lying with gesture-calls: key features (but sign Language and Culture languages...) "Your words say one thing; Four fields of Anthropology: your face, another." -Animals have this design -Cultural Anthropology feature too: birds, whales, Nature vs Nurture nonhuman primates... -Archaeology (Heredity vs Environment) 2. Broadcast -Physical Anthropology Paralinguistic transmission and -Linguistic Anthropology bidirectional reception Gesticulation What is "language"? Sound goes out in all Intonation directions from speaker; -Symbolic communicative Charles Hockett's "design hearer can (usually) behavior pinpoint the sound source. features of language" Animals that communicate -Spoken language as with sound also count here. quintessential Thirteen features in all, but only human language has 3. Rapid fading -Learned through all thirteen of them... (transitoriness) interaction 13 design features of Messages are here and -Always changing language then they are not. Once I've -Interacts with other parts of finished saying something 1. Vocal-auditory channel culture (unless there is an echo), 2. Rapid fading that's it. Also applies to all two forms of animal communications. communicative gestures: 3. Broadcast transmission and directional reception 4. Interchangeability gesture-calls and quotable gestures. 4. Interchangeability Speaker can send and receive the same signal. I Digital and analog 5. Total feedback can say, "It's blue." You can communication say, "It's blue." Some 6. Specialization Digital nature of animal calls are male- or phonological code lets us 7. Semanticity female-only. distinguish words. 8. Arbitrariness 5. Total feedback Words, via grammar/syntax, 9. Discreteness ("digital You can hear what you say can become propositions: nature") when you say it. things said about the imagined or real; about the 10. DISPLACEMENT 6. Specialization past, present, or future. 11. PRODUCTIVITY Sounds made to Emotions (expressed in 12. TRADITIONAL communicate something, to gesture-calls) are more TRANSMISSION send a signal or message. limited 1. We can't use A dog pants? A dog barks? gesture-calls to talk about 13. DUALITY OF PATTERNING (DOUBLE 7. Semanticity the past or future or possibilities or to make ARTICULATION) (sort of a Signs are tied to meanings. general claims about the combination of discreteness state of things--or at least and productivity). Animal warning calls (vervet it's rather harder.... monkeys) are limited (three 1. Vocal auditory channel calls, fixed). Human language has signs "Charles Hockett is my Early decontextualizaton fixed by convention(and so velcro newsletter." A truly (along with language): eg, fluid and changeable); also, human accomplishment. toy. an unlimited number of signs. 12. Traditional What about metasemantic transmission rules? 8. Arbitrariness Language is learned as part Denotation is the act of No necessary or causal link of socialization (as we shall naming things in the world between a sign and its see!). It is intimately bound using language. Play does meaning (except with culture and who we are "not" denote what it denotes convention!). and what we become. The (a bit of a paradox). other animals don't do this Not the case with most either. But denotation is only animal communication possible in language, and it 13. Duality of patterning relies on metasemantic (trained chimps?). rules, which are rules about (Double articulation) semantics (meaning): "x 9. Discreteness "combination of means y". So, it makes Sounds can be separated discreteness and sense to seek the roots of into discrete units productivity" this denotation at the (phonemes!). prehuman/preverbal level. Phonemes can combine 10. Displacement with other phonemes to Metaphor Talk about: make words, but such Metaphor is one important combinations follow rules example of figurative Other places specific to a given language. Other times language. These words can then be combined via rules Figurative language can Other worlds, including into utterances (phrases become literal: "world". imaginary worlds and sentences). Metaphors can lie at the heart of much sociological DECONTEXTUALIZATION No other animal does this and anthropological theory at all. (Victor Turner's "root Chimps tend to focus on what is present, as do very Two further aspects of metaphors"): "society as an early human language- human language organism". learners. 