Linguistic Anthro Midterm

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Michael Agar

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Professor at UMD-CP. Wrote 'Language Shock'.

Came up with the concept of 'the circle' - linguists constricting their definition of language by drawing an evil circle of doom around it.

Inside the circle: grammar, syntax, Saussure's distinction between 'langue' (IN) et 'parole' (OUT), Chomsky's distinction between 'competence' (langue, IN) and 'performance (parole, OUT), Chomsky in general, Bloomfield (studied mechanics of grammar), 19th century historical linguists, Sir William Jones

Outside the circle: parole, performance, Malinowski (started practice of cultural immersion for extended periods of time to tsudy culture), Whorf (culture has enormous impact on language. Half-penned Supir-Whorf hypothesis), Supir (see Whorf)

On the circle: Boas - language was a means to the end, the end being the study of culture. Studied both grammar and culture. You need to know the grammar, to be able to study the culture.

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The Circle

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Linguists constricting their definition of language by drawing an evil circle of doom around it.

Inside the circle: grammar, syntax, Saussure's distinction between 'langue' (IN) et 'parole' (OUT), Chomsky's distinction between 'competence' (langue, IN) and 'performance (parole, OUT), Chomsky in general, Bloomfield (studied mechanics of grammar), 19th century historical linguists, Sir William Jones

Outside the circle: parole, performance, Malinowski (started practice of cultural immersion for extended periods of time to tsudy culture), Whorf (culture has enormous impact on language. Half-penned Supir-Whorf hypothesis), Supir (see Whorf)

On the circle: Boas - language was a means to the end, the end being the study of culture. Studied both grammar and culture. You need to know the grammar, to be able to study the culture.

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Cultural relativism

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-No one culture is "better" than or more evolved than another.
-All languages (including pidgins and creoles) are of roughly equal complexity.

BOAS. Frans Boas.

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Emile Durkheim

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"social fact". "Society sets the limits on what a person MIGHT do." When people cross the boundaries of these social facts, then they're no longer members of the society.

Significance: Saussure's idea of language is a social fact. It doesn't predict what someone will say, but it sets the limits. Doesn't tell you what will happen when people speak (parole), but they tell you the limits that surround you when you do speak (langue).

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culture

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Whatever you have to know to operate in an acceptable way. A set of learned feelings, beliefs, and rules for living.

-Set of rules GUIDES human behavior
-applies to a group
-both conscious and unconscious. Can be explicit or implicit.

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Ferdinand de Saussure

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-His work a departure from the historical linguistics of predecessors like Sir William Jones

-Interested in a synchronic, or with time, approach to studying language, rather than diachronic, or through time

-Defined the sign as composed of the signifier and the signified, and noted that, in most, if not all, cases, the relationship between them is arbitrary (or conventional)

-Distinguished between langue (the underlying system of rules) and parole (the way people use language in everyday life)
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Significance: defined language as a system of lexical items and grammatical structures in relationship to each other (e.g. paradigmatic vs. syntagmatic relations; per Agar, drew the circle too tightly around language by focusing on langue

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syntagmatic

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A horizontal relationship in a sentence. The word that you pick to fill the first slot influences what you can pick for the second slot. Example, if your first word is "George", your second word is more likely to be "ran", "said", "faints", or "glared" than it would be to be "mathematics", "potato", "underneath", or "faint".

Paired with paradigmatic.

Saussure!

Significance: Shows how arbitrary language is.

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paradigmatic

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Vertical relationship. Describes the options of words that one has to fill a particular slot. For example, in the sentence "Patrick is not a good role model", the word "Patrick" would have a paradigmatic relationship with the words "Susie", "James", "He", "Hitler", and "street thugs", which could logically and grammatically take the place of "Patrick" in the sentence.

Paired with syntagmatic.

Saussure!

Significance: Shows how arbitrary language is.

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diachronic

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Through-time.

Refers to the historical, 19th century method of studying linguistics, which studied how particular languages have come to be. Principally did this by setting up columns of words in different languages and comparing them to one another.

Compared to synchronic.

Saussure!

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synchronic

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Single moment snap-shot.

Saussure's preferred method of studying linguistics. Looks at language as it is currently being used, not through history.

Compared to diachronic.

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langue

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The precursor to Chomsky's "competence", langue is the "inside the circle" bit of language that Saussure felt was necessary to study. It is the grammar, syntax, semantics, words, etc. of language. It is the boundaries around which we set language, not the way in which people actually use it.

