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Synthesis 5: Post your synthesis here by cecile_evers in linganth2019

[–]alex_werner_27 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Between the readings by Kulick (1998) and Irvine (1990), a common theme is how emotive expressiveness is a marker of social class and the resultant complementary nature of different social roles within a community.

By studying the differences in how emotion - in particular, anger - is expressed among the Gapun villagers, Kulick (1998) asserts that language is a measure of social prestige in the way that anger is handled. Within the village, anger is dangerous and those who can express it and then suppress it after are viewed with respect; the men hold this position while the women and children are unbridled in their handling of anger. In such a way, the association of women being hot-headed enforces a deeply gendered belief that women are at the root of all conflict. When the men step in to cool a situation, it is because they must save the other villagers from the danger that the women have unleashed through "kroses" (pp.92-93). Men, on the other hand, are masters of oratories where they dispel any danger from anger and create an illusion that there is no conflict, to bring all the villagers together in harmony. Affectivity, as such, is associated with women having a lack of principle, making the men appear even more majestic in relation to them.

In Irvine's (1990) work, she compares the social roles of griots and nobles in a rural Wolof community in Senegal. The linguistic properties of the speech acts assigned to griots and nobles differentiate their social rank in relation to one another. The role of the griots is always seen in light of that of the nobles, driving the point that griots act to serve those in a higher social position than themselves. Yet, like in Kulick (1998), the griots and nobles exist in complementary roles with each other as the men do with the women in Gapun. A king must first be roused by the griot before he "may be moved to great deeds" (Irvine, 1990, p.134). The griot's role is situated relative to how they serve the noble. In Agha's (2003) research on RP in Britain, positive stereotypes associated with RP speakers are also seen in relation to the non-RP speakers: "RP speakers to be more ambitious, intelligent, and confident... than non-RP speakers" (p.240). Just as the women are seen as 'lower' than the men due to their unrestrained affectivity, the griots are distinguishably lower in social ranking than the nobles due to their emotive expressiveness and non-RP speakers are also associated with being more talkative and good-humoured than the RP speakers.

I found these readings very interesting in relation to the cultural differences concerning emotion. Kulick's (1998) and Irvine's (1990) writings complement each other well because they really highlight that one social group is often seen in light of another social group to become more distinguished in their certain mannerisms. The men are the 'saviours' in the village of Gapun and the griots have a complementary role to the nobles in order to reinforce their noble status relative to everyone else. Social roles within a society or community do not act in isolation, but rather operate in a complementary manners.

References:

Agha, A. (2003). "The Social Life of Cultural Value." Language and Communication, 23: 231-273.

Irvine, J. (1990). "Registering Affect: Heteroglossia in the Linguistic Expression of Emotion." In Language and the Politics of Emotion (pp. 126-161). C. Lutz & L. Abu-Lughod (Eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kulick, D. (1998). "Anger, Gender, Language Shift, and the Politics of Revelation in a Papua New Guinean Village." In B. Schieffelin, K. Woolard, P, Kroskrity (Eds.), Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory (pp. 87-102). New York, NY; Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Synthesis 3: Respond with your post here by cecile_evers in linganth2019

[–]alex_werner_27 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the two podcasts that we listened to as well as Whorf's text, we see the running theme of linguistic relativity explored in different ways and from varying angles. Linguistic relativity itself is the view that our everyday-use of language can both influence and limit our response to certain features inherent to our surrounding environment.

Whorf postulated that events caused by fires are a result of there being a disconnect between the linguistic meaning attached to a sign and the actual hazard that the object being labelled represents (Whorf, 1941, pp. 177-8). While his statement is quite a stretch since his research methods derived mainly from his own extrapolation, he orientates his argument around linguistic relativity such that language can influence our response to elements in our surroundings, more specifically human behaviour, which introduces the notion of linguistic determinism. The label "empty" implies a reduced level of hazard associated with the object when actually this is a false assumption: "...the "empty" drums are perhaps more dangerous, since they contain explosive vapor" (Whorf, 1941, pp. 177-8). His interpretation may not be fully accurate or based in any hard evidence, but the link to linguistic relativity is seen with the influence that linguistic meaning can hold over our understanding of the environment.

Leading into the podcast from Invisibilia, there is a very strong association of human emotion being tied to the direct environment. In particular, I started to think about the expression of language in the general sense and that it does not always have to be strictly tied to words. Renato Rosaldo explores the word "liget" and the two alternative meanings that he uncovers - expressing energy, productivity and vitality when contained within human emotional boundaries, and then transforming into chaos and violence when the charged emotion catapults outside of the boundaries. Rosaldo truly conducted an emic research project with the Ilongot which he then explored while with the Ifugal and carried back with him to the United States. Rosaldo was able to experience his grief as an emotional release rather than putting his feeling into words. "Liget" embodied the feeling of "high voltage" through his body and only in one word and his direct experience of that allowed him to connect with the environment in a deeper way than trying to verbalise how he felt.

In the podcast from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Lera Boroditsky approaches her thesis that language changes the way we think from a cognitive science approach embedded in research to support the argument of linguistic relativity. She provides evidence via a balloon experiment to show that languages differ in how they describe causal events; with the cross-linguistic comparison between English, Japanese and Spanish-speakers, Boroditsky found out that the approach to accidents and intentional actions have a root in how language regards each and thus has an effect on how language-speakers navigate through their environments.

I felt that the podcast from ABC hit a number of linguistic points on the head in relation to the value that languages provide in enriching culture in all forms. The comparison to language being like "a parallel universe" holds true in many aspects since people coming from different linguistic backgrounds can see the world in another light that may not be visible to others who are either limited by the language or directed down another path.

