Communication and Culture

Question 1

All Animals Communicate

Answer 1

• A way to transmit information – sender, message, recipient
• NHP have “languages”, too, usually, a series of call signals
• Nearest NHP relatives can learn simple sign language
• “community”
• Multiple forms of communications

Question 2

More than just a language —- Multiple forms of communication

Answer 2

• Facial expressions
• Body language (kinesics)
• Use of space (proxemics)
• Haptic communication (touch)
• Tone of voice
• Mathematics, Music
• Clothing
• Emojis
• handshakes
• The history of unique black
• DAP (Dignity and Pride)

Question 3

What is a language

Answer 3

• A form of communication that is a systematic set of arbitrary sounds shared among a group and passed on from generation to generation
• lingua “tongue”
• Language is only one form of communication, there are several others.

Question 4

Whats the System?

Answer 4

• A system of sounds that when put together according to certain rules results in meanings
• Systematic nature of language is usually unconscious

Question 6

How is it Symbolic?

Answer 6

• Different languages have different sounds for the same thing — the sounds have no inherent meaning
• Symbols are arbitrary and conventional
  
  • Language conveys information (danger; predator; mate) but also meaning
• Sometimes the meaning changes and sometimes users’ knowledge about the development of the symbol is incomplete
  
  • Dog?
  • Predator?
  • Seminal?
• Sometimes we think some words are flowery and poetic and other words are matter of fact, but a language is always representing something else (REALITY)– in this way, it’s always symbolic

Question 7

Cognitive Frameworks

Answer 7

• Language is tied to our ability to categorize what we observe around us
  
  • We categorize the natural and social world on the basis of recognizable differences
  • These categories serve as our guides for living
  • A child learning a language acquires social competence i.e. the ability to recognize and interpret what’s going on and why it matters

Question 8

Sapir-Whorf

Answer 8

• The notion that a person’s language shapes her or his perceptions and view of the world, and consequently their behaviour.
• We never know the world “as it is”
• Language demarcates reality, thereby framing human experience, cognition, and action
• Each language creates a distinct model for understanding the world
  
  • Hopi language does not distinguish btw past, present and future tense
• Benjamin Lee Whorf 1897 - 1941
• Edward Sapir 1884-1939

Criticisms of Sapir-Whorf

• If language determines thought, then language must precede thought
• Differences are not in thought, but in ways of expressing the same thoughts
  
  • if this were not so then it would be impossible to translate
• General view now is that language sets up a filter between the human being and the world
  
  • heightens certain perceptions and dims others
  • enables and limits

Question 9

Your Brain on Language

Answer 9

• Broca’s area – speech production
  
  • left frontal lobe, near the primary motor cortex
• Broca’s aphasia – a condition in which people can understand but not produce language
• Wernicke’s area – comprehension
  
  • left temporal lobe near the primary auditory cortex
• Wernicke’s aphasia – a condition in which people can produce but not understand speech

Question 10

Non-human Primate Language

Answer 10

In an effort to circumvent this physical limitation, researchers have taught some aspects of American Sign Language to chimpanzees and gorillas with some startling results

Question 11

Descriptive Linguistics

Answer 11

Descriptive linguistics examines (describes) the structure of a particular language with respect to the ways the systems of sounds and grammar are put together to create meaning.

Question 12

Historial Linguistics

Answer 12

• The pronunciation of words, the meanings of words, and the grammar also change over time. They also change for a variety of reasons, and the study of these changes is known as historical linguistics.
• Changes in the meanings of words can also reflect changing cultural values.
• Languages also change due to linguistic borrowing.
• speech community: People who share a set of norms about how to speak and expectations about how language is used

Question 13

The Mechanics of Language

Answer 13

• Phonemic systems
• Morphemes
• Grammar
  
  • rules governing the construction of morphemes
  • syntax
• All languages have rules and principles governing what sounds are to be used and how they are to be combined to convey meaning.

