ANTH 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Historical Linguistics, Kanzi, Proto-Indo-European Language
28 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Universal among humans it involves all cultural activities. A system of communication using symbols: usually sounds but may be gestures (such as american sign language or asl). Instead, they have signals: fixed behaviors that convey emotions, threats, alarms. Exceptions: koko (gorilla), washoe, nim and kanzi (chimps) and chanteh (orangutan) all use asl. Symbols (sounds) can be combined in many ways to represent objects or concepts. Can make an unlimited variety of utterances (sentences). Can refer to things of another time (past, future) or place displacement property of language. Study of the sounds (phonemes) that make up speech. Anthropologists use international phonetic alphabet (ipa) to write sounds and record speech. (see ipa chart on lea. ) Study of the smallest units of meaning (words or morphemes) and how they are modified (such as plurals, gender, tense, etc. ) How languages change and diverge to form new languages.
