Cultural Anthropology Chapter 6

The meanings attached to words in any language are not based on a logical or rational system but rather are arbitrary.

The ability to talk about things that are remote in time and space.

Communication in which the user acannot create new sounds or words by combining two or more existing sounds or words.

Communication in which thee user can create new sounds or words by combining two or more existing sounds or words.

The study of a language's sound system.

The branch of anthropological linguistics that studies how languages are structured.

The smallest units of sound in a language that distinguish meaning.

The smallest linguistic forms (usually words) that convey meaning.

A morpheme that can convey meaning while standing alone without being attached to other morphemes.

A morpheme that can convey meaning only when combined with another morpheme.

The systematic rules by which sounds are combined in a language o enable users to send and receive meaningful utterances.

The study of the rules governing how morphemes are formed into words.

The linguistic rules, found in all languages, that determine how phrases and sentences are constructed.

The analysis of cultural data at a single point in time, rather than through time.

The analysis of sociocultural data through time, rather than at a single point in time.

The study of how languages change over time.

A grouping of related languages.

The study of the relationship between language and culture.

The idea that the vocabulary in any language tends to emphasize words that are adaptively important in that culture.

The notion that a person's language shapes her or his perceptions and view of the world.

The use of euphemisms to confuse or deceive.

The practice of adapting one's language depending on the social situation.

The situation in which two forms of the same language are spoken by people in the same language community at different times and places.

Regional or class variations of a language that are sufficiently similar to be mutually intelligible.

The various means by which humans send and receive messages without using words (for example, gestures, facial expressions, and touching).