Transcript Language and culture

The Anthropology of Language: An
Introduction to Linguistic
Anthropology
Chapter 2
Language and Culture
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Culture
• In 1952, a couple of fairly famous anthropologists,
Alfred Kroeber (father of Ursula K. Le Guin) and Clyde
Kluckhohn, published a book containing 164
definitions of culture taken from the published work
of anthropologists. Fifty-seven years later, we are still
not all agreed on the topic.
• One widely used definition (thanks to Max Weber
and Clifford Geertz): Culture is a web of meaning
which human beings weave and in which we are
suspended.
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The emic vs. etic distinction
• Two equally valid perspectives from which to
view human behavior, activities, values, etc.
• Emic—subjectively relevant, internally
verifiable
• Etic—objectively identifiable, externally
observable
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Etic and Emic – an example
• Etic data—things that are observable
– 110° F water into mug, water swirled in mug, water
poured into the sink, drink poured into mug
• Emic data—the meaning of the action for the
actor
– He warms his coffee mug so that the coffee tastes
better
» Or
– She tries to kill all the germs and bacteria that have
accumulated in the coffee mug since its last washing
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Ethnosemantics
• 1950s and 60s
• Frake, Goodenough, Conklin
• Alternate names:
– Ethnoscience, Cognitive Anthropology
• Vocabulary indicates
– “native” categories
– Culturally important distinctions
• Psychological reality or formal account?
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Cultural emphases –
What IS subjectively relevant?
• Cultural emphases reflect activities, meet needs
• Some universal patterns appear to exist,
however
• Color terms – Stages 1-7 (Ottenheimer p. 31)
• Color terms and focal points (Berlin & Kay)
– Codability—how easy is it to name a color chip
– Availability—how easy is it to find a given chip in a
group of other chips
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The Hanunóo case
• You cannot ask, in Hanunóo, “What color is
X?”
• Hanunóo are able to distinguish colors
(human biological ability), but color is
subsumed within an overall category of
appearance.
• Ethnosemantic research was required to
understand how Hanunóo speakers
communicate the idea of color.
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Getting at the Emic –
Doing ethnosemantic research
• Creating a taxonomy
– Asking questions about relationships:
• Is X a kind of Y?
• What other kinds of Y are there?
• Are there other kinds of X?
– Taxonomy about relationships
• Componential analysis
– Discovering key differences
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Sapir-Whorf or Whorfian
hypothesis: two versions
• Strong Whorf—language determines thought,
you think within the structure of your
language
– Agar—language as prison
• Weaker Whorf—language provides habitual
patterns of seeing, thinking and talking
– Agar—Language as a familiar room; you know
where everything is in it
• Both forms of linguistic determinism
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Which comes first? A chicken and egg
problem.
• Nature of cultural emphasis
– Feature analysis
– Prototype theory
• Color categories and the search for universals
– Human shared sensory apparatus
– Impact of language
• Agreement about differences between languages
• But, do the differences in language reflect
cultural differences, or create cultural
differences?
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Linguistic Determinism
• Origins
– “Human beings . . . are very much at the mercy of
the particular language which has become the
medium of expression for their society.” (Sapir
1929)
– “we cannot talk at all except by subscribing to the
organization and classification of data” (Whorf
1940)
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Examples of Linguistic
Determinism: SAE
• time = matter
• units of time = objects
• passage of time = endless line of identical
objects
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Examples of Linguistic
Determinism: Hopi
• time = a process
• units of time = cycles
• passage of time = endless repetition
of same cycle
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Testing linguistic determinism
• Tests generally comparative
• Variable clearly identified
• Testing availability and codability
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Experiments in Linguistic
Determinism
• Yucatec
– Grammar stresses material
• Connects words for wood, tree, table
– Individuals group cardboard items together
• English
– Grammar stresses shape
• Different words for wood, tree, table
– Individuals group boxes together
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Further Evidence for Linguistic
Determinism
• Relative space vs. absolute space
– Guugu-Yimidhirr
• NORTH-SOUTH-EAST-WEST (absolute)
– Tzeltal
• UPHILL-DOWNHILL (relative)
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Experiencing Linguistic Determinism
• Temporary transfer of control
– English—lend/borrow
– Shinzwani—kopa
• Telling time
– English—it is half past nine
– Czech—it is half of ten
• Relative vs. absolute space
– English—deictic system
– Guugu-Yimidhirr—absolute system
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Experience and imagination
• Metaphor—a figure of speech in which a term
or phrase is applied to something to which it is
not literally applicable in order to suggest a
resemblance
• Metonymy—a figure of speech that consists of
the use of the name of one object or concept
for that of another to which it is related, or of
which it is a part
• Frame—a system of expectations which
influences experience
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Metaphors in SAE – a set of examples
• Anger as Body heat
– I have a hot temper.
• Body as container of emotions
– I am just about up to here!
– He was filled with grief.
• Body as container for emotions plus Anger as heat =
– Heating fluid in a container
• He was boiling mad.
• She was fuming.
• I was steamed.
– Dealt with by cooling or containing
• A good workout always helps her cool her temper.
• I keep my anger bottled up.
– Potential for explosion, in which things go up
• I blew my top.
• She hit the ceiling.
• He went right through the roof.
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Metonyms in SAE – some examples
• Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your
ears.
• Yesterday, the White House announced…
• Wall Street reacted badly to the news from
Europe.
• My knee is killing me.
• If you like it then you should-a put a ring on it.
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Frames – structures of expectation
we use to make sense of the world
• Frames make use of, and make sense of,
metaphors and metonyms
• Frames trump facts (Lakoff); they make it difficult
to absorb things that don’t fit
• Examples:
– The restaurant
– The classroom
• Practices, not things
– Shifting frames—the Cousin Joe example
– Shifting frames—the club meeting
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The significance of frames
• “gay marriage” or “same-sex marriage”
• “looting” or “finding”
• “the rich” or “job creators”
• “quiz” or “assessment”
• “date” or “hook-up”
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Coping with differences
• Using the one you are in is easier than trying to
translate concepts
• Translation, if it requires completely identical
meanings, is frequently not possible
• The system you are in will shape your perceptions,
however
• Human beings construct the systems of meaning
which shape our perceptions
• You are ALWAYS in a system of meaning, but you are
not trapped in any particular system of meaning
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Summary
• Language is a window into culture (Boas)
• Language is a cultural map (Conklin, Frake…)
• Language is a guide to social reality (Sapir/Whorf)
– Linguistic relativity: grammar influences thought
• A well-accepted idea
– Linguistic determinism: grammar determines
world view
• Still controversial
• Language is a framing device (Lakoff)
– Helps us to organize and frame our experience of
the world
– And to express our experience of the world
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