Language, Culture, and Society: Key Topics in Linguistic AnthropologyChristine Jourdan, Kevin Tuite Language, our primary tool of thought and perception, is at the heart of who we are as individuals. Languages are constantly changing, sometimes into entirely new varieties of speech, leading to subtle differences in how we present ourselves to others. This revealing account brings together eleven leading specialists from the fields of linguistics, anthropology, philosophy and psychology, to explore the fascinating relationship between language, culture, and social interaction. A range of major questions are discussed: How does language influence our perception of the world? How do new languages emerge? How do children learn to use language appropriately? What factors determine language choice in bi- and multilingual communities? How far does language contribute to the formation of our personalities? And finally, in what ways does language make us human? Language, Culture and Society will be essential reading for all those interested in language and its crucial role in our social lives. |
Contents
Section 1 | 47 |
Section 2 | 55 |
Section 3 | 62 |
Section 4 | 66 |
Section 5 | 68 |
Section 6 | 78 |
Section 7 | 82 |
Section 8 | 96 |
Section 13 | 135 |
Section 14 | 156 |
Section 15 | 161 |
Section 16 | 168 |
Section 17 | 190 |
Section 18 | 207 |
Section 19 | 211 |
Section 20 | 220 |
Section 9 | 100 |
Section 10 | 112 |
Section 11 | 115 |
Section 12 | 132 |
Section 21 | 229 |
Section 22 | 235 |
Section 23 | 236 |
Section 24 | 238 |
Other editions - View all
Language, Culture, and Society: Key Topics in Linguistic Anthropology Christine Jourdan,Kevin Tuite No preview available - 2006 |
Language, Culture, and Society: Key Topics in Linguistic Anthropology Christine Jourdan,Kevin Tuite No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
acquisition analysis approach Arrente articulate basic color terms Berlin and Kay bilingualism Boas Boasian child codeswitching cognitive anthropology cognitive science communities concept constitutive context cultural different languages distinct domain Edward Sapir English ethnography ethnopoetics ethnoscience etymology European example expression function Gary Snyder gender genesis grammatical development grammatical forms Gumperz Hanunóo historical linguistics Hopi human hypothesis ideas ideologies Indo-European interaction interpretation involved Kaluli language socialization Latin lexical linguistic relativity linked Lucy Lucy’s meaning metapragmatic mind Neo-grammarian Occitan Ochs organization particular patterns phonetic pidgin pidgins and creoles plantation poetic poetry political possible practices pragmatic processes question relations response role Sapir Sapir-Whorf hypothesis Schieffelin semantic semantic dimension sense sexual situations sociolinguistics sound laws space spatial speak speakers specific speech Spencer and Gillen structures studies theory things thought translation understanding universal verb vocabulary Whorf Whorfian Wintu words workers Zuni
Popular passages
Page 82 - We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds - and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds.
Page 66 - We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way — an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language.
Page 98 - Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society.
Page 119 - Goodenough has said, ... a society's culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and do so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves.
Page 87 - We are thus introduced to a new principle of relativity, which holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar, or can in some way be calibrated.
Page 63 - We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our Community predispose certain choices of interpretation . . . No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality.
Page 98 - The fact of the matter is that the 'real' world is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.
Page 65 - One significant contribution to science from the linguistic point of view may be the greater development of our sense of perspective. We shall no longer be able to see a few recent dialects of the Indo-European family, and the rationalizing techniques elaborated from their patterns, as the apex of the evolution of the human mind...
Page 199 - It seems to me that power must be understood in the first instance as the multiplicity of force relations immanent in the sphere in which they operate and which constitute their own organization; as the process which, through ceaseless struggles and confrontations, transforms, strengthens, or reverses them; as the support which these force relations find in one another, thus forming a chain or a system, or on the contrary, the disjunctions and contradictions which isolate them from one another...