1. Window on Humanity Conrad Phillip Kottak Third Edition
CHAPTER 10
Language and Communication
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

2. Overview Nonhuman primate communication Nonverbal communication
Structure of language
Language, thought, and culture
Sociolinguistics
Historical linguistics
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

3. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Humans’ primary means of communication
Transmitted through learning – part of enculturation
Based on arbitrary, learned associations between words and the things they stand for (symbols)
Only humans have the linguistic capacity to discuss the past and future, and to share their experiences with—and benefit from the experiences of—others
Anthropologists study language in its social/cultural context
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

4. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Nonhuman primate communication
Call Systems
Limited number of sounds produced in response to specific stimuli (e.g., food or danger)
Cannot be combined to produce new calls
Vocal tract of apes not suitable for speech
Sign Language
A few nonhuman primates have learned to use American Sign Language (ASL)
Chimps and gorillas: rudimentary capacity for language
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5. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Nonverbal communication
Kinesics – study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and facial expressions
Gestures, facial expressions, and body stances are shaped by culture
Prevalence and meaning of body movements, facial expressions, and gestures vary cross-culturally
Body movements communicate social differences
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

6. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Structure of language
Descriptive linguistics – scientific study of a spoken language
Phonology – study of speech sounds; considers which sounds are present and significant in a given language
Morphology – study of the forms in which sounds combine to form morphemes (words and their meaningful parts)
Lexicon – a dictionary containing all of a language’s morphemes and their meanings
Syntax – arrangement and order of words in phrases and sentences
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

7. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Structure of language
Speech Sounds
Phoneme – a sound contrast that makes a difference, that differentiates meaning
Number of phonemes varies from language to language, as well as between dialects of a given language
Phonetics – study of speech sounds in general, what people actually say in various languages
Phonemics – studies only the significant sound contrasts (phonemes) of a given language
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

8. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Language, thought, and culture
Noam Chomsky:
Human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language – universal grammar
All languages have a common structural basis
All humans have similar linguistic abilities and thought processes
Supporting evidence for Chomsky’s arguments:
People can learn foreign languages
Words and ideas translate from one language to another
All creole languages share certain features, suggesting such languages are based on universal grammar
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

9. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Language, thought, and culture
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Grammatical categories of particular languages lead their speakers to think in different ways
Language shapes—but does not restrict—thought
However, cultural changes can produce changes in thought and language (contrary to Sapir-Whorf)
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

10. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Language, thought, and culture
Focal vocabulary
Lexicon (vocabulary) influences perception
Focal vocabulary – specialized sets of terms and distinctions that are particularly important to certain groups
Vocabulary is the area of language that changes most readily
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

11. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Language, thought, and culture
Language, culture, and thought are interrelated
Changes in culture produce changes in language and thought
Cultural contrasts and changes affect lexical distinctions (e.g., peach vs. salmon) within semantic domains (e.g., color terminology)
Semantics – a language’s meaning system
Lexical contrasts that people perceive as meaningful or significant reflect their experiences
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

12. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics – relationships between social and linguistic variation
Linguistic diversity within nation-states
Ethnic diversity is mirrored by linguistic diversity
All people style shift – vary their speech in different social contexts
Diglossia – regular shifting between dialects (e.g., “high” and “low” variants of a language)
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13. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Sociolinguistics
Linguistic diversity within nation-states
Different dialects are equally effective as systems of communication
Particular dialects are not linguistically superior or inferior to others
Speech patterns are considered “better” or “worse” because they are associated with socially ranked groups
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14. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Sociolinguistics
Gender speech contrasts
Differences between men and women – phonology, grammar, vocabulary, body stances and movements
American women’s use of certain types of words and expressions reflects lesser power in society
Tannen’s studies:
Women typically use language and associated body movements to build rapport, social connections
Men tend to recite information that serves to establish a place for themselves in a hierarchy
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15. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Sociolinguistics
Stratification and symbolic domination
People use and evaluate speech in the context of social, political, and economic forces
Speech of low-status groups may be evaluated negatively because it has come to symbolize low status
“Proper language” is a strategic resource – increased access to wealth, prestige, and power
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16. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Sociolinguistics
Stratification and symbolic domination
Bourdieu:
Linguistic practices as “symbolic capital”
“Symbolic domination” – acceptance of the authority and correctness of a prestigious dialect, even by people who do not use it
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17. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Sociolinguistics
Black English Vernacular (BEV)
Stigmatized speech may be linked to region, class, educational background, gender, ethnicity, or “race”
Most linguists view BEV as a dialect of American English
Complex linguistic system with its own phonology and syntax
May stem from an early creole (fusion of English and African languages)
Clear phonological and grammatical differences between BEV and Standard English (SE)
SE is the prestige dialect, but is not superior to BEV
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18. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Historical linguistics
Study of long-term linguistic change
Features of past languages are reconstructed by studying contemporary daughter languages (those that descend from the same parent language, or protolanguage)
Languages are classified according to their degree of relationship
Subgroups – languages within a taxonomy of related languages that are most closely related
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19. CHAPTER 10 Language and Communication
Historical linguistics
Close relationship between languages does not necessarily mean that their speakers are closely related biologically or culturally
Anthropologists are interested in historical linguistics because cultural features sometimes correlate with the distribution of language families
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.