Talking about Talking Lesson 4: Language and Communication

Communication Communicare – Latin for “to share” Humans communicate using a variety of systems Language –A system of arbitrary vocal symbols –Used to communicate meaning –Transmits culture

Animal Communication All animals communicate They will use three different methods –Sound –Odor –Movement Though some will only use one, primates use all three

Primate Vocal Communication Though primates use all three aforementioned methods, we will focus on sound and vocal communication Humans use sound different from all of the other primates To see how, we will compare them to Vervet monkeys

Vervet Vocal Communication Have been observed in the wild to use various symbolic calls Three of their calls refer to different types of predators –Bird –Cat –Snake Each call is a unique sound

Human Vocal Communication Humans do the same as Vervets. –Sound encoding meaning Examples: –Care –Full Both unique sounds with unique meaning –Meaning sent, received, and decoded

How Language Differs Unlike the Vervets, human language can do this: care + full = careful Two sounds with unique meaning combined to make a third that is not a sum of it’s parts Human language can take small sounds and combine them to make words. –Can combine words into sentences; sentences into paragraphs.

Primate Vocal Symbols Primates used anywhere from 30 – 40 symbols How many do humans use? The difference: –Primate systems are closed –Human systems are open

The Origins of Language We can’t say exactly when language first appeared –Sounds don’t fossilize We can use our biology to get an idea –Anatomy – mouth and throat –Brain Natural selection? –FOXP2 Can we learn from present day languages?

Historical Linguistics How language changes over time –Social causes for structural changes Example: English and Spanish EngSpan YouIFTú ???FUsed What is the formal in English?

How are Languages Similar? Parent language Go back to a common language Ex – Spanish and French derive from Latin Contact When two speech communities come into contact Borrowing and corruption Convergence Two languages with the same word despite no contact or recent parent language Noam Chomsky

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Edward Sapir –Connected language to cultural experience –Language constructs our perceptions of reality Benjamin Whorf –Work in insurance led him to language –Worked with the Hopi Hopi do not view time the same as Europeans

Were Sapir & Whorf Right? Tough to test this hypothesis Words do impact how we view things –Celebrity stage names –Product names –Prestigious names for ordinary jobs –Expletives –War and Politics

Sociolinguistics William Labov explored the notion of a Standard American English What rules do we need for a standardized spoken language? –Grammar –Vocabulary –Pronunciation A focus on linguistic differences is a symptom of ethnocentrism –The purpose of language is to communicate

Exam Review Questions How do animals communicate? What methods do they use (Lecture material)? How do we study language in anthropology (Chapter 3 in Core Concepts)? –What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis? –What is “deep structure”? Who proposed this idea about language?