In this chapter students will learn:

• the differences between human language and primate communication
• different hypotheses for the origin of human language
• the steps a linguistic anthropologist would take to understand the components of a language
• how we make meaning beyond the use of words
• the language components that an ethnolinguist might study
• about signed languages
• how language is changing in the digital age
• how languages go extinct

Introduction: Language and Culture

Language is one of the most essential aspects of human culture.

Definition of Language

Language is a symbolic system expressing meaning through sound, gestures, and writing. It is intimately linked and essential to human culture, with each influencing the other.

Language Origins

Although there are many hypotheses regarding language origins, trust between individuals was likely one of the most important aspects of shifting from gestural to verbal language. Non-human primates communicate in a variety of ways, but they do not have the anatomy or highly developed brain structures to produce complex and symbolic speech.

Language and Communication: Signs and Symbols

Communication is based on signs, which stand for something else. Symbolic signs have no apparent connection to the meaning. Human symbolic language has three main characteristics. We (1) use symbols freely, (2) use words to deceive, and (3) can create new utterances in infinite ways.

What Does a Linguistic Anthropologist Do?

Language can be broken down into parts: phonetics, phonemics, morphemes, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics (or context).

Communication Beyond Words

Paralanguage (voice qualities and vocalizations) provides additional meaning during speech. Various forms of non-verbal language also express meaning, including proxemics, kinesics, and touch. Because non-verbal communication is often different cross-culturally, it is easy to misunderstand the intent of an utterance in a different language than one’s own.

Ethnolinguistics

Ethnolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and culture. Whorf’s “linguistic relativity principle” explored how much our language shapes our perception of culture. Many aspects of one’s culture and subculture determine our speech patterns. These include our cultural models and the ability to code switch between languages or registers.

Signed Languages

Deaf communities all over the world have different signed languages, based on the verbal language spoken in the region. There are over 200 signed languages, such as American Sign Language, Chinese Sign Language, and South African Sign Language.

Language Use in the Digital Age

Electronically mediated communication (EMC) fosters creative ways to talk and write.

Language Loss

Languages merge in a variety of ways when cultures meet, often to the detriment of the long-term preservation of the subordinate culture’s language.

Language Revitalization

Some communities are implementing ways to support language revitalization, especially online.

1. Do other primates use the same kind of symbolic language that humans do?

2. What are the different hypotheses for the origin of human language?

3. How would a linguistic anthropologist record a language for the first time?

4. Why do anthropologists argue that language is much more than speech?

5. To what degree do anthropologists believe in the validity of the linguistic relativity principle today?

6. Why do languages suffer severe losses of speakers?

1. What special vocabulary (or “lingo”) do you know by virtue of your membership in a subculture or specialized social group?

2. Do you think that texting is ruining language? In your experience, how has texting changed the way you talk or write?

3. Have you had experiences while traveling in which others had different zones of kinesics, proxemics, or touch?

4. Although we sometimes use the term “language extinction” or “language death” to refer to the loss of a spoken language, how accurate is it to use a comparison to the extinction of species? In what ways is it the same or different?

code switching (page 88): moving easily between speech styles or languages in a conversation or single utterance

communication (page 78): a process of transmitting a message from a sender to a receiver

cultural model (page 86): widely shared understandings about the world that help us organize our experience in it; determines the metaphors used in communication

ethnolinguistics (page 85): the study of the relationship between language and culture; a subset of linguistic anthropology

haptics (page 85): the study of touch

hominin (page 76): a member of the biological family that includes humans, early humans, our upright walking ancestors, chimpanzees, and bonobos

honorific (page 89): a title or grammatical form (i.e., a form of a word or words) used to indicate respect or superior status of the person addressed over the speaker

index sign (pl. indices) (page 79): an emotional expression that carries meaning directly related to the response

kinesics (page 84): the cultural use of body movements, including gestures

language (page 75): a symbolic system expressing meaning through sounds or gestures

language registers (page 89): different styles of speaking within a single language

linguist (page 73): a person who studies language

linguist determinism (page 74): the idea that the language one speaks locks a person into seeing the world a certain way

linguist relativity principle (page 85): the idea, studied by Benjamin Whorf, that the language one speaks shapes the way one sees the world

logogram (page 73): a sign that represents a word or phrase

morpheme (page 80): the smallest part of a word that conveys meaning

paralanguage (page 81): the ways we express meaning through sounds beyond words alone; a subset of semantics

phoneme (page 80): the smallest unit of sound in communication that conveys meaning

phonemics (page 80): the study of how sounds convey meaning

phonetics (page 80): the study of the sounds in human speech

pragmatics (page 76): the context within which language occurs

proxemics (page 83): the cultural use of space, including how close people stand to one another

semantics (pages 76 and 81): the study of how words and phrases are put together in meaningful ways

sign (page 79): in communication, something that stands for something else

speech (page 75): verbal communication using sounds

speech community (page 88): a group that shares language patterns

symbol (page 79): something that stands for something else with little or no natural relationship to its referent; a type of sign

syntax (pages 76 and 81): the study of how units of speech are put together to create sentences

utterance (page 81): an uninterrupted sequence of spoken or written language

vocalizations (page 82): intentional sounds humans make to express themselves, but not actually words

voice qualities (page 82): the background characteristics of a person’s voice, including pitch, rhythm, and articulation

Society for Linguistic Anthropology (SLA)
www.linguisticanthropology.org

SLA Teaching Resources
www.teach.linguisticanthropology.org

Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights
www.egt.ie

Ethnologue by SIL International
www.ethnologue.com

National Geographic Enduring Voices Project on Endangered Languages
www.livingtongues.org

UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
www.unesco.org

The Language of Food (blog by Dan Jurafsky)
www.languageoffood.com

Primate Communication and Human Language Origins

de Waal, F.B. (1992). Intentional deception in primates. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 1(3), 86-92

King, B.J. (1999). Viewed from up close: Monkeys, apes, and language-origins theories. In Barbara J. King (Ed.),The origins of language: What nonhuman primates can tell us (pp. 21–54). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

Linguistics

Atkins, B.T., & Rundell, M. (2008). The Oxford guide to practical lexicography. New York: Oxford University Press.

