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Chapter 6
Language and Communication
What We Will Learn
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How does human language differ from forms of
communication in other animals?
How do languages change?
Are some languages superior to others?
Do people from different cultures have different
styles of linguistic discourse?
What is the relationship between language and
culture?
How do people communicate without using
words?
The Nature of Language
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Found in all cultures of the world.
Symbolic system of sounds that conveys
meaning when put together according to a
set of rules.
Meanings attached to any given word in
all languages are totally arbitrary.
Diversity of Language
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There are as many as 6,000 discrete
languages.
95% of the world’s people speak fewer than 100
of approximately 6,000 languages.
Mandarin accounts for about 1 in every 5
people on earth.
English, Hindi, Spanish, and Russian, accounts
for about 45%.
Major Language Families of the
World
Major Languages of the World
Language
Primary Country
Number of
Speakers
Mandarin
China
873,000,000
Spanish
Spain/South American
322,000,000
English
UK/USA
309,000,000
Hindi
India
180,000,000
Portuguese
Portugal/Brazil
177,000,000
Bengali
Bangladesh
171,000,000
Major Languages of the World
Language
Primary Country
Number of
Speakers
Russian
Russia
145,000,000
Japanese
Japan
122,000,000
German
Germany
95,000,000
Wu
China
77,000,000
Korean
Korea
67,000,000
Characteristics of Human
Communication Systems
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Capable of sending an infinite number of
messages.
Humans are only animals that speak of
events from the past or in the future
(displacement).
Language is transmitted largely through
tradition rather than experience alone.
Open and Closed Systems of
Communication
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Closed system of communication
• Communication system in which the user
cannot create new sounds or words by
combining two or more existing sounds or
words.
Open system of communication
• System of communication in which the user
can create new sounds or words by
combining two or more existing sounds or
words.
Structure of Human Languages
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Phonological structure includes rules of how
sounds combine to convey meanings.
Each language has a grammatical structure that
governs:
• How morphemes are formed into words
(morphology).
• How words are arranged into phrases and
sentences (syntax).
Morphemes Make Up Words
Morphemes
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Free morpheme
• Morpheme that appears in a language
without being attached to other
morphemes.
Bound morpheme
• A morpheme that can convey meaning
only when combined with another
morpheme.
Grammar
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The systematic ways sounds are
combined in a language to allow users to
send and receive meaningful utterances.
Morphology
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The study of the rules governing how
morphemes are turned into words.
Syntax
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The linguistic rules, found in all
languages, that determine how phrases
and sentences are constructed.
Question
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_______ involves the study of the basic
building blocks of a language.
a) Linguistics
b) Phonology
c) Phonology
d) Grammar
Answer: b
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Phonology involves the study of the
basic building blocks of a language.
Question
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The ________ is a combination of
phonemes which convey some
meaning.
a) morpheme
b) allomorph
c) phoneme
d) grammar
Answer: a
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The morpheme is a combination of
phonemes which convey some meaning.
Question
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The rules of a language which controls
how people speak and make
themselves understood make up its
a) phonemes.
b) syntax.
c) grammar.
d) morphemes.
Answer: c
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The rules of a language which controls
how people speak and make themselves
understood make up its grammar.
Synchronic Analysis
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The analysis of cultural data at a single
point in time, rather than through time.
Diachronic Analysis
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The analysis of sociocultural data through
time, rather than at a single point in time.
Language Change
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Language is constantly changing.
When linguists study how languages
change over time, they are engaged in
diachronic analysis.
Historical Linguistics
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The study of how languages change over
time.
Language Families
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A language family comprises all of the
languages that derive from its common
protolanguage.
The English language is part of the family
known as the Indo-European language family.
• Germanic is the mother of English.
• French and Spanish are sister languages.
• Russian, Bulgarian, and Polish share a
common Slavic mother.
Language Families
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Linguists generally agree that there are
more than 250 different language families
in the world today.
Of these 150 are found in the Americas,
60 in New Guinea, 26 in Australia, 20 in
Africa, and 37 in Europe and Asia.
English Is No Easy Language to
Learn
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The medic wound the bandage around the
wound.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the
desert.
When Mr. Cheney fired his gun, the dove dove
into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The invalid had an invalid driver’s license.
They were too close to the door to close it.
Cultural Emphasis of a
Language
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The idea that the vocabulary in any
language tends to emphasize words that
are adaptively important in that culture.
Colloquialisms From Baseball
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She threw me a curve.
You’re way off base.
You’re batting 1,000 (500, zero) so far.
I want to touch all the bases.
He went to bat for me.
He has two strikes against him.
That’s way out in left field.
He drives me up the wall.
Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis
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Language influences perception.
Language establishes mental categories
that affect the ways people conceptualize
the real world.
Culture and Language
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Would this skier have
a more robust
vocabulary focusing
on different words for
snow than would a
nonskiing Floridian?
Culture and Language
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Although the Navajo
and English
languages have
vastly different
structures, these
Navajo speakers can
express abstract
ideas every bit as
effectively as native
English speakers.
Doublespeak
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The use of euphemisms to make things
appear better than they actually are.
Language and Perception
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This Iraqi man became
totally distraught when
an American missile
attack reduced his house
to rubble.
A “preemptive war,”
designed to create
“shock and awe,” can
lead to “collateral
damage.”
Language and Perception
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This type of “in-yourface” advertising
would not be well
received in Japan.
Diglossia
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The situational use of language in
complex speech communities.
A linguistic situation where two varieties of
the same language (such as standard
form, dialect, or pidgin) are spoken by the
same person at different times and under
different social circumstances.
Examples of Diglossia
High Form
Low Form
Religious service
Marketplace
Political speeches
Instructions to subordinates
Legislative proceedings
Friendly conversations
University lectures
Folk literature
News broadcasts
Radio/TV programs
Newspapers
Cartoons
Poetry
Graffiti
Question
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_______ suggests that language
actually establishes mental categories
that predispose people to see things in a
certain way.
a) Diachronic analysis
b) Historical linguistics
c) Descriptive linguistics
d) The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Answer: d
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The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests
that language actually establishes mental
categories that predispose people to see
things in a certain way.
Dialects
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Regional or class variations of a language
that are sufficiently similar to be mutually
understood.
It is not uncommon for certain dialects in
complex speech communities to be
considered substandard or inferior to
others.
Nonverbal Communication
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Most messages are sent and received
without words:
• Facial expressions
• Gestures
• Eye contact
• Touching
• Posture