1. Play: refers to something Back to Hockett's design Grammar: Washoe? it is "not"; preverbal basis of features metasemantic rules in #1-9 Shared by all living Washoe, a trained chimp language? primates (not pictured) could produce simple sentences with 2. Metaphor: language and #10-13 Only found in gestures. She could knowledge grows partly human beings sometimes generalize through the use of ("more"). metaphor... #10-12 Might be just barely possible in some trained 11. Productivity Human play? nonhuman primates.... New utterances can be About learning how to Hockett's "blending" (sort of spoken and understood: accomplish tasks (by like portmanteau words) breaking them uptalking may have been the source while doing). of human language. Traveling to report In this class... signifier and the signified) messages out of context are mental impressions. could have led to some sort We are mainly concerned of displacement. Still, with one particular sign They are wholly others would have to know system: language. psychological, non-material that the message was forms. Language is the most decontextualized.... elaborate of sign systems, Note: some people these What is semiotics? but it is the main one that days say that the signifier rules our lives. can have material life "semiotics is concerned with everything that can be (We also deal with in fact, it does when we taken as a sign." paralinguistic phenomena consider it as an actual, and, to a very limited spoken word and not simply What is a sign? extent, what Burling calls as a "word existing in our "gesture-calls".) head". Brands are signs. Paintings, drawings, photos, Words, Saussure Relation and structure music, gestures, Clothing, Body decoration, Saussure's model of the For Saussure, a sign Architecture linguistic sign cannot exist on its own. It gets its meaning because it A sign can be lots of Saussure's model exists in relation to other things The focus here is on the signs and it is part of a linguistic sign. structured system. Not the -A word, or a phrase, or an best metaphor possible... entire story (written or The linguistic sign is spoken)... composed of two bound Value -A still image, or a film parts: In a given sign, the signifier segment, or an entire film... 1. the signifier, or sound is linked to its signified. But pattern (this is not an actual the "extent" or "coverage" of -A musical note, or a what is being signified phrase, or a song... sound pattern, but rather a mental impression we have depends on how that sign -An item of clothing, or of a sound pattern) fits in with other signs in a several items together, or system (language). an outfit, or a wardrobe... 2. the signified, or concept (this is the general idea the The concept of "value" - A piece of furniture, or a sound pattern makes allows us to consider the "suite", or a household's manifest in our heads) "extent" or "coverage" of a contents... given sign. The value a NOTE: This model does not given sign depends on how IN SHORT... involve "things in the that sign relates to other world"--ie, it is not saying signs in a system -A thing, or a collection of that a sign is composed of things, made by people... (language). a thing in the world and a -A thing, or a collection of name for that thing. Mouton, sheep, mutton things, not made by In pictures... In French, "mouton" refers people... to both pictures. In terms of The "thought bubbles" in the sign "mouton", its value AS LONG AS... the picture on the right are includes both signs. It stands for something meant to indicate that both else. parts of the sign (the In English, the top picture is "sheep"; the bottom, Clearly some words are like you all at once or in various "mutton". In terms of the this: "the bee buzzed." sequences. sign "sheep", its value includes the top picture but Still, (a) these words are Not only is language linear, not the bottom picture. In very few in number; and (b) but it is also rule- terms of the sign "mutton", they vary according to governed.... its value includes the language Langue and parole bottom picture but not the Possible objections to the top picture. Langue = language arbitrariness of the sign? considered as a system NOTE: Again, I've put pictures there to help us get 2. Interjections Parole = language "in use"; an idea of value, but we are the main focus of this Ouch! (in English) course really talking about the conceptual "reach" of signs Ae! (in French) Levinson not about things in the Other "pain" interjections? Whorf world. "Surprise" interjections? !Grammar to some extent Arbitrariness: sign Arbitrariness: sign conditions thought, leading This mainly means that people to process and system there is no essential or organize experience in natural connection between But... different languages certain directions and not a signifier (sound pattern) cut up the world differently others and a signified (concept). (think back to the French "mouton" which can mean -Different languages do this The signifier "cat" (the differently, and so peoples both "sheep" and "mutton" sound pattern we hear in habitual thought patterns in English). our head that sounds like are likewise going to be "cat") is tied by convention So, there is an arbitrariness different. to its signified (the concept about sign systems or idea of "cat"). This is very (languages in this