Contrasted to parole.

Saussure!

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parole

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Saussure's name for the messy, every-day speech used by people. This speech reflects culture, although I don't know if Saussure actually said that...but in any event, Saussure wanted to study just the langue, the grammar and mechanics of language, because parole is too messy and there is no point in studying it.

Agar doesn't like this idea too much. He says that this distinction makes Saussure draw a circle around language.

Contrasted to langue.

Saussure!

Precursor to Chomsky's "performance".

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competence

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Chomsky. See Saussure's "langue".

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performance

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Chomsky. See Saussure's "parole".

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signifier

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One of the two faces of a sign. The signifier is the word, picture, or other thing used to designate a signified. For example, when thinking about a tree, the sounds that form the word "tree", the phonemes, the letters...this is the signified.

Significance: Related to the arbitrariness of the sign. Not all signs point to signifieds in the same way (sheep, mutton, versus mouton et mouton).

Saussure!

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signified

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One side of the sign. Indicates the actual object, or concept, that is being pointed at by the signifier. An example, when thinking about a tree, the signified is the actual tall plant with bark and branches and leaves and seeds and sometimes nuts or fruit.

Significance: Related to the arbitrariness of the sign. Not all signs point to signifieds in the same way (sheep, mutton, versus mouton et mouton).

Saussure!

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the arbitrariness of the sign

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Also, the conventional nature of the sign. Relationship between word for "tree" and concept of "tree" don't have a direct, certain relationship. If they did, the thing with bark and leaves and sometimes fruit and nuts would be called a "tree" in every language.

Concept associated with Saussure.

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deficit theory

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Approach to studying other peoples/cultures by analyzing what is lacking when compared to another people/culture. Type of scientific ethnocentrism and is also used in social-Darwinist and evolutionist arguments. Boas’ historical particularism was developed in contradiction with this approach.

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symbol

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type of sign (Saussurian idea) in which the sound image (signifier) has a strictly conventional/arbitrary relationship with the idea (signified). In other words that there is no direct or obvious link between a word and what that word represents

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iconic

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-One of the three Saussurian types of signs
-There is a direct relationship between signifier and signified (although they do not exclusively point to one another!)
-Onomatopoeia, pictures, some Japanese kanji symbols (ichi, ni, san, ki)

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indexical

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-One of the three types of signs defined by Saussure; the others are symbols and icons
-Related to the relationship between signifier and signified- -in this case, it involves a “pointing to” relationship, or proximity
-E.g. smoke is indexical of fire

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Bernstein

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Made the distinction between restricted code and elaborated code

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Restricted code

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-emphasizes the "what"
-relies on unstated assumptions (inside jokes)
-invokes traditional authority
-redundant, repetitive
-used by lower classes and sometimes middle classes
-limited verbal choices

-lower class children were RAISED with restricted code,s o they don't develop the skills to use elaborated code
-reason why lower-class kids don't do well in school

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Elaborated code

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-emphasizes the "how" and "why"
-makes assumptions explicit
-provides explanations
-creative, complex
-used only by middle and upper classes
-more complex verbal choice

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Bereiter and Englemann

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-used Berntein's ideas to research AAVE
-found dthat black English was restricted code
-blamed AAVE for poor performance in school
-this is NOT Bernstein's idea
-restricted code retards children's growth

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Labov

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-critiques Bereiter and Englemann
-scientific bias!
-data collected by ONLY white males
-whole idea of restricted code is a value judgement, not an empirical reality
-looked at Bereiter and Englemann's data, and despite AAVE not being standard english, it has HIGHLY complex structures

-draws on BOAS (linguistic relativity)

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Examples of how different languages have different ways of seeing color

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Navajo - no distinction between blue and green, but two different blacks (night and objects)

Russian - two words for blue

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Conklin

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-problem at getting at question of color - some languages don't have term for "color"
-gets at a series of variables for getting at color
-simplest way of looking at color: relative brightness, relative darkness, relative presence of red, relative presence of green
-look at non-colorometric differences as well (shininess, ephemerality, etc.)

