Bruce m. rowe a concise introduction to linguistics linguistic anthropology

/)/ ncise Intro tion

r.;r'

Bruce M.

A Concise Introductionto Linguistics

Bruce M. RoweLos Angeles Pierce College

Diane P. LeoineLos Angeles Pierce College

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serve a group of females talking together. Note what topics they talk about.

Are the topics the same? Are they different? Why or why not?

Lin gui sti c Anthr o p o I o gy

-{s a subfield of cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology is the study ofhow language is used in everyday life and how it is integrated into the various

cultures iround the world. A linguistic anthropologist is first and foremost a cul-

:ural anthropologist, or ethnographer, studying a culture or ethnic gloup. To livea: a participant observer within the group, it is necessary to learn the language.

Bv goingbeyond simply learning the language,by analyzing it and its usage, the

anthropologist attempts to learn how the people think about their world. The

topics discussed in the first part of this chapter are of importance to linguisticanthropologists. Below are some additional topics associated with linguistic an-

thropology.

Langu age, Culture, an d Linguistic ReI atizt ity

-\t the tum of the twentieth century, anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1942)

proposed the concept of cultural relativism, which has become a basic tenet ofcultural anthropology. This is the idea that a culture is consistent and compre-

hensible within itself. In other words, to understand why the people of a culture

do a particular thing, you have to look for the answer within that culture. You

have to look at the question from the point of view of those people.Boas also proposed that all cultures were equally valid adaptations to the

universal problems encountered by humans. They were equally complex,

equally moral, and equally intellectually satisfying. Cultures were different onlybecause of the environment in which the culture had developed. This was arather radical view at a time when governments of European countries and the

United States were treating native peoples around the world as inferior, ignorant

savages.Closely related to the idea of cultural relativism is the concept of linguistic

relativism. There are no languages that are superior to other languages; they are

equally complex, expressive, and complete. Each language is consistent and

comprehensible within itself and must be studied as a unique system. tying totranslate one language into another is like trying to force one object into a con-

tainer made for another. Differences between languages are not a reflection onthe intellectual capacities of the people of that culture, but are a reflection of the

world around them and of their necessity to communicate about it. Culturesmay have simple technology, but that does not mean they have a language withsimple syntax or lexicon.

ln the early twentieth century,linguistic theorists Edward sapir (1884-1939)

and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1.897-1941) expanded this theory with the concept oflinguistic relativity, which has become known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.They proposed that people of different cultures think and behave differently be-

cause the languages that they speak require them to do so. In other words, the

way in which individuals view the world around them is affected by the lan-guage that they have learned to use to interpret their world.

ChapterT 211

Participanl observet is the role

assumed by a cultural anthropologist,

or ethnographer, who is living within

a group and studying their culture.

Cultural relativism is a basic tenet 0f

cultural anthropology; it is the idea

that a culture is consistent and

comorehensible within itself .

Linguislic relativism is the idea that

each language is consistent and

comprehensible within itself and musl

be studied as a unique system

The Sapir-Whorl Hypothesisproposed that people of different

cultures think and behave difierently

because the languages they speak

influence them to do so.

212 Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology

We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as y". do because the

1ung.rug" habits of our co"'*u"ity predispose certain choices of interpre-

tation.tt

sotherelationshipbetweentheenvironment,theculture,andthelanguageofa;;;; ;,"lf_reiniorcing. The environment causes the people to have a particu-

lar world.view, that ;;?id"iJ is encoded in the language' and then the lan-

guage forces tf-," p"opi"1o sqgak and think about thsworld in a way that ex-

Dresses that same worldview'20n*";;il.;;;ft;orir.,oti."a that the lexicon of a language is not simply a list of

words and definitiorrr, Uttt is a system for organizing the. experience of the peo-

ff" rrn" ,p"ak that turrguug"' This system emphasizes whatever is important to

the culture ur-,a a"-"-piusizes whatever is.noi impgllant' While,Fnglish has one

word snow, Eskimos have different words for ifalling snow," "snow on the

ground,"and"hard-puttt"a"to*"andtheAztecshaveonewordthatincludestrsrrow,,, ,,ice,,, and,,r'1U.,, yapanese has ten words for rice, including such dis-

