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Anthropology (Linguistics) > Module 7 > Flashcards

Module 7 Flashcards

1
Q

Semantics

A
  • The study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences
    ~Traditional approaches to semantics seek to determine the inherent ‘meaning’ that has been assigned to a word
    -What does ‘green’ mean?
    ~Green
    *The color between yellow and blue on the color spectrum
    **The color GREEN
    *Consisting of fresh vegetables
    **A GREEN salad
    *Eco-friendly
    **The school is trying to be GREEN
    *Young/unripe
    **The fruit is GREEN
    *Inexperienced
    **A GREEN intern
    -Trying to determine the minimal and crucial elements of the meaning that words have in order to be used and understood between speakers (underlying meaning)
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2
Q

Semantic features

A

-Features describe some aspect of meaning that is inherent in the word
~For nouns, we can consider qualities or properties of the noun
*Animate vs inanimate (+/- animate)
*Male vs. Female (+/- female)
*Age (+/- old)
~Consider the words ‘table,’ ‘boy,’ ‘man,’ and ‘woman’
*Are they
**+/- animate
**+/- female
**+/- old
Table = -animate, -female, -old
**“oldness” depends on the table, so might be useful semantic
**Tables and other inanimate objects don’t have gender, so “female” might not be useful feature for this category of nouns
**Boy = +animate, -female, -old
**Man = +animate, -female, +old
**Woman = +animate, +female, +old
**How would you describe “girl” in terms of semantic features?
** +animate, +female, -old

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3
Q

Semantic Roles

A

-There’s more to words than just their basic, inherent meanings
~Most of the time, we don’t produce words in isolation
-Words also serve a function within a sentence
-For this class, we’ll focus on the roles of nouns
~Nouns are words that refer to things (bed), people (grandma), animals (Giraffe), places (Albuquerque), qualities (loudness), abstract concepts (freedom), or types of actions (jumping)
-Nouns can fill different roles in a sentence
~Agent
~Theme (patient)
~Instrument
~Experiencer
~Location
~Source
~Goal

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4
Q

Agent

A

-The entity that preforms or causes the main action (the verb) in the sentence
~THE BOY broke the window
~THE STORM flattened the crops
~THE CAT drank the milk

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5
Q

Theme (Patient)

A 
-The entity that is affected by the verb. The theme can also be an entity that is being described (not actively involved in an event)
~The boy broke THE WINDOW
~The storm flatten THE CROPS
~The cat drank THE MILK
~THE WALL is white
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6
Q

Instrument

A

-The entity used by the agent to cause the verb
-In English, often appears with “with”
~She cut the paper with SCISSORS
~He ate the soup with A SPOON
~He used A FORK to poke his brother

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7
Q

Experiencer

A

-An entity that has a feeling or perception (rather than actively doing anything, as with an agent)
~SALLY feels happy
~THE OLD WOMAN heard the kids in the yard
~HE sensed someone else in the room

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8
Q

Location

A

-Where an entity is or where the event happens
~He sat in THE ROOM
~At THE STORE, they give away free samples

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9
Q

Source and Goal

A

-When an event involves movement from one place to another, where an entity moves from is the SOURCE, and where it moves to is the GOAL
~She moved from CHICAGO to ALBUQUERQUE
~She threw the ball to ME from THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FIELD

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10
Q

Lexical Relations

A

-We can define words in terms of their features
-We can define words in terms of their role they play in a sentence
-We can also define words in terms of their relationships with other words
~Synonymy
~Hyponymy
~Homophones
~Polysemy
~Antonymy
~Prototypes
~Homonymy
~Metonymy

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11
Q

Synonymy

A

-Two or more words with very closely related meanings
~They can often be substituted for each other, but sometimes there are subtle differences in meaning
*Almost/Nearly
*Big/Large
*Couch/Sofa
*Buy/Purchase

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12
Q

Antonymy

A

-Two words with opposite meanings
~Opposite of synonymy
~They can be gradable antonyms: opposites along a scale
*Big/Small, Long/Short, Rich/Poor
~The can be non-gradual antonyms: direct opposites
*Alive/Dead, True/False
~They can be reversive antonyms: word that are the reverse of each other
*Pack/Unpack, Enter/Exit, Dress/Undress

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13
Q

Hyponomy

A 
-When the meaning ofone word included in the meaning of another
~Animal/dog
*'Dog' is a hyponym of 'animal'
*Dogs are subtype of animal
~Tree/Pine
~Dish/Plate
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14
Q

Prototypes

A

-The most characteristic instance of a category
~Typically, the thing you picture of imagine when you hear a word
~What’s the prototype for “bird”?

