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ANTH / LING 203 Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology • • • • Defining the fields Defining basic terms Basic semiotics (icon/index/symbol) Linguistic relativity Anthropology is Holistic • All aspects of human condition— from past to present physical to metaphysical • 4 fields (archaeology, bio/physical, linguistic, sociocultural) • + applied anth. + environmental Anthro- historically: • Study of the “Other” • Originally inherently colonialist enterprise: study of “primitives,” “exotics” • Also, nationalizing: study of “authentic” villagers in Europe • Key role of language in early anthro. studies Anthropology: The study of humans & other primates • Holistic • Comparative • Fieldwork-based The four fields • Archeology (past cultures) • Physical anthropology (evolution, biological, medical aspects) • Cultural anthropology (all aspects of systems of meaning and their implications, including art, religion, politics, science) • Linguistic Anthropology (all of the above from the angle of language’) • Interrelationships between the fields Ethnocentrism • Judging another culture on the basis of your own 1 Cultural relativism • Different cultures can have different logics and values systems • you should not judge one based on the system of another Anthro- now • Study of all people • Self-othering, self-reflexive anthropology • Impossibility of neutrality-effort to acknowledge biases • Science vs./& Humanities • Ethnography: study of a culture Comparative & Field-work based • Building on tradition of study of “Other” cultures • Participant observation • Learning what questions are important to the people you study Semiotics: how things mean • ICON: meaning by virtue of resemblance • INDEX: meaning by virtue of physical relationship • SYMBOL: meaning by virtue of convention Culture-defined: • Symbolic mediation of the environment by humans • Human system of symbolic thought & communication & its products onomatopoeia • example of how spoken language is iconic • Words that sound like what they represent: tick-tock, slush, whirr • Animal sounds: cock-a-doodle-doo, kukuriku woof woof, hav hav, wa wa 2 deixis • example of how spoken language is indexical • Deictics: words whose meaning depends on context, like “I, you, here, now” The symbolic • Most of human language is symbolic: Connections between words & meanings based on convention LANGUAGE-defined: ANTH / LING 203 Week 1, Tuesday • Finishing up with definitions & signs • Saussure’s concepts • Linguistic relativity Linguistics • Studies systems of language at all levels (sounds, words, sentences, discourse) • Historical • Cognitive Human system of symbolic thought & communication that involves: • distinguishing & producing sounds according to a limited set of distinctions (phonemes) • sounds combined into meaningful units (morphemes) • whose meanings are arbitrarily assigned • morphemes are combined according to rules • to yield an infinite set of sentences • whose meanings can be derived. Linguistic anthropology • also called anthropological linguistics • The study of: -language origins -how humans use language -how language relates to culture & thought -how language matters in politics & society 3 Ferdinand de Saussure • • • • “Father of modern linguistics” signifier & signified: arbitrary relationship langue vs. parole Structuralism (paradigmatic & syntagmatic relationships) more Saussure… • Langue: idealized system— “language inside the circle” (Agar) object of study of linguistics grammar rules, patterns ideal speaker-hearer • Parole: messy, imperfect actual speech Saussure’s semiotics A sign is made up of: • signifier (e.g. a word: “tree”) • signified (e.g. an object or concept: • relationship between signifier & signified is arbitrary • Language: chops up world of sounds & world of experiences into units, correlates them (sets stage for linguistic relativism) Saussure’s Structuralism • Meaning of a sign depends on it position relative to other signs (again, this sets the stage for linguistic relativism) • Paradigmatic—relationship to things that can go in the “same slot” e.g. animate nouns • Syntagmatic—relationship to signs “in other slots” (e.g. adjectives, nouns, verbs) 4