tinctions as ,,freshly tlurt"si"d rice," "uncook"d .i."," and "cooked tlce'"zI Eng-

lish (and all of the E";;;;; languages) have nouns such as time, beauty, iustice

and.Ioae to express abstract concepts' .- ) -.-^^

Whorf,whowaseducated.asachemicalengineerandwasaninsurancern-spector by professiorr,-'1otit"a that people behive' sometimes irrationally' ac-

cording to the *uy ,n"i, language dlrecls them. He observed that workers are

carefur to not ,-ok.-urorroa"gaJoune drums that arc full of gasoline. But when

the drums are empty,the worfers are careless about their smoking' The.problem

isthatemptyd,rumsarenotreallyempty'butcontaingasolinevaporthatisfarmore explosive than in" iiq"ia gasotini."so the workers are acting according to

the entry in their -;i ffi.? for the word empty and not according to the

presence of PhYsical danger'"Furthermor", tr"t" g';^*ar of each language includes rules that allow the

speakers of the language to express t9tt1"n!.tn"1 are imPortant in that culture'

The Europeur", fur"rgtu;"' '"q'it" that p1u'rality be expressed' as in the words

days, boys, friends,when there is more tnan one of the item' Even if we add a

numbertothesewordstoexpressprecrselyhowmanyitemsthereare/wecai.not say *ten day, yi"ity,;'i"n Vi'na'.In English the plural marker is requirec

when there is more thair one of these items'"even though the number makes ::

perfectlyclearthatthereismorethanoneandindeedtellsuspreciselyhor'*%,

course there are other English nouns, the non-count nouns, that cannr-r

bemadeplural,rtr"hu'rice,ssnd"'mllk'Thesenounsrefertosubstancesthatrstperceive to be a .o.ii..rorrr'undividable mass. In fact, the way in which we ca:

6ra--ura supir, ,,The status of Linguistics as a science." In D.G. Mandelbaum (ed ), selected INrt!-

ings of Edward sopir in raoguogr, cfiturr-and Personality (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University ot

California press. 1949), ri6-ro'0. O"o*d by Beniamin L"e Wtto.i, "The Relation of Habitual Thou=r

and Behavior to rangu;;,'i;trru.,a.Jl..*.ti(ed.),Linguistic Anthropologv: AReader (Oxforc

ffiY*lil;Y1','"Xtliil:"iii:T"iJ*#:i:r.'ro.L,,,o.o rdeas and rssues" Linguistic Anlhropotc't

AReader(oxfordandMaldenMA:Blackwel1Publishers,2001)p.11-13.2lSandra Lopez-Rictrter,l n

" Uir,or' of )apanese Rice," originilly published inThe lapan Forun:

nOZ, *-*.it.ot.ip /eng/ ge /gepdf /04sandra paf'Juty 28'2003'

zBenjamin Lee w1,o*,ilfn" R.eiation of Habitual Thought a"d.!:h:Yitt.T Language" in Ales-:-

dro Duranti (ed..),Linguistic Anthropology: aneader (oxiord and Malden, Massachusetts: Black$'e

2007),364.

Chapter 7 21'.3

nake them plural is to divide them into countable segments such as bags of rice'

:uckets of sand, bottles of milk'

While studying the Hopi language' Whorf observed that there are also

nouns in Hopi that cannotbJ "*p'"""J as-a plural' t"Y"1?111";te are different

rrom the English non-count "o""'' in Hoii' segments of time' such as day'

,ttonth, season,cannot;" ;;p;";; as plurals. r.vrrorr refers to them as imaginary

plurals, which n" airii"j"ishes from real p-lurals. Real plurals exist in reality in

the observabt" *orfa, Uit -i*gir"ruty

plrrrals exist onlyln theminds of the peo-

;; ;;;;ilg auo.rt.tt-,e,tt ro' &u','iti' ,iae boys is a real plural because it is pos-

sible to bring togeth"t fi"" young tt'ut" n"*u"s in one plage--and observe them

as a group, or they .r. u" "ip"rie"nced

individually as five different individuals'