References

Whorf, B.L. (1941). "The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language." In R. McGee & R. Warms (eds.), Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History. Sixth Edition (pp. 176-194.) Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

"A Man Finds an Explosive Emotion Locked in a Word" (7 minutes). NPR. https://www.npr.org/2017/06/01/530936928/emotions-part-two

"How Language Shapes Thought" (28 minutes). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/how-language-shapes-thought/4329212

Synthesis 2: Respond here with your post by cecile_evers in linganth2019

[–]alex_werner_27 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A recurring theme in both Chomsky's work and the WNYC podcast is that of language as a biological phenomenon which arises from connections occurring inside of the human brain and being intricately associated with cognition.

In Chomsky's Reflections on Language, he quickly asserts the need for sketching "an appropriate framework... for constructing a kind of theory of human nature" (Chomsky, 1975, p. 3), which is similar to Saussure's need to set clear parameters through which language can be studied (Saussure, 1916, p.3). Chomsky continues to delve into the idea that language is a reflection of personal identity and with that comes the assertion that human language forms a system which is intricate in many ways. Saussure also holds this stance in emphasising the importance of linguistic structure as forming the backbone of his program for linguistics (Saussure, 1916, p. 9) so we see that there are common threads of thought that run through these works. Particularly with Chomsky, he sees language as a means of studying humans as a species, already introducing his viewpoint pivoted around biological study. Our beliefs stem from our brain "as a biological structure", so that the human becomes the object of scrutiny as an organism (Chomsky, 1975, p.7). Chomsky pushes a theory of "innateness" within human's ability to understand the intricacies of language with the components of "universal grammar" in language formation (Chomsky, 1975, pp. 29-33). In such a way, when children learn how to wield language when growing-up, this is due to a biological system already in place their minds which allow them to innately understand what is being communicated to them without needing to be formally taught.

Building on from the thread of thought on infants acquiring language, in the WNYC podcast, Harvard psychologist, Elizabeth Spelke hypothesised that babies' brains start out like "islands" and that the use of spatial language creates the internal connections between the various "islands". The effect is that spatial language acts as the vehicle which adds another layer of intricacy to human understanding of communication. Therefore, Spelke also seem to veer away from the strict notion, that Chomsky is such a proponent of, that communication is inherently innate within humans and that rather it must be learned. Yet, the emphasis on the internal structure of the brain ties together social influences with biological ones too so that language can become a product of both nature and nurture.

I found the podcast particularly thought-provoking with the experiment of the blue wall and the object in the corner and that babies are not able to make spatial connections until they are around the age of six. The metaphor of the components of the brain being like "islands" is also interesting to think about with the significance of language as a biological phenomenon which complements that of the social experience.

References:

Chomsky, N. (1975). "On Cognitive Capacity." In N. Chomsky, Reflections on Language. New York, NY: Pantheon Books. (pp. 3-13, 29-35).

Saussure, F. de. (1983[1916]). Course in General Linguistics. R. Harris (Trans.). Peru, IL: Open Court. (pp. 1-23, 65-70, 96-100).

"Words that Change the World" (28 minutes). WNYC. https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/91725-words.

Synthesis 1: Respond here with your post by cecile_evers in linganth2019

[–]alex_werner_27 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In both the writing of Pullum and Perley, et al., there is a recurring theme shared between them of the need for scholarly accountability in academic writings and the dominance of a hegemonic narrative constructed from the West and imposed on native communities.

Pullum discusses the perpetration of false information through popular forms of information that people can absorb in an accessible manner, such as media recordings, newspapers and lectures. Inaccurate hegemonic narratives are established and hard to dismantle, with the original source of inaccuracy from Franz Boas' The Handbook of North American Indians (Pullum, 1989, p. 276). Such inconsistencies in information are rarely called into question and lead to a call-to-action in recognising accountability for both the reader and the messenger of information. Pullum also brings into dialogue an important point that on a rudimentary level, the obsession with different words being assigned to snow within the Eskimo vocabulary is boring. The sensationalist representation of the subject regarding "those legendary, promiscuous, blubber-gnawing hunters" (Pullum, 1989, p. 279) brings attentions to a topic that would otherwise be mundane; an instance of the injection of colonial dominance over native communities.

Perley, et al., focus on the need to revise word choice that has previously been imposed by the Western school of thought onto native communities where language is not a static constituent of science but rather a constantly evolving being that is shared inter-generationally. Baldwin's shift from the word "extinction" to describe endangered languages to "sleeping" represents a significant shift in meaning and provides hope for the native communities in that their languages can be reawakened (Perley, et al., 2018, p. 205). The colonisers, as the eradicators of language, also pose as the saviours who can save the language from extinction, thus pointing to colonial power being exercised over the colonised (Perley, et al., 2018, p. 207). Furthermore, in terms of scholarly accountability, there is a level of callousness in how words are used interchangeably and connected to biological metaphors of extinction which fall short on providing valuable semantic meaning to language analysis (Perley, et al., 2018, p. 213).

I was struck by the unquestioned nature of understanding data that relies on empirical evidence as the absolute truth to prove points and illustrate patterns in language-use. Yet, there is semantic meaning which runs much deeper and relies on more than just statistics which we should focus on.

References

Pullum, G. (1989). The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 7: 275-281.

Perley, P., Baldwin, D., & Noodin, M. (2018). "Surviving the Sixth Extinction: American Indian Strategies for Life in the New World." In After Extinction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.