.png){kind=icon}
Chapter Summary
This chapter explores linguistics and introduces symbolic language as a distinctively human capability. At the same time, however, humans use various forms of non-verbal communication, which can include kinesics, and body language, or the use of space to communicate various forms of information either consciously or unconsciously.
Anthropological studies of language indicate that the use of language (in terms of speech, grammar, etc.) is shaped by cultural experiences. Anthropologists like Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf suggested that language has the power to shape how people view their world. This is called the “linguistic relativity principle.” Most anthropologists argue that linguistic relativity should not be confused with linguistic determinism, which they reject.
The field of ethnopragmatics locates linguistic meaning in routine practical activities, which turn grammatical features of language into resources people can use in their interactions with others. It pays attention both to the immediate context of speech and to broader contexts that are shaped by unequal social relationships and rooted in history.
Different groups of people engaged in different activities generate different communicative practices. The linguistic habits that are part of each of these practices are called discourse genres, which are characterized by heteroglossia.
When people who speak different languages come into contact with each other (particularly in the context of colonialism or commercial domination), they often construct a pidgin language to aid communication. Pidgin languages exhibit many of the same features as non-pidgin languages. In many settings, the language of the colonizer is frequently viewed as superior to the language(s) of the colonized. The residential school system in Canada is an example of a dominant group’s attempt to gain linguistic and cultural control over less powerful groups such as Canada’s Indigenous peoples. Such struggles represent, among other things, struggles over different language ideologies.
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, the student should learn to do the following:
- understand how language represents a symbolic form of communication that is mediated by culture;
- identify the six design features of language;
- define and discuss the importance of the linguistic relativity principle;
- define the concept of ethnopragmatics and outline why it is important within the study of linguistics;
- define the concepts of discourse and heteroglossia and how they function to create different meanings for different groups of people;
- discuss the linguistic outcomes of cross-cultural contact (e.g., the development of pidgin languages);
- citing Tannen’s work, discuss how gender impacts language;
- outline why the concept of language ideology is important.