Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology & its Methods
Southern Masbate Roosevelt College, Inc.
Katipunan, Placer, Masbate
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COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
Dr. Victor V. Lepiten
FOUNDER
LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND SOCIETY(EES 102)
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What is Anthropology?
•Anthropology - is the broad study of humankind around the world and throughout time.
•It is concerned with both the biological and the cultural aspects of humans.
Included in anthropology are four main subdivisions:
Victor Elliot S. Lepiten, III
PRESIDENT
Physical Anthropology
• Mechanisms of biological evolution, genetic inheritance, human adaptability and variation, primatology,
and the fossil record of human evolution.
Cultural Anthropology
• Culture, ethnocentrism, cultural aspects of language and communication, subsistence and other
economic patterns, kinship, sex and marriage, socialization, social control, political organization, class,
ethnicity, gender, religion, and culture change.
Archaeology
• Prehistory and early history of cultures around the world; major trends in cultural evolution; and
techniques for finding, excavating, dating, and analyzing material remains of past societies
Linguistic Anthropology
• The human communication process focusing on the importance of sociocultural influences; nonverbal
communication; and the structure, function, and history of languages, dialects, etc.
Linguistic Anthropology & Linguistic Anthropologist
• Linguistic anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life.
• Linguistic anthropologists investigate the relationship between communication and culture. They ask:
"What is the message?", "How is it formed?" and "What is its cultural meaning?".
• Linguistic anthropologists study the diversity of the world's languages and the diversity of language use
and other forms of communication in societies around the world.
GERALYN P. ALBURO Subfields of Linguistic Anthropology
INSTRUCTOR 1. Descriptive linguistics - Studies the structure of language
2. Ethnolinguistics - Studies how languages and cultures are related
3. Historical linguistics - Studies how languages change on a linear scope and how the come to be on the
time line
4. Sociolinguistics - Studies language in different social modes or contexts.
 Linguistic Anthropology Deals Cultural boundary

• What is language? What is linguistics? What is linguistic anthropology? • A cultural boundary (also cultural border) in ethnology is a geographical boundary between two
• The Building blocks of Language: sounds, forms, and meanings identifiable ethnic or ethnolinguistic cultures.
• Variation, language/dialect, and the speech community
• Language Ideology St. Thomas Cultural Resource Framework
• Language Socialization
• Linguistic Relativism and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• Language and Society
• Topics in language and gender
• Bilingualism and Multilingualism
• Language Policy and Language Rights
Culture and Society

• Society: Society describes a group of people who share similar values, laws and traditions living in
organized communities for mutual benefits. Members of society often share same religions, politics or
culture.

• Culture: Sir Edward B. Tylor's definition of culture (1871) “Culture… is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [a human]
as a member of society.

Relationship Between Culture and Language

• Edward Sapir & Whorf, recognized the close relationship between language and culture, concluding that
it was not possible to understand or appreciate one without knowledge of the other” (taken from
Wardhaugh, 2002, p. 220).
• In consideration of the various research, it does appear that the structure of a language determines how
speakers of that language view their world. A look at how users of different languages view colour,
linguistic etiquette and kinship systems helps to illustrate this point.
• Kinship systems have similarly been studied to discover how language is related to thought through the
ways in which the use of terms like father, brother, or older brother reflect how people behave toward
these people (Wardhaugh, 2002, p. 229).
• The relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted. Language is used to maintain and
convey culture and cultural ties. Different ideas stem from differing language use within one’s culture and
the whole intertwining of these relationships start at one’s birth.

Cultural Area
• In anthropology and geography, a cultural region,cultural sphere, or culture area refers to a
geographical area with one relatively homogeneous human activity or complex of activities (culture). These
are often associated with an ethnolinguistic group and the territory it inhabits.
What would be the best way to really get to know another society and its culture? Why? Social Change - Refers to changes in the way society is organized, and in the beliefs and
practices of the people who live in it
Participation-observation
• Anthropologists have learned that the best way to really get to know another society and its culture is to • Change in the social structure and the institutions of society
live in it as an active participant rather than simply an observer.
• Examples?
• By physically and emotionally participating in the social interaction of the host society it is possible to
become accepted as a member.

Anthropology: The Question of Kinship

• Kinship is a family relationship based on what is a culture considers a family to be

• The family unit can vary depending on the culture in which the family lives
• Anthropologists have concluded that human cultures define the concept of Kinship in three ways: mating
(marriage), birth (descent) and nurturance (adoption)
• Most human societies are patrilineal (organized through the father’s line). Examples?
Skills and Methods used by Anthropologists
Anthropology and Social Change
• Anthropologists regard CULTURES, the focus of their studies as constantly changing organisms
• Key Questions -What are the known basic mechanisms of social change? -What ideas or explanations can
we use to describe what causes cultures to change?

