Linguistic Anthropology

1. Chapter 11

2. Chapter 1 Language and Culture

2.1. "By World War II, anthropology was well established as an academic field and was taught at major US universities. The four main subfield then recognized-in large part a legacy of Boas- were biological (or physical) anthropology, cultural anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology." (Stanlaw, Adachi, Salzmann, 9)

2.2. Linguistic anthropology is the study of humans and society from a language perspective. It focuses on the structure of language and how it is used.Those who take part in this study are known as linguistics.

2.3. Franz Boas is known as the father of modern anthropology. He was born in Germany on July 9, 1858. One of his first accomplishments was his theory of cultural relativism.

2.4. Culture is a system of symbols in someones head. It includes the environment that the culture derives from and its values, beliefs, and prejudices.

3. Chapter 2 Methods of Linguistic Anthropology

3.1. "Linguistic anthropologist view language in its cultural framework and are concerned with the rules for its social use; the analysis of its structure is therefore only a means to an end. By contrast, linguistics in their study of languages emphasize linguistic structure and the historical development of languages." ( Stanlaw, eta. 32)

3.2. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goJ4hC5To0c

3.3. Delly Hymes and John Gumperz had a different approach. They believed the study should beyong grammar. They believed language should be studied in a more social context. Circling in on how it is used in specific settings varying from environment and audience.

4. Chapter 3 Language is Sound: Phonology

4.1. "Even if we are not sociologists, most of us are aware that there are differences in our society based on economic class, social status, education and other variables. This is probably true for any society in the world." (Stanlaw, eta. 35)

4.2. Phonology focuses on the sound units of a language and how they are organized. It circles in on phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound in a language.

4.3. How someone pronunciates a word can change its sound. This variation can occur when individuals are from different locations or a different class. Individuals from the middle class often try to mimic the pronunciation of those from the high class to sound more polished.

4.4. English has many sounds that are similat but have very opposite meanings. An example provided by the textbook is "The sun's rays meet." and "The sons raise meat.".

5. Chapter 4 Morphology

5.1. Morphology is the study of word structure. It also studies its classification and how they intertwine with one another. Morphology is a greek term with morph- meaning shape or form and -ology meaning the study of something.

5.2. Free morphemes are the most common kind of morphemes. These are morphemes that can stand on their own and still having meaning without being attached to other words. Some examples include "act" "grace" and "dog"

5.3. On the contrary from free mophemes we have bound morphemes. These morphemes are combined with others in order to create a word. An example would be -ing, -ly, un-, and mis-.

5.4. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu_d5W7Xde0

6. Chapter 5 Nonverbal Communication

6.1. Nonverbal communication is a form of communication that does not use spoken words. This form of communication uses touch, body gestures, facial expressions, and spacing. This form of communication can be just as powerful as spoken words sometimes even more powerful.

6.2. Kinesics is a form of non-verbal communication. This form focuses specifically on body language. For example, one may focus on someones posture. A person who is standing tall, chest up, and shoulders down, can come off as confident and gain superiority.

6.3. Another form of nonverbal communication is haptics. This form of communication is done through touch. Haptics is one form of communication that is the least displayed. Studies have shown that those who lack touch show higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. (Field, 2020)

6.4. Video: https://youtu.be/2TlZjFGriLw