A Basic Course in Anthropological Linguistics This page intentionally left blank 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 part of this publication may be photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the written permission of Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc., except for brief passages quoted for review purposes. In the case of photocopying, a licence may be obtained from Access Copyright: One Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1E5, (416) 868-1620, fax (416) 868-1621, toll-free 1-800-893-5777, www.accesscopyright.ca. Every reasonable effort has been made to identify copyright holders. CSPI would be pleased 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 AnthropologicalLinguistics ................................................................... 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 PhonologicalAnalysis .......................................................................... 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 MorphologicalAnalysis ........................................................................ 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 SpecializedVocabularies .................................................................... 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 This page intentionally left blank 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,is 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 genealogicalrelations among languages, so as to recreate ancient cultures through them.