Question 14

Phonemic Systems

Answer 14

• The smallest unit of sound is called a phoneme. The differences in sound between phonemes create differences in meaning.
• A phone is the representation of a phoneme (a sound)
  
  • Cat becomes [c] [a] [t]
• Contrasts between phones do not occur naturally
• The phonemic system of a given language consists of sets of phones that speakers perceive as contrastive
• In English we distinguish [p] and [b], so pat and bat are distinct; not so in Arabic

Question 15

Morphemes

Answer 15

• A morpheme, on the other hand, is the smallest unit of speech that conveys meaning.
• The smallest units of human language that have a definite meaning
• Made up single phonemes or a combination of phonemes
• There are free morphemes and bound morphemes

Question 16

Grammar — Syntax

Answer 16

• Syntax = unconscious rules governing the formation of morphemes into sentences
  
  • colourless green ideas sleep furiously
  • furiously sleep ideas green colourless
• Forming plural nouns in English
  
  • /-s/, /-ez/, and /-z/ - cats, houses, and hands – these are three allomorphs – variations in sound and spelling that don’t change the meaning
• Phonemes and morphemes are combined to create words according to a highly complex set of rules that make up the grammar of a language.
  
  • grammar: The systematic rules by which sounds are combined in a language to enable users to send and receive meaningful utterances.
• The principles guiding how words are arranged into phrases and sentences is known as syntax. Different languages have different sets of rules governing what sounds can be used, how they are to be combined to create words, and how the words are to be arranged to create meaningful communication. Most of us learn these rules by the time we are three, and so apply them unconsciously.

Question 17

Social Context of Speech

Answer 17

• Speech has social consequences
• Grammatical rules are important, but they are likely overridden by social rules when it comes to “appropriate” speech
  
  • Pragmatics – the rules or conventions for using language appropriately in social situations
• Language is a code for factual and social information

Question 18

Sociolinguistics

Answer 18

• Study of language(s) in relation to society - Social Uses of Language
• Whenever we speak we make choices about the words we use and the way we say them. These choices are, to a large extent, influenced by our relationship to the person or people we are speaking with, as well as the context in which the conversation takes place.
• Language expresses, symbolizes and maintains the social order
• Social variables influence a person’s use of language
  
  • Class
  • Gender
  • Status
  • Age
  • Education
  • National/ethnic/ regional identity
• Forms of address, as well as other words or phrases that show respect and thus encode social status, are known as honorifics.
• In Canadian society, the reciprocal use of first names indicates a friendly, informal relationship between equals.
• When we address people in English we often use a title, a first or given name, and a last or family name. Professor Elizabeth Green, for example, could be addressed as Dr. Green, Ma’am, Professor, Ms. Green, Elizabeth, darling, Doc, Prof, or Beth, depending on who is doing the addressing and in what circumstances. One would not expect that her mother or husband would refer to her as Ma’am, or that her students would call her Beth.
• genderlects: Varieties of speech associated with particular genders.
• women use a rising, questioning intonation when making statements, known as a “high rising terminal” or uptalk, twice as often as men
  
  • Linneman suggests that this difference is related to competitiveness and uncertainty, and that women use it as a way to compensate for their success.
• In mixed conversations among North Americans, men tend to interrupt women more, take longer turns speaking, and leave shorter periods of silence between speakers than women. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to listen more and make more supportive minimal responses, such as saying “mm hm” or “uh huh,” “yes,” “really,” and nodding the head. These minimal responses are a form of paralanguage that indicate the listener is actually listening and supporting what the speaker says and have little referential meaning. They are called backchannels and serve primarily a social function.

Question 19

Performatives

Answer 19

• Speech acts that accomplish goals or change the world – words as social acts “illocutionary force” (John Austin 1911-1960)
  
  • “They’re married” vs “I now pronounce you..”

Question 20

Paralanguage and Non-Verbal Language

Answer 20

• Non-verbal language: the various means by which humans send and receive messages without using words.
  
