Language And Society Test #1

Front 1

linguistic relativity

Back 1

the view that structural differences among languages are reflected in the worldviews held by their speakers

Front 2

speech community

Back 2

all those who share a language vareity as well as specific rules for speaking and interpreting speech

Front 3

communicative competence

Back 3

the knowledge that enables a person communicate in any socioculturally authentic context

Front 4

participant observation

Back 4

the immersion of anthropological field-workers in the day-to-day activities of the people they are studying, usually for an extended period of time

Front 5

emic

Back 5

an analytical approach or description that emphasizes aspects of culture or language held to be significant and contrastive by members of the society being studied

Front 6

etic

Back 6

an analytical approach or description based on data that are verifiable objectively and applicable cross-culturally

Front 7

speech situation/social situation

Back 7

the context in which speaking takes place (for example: a fishing trip, family meal, beer party)

Front 8

linguistic determinism

Back 8

the assumption that the way individuals think is determined to a significant degree by the language they speak

Front 9

informant/consultant

Back 9

a person serving as a source of data for the analysis of language, speech behavior, or culture--usually a native speaker

Front 10

speech act

Back 10

the minimum unit of speech (for example: a greeting, an apology, self-introduction)

Front 11

lover boy theory

Back 11

historically, women chose sexual partners who spoke over those who couldn't or didn't do it well

Front 12

spandrel theory

Back 12

language was a side effect of humans developing larger brains.
spandrels = acccidental side effect of having arches but led to the opportunity for art. with the accidental space in our brains, it gave us the opportunity to develop speech. part of the brain which has language is next to the part where we can make tools and grasp objects.

Front 13

sign

Back 13

refers to something else, is tied to something else, is in the here and now, concrete referent, IE babies learn how to speak because crying
doesn't get them too far. has a time and space restriction

Front 14

symbol

Back 14

what language is made up of, abstract referent, categories, doesn't necessarily take place in the present, arbitrarily constructed, any types of sounds will do as long as they get the right response, conventional meaning, IE "chair" could refer to a specific chair or all chairs. have no time or space restriction

Front 15

what others hear theory

Back 15

exactly what is said doen't matter--the reaction matters

Front 16

metacommunication

Back 16

talking about our own communication

Front 17

siginificant symbol

Back 17

a symbol is significant if it triggers the same response in another as that in the person who develops or presents the symbol. the meaning of words or the order in whic you say them doesn't matter as long as your intentions are fulfilled

Front 18

punctuating interaction sequences

Back 18

a wife nags and a husband withdrawls. the wife thinks she must nag becasue he withdrawls. the husband thinks he must withdrawl because she nags. they are each "punctuating" (interpreting) the situation differently which leads to metacommunication

Front 19

modern myths concerning languages

Back 19

1) unwritten languages are "primitive"
2) languages of peoples whose societies are not urbanized and industrialized have "little grammar" or rules-- their languages is in a random fashion
3) vocabularies of "primitive" languages are too small and inadequate to account for the nuances for the physical and social universes of their speakers
4) not all languages are considered equal

Front 20

how words affect behavior (example)- whorf

Back 20

ppl aroung a sign that says "gasoline tanks" act differently than ppl around a sign that says "empty gasoline tank". these last ppl may throw cigarettes around the tanks even though they are still dangerous. the word "empty" signifies to these ppl a lack of hazard.

Front 21

whorf

Back 21

linguistic relativity, linguistic determinism. a language and the culture it serves mirror eachother.

Front 22

language

Back 22

refers to any one of the several thousand systems of oral communication used by different human societies

Front 23

blending and duality of patterning

Back 23

two things must have happened...
blending: producing a new call from two old ones (modern IE: brunch), opened a closed system bringing the development to the prelanguage stage. duality: the process by which the units of a limited set of signals on one level were combined to form a very large number of arrangements on another level, eliminated the increasing congestion of calls (modern IE: the sounds of breakfast and lunch can also form numerous other wods, but not the letters)

Front 24

interaction situation

Back 24

two or more people within eachother's microspace

Front 25

copresence

Back 25

each person is aware of the other, and aware that the other is aware

Front 26

civil inattention

Back 26

each person makes the decision that they will be civil and recognize eachother's existence, but not engage in focused interaction with seomone

Front 27

content and relationship levels of interaction

Back 27

there are two levels of communication when we talk to eachother: content and relationship. all communication implies commitment to others and defines the relationship. if we understand the identify of others, we can pretty easily predict future behavior. all relationship level messages contain at least one of these: -this is how i see u
-this is how i see u seeing me
-this is how i see me
-this is how i see our relationship
if these and the responses of these dont fit, the interaction wont happen or continue

Front 28

unhealthy relationship

Back 28

the relationship level becomes the focus (content becomes insignificant)

Front 29

hockett and ascher

Back 29

13 design-features. belief that all languages of the world share every one of them

Front 30

16 design features

Back 30

1) vocal auditory channel
2) broadcast transmission and directional reception
3) rapid fading
4) interchangeability
5) complete feedback
6) specialization
7) semanticity
8) arbitrariness
9) discreteness
10) displacement
11) openness (or productivity)
12) duality (of patterning)
13) cultural (or traditional) transmission
14) prevarication
15) reflexiveness
16) learnability

Front 31

vocal auditory channel

Back 31

among mammals, the use of the vocal-auditory channel for communication is extremely common. its beneficial also because it leaves the rest of ur body to carry on other activities

Front 32

broadcast transmission and directional reception

Back 32

speech sounds move from the source in all directions, the sender and receiver do not need to see eachother to communicate. using both ears to listen allows the reciever to determine the direction of sound

Front 33

rapid fading

Back 33

words dont last longer than they are spoken (unlike writing)... good for those who speak foolishly and bad for those who are wise