Deck 4: Linguistic Anthropology: Relating Language and Culture

Question 1

The study of language from an anthropological point of view is called

A) phonology.
B) ethnography.
C) sociolinguistics.
D) anthropological linguistics.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

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?

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

Answer 2

A

Question 3

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

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

Answer 3

B

Question 4

de Saussure's concept of parole is the

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

Question 5

_____________ refers to the structure of speech sounds.

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

Question 6

How words fit together to make meaningful units is called

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

Question 7

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

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

Question 8

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

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

Question 9

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

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

Question 10

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.

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

Question 11

A language of mixed origin that developed from a complex blending of two parent languages is called

A) a pidgin language.
B) creole.
C) slang.
D) language ideology.

Question 12

Like cultural anthropologists, linguistic anthropologists work with informants or research subjects through fieldwork.

Question 13

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

Question 14

Languages change very slowly, taking generations or even centuries.

Question 15

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.

Question 16

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

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

Question 17

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

Question 18

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

Question 19

How can language mark our social position and status? In your answer apply the theory of language ideology.

Question 20

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

Question 21

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.

Question 22

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

Question 23

With the rise of social media during the past decade, new terms have entered American English. How can there be language changes if we are not consciously aware that we are changing the way we speak?

Question 24

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?

Question 25

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