ANTH 1006 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: American Sign Language, Proto-Language, Ethnolinguistics
LANGUAGE
Linguistics
- the study of language
-
-Roots of Linguistics traced back over 2,000ya to ancient language specialists in India
- Interest in Language increased dramatically during European Age of Exploration (16thc. -
18thc.)
- People are moving out of their cultural systems, norms, their languages, and coming in contact
with multiple cultural systems that are expressing DIFFERENT symbolism
- Explorers, invaders, missionaries, anthropologists, etc, going out and recording different
aspects of these languages
- Estimated around 10,000 languages still in use during this time JUST IN NORTH AMERICA
(many have been lost)
- Four branches for this class
-1
Displacement
-talk of something that is not present (object person or thing not there)
- used to be thought that primates cant do this, but they can talk about even what happened
yesterday or what might happen in the future
- they believe they might not have the ability to actually produce speech because of lack of
FOXP2 gene(we split from them)
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Historical Linguistics: Branch 2
-study of long-term linguistic change
- linguistic divergence: development of different languages from a single ancestral language
(protolanguage)
-Language borrowing, language specialization or creation of new words-Language Loss
When languages disappear, cultural diversity is reduced
-Languages change over time
- Language loss:
Of approximately 7,000 remaining languages, about 20% endangered
In many areas, indigenous tongues yield to colonial language
global market communication and computers
-Linguistic nationalism - attempt by countries or ethnic groups to proclaim independence by
purging their language of foreign terms
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Loss of language
-Of approximately 7,000 remaining languages, about 20% endangered
-In many areas, indigenous tongues yield to colonial language
-global market communication and computers
________________________________
Style shifts:
varied speech in different social contexts
________________________________
(Silent Language) Proxemics
-how different cultures use and perceive space
-professional distance (student to professor distance)
-personal distance
-learn about people through proxemics
-sit far away from one person on bus
Language
- a symbolic system consisting of sounds that are used to communicate thoughts and emotions
- What are the analogies that people using?
- What words are the population using ALOT?
- Not only spoken but also written
- emojis used to express emotion
- Lots of ways to know what people are thinking and feeling through symbology
- primary means of communication
- transmitted through learning and sharing
- Based on arbitrary, learned associations between words and symbols
- Allows discussion of past and future and shared experiences
-
Call Signs
-Limited in content and flexibility
-Can't just change call sign
- general overall type of sound
- cant really be specific
- some use american sign language, can teach their skills to young (bilingual)
- some can joke/lie with this language
-Evolution at work
Productivity
-able to create new words based on our language rules
- if we see something that we dont know, we put two works together
- put something new with something we already know/understand
- They actually can follow our rules
FOXP2-
- gene that allows us to move our mouths/lips for fine speech skills
- This gene has been found to exist in Neanderthals (so it is probable that they were able to
produce speech)
Descriptive Linguistics - Branch 1
-mechanics and patterning of language; sounds used in the language
- Describing bits and pieces of a language
-Phonology: general study of sounds in human language
- how you put the sounds together
-Morphology: the study of the patterns or rules of word formation in language (verb tense,
pluralization, compound words, etc.)
Linguistic divergence
development of different languages from a single ancestral language (protolanguage)
-Morphology
the study of the patterns or rules of word formation in language (verb tense, pluralization,
compound words, etc.)
-Phonology
- general study of sounds in human language
protolangauge
- how german, dutch, English are similar to each other
- What causes these protolanguages to branch off? possibly that the populations split and move
out then separate again
-The reconstruction of the divergence at the roots tell us about contact and such
-
Linguistic nationalism (language reival)
- attempt by countries or ethnic groups to proclaim independence by purging their language of
foreign terms
- dont see reminants of english or spanish in the french language
Language, Thought and Culture (Ethnolinguistics):
Branch Three
- Early on, it was thought that you can't learn a culture, you had to have been born in it.
- Can you learn a culture/language if you were not born within it?(grown up in it)
Focal vocabulary: specialized sets of terms and distinctions that are particularly important to
Document Summary
Roots of linguistics traced back over 2,000ya to ancient language specialists in india. Interest in language increased dramatically during european age of exploration (16thc. People are moving out of their cultural systems, norms, their languages, and coming in contact with multiple cultural systems that are expressing different symbolism. Explorers, invaders, missionaries, anthropologists, etc, going out and recording different aspects of these languages. Estimated around 10,000 languages still in use during this time just in north america (many have been lost) Talk of something that is not present (object person or thing not there) Used to be thought that primates cant do this, but they can talk about even what happened yesterday or what might happen in the future. They believe they might not have the ability to actually produce speech because of lack of. Linguistic divergence: development of different languages from a single ancestral language (protolanguage) Language borrowing, language specialization or creation of new words-language loss.