case)--an Chomsky, Pinker, and true. (But it is also true that arbitrariness that frees them some a given signifier can refer to from reality to some cognitive scientists more than one signified....) extent... or could make them entirely autonomous -Assume that not just the However, there is nothing from reality. ability to learn and use "cat-like" about the sound language is innate, but also pattern "cat". The sign for Many believe that the that there are fundamental "cat" of course is different in language we speak to a aspects of grammar linked other languages: "miis" in greater or lesser extent to biology that all people Yucatec Maya, for instance. determines our reality. and all languages will share This is mainly what is (More on this later in the Language acquisition meant by the arbitrariness semester....) device or module in the of the sign. The linear nature of the brain Possible objections to the linguisticsignifier -This is assumed to be true, arbitrariness of the sign? Simply put, language regardless of evidence to 1. Onomatopoeia occurs in a sequence. the contrary. Onomatopoeia refers to Other sign systems (art, Spatial arrangements in words that sound like the clothing, film, etc) can hit various languages things they represent. -Relative systems -Geocentric absolute - Conceptual -Given that languages map systems representations: those out the world in radically senses/ideas we hold or different ways, and given -Object-centered intrinsic that arise from experience that you can demonstrate system and are given expression in time and again that -Note: any language must the words or meaningful language differences are have at least one; a bits of language we use to tied to cognitive differences, relative system entails an communicate Simple Nativism simply intrinsic system (p. 61) cannot be true. -Semantic representations: Given the facts, the Simple words or meaningful bits of Linguistic Relativity Nativist claim that children language that map more or less well onto conceptual Whorf are simply learning local names for preexisting representations Language and Thought biologically based concepts -Since semantic is simply false. Our innate biological representations are potential is transformed by Basic color terms? demonstrably mostly if not culture: to make us who we Berlinand Kay entirely nonuniversal (the are to extend our abilities in fact is that different various and often different -Early claims that languages map out the ways to limit our biologically motivated world differently), possibilities as well... perceptions led to the rise conceptual representations of color terms in some sort cannot be. Benjamin Lee Whorf of universal evolutionary sequence Back to spatial issues Language conditions our thinking. It leads us to think -Problems are multiple: the -Again, empirical evidence "habitually" in certain ways idea of color itself varies demonstrates that speakers (like a record groove keeps cross-linguistically; what of languages that mark a needle moving along). Berlin and Kay call color spatial locations in absolute (basically an abstract hue- terms (and that do not also Tennis player brightnesssaturation sort of mark them in relative Benjamin Lee Whorf. Two model) is not universal (nor terms), are demonstrably approaches here: is it necessarily anything better at knowing which like our everyday treatment direction they are facing. 1. Look at word meanings of color semantically in (much weaker influence) Levinsons conclusions English). 2. Look at grammatical -His and others work on forms (much stronger -Examples? Zuni yellow; semantic and more broadly Hanunoo colors; English influence) grammatical forms cross- termsdoes an abstract linguistically undermines Word meanings sense of color really any notion that human seems to exist only in Fire examples: beings are born with a relation to plants and language acquisition 1. "empty" animals or other qualities of device. light and texture? (See the 2. "limestone" work of John Lucy for more -Rather, children learn the here if interested.) language from those in their From John Lucy's environment. Along with Language Diversity and Semantic and conceptual learning the language, they Thought representations? learn the associated cognitive style. Diagram in Whorf.pdf, week wood, glass, plastic--often, and saints. The traditional 3, slide 6. in fact, a wooden table Maya cross is also a "over there" may be santo... What is it? referred to simply as "le che'o'", or "that wood So, how is a santo treated Different languages cut up grammatically? the world differently in two there") main ways: Grammar: the case of You can't say: hun p'eh nouns and Maya santos santo ("one inanimate -They do this in terms of saint") words and domains (saints) In English, we have two You must say: hun tul -They do this in terms of santo ("one animate