UNIUT – 7 – CULTURE, LANGUAGE

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AND COMMUNICATION
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Language is a human system of communication that uses arbitrary (chance rather

than reason) signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.
Linguistic anthropology is a study of language in relation to biological,
evolutionary, social and cultural aspects of human beings.

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It is considered by some to be a branch of general linguistics, by others a branch of
anthropology, and by still others as an autonomous discipline.

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BRANCHES OR SUBFIELDS OF LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY:
• Descriptive linguistics: Studies the structure of language.
• Ethnolinguistics: Studies how languages and cultures are related. Deals with
documenting and analysing endangered languages of certain ethnic groups.
• Historical linguistics. Studies the evolutionary timeline of language and how
languages change over time.

Sociolinguistics: According to Florian Coulmas “the principal task of

Sociolinguistics is to uncover, describe and interpret the socially motivated choices of
language usage an individual makes. It studies how the social expectations influence
language use and interpretation. It also studies how language is used to construct and

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express social identities, such as gender, ethnicity, nationality, and economic class.

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NATURE & CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE:

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• Language is species specific. Homo sapiens is the only species having language with
all its attributes.
• Language is unique and universal to humans. I.e., all human societies hae one or the
other language.
• Change in Language leads to a change in culture as the culture should be taught and
learnt by the communication system called language.
• Even a change in the dialect is also accompanied with a change in the culture thus
we can observe a clear correlation between culture and language
• Language has a structural perspective that is it contains phone, phonemes,
morphemes, lexical, semantic, syntaxial / grammatical units like phrases, clauses,

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sentences, grammatical operations like adding, shifting, joining, discourse, written
language, conversation, etc.

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• Language will have a communicative perspective. It helps the people to clearly

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communicate their meanings, views etc.
• Language will have an interactional perspective to establish and maintain relations
among and between groups.
• Language is dynamic it keeps on changing.
• Language contains dialects, sociolects and idiolects.
• Language is symbolic and arbitrary (based on chance rather than being planned or
based on reason)

TERMINOLOGY:
• Phoneme is the basic unit of a language which combines with other phonemes to
form a meaningful unit like morpheme.
• Morpheme is a meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a word element like ‘ed’ in

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walked that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units.

Phoneme
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• Phoneme gives meaning to a word,
But it doesn’t have any individual
meaning when it is separated from
remaining part of the word.
• Example: ‘b’/at ; ‘b’/ut.
• Morpheme gives meaning to a
word. It will have individual meaning
even after separating from remaining
part of word.
• Example: cat/s, s is any where
plural

Lexical unit/ lexical element:

• Lexis/ lexicon means vocabulary. One word in the total vocabulary is called
lexical unit.
• E.g., In the word bats

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• Bat is called lexical unit

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• B in the bats is phoneme
• S is morpheme.
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Semantics: Deals with the meaning of the lexical units E.g., Bats , tools for playing
.
 • Pragmatics: Field of linguistics that studies how the context alters the meaning
of the word. E.g., Meaning of the word cracks is different when you say, “He
cracked a joke” and “ The cracks in the object”.
• Syntax: Grammar of the language. A study of principles and processes by which

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sentences are constructed in a particular language.

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• Dialects: Slangs or accents or the variations in the language especially Regional
variation of language .
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• Sociolect: Attributed by wealth and education, Social variation based on caste ,
religion, gender and race.
• Idiolect: Individual variation of the language like speed, pronunciation, volume ,
tone , pitch , nasality.
• Onomatopoeia: the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is
named. E.g., Sizzle, click, clap, Buzz, Bhoom for explosion

LANGUAGE CENTERS IN THE BRAIN

Broca's Area :
• The first language area within the frontal lobe of left hemisphere.
• called Broca's Area, after Paul Broca, was a French neurologist .
• Responsible for speech production.

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Wernicke's Area :

neurologist.
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• The second language area is called Wernicke's Area, after Carl Wernicke, a German

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• In the temporal lobe of left hemisphere, responsible for speech comprehension.
Other Areas:
• Even though Broca's and Wernicke's Areas are in different lobes, they are quite near
each other and intimately connected by a tract of nerves called the arcuate fasciculus.
• It is responsible for coordinating speech comprehension and production so that a
meaningful conversation can take place.
• Angular gyrus is another region responsible for reading and writing. It lies about
between Wernicke's area and the occipital lobe.

