A Basic Course in Anthropological Linguistics (Studies in Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology)

235 Pages·2004·2.23 MB·English

A Basic Course in
Anthropological
Linguistics
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A Basic Course in
Anthropological
Linguistics
Volume 2 in the series
Studies in Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology
Series Editor:
Marcel Danesi, University of Toronto
Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc.
Toronto
A Basic Course in Anthropological Linguistics
by Marcel Danesi
First published in 2004 by
Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc.
180 Bloor Street West, Suite 801
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 2V6
www.cspi.org
Copyright 0 2004 Marcel Danesi and Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc. All rights reserved. No
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to have any errors or omissions brought to its attention.
CSPI gratefully acknowledges financial support for our publishing activities from the
Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program.
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Danesi, Marcel, 1946-
A basic course in anthropological linguistics / Marcel Danesi.
(Studies in cultural and linguistic anthropology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-55130-252-7
1. Anthropological linguistics. I. Title. II. Series.
P35.D35 2004 306.44’089 C2003-907009-3
Cover design by Hothouse Canada
Page design and layout by Brad Horning
04 05 06 07 08 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in Canada by AGMV Marquis Imprimeur Inc.
Table of Contents
Preface ........................................................................................................ ix
...............................................................................
1 Linguistic Method 1
Preliminary Remarks ............................................................................. 1
The Scientific Approach to Language ................................................... 2
AnthropologicalL inguistics ................................................................... 7
Language ............................................................................................... 8
Linguistic Analysis ............................................................................... 10
Learning to Speak ................................................................................ 17
Concluding Remarks ........................................................................... 21
..........................................
2 The Origin and Evolution of Language 23
Preliminary Remarks ........................................................................... 23
Theories .............................................................................................. 24
Reconstruction Techques ................................................................. 31
Core Vocabularies ................................................................................ 35
Language Change ................................................................................ 39
Primate Language Experiments ........................................................... 41
Concludmg Remarks ........................................................................... 45
................................................................................................
3 Sounds 47
Preliminary Remarks ........................................................................... 47
Phonetic Description ........................................................................... 48
PhonologicalA nalysis .......................................................................... 53
Syllable Structure ................................................................................ 59
Slips of the Tongue ............................................................................. 64
Sound Symbolism ............................................................................... 64
Concluding Remarks ........................................................................... 67
.................................................................................................
4 Words 69
Preliminary Remarks ........................................................................... 69
Words .................................................................................................. 70
The Morpheme .................................................................................... 73
MorphologicalA nalysis ........................................................................ 76
Zipf’s Law Again ................................................................................. 79
Linguistic Typology ............................................................................. 82
Concluding Remarks ........................................................................... 84
...........................................................................................
5 Sentences 85
Prehnary Remarks ........................................................................... 85
Sentences ............................................................................................ 86
Grammar ............................................................................................. 88
Grammar and Use ............................................................................... 90
The Lexicon ........................................................................................ 94
Grammar and Concepts ...................................................................... 95
Concluding Remarks ........................................................................... 99
............................................................................................
6 Meanings 99
Prehnary Remarks ........................................................................... 99
Meaning ............................................................................................. 100
Types of Meaning .............................................................................. 102
Word Meaning .................................................................................... 114
Utterance Meaning .............................................................................. 116
Names ................................................................................................ 118
Concluding Remarks ......................................................................... 120
.................................................................
7 Discourse and Variation 121
Prelirmnary Remarks ......................................................................... 121
Conversational Devices ..................................................................... 121
Discourse .......................................................................................... 123
Variation ............................................................................................. 128
Borrowing ......................................................................................... 133
Concluding Remarks ......................................................................... 135
.....................................................................
8 Language and Reality 137
Preliminary Remarks ......................................................................... 137
The Whorfian Hypothesis .................................................................. 138
SpecializedV ocabularies .................................................................... 140
Metaphor ........................................................................................... 147
Writing ............................................................................................... 153
Concluding Remarks ......................................................................... 159
Activities and Topics for Discussion ........................................................ 161
Glossary of Technical Terms ................................................................... 179
Cited Works and General Bibliography ..................................................... 191
Index ........................................................................................................ 213
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Preface
Language is a truly fascinating and enigmatic phenomenon. The scientific
discipline that aims to study it, in all its dimensions, is known as linguistics.
The particular approach that studies the relation between language, thought,
and culture is known as anthropological linguistics (AL). Introducing the basics
of AL,i s the subject matter of this textbook. Known variously as ethnolinguistics,
cultural linguistics, or linguistic anthropology, AL is a branch of both
anthropology and linguistics. Traditionally, anthropological linguists have aimed
to document and study the languages of indigenous cultures, especially North
American ones. Today, however, the purview of AL has been extended
considerably to encompass the study of language as a general cognitive and
cultural phenomenon, and to determine genealogicalr elations among languages,
so as to recreate ancient cultures through them.
As an instructor of courses in anthropological linguistics at the University
of Toronto, I have prepared and used my own handouts and materials, tailoring
them to meet the needs of students. This textbook constitutes a reworking of
those materials into a systematic introduction to the field of AL. I sincerely
hope that it will pique the interests of students everywhere to investigate the
language-thought-culture nexus on their own. I must warn the users of this
book, however, that the topics chosen for presentation, and the ways in which
I have treated them, reflects my own views both of the field, and especially of
what is of general interest in an introductory format.
There are eight chapters in this book. The first deals with the basic notions,
concepts, and techmques of linguistics. The second chapter looks at the origin
and evolution of language, focusing on the comparison and reconstruction of
language families. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters look respectively
at sound, word-formation, syntactic, and semantic systems from the point of
view of linguistic analysis. These chapters introduce the student to what must
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