Linguistic Anthropology

1. Chapter 1:introduction to linguistic anthropology

1.1. Anthropology consists of four interconnected disciplines including; physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology

1.2. It is the study of human Kind, linguistics anthropology allows us to study language and how it changes over time, and crosses cultures

1.3. “Language is involved in a wide variety of human situations… If something permeates every aspect of human life, and is so complex that we cannot fathom its influence, we should study it.” (Salzmann et al. P.13).

2. Chapter 3: Phonetic and phonology

2.1. Phonology is the study and description of the sound system of language. Vowels are a speech sound with no significant constriction in the breath channel. Consonants are a sound in which the vocal tract is either blocked or constricted to the point of producing audible friction

2.2. Phonetics is the study of the production of speech sounds by the vocal organs. Not all languages have the same speech sounds. This is why English can sound different depending on where you live

2.3. “Each language has a structure of its own that cannot be analyzed or grasped in terms of the investigators own language” Salzmann et al., p.43).

3. Chapter 4: Morphemes and Morphology

3.1. A morpheme is the smallest contrastive unit of grammar. Most morphemes are “free” because they can occur on their own

3.1.1. Example: Unhappy; un is one morpheme, and happy is another

3.2. “Just as languages differ in their phonemic systems, they differ in their morphologies. Some morphological processes, however, are quite common throughout the world even though they may be applied differently in specific languages” (Salzmann et al., P.69).

4. Chapter 6

5. Chapter 7

6. Chapter 2:Methods of Linguistics

6.1. There’s three paradigms of anthropological linguistics; 1st paradigm of anthropological linguistics, 2nd paradigm of sociolinguistics, and 3rd paradigm of social constructivism

6.2. It is important to study linguistics beyond just grammar. How language exists in a social context and how it is spoken allows us to understand cultural patterns

6.3. …the interest of the linguistic anthropologist is in speech use and the relations that exist between language on the one hand and its users on the other.” ( Salzmann et al., p.29).

7. Chapter 5: Non-verbal communication

7.1. A form of communication without speaking any words. This includes body gestures, facial expressions, touch, smell, spacing etc. anything where your actions can be interpreted.

7.2. “ The plain Indians of North America used an elaborate sign language to communicate with members of other plains tribes whose languages they could not understand” (Salzmann et al., P.97).