Language and culture final Flashcards
(119 cards)
1
Q
Theoretical principles:
A
Looks for universal principles, it focuses on form and structure, and it works to develop universal, generalizable rules and are not concerned with the effects of social cultural and linguistic behavior
2
Q
Comparative linguistic perspective:
A
we can trace how a language was developed based on how people lived
3
Q
*Ferdinande de Saussure:
A
ather of linguistics, argument was that if you want to study a language, you need to bring the language in a separate setting, and a separate language from other languages - study the language isolated, by itself
4
Q
Language:
A
the language system in the abstract
5
Q
Parole
A
everyday speech
6
Q
Noam Chomsky
A
- Competence: The abstract and usually unconscious knowledge that one has about the rules of language
- Performance: the putting into practice of the rules
7
Q
- However - for the purpose of this class the above section is wrong
- We like these two:
A
(Katherina Clark and Michael Holquist) Words are socially charged lives… (Alessandro Duranti) language is …not only a mode of thinking….but a form of social action (Language always takes place in a social action - anthropological view, must consider the context in which language takes place)
8
Q
Anthropology is:
A
1) field based, 2) holistic (the four concentrations, bio, ling, arch, and culture, and 3) comparative
9
Q
*Comparing:
A
the diversity of what it is to be human and the potential underlying patterns that link us as a species
10
Q
-Cultural relativity
A
words and language are culturally bound, we cannot generalize
11
Q
(Boas idea) Field-Work:
A
spending time in another cultural system is the best (and possibly the only) way of gaining an insider’s understanding of that system
12
Q
Article: Color, do you see what I see?
A
- Universalists: people see and name color in a similar way
- Relativists: who believe in a spectrum of experience and who are often offended by the very notion that Westerner’s sense of color might be imposed on the interpretation of other cultures and languages
- Article: the sound of language:
13
Q
*Metaphor:
A
s understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another and the concepts that govern our though are not just matters of the intellect. They are govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane details
- We don’t just talk using metaphors, but also at by them
- Human language, thought, and activity are large metaphorical
14
Q
Perception
A
response and ignores different types of stimuli
15
Q
Categorise
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filter out the unimportant
16
Q
Relativism
A
understanding each culture for their own definition of color (concept from the article about colour
17
Q
Language use with Guugu Yimithirr & Kuuk Thaayorree,
A
that it does not matter where in the world you are because you look for north, south, east, and west, geographical language, not egocentric
18
Q
Environmental determinism
A
*Steven Pinker: argues that geographical features shapes ones language, and the language is merely a reflection of geography
19
Q
*Linguistic reality, 3 ideas
A
- 1) Languages are different
- There is no underlying commonality
- 2) They are arbitrary systems
- There are no reasons behind how things were created, no relationship with the material things
*3) Knowing one language does not allow you to predict how another language will categorize and name the world
20
Q
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
A
never published, but it is commonly known in combination between
21
Q
*Strong Sapir
A
his is not testable, but argues that Language is a prison, fundamentally different, it is impossible to understand
22
Q
*Weaker Whorf:
A
language is a room, open the door and you can understand the person with another language
-As such, language is more predispositional rather than determinative since you can understand a situation without word-by-word explanation. Therefore, language does not completely determine but it does affect the predispositional understanding of our previous cognition
23
Q
Language Thought Cognition
A
are multidirectional, they all influence each other
24
Q
Hypocognition
A
lack of ideas that you need for talking or thinking about something
25
*Phonology
the study of sound systems in language
-Tip to remember: this is the only one of the words that we need to know (except morphology) with the letter “L,” this “L” is for the “L”anguage
26
Phonology is divided
into Phonetics and Phonemics
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-Phonetics:
The study of classification of speech and sound, raw ingredients
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-Phonemics:
To analyse how ways that sound are arranged, how the ingredients are cooked
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-People inside of a culture
tend to think about their language in terms of Phonemics, while outsiders tend to think in terms of Phonetics
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Morphology
the analysis of words and how they are structured
| -Tip to remember: “morph” - something is morphing/something is being structured
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Morpheme:
smallest unit of meaning of a language, which has roots & stems
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-Roots:
can’t be broken down any further (example “fish”)
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-Stems:
can have additional affixes attached to them (example “fish-es”)
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*Syntax:
the study of the structure of sentences
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*Semantics:
The study of meaning in languages
| -Tip to remember: “man” is close to “m(e)an,” which is for the meaning of languages
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*Pragmatics:
the study of language use
| Tip to remember: “Pra” stands for “Pra”ctice, how language is being used in practical ways
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Phone:
which is the smallest unit of sound in a language
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*Phoneme:
a speech sound that distinguishes one word from another
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Utterance:
a succession of phones that make up a stretch of speech
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Phonetic chart:
is used to understand every language in the world
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Allophones
different languages have different allophones, different ways of pronouncing phones
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Emic:
culture can be described from insider's perspective
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Etic:
can be described from an outsider's perspective
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Allomorph:
is a variant form of morpheme
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Prefixes:
attaches to the front of a word