But a day, month;;;;u"o'-t tu'-t only be experienced one at a time' You can-

not see or interact *iin u'ty more than one. day at a time' and that is the day you

are experiencing at this veiy moment-today"So' when English speakers use the

plural daysthey are i,ougili,.rg an assemblv of 24-hour p"liodt, perhaps in the

past, perhaps in the,;;i;; ;.ilps including the present day. But nevertheless,

rt is an imaginary assemblage. It is-not real"or observable' The Hopi language

.foes not allow the pluralizat"ion of these nouns and Hopi speakers do not imag-

ine an assembly or ir"rairria.rul distinguishable days. In fact, Hopi speakers do

not perceive .o'rr".rr,iJ" ;;tr "r bein[ different ani distinct, but rather each day

is the reappearance of the previous day' The English sentence

I studied for five daYs'

ivould be rendered in HoPi as

I studied until the sixth daY'23

The way time is perceived in the Hopi language is expressed in Hopi culture by

a great deal of emphasis on p."puruiion fir firture events. Because today is an

earlier appearance oiu auy tnut witl again appear in the future, something that is

done today "an

hu"" u" "ff"tt

on thatJutut" auy' \Atrhorf said:

one might say that Hopi society understand's -til-fjrT"tb

"Well begun is

haff ione,"'but not our "Tomorrow is another o.ay' --

Other linguists have criticized the hypothesis proposed by Sapir and Whorf' It

has been referred t""";-i;;;;tic deteriinis* orih"rttot g tfieory of linguistic rel-

uiirrir*, known for its usJ of the vocabulary of coercion,

. . . our thought is "at the mercy" of our language' it is "constrained" by it;

no one is free to describe the world in a ne"utril way; we are "compelled"

to read certain features into the world ' ' '25

Critics have suggested that perhaps a weaker theory might reflect more accu-

rately the role of r".'gJ"gi-*'n"*i" r1-t11Sn' They propose.that language influ-

ences thought, but that people have tools?o, "*ptltiit-tg all ideas, whether com-

mon in their cultur" o' "tt' Some concepts may indeed be easier or more

The strong theory of linguistic

relativism holds that language

compels people to think accordino t0

linguistic categories.

The weaker theory ol linguistic

relativism holds that language

influences people to think certain

ways according to linguistic

categorles.

23Whorf,361.

',l}*"oo- ,tic Rerativity Hw*|":k . t.'*!?:l::y:'::37:t:'"::Xi3fy{$f-'"' to Retatioism'

f'rrrp'Z lpfut t,anford edu/entries/reiativism/ supplel

214 SociolinguisticsandLinguisticAnthropology

Color telminology is the set of

words in a language that describe

segments of the color spectrum.

Color terms in English include words

such as re4 blue, green, white,

yellow, el.c.

commonly said in a particular language. But if speakers of another languagewant to say that same thing, words can be borrowed. japanese tourists visitingin the United States, when offered "optional activities or tours," have no directequivalent for the word optional, so they simply borrow the English word. Eng-

lish speakers having no direct equivalent for the Spanish concept of hyper-mas-culinity have borrowed the word macho. In other cases, special lexical categories

can be created, as when English speakers use such terms for snow conditions as

packed pozuder, slush, and sleet. Just as people are not confined to one language,but can shift from one language to another, we are not confined to thinking injust the way our native language has compelled us.

Some concepts may not be language based; in fact, they may be based on

concepts that are part of our evolution, which we share with animals. CertainNative American languages are non-numefate, that is, they have a limited vo-cabulary for numbers. Yet the people are able to perform mathematical tasks

such as adding and subtracting small sets of dots and determining which set is

more numerous and which sets are equivalent. It is only when the tasks call formore precision and larger numbers that non-numerate people arrive at differentconclusions than people with number words. Researchers believe that this abil-

ity to perform mathematical tasks without the language for it is evidence "that

[we] share with nonverbal animals a language-independent rePresentation ofnumber . . . which supports simple arithmetic computation and which plays an

important role in elementary human numerical reasoning whether verbalized orrrot."26 In this case, language only influences the performance of more precise,

more complex mathematical operations involving larger numbers.

Does Language Influence Culture, or Culture lnfluence Language?