saint") grammar main ways of thinking about nouns: Why? What is Why do word meanings happening? have a weaker influence? Count nouns (eg, trees, bricks, cars) Fact: if you want to count The main reason is that nouns in Maya, you've got individual words are things Mass nouns (eg, water, air, anger) to specify what sort of we can focus on and think nouns you are counting. about more easily than the Nominal classifiers grammar of our language. Fact: traditionally, as today, In Yucatec Maya, whenever santos have been thought We can, in this case, see you want to count objects, of as more than mere that "empty" does not you have to qualify some images or always really mean "empty", aspect of the object, using but rather can mean what are called nominal icons--they contain spiritual "functionally empty": though classifiers. force/energy which gas vapors may remain, we aren't going to get any more The two most common can do you good or bring gas out of that drum. nominal classifiers in you harm Yucatec Maya are Result: santos are treated Grammatical structure as animate and inanimate. influencing thought grammatically as if they are Examples? animate. Let us first consider English and Yucatec Maya. hun p'eh che' = one Grammar "locks in" inanimate wood, or one culture English nouns tend to log or one stick or "one emphasize "form" and Even if you are one of those wooden table" or "one Maya who don't believe "function" (eg, "table" is wooden shelf"... really just something with three or that santos possess power, "one thing made of wood the Mayanization of the more legs supporting a that is not animate" surface running parallel to Spanish word "santo" has the ground--a surface upon hun tul maak = one left you with no alternative which we can put things) animate person, or one but to give it properties person normally only granted to Yucatec Maya nouns tend human beings and to emphasize "substance" Santos animals--ie, animate what something is made of entities. (eg, Yucatec Maya will give Santo is the Spanish for different names to different "saint". Among the Maya Hopi and SAE ("Standard "tables" depending on what the word refers almost Average European") they are made of: exclusively to statues and paintings of Christ, Mary, Whorf is interested in how We cut up time with verbs: tenses of past, present, and these two deal I ate, I eat, I'll eat future). grammatically with: Other metaphorical Habitual thought? Time extensions of space and matter: Not just the words and the Space grammar of a language, but "I 'catch' your meaning." also the presence or Matter absence of metaphorical "He 'traveled' through the bridges ("time" as an His focus is largely on 'darkest corners' of his Time "object", in our case) and soul." the more complex Time as the intimate and "She 'spun' a most relationships between subjective "basic sense of convincing tale." language and culture more 'becoming later and later.'" generally. "He 'brushed aside' all of At least, that is what he our arguments." In brief: SAE habitual sees time as being in the thought objective world prior to our Hopi? or the Hopi's cultural and SAE tends to objectify time. linguistic treatment of it. Time: We treat time as if it were No imaginary plurals (eg, an object in space that can SAE? be cut up, measured, no "10 days") Instead, "on Time: the tenth day" and "the saved, spent, wasted, taken tenth day is later than the advantage of, etc. Real plurals vs imaginary ninth day" plurals (Also, phases of Our use of diaries, cycles) No nouns for phases of schedules, train time-tables, cycles (eg, no "summer" as interest charges, wage Example? Cardinal a noun), but rather adverbs labor, calendars, history, numbers applied to matter (eg, "while summer-phase books, etc, tends to seem are metaphorically is occurring") to be natural ways of extended to apply to time: dealing with time. But this "10 men" "10 days" and No mass nouns "naturalness" is largely due "10 steps forward" and "10 to the fact that we objectify strokes of a bell" (and "10 Instead, a "built-in" sense of time in various grammatical summers"). units: not "a glass of water" ways. but "a water"; not "a piece Mass nouns of meat" but "a meat" In brief: Hopi habitual Example? Mass nouns No verb tenses Hopi does not objtehctiofy ("water", "air", "cheese") are utimge.h Tthe Hopi made quantifiable by Instead, a speaker "reports" language treats time in reference to containers ("a an event (and so indicates ways that are probably glass of water", "a tank of either past or present) or a better attuned to our actual air", "a slice of cheese"); we speaker "expects" an event human experience of extend this treatment (indicating future). It's not "becoming later and later". metaphorically to time "a that Hopi can't tell you when Much of traditional Hopi glass of water" "a something happened or will ritual is