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Suffixes
attached to the back of the word
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Infixes:
attaches in the middle of the word, abso - bloody - lutely
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Circumfixes:
attaches both at the beginning and at the end, en-light-en
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*Reduplication
added quality, easy-piecy
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Portmanteau
combination of two words, hangry
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*Syntaxes:
-Grammatical genders: gives gender to certain words, “mother earth”
- Substitution frames: can substitute words, but it still makes sense
- Case: based on its position in a sentence, it talks about how words are being structured (need clarification)
52
Perspective:
provides a “proper” order of how to speak
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Descriptive:
describes a language structure on its own terms
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*Generative:
generates all possible sentences of a language, “deep structure”
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*Chomsky:
All humans learn to speak
| -Without being taught in schools, eventually all humans learn to speak
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-Speed of acquisition
By age 7 all children have basic language proficiency
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Critical-age hypothesis
Talks about the critical age from when you are more receptive to learn a language, for example age 2-3
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Poverty of stimulus
Even though children are raised in a mono-linguistic culture, and the amount of stimulus is limited, children still have the potential to learn the full length of another language from their environment
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Universal Grammar
a certain set of structural rules are innate in humans that works independent from sensory systems
60
Broca’s area:
is linked to speech production and grammar, and if you have this part damaged you can struggle with understanding grammar
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Wernicke’s Area:
linked to speech, grammar makes sense, but the meaning does not
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Charles F. Hocket
Talks about the design features of language
-On the list of features of languages, all animals can communicate with feature between 1-9, but humans are the only animal that can also communicate from 10-13
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Semiotics
study of signs
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Paralinguistic:
are the aspects of spoken communication that do not involve words. These may add emphasis or shades of meaning to what people say. Some definitions limit this to verbal communication that is not words.
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-Prosody:
Studies how something is said rather than what is being said, by looking at voice qualities (loudness of tone, pitch, speed, rhythm, vocal modifications) and vocal segregates: uhm-mmh, mhmh, aha
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Ideophones
words that represents sounds like: kapow, pow, kablam, bam, and slurp
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Speech substitutes:
For example whistling and drumming
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Silence:
or just by being silent as we see in the article about the Apache (final exam question, see the end of this document)
- Times when Apache are silent:
1. Meeting strangers, 2.Courting, 3.Children coming home, 4.Getting cussed out (crazy), and 5.Being with people who are sad
69
Proxemics:
The study of cultural patterns and spatial separation that individuals maintain in face-to-face interactions, which is tied to history, politics, and culture
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Kinesics
The study of body movements and facial expressions
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Kinemes:
meaningful unit of visual expression
| Gestures
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Iconics: types of gestures
iconically describing what is being described verbally, for example, Thumbs up
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Metaphorics: types of gestures
representation of more abstract things concepts
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Deictics: types of gestures
pointing or indexing
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Beats: types of gestures
for example snapping your fingers
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Oculesics:
study of eye movement
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The functions of eye contact are:
- Regulating interactions
- Monitoring interactions
- Conveying information
- Establishing interpersonal connections
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Five key methodological principles of cross cultural comparative interaction studies:
1) Ecologically valid,
2) ethnographically enriched,
3) Empirically grounded,
4) Multi-modal, and 5) Comparable
79
Cross cultural comparisons and multimodality
* Conversational structure: response times, turn taking of when to speak differs, and there are cues for when to speak
* Turn taking: not simply by spoken elements, but complex model of moves, such as: lip movement & eyebrow flash
* Repair: dealing with problems when speaking, interjection’s intonation might be falling or rising when you speak: “huuuuuuh?” (rising at the end)
80
Nonverbal communication:
Nonverbal communication is usually accompanying verbal communication
- Can substitute verbal communication
- Can contradict verbal communication
- Can complement verbal communication
- Can accent verbal communication
- Can regulate verbal communication
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Multilingualism
Pathological view of multilingualism: is that if they speak more than one language the people must suffer from a biological illness (old mentality), Nazi view on bilingual jews
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Loyalty
speaking more languages than English is a sign that they are not loyal to the nation
83
Class of consciousness:
when code switching and having multiple languages that must be a sign of schizophrenia
84
The probability of the third-generation
speakers are speaking a language outside English is higher when:
1) Endogamy, a second generational bilingual person marries another second generational person bilingual person and
2) Community, that they reside in a community that speaks another language than English
85
Diglossia
two languages ( or two varieties) are used under different conditions by a singe language community.
L Low “vernacular” language
H high “ official” language
86
Triglossia:
The coexistence of three closely related native languages or dialects among a certain population.
