ANT253H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Erving Goffman, Pragmatics, Basil Bernstein
Document Summary
Panini (indian scholar, 400s bce: showed that many words could be decomposed into smaller distinctive units, eg: incompletely in + complete + ly. In- and ly recur in the formation of other words intrinsic part of grammar. Complete belongs to a collection of meaning bearing words (lexicon) English word language comes form latin lingua (cid:894)(cid:862)to(cid:374)gue(cid:863)(cid:895) Language allows us to refer to objects, states and events with sound clusters (words, phrases, sentences) Record for future reference by means of these clusters. Wherever there are humans living in groups there are language: language is a unique faculty + takes on diverse forms according to place/time. Linguists distinguish between language as a faculty vs. diverse language as manifestation of this faculty (this faculty remains the same through time/place) Languages enable people to name/reflect on the things that are relevant and meaningful to them wherever they live.