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15
Q

Homophones

A 
-When tow words are spelled differently but have the same pronunciation
~bare/bear
~right/write
~night/knight
~sole/soul
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16
Q

Homonyms

A

-When two (or more) words are spelled the same and pronounced the same, but have different, unrelated meanings
~Sole (single)/ sole (of the foot)
~Pen (writing instrument)/ pen (enclosed space)

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17
Q

Polysemy

A

-When a word has multiple related meaning
~Foot (of a bed, person, mountain)
~Face (of a person, clock)
~Mail (letters and bills, the act of sending something to someone)

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18
Q

Homonymy vs Polysemy

A

-How can you tell if you have two homonymous words or one polysemous word?
-Are the different meaning similar in some fundamental way?
~Bat (flying creature vs instrument for hitting things)
~Green (the color vs ‘consisting of fresh vegetables’)
-When in doubt, check the dictionary
~Homonyms usually have their one entries.. polysemous words usually only have one entry

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19
Q

Metonymy

A

-When a word is used to refer to another concept it is closely related to
`~For exapmle, words can be related in different ways: container/contents relationships, like bottle/water; or a whole/part relationship, like house/roof; or representative/symbol relationship (king/crown, president/White House)
*If we say “The White House declines to respond to theses allegations,” “the White House” is a metonym for “the President”
*If we say “Table 2 ordered three waters,” “waters” is a metonym for “cups of water”

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20
Q

Collocation

A

-Words which occur frequently together
~Words which occur frequently together may become associated with each other
*“bread” is associated with “butter”
*Collocations can be determined with corpus linguistics: analysis of large samples of language

21
Q

Pragmatics

A

-The study of speaker meaning- what speakers mean (and what listeners infer)
~Semantics is focused on meaning inherent to words or phrases
~Social dynamics between speakers and context contribute to meaning as well - this is primary interest of pragmatics

22
Q

Common ground

A
  • Speakers interacting with one another share some degree
    ~Shared assumptions and expectations
    ~More is always being communicated than is being said
    *We can recognize what a person means even when they don’t explicitly say something
    -The more intimate the relationship between speakers, the more common ground they share
    ~Common ground between strangers
    *General knowledge of human nature and human physical makeup (knowledge of human physical experiences like sight, sound, touch), general societal knowledge (social conventions like laws of politeness)
    ~Common ground between close friends or family
    *All of the above and shared interests, experiences, memories; shared knowledge of each others’ personalities, desires, and perspectives
23
Q

Context

A 
-Addition to common ground, we use context to inform our understanding
~Physical Context
~Social Context
~Linguistic Context
~Epistemic Context
24
Q

Physical Context

A

-Where you are, what you’re doing, who you’re with
~Your homework is right here
~What “here” means depends on the physical context
~”Here” is an example of deixis

25
Q

Deixis

A

-The use of words whose meaning is relative to the context
~”Pointing words,” words used to point to a person, place, or time
~Person deixis: me, you, him, her, us, them, that woman, etc.
~Spatial deixis: here, there, beside you, near that, above that, behind that
~Temporal deixis: now, then, last week, later, tomorrow, yesterday

26
Q

Social Context

A

-The social relationship between participants
~Could I borrow your notes, please?
~Hey, give me your notes

27
Q

Linguistic Context

A

-Previous and following words
~Molly went to Linguistic class. Did she enjoy the lesson?
~Yeah
~Yeah, right

28
Q

Epistemic Context

A

-Background knowledge of participants
~Are you going to the show on Friday?
*Speaker assumes listener knows which show the speaker is asking about

29
Q

Speech Acts

A

-Most speech acts (times where people talk or sign) are produced for a reason
-When people speak, they preform different “actions” to achieve different ends
~Requesting
~Commanding
~Informing
~Questioning
~Etc.

