ANTH 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Diglossia, George Lakoff, Symbolic Capital

• School: UConn
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 1000
• Professor: Sarah Willen

Document Summary

Human culture is dependent on communication, spoken written, or signed. Pays careful attention to the relationship between social position- race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Language (written and spoken) is the primary means of communication. Based on arbitrary, learned associations between words and symbols. Allows discussion of past and future and the sharing of experiences. Anthropologists study language in its social and cultural context. Limited number of sounds produced in response to specific stimuli. Vocal tract of apes not suitable for speech. Cultural transmission of communication system through learning is a fundamental attribute of language. Productivity- the ability to create infinite ranges of understandable messages. Displacement- the ability to refer to events in the past, future, or abstract domains. Study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and facial expressions. Gestures, facial expressions, and body stances shaped by culture. Prevalence and meaning of nonverbal communication vary cross culturally. Morphology- study of forms in which sounds combine to form morphemes.