Bonvillain, N. (2003). Language, culture, and communication: The meaning of messages (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Rowe, B.M., & Levine, D.P. (2006). A concise introduction to linguistics. Boston: Pearson Education.

Silent language/Non-verbal Communication

Hall, E.T. (1973). The silent language. New York: Anchor Books.

Knapp, M.L., & Hall, J.A. (2002). Nonverbal communication in human interaction (5th ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth.

Ethnolinguistics/Sociolinguistics

Berlin, B., & Kay, P. (1991). Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Hill, Jane (1998). “Language, race, and white public space.” American Anthropologist, 100(3), 680–89.

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Livia, A., & Hall, K. (Eds.) (1997). Queerly phrased: Language, gender and sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press.

Tannen, D. (2004). Rapport-talk and report-talk. In G. Ferraro (Ed.), Classic readings in cultural anthropology (pp. 13–17). Belmont: Thompson Wadsworth.

Tsunoda, T. (2006). Language endangerment and language revitalization: An introduction. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter

Language-Centered Ethnographies

Basso, K. (1996). Wisdom sits in places: Landscape and language among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Meek, B.A. (2011). We are our language: An ethnography of language revitalization in a northern Athabaskan community. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Woolard, K.A. (1989). Double talk: Bilingualism and the politics of ethnicity in Catalonia. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

1. What is the difference between human language and the communication that other animals use?

Your answer should acknowledge the basics of what makes human language unique and specify some of the reasons for this. It should also include how to define an index sign and what differentiates this from human language.

• Human language is not dependent on the present but can express abstract concepts like the future and other intangible things (it is a symbolic system).
• Brains: although similar, there are key differences (such as stronger neural connections between different areas in humans). Humans are born with fully developed areas of the brain to process language (Wernicke’s area, Broca’s area, Geshwind’s area).
• Anatomy: human mouths and throats, while similar to those of primates, have more intricate musculature, as well as a descended tongue, smaller mouth, dropped larynx, and elongated neck (allowing for control over breath and ability to make sounds).
• Primates use gestures and vocalizations. Some primates can use symbolic language to a degree, such as for deception.

See pages 75-78 of your text.

2. If you knew every word of a different language (including how to pronounce each one), would that make you fluent? Why or why not?

By drawing on the issues of symbolism, phonetics, paralanguage/silent language, and more, the answer should be “no.” Knowing all the vocabulary does not mean one understands how to arrange the words or the varying contexts and ways in which they can be used. Your answer should specify at least 2–3 of these topics and explain how mere vocabulary does not impart proxemic knowledge, for example, or semantics.

See pages 80-85 of your text.

3. Do you agree with the linguistic relativity principle? Are there any examples from your own experience that support your position?

This answer is flexible and can be justified either way; however, the principle needs to be defined and specific examples should be clearly set out and validated. The principle considers language to be intimately connected to culture, such that people who speak different languages may in fact experience the world in different ways. In what ways has language affected (or not) your own perspective?

• For example, an extreme version of this argument asserts that one’s language directly determines one’s worldview, suggesting that people are “locked” into seeing the world in certain ways. This kind of determinism could be countered by commenting on bilingual people or those who learn different languages later in life, among other experiences.
• On the other hand, it is hard to deny that language does not impact our perception of the world in some way. The example in the text discusses cattle vocabulary, but your answer may be something else altogether.

See pages 73-74 and 85-86 of your text.

4. Imagine you are a spy who works in a foreign country. What types of linguistic knowledge would come in handy in your line of work and why?

There are many different ways to frame this answer, but it should include as many issues and topics as possible. It should demonstrate a familiarity with the definitions, as well as show you understand that language uses much more than just words, as spying is a tricky business.

• Paralanguage, including silent language, space, touch, and time are all critical as you wouldn’t want to give away your cover by not knowing the norms of the language and people around you. (Standing too close to people when trying to overhear, or using inappropriate gestures, etc.)
• Speech communities—it would be important to know the specifics of the way people communicate in whatever region you’re spying on, whether it’s a geographic region or a subculture.
• Code switching, registers—understanding how people talk in different groups will help you to blend in (not to mention get better information for your reports).

See pages 81-89 of your text.

5. Imagine a scenario where your language is in danger of losing all its native speakers in the next generation. What kind of ideas might be useful to prevent its loss?

This answer will be flexible and dependent on your experiences and ideas. Through trying to come up with workable and relevant solutions, the varying ways that language loss occurs will need to be defined. It also shifts the focus to seeing how languages currently in decline can be revitalized.

Solutions are dependent on the cause; utilizing the Internet to reach younger generations won’t work if a genocide is taking place, for example. Also, in coming up with a solution, you may find it helpful to think about what would be lost should your language lose all its native speakers—what perspectives and experiences does your language capture, without which the world would be worse off?

• In your example/case, what is the catalyst for your language’s decline?
• Is there a lack of speakers due to genocide?
• Are the next generation of children not being taught (or are they not allowed to speak it because of assimilation policies)?
• Is your language being ignored in favor of a more international or popular language?
• Or is your language being adapted to a significant degree, so much so that it is evolving into something else?

See pages 92-93 of your text.