Triglossia in most African countries
The official language
LWC (a Language of Wider Communication), usually a former colonial language
Administration and national communication
The (regional) Lingua Franca
a common language between speakers whose native languages are different
Inter-ethnic communication and integration
Local language
For intra-ethnic communication and solidarity
most African languages belong to the category of deprived languages, not being used for important social functions
87
Lingua Franca/ Ethonoglossia:
the expressive power of language it commutative strength determined by the number of functions it performs
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Register
linguistic repertoire that is associated with particular social practices and with persons who engage in such practices
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Language switch
Heteroglossia: the multiplicity of social tinged ways of speaking in any given society
Code switching : use of two or more languages varieties in the same speech even or exchange.
indexicality : The process of creating a link between semioc form, indexing identity, occurrence in context.
Code mixing (fused lects): shiting that occurs in mid sentence or even mid word
90
Article: They speak really bad english down south and in new york
Higher-status groups impose their behaviors (including language) on others, claiming theirs are the standard ones.
The standard variety is selected through purely social processes and has not one with more logic, historical consistency, communicative expressivity, or internal complexity or systematicity than any other variety.
91
Modernist Assumptions about language
Language as a stable entity with clear boundaries, with a historically continuous relationship to its speakers
92
Idiolect -
An individual’s speech variety
Voice identity – one’s idiosyncratic combination of voice quality (timbre), pronunciation, grammatical usage, and choice of words
93
Style -
The distinctive manner in which people express themselves in a particular situation
Lexical, phonological, morphological, and syntactic
94
Dialect
A form of language/speech used by members of a regional, ethnic, or social group
Dialects that are mutually intelligible belong to the same language
E.g. familect
95
Regional dialect
No inherent feature makes a language variety “standard”
Most applaud one’s own language variety; sometimes denigrate that of others
“Standard” is a stylistic/dialectic variety of speech is used on formal occasions, and carries social prestige
96
Great divide assumptions
```
Literate vs. oral ( illiterate)
Prehistory vs. history
civilized vs primitive
Scientific vs mythological
Logical vs. prelogical
```
97
Problems of the autonomous model-ignoring structural contexts
Women’s low literacy rate caused poor health of their children?
India’s health management in the 1970s ignored the role of structural poverty
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Problems of the autonomous model-ignoring local meanings of literacy
The UNESCO program in the 1960s oriented functional literacy campaign
“Literacy ≈ functional
“traditional” mentality to “modern” mentality
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Literacy events
Written language is integral to communications and their interpretive processes and strategies
100
Literacy practices
Not specific, observable occurrences, but general norms, routines, habits regarding how written texts tend to be produced, interpreted, or discussed
101
Literacy and nationalism
The autonomous model The development of mass literacy gave rise to the modern nation state
The arrival of Islam and Christianity has a negative impact in the literacy rates, particularly among women
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Gender issues in literacy
generally in the Third World countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
Fewer girls go to schools than boys
They remain shorter time in schools than boys
103
Anthropological studies on literacy
Hispanic women in Los Angeles seen “illiterate” by the men in their lives
104
practice theory – an anthropological approach Pierre Bourdieu
Language as an instrument of action and power
Habitus – predispositions/habits shaped by social structures
Symbolic capital The amount of prestige a person holds acting within a certain set of social structures
What literacy actually means
Which literacies are developed in which contexts
How oral and written languages are related
105
Performance
Entextualization – Performers mark their speech with devices such as repetition, rhyme, changes in vocal quality, and the use of certain expressions (proverbs, parables)
106
Intersubjectivity
Everyday talk proceeds on a turn-by-turn basis, and interactions are built up incrementally, sequentially, and interactionally
failed humor
Multivocality (heteroglossia)
107
Metacommunication-
Communication that indicates how verbal information should be interpreted; s
108
Multivocality
Keith Basso’s (1979) case of Western Apache’s joke imitating behavior that they attribute to white American culture and consider rude and offensive
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Epitomization
portraying one’s characters so as to make them appear ludicrous and ridiculous
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Superiority theory
Both the maker of the joke and the audience simultaneously consider themselves superior to the butt of the joke. (subversive force)
111
Inferiority theoy
Joke intimacy – displaying mutual humanity helps achieve humor
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Play theory
Jokes are fictions that allow people to mentally inhabit imaginary worlds
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Relief theory
A mental shift occurs from a tricky puzzle to silly confusion, so to laugh to vent the energy
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Incongruity theory
Humor lies in the incongruity found in the joke, the funny picture, in the imitation, etc.
115
Cleverness theory
In the joke world, people do something that demonstrates a cognitive virtue
116
Digital media
```
Don’t dictate behavior
Allow a person with 4 affordances
Modularity
Modifiability
Archivability
Accessibility
```
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Social Media
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Sites and services that allow participants to create and share their own content, including social network sites, video sharing sites, blogging and microblogging platforms
Multimodality
Reappropriation
Resonance
Collectivism
Spread
```
118
Why social media?- Entertainment and sociality
Shrinking social landscape (parental regulations, less free time, limited geographic freedom, etc.
New opportunities to participate in public life, not with a completely new identity but with various personas
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Networked Public: The imagined community that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology, and practice
Persistence: the durability of online expressions and content;
Visibility:the potential audience who can bear witness;
spreadability : the ease with which content can be shared,
searchability : the ability to find content
