1. Linguistic anthropology

2. Overview Language and thought Linguistic taboos
Linguistic determinism
Language and equality
Linguistic taboos
Language and relationships
Language and identity
Ethnoscience
Ethnography of communication

3. What is anthropology? The scientific study of culture
Linguistic anthropology is concerned with the relationship between language and culture

4. Language and thought
Much discussion of this topic has ben influenced by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: The way our grammar works directly shapes the way we conceive of reality, and therefore differences in our languages result in differences in our worldviews
The first half is known as linguistic determinism, and the second as linguistic relativity
Based on studies of Hopi
What do you think of this at first glance?

5. Some caveats
Some people interpret this to include all parts of language, words and grammar alike, but Whorf was more interested in what grammars REQUIRE you to say rather than what they allow you to say
There is a weak version: Language and thought mutually influence each other

6. Language, thought, and color
Color is broken down in roughly similar ways in the world’s languages
If there are two color words: black & white
3 words: add red
4 words: add green or yellow
5 words: add the other one of those
6 words: add blue
7 words: add brown
8-11: add purple, gray, pink or orange

7. Language and equality
If language can affect thought, then what happens when men and women are treated differently linguistically?
Consider: fireman, mailman, policeman, mankind, man the battle stations, man-made, woman doctor, woman driver, male nurse, male nanny
What do you notice about the first 6 words? The last 4?
More references to gender does not mean less social equality
Persian and Chinese both lack different words for he and she, but their societies are not known for gender equality

8. Non-gender-neutral terms do affect the perception of concepts
In languages with masculine and feminine gender, the masculine is default and therefore often assumed to be neutral
When Italian children hear il dottore (‘the.MASC doctor’) they are surprised if they see an accompanying picture of a doctor who is a woman (Cacciari & Padovani 2007)

9. Linguistic taboos
Some words are considered inappropriate to utter, because of their connotation or their denotation
Swear words
Ethnic slurs
Terms for sexual activities
Words can refer to things directly or in a roundabout way
Euphemism: a nice way of saying something, e.g. ‘My Aunt Flo is in town’
Orthophemism: a neutral way of saying something e.g. ‘I’m menstruating; I’m on my period’
Dysphemism: a pejorative way of saying something e.g. ‘I’m riding the red rag’
Taboo avoidance can lead to language change
What is the dominant word for a male chicken?

10. The word homosexual http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AYRtC_AC 6o
What do you think? Is homosexual a pejorative term?
Do you think the reasoning of each presenter was sound?

11. Language and relationships
We can use language differently in order to show relationships with people
Honorifics, terms of address for people with whom one maintains a particular social distance, are one way of doing this
In many languages this is the ‘T/V’ distinction, where T (informal) pronouns are used to express solidarity, familiarity and closeness, while V (formal) pronouns are for distance and respect

12. Politeness can be very important
There’s a difference between “Would it bother me if we work in silence for a little bit?” and “Shut your face.”
What is the proper way to greet a friend? A teacher? A parent?
We will often say things in a way that will keep us from being seen in a poor light, that helps us save face

13. Linguistic construction of identity
As we discussed, structured variation is affected by many different social (and linguistic) factors
As a result no single variant points to one linguistic identity instead of another
Forms have multiple indexicality – point to numerous possible levels of meaning, connotation and identity
People judge others and make assumptions about them by how they speak
We can use these assumptions to influence our speech and therefore how we are viewed and how we view ourselves

14. Ethnoscience Science done using categories of each culture
Much of the knowledge of a group is encoded in the vocabulary of a language
Scientists learn a great deal about the species that populate a certain area by learning the language of a local group and how they refer to them
The Creole population of French Guiana has hundreds of words for different plants found in the Amazon that are used for medicinal purposes, as well as their own theory of medicine that attributes sicknesses to hot and cold humors

15. Kinship terminology
Ways of viewing genealogy is another sort of science
Different societies have different family structures
Italian nieta can be ‘granddaughter’ or ‘niece’
In Lwitakho, a Bantu language of Kenya, amwavu is ‘same-sex sibling’ while votso is ‘opposite-sex sibling’
In Quechua, sons belong to fathers and daughters to mothers
Brother of a boy: wauqi; brother of a girl: tura
Sister of a boy: pana; sister of a girl: ñaña

16. Ethnography of communication
Developed early on by IU graduate Dell Hymes
Revolves around notion of communicative competence – knowledge of what the appropriate way to speak in a given situation is
We can describe how language interaction proceeds by using tools of ethnography, the documentation of a culture

17. The SPEAKING model Setting – physical, temporal, social context
Participants – who is talking? listening? watching?
Ends – what do the participants hope to get?
Act sequences – how do things play out?
Key – what is the tenor of the interaction?
Instrumentalities – written? standard?
Norms – what are the conventions used?
Genres – what kind of speech event is it?