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An example of a spaghetti junction

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-development of past tense in Tok Pisin
-two options: pinis (from 'finish') and 'bin' (from English 'been')
-pinis had other use, so bin won out

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An example of an amoeba theory

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-Berlin and Kay's color
-prepositions, when certain verbs (like 'to regard', 'to concern') and are "reanalyzed", and become prepositions, expand their usage

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Brushfire theory

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Refers to the spread of language across the African continent

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Bondfire theory

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-language development started off small, with a few sparks, then exploded into huge big fire, then tapered off at a slow, steady burn
-refers mainly to lexical items and words

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semiotics

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the study of signs

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the subareas of Broca's area (and some additional stuff...significance

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-closest to the back fot ehb rain, responsible for speech output generally (muscles of the mouth
-flight further forwrd, handles sequential order of words
-next part deals with conditional connections (if...then)
-final part closest to front handles word associations


-some grammatical problems in broca's aphasia

-when Broca discovered his area, first time researcher had been able to show that particular areas of brain were responsible for particular tasks

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What is language really bad at?

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-spatial information
-emotion
-sensation
-feelings

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What is language really good at?

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-lying
-answers full of nothing
-talking for the sake of talking (greetings)
-talking to influence people (politics, selling things)

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Pop hypothesis

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-big brain developed first
-extra facilities were food for language, so language showed up (Bickerton's curb cuts)
-Stephen Jay Gould
-exaptation: adapting an existing structure for other purposes (spandrels)
-Aitchison says that language is too complex to be developed this way. Land. and brain probably emerged at same time, though initial enlargement due to other factors

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Roger Fouts

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-taught Washoe
-taught chimps language by building rapport with chimps
-dreamed of having huge land and giving chimps farms and tools
-Washoe's adopted son getting signs from Washoe?
-watches then instead of trying to est up research projects

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Grooming theory

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Belief that grooming is a key form of socialization among apes and that, as humans lost their fur, language was substituted in for the species’ primary method of socialization instead of grooming. Theory originated from Robin Dunbar

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Herbert Terrace

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-wanted to teach a chump a sentence
-wanted his chimp (Nim Chimpsky) to serve as an interpreter to other chimps in Arica
-said that Nim was starting to master syntax
-noticed upon re-examination that took some of what teacher signed, gave appearance of making long combinations. Said very little on his own
-says that no chimp has ever signed something for his own sake

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Sue-Savage Rumbaugh

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-An ape language researcher, worked with the bonobo Kanzi, among others, attempting to teach them to communicate with humans using a system of lexigrams on a keyboard, using single signs

-Response to critics of ALR: media raised hopes too high, our methodology is not sophisticated enough to understand animal communication, we need more field research of animal communication

-primatologist who worked with Bonobos (Kanzi) and chimps to study language use. She believes that primates do have language, but presence of thought is very difficult to prove, even in humans. She also believed that human’s study of ape language is limited because we cannot understand primate communication. Critics of Savage Rumbaugh believe she was projecting her own outcomes to her study and was giving the bonobos indirect cues.

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Dr. Francine Patterson

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-Taught Koko and Michael
-said that Koko signs to herself when nobody is around, contradicting Terrace's imitation theory
-said that Michael described his capture (uses displacement)
-critics say that Patterson is richly interpreting her data, Clever Hans phenomenon

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Why animal language experiments have failed:

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1. No "transferring"
2. Grammar or syntax
3. Words composed of individual phonemes
4. Kids recognize actions associated with their language
5. Metalanguage

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Failure of animal language experiments: transferring

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-children quickly able to transfer language skills to other kinds of situations
-make sentences they've never heard, usually in novel contexts
-called "transferring"

-VERY limited in animals
-could learn sequences within experiment (fairly common)
-but training short sequences take a LONG time
-outside of situation, no ability of animals to transfer skills learned to other situations
-no longer able to repeat experiments when no longer hungry

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Failure of animal language experiments: grammar/syntax

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-set of rules for how to combine words into sentences that make sense to speakers of al anguage
-rules governing combination of meaningful elements into proportions
-nonhumans don't have the capacity for grammar
-coordination, complementation, relativization (all recursive elements of language)
-animals don't show these recursive syntactical sequences except on really simple level, whereas children learn these by age three or four
-animals have finite number of sentences

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Coordination

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Dan eats potatoes AND ketchup

Combination of two sentences... "Dan eats potatoes" and "Dan eats ketchup"

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Complementation

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One sentence becomes the object of another sentence.

"I heard George Bush got a C on his history exam"

"George bush got..." object of "I heard ___".

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Relativization

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One sentence modifies a noun of another.

"Fred grilled the steaks that I bought"