LESSON 3 Flashcards
The most common misconception is the belief that unwritten languages
Primitive
Why are certain languages mistakenly thought to be primitive?
if those languages make use of sounds or sound combinations they find indistinct or “inarticulate” because the sounds are greatly different from those of the languages they themselves speak.
Such a view is based on the _____ that the characteristics of one’s own language are obviously superior.
ethnocentric attitude
The Grammar of Non-Western Languages
Some think that languages of people whose societies are not urbanized and industrialized have “little grammar.”
The linguistic anthropologist claims that languages are not functionally equivalent because the role of speech varies from one society to the next.
Dell Hymes
According to him, no known languages are primitive, and all “have achieved the middle status [of full languages but not] the advanced status [of] world languages and some others.
Dell Hymes