Language lnfluences CultureAn example of how language influences culture is color terminology, the wordswith which a language describes colors. All humans see the color spectrum inthe same way, but different languages divide it up in different ways and assign

names to the segments of the spectrum. Of course, these segments of the spec-

trum include a variety of shades within them; blue denim jeans and a baby'spastel blue blanket look different but are still called by the color term blue. Be'iunr" *" call them allblue,we tend to consider them in the same color category.

Some languages simply distinguish black and white, or dark and light. Oth-ers have black, white, and red. ln these languages, the speaker describing some-

thing will compare it to an object that is either visible or something of a knowncolor. So green would be referred to as the color of grass; purple might be the

color of an object in the room.Some languages have color terms similar to the European languages, except

that they group blue and green together in one color term. When asked to pickout the most perfect example of this blue-green color, speakers of these lan-guages will choose a turquoise color, midway between the English color blueand the English color green.

In the Athabascan languages, which include Navajo and Apache, lexical cat-

egories classify items by number, length, and rigidity. Verbs have different end-ings depending on the characteristics of the object spoken about. In fact, there

26Roche1 Gelman and C. R. Gallistel, "Language and the Origin of Numerical Concepts," Science,

Vol. 30, Octobe r 1.5, 2004, 441,-443. www.sciencemag.org

Chapter 7 215

aleaSmanyasthirteendifferentlexicalcategoriesdealing:11'':"hcharacteris'tics as number, f""g,f, JsiJiiy,portability, Jnclosed or not enclosed, animate or

inanimate, and solid or liquid'"In the Navajo .";;;q', pre-school-age- child1e1.were shorarn some things

such as a blue ,op" urrJ u y"fior" stick, then "asked which one was most like a yel-

low rope. The chitdrei;i;;"r; fttingrrut English-Navajo tended to categorize

items by color, iust ", E"girrr--rpeakin! childrlen would, and picked the yellow

fi.i. ;t;;;;:fi;;i chiidren who spoke o1lv.N1v1io ':*,t to categorize

thinss bv ]ength ""a tifiJity' acco'ding to the lexical categories of their lan-

g.ru;e, ut a piit*a the blue roPe'/b

Culture lnfluences Language

.\n example of how t"Itu'" irfluences language is kinship terminology' the

*,ords that a langu";;;;; to express famllv ielationships' For example, our

culrure makes no atriio.ti* betwJen the motirer's side of ihe family and the fa-

ther,s side or tn" tu-"ir|.'^so'E"grirn speakers make no iinguistic distinction be-

tween mother,s mother and fatf,er's mother; they are both grandmother' Cultures

that distinguisfr letween maternal and paternaf sides of the family have differ-

ent kinships terms for these relationshipi. ecnitt"t" child, who must leam a dif-

ierent word ro, *otn"r;, *other and for father's mothet may wonder how Eng-

lish speaker, .un t"tiit " two grandmothers apart.In the Chinese culture, which is

patrilinealandemphasizesttreimportanceortr'"father,ssideofthefamily,the.ma nu, different t#;;;i-.esponsibilities in relationship to the two grand-

p'"*",t. fn"refore, th"e language distinguishes between the two'

In cultutes, ,.,"it u' mlnyiribal 'oii"ti"'' where extended families share in

the responsibility oi "r,iJ

r"Jrit g, children will use the kinship term that means

.,mother,,fortheirmotherandhersistersalso.Theywillusethetermthatmeans

.,father,, for father and his brothers. This means that many of the people in the

child,s village *il n" uaJ.essed as mother or.father;rh?r" f,",o le will in turn ad-

dress the child as son or daughter.It is easy then to understand why the Africans

iay, "Ittakes a "il;;;i; t"ile a child"' Each African village is filled with men

a.d women *no #"tfr" .-nila,, ,,mothers" and "fathers," who are responsible

for the child and whom the child must obey' 1 :---Another example of how culture influences language involves the subsis-

tence activities of the society. The samo, a horticulturil-people living.t" 11"

torests of New cr'ir.r"u,-*ppiement their garden produce by_hunting and gath-

ering. Travetrng tttro;gn ili" fo'e'ts' alorig the l"".tt' up and down hillsides'

they have ,"ur.,y -"ii3;il;;;6;i"_ lo.Jtior,r. In fact, in a coliection of samo

texts, g1 percent oiuii-r"rrt"r,cesiad locational information in them' There is a

sujfix added to a word that designates it as a mountaintop place; verbs differen-

date between go*g .r;rtream or"downstream; an adjective specifies a place that

is on the other side-of ihe river. In fact, much of the samo's conversation and sto-

wtellinginvolvesa",.'lpto"s.ofwheretheactiontookplaceandhowthepeo-ple sot there. In tfti' "t'it""

that emphasizes location' the language has many

*.'uu", to describe it'29

Kinship terminologY is the set of

words in a language that describe

family relationshlps. Kinship terms In

English include words such as

mother, father, brother, sister, elc'