  • Like language, nonverbal forms of communication are arbitrary and have to be learned, and therefore vary from one culture to another.
  • Kinesics and Proxemics
• Kinesics: A form of nonverbal communication involving the interpretation of bodily movement.
  
  • hand gestures
  • facial expressions
  • posture
• Proxemics: A form of nonverbal communication that involves how people use space.
  
  • Edward Hall
  • It involves not only how people orient themselves to one another, but also how we organize space in places such as offices, houses, and even cities.
  • Hall identified four types of distance (intimate, personal, social, and public), each with a near, close, and far phase, which people try to maintain between one another. The distances are a reflection of how we perceive and maintain our relationship with others.
  • As with other forms of nonverbal communication, the standards for the use of space vary from one culture to another and are thus learned.
• Paralanguage: aspects of verbal language that shape its delivery
  
  • A nonverbal form of communication that accompanies words and helps to convey their meaning as well as expressing the emotional state of the speaker.
  • Paralanguage not taught formally, but our understanding usually precedes the use of words - infants are highly responsive to speech tones
  • Prosodic features of speech, including tone, speed, rhythm, pitch – also voices cracking, speech modulation, rapid eye movement,
  • Paralanguage is not generally taught in school but is learned before we understand the meaning of words, and can be seen in the way infants (and even some animals) respond to the tone or loudness, or the way things are said.
• Haptic communication: A form of nonverbal communication that involves touch.

Question 21

High and Low Context

Answer 21

• Proposed by Hall
• Low-context cultures (US/Can, Scandinavia, and Germany) tend to be rational, individualistic and action-oriented
  
  • low-context=informal
  • In low-context cultures, such as Canada, the United States, and most of Western Europe, however, people strive to communicate in a way that is precise, straightforward, and unambiguous.
  • We are expected to “tell it like it is” and avoid “beating around the bush.” Words are taken literally and are more important than how they are said
• High-context cultures (Japan, Arab-speakers) – speakers and listeners must coordinate their meaning from the context – tend to be collectivist
  
  • High-context=formal;
  • In high-context cultures found in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America, communication tends to be ambiguous, implicit, and inexact.
  • How something is said is often more important than what is said. With much less emphasis placed on words, high-context cultures rely heavily on nonverbal cues and social context to derive meaning.
• People from high-context societies see silence as useful; they tolerate intermittent periods of silence so as to gain a better understanding of their communication partners. On the other hand, direct communicators, such as the majority of North Americans, avoid silence at all costs.
• Is the notion of formality ethnocentric – formal according to whom?

Question 22

Language Change, Creoles and Dialects

Answer 22

• Language is constantly changing
• Language as boundary mechanism
  
  • the Queen’s English vs Cockney English
  • Slang
• lingua franca: A common language that people use to communicate when they do not share same native or first language
  
  • english
• Pidgin
  
  • Simplified language used btw groups as a means of communication
  • Pidgins are built from words from the mother tongues of the speakers and have a basic vocabulary and simplified grammar
  • They are not spoken by anyone as a native language but are learned as a second language and develop over time simply as a means of communication where no common communication language exists, and usually for limited purposes such as trade.
• creole: A pidgin that has become a mother tongue or native language.
  
  • Where people learn the pidgin language as a mother tongue with a larger vocabulary and fully developed grammatical system which serves many functions, it becomes a creole language.
• Tok Pisin (Talk Pidgin), spoken in Papua New Guinea. Tok Pisin grew out of a pidgin consisting of English and some of the regional languages when English traders and settlers interacted with the local people
• Chinook Jargon, Canada & US. First Nations groups who spoke different languages. Developed to communicate and trade with one another. Eventually English came in. Now extinct.
• Haitian Creole is first language of about 95% of Haitians
  
  • French-based with heavy influence of African languages
  • Spoken in official/formal settings including schools
• Mixed languages: A language that results from the fusion of two languages, in which the grammatical elements come from one and much of the vocabulary from the other.
  
