A Basic Course in Anthropological Linguistics (Studies in Linguistic ...

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SOUNDS 65 that we hardly ever notice that it guides our interpretation of the meaning of words. In one relevant study, the psycholinguist Roger Brown (1970: 258-273) asked native speakers of English to listen to pairs of antonyms from a language unrelated to English and then to try to guess, given the English equivalents, which foreign word translated which English word. The subjects were asked to guess the meaning of the foreign words by attending to their sounds. When he asked them, for example, to match the words ch’ing and chung to the English equivalents light and heavy, not necessarily in that order, Brown found that about 90% of English speakers correctly matched ch’ing to light and chung to heavy. He concluded that the degree of translation accuracy could only be explained “as indicative of a primitive phonetic symbolism deriving from the origin of speech in some lund of imitative or physiognomic linkage of sounds and meanings” (Brown 1970: 272). Put more specifically, words constructed with the vowel /il have a perceptible “lightness” quality to them and those constructed with /u/ a ‘heaviness” quality. This perceptual differentiation shows up in the kinds of meanings assigned to the words themselves. Sound symbolism theory in linguistics was pioneered by Morris Swadesh throughout his professional career (Swadesh 195 1, 1959, 1971). Swadesh drew attention to such suggestive features as the fact that many of the world’s languages used front vowels (/i/-type and /e/-type vowels) to construct words in which “nearness” was implied, in contrast to back vowels (/a/-type, /o/- type, and /u/-type vowels) to construct words in which the opposite concept of “distance” was implied. Here are some manifestations of this front vs. back opposition in English: Nearness Concepts Distance Concepts ~ ~~ here = [hir] near =[nir] thls =[&s] m = [in] there = [6zr] far =[far] that = [6aet] out = [awt] The same kind of opposition is found across languages to distinguish between this (implying nearness) and that/you (implying distance), suggesting that it might be a universal tendency:
66 A BASIC COURSE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL, LINGUISTICS ~ ___ ~ Language “This” = [i] “ThaWou” = [al/[ul Chinook Klamath Tsimshian GUarani Maya Binga Fur Didinga Tamil Thai Burmese -1kegwiityk li’ ti in ici idi nii dii -U- ho-, ha- gwa- tuvicha la’, lo’ ta illa ica adi nan tho0 Rarely do we realize how productive sound symbolism is in our own language. Here are some of the ways it manifests itself in English: in the alliteration or repetition of sounds for various effects: sing- song; no-no, etc.; in the lengthening of sounds for emphasis: Yesssss!, Noooooo!, etc.; in the use of intonation to express emotional states, to emphasize something, to shock someone, etc.: Are you absolutely sure? Noooooo way! etc.; in sound modeling, as in the language used in cartoons and comic books: Zap!, Boom!, Pow!, etc.; in onomatopoeic words: bang, boom, swish, plop, etc.; in the use of loudness to convey a state of anger, urgency, etc.; and in its opposite, whispering, to convey secrecy, conspiracy, etc. Sound symbolism is a basic and largely unconscious tendency in the construction and interpretation of words. For example, continuants are found typically in words that refer to things that are perceived to have “continuity.” Take, for example, the IfY cluster, which is found commonly in the make-up of English words that refer to things that move or run smoothly with unbroken continuity, in the manner that is characteristic of a fluid: flow flake
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A Basic Course in Anthropological L
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A Basic Course in Anthropological L
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Table of Contents Preface .........
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Metaphor ..........................