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HYPOTHESES EXPLAINING THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE:

In the year 1861, A historical linguist Max Muller and George Romanes published
a list of speculative theories regarding the origin of language and gave amusing
names.
1. Divine creation hypothesis: Bible , Genesis 2:20 says Adam gave the names to

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all living organisms (Book of genesis, 2nd chapter 20th verse)

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2. Natural evolution Hypothesis: language naturally evolved like the natural
evolution of life .

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a. Imitation hypotheses: A
• Ding-dong hypothesis: It says that man started speaking by imitating the natural
sounds, first human words are the verbal icons, means verbal symbols of an
object E.g., Bhoom = explosion ; Tun tun = heart
• Poo-Poo hypothesis: According to this, first words came from involuntary
exclamations like wow, ouch This hypothesis does not explain the origin of many
other words whose level is beyond the simple involuntary exclamations

• Bow wow hypothesis: According to this hypothesis the vocabulary developed

from the imitation of animal noises
• Tata hypothesis: Sir Richard Paget. Gestural language and vocal language
depend on similar neural signals. The regions of cerebral cortex that are
responsible for mouth and hand movement border each other. Thus, the first

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words were the lip icons or hand gestures or body movements.
b. Necessity hypotheses: Language originated because of need. It did not evolve

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due to simple imitations but is evolved due to necessity.

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• Warning hypothesis: First words were the indexes used during everyday
activities and situations E.g., Look out, run , alert, help etc
• Yo – he – ho hypothesis: Linguist, A. S. Diamond proposed that Language
developed on human cooperative effort or the collective activities like lifting a
heavy weight or performing a tedious activity
• Lying hypothesis: According to E. H. Sturtevant all real intentions are
involuntarily expressed there fore language must have evolved to lie or to deceive
3. Obligatory reciprocal altruism hypothesis:
• In humans the sounds got diversified, Scope for the deception increased and the
scope for the reliability decreased. All these led to the need of intentional honesty
in the speech.

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4. Gossip and Grooming hypothesis:

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• According to Robin Dunbar, For humans who live in large social groups, manual

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grooming is not affordable in the aspect of time. Therefore, speech evolved either

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to attract the mate or to comfort the kin .
5. Ritual speech co evolution:
• Proposed by Roy Rappaport and elaborated by Chris Knight, Camilla Power,
Ian watts. According to them no single theory completely explains the origin of
language as language is an integral part of the culture as a whole. Culture needs
language to propagate and the language needs culture to exist.

6. Gestural theory:
• In humans as hands became manipulative, they became less available for
making gestures. It is a reasons for the evolution of words in the language.
Moreover, manual gestures need the speaker and the listener to be visible to each
other.

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• Man, who lives in large social groups needs a communication system better than

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mere gestures. Therefore, the early language is a mixture of gestures and vocal
mimesis. E.g., Song and dance.

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7. Self domesticated ape theory: Language competency is inherited whereas the
language itself is transmitted via culture. Domestication decreases the need to
attract the mate. There fore fixed mating calls takes the form of diverse sounds. Man
being a self-domesticated ape, language having diverse words could evolve in
humans.

Theories regarding the language diversity:

• Monogenesis theory: All human Languages originated from a single ancestor
tongue.
• Polygenesis theory or hypothesis of parallel evolution: Many languages could

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have parallelly evolved .

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Evolutionary timeline of the language: In monkeys, communication is more

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complex than in many animals. They make 10 different vocalizations. E.g., Leopard

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call, Snake call, Eagle call, etc. that triggers a different defense strategy.
• The language capabilities of early human started around 2.5 to 0.8 Million years
ago.
• Australopithecines around 3.5 million years ago started bipedalism it led to few
physical changes in the body that made the language possible. E.g., L Shaped
vocal tract, Larynx placed relatively low in the neck, Shape and positioning
of the Hyoid bone, Long neurons in the brain etc.
 Australopithecus

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• Homo ergaster reached a higher sophistication in the language.

• Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthal man spoke a more complex language.
• Homoloquens ( Speaking man ) is Homo sapiens, meaning that
Homo sapiens is the first species that could speak a language with all its
attributes.

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VERBAL & NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION :
a. Verbal communication: Communication using words.
b. Nonverbal communication: Communication with out using any words. There
are many types of nonverbal communication .
• Haptic: Communication by touch.
 Physical environment : Like decoration for functions at home lighting for
festivals and ritual , colours for differentiating commercial, kindergarten and
corporate. E.g. Architecture of place of worship.
Communication by proxemics i.e. territorial space of communication is used

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for communication. Atmosphere of workplace communicates the situation E.g.