focused on segment of time" and "an happen (or if it is currently "preparing" (both in outer hour of happiness" happening). It's just that and inner terms)a cultural sharp cuts in the time fact with powerful Three core verb tenses: continuum are not made (as connections to Hopi past, present, future they are with our core verb grammar. The "getting later" view of time gives rise to Concepts themselves are DOWN: less, unconscious, this emphasis on often understood in sad, sickness, being "preparing" and metaphorical terms that controlled, past, low status, "accumulating" force or may not be obvious or even bad. energy--to bring about the conscious desired result of the rituals. Metaphors in the social Example: the Hopi When Lakoff & Johnson use sciences? ceremonial rain dance, with the word "metaphor", they mostly mean "metaphorical Victor Turner, a symbolic "its short, piston-like tread, anthropologist repeated thousands of concept" times, hour after hour." Concept & metaphorical Theoretical traditions concept themselves are highly Lakoff & Johnson metaphorical Figurative language Vs Concept? -Metaphorical concept? Society = body/organism Literal language... Argument -ARGUMENT IS Society = machine Literal language WAR Society = battlefield. In a basic sense, this involves saying something Argument- AN ARGUMENT HEATH "literal" and meaning for it to IS A FOCUS: be taken "literally". BUILDING Ways of taking meaning Example: "The cat is tired." L&J claim: from texts (and beyond) (The literal cat is literally tired.) "Human thought processes Literacy events: when are largely metaphorical." reading and writing are Figurative language somehow integrated into life Metaphorical and Cultural This involves the use of Coherence 1 Assumption 1: a rhetorical tropesthings communitys ways of taking like metaphors, metonyms, The most powerful metaphors relate to deeply from the printed word and irony, and so forth. using this knowledge are held cultural values. Some Poetry is often highly metaphors are more interdependent with the figurative. coherent, indicating a better ways children learn tontalk fit with those values. in their social interactions Talking about abstract with caregivers (pp 98-9) things tends to be highly Metaphorical and Cultural figurative, even if we don't Coherence 2 Assumption 2: an old often realize it. distinction between oral Bodily experience and traditions and literate Example: "Life is a journey." metaphor: orientation traditions is not terribly Example: "Society is an useful In English, we tend to organism." believe (and "feel") that Three communities (from Lakoff & Johnson: MORE IS UP (LESS IS somewhere in the Metaphors DOWN). Carolinas): Maintown (middle class, suburban); "The essence of metaphor Metaphorical and Cultural Roadville (working class, is understanding and Coherence 3 white); Trackton (working experiencing one kind of UP: more, conscious, class, African American) things in terms of another." happy, health, in control, 1. MAINTOWN Metaphorical concept future, high status, good Book-reading with small The end result here is that mostly to be the childs children works similarly to children in Maintown are responsibility) the way it does in school: socialized into an what-questions analytic/field-independent -Storytelling from an early cognitive style: they break age . Books as key parts of down a situation (the the childs environment, -Verbal environment is whats) and find the competitive, so the children respected (at least in their patterns underlying it (the physical form!) must work hard for attention whys). to their stories . Lots of questions asked . The ways they are used by caregiver; child answers; -Open to fictionalizing to interacting with their child begins to predict the parents when dissecting - Schools focus on what- sorts of questions that will texts are, well, similar to the questions are new to these be asked (again, this looks ways their teachers will children; like want to interact with them, reasonexplanations, at what you find in school) and this tends to help them which these children are out early on in school as much better, come rather . Books acknowledged as well. later in the school career possibly containing truth and possibly containing 1. TRACKTON CONCLUSIONS? fiction; suspension of . Babies held almost -The American public reality encouraged; books continuously, constantly in education system seems to as entertainment; even human interaction favor particular styles of when no books are present, engaging with texts over book talk is there. . Toys mostly at others. Christmas; regular Preschoolers come up with household objects for play - It tends to begin with factual and fictional most of the time what-explanations, then narratives, often coding moves to reason- them correctly (There once . No reading materials explanation, and then was