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Preface Language is a truly fascina
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Without words to objectify and cate
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LINGUISTIC METHOD 3 languages the s
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LINGUISTIC METHOD 5 Saussure’s ap
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LINGUISTIC METHOD 7 as computationa
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LINGUISTIC METHOD 9 language utiliz
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LINGUISTIC METHOD 11 making the wor
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LINGUISTIC METHOD 13 Although there
Page 26 and 27: LINGUISTIC METHOD 15 chairrnan, spo
Page 28 and 29: LINGUISTIC METHOD 17 for example, s
Page 30 and 31: LINGUISTIC METHOD 19 they are unabl
Page 32 and 33: LINGUISTIC METHOD 21 who had suffer
Page 34 and 35: Language is a part of our organism
Page 36 and 37: THE OFUGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LANGUAG
Page 38 and 39: THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LANGUAG
Page 48 and 49: THE ORTGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LANGUAG
Page 58 and 59: A linguistic system is a series of
Page 60 and 61: SOUNDS 49 Sounds made by touching t
Page 62 and 63: Main Points of Articulation: SOUNDS
Page 64 and 65: SOUNDS 53 English living in Alabama
Page 66 and 67: SOUNDS 55 If a phoneme has variants
Page 68 and 69: SOUNDS 57 other by means of a compl
Page 70 and 71: SOUNDS 59 Distinctive features also
Page 72 and 73: ~ ~ SOUNDS 61 Syllables with Primar
Page 74 and 75: SOUNDS 63 In some languages, such a
Page 78 and 79: flee float fly SOUNDS 67 On the oth
Page 80 and 81: Give the people a new word and they
Page 82 and 83: WORDS 71 inflected classes (such as
Page 84 and 85: THE MORPHEME WORDS 73 The bits and
Page 86 and 87: WORDS 75 There are two other types
Page 88 and 89: WORDS 77 This suggests, of course,
Page 90 and 91: ZIPF’S LAW AGAIN WORDS 79 Recall
Page 92 and 93: WORDS 81 Abbreviations save effort.
Page 94 and 95: WORDS 83 The American linguist Jose
Page 96 and 97: The words of the world want to make
Page 98 and 99: SENTENCES 87 The hierarchical struc
Page 100 and 101: SENTENCES 89 complement (or object)
Page 102 and 103: SENTENCES 91 For example, uttering
Page 104 and 105: SENTENCES 93 As a follow-up study,
Page 106 and 107: SENTENCES 95 The . . ./-ingl . . ./
Page 108 and 109: SENTENCES 97 timeline on which spec
Page 110 and 111: For a large class of cases-though n
Page 112 and 113: MEANINGS 101 The three referents to
Page 114 and 115: MEANINGS 103 a legislative assembly
Page 116 and 117: or [-canine] - [+canine] dog (male)
Page 118 and 119: MEANINGS 107 connotations, namely t
Page 120 and 121: MEANINGS 109 We do not detect the p
Page 122 and 123: MEANINGS 111 thnlung] was rendered
Page 124 and 125: (3) We don’t hire crew cuts. MEAN
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MEANINGS 115 ~~ Evil Good Appropria
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MEANINGS 117 he called gesticulants
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MEANINGS 119 given names come from
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You can stroke people with words. E
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DISCOURSE AND VARIATION 123 other k
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explicating family relations explic
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DISCOURSE AND VARIATION 127 (4) a c
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DISCOURSE AND VARIATION 129 or she
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DISCOURSE AND VA€”TION 131 Gend
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DISCOURSE AND VARLATION 133 Today,
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DISCOURSE AND VAFUATION 135 English
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All objects, all phases of culture
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LANGUAGE AND REALITY 139 0-0 1. 2 .
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LANGUAGE AND REALlTY 141 relations
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c English Salisb Sahaptit Chinook S
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LANGUAGE AND REALITY 145 brown, pur
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METAPHOR LANGUAGE AND REALITY 147 T
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LANGUAGE AND REALITY 149 In Modern
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LANGUAGE AND REALITY 151 Arizona. A
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LANGUAGE AND REALITY 153 it enters
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9 8 LANGUAGE AND REALITY Side Grow
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LANGUAGE AND REALITY 157 The Greeks
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CONCLUDING REMARKS LANGUAGE AND REA
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CHAPTER 1 Activities and Topics for
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CHAPTER 2 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. ACTI
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ACTIVITIES AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSIO
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A addressee addresser affii allopho
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cohesive gesture communicative comp
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G gambit generative grammar GLOSSAR
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locutionary act logograph M manner
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eferential function register repair
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vocalization voicing vowel GLOSSARY
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Cited Works and General Bibliograph
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CITED WORKS AND GENERAL, BIBLIOGRAP
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CITEiD WORKS AND GENERAL BIBLIOGRAP
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CITED WORKS AND GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPH
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A abbreviations, 79-8 1 acronyms, 7
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metaphor, role of, 147-153 proverbi
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illocutionary act, 184 image schema
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emotional meaning, 1 18 figurative,
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eality, and language color terminol
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gesture theory, 26-28 La-La theory,
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