ANTH1008 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Benjamin Lee Whorf, Computer Keyboard, Animal Communication
ANTH1008 Lecture Four: Language and Communication
• Anthropologists study language and communication because it is a practical necessity
when it comes to field work. One needs to be able to speak to people to be about to learn
about their culture. Language is a human universal, so all cultures can be studied, it's a
good tool for looking at similarities and differences, it teaches us something about
culture.
• Language is a biocultural phenomenon. It's in the human biology that makes language
possible. It's a cultural product that is learnt, shared, symbolic and integrated. Culture is
transmitted through language.
• Communication is the act of transferring information to others (Scupin 2008:97)
• Communication is the transfer of information from one person to another, which can take
place with or without words, spoken or otherwise. (Schultz and Lavenda 2005:89-90)
• There are several forms of non-linguistic forms of communication
-Smell: (animals, typically) perfume, cologne, mouth wash, etc.
-Paralanguage: the qualities which speakers can add language to modify the factual or
social meaning of speech, such as tone of voice, volume, pitch, speech and cadence (the
rise and fall), and not strictly linguistic sounds like grunts and snickers (e.g. "um", "shh",
"tsk tsk")
-Proxemics: the study of how people in different societies perceive and use space
(Scupin 2008:123) there are no universal rules about the use of space (e.g. maintenance
of personal space in different social setting). Diverging from the standard of space can
communicate intimacy, respect, avoidance, invasiveness, depending on the distance and
the culture
• Kinesics/body language: The study of communication through body movements,
stances, gestures, and facial expressions (Kottak 2011:316). The study of how body
movements are used to communicate social information, sometimes referred to as 'body
language' (Eller 2009:90). Although kinesics is often referred to as body language it is
usually not considered a part of language but as a separate form of communication.
Researchers estimate that humans use more than 250, 000 facial expressions. Although
there are differences in how a culture displays body language but some human
expressions are based on universally recognised emotions: happy, sad, surprised, angry,
disgust, fear
• Most Australians point with their hands, while other cultures point with their eyes, chin,
lips or head. Shaking your head means 'no', nodding your head means 'yes', in parts of
India, Greece, and Turkey the opposite is true (Scupin 2008:122). Sticking out your
tongue in the US is an insult, but in Tibet it is a greeting (Eller 2009:91). The thumb and
forefinger circle means OK in America; an insult in Russia, German and Brazil; a sign of
money in Japan; means something very vulgar in Greece and Turkey; and "you're worth
zero" in France or Belgium.
• It is easy to misunderstand each other because of the varying meanings for body
language, but it’s not the only thing to be misinterpreted, words can easily be
misunderstood.
• Language is the system of arbitrary vocal symbols we use to encode out experience of
the world and of other (Lavenda and Schultz 2015: 262). It's the primary means of
human communication, spoken and written (Kottak 2011:313). It's a system of symbols
with standard meaning (Scupin 2008:97). Language is not just about speech, it can be
communicated through writing, sign language and other means such as Morse code.
• Language (often with a capital 'L') is the abstract property belonging to the human
species as a whole—e.g.
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-the capacity for language in hominids
-all humans have an aptitude for language
-language is unique to humans
• Languages is the specific languages of different social groups, e.g. The English language,
Japanese language, etc. There are issues of delimiting a language, particularly the
existence of pidgins and creoles.
• Pidgin is a simplified version of a language that is usually used for limited purposes,
such as trade and economic interactions, by non-native speakers of the language. Usually
an incomplete language that is not the first language of any group (Eller 2009:92) It has
no native speakers, and develops in a single generation (Lavenda and Shultz (2015:273).
Versions of pidgin English has developed in China, Papua New Guinea, and West Africa
(Kottak 2011:43)
• Creole is when a pidgin language is passed down to a new generation (Lavenda and
Schultz 2015:273). It's a pidgin language that has become elaborated into a multi-
functional language and becomes the first language of the community (Eller 2009:92)
• Writing has existing for about 6, 000 years (Kottak 2011:312). It originated thousands of
years before but no one can say exactly when, and it is a matter of great debate
• Although primates, especially apes, have lips, mouths, tongues, (image 1) no primate
other than humans have the physical antimony for sustaining speech production (Scupin
2008:103). Kottak (2011:315) also points out the importance of a mutate gene known as
FOXP2 for the capacity of language (a similar gene shared by human who are speech
deficit and apes)
• Humans are born hard-wired for language but the actual acquisition of a language is
learnt, it is not pre-programed. The learning process beings very early in human life, with
some recent suggesting that is starts in the womb. Language is transmitted through
learning as part of enculturation (Kottak 2011:312). Just as infants must be exposed to
their culture for the process of enculturation to occur, so must they be exposed to their
language in order to acquire it (Scupin 2008:107). A toddler learning their language is
quite a predictable process (cooing -> babbling -> words -> speech). Eventually the
toddler will acquire linguistic competence: mastery of adult grammar. Then
communicative competence: mastery of adult rules for socially and culturally appropriate
speech. The mastery of grammatical rules etc. But also being able to choose topics of
conversation appropriate to their social position and culture.
• There are three defining features of language:
-productivity (or openness): is the capacity of language to combine meaningless sounds
to create new words or to combine words to create new utterances (Eller 2009:75). It's
when language users can make and understand new messages using old familiar bits of
language (Eller 2009:75). In contrast, animal communication systems in natural setting
are rigid and fixed (Scupin 2008:101)
-displacement: is the linguistic feature that allows for communication about things that
are 'not here' in the sense of absence or out of view, past of future, conceptual or even
imaginary (Eller 2009:75). In contrast, the meaning of a sound or vocalisation of a wild
nonhuman animal is closely tied to a specific type of stimulus, e.g. A warning growl or
scream cannot be made without a perceived threat to the animals (Scupin 2008:101)
-arbitrariness: refers to the fact that words seldom have a necessary connection with
what they represent (Scupin 2008:101). Onomatopoeic words form a very minor subset
of the total vocabulary. There is no natural relationship between a symbol (which is what
words are) and its meaning.
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