a puppy as especially for children considers affective announcing a fictional (reading as adult-focused) expressions (peoples account) emotional responses to . Adults dont read to . At three or so, children children (no bed-time things). are encouraged to be stories) - Maintown children are mainly listeners when exposed to literacy events parents are reading (they . Childrens talk, once it seems to be varied enough that foreshadow this still are playing around with sequence. questions in their heads) and participatory (not simply copying), is then - Roadville children get a . What-questions lead to given attention by adults strong focus on what- what-explanations; these explanations, but are form the basis of reason- . Children not asked what-questions, but rather discouraged from story- explanations (which are telling that breaks with local likewise important in formal what is that like? (analogies on often ideas of truth, prior to education); reason- school. explanations are like more unspecified features) general theories about the where did that come . Trackton children get a nature of thingsthe from? what do you want? strong focus on reason- whys rather than simply (learning, however, is felt explanation (and analogical the whats thinking and affective expression), but do not get 1. the social organization of "one cannot know what much in the way of what- the verbal environment of another thinks or feels" or... explanations prior to school. the young child at least one should not talk about it . Schooling could be 2. the extent to which organized to recognize children are expected to -this attitude reinforces the these different styles and adapt to situations or that parents' view that children make the most of them for situations are adapted to lack understanding. all students. the child Later on... Ochs and Schieffelin 3. the negotiation of meaning by caregiver and child is addressed by name Language Acquisition and child and given commands with Socialization: Three no verbal response Developmental Stories and White, middle-class expected Their Implications Americans "who are you?!" [Note: at the beginning of infant is treated as a social the associated audio file, I being from birth dyadic "is it yours?!" say that Im not having you protoconversations -exception: shriek as "'I'm read this article. Thats not common accommodations unwilling.'" true. You are supposed to are made for the child... read it. Its just that I was Verbal environment? using this recording for an Accommodations to child Even though infants are not earlier version of the course mother takes perspective of engaged in much (one in which this article the child "baby talk" register conversation, their verbal was not in the textbook). I toys and "child-sized" environment is quite rich: think its an important objects "baby-proofing" lots of people talking, many article, and Im glad they adult-child interactions are times about the child and put it in the second edition, largely in this "safe" world what it's doing. so we can read it there.] separated from most adult- adult interactions. "Mother" and "breast" Their perspective Further accommodations Once the child uses these Acquiring language is two words, it is thought that deeply affected by the to child it is ready to begin learning. process of becoming a self-lowering strategies competent member of helping the child to express "say like that" phrase used society. Becoming a himself/herself to moderate/guide child in competent member of paraphrasing ambiguous social interactions society is largely realized utterances. no baby talkall talk is through language. Kaluli (PNG) adult and focused on the Developmental stories situation at hand. white, middle-class babies are thought to be without sense and Ambiguous utterances? American Kaluli (Papua deserving of pity Other helps? New Guinea) Samoan -no dyadic mother/child No attempt to interpret by 3 facets of communication parents/adults: "what?", communicative "huh?" interaction -no eye-gazing No elaboration of child's Triadic exchanges words; no scaffolding Cultural attitude No help outside of "say like High-ranking people expect body alignment, and typical that" to get news and messages structures of communicative delivered to them. interaction all vary. Samoan Children are encouraged to Caregiver register ("baby care-giving is integrated speak in ways that help talk") into their highly stratified train them to gather and society report news and messages. This is part of the white, middle-class "input" model 1. from birth to about six Accommodation involving mainly the months, an infant is called caregiver-infant dyad. "pepemeamea" ("baby thing Samoan children (unlike thing") Western children) are Kaluli and Samoan are expected to accommodate different: 2. baby stays mostly with themselves to the situation. mother and