Transcript what is anthropology?

Talking about
Talking
Lesson 4:
Language and Communication
Communication
• Communicare – Latin for “to share”
• Humans communicate using a variety of
systems
• Language
– A system of arbitrary vocal symbols
– Used to communicate meaning
– Transmits culture
Animal Communication
• All animals communicate
• They will use three different methods
– Sound
– Odor
– Movement
• Though some will only use one, primates use all
three
Primate Vocal
Communication
• Though primates use all three aforementioned
methods, we will focus on sound and vocal
communication
• Humans use sound different from all of the other
primates
• To see how, we will compare them to Vervet
monkeys
Vervet Vocal Communication
• Have been observed in the wild to use various
symbolic calls
• Three of their calls refer to different types of
predators
– Bird
– Cat
– Snake
• Each call is a unique sound
Human Vocal Communication
• Humans do the same as Vervets.
– Sound encoding meaning
• Examples:
– Care
– Full
• Both unique sounds with unique meaning
– Meaning sent, received, and decoded
How Language Differs
• Unlike the Vervets, human language can do
this:
care + full = careful
• Two sounds with unique meaning combined to
make a third that is not a sum of it’s parts
• Human language can take small sounds and
combine them to make words.
– Can combine words into sentences; sentences into
paragraphs.
Primate Vocal Symbols
• Primates used anywhere from 30 – 40 symbols
• How many do humans use?
• The difference:
– Primate systems are closed
– Human systems are open
The Origins of Language
• We can’t say exactly when language first
appeared
– Sounds don’t fossilize
• We can use our biology to get an idea
– Anatomy – mouth and throat
– Brain
• Natural selection?
– FOXP2
• Can we learn from present day languages?
Historical Linguistics
• How language changes over time
– Social causes for structural changes
• Example: English and Spanish
Eng
Span
You
IF
Tú
???
F
Used
• What is the formal in English?
How are Languages Similar?
• Parent language
• Go back to a common language
• Ex – Spanish and French derive from Latin
• Contact
• When two speech communities come into
contact
• Borrowing and corruption
• Convergence
• Two languages with the same word despite no
contact or recent parent language
• Noam Chomsky
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• Edward Sapir
– Connected language to cultural experience
– Language constructs our perceptions of reality
• Benjamin Whorf
– Work in insurance led him to language
– Worked with the Hopi
• Hopi do not view time the same as Europeans
Were Sapir & Whorf Right?
• Tough to test this hypothesis
• Words do impact how we view things
–
–
–
–
–
Celebrity stage names
Product names
Prestigious names for ordinary jobs
Expletives
War and Politics
Sociolinguistics
• William Labov explored the notion of a Standard
American English
• What rules do we need for a standardized
spoken language?
– Grammar
– Vocabulary
– Pronunciation
• A focus on linguistic differences is a symptom of
ethnocentrism
– The purpose of language is to communicate
Exam Review Questions
•
•
How do animals communicate? What methods do they use (Lecture
material)?
How do we study language in anthropology (Chapter 3 in Core Concepts)?
– What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?
– What is “deep structure”? Who proposed this idea about language?