Linguistic Anthropology

The Development of Structuralism

Wilhelm von Humboldt

Language is the medium through which humans perceive the world

There is a relationship between a nations language and its character

(1767 1835)

Wilhelm von Humboldt

The outer form of a language consists of the raw material the sounds used to make different languages The inner form is the pattern the structure of the grammar and the meanings given to the raw material It is the inner form that distinguishes languages from one another

Wilhelm von Humboldt (ca. 1830)

Wilhelm von Humboldt

Language is dynamic, not static. Language is an activity, not a product of activity. A language is not a set of actual utterances produced by speakers It is the underlying principles or rules that made it possible for speakers to produce such utterances. A Structural conception of language.

Ferdinand de Saussure
Language is a structured system that can be viewed synchronically (as it exists at any one time) diachronically (as it changes over time)
(18571913)

Ferdinand de Saussure
parole parole

parole the way a particular person speaks

parole

parole

langue

langue the system of rules that makes it possible for a person to know how to speak parole

parole

Ferdinand de Saussure on Signs

Language is a symbolic system that depends upon signs Signified an abstract mental concept Signifier a material "soundimage" (i.e., an utterance, a written word, a picture) the process of signification is what gives meaning to an expression

Fredinand de Saussure
Wanted to counter prescriptive linguistics as a program for telling people how they should use their language (standard) His interest was in descriptive linguistics to describe how people actually use language (nonstandard) Language is a social fact ( la Durkheim) Language is a sequence of sounds that carry meaning

The Structure of Sentences

paradigmatic The dog threw up on the rug. What can substitute for dog? For rug? Animate vs. inanimate nouns syntagmatic When a sign in one slot affects what happens in another slot The dog slept on the rug. The dog marinated on the rug.

Michael Agar, Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation, 1994

Franz Boas
Preserve native languages before they are lost forever Develop a comprehensive system of synchronic description
Sounds Grammar Dictionary Linguistics a s a way to study culture
Franz Boas
(1858-1942)

Leonard Bloomfield
Studied MalayoPolynesian (Austronesian) languages, especially Tagalog Showed that the techniques of historical linguistic techniques applied equally well to non- western languages
(1887-1949)

Leonard Bloomfield
Language (1933) becomes the standard textbook of American linguistics Linguistic phenomena could properly and successfully be studied when isolated from their nonlinguistic environment

Leonard Bloomfield
Heavily influenced by behavioralism
Investigate only empirically observable phenomena Study what people say to one another and how they respond

The Behaviorist Approach

Focus only on what can be observed

Stimulus
in between lies a black box

Response

Bloomfields Behaviorism
The elements of language can be studied in isolation from the nonlinguistic environment you study sound systems and grammar, not semantics

A child learns language by listening to and then repeating what others have said No speculation about what is going on in a persons head when they are using language