1. Human Language

2. Language and Culture Language: _________________________
Importance of language for human life
1. only animal capable of _______________
2. avenue of communication & thought concerning abstract concepts, and concrete persons, places, things, actions, & events
3. _____________of culture aided by _________

3. Linguistic Anthropology
Focus on language
________________________
Generally interested in how language changes
Examples:
Comparisons
World economy
Gender
Comparisons
Worldview
Patterns of thought
Multilingualism
World economy
Cross-cultural differences in language use
“differences in context and/or frequency of occurrence”
Implications:
Same language structures with different functions across languages

4. Language and Communication
What is the difference between language and communication?
Communication: Act of transferring information to others 1. 2.
Language can be thought of as a way of communicating

5. Human Language Distinctive
1. Openness (a.k.a. ________)
_________________ to create totally novel sentences and a ___________ to comprehend them
A language’s __________________ can be combined into a infinite number of meaningful sentences

6. Human Language Distinctive
2. Displacement
Our ability to talk about __________ __________________________________
Due to usage of symbols to transmit meanings

7. Human Language Distinctive
3. Arbitrariness
___________________________ between particular linguistic sounds & particular linguistic meanings
Evidence in the design feature of language known as ________________ and ______________
Phonomes: small set of meaningless sounds
Morphomes: meaning-bearing units (which have been patterned together with phonomes)
Grammar: a set of rules that aim to describe fully the patterns of linguistic usage observed by speakers of a particular language
Duality of Patterning
Sound and meaning
Semanticity
Association of linguistic signals with aspects of social, cultural, and physical world of a speech community
Example: US & computers as well as Aymara & potatoes
Prevaricate
Make or ask statements that violate convention  Consequence of open symbolic systems

8. Communication Among Non-Human Primates
Primates don’t ______
Parts of calls are not ___________ to get new information
Their calls are _____________
Communication can signal:
submission, reassurance, aggression, etc.
Communication can include:
vocalizations, body language, scent, and displays.

9. Language, Thought, and Culture
Coined by _______________
Mastery of adult grammar
Communicative _________________
Coined by ______________
Mastery of adult rules for socially & culturally appropriate speech

10. Language, Thought, and Culture
Noam Chomsky
Set of rules – ___________________________
Human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language
All Languages = ________________________

11. Language, Thought, and Culture
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Idea that different languages produce _______________________________
English & Hopi languages

12. Language, Thought, and Culture
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, continued
Initial ideas centered on ‘all thoughts being constrained, or determined, by language’
Various studies have: 1. 2.
Moderate Whorfianism differs from extreme Whorfianism in these ways:
the emphasis is on the potential for thinking to be 'influenced' rather than unavoidably 'determined' by language;
it is a two-way process, so that 'the kind of language we use' is also influenced by 'the way we see the world';
any influence is ascribed not to 'Language' as such or to one language compared with another, but to the use within a language of one variety rather than another (typically a sociolect - the language used primarily by members of a particular social group);
emphasis is given to the social context of language use rather than to purely linguistic considerations, such as the social pressure in particular contexts to use language in one way rather than another.

13. Language, Thought, and Culture
__________ Vocabulary
Set of words describing particular domains of experience
Examples: 1. 2.

14. Pragmatics Study of language in context of its use Discourse 1. 2.
____________________________________
Series of verbal exchanges in conversation

15. Ethnopragmatics Study of language use:
Relies on ethnography to illuminate the ways in which speech is both constituted by and constitutive social interaction
Focus on practice - how are rules of grammar, cultural values, and physical action conjoined

16. Language Revitalization
Collaboration between linguistic anthropologists and fluent speakers of indigenous languages

17. Language Revitalization
Hinton’s work in CA: