Question 1

If you wanted to study how athletes and non-athletes used language differently on your campus, how would you go about finding this out?

Accepted Answer

Linguistic anthropologists, like cultural anthropologists, work directly with their informants or research subjects. Thus, much of their research involves fieldwork, building rapport with informants, and long periods of immersion in another culture. But the specific field strategy that a linguistic anthropologist adopts will depend on the kind of questions he or she is asking about the use of language in a particular culture.

Question 2

How do language ideologies marginalize groups of people? Give an example to illustrate your answer.

Accepted Answer

The concept of language ideology refers to the ideologies people have about the superiority of one dialect or language and the inferiority of others. A language ideology links language use with identity, morality, and aesthetics. It shapes our image of who we are as individuals, as members of social groups, and as participants in social institutions.

Question 3

In England, the dialect one speaks marks you as a person of a very specialized social class. What is it about our regional or social dialect that allows people to classify us and view us through unflattering stereotypes?

Accepted Answer

Another interesting way to think about phonology is to consider accents and dialects, which are regional or social variations of a single language. Sometimes the variation occurs between generations or among people of different social classes. Part of the distinctive sound of these forms of speech results from differences in "intonation," the pattern of rising and falling pitch, but careful analysis of the sounds usually shows that accents and dialects also have systematic differences in their respective sound systems.

Question 4

How does understanding that men and women speak differently, even though they both speak American English, help us to understand patterns of social behavior?

Accepted Answer

The answer of How does understanding that men and women...

Question 5

To what extent do our American English grammatical categories shape the ways we anticipate events that occur in the world around us? Consider, for example, how the use of the English pronouns "he," "she," "they," and "it" affects social relationships.

Accepted Answer

The answer of To what extent do our American English...

Question 6

According to linguistic anthropologists, why don't our pets actually understand a rudimentary form of English?

Accepted Answer

The answer of According to linguistic anthropologists, why don't our...

Question 7

Early anthropologists such as Franz Boas saw little use for language as a mechanism for understanding culture.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 8

de Saussure's concept of parole is the

Accepted Answer

A)   way people actually speak a language.
B)   formal rules of language.
C)   structure of speech sounds.
D)   order of words.

Question 9

An anthropologist who looks at speech acts as performances by recording narrative speech acts in the form of verses and stanzas rather than as prose paragraphs to capture the performative elements of speech is conducting

Accepted Answer

A)   comparative ethnography.
B)   ethnopoetics.
C)   historical archaeology.
D)   morphology.

Question 10

What is the name for studying the way that language serves as a way to distinguish the way that people actually speak from the idealized ways that they are supposed to speak in a culture?

Accepted Answer

A)   Ethnography of speaking
B)   Sociolinguistics
C)   Historical particularism
D)   Rapid appraisal

Question 11

How is communication between animals (call system communication) different from human language?

Accepted Answer

The answer of How is communication between animals (call system...

Question 12

Languages change very slowly, taking generations or even centuries.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 13

Nineteenth-century European colonial powers often introduced their own language as the official language in places like sub-Saharan Africa because they viewed indigenous languages as socially inferior.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 14

_____________ refers to the structure of speech sounds.

Accepted Answer

A)   Cognates
B)   Parole
C)   Phonology
D)   Syntax

Question 15

The US government's prohibition of Native American children speaking their indigenous languages in Indian schools has contributed most profoundly to

Accepted Answer

A)   ethnocentrism.
B)   cultural relativism.
C)   language death.
D)   language ideology.

Question 16

A stoplight is a visual example of which of the following?

Accepted Answer

A)   Symbol
B)   Langue
C)   Sign
D)   Parole

Question 17

Today most anthropologists accept a ________ version of the linguistic relativity argument: the language habits of a community create tendencies to think about the world in certain ways and not others.

Accepted Answer

A)   strong (deterministic) 
B)   weak (nondeterministic) 
C)   irrelevant
D)   symbolic

Question 18

The study of how people classify things in the world is called

Accepted Answer

A)   ethnography.
B)   sociolinguistics.
C)   ethnoscience.
D)   biological determinism.

Question 19

According to anthropologist Sherry Ortner's analysis, the American flag is an example of

Accepted Answer

A)   a key scenario.
B)   a sign.
C)   an elaborating symbol.
D)   a summarizing symbol.

Question 20

How words fit together to make meaningful units is called

Accepted Answer

A)   phonology.
B)   morphology.
C)   syntax.
D)   cognates.

Exam 4: Linguistic Anthropology: Relating Language and Culture

If you wanted to study how athletes and non-athletes used language differently on your campus, how would you go about finding this out?

How do language ideologies marginalize groups of people? Give an example to illustrate your answer.

In England, the dialect one speaks marks you as a person of a very specialized social class. What is it about our regional or social dialect that allows people to classify us and view us through unflattering stereotypes?

How does understanding that men and women speak differently, even though they both speak American English, help us to understand patterns of social behavior?

To what extent do our American English grammatical categories shape the ways we anticipate events that occur in the world around us? Consider, for example, how the use of the English pronouns "he," "she," "they," and "it" affects social relationships.

According to linguistic anthropologists, why don't our pets actually understand a rudimentary form of English?

Early anthropologists such as Franz Boas saw little use for language as a mechanism for understanding culture.

de Saussure's concept of parole is the

An anthropologist who looks at speech acts as performances by recording narrative speech acts in the form of verses and stanzas rather than as prose paragraphs to capture the performative elements of speech is conducting

What is the name for studying the way that language serves as a way to distinguish the way that people actually speak from the idealized ways that they are supposed to speak in a culture?

How is communication between animals (call system communication) different from human language?

Languages change very slowly, taking generations or even centuries.

Nineteenth-century European colonial powers often introduced their own language as the official language in places like sub-Saharan Africa because they viewed indigenous languages as socially inferior.

_____________ refers to the structure of speech sounds.

The US government's prohibition of Native American children speaking their indigenous languages in Indian schools has contributed most profoundly to

A stoplight is a visual example of which of the following?

Today most anthropologists accept a ________ version of the linguistic relativity argument: the language habits of a community create tendencies to think about the world in certain ways and not others.

The study of how people classify things in the world is called

According to anthropologist Sherry Ortner's analysis, the American flag is an example of

How words fit together to make meaningful units is called