Lecture 9 30 14 and 10 2 14 Language and Linguistics Writing against culture 1991 How do we study culture 3 possible ways Discourse and practice Points of engagement Connections Relationships Ethnographies of the particular Avoiding generalizations Edward Sapir 1884 1939 Culture through linguistics Notion of a public discourse Sapir Whorf hypothesis Structure of language impacts the ways we see the world Inquiry into variation a good thing Language According to Linguistic Anthropology Refers to any complex systems of communication Each word tastes of the context and contexts in which it has lived its socially charged life The words we use are functional The words we choose in contextual Complex variable Language as a set of socially embedded practices Not just a dictionary Knowledge of cultural context in order to make meaning from it Linguistic Anthropology Language is inherently social available for to use Speaking is itself a form of social action and language is a cultural resource Not merely a set a rules an empty vehicle for expressing thoughts Slang variation of language Good standard versus bad socially acceptable i e GRAMMAR Dynamic and changing Structure of sentence phrases clauses and the order of words 5 major elements EXAM Phonology Sound of language Morphology Internal structure of words How words are formed i e prefix and suffix Syntax Semantics Meaning in language Social meaning Pragmatics The use of language Who uses what How is it used and when do we use it Key terms in the study of language Multifunctionality The different kinds of work that language does Display of emotion Language Ideologies The attitude opinions beliefs or the theories that we all have about language Practice large element Structures constrain and give rise to agency and action Inequality a In different languages there is informal and formal Words that don t exist The social reproduction and social transformation of language Indexicality Language can point to something social or contextual without functioning in a referential way Not necessarily literal Way we use words impacts negatively and positively the way we view What does saying stoned vs high vs altered on illegal substances someone index about the speaker Signs and signifiers de Saussure a sign is the link between a concept signified an a sounds patter signifier Icon Sign hat refers to its object means of similarity EX choo choo train EX Onomatopoeia Not necessarily sound but element of similarity Indexical sign points to its object through some connection or contiguity smoke refers to fire here or now refers to context Words have relationship to each other Index Symbol A sign that refers to its object by virtue of convection or habit much of language falls into this category example tree Most of American spoken English falls into symbolism Two views of linguistic structure Arbitrary Rule governed Form and meaning unrelated Linguistics system is separate from other cognitive systems i e modularity Saussure Arbitrary relationships Motivated Usage motivated Form and meaning related Linguistic system related to and impacted by other cognitive systems Cognitive linguistic approach Form Meaning Experience in the world All connected International Phonetic Alphabet Phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin alphabet Guided by sounds not letters IPA each character is related to a sound Cutting up Language Morpheme Smallest meaningful unit in the grammar of a language EX unbreakable 3 morphemes Un not bound morpheme Break fracture take apart root free morpheme Able can be done morpheme Phoneme Smallest phonetics unit capable of conveying a distinction in meaning Ex asked is made up of 4 phonemes and 2 morphemes Asked Ed a s k t Allophone A speech sound that is a variation of some phoneme in a language An allophone of a phoneme is a version of that phoneme which is always found in some particular environment pat vs bat Phonetics How We Make Sound The airstream process the source of air used in aking the sound The phonation process the behavior of the vocal cords in the glottis during the production of the sound The oro nasal process the modification of that flow of air in the vocal track from the glottis to the lips and nose m sound Place of Articulation origin Bilabial b p m w Between lips Labiodential f v Teeth and lips d s z Front teeth Alveolar apico or lamino tongue and alveolar ridge compare ten vs tenth t Platal apico or lamino English j S Z in many languages Velar or dorso velar English k g N German x Greek V Uvular French R also found in many German dialects Pharyngeal constriction of the sides of the throat Glottal glottal stop the vocal chords are two articulators Bottle in cockney English H is a glottalic fricative sound Manner of Articulation how air is flowed Sounds that completely stop the stream of exhaled air are called plosives d t p and g k glottal stop Sound produced by a near complete stoppage of air are called fricatives s z f v T D x V h pharyngeal Sometimes a plosive and a fricative will occur together as a single composite sound called an affricate tS ts dz dZ pf All other types of continuant are produced by relatively slight constriction of the oral cavity and are called approximants Categorization Flexible process experiences We can create new categories or modify existing categories based on new Crucial importance in language words name categories and we group linguistics features in particular ways Diverse words assigned to lexical or syntactic category Lexical words words or vocabulary of language Members to a category Prototypical members Peripheral members Things we think of later What first comes to mind when we think of a particular category Big Picture Discourse Ways of constituting knowledge together with the social practices forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges and relations between them Discourses are more than ways of thinking and producing meaning They constitute the nature of the body unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern Examples of Discourse No Blacks Allowed Freedom Fries Example exchange Critical Discourse Analysis X Want to get a drink tomorrow night Y I d love to but I m really busy this week Maybe next time What do these index What are they saying