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classroom. According to proxemics, there are four types of territories.

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Primary territory (house) - territory which we own.
Secondary territory- a territory where here is no ownership but we have a
certain level of emotional connectivity/ownership
• E.g. A seat in public transport which we use regularly, classroom
Public territory- Like parking spot etc, we pay for it but prefer to a particular
place

Interactional territory- When a group of people talking on foot path, the

people walk around them instead of interacting with them means it is space
created by others when people are interacting. The body language in the
above four situations is different

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Chronemics: The importance and role of time in communication. E.g.

is of two types. They are.,

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appointments (giving importance to people by being punctual). Chronemics

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Monochronic time schedule (M time): A time schedule in which things are
done in a linear fashion Time is more important than person or the purpose.
Polychronic time schedule (P time): A time schedule in which people tend
to do several things at the same time and place higher value on personal
involvement than on getting things done on time People are more important
than time.

• Kinesis: Communication by body movement and body position.

• Kineme - a set of body movements which are different but can convey the same
meaning, a set of movements used without altering the meaning, communication
through body movements.
• Emblem- a symbolic body movement is called emblem. E.g., bye-bye

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• Illustrator- illustrating a particular activity, an illustrator may require emblem,

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but emblem need not be an illustrator. E.g., rotating your hand for symbolizing

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driving.
• Gesture - It is a nonverbal element of communication to express a meaning.
Gestures can have different meanings in different cultures. E.g., The “OK” sign
made with the hand conveys positive meaning in English speaking countries but
in Germany, Russia it is considered offensive.
• Regulators- body gestures that indicate avoidance/ that controls interaction. E.g.,
taking your hand away from giving handshake.
• Adaptors: they are body gestures that indicate relaxation.
 • Affect display-A smile/ a sarcastic expression.
• Postures: The entire body’s position is used for communication.
• Haptics: Communication through touch.
• Oculesics: Communication through eye gaze.
Para language:

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• Voice set: context in which the speaker is speaking. It includes the situation,

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gender, mood, age, culture etc.
• Voice qualities: volume, pitch, tempo, rhythm, resonance, nasality, accent etc. a
combination of all of which can give a voice print to a person.
• Socio linguistics: the role of social background in communication like caste,
class, gender, religion, culture.
• Sociolects: variation of language with respect to social background. Branch of
language which deals with sociolects is called sociolinguistics.

Significance of nonverbal communication:

• Non-verbal communication, including gestures, facial expressions, postures are rich
sources of cultural expression.
• Non-verbal communication provides valuable contextual information about social
interactions.

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• Helps in comparative studies on different cultures as it acts as an additional tool to

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understand culture. For instance, certain cultural ideologies and themes are

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expressed trough nonverbal communications such as women wearing marriage

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symbols indicates subjugation of women. Though the symbols vary in different
cultures like finger ring, Tali, toe rings, sindhur etc, they all indicate the same value
orientation.
• Plays very important role while studying primitive communities with limited or no
spoken language.
• Non-verbal communication helps expression and interpretation of emotions.
• Understanding non-verbal communication is crucial for effective cross-cultural
communication.

SOCIAL CONTEXT OF LANGUAGE:

Sapir Whorf Hypothesis (or) Linguistic relativity hypothesis :
• The proposal that the culture influences language is well known. Edward Sapir &
Benzamine Lee Whorf, linguistic anthropologists of early 20th century suggested
that even the reverse is true that is language influences the other aspects of culture.

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Language influences how an individual conceives and perceives the reality. Language

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influences the speaker’s thoughts and world view.
• In other words, the structure of a language determines native speakers’ perception and

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categorization of experience. (E.g., Conklin’s study on Hanunoo colour categories).
• The influence of language can range from linguistic determinism (language determines
thought) to linguistic influence (language influences thought to some extent).
• E.g., 1: In a study on 3 languages Hebrew language (Israel), English (US) and
Finnish (Fin land), they noticed that Hebrew language emphasizes gender more than
English, In English gender is emphasized only in the third person speech. Form this
study they inferred that in any language if there is more emphasis on gender, The
children of that society develop the gender sense at an earlier age.
• E.g. (2): In English language, there are discrete past present and future tenses
that means the language has more emphasis on time. There fore in English culture
there is more importance to time, and they follow M time schedules as mentioned
in chronemics. Whereas in Hopi language there is less emphasis on time and
therefore Hopi culture has less importance to time, and they follow P times

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schedules.

