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Chapter 5Communication and Language

What is a language?

Communication Language is symbolic system that

1. Has meaning even when a referent is not present

2. Has arbitrary meanings Do you work?

How is human language different from that of other animal communication systems? Bird calls Smell Alarm calls (Vervet monkeys)

Human language is said to be an open system, governed by complex rules about how sounds and sequences can be combined to produce an infinite variety of meanings.http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2010/aug/09/bonus-video-words/

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The Origins of Language

The origins of spoken language are unknown.

Written and symbolic records date only about 5,000 years; thus, the time for the development of language in humans is speculative

Creole Languages Grammatical Similarities in Creole languages

around the world “Nobody no like me” – double negatives “I had called” – Particles, like aint or shall

Children’s Acquisition of Language Words and sentences Age of learning Capacity to learn

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Ethnography of Speaking

Sociolinguistics is concerned with the ethnography of speaking, or cultural and subcultural patterns of speech variation in different

social contexts.A look at the Gullah….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPGx1icFdLQ

What about black english?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_KKLkmIrDk

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The Processes of Linguistic Divergence

While isolation brings about divergence between speech communities,

contact results in greater resemblance.

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Relationships between Language and Culture

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:Language is a force in its own right, and it affects how individuals in a society perceive and

conceive reality.