Linguistic Anthropology Exam 2

study of the structure of body parts

study of the functions and relationship of body parts

-the hollow muscular organ forming an air passage to lungs and holding the vocal cords in humans and other mammals

-the voice box

an apparatus that increases the resonance of a sound, especially a hollow part of a musical instrument

• a horseshoe-shaped bone situated in the anterior midline of
• the neck between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. Directly beneath the
• tongue. Supports the weight of the tongue, allowing the articulation of words
• while speaking and enabling the production of a wide range of vocalizations

-the external part of the ear in humans

-the auricle

a membrane forming part of the organ of hearing which vibrates in response to sound waves

in humans it forms the eardrum, between the outer and middle ear

a very small bone, especially those in the middle ear. Incus, malleus, stapes.

the spiral cavity of the inner ear containing the organ of Corti, which produces nerve impules in response to sound vibrations

• -the study of how languages change over time
• -relies on regularity
• -large changes usually follow "rules" that affect words and sounds at the same time at a semi-regular pace

• -sound changes spreading through the lexicon of a language 
• -modern view, William Labov, 1960s

one sound influenced by the pronunciation of a neighboring sound

ten bucks vs. tembucks

when the same consonant sound appears close together, one will disappear (usually the first consonant)

Surprise - Supprise

introduction of an extra sound at the beginning of a word

English "school" to Hindi "iskuul"

loss of final sounds

Old English - helpe to help

the loss of one of two repetitive syllables 

• Probably to probly
• Anglaland to England

at any point in a language, some will speak the old way, some the new way.

can create or reinforce social boundaries

-male vs female, etc.

• -Creole language of the Gullah people
• -English base with elements from various West African languages
• -Coast of South Carolina and nearby islands

-South Carolina colonists found rice as a new staple cash crop after sugar market collapse of 1680s. 

-Higher price for slaves who knew how to grow rice

• -made it illegal to bring any more slaves from Africa into the US
• -Created a large smuggling trade

theory that language is so complex that it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among our primate ancestors

theory that language is a unique trait so it cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans and must have appeared suddenly during the course of human evolution

theory of human origins which posits a common descent for all human races

• -pre-Columbian Maya book of the 11th or 12th century
• -believed to be a copy of an original text of some 300-400 years earlier
• -the oldest book written in the Americas known to historians

• -the internal cast of a cranial vault
• -used to show the size and shape of the brain

• -a grammatically simplified form of a language with elements taken from local languages
• -used for communication between people not sharing a common language
• -very limited vocabulary, arises out of language contact between speakers of other languages

• -of or relating to a language that arises from contact between two other languages and have features of both
• -originates from a pidgin

• -aka working language, bridge language, vehicular language or unifying language
• -a language system systematically used to make communications possible between people not sharing a mother tongue

• -a less prestigious dialect or a variety of a particular language
• -used especially in the study of creoles

• -the most prestigious dialect or variety of a particular language
• -used especially in the study of creoles

• -a thing that represents or stands for something else
• -a mark or character used as a conventional representation of an object, function or process

a sequence of letters, words or symbols marked on paper or some other surface

denoting or relating to the wedge-shaped characters used in ancient writing systems of Mesopotamia, Persia and Ugarit, surviving mainly impressed on clay tablets

ideograms that convey their meanings through their pictoral resemblance to physical objects

-cave paintings, ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese

• -from the Greek idea "idea" and grafo "to write"
• -a graphical symbol that represents an idea or concept

• -using existing symbols, such as pictograms, purely for their sounds, regardless of their meaning to represent new words
• -used by many ancient writing systems to represent abstract words
• -Ex. "I can see you" could be represented by pictograms: "eye-can-sea-ewe"

• -a logogram or logograph is a grapheme which represents a word or a morepheme rather than ideas
• -include earliest true writing systems: first historical civilizations of the Near East, Africa, China and Central America

• -(syllabary) a set of written characters for a language, each representing a syllable
• -Includes Mycenaean Greek, Cherokee, Vai, hiragana and katakana of Japanese

writing based on an alphabet, a standard set of letters used to write one or more languages based on the general principle that the letters represent phonemes (basic significant sounds of the spoken language)

• -a type of phonetic writing system in which only consonants are represented
• -Abjads. Includes Arabic, Hebrew

a particular philosophy of life or conception of the world

a set of words and distinctions that are particularly important to certain groups (those with particular foci of experience or activity), such as types of snow to Eskimos or skiers

the idea that language its structures limit and determine human knowledge or thought

• -the structure of language affects the way in which its speakers conceptualize their world (worldview) or otherwise influences their cognitive processes
• -Strong version - language determines thought and linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories
• -Weak version - linguistic categories and usage influence thought and certain kinds of non-linguistic behavior

the study of the different ways the world is perceived and categorized in different cultures

• -Yoruba artists possess a strong color philosophy that is understood by the Yoruba people to invoke an emotional and personality aspect of individuals
• -more than a palette of colors, but a way to understand people and deities
• -most illustrated in the art of beading

• -color distinctions made at two levels of contrast
• -first, more general level consists of an all-inclusive, coordinate, four-way classification, which are mutually exclusive in contrastive contexts.
• -second level consists of hundreds of specific color categories, many of which overlap and interdigitate