her helpers Whereas Western mothers Kaluli? "bad/incorrect talk" 3. baby is talked about but actively try to take on the Samoan? "not appropriate not talked to perspective of their infants to direct expansive talk in communicating, Samoan toward lower-status 4. baby is sung too, though individuals, including small focus is mostly on baby's children are trained to be highly sensitive to the children" (think of "foreigner physiological needs. talk") So, "baby talk" is not perspectives of people who "pepe" ("baby") outrank them. really mainly about teaching language as teaching about once a baby starts crawling, Ambiguous utterances a kind of dyadic social things change child starts to interaction. be thought of as cheeky, If you are higher-status and mischievous, and willful say something Their suggested types of (often shouting out "tae") unintelligible, it's up to parent-child orientations child is ordered around others to try to figure out what you said. Table slide 23,Ochs and ("come", "don't!"), but not Schieffelin. Week 5 talked to for the most part in If you are a child or lower- a dyadic sense. status, you must be the one Final points Social stratification to clarify (others will ask 1. Language acquisition you "what?!"). and socialization go hand in Social stratification is there hand, and so we should from the start. -Samoan philosophical views on intentionality. expect to see differences Triadic interactions: among societies. "Choreographies" 1. child appeals to high- 2. These differences are ranking caregiver While there are biological part of wider attitudes constraints on behavior, toward what children and 2. high-ranking caregiver those constraints are rather human beings are more orders someone lower to "loose". generally. deal with child's needs We see instead the 3. "Baby talk" register is 3. lower-ranked person importance of different likely linked to other ideas deals with child's needs. patterns, or about human beings and News and messages "choreographies", of human nature that are not language acquisition and universally shared. socialization. Issues such as eye-gaze, vocalization, 4. Children will acquire the ability to use language whether or not they are The rebus principle: -More than 700,000 people talked to by others from pictographs used to speak it today as their first their earliest days. represent sounds language. John DeFrancis Even phonetic systems are The current situation incomplete Details -Most native speakers of Phoneticity Yucatec Maya live in poor, Inclusivists: Writing rural areas includes any system of The phoneticity of a writing graphic symbols that is system is the degree to -Most have some schooling, used to convey some which it represents sounds but most schooling is aimed amount of thought. (p. 130) at teaching students to Think of the International read, write, and speak So, this could mean not just Phonetic Alphabet (the IPA) Spanish words on a page but also as the best weve got mathematical and musical -Over time, it is likely the notation, the Nike swoosh, The Duality Principle: the number of speakers of a flag, the tree logo for mix of phonetic and non- Yucatec Maya will decrease CSUF,etc. phonetic elements in a and the language may die. writing system Exclusivists: Writing Is Yucatec Maya worth includes only those systems Phonemic writing systems; preserving? of graphic symbols that can syllabic writing systems; be used to convey any and logographic writing It depends on whom you all thought. (p.130). For systems. ask... English, this would be the Graphemes Linguistic alphabet proper, and anthropologists nothing else. The basic units that make a writing system work Educated Maya activists Writing systems Even a logographic Poor, rural Maya Partial writing systems: system, such as Chinese, is convey only some not really logographic; it Linguistic thought. (p. 131) involves a large number of anthropologists?
Full writing systems: syllabic graphemes to make Linguistic anthropologists
convey any and all it manageable and tend to value linguistic thought. (p. 131) comprehensible. diversity, minimally arguing Writing Yucatec Maya that there is a lot to be Spoken language learned about the The key thing that defines Mexico relationship between human beings language and culture by The Yucatan Peninsula studying as many Based on phonemes which Map slide 3, Yucatec Maya. languages and cultures as are put together to form Week 6. possible. morphemes (meaningful stretches of sound); then Yucatec Maya Anthropologists in general syntax tend to worry that the loss -An indigenous American of a group's language will Writing systems: phonetic language negatively affect other and non-phonetic -A member of the Maya aspects of its culture as Language Family well. Educated Maya activists? These are Maya who have Phonology - what letters the boundaries on Maya