ANT253H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Linguistic Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics, Grammar
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Chapter 2 studying language y shortly thereafter, the systematic study of language families started in y earnest, leading in the subsequent 19th century to the emergence of linguistics as a true science. Interest in analyzing language as a force shaping social and cultural life also started at about the same time within the emerging discipline of anthropology. Trubetzkoy perfected the technique of opposition by elaborating the concept of minimal pair. As mentioned above, it is the initial sound. We came to this conclusion because the two words are otherwise constructed with the same sounds. Such pairs allow the linguist to test empirically what oppositions are significant in language. Jakobson argued that opposition theory can be used to explain features of language development. He noted, for example, that sound oppositions that occur rarely in languages of the world are among the last ones learned by children.