.n-

ue

ptck

at-rd-ere

:Keith H. Basso, pP 2-16.]liosephCasagrande(1960)citedinGaryFerrato,CulturalAnthropotogy,Sthed,,Thomson.,2004,'-26-727.

roR.Danielshaw,FromLonghousetoVillage:SamoSocialChange'Belmont'Califomia:

,t adsworth/Thomson Leamin g' 2002'

L - -

=:-- --:--

:- .-- .j= ]:i. |Z-

2L6 Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology

Englishdoesnotincludelocationalinformationaspartoftherequiredfea-tures of the languag". F;;; this we can in{er that the culture of English-speaking

p""ff"-at"t no? "ripnurize

locale and direction' And indeed' we find many Peo-

ple who can,t pornt to the four cardinal directions and teenagers who can't give

lccurate directions to someone driving them home'

Another way in which culture" influences language is .in the use of

metaphors. In Chapter 6 we talked about how the Western Apache use the

namesofbodypu,t,to,'u-eth"partsofacar.Inotherwords,theApacheusethe metaphoric domain of body pirts to name car parts. Cultures find meaning-

irrt.tt"tupnors in domains that are important to them'

IntheUnitedStates,baseballisanimportantpaltofourculture.Soitisnot,.rrp.iJr11i ri.,a th;;' ;;"y terms in the domain of baseball are used as

metaphors ir, "rr"ryaly

iii;. 'y.; Q"l.

o.ly three chances to do things right-

"three strikes ur-td yo.,i," out'" AnL if you start with a disadvantage' you have

,,two strikes against you.,, An approximation is a ,,ballpark guess.,, And if your

estimate is somewhai close to the correct total, it is "in the ballpark'" Cooperat-

i"f *irn someone is ;,playing ball,, with them. Being a tough negotiator or

shiewd businessperson is "playing hardball'"

In the twentieth.""*tV, ti-t" ilitituty has been an important P1{ 9j {*tl-canlife,waglngseveralwarsandfiguringprominently.inthe"ColdWar'"Thisimportance of tfr" miliiuri is reflectJd -In" use of *ilituty metaphors for sev-

eral domains, such as corporate business, sports (particularly football), and

health care. In business *" tutt about corporut" "tuid"ts," "tatget audiences,"

and ,,hostile takeovers.,, In fact, one invesiment company -advertises that they

have "an army" of ,"ti,e"te''t specialists' ln footbill a long pass can be.a

,,bomb,,, a defensive ptuy u,'alrt ,), and.an offensive formation a "shotgun." we

,,figrit,, disease,,,defJnd',ourselves,, against disease "invasion," "arm ourselves"

with preventive medicine'InBali,wherecockfightingisanimportantpastime,metaphorsreferringto

thedomainofcockfightingpermeateeverydaylifeandsocialrelationships.TheJ"p" "i

in" island l?e"rii" said to be ttLat of a rooster. A man and woman in

love ,,stare at each other like two cocks with their feathers "p'"4t arrogant man

is called ,,a tailless cock who struts about as though he had a large, spectacular

one." Heaven is tt e way a man feels when his co& has just won and hell is the

lt"y "

man feels when his cock has just lost'30

Interview someone who has lived in the United States for less than five years

and whose native language is not English'

L. Show your informant an assortment of color paint samples and ask them to

name the colors. Cro,,p the samples togethei according to what name they

are given. Has your iniormant oiganizi the colors in the same way that an

U"gTitn speaker would organize them? Why or why not?