either been taught, or have are used to represent which words, many issues remain. taught themselves, to read sounds and write Maya. Example: Morphology - how words They worry that the are formed ta w otoch vs taw otoch vs language will be lost unless ta wotoch. more and more people start Vocabulary - which words are "canonical" or Vocabulary to read and write it. "official" This is the most politically Many of these activists are sensitive part, at least for "purists", in that they seek Phonology the educated Maya to establish a "pure" way of Since the Spanish activists. writing Mayaaway of Conquest, a number of writing the language that, alphabets have been used Depending on where you for instance, removes the to represent the sounds of go, youll find poor, rural many Spanish words that Yucatec Maya. Various speakers of Maya using a have, over the centuries, Colonial-era alphabets were greater or a lesser number found their way into used in official documents of Spanish loan words in everyday spoken Maya. and in the their speech. For most Maya activists, this is Poor, rural Maya? spelling of place-names and unacceptable. Most of the people who peoples names. Maya activists seek out speak Maya fall into this Linguists have used a Spanish words in Maya category. They live away number of ways over the sentences and see if they from the cities and have past century to represent can find old Maya words or little education and few job Maya sounds: the IPA invent new Maya words to opportunities. (International Phonetic use in their place. When The Maya they speak Alphabet), variations on they write books of fiction everyday contains some the Colonial and more and poetry and the like, Spanish loan words, but recent alphabets,and, for they nearly always use this this is not a "purity" problem the hardcore, an pure Maya. for them. orthography devised by University of Chicago The problem, though, is Very few of these people Linguist Norman McQuown. two-fold: know how to read or write (1) very few people can Maya at all. Modern-day Maya activists have drawn on a number of read Maya in the first place They believe that, while it is sources to create what is (2) almost no one speaks good that their children likely to be the new this pure Maya speak Maya, they should Standard way of writing also learn to speak, read, Maya. What about linguistic and write Spanish and, anthropologists? ideally, English, to help Orthographies (Consonants) If you take a Yucatec Maya them move ahead in the language course here in the world. Table slide 13, Yucatec US, youre going to be The language issues Maya, week 6. taught to speak the involve questions about: Morphology language as most people in Yucatan speak it. Although there are more or less standard ways to set In other words, there will, Maya as corrupt and prestigious language, they here and there, be the odd decadent. Most of the know they cant speak Spanish loan word. books they produce writing Spanish well, and so they in pure Maya, however, feel they inferior in the Example, pointing, say, to have the status of presence of those who do. an airplane in the sky: boutique items: nice to look at, but few people can Many believe the Maya they Je' le abyoono'. speak is corrupt and read them. All est un avin. impure (they know what These activists work in the activists think, and they Theres an airplane. colleges and universities in respect the activists There is no Maya word for the Peninsula, and they opinions). So, not only do airplane, so you can see also form writing co- these rural Maya feel bad that the Spanish word has operatives to encourage for not being able to speak made its way into the Maya and promote writing in Spanish well, they also feel sentence (and been Maya (remember, though: bad for not being able to altered). pure Maya mostly). speak their own language well (according, at least, to Actually, there is a pure What about the vast the standards of pure Maya word for airplane, majority of Maya Maya put forward by the but no one uses it. SO, the speakers? activists). At the end of the view in US universities is: As noted, they tend to be day, most rural Maya are teach the language as the poor and rural. They often quite pragmatic. They want people speak it. use Maya as their first their children to learn language of communication Spanish (and English, if What about educated in daily life (something possible) to help with their Maya activists? many of the activists do not economic advancement. As noted, they tend to favor actually do, as they tend to They see little value in pure Maya, especially in operate more in Spanish- learning (or having their terms of vocabulary. speaking environments). children learn) to read and Indeed, they often view write in Maya. normal, everyday spoken Most feel inferior because of this fact. They see Spanish as a more