Chapter 3 Culture and Language

Chapter Outline  Humanity and Language  Five Properties of Language  How Language Works  Language and Culture  Social Uses of Speech

Language  Homo sapiens is the only animal capable of speech.  Language makes it possible for people to communicate and think about abstract concepts.

Language  Social learning by which children acquire culture would be impossible without language.  Language allows us to communicate about past, present and future events.

Properties of Language  Multimedia potential: Language can be transmitted through a variety of media.  Discreteness: Language is made up of discrete elements.

Properties of Language  Arbitrariness: The meaning of each individual word is arbitrary.  Productivity: A finite number of words can be combined into an infinite number of sentences.  Displacement: Language makes it possible to communicate about people, things and events that are not present.

Grammar The knowledge shared by those who speak and understand a language:  Sounds  Rules for combining them  Meanings that are conveyed  How sentences are constructed

Two Aspects of Grammar  Sounds and their patterning.  Sound combinations and their meanings.

 Total system of linguistic knowledge that allows the speakers of a language to send meaningful messages and hearers to understand them.  Dialect - A regional or subcultural variant of languages. Grammar

Sound Systems  Phonology Sounds of a language and how they occur in patterns.  Phonemes Sounds that speakers of a language recognize as distinct from other sounds.

Tone Languages  Languages in which changing voice pitch within a word alters the entire meaning of the word.

Words and Meanings  lexicon The total words in a language.  morphology The study of the units of meaning in language.  morpheme The sequence of phonemes that carries meaning.

Morphemes  free morpheme A morpheme that can't be used alone.  bound morpheme A morpheme attached to a free morpheme to alter its meaning.

Language and Culture  Language is a part of culture.  Language and culture are independent.  Language and culture are partly interconnected.

Semantic Domain  A class of things or properties that are perceived as alike in some fundamental respect; hierarchically organized.

Whorf-Sapir Hypothesis  Language defines the world view of its speakers.  Not widely accepted:  World views change more rapidly than language.  Speakers of languages with a common ancestor should show cultural similarities.

Social Uses of Speech  To speak appropriately, people must take the total context into account.  They must know the various situations, or social scenes, of their culture.  People must recognize the kinds of interactions they are expected to have with others.

Sociolinguistics  Specialty within cultural anthropology that studies how language is related to culture and the social uses of speech.

Quick Quiz

1. Which of the following is not a key property of language? a) proper grammar b) arbitrariness c) discrete and recombinable units d) displacement

Answer: a  Proper grammar is not a key property of language.

2. The ability to talk about things that don’t exist is called: a) arbitrariness b) displacement c) grammar d) discrete and recombinable elements

Answer: b  The ability to talk about things that don’t exist is called displacement.

3. The sounds and words in a language and the rules that govern how words are combined are called: a) phonetics b) arbitrariness c) grammar d) syntax

Answer: c  The sounds and words in a language and the rules that govern how words are combined are called grammar.