Welcome

Study Guide – Anthropology 104

NOTE: This is just a guide! Any material covered in class, class discussion, videos, or in readings and home work could be incorporated in the Midterm or Final. This is not a complete summary of all you will need to know in this course. 

Chapter One: What is anthropology? What are the subfields of anthropology? In what way is anthropology holistic, comparative, field work based? What is a frame of reference? What is ethnocentrism? Cultural relativism? Who was one of the most influential founders of American Anthropology? What ethical concerns do anthropologists have? What is theoretical linguistics? How does linguistic anthropology differ from theoretical linguistics? Why are anthropologists interested in language? 

Chapter Two: Why do the Inuit have so many words for seals, ice and snow? What is ethnosemantics? Cognitive anthropology? Ethnoscience? What is a semantic domain? What is “the new ethnography?” What is linguistic relativity? What is linguistic determinism? What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis? What is a “mental map”? What are anthropologists interested in areas of linguistic emphasis? What does the Hanunoo color system tell us about the Hanunoo? Does language affect the way we respond to the material world?

Chapter Three: What is phonology? Phonetics? Phonemics? What are the differences between acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics, articulatory phonetics and descriptive phonetics? What is voicing? Based on the place of articulation, what are the various ways consonants can be articulated? What are the various manners in which consonants can be articulated? What information do we need to know how a consonant is made or sounds? What information do we need to know how a vowel is formed? What is “rounding”. What is tongue height, tongue place? What are phonenes? What are allophones? What is “complementary distribution”? What does IPA stand for? What is the point of the IPA? What is a minimal pair. 

Chapter Four: What is morphology? What is syntax? What is a morpheme? What is a word? What is a base? What is a root? Stem? Affix? What is a hierarchy in terms of affixes? How are new words created? What is inflection? What is derivation? What are transformational rules, what is generative grammar? What is prescriptive grammar? What is descriptive grammar? What are substitution frames? What are free morphemes? What are bound morphemes? What as an SOV language? Is English an SVO language? What is deep structure and what is surface structure? Who is Noam Chomsky?

Chapter Five: Why is context important in the study of language? What is the Ethnography of Speaking? Who was Bronislaw Malinowski? Who was Dell Hymes? What is communicative competence? What is linguistic competence? What is a speech community? What is a linguistic community? What is a community of practice? To what do the various letters of Dell Hymes’ mnemonic – S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G refer? What is a dialect? Why is it difficult to define a dialect? What is a register? What is a “rich point?” How can gender or ethnicity affect one’s language use? How does language communicate identity? What does M-A-R stand for? 

Chapter Six: What is Proxemics? What is personal space? How does it vary from group to group? What percentage of communication is non-verbal? What is Kinesics? Can silence be a part of language? What are emblems, adapters, illustrators, regulators and affect displays? What are primes? Why shouldn’t American Sign Language be called non-verbal? Can anthropologists study the use of American Sign Language the way they study spoken language use? Can smell and taste be a part of communication? 

Chapter Seven: What is writing? How old are complete writing systems? What is Logographic Writing, syllabic writing, logosyllabic writing, and alphabetic writing? How can reading and writing be at the heart of a crisis in education? How does that relate to social equality?

Chapter Eight: (also recall notes from class lectures on language acquisition). What are the design features of Arbitrariness, Displacement, and Productivity? How do children acquire language? What is Broca’s Area of the brain? What is Wernicke’s Area? 

Chapter Nine: What are the various causes of language change? What is a dialect? What is a language? What is the origin of most European languages? How are new words developed (lecture)? What is a Pidgin? What is a Creole? Why did the Oakland School District want to teach in Ebonics? Why did that upset people? What is codeswitching? What was the Great Vowel Shift? 

Chapter Ten: What is an endangered language? What is language extinction? What are marked forms, and unmarked forms? How can there be bias in grammar? In what ways can language be sexist or racist? Can language be sexist even if there are no negative words concerning women? Do anthropologists have many opportunities to study language and language use in their daily lives?

Don’t forget the readings in the work book, as well!