1. Language and Cultural Meaning
Chapter 3- Bonvillain

2. Foundations of Linguistic Anthropology
OUTLINE:
Sapir Whorf
Linguistic Relativity
Boas’ research among the Yupik (Inuit)
Cultural Emphasis
Ethnosemantics
Cultural presupposition
Extended and transferred meaning

3. Cultural Emphasis Boas: Language a window into culture
Culture reflected in language
Elaboration of vocabulary
Finer distinctions between items
Inuit snow, seals
Nuer cattle
U.S. sports

4. Ethnoscience as Method
From Cultural Emphasis to Ethnosemantics
Cognitive anthropology/ethno science or ethno semantics
Ethosemantics as a Field Method
Emic & Etic perspectives

5. Hanunóo Color Terms Dark Light Fresh Dry
Reflecting an agricultural focus.

6. Linguistic Relativity
Languages are different
Languages are arbitrary systems
Differences are not predictable

7. Searching for Universals
Berlin & Kay
Basic color terms
Focal points vs boundaries
Sequence
black & white
add red
add green or yellow
ditto
add blue
add brown
add purple, pink, orange, and/or gray
Problems:
defining basic; no ‘standard’ measure.

8. How Culture Reflects Language
Linguistic Determinism
Sapir…
Whorf…
Strong Whorf…
Weaker Whorf…
Examples…
Experiments….

9. Linguistic Determinism
“Human beings are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society.” (Sapir 1929)
“we cannot talk at all except by subscribing to the organization and classification of data” (Whorf 1940).

10. Sapir
“The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.” (Sapir 1929).

11. Whorf
“We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages.” (Whorf 1940)
Strong Whorf
Language determines thought
Weaker Whorf
Language influences thought.

12. Examples of Linguistic Determinism: Hopi
time = a process
units of time = cycles
passage of time = endless repetition of same cycle.

13. Experiments in Linguistic Determinism: Yucatec
Grammar stresses material
Connects words for wood, tree, table
Individuals group cardboard items together.

14. Experiments in Linguistic Determinism: English
Grammar stresses shape
Different words for wood, tree, table
Individuals group boxes together.

15. Cultural Presupposition
Participants in a speech interaction come to encounters with an array of knowledge and understandings of their culture as expressed and transmitted through language.
Shirley Temple & Punky Brewster
Topo Gigio
El Chavo del Ocho & Cantinflas

16. Extended and Transferred Meaning
Metaphor & Metonymy
Metaphors
Metaphors of Kinship
Metaphors of the Body
Other metaphors?
Metonymy
Review article:Shakespeare in the Bush