Exam 2 Flashcards
why is language death and revitalization important? What do we loose?
Language represents the most creative, pervasive aspects of culture. It is a way to see different perspectives of the human mind. Without it we loose the opportunity to appreciate a different capacity of the human mind.
Leonard Bloomfield (1933) definition of speech community
A group of people who use the same speech signals are a speech community.
John Gumperz 1986
any human aggregate characterized by frequent and regular interaction by means of a shared body of verbal signs and set off from similar aggregates by significant differences in language use.
John Gumperz later
a field of action where the distribution of linguistic variants is a reflection of social facts.
William Labov on Speech communities
an attitudinal community that involves participation in a set of shared norms and shared patterns of variation or evaluation of linguistic behavior.
S. Pit Corder on Speech communities
Is made up of people that regard themselves as speaking the same language it need not have no other defining attributes.
Global Hip Hop Speech Community
Is interesting because is not linguisticly or physically located but bound by politics, culture, social norms and shared gestures and style over language use.
Guru and MC Solar
You do not have to speak the same language to belong to the same speech community.
What are language ideologies? Why should we study them? Why are they important as a concept?
They are beliefs and ideas about languages as used in the social world. They are important to study because they demonstrate how language use and communication practices change and evolve over time..
Genetic vs Ideological model of language change
Silverstein. Genetic: language changes slowly, rate of mutation over time. mindsets change over time
Ideological: Changes not just because of slow migration but also due to people’s ideas of a language. Often rooted in who speaks it and who that group is.
Michael Silverstein
Sets of beliefs about language articulated by users as a rationalization or justification of perceived language structure and use. An example is the change of generic he.
What is the relationship between anger and knowledge in Gapun?
Anger and knowledge are said to be dangerous when admitted.
Sex vs gender
Gender (something done or performed) is socially constructed while sex is what someone has.
The female deficit theory
Women must be trained to be assertive because they have a natural deficiency in their personality.
The Dual cultural model
-Daniel Maltz and Ruth Borker: wanted to provide a cultural explanation in gendered speech. Tried comparing cross-ethnic communications to gendered different communicaitons. Problem was that ethnicity is not gender. Their argument was that men and women came from different linguistic sub-cultures
What are some examples of the dual cultural model
positive versus delayed minimal responses in men and women.
The Power Model
Nancy Henlie, Barrie Thorne, challenged Maltz and Borker.Argued that miscommunication results NOT JUST from different socialization patterns for girls and boys; these patterns must also be understood as indicative and constitutive of existing inequalities between women and men
Gender Socialization
Imprinted from the moment of birth. Women in pink boys with trucks. Family’s gender norms, chores, etc.
The myth of venus and mars
simple proposition that men and women communicate differently.
What is the goal of the countless self help books?
To explain that gender-based communication problems are natural. The thoery is that women are the communicators. Solution is equal but separate mentality.
Danny’s conversation
Debra Cameron about conversational analysis. Had her students go out and do this. Students sat down with three guys and recorded a conversation then said we have men’s speech. But she went back and said actually in any conversation you can find conversations where men are speaking like women and vice versus. People go into this with preconceived ideas and can find anything they went. Men gossip too women watch sports and drink.
cooperation versus competition as formal features.
Cooperating but competing to speak. When you look at transcriptions can see overlaps and notice power.
Judith Butler
Gender is not something we have in an unchanging way. It is something that we do. Constantly reaffirmed and publicly displayed by repeatedly performing particular acts that conform to cultural norms about femininity or masculinity
Robin Lakoff
Female Deficit Theory