6oo-r. r"r""" Cognitiae Dimensions of social science, New York: oxford University Press' 2001'

2. Ask your informant to tell you a folk tale, Iegend, or myth from their nativecountry. What is the theme of the story? \Atrhat is the message that the storyintends to communicate to the listener (perhaps the children who wouldhear it)? What does the story tell you about the culture that it comes from?Does it tell you about their religious beliefs, their games, their livelihood,and their family structure?

Aithoughtheword:,?":r:*T:"T!,,{::':::-.y#"everydayspeech,insocial science a nation is a group of people who share a history and culture, in-cluding a common language. Many countries contain different nationalities. Theterm nationality is sometimes used synonymously with ethnic group. In GreatBritain, for instance, there are four major nationalities or ethnic groups that havebeen there for a long time: the English, Scots, Irish, and Welsh. In Nigeria, thereare about three hundred ethnic groups. Almost all modern countries are com-posed of multiple nationalities. The language one speaks is an important symbolof group identity.

In the United States, ethnic groups such as the Amish consider the mainte-nance of their language as central to their ethnic identity. The Amish are a reli-gious group who first came to the United States in the 1700s from Switzerland.They speak a form of German in their homes, schools, and communities, but arebilingual and generally only code switch to English when they need to do busi-ness with English-speaking people.

The Native Americans of North America are often referred to as the First Na-tions. Many Native Americans are also bilingual. There are still about 175 NativeAmerican languages spoken in the United States, but only about twenty of themare spoken by a sizable number of people. Before European contact there mayhave been considerably more than a thousand languages spoken in what is nowthe United States (see the section of Chapter 12 on Disappearing and Reappear-ing Languages). So what happened to all of these languages? One reason for theextinction of the languages was that the people who spoke them were killed offeither by bullets or disease. other languages became extinct because of a policyof the United States government to assimilate the Native Americans. In the past,Native American children were placed in boarding schools where they wheretaught in English and not allowed to speak their native languages. The idea wasto kill their culture (ethnocide) through the elimination of their language. In1992, the United States govemment reversed this practice with the Native Amer-ican Languages Act, which provides money for the preservation of the remaining\ative American languages. But it might be too late. Native American childrenare no longer prevented from speaking their native languages, but the degree ofassimilation into the general American culture has been so great that all but a few\ative American languages may be extinct in the next fifty years or so.31

Although there has been some attempt to revitalize American Indian lan-+ages, the quest to maintain a native language has been more vigorous in otherareas of the world. Civil wars have been fought, at least in part, over which lan-quage would be the official language of a country. One of many possible exam-ples of this is India. In 1947, after India became independent from the English,riolence broke out between ethnic groups over what language would be the offi-;ial language of India. \Alhichever language was chosen would give educational,:: "Native American Culture: Language," www.ewebtribe.com,/NACulture/lang. htm,\larch 13, 2005.

Chapter 7 217

A nation is a group of people whoshare a history and culture, includinga common tanguage.

218 Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology

economic, and other social advantages to the ethnicity that spoke that language'

ultimately, English was maintained as the lingua francs of India for use in busi-

ness and political communication. However, to stop the nationalistic violence,

fifteen indigenous languages of India are now considered official languages of

that countr!. In addition, today most of India's main language (ethnic) grouPs

have their own states.

Summary

People of a language community lives, works, socializes, and communicates to-

gether in a dialJct & variety of their language. Standard American English (SAE)

is the prestige dialect in the United States; BBC English is the prestige dialect in

the United iittgdo-. Regional dialects show semantic variation, syntactic varia-

tion, and phonological viriation. Regional dialects have a social meaning in that

people ^uk" urrnilptions about others based on the dialect that they speak-

^ African American English (AAE) is one of the terms for the varieties of Eng-

lish spoken in different pirts of the United States by African Americans' It is an

important part of Africln American cultural heritage and communal values'