Three Major Sources of Cultural Change (anthropology)

• Participation-observation
• Household census 1)Invention: new products, ideas and social patterns. Examples?
• Field interviews 2)Discovery: finding something that was previously unknown to a culture. Examples?
• Focus group disscurssion 3)Diffusion: spreading of ideas, methods and tools from one culture to another. Examples?
• Case study, Genealogy
• Fieldwork on anthropologists is know as “ethnography”: the scientific study of human races and cultures
Four Classifications of Culture

Anthropological Schools of Thought • Anthropologists focus on the process of ENCULTURATION (members of a culture learn and internalize
shared ideas, values and beliefs)
• School of thought: when a certain way of interpreting a discipline’s subject matter gains widespread
credibility, it is considered to be a ‘school of thought’ • Culture is made up of 4 inter-related parts:

• Anthropology Schools of Thought 1) Physical Environment

1. Functionalism 2) Level of Technology

2. Structuralism 3) Social Organization

3. Culturalism 4) System of Symbols

Theories of Social Change

• Adaption to change or cultural change takes place through three methods:
1) Diffusion- one culture borrows cultural symbols from another
2) Acculturation- prolonged contact between two cultures where they interchange symbols, beliefs and
customs
3) Cultural Evolution- cultures evolve according to common patterns
Language Is Sound: Phonology
What is Phonology?
Phonology is the study of the patterns of sounds in a language and across languages. Put more formally,
phonology is the study of the categorical organization of speech sounds in languages; how speech sounds
are organized in the mind and used to convey meaning. In this section of the website, we will describe the
most common phonological processes and introduce the concepts of underlying representations for
sounds versus what is actually produced, the surface form.
Phonology can be related to many linguistic disciplines, including psycholinguistics, cognitive science,
sociolinguistics and language acquisition. Principles of phonology can also be applied to treatments of
speech pathologies and innovations in technology. In terms of speech recognition, systems can be
designed to translate spoken data into text. In this way, computers process the language like our brains do.
The same processes that occur in the mind of a human when producing and receiving language occur in
machines. One example of machines decoding language is the popular intelligence system, Siri.
Phonology vs. Phonetics – the key differences
Phonology is concerned with the abstract, whereas phonetics is concerned with the physical properties of
sounds. In phonetics we can see infinite realizations, for example every time you say a ‘p’ it will slightly
different than the other times you’ve said it. However, in phonology all productions are the same sound
within the language’s phoneme inventory, therefore even though every ‘p’ is produced slightly different
every time, the actual sound is the same. This highlights a key difference between phonetic and phonology
as even though no two ‘p’s are the same, they represent the same sound in the language.
Phonemes V. Allophones
Phonemes are the meaningfully different sound units in a language (the smallest units of sound). For
example, ‘pat’ and ‘bat’ differ in their first phoneme: the “p” and “b”. Vowels are also phonemes, so “pat”
and “pet” differ by a phoneme, too (But phonemes don’t always match up with spelling!). When two words
differ by a single phoneme they are known as a minimal pair.
Allophones are different ways to pronounce a phoneme based on its environment in a word. For example,
the two allophones of /l/ in “little” are actually produced slightly differently, and the second one sounds
slightly deeper. These different “l”s always occur in different environments in words, which is known as
“complementary distribution”.
Phonology looks at many different things…
 Why do related forms differ? Sane—Sanity. Electric—Electricity/ Atom—Atomic
 Phonology finds the systematic ways in which the forms differ and explains them
 What is stored in the mind?
 Phonology studies abstract mental entities, such as structures and processes. This
contrasts with phonetics, which deals with the actual production and acoustics of the sounds of
language.
 What sounds go together?
 Looks at what sounds/sound combinations are accepted and why.
 How are sounds organized into syllables?
 With the use of phonological trees syllables are broken up more easily. Syllables are
made up of a rhyme and an onset (any consonants before the rhyme). The rhyme made up of a
nucleus (the vowel sound(s) in the syllable, the key component of all syllables) and a coda (any
consonants following the nucleus).
 What are the differences between languages?
 For example, different languages can used different phonemes, or different syllable
structures (what sounds can go together to make sequences or words) and phonology identifies
these differences.
Speech
Speech, human communication through spoken language. Although many animals possess voices of
various types and inflectional capabilities, humans have learned to modulate their voices
by articulating the laryngeal tones into audible oral speech. Speech is the faculty of producing articulated
sounds, which, when blended together, form language.
Human speech is served by a bellows-like respiratory activator, which furnishes the driving energy in the
form of an airstream; a phonating sound generator in the larynx (low in the throat) to transform the
energy; a sound-molding resonator in the pharynx (higher in the throat), where the individual voice pattern
is shaped; and a speech-forming articulator in the oral cavity (mouth). Normally, but not necessarily, the
four structures function in close coordination. Audible speech without any voice is possible during
toneless whisper, and there can be phonation without oral articulation as in some aspects of yodeling that
