Linguistic Anthropology

1. Linguistic Anthropology The Development of Structuralism

2. Wilhelm von Humboldt • Language is the medium through which humans perceive the world • There is a relationship between a nation’s language and its character (1767 – 1835)

3. Wilhelm von Humboldt • The “outer form” of a language consists of the raw material – the sounds – used to make different languages • The “inner form” is the pattern– the structure – of the grammar and the meanings given to the raw material • It is the “inner form” that distinguishes languages from one another Wilhelm von Humboldt (ca. 1830)

4. Wilhelm von Humboldt • Language is dynamic, not static. • Language is an activity, not a product of activity. • A language is not a set of actual utterances produced by speakers… • It is the underlying principles or rules that made it possible for speakers to produce such utterances. • A “Structural” conception of language.

5. Ferdinand de Saussure • Language is a structured system that can be viewed • synchronically (as it exists at any one time) • diachronically (as it changes over time) (1857–1913)

6. Ferdinand de Saussure • parole – theway a particular person speaks • langue – the system of rules that makes it possible for a person to know how to speak parole parole parole langue parole parole parole

7. Ferdinand de Saussure on Signs • Language is a symbolic system that depends upon “signs” • “Signified” – an abstract mental concept • “Signifier” –a material "sound-image" (i.e., an utterance, a written word, a picture) • the process of signification is what gives meaning to an expression

8. Fredinand de Saussure • Wanted to counter prescriptive linguistics – as a program for telling people how they should use their language (“standard”) • His interest was in descriptive linguistics – to describe how people actually use language (nonstandard”) • Language is a “social fact” (à la Durkheim) • Language is a sequence of sounds that carry meaning

9. The Structure of Sentences paradigmatic syntagmatic When a sign in one slot affects what happens in another slot “The dog slept on the rug.” “The dog marinated on the rug.” • “The dog threw up on the rug.” • What can substitute for “dog”? For “rug”? • Animate vs. inanimate nouns Michael Agar, Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation, 1994

10. Franz Boas • Preserve native languages before they are lost forever • Develop a comprehensive system of synchronic description • Sounds • Grammar • Dictionary Linguistics a s a way to study culture Franz Boas (1858-1942)

11. Leonard Bloomfield • Studied Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) languages, especially Tagalog • Showed that the techniques of historical linguistic techniques applied equally well to non- western languages (1887-1949)

12. Leonard Bloomfield • Language (1933) becomes the standard textbook of American linguistics • Linguistic phenomena could properly and successfully be studied when isolated from their nonlinguistic environment

13. Leonard Bloomfield • Heavily influenced by behavioralism • Investigate only empirically observable phenomena • Study what people say to one another and how they respond

14. The Behaviorist Approach Focus only on what can be observed Stimulus Response in between lies “a black box”

15. Bloomfield’s Behaviorism • The elements of language can be studied in isolation from the nonlinguistic environment – you study sound systems and grammar, not semantics • A child learns language by listening to and then repeating what others have said • No speculation about what is going on in a person’s head when they are using language