  • A good example of a mixed language is Michif, the traditional language of Canada’s Métis. Most of the nouns in Michif come from French, while the verbs and grammar come mostly from Cree or Ojibwe.
• international auxiliary language: An invented language used for communication between people lacking a common language.
  
  • esperanto
• artlang: A language created for artistic purposes to provide a sense of realism in novels, television shows, online games, and movies.
  
  • Dothraki from Game of Thrones, Na’vi spoken by the alien race in the 2009 film Avatar, Elvish used in Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings

Dialects

• dialect: A regional or class variation of a language.
  
  • One of these variants often forms the standard language.
• Standard languages are often the polite form of language spoken by the upper classes in a society
  
  • Standard Canadian English (SCE) is a combination of British English and American English.
  • Standard English (SE) spoken in Britain, which is sometimes referred to as “the Queen’s English” or “BBC English.”
• The standard accent is called the received pronunciation and is the variant that tends to have the most prestige

Question 23

Multilingualism

Answer 23

• Most peoples (if not people) mixed with other language groups
• Contemporary English speakers seem to “buck the trend”

Question 24

Diglossia and Code Switching

Answer 24

• In some multi-lingual societies diglossia occurs (e.g. Burma)
  
  • Two forms of language – high and low form
  • the situation in which two languages or forms of the same language are spoken by people in the same language community at different times and places.
• Code-switching
  
  • Language choice makes a political or symbolic statement
  • Speakers of two or more languages or varieties of one language switch between the two, depending on the social context.
  • Code switching is seen quite dramatically in complex societies made up of a number of special interest groups, each with its own specialized vocabulary.
• Bi- or multi- linguals choose depending on
  
  • (1) location of interaction
  • (2) degree of formality
  • (3) degree of intimacy
• The term diglossia refers to situations when two distinct codes exist in the speech community, and these two codes are kept apart in their functions. The classic definition of diglossia by Ferguson (1959) has been in usage ever since for identifying diglossic situations: “DIGLOSSIA is a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to the primary dialects of the language … there is a very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically more complex) superimposed variety, the vehicle of a large and respective body of written literature …which is learned largely by formal education and is used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not used by any sector of the community for ordinary conversation”. Ferguson: Diglossia. 1959.
• (i) Two distinct varieties of the same language are used in the community, with one regarded as high (or H) variety and the other a low (or L) variety.
• (ii) Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H and L complement each other.
• (iii) No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.

Question 25

Language Loss

Answer 25

• A language becomes dormant or extinct when no one can speak it anymore
• It becomes doomed when the latest generation of children no longer speak the language
• endangered language: A language that is at risk of disappearing because it is not being used by the younger generation.
• extinct language: A language of which the last known speaker has died.
• 61% of languages around the world that were spoken as a first language in 1795 are doomed or extinct
• Only a deliberate effort of revitalization can rescue a doomed language

Question 26

Language Revitalization

Answer 26

• Language provides a major vehicle for cultural transmission
  
  • A (unique?) way of categorizing the world and sharing ideas
  • Language loss=culture loss
• How does revitalization work?
  
  • Recover, maintain, normalize
• FN in Canada
  
  • Bill C-91: An Act Respecting Indigenous Languages
  • https://www.afn.ca/policy-sectors/languages-and-culture/
  • But does this go far enough – does it normalize use? Compare to rights of francophone Canadians

Question 27

How these relate to research in cultural anthropology?

Answer 27

• Speakers make linguistic “choices” based on class, gender, race, etc. as well as the context of the speech event, the topic of discussion, and their communication goals
• To understand these choices, we need to know:
  
  • Explicit and implicit norms for appropriate interaction
  • Information about the speakers – social attributes, familiarity
  • Context of the communication (home, political debate, etc.)
  • Goals of the interlocuters

Question 28

Conclusion

Answer 28

• Communication involves the transmission of information through language and/or nonverbal means
• The content of language is just part of the message (paralanguage, performatives, etc.)
• Language is the major vehicle for cultural transmission
  
  • language loss = culture loss
• All subfields of anthropology are interested in language