LANGUAGE & CULTURE...CULTURE & LANGUAGE
Each word “tastes” of the context and the contexts in which it has lived its SOCIALLY CHARGED life. (Bakhtin)
- Language is not a neutral medium for communication.
- Language is rather a set of socially embedded “practices”.
- The reverse is also true: Social interactions live linguistically charged lives.
- That is…every social interaction is mediated by language., whether it is spoken or written, verbal or nonverbal.
- All forms of language are "charged" with meaning. Some of these meanings are more highly "charged" than others
- People are judged by the way that they speak (the variety of language that they use "marks" them with social and cultural meaning)
QUESTIONS WHICH WILL BE ADDRESSED IN THIS COURSE:
- · How can situations like these tell us about the ways in which language is enmeshed with cultural values and social power?
- · How do dimensions of difference or inequality (gender, ethnicity, race, age, class) get created, reproduced or challenged through language?
- · How can language illuminate the ways in which we are all the same by virtue of being human as well as the ways in which we are incredibly diverse linguistically and culturally?
- · How do different forms of words or ways of speaking influence people’s thought patterns and worldview?
- · How might people’s ideas about language (correct speech, etc.) affect their perceptions of others as well as themselves?
- · How does the language used in public rituals and performances both differ from and resemble everyday, mundane conversation?
- · What methods of data collection and analysis do anthropological linguists & sociolinguists use to determine the significance of events such as those described above?
Assumptions of Linguistic Anthropology
· Language is inherently social
o Speaking is itself a form of social action (not just a tool for communication)
o Language is a cultural resource available for people to use (Durante)
o We DO THINGS with words (Austin)
· Language can only be understood in the social and cultural context in which it is USED
· Language and culture “mutually constitute” each other. (as part of the same dynamic/symbolic system of meaning)
Competing perspectives on language
· Language is a set of labels that can be placed on preexisting concepts-conduit which merely conveys information without adding or changing anything of substance
· Language is reduced to a set of formal rules
o deSaussure
o Chomsky (generative linguistics)-Universal Grammar
What Do You Know When You Know a Language?
· Chomsky (Competence) De Saussure (Langue) underlying abstract rules
o This is in opposition to (Performance/Parole) what is actually spoken
o Competence/Langue is the only valuable focus for study, all else is irrelevant
· This view neglects the following:
o How or why do people learn language?
o How have language practices changed over time?
o Why is language gendered?
o The social and economic value of language
o The existence of secret languages and playful forms
o Whether language is considered hip or outdated and why
o How one’s individual and social identities can be reflected in and shaped by whether, how, what and with whom one speaks?
· Linguistic anthropologists REJECT this generative view (One must know more than an abstract set of rules to KNOW a language)
o Some deny the existence between C/P, L/P
o Others give primacy to Performance /Parole
o Others expand the definition of Competence to include the ability to use language skillfully and appropriately in particular social contexts (Hymes)
o Some view C/P as equally important
· Structural Features of Language
o Phonology
o Morphology
o Syntax
o Semantics
o Pragmatics
Linguistic anthropologists consider phonology, morphology and syntax to be FUNDAMENTALLY AFFECTED by social contexts. So considering them outside of this context is ARTIFICIAL
Linguistic anthropologists consider phonology, morphology and syntax to be FUNDAMENTALLY AFFECTED by social contexts. So considering them outside of this context is ARTIFICIAL
every aspect of language is socially influenced and culturally meaningful
Language Ideologies:
Language Ideologies:
Attitudes, opinions, theories and beliefs that we all have about language
-languages as a whole
-particular languages/varieties
-particular linguistic structures (ain't isn't a word, don't end a sentence in a preposition)
-the people who employ specific languages or uses
*language ideologies are cultural and subcultural systems of ideas about social and linguistic relationships.
-language ideologies almost always serve the interest of specific cultural or social groups (express judgements and stereotypes and denote the benefit of being "standard" or "substandard" or "slang" (judgement))
-All societies have multiple ideologies (people may hold multiple and sometimes contradictory ideologies in a diverse heterogenous society)
-People have degrees of awareness of their own or others ideologies (they may become the subject of public debate at times-EBONICS-or be help subconsciously)
-language ideologies bridge talk with forms of social structure
-languages as a whole
-particular languages/varieties
-particular linguistic structures (ain't isn't a word, don't end a sentence in a preposition)
-the people who employ specific languages or uses
*language ideologies are cultural and subcultural systems of ideas about social and linguistic relationships.
-language ideologies almost always serve the interest of specific cultural or social groups (express judgements and stereotypes and denote the benefit of being "standard" or "substandard" or "slang" (judgement))
-All societies have multiple ideologies (people may hold multiple and sometimes contradictory ideologies in a diverse heterogenous society)
-People have degrees of awareness of their own or others ideologies (they may become the subject of public debate at times-EBONICS-or be help subconsciously)
-language ideologies bridge talk with forms of social structure
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