30
Q

Direct Speech Act

A
  • When the structure of the utterance matches the speaker’s intended action
    ~Can you ride a bicycle? = question
    ~He rode the bicycle. = statement
    ~Ride the bike! = command
31
Q

Indirect Speech Act

A
  • The structure of the utterance doesn’t match the speaker’s interactions.
    ~Can you pass the salt?
    *Question structure
    *But we are not asking if the person is physically capable of passing the salt… it is usually a request to pass the salt
    ~It’s cold in here
    *Statement structure
    *But are we just making an observation… or asking somebody to turn down the air conditioner?
    *It could be a request
32
Q

Polite

A

-We often use indirect speech acts
~Would you open the door?
~Open the door.
But we can direct speech acts and be polite as well
**Open the door, please
**And we can use indirect speech acts to be rude
**How stupid can you be?
-In most societies, some type of politeness is expected in mutual interactions
~Politeness is being aware of and showing consideration for another person’s face
*Face is one’s public self-image
*What is considered “polite” varies from society to society

33
Q

Face-threatening

A

-If you say something that represents a threat to another person’s self image
~If you say something that insults, belittles, or undermines the person you’re talking to
Give me your notes
**Suggests you have authority over the other person
**Either you are in charge, or you know the other person well enough that they will not take offense at you bossing the around

34
Q

Face-saving

A

-If you say something that lessens the threat to another person’s self-image
~If you say something that compliments or reinforces the other person’s value or sense of worth
Could I see your notes please?
**Removes that assumption
**Puts the power in the listener’s hands

35
Q

Two forms of interactions

A

-Positive Face
-Negative Face
~Different ‘sides’ of a person’s face
*An individual may be more strongly attuned to one or the other, but everyone has both

36
Q

Positive Face

A

-The need to be connected, wanted, needed; the need to be part of the group

37
Q

Negative Face

A

-The need to be independent and free from imposition

38
Q

Discourse Analysis

A

-The study of language in text and conversation
-We have to be able to put words into sentences, and then engage in extended discourse with other speakers of the language
~Language is usually reciprocal- it is a joint effort between two or more speakers
-Interested in the different strategies people use to navigate their reciprocal nature of language
~Rather than looking at meaning in the sense of: “what does this word or phrase mean?,” we want to know “what does it mean when a speaker pauses?” or “how dose a speaker know it’s their turn to talk?”
-We are not always successful at following the maxims
-But we are generally aware of the expectation that we will follow them. When people talk, they often say things in a way that shows concern about whether or not they are meeting the maxims
-Which maxim do you think the speakers of the following sentences are concerned about?
~I may be mistaken, but I thought I saw a wedding ring on his finger (Quality Maxim)
~I won’t bore you with the details, but it wasn’t pleasant (Quantity maxim)

39
Q

Conversational Analysis

A

-When we are studying conversation, in particular

40
Q

Turn-talking

A
  • We use different strategies to signal to one another that we want to continue our turn, or that we are ready for the other person to start talking
  • We can signal that we are done with out own turn by asking a question, or pausing and waiting for the other speaker to contribute
41
Q

Bachchanneling

A
  • We can signal that we a listening to what another person is saying by saying “yeah,” “uhuh,” “I see,” or repeating what the other person just said)
42
Q

Filled Pause

A

-If we want to continue speaking; we might use “umm,” “er,” “well,” etc.

43
Q

Cooperative Principle

A

-All participants agree to make conversational contribution as required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of exchange in which you are engaged, keeping in mind the four Maxims of cooperation

44
Q

Four Maxims for cooperation

A
  • Quantity maxim
  • Quality maxim
  • Relation maxim
  • Manner maxim
45
Q

Quantity Maxim

A

-Make your contribution as required, no more or less
-What do you want for dinner?
~Pizza
~Well I think that maybe I would like some sort of dough with sauce and cheese on it that has been baked in an oven to crispy perfection, something I can sprinkle with a little parmesan, then eat with my hands

46
Q

Quality Maxim

A

-Do not say that which you believe to be false or foe which you lack adequate evidence
~Telling the truth vs. telling a lie
~Making a statement that you can support with evidence vs. Claiming something as fact when you just thought it up in your head

47
Q

Relation maxim

A

-Be relevant
-What would you like for dinner?
~Pizza
~The other day, I went to school and found a used sock on the ground

48
Q

Manner maxim

A

-Be clear, brief, and orderly
-What do you want for dinner?
~Pizza
~Well uh I think um the other day well we had un Indian food yesterday well no maybe that was Thursday well uh I was thinking oh wait did I tell you about that new restaurant down the street well maybe I would like, well I would like, uh hm pizza?

49
Q

Hedges

A

-Trying to sensitive to the maxims of cooperative conversation
-Word/phrases used to indicate that we’re not sure if we’re meeting the maxims, or to show that we’re not sure if what we’re saying is correct or complete
~”sort of” “as far as I know…” “I think it’s possible that…”

Anthropology (Linguistics) (15 decks)

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