Afiican Americans switch back and forth between SAE and AAE as the circum-

stances require; this practice of changing from one style of language to another is

called codl switching. The characteristics of AAE have often been misunder-

stood as incorrect Eriglish. However, it is rule governed, following its distinct

phonological rules thit include a rule for /t / and /I/ deletion, a final consonant

deletion-rule, monophthongization, and modification of the interdental frica-

tives [0] and [d]. Many of the differences between sAE and AAE are grammatical

features that include verb deletion, verb asPect, the word order of indirect ques-

tions, multiple negation, and the existential lf. One facet of African culture that

has been pr"r"rrrJ in African American culture is respect and admiration for a

"man of words."Some of the characteristics of Hispanic English (HE) are the result of the ap-

plication of the Spanish phonologicil system on English words and Spanish

word order on English ,etrtetr."r. other characteristics, such as double negation,

come from the grimmar rules of Spanish. Another interesting syntactic practice

of the bilingual"Hispanic American community is the use of spanish inflectional

morphemes with English verbs.ilff,"n people of lifferent cultures come together, contac-t languages facilitate

communicltion. Acommon second language canbecome a lingua franca. Pidgin

languages are simplified languages developed for use in specific interactions;

tf"r"! gi their vocabulary from the superstrate language, but syntactic qualities

.o*"1.o^ the substrat" luttgt,ug". Whett a pidgin language is learned by the

next generation as its first language, a Process called nativization, it becomes a

creole language.Every-one"code switches between styles of speech-or registers' English

speakers indicate the level of formality of their speech by the use of contractions,

certain word deletions, and the placement of a preposition at the end of a sen-

tence. Word choice is probably the single most important indicator of formality

or situational dialect, including the use of everyday slang, taboo words, exple-

tives, and racial epithets. Many slang expressions typig people of a particular

generation. jargon is the special vocabulary of in-groups and_professions.

Males andlemales differ in the way they use language. In some languages,

verbs are conjugated differently by males and by females- In other languages,

different words or pronunciations are used. In English, females use informal

Chapter 7 219

speech less than males do. They also use indirect language, the polite question,

andtagquestionsmoreoftenthanmen.InmixedconversationSroups/mentalkmore often and they olk 1o"g"'' They also interrupt other speakers and change

the subiect or redirect the conversation more often than women do'

linguistic anthropology is 1 subfield of cultural anthropology that studies

no_ tariguug" i, .rs"i in e"veryday life- and how it is integrated into the various

cultures around the world. Cultuial relativism is the idea that a culture is consis-

i".rt urra comprehensible within itself. Closely related is,the concept of linguiltic

relativism, the idea that each language is consistent and comprehensible within

itself and must be studied as a unique system. The sapir-whorf Hypothesis pro-

;;;;Jih"tpeople of different cultures ihink and behive differently because the

ffirrug", ihut'they speak influence them to do so. In other words, the way in

rvhichindividualsviewtneworldaround.themisdependentonthelanguage,t,u,,n"y have learneJ ,o,rr" to interpret their world. others have proposed that

,r,f-rif" fJr-rg.rage influences culture, there are other instances where culture influ-

ences language.Languageisanimportantpartofthenationalidentityformanyethnic

grr"pr. ineioss or u tu,igtug" *"ull' the loss of an important element of a cul-

ture. Civil wars have bee"n fo'ught, in part, over what the language of a country

*-ill be.

Suggested Reading

T

I

:e

n

ES

ne

BooksBonvillain, Nancy, Language, Culture, and Communication: The Meaning of Messages, 4th ed''

Upper Saddle-River, New |ersey: Prentice- Hall' 2003'

s*;;,, silf, The Mother Tongue: English and Hora It Got That Way' New York: William Mor-

row,1990.e.yrorr, Blll, Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United

Sfafes, New York, william Morrow I9g4. BtIl -Btytott

is an American humorist who

rirr"a * England for twenty years. These two books were on best-seller lists in both

London and New York'Hailcom, Francine, a Ciae tu Linguistics for ESL Teachers' Dubuque' Iowa: Kendall/Hunt--

e,rurirni.,g, 1gg5. This textboof has a chapter devoted to each language that an ESL

teacher is likely to encounter, including spinish, Tagalog, Chinese, and vietnamese.

