Lecture 4: Language and Communication Flashcards
primate call systems
•natural communication system that consists of a limited number of sounds (calls) produced only when environmental stimuli are encountered
non-human primate language
- Kanzi
- Koko: ASL
- Washoe: ASL
- Lucy: ASL
Distictive features of Language
•cultural transmission
•communication system through learning is a fundamental attribute of language
•productivity
•change and new symbols/words can be created
ex: jorts
•displacement
•language is not bound to specific times, situations, or
places; abstract
ex: Last Thursday (talking about the past)
•conventionality
•language is a constant force but is able to change
over time
FOXP2
- Gene that can allow or restrict people from speaking
* 150000 yrs ago we developed this ability
nonverbal communication
•Human symbol systems are complex as well as their gestures and vocalizations
ex: nodding, shaking hands to greet
focal vocabulary
•set of terms and definitions that certain groups of people come to share by way of mutual interest and participation in certain activities
ex: vernacular, coke instead of soda?
semantics
• language’s meaning system
syntax
•the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
phoneme/phonology
•sound contrast that makes a difference; differentiates meaning
ex: read
•study of speech sounds; considers what sounds are present and meaningful in a given language
minimal pairs
•words that resemble each other in all but one sound
ex: purr/purse; Bit/Pit
morpheme/morphology
•words and their meaningful parts
ex:
• studies how sounds combine words;
Noam Chomsky & universal grammar
•he argues that as humans we have a born, innate language
“Colorless green ideas sleep furiously”-surface structure is meaningless is recognized as sentence; deep structure = intelligible
deep structure/surface strructure
- the abstract representation of the syntactic structure of a sentence.
- the structure of a well-formed phrase or sentence in a language, as opposed to its underlying abstract representation.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• Edward Sapir/Benjamin Whorf
the structure of a language determines a native speaker’s perception and categorization of experience
style shifts
•switching dialects
sociolinguistics
•the study of language in relation to social factors, including differences of regional, class, and occupational dialect, gender differences, and bilingualism.
symbolic capital
•the resources available to an individual on the basis of honor, prestige or recognition, and serves as value that one holds within a culture.
AA Vernacular English and Stigmatization
- the variety of English natively spoken by most working- and middle-class African Americans particularly in urban communities.Having its own unique grammatical, vocabulary, and accent features
- AAVE is stigmatized bc AA people themselves are stigmatized
American Tongues
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