depend on pharyngeal and laryngeal changes. Silent articulation without breath and voice may be used
for lipreading.
An early achievement in experimental phonetics at about the end of the 19th century was a description of
the differences between quiet breathing and phonic (speaking) respiration. An individual typically breathes
approximately 18 to 20 times per minute during rest and much more frequently during periods of
strenuous effort. Quiet respiration at rest as well as deep respiration during physical exertion are
characterized by symmetry and synchrony of inhalation (inspiration) and exhalation (expiration).
Inspiration and expiration are equally long, equally deep, and transport the same amount of air during the
same period of time, approximately half a litre (one pint) of air per breath at rest in most adults.
Recordings (made with a device called a pneumograph) of respiratory movements during rest depict a
curve in which peaks are followed by valleys in fairly regular alternation.
Phonic respiration is different; inhalation is much deeper than it is during rest and much more rapid. After
one takes this deep breath (one or two litres of air), phonic exhalation proceeds slowly and fairly regularly
for as long as the spoken utterance lasts. Trained speakers and singers are able to phonate on one breath
for at least 30 seconds, often for as much as 45 seconds, and exceptionally up to one minute. The period
during which one can hold a tone on one breath with moderate effort is called the maximum phonation
time; this potential depends on such factors as body physiology, state of health, age, body size, physical
training, and the competence of the laryngeal voice generator—that is, the ability of the glottis (the vocal
cords and the opening between them) to convert the moving energy of the breath stream into audible
sound. A marked reduction in phonation time is characteristic of all the laryngeal diseases and disorders
that weaken the precision of glottal closure, in which the cords (vocal folds) come close together, for
phonation.
Respiratory movements when one is awake and asleep, at rest and at work, silent and speaking are under
constant regulation by the nervous system. Specific respiratory centres within the brain stem regulate the
details of respiratory mechanics according to the body needs of the moment. Conversely, the impact
of emotions is heard immediately in the manner in which respiration drives the phonic generator; the timid
voice of fear, the barking voice of fury, the feeble monotony of melancholy, or the raucous vehemence
during agitation are examples. Conversely, many organic diseases of the nervous system or of the
breathing mechanism are projected in the sound of the sufferer’s voice. Some forms of nervous system
disease make the voice sound tremulous; the voice of the asthmatic sounds laboured and short winded;
certain types of disease affecting a part of the brain called the cerebellum cause respiration to be forced
and strained so that the voice becomes extremely low and grunting. Such observations have led to the
traditional practice of prescribing that vocal education begin with exercises in proper breathing.
The mechanism of phonic breathing involves three types of respiration: (1) predominantly pectoral
breathing (chiefly by elevation of the chest), (2) predominantly abdominal breathing (through marked
movements of the abdominal wall), (3) optimal combination of both (with widening of the lower chest).
The female uses upper chest respiration predominantly, the male relies primarily on abdominal breathing.
Many voice coaches stress the ideal of a mixture of pectoral (chest) and abdominal breathing for economy
of movement. Any exaggeration of one particular breathing habit is impractical and may damage the voice.
Brain functions
The question of what the brain does to make the mouth speak or the hand write is still incompletely
understood despite a rapidly growing number of studies by specialists in many sciences, including
neurology, psychology, psycholinguistics, neurophysiology, aphasiology, speech pathology, cybernetics,
and others. A basic understanding, however, has emerged from such study. In evolution, one of the oldest
structures in the brain is the so-called limbic system, which evolved as part of the olfactory (smell) sense.
It traverses both hemispheres in a front to back direction, connecting many vitally important brain centres
as if it were a basic mainline for the distribution of energy and information. The limbic system involves the
so-called reticular activating system (structures in the brain stem), which represents the chief brain
mechanism of arousal, such as from sleep or from rest to activity. In humans, all activities of thinking and
moving (as expressed by speaking or writing) require the guidance of the brain cortex. Moreover, in
humans the functional organization of the cortical regions of the brain is fundamentally distinct from that
of other species, resulting in high sensitivity and responsiveness toward harmonic frequencies and sounds
with pitch, which characterize human speech and music.
In contrast to animals, humans possess several language centres in the dominant brain hemisphere (on the
left side in a clearly right-handed person). It was previously thought that left-handers had their dominant
hemisphere on the right side, but recent findings tend to show that many left-handed persons have the
language centres more equally developed in both hemispheres or that the left side of the brain is indeed
dominant. The foot of the third frontal convolution of the brain cortex, called Broca’s area, is involved with
motor elaboration of all movements for expressive language. Its destruction through disease or injury
causes expressive aphasia, the inability to speak or write. The posterior third of the upper temporal
convolution represents Wernicke’s area of receptive speech comprehension. Damage to this area produces
receptive aphasia, the inability to understand what is spoken or written as if the patient had never known
that language.