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• E.g. (3): John Lucy Experiment: In English language there is no ambiguity on
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the number of objects , Singularity and Plurality, Whereas in Mayan language,

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such ambiguity is allowed. In a scientific experiment, John Lucy observed that
English people could recall the number of objects more accurately when compared
to Mayans when a particular picture is shown to both of them.
• E.g. (4): In higher classes there is more usage of the terms like Dr, Mr, Prof, etc.,
But Roger Brown and Marguerita stated that such usages are more common only
in formal addressing even in the higher class. Thus, culture influence language.

• E.g. (5): In Japanese language the male and female words used for the same
object are different. Males call water as ‘Mizu’ and females call water as ‘Ohiya’
and males call chop sticks as ‘Hasi and females call them as ‘Ohasi’. Such
aspects in the language lead to more cultural differences among the genders.

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• E.g. (6): Robin Lakoff noted that women tend to add questions at the end of the

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sentences like, isn’t it?, Didn’t they? Etc., and they answer to a question with

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another question so that the conversation continues. Females are more tended to
use bookish standard language as females are more likely than males to behave in
the ways that are acceptable to adults. Thus, culture influence language.
• Eg(9): Words like Chairman, Policeman, History (His story) etc indicate that men
are more important than women. We say in English that Sally is Henry’s widow,
but we don’t say that Henry is Sally’s widower. Therefore, if the language and
culture influence each other.

1. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (10M,2020)

2. Explain how variations in language usage is related to social
inequality. (20M,2020)

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3. Nonverbal communication ( 2017,10M)

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4. Write a note on Linguistic anthropology (2013,10M)-
5. State the theories regarding the origin of spoken language in
human societies both from biological and cultural points of
view (2010,30M)
 Q. Explain the difference between emic and etic, and how does the difference derive
from the study of language? (10M,2015)

• In 1954 a linguist Kenneth Pike coined the terms Etic (Out sider approach) and
emic (Insider approach) , the two approaches to studying human culture. Emic and

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etic are derived from the linguistic terms phonemic and phonetic respectively.

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• The terms were also championed by anthropologist, Marvin Harris.

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• Phonetics studies the sounds were actually produce in speech.
• Phonemics studies the way we understand those sounds.
• A Phoneme is a particular set of sounds produced in a particular language and
distinguishable by native speakers of that language from other (sets of) sounds in
that language. That's what "distinctive" means -- the English phonemes /n/ and /ŋ/
can be told apart by native speakers of English, because we use these sounds to
distinguish different words -- sin ~ sing, ton ~ tongue, run ~ rung, etc. This would
be impossible if these phonemes weren't distinctive in English.

• Phonetics, on the other hand, is simply the physiological and acoustic study of
speech sounds, covering all sounds used in all languages.
• Phonemes, the unit of phonemics, encased in /slashes/, are always specific to a
language. Since phonetics is a natural science, phones, the unit of phonetics, encased
in [square brackets], are universal, and are not specific to any language.

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Conclusion: Thus, the difference between etic and emic approaches of anthropological

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research derived from the linguistic terms, phonetics and phonemics respectively.

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Q. Critically examine that the structure and content of language are influenced by
culture. ( 2018, 15M )
The relationship between language and culture is innate, reciprocal. Culture needs
language to propagate and language needs culture to exist.
• The vocabulary or Lexicon of a language is deeply influenced by culture. Any
language will have specific words and terms to describe concepts, objects, activities,
and social relationships that are significant within their cultural context.

• Social hierarchies like economic class, gender, caste etc. influence the choice of
words, tone, and linguistic strategies used by different groups.
• Syntax or grammar of a language can be influenced by cultural patterns. For
instance, a language may have more tenses if the culture gives more importance to
time. Language may have gender specific words if the culture emphasizes gender

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differences. (Examples mentioned in Sapir-Whorf hypothesis)

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Language is rich in idioms, metaphors that are rooted in cultural experiences and

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beliefs. An idiom, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover” indicates a culture with
script and written language. A metaphor “sacred cow” to address stems from the
Hindu belief that cows are sacred.
To sum-up, the structure and content of language are are highly influenced by culture.

Culture, language and communication: Nature, origin and characteristics of

language; verbal and non-verbal communication; social context of language use.