• -identified 11 possible basic color categories: white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey
• -found there is a maximum number of categories in any language for color

• -the meaning of a word, phrase, sentence or text
• -the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning

• -aka the triangle of reference
• -a model of how linguistic symbols are related to the objects they represent

• -linguistic sign - the combination of content and expression, the former of which may refer entities in the world or refer more abstract concepts, like thought
• -certain parts of speech only exist to express reference (pronouns)
• -A term's reference is the object to which the term refers

the way that a term refers to an object (reference)

the literal or primary meaning of a word

an idea or feeling that a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning

• -a type of rating scale designed to measure the connotative meaning of objects, events and concepts
• -connotations are used to derive the attitude toward the given object, event or concept

• -the various systems used in languages to refer to the persons to whom an individual is related through kinship
• -different societies classify kinship relationships differently and therefore use different systems of kinship terminology

a word or set of words by which a person, animal, place or thing is known, addressed or referred to

a hereditary name common to all members of a family, as distinct from a given name

• -Studied Gullah
• -theorized Gullah was wholly English, dialectical English of the uneducated
• -observed slight differences among the different islands

• -Studied Gullah
• -thought Gullah was wholly English
• -taught a simplified "baby talk" version of English to slaves

• -First black man to study Gullah
• -theorized it was a creole of English and various West African languages of the slaves
• -based on 300 proverbs, songs, folktales and interviews

vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person or animal's ear

• -facilitate high frequency vibrations most commonly used to enhance or amplify sound through the air or structures
• -convert electrical signals into pressure waves in the air

• -language of the Anglo-Saxons (up to ~1150)
• -a highly inflected language with largely Germanic vocabulary, very different from modern English

the English language from c. 1150 to c. 1470

• -stage of English used from the beginning of the Tudor period until the English Interregnum and Restoration
• -First edition King James Bible, Shakespeare
• -Elizabethan English

Modern English as we know it, with many dialects spoken in diverse countries throughout the world

• -major change in the pronunciation of English in England between 1350 and 1700
• -first studied by Otto Jespersen
• -Responsible for many of the peculiarities of English spelling

• -Safe
• -Vulnerable - not spoken by children outside the home
• -Definitely endangered - children not speaking
• -Severely endangered - only spoken by oldest generations
• -Critically endangered - spoken by a few members of the oldest generation, often semi-speakers

• -in terminal decline
• -at the point of death

the use of statistical data to date the divergence of language from their common sources

casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true

• -aka cuckoo
• -one of Muller's hypotheses
• -saw early words as imitations of the cries of beasts and birds

• -one of Muller's hypotheses
• -first words emotional interjections and exclamations triggered by pain, pleasure, surprise, etc

• -one of Mueller's hypotheses
• -all things have a vibrating resonance, echoed somehow by man in his earliest words

• -one of Muller's hypotheses
• -language emerged out of collective rhythmic labor
• -the attempt to synchronize muscular effort resulting in sounds such as heave alternating with sounds such as ho

• -Lucy
• -small brain (~1 pint)
• -Bipedal
• -3-4mya

• -3mya
• -likely ancestor of homo habilis

• -considered to be the first human, though far removed from modern humans
• -1.9-1.6mya
• -Braincase capacity ~1/2 of modern humans
• -Shorter, tool makers
• -Increase group activity, culturally patterned means of subsistence rather than instinct alone

• -2mya
• -Africa to Asia to Europe
• -Multipurpose hand axe, other tools for cutting, piercing, chopping, scraping
• -Proficient large game hunters
• -Used fire
• -Greater cultural complexity
• -increased brain size (~1 quart, 1000 CCs)

• -had a hyoid bone, may have been capable of producing sounds similar to modern humans
• -probably didn't have a fully modern language
• -first to bury dead

• -anatomically modern humans
• -first appeared 195kya in Ethiopia
• -language fully developed with this species at some point
• -possessed the anatomical ability for speech

• -pioneered theory of lexical diffusion
• -sociolinguistic change
• -differences in speech between genders

Aethelbert's Law for Kent was the earliest written code in any Germanic language

• -Tried to revive learning
• -required literacy of at lest those holding a court position

• -Thought to be the first person to work as a printer and first to introduce a printing press into England
• -Translated a large number of works into English
• -Credited w/ standardizing English through printing

• -published a dictionary of English in 1755
• -recognized as having a lasting effect on literary criticism

• -lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer
• -Father of American Scholarship and Education
• -Merriam-Webster dictionary

• -pioneer of historical linguistics
• -suspected that many European languages were related, parent language might be Sanskrit

• -German scholar of comparative language
• -interested in Sanskrit philology

• -Spanish bishop
• -writings about pre-Columbia Maya civilization

• -Mesoamerican archaeologist
• -contributions to understanding Maya hieroglyphics

pivotal role in deciphering Maya script

monumental discoveries in deciphering Mayan written language

• -one of the first to address sound symbolism
• -interested in the language-culture relationship

• -principle of linguistic determinism
• -principle of linguistic relativity

• -showed grammar across the world is very similar if examined thoroughly
• -Transformational grammar movement
• -Universalism

-developed semantic differential scale

work on color terminology

work with kinship terminology

work with American Indians of the Northwest

• -structural anthropology interested in absolute antonyms
• -termed binary oppositions

• -works on English surnames
• -Place names