ANTH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Sign Language, African American Vernacular English, Language Ideology

• School: Drexel University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 101
• Professor: Amber Reed

Document Summary

Sign language is a non-spoken learned language. Koko the gorilla: bracelet + finger = ring. Language organizes our world and allows us to form societies through communication. Language is universal to all human groups, but the structures of language (grammar, syntax; vocabulary, etc. ) vary dramatically across cultures. If (cid:455)ou do(cid:374)"t ha(cid:448)e a (cid:449)ord for so(cid:373)ethi(cid:374)g i(cid:374) (cid:455)our la(cid:374)guage, (cid:455)ou ofte(cid:374) do(cid:374)"t (cid:374)oti(cid:272)e it or e(cid:454)press it. Linguistic rules are unconscious and socialized from early in life we are often unaware of the rules of our native languages! We can learn about societal changes by examining linguistic changes. For i(cid:374)sta(cid:374)(cid:272)e, (cid:862)te(cid:454)ti(cid:374)g(cid:863) la(cid:374)guage (cid:894)lol, (cid:271)t(cid:449), idk(cid:895) refle(cid:272)ts te(cid:272)h(cid:374)ologi(cid:272)al shifts a(cid:374)d (cid:374)e(cid:449) forms of social interaction. Linguistic anthropologists study how language interacts with culture. You cannot understand a culture/society without examining its language! Language contains clues to our perspective on the world. Language ideology: conceptions, judgments, feelings, emotions attached to a language.