses mainly hand movements to convey messages
Critical Media Anthropology
An approach within the cross-cultural study of media that examines how power interests shape people’s access to media and influence the contents of its messages
Digital Divide
Social inequality in access to new and emerging information technology, notably access to up-to-date computers, the Internet, and training related to their use
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
A perspective in linguistic anthropology, which says that language determines thought
Sociolinguistics
A perspective in linguistic anthropology, which says that culture, society, and a person’s social position determine language
Discourse
Culturally planned verbal language including varities of speech, participation, and meaning
Critical Discourse Analysis
An approach within linguistic anthropology that examines how power and social inequality are reflected and reproduced in communication
Tag question
A question placed at the end of a sentence seeking affirmation
Historical linguistics
The study of language change using formal methods that compare shifts over time and across space in aspects of language, such as phonetics, syntax, and semantics
Language Family
A group of languages descended from a parent language
Logograph
A symbol that conveys meaning through a form or picture resembling that to which it refers
Khipu
Cord of knotted strings used during the Inca Empire for keeping accounts and recording events
Pidgin
A contact language that blends elements of at least two languages and that emerges when people with different languages need to communicate
Creole
A language directly descended from pidgin but possessing its own native speakers and involving linguistic expansion and elaboration
Global language
A language spoken wideley throughout the world and in diverse cultural contexts, often replacing indigenous languages
Textese
An emerging variant of existing English and other languages associated with cell phone communication and involving abbreviations and creative slang