Hickerson,NancyP.,LinguisticAnthropol"ogy,2nded.FortWorth,Texas:Harcourt,2000.i-utz, William , Doublespfrk,New York: Harper Perennial' 1990' This is a satirical' humor-

ous book written by a professor of Engiish, who gives an annual award for the most

egregious misuse of language'

f--i"n] Deborah, Talking fiomkine to Firte, New York: Avon Books' 1994'

lamen, Deborah, vou liit Don,t lfnderstand: women and Men in Conoersation, New York:

Ballantine Books, 1990. Deborah Tannen is the best-selling author of books on the topic

of gender differences in language'

-lrticles-elman, Rochel and C. R. Gallistel, ,,Language and the origin of Numerical Concepts,,,

Science,Vol.30,Octobert5,2004,441-443'www'sciencemag'orgThe following articles uti upp"u."a in a special issue of American Anthropologist: lournal oJ

the Americin Anthropologtial Associatioi,Volume 105' Number 4' December 2003'

3ulag, Uradyn 8., "Mong8[an Ethnicity and.Linguistic Anxiety in ghh:"'753-763'

Jhernela, Janet M. ,,f_ur.r[.rug" ideology and Woriren's Speech: Talking Community in the

)'Jorthwest A mazon", 7 9 4-80 6'

:ngland, Nora C. -tvtuyu. La.,guage Revival and Revitalization Politics: Linguists and

iinguistic Ideologies", 7 33-7 43'

Lsh

fis,en-Irtyrle-rlar

g€s,Lges,

rmal

220 Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology

Errington,joseph,,GettingLanguageRights:theRhetoricsofLanguageEndangermentand Loss", 723-722.

Friedman,Jonathan,,GlobalizingLanguages:IdeologiesandRealitiesoftheContemPo.rary Global SYstem", 744-752'

Haviland, John B. "ra*iogi", of Language: some Reflections on Language and U.S.

Law",764-774.Maurer, Bill "Comment: Got Langu age? Law'Property and the Anthropological Imagina-

fron",775-781Whiteley,Peter,,,Do,LanguageRights,Servelndigenouslnterests?SomeHopiandOther

Queries", 712-722.

Suggested Websites

,,Explorel Linguistics,, The University of oregon's website introducing the topic

of sociolinguistics. It includes an online quiz in translating pidgin phrases'

http: / / lo$s.uoregon'edu/explore/sociolingThe University of Texas Austin Linguistics *"btitu includes interactive activi-

ties, exampl", of ,p"J sourrdr Trom different parts of the country, full text

articles by noted linguists, and links to other resources'

www.utexas.edu/ courses /linguistics/resources/sociolingThiswebsite(inEnglish)isaboutsociolinguisticsinChina,includinganarticle

on Chinese gkfr' pio,lttnciation, a kindlf "Valley talk" Chinese style'

l"**.puoptE.fas.harvard'edu / -whu/ China / socio'htm

These websites comPare British and American English'

An American-British British-American Dictionary- --

-**.p"uk.orgl-jeremy/ dictionary/dict'htmlA Guideio Ameiican English for British Speakers

www.scit'wlv'ac.uk/ -iphb / american'html#brit

Do you speak Americanz iia documentary produced by Public Broadcasting ser-

vice (pBS). rn"r" ure interactive q"aL:i about American varieties of English

on their website at wwwpbs'org/speak'The University of Cl"rgf",itf,"r,"r, .orrarr.ted linguistic research. They devel-

oped a ianguage JialE.t atla, of African Americin speech, including the Gul-

lah/Geeche" ""rity. ihei, .erear.h is available it nttp://hyde.park'uga'

edu/afam.

Some sites about Gullah language:

A dictionary of Gullah/Geechee is at:

l"**. griluhtours. com,/ gullahdictionarv'htmlInformation about tfre CirUafr/Geechee Sea Island Coalition' an organiza'

tion that .orrarr.t, "onferences

and other meetings in Gullah/Geechee, is at

wwwcoax.n et / people / lwf / gg-coal'htm'

Developed u, u r"rorrrle for elementary school teachers in south Carolina, has

folktalesunarorrg,itGullah,plusaninteractivepagewhereyoucanclickon an Englisn woid and hear iipronounced in Gullah'

www.knowital l.org / gullahtales

You can read rhe L;t?i';;;;;t' in" r*""ty-rhy{ Psalm' and,Dr' Martin Luther

King's "I Have a

-Dream" speech- at ww# guf alrtours'com / prayers'html'

you can hear several radio essays about the Eulah/Geechee communities at the

National public n"Jr" website. search for the keyword "Gullah" in the pro-

gr am Alt Things Consider ed'

www.npr.olg