Language and communication

Animal Communication

o Call Systems
Natural communication systems of other primates (monkeys & apes)
o Sign Language
(Miles 1983) More recent experiments have shown that apes can learn to
use, if not speak, true language.
American Sign Language- widely used by deaf and mute.
* Cultural transmission of a communication system through learning is a
fundamental attribute of language.

Animal Communication

o The Origin of Language

(Miles 1983)The capacity to remember and combine linguistic expressions
seems to be latent in the apes.

Non-Verbal Communication

o Language
principal means of communicating, but it isnt the only one we use.
Definition (Nonverbal):
- Is the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless (mostly
visual) cues between people.
o Kinesics
study of communication through body movement, stances, gestures and
facial expressions.

Non-Verbal Communication

Examples:

Facial expressions

Cadence (tone of voice)

Body Language

Blushing

Gesture

Touch

Vocal Sounds

Non-Verbal Communication

3 New Types of Nonverbal Communication:

1. Emoticons in emails and texts are newest addition to this list.
2. Deliberately posting photos on facebook and other social media to provoke a
reaction.
3. Digital manipulation of images to cause a particular reaction.

Language, Thought and Culture

o The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

a hypothesis holding that structure of a language affects the

perceptions of reality of its speakers and thus influences their thought patterns
and worldviews.

The theory that human language determine the structure of the real world as
perceived by human beings rather than vice versa, at this structure is different
and incommensurable from one language to another.

Focal vocabulary

A lexicon (or vocabulary) is a languages dictionary,its set of names,events, and

ideas.
Aset of words and distinctions that are particularly important to certain
groups(those with particular foci of

The Structure of Language

the study of a spoken language.

o Several interrelated areas of analysis:

Phonology- study of speech sound.
Morphology- forms in which sounds combine to form morphemes- words
and their meaningful parts
Lexicon- a dictionary containing all its morphemes and their meaning.
Syntax- the arrangement & order of words in phases and sentences.

o Speech Sound

The Structure of Language

Figure 4.1
Vowel Phonemes in Standard American English

Sociolinguistics

investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation, or

language in its social context.
o Linguistic Diversity

Ethnic diversity- revealed by fact that millions of Americans learned first

languages other than English.

All dialects are equally effective as systems of communication, which is

languages main job.

o Gender Speech Contrast

Comparing man and women, there are differences in phonology, grammar and
vocabulary, as well as in the body stances and movements.

Sociolinguistics

o Stratification

Extralinguistic forces-social, political, economic

Mainstream Americans evaluate the speech of low-status groups negatively, calling it

uneducated.
o Black American Vernacular (BEV)
a.k.a. Ebonics
relatively uniform dialect spoken by the majority of black youth in most parts of
the United States today.

Historical Linguistics

Sociolinguistics study contemporary variation in speech- language change in progress.

Historical Linguistics deals with long-term change.
Historical Linguistics can reconstruct many features of past languages by studying
contemporary daughter languages.