ANTHR208 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Linguistic Anthropology, Linguistic Relativity, Iconicity

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTHR208
• Professor: Andie Palmer

Document Summary

I(cid:374)gle (cid:449)o(cid:396)ds a(cid:396)e (cid:862)ti(cid:374)(cid:455), i(cid:373)agisti(cid:272) poe(cid:373)s(cid:863) - sapir on cree. Language is the key to culture - by observing and analyzing speech, we can determine something of the (cid:862)(cid:374)ati(cid:448)e poi(cid:374)t of (cid:448)ie(cid:449)(cid:863) La(cid:374)guage (cid:396)efle(cid:272)ts (cid:272)ultu(cid:396)e a(cid:374)d (cid:272)ultu(cid:396)e (cid:396)efle(cid:272)ts la(cid:374)guage the (cid:271)asis of the li(cid:374)guisti(cid:272) (cid:396)elati(cid:448)it(cid:455) hypothesis. Pee(cid:272)h feels (cid:374)atu(cid:396)al, (cid:271)ut the ease of a(cid:272)(cid:395)ui(cid:396)i(cid:374)g a(cid:374)d usi(cid:374)g la(cid:374)guage is (cid:862)illuso(cid:396)(cid:455). (cid:863) pee(cid:272)h is not instinctive, like walking is, which would be learned regardless of human interaction, but is a product of social/cultural life. The human body is adapted to walk but used secondarily for speech. Iow, language is more than a pattern meaningful sounds because any sound can be thought of as meaningful to an extent: non-language involuntary sounds are (cid:374)ot the sa(cid:373)e as (cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:448)e(cid:396)satio(cid:374)al spee(cid:272)h i(cid:374)te(cid:396)je(cid:272)tio(cid:374)s (cid:894)(cid:862)oh,(cid:863) (cid:862)sh,(cid:863) (cid:862)u(cid:373)(cid:863)(cid:895). Conclusion: because speech interjections are the most basic, seemingly instinctive part of language, and are not themselves instinctive, it can be concluded that language as a whole is not instinctive.