Specific Questions Flashcards
(26 cards)
Name, explain, and give examples of the components of the linguistic sign.
- Signifier and signified
- Signifier = physical form of sign (experienced through 5 senses); EG: sound /tri/, written word “tree”, drawing of tree
- Signified = Concept/idea that is signified; EG: idea of tree in our minds
What is the concept of semiotics?
Signs are never in isolation and always belong to particular systems
Name and explain the properties of signs.
- Arbitrary = link between signifier and signified is conventional and depends on socio-cultural rules; EG: gender in Romance languages
- Relational = always related to other signs (relational axes)
Explain the relational axes of signs.
- Syntagmatic = when a sign is in a particular slot, the second sign must occupy another specific and adjacent slot
- Paradigmatic = signs are defined by their relationship to each other and not by intrinsic qualities
Name, explain, and give examples of the 3 kinds of signs.
- Icon = connects sign and object through similarity; EG: realistic image or map
- Symbol = connects sign and object through general convention; EG: morse code and smoke signals
- Index = connects sign and object through spatio-temporal continuity; EG: knock on door or smell of food
What are indexical signs and expressions?
- Signs point to or indicate some state of affairs
- Expressions associated with different referents on different occasions; need context to be understood
What are the kinds of indexical signs (AKA deixis)?
- Personal = whoever is speaking
- Temporal = when the words are being spoken
- Spatial = when speaking is taking place
What is Agar’s definition of culture? Include its 3 characteristics.
An ensemble of beliefs, values, norms, signs, and practices that is learned, shared, and disputed
What are the 8 components of culture?
Beliefs, values, norms, partiality, plurality, relatedness, pattern, and evolution
What is the best way to study culture? Why?
- Learning a language
- Because it helps us dig up many basic patterns of culture (EG: gender differences in Romance languages)
What is linguistic determinism?
It presents language as a causative process that determines one’s perception and understanding of the world.
What were the problems with Whorf’s research?
- Poor fieldwork data
- Interviewed only 1 Hopi man living in NYC
- Interacted with people of Hopiland, NYC in English
- No hypothesis to test
What is linguistic relativism?
Language…
- Correlative guide to the world
- Shapes different kinds of observations and lays down comfortable pathways of cognition
- Shapes habitual understanding
- Consists of specific cognitive processes (knowing, thinking, talking, acting)
What does skin symbolize to the Kayapo people?
- Physical skin = separates individual from external environment (boundary between 2 levels of human personality: presocial drives from biological constitution and moral or intellectual conscience from cultural principles)
- Social skin = socialization of the human body; culturally standardized patterns
Why are bodily adornments so important to Kayapo people?
- Symbolic language that communicates info about social status, sex, age, etc.
- Establishes communication channel within individuals between social and biological aspects of personhood
- Expresses heightened integration and participation in social order
- Shows individual biological and psychological powers
What are the main Kayapo colors and their individual meanings?
- Red = Energy, health, quickness
- Black = Associated with transitions between clearly defined states or categories
- White = Pure terminal state of complete transcendence of normal social world
Explain the different types of speech within the Western Apache community?
- Stories
- Myths
- Historical tales
- Sagas
Explain the properties of historical tales.
- Framed by references to place-names
- Simple, short structure
- Culturally-rich content
- Narrow focus
- About misfortune of someone who has violated code of conduct
What is the function of historical tales?
Criticize, inform, control
Who is the target of historical tales?
Individuals or groups who misbehave
What is the purpose of Apache communicative practices?
They shape the Apache’s understanding of the landscape, which, in turn, influences their conception of themselves
What can language and landscape do for a community?
Influence patterns of social behavior.
Explain speaking with place-names.
Statements pertaining to landscapes convey messages about how to feel, think, and behave in the world
How is wisdom acquired?
- Sensing places
- Learning about places’ evocative names and narratives
