Language: We Are What We Speak

Language
We Are What We
Speak
Carol Delaney
Anthropology and Language
 Language: has long been and remained a topic of anthropological inquiry

whose importance is hard to overstate.
 Any kind of anthropological research must take the question of language
very seriously.
 In context of our course: paying very close attention to language-in-use:
extremely productive way to understand how culture operates as a force
in your lives.
Edward Sapir:
The "real world" is to a large extent unconsciously built up on
the language habits of the group. […] The worlds in which
different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same
world with different labels attached. (p. 115)
 Just like for space and time: an idea which on the face of it is very
difficult to accept.
 Against the commonsensical ways we think about language: the
“Adamic” view of language.
 We simply assume that language merely reflects the world.

Language, in that view, presumes a kind of transparency or direct
connection between the world and things. […] In this "Adamic"
view of language, names or words are like labels hung onto
things. (p. 116)
 Words refer to things, all we need to do is point to something
and we will get the name for it.
 We assume this because we think that this is how babies learn
language, but as anyone who has tried to learn a new
language must be aware, learning a language is far more
complicated than learning the names of things.
 Another way to put it:
We think of language as a transparent/neutral medium or tool
for description of the world and communication of
information about the world, and we assume it can do this job
because there is a stable relation between language and
reality.
 We hold this picture of language even though it goes against
experiences which are ordinary to us:
1- You might have had the experience that not everything can
be said in every language.
 Lebanese English “your blood is heavy”; “you bury me”; others?
 Russian has a single word for happiness and luck, suggesting that
happiness is more a matter of good fortune than something you
can struggle to obtain.
=> So: if language simply reflected reality, there shouldn't be
these difficulties in translation.
=> Important for anthropologists because in a way cultures are
languages that we try to translate to our own
2- We use language in ways in which it is difficult to say that they are
about conveying information about the world:
+ I drop something, "shit!"
+ “yel’an abuk”
+ "I love you"
=> So: even simple examples like that: show you that the picture of
language we have: grossly inadequate.
 Delaney wants to show more: the real world is built up on the

language habits of the group: language constitutes reality.
 So how does the chapter demonstrate that?
I. language as a symbolical system (theories of language)
II. language as a form of doing (language-in-use)
I. Language as a Symbolical System
 Ferdinand de Saussure: a theory of how language works to

produce meaning.
 A symbol: a kind of sign in which there is no necessary relation
between the sign and what it stands for
Ex : black symbol of mourning; societies in which white is symbol of
mourning.
 Saussure’s Theory:
1- A linguistic sign: a relation between a material form (sound, image) and a

concept. "Cat": a relation between series of sounds and what you have in
mind when I say cat (the concept of cat; not a cat in particular).
=> Important: language that which allows us to have the concepts of things (e.g.
"beauty", or "hope")
2- No necessary connection between a sound and the concept signified
(different languages have different words for same concepts)
3- Meaning of a particular sign does not exist by itself but emerges only in
relation to all the other signs, not the external world.
Þ "the cat is on the mat": I pronounce this sentence, it has meaning, you
understand, perhaps you see something in your mind.
Þ This sentence has meaning because its meaning emerges on the background
of other things I could have said: the rat is on the mat; or the bat is on the
mat; or the dog is on the mat etc.
4- No sign makes sense on its own but only in relation to other signs. A
relation of difference and opposition. The meaning of what we use is partly
given by what we do not use
Ex: appetizing, tasty, delicious, juicy, luscious, succulent
 Theories of language are complicated, but for our purposes, the

main points are as follows:
1. Language is a symbolic system
2. There is no transparent relationship between words and things
3. Meaning is not the same as reference
4. The system is relatively arbitrary
Language and Culture
 We assume that everyone sees the same things, and that perception is, itself,
the apparatus that permits us to see. Yet, we see what we are trained to see,
what we are socialized to see.
=> Each of us is born with a particular culture and language, and into a particular
family, gender, class, ethnic group, and religion. These conditions that we are born into
guide our experience in this world: they tell us what is there, what to look for, how to
look for it, how to feel about it, what to think about it—in short what it means (from a
very very young age).
 Language (and culture) is what mediates between us and the world or

“reality”; in other words, perception is not direct but always mediated.
=> Concrete example: Boas: Inuit Indians having different words for color of snow in
their language.
 Different languages involve different conceptual differences.
=> Since language does not give us access to things but to the concepts of things,
people living in different languages will also be living in different conceptual universes.
(Living in different languages, we are suspended in different webs of signification.)
 Benjamin Lee Whorf:

 Like anthropologists who study other cultures before turning to their own, Whorf felt
that the best approach to the study of language is through an exotic one. So, he went
on to study Native American languages, particularly Hopi.
 Whorf's work on Hopi language: here at the level of grammatical structures:
1. you cannot say "10 days" in Hopi (days not something that can be counted) => on the
eleventh day
2. tense system (not past-present-future) => summer or morning are not nouns but
something like adverbs: in the morning phase.
 So: language as a symbolical system mediates our relation to reality and contributes to
shaping reality. Hence: when we live in different languages we live in different worlds.
“Language is what enables the creation of a world to live in, that is a culture” (p. 129)
 But also: language contributes to shaping the world we live in in another way:
Metaphors represent a comparison, usually linguistic, that suggests how two things that
are not alike in most ways are similar in another.
For example, we often link passion (affection and hatred) with temperature, as in affection is
warm and hatred is cold.
 Metaphor: the implicit "argument is war" metaphor. (Implicit in ways of

speaking like "winning or losing an argument").
Imagine a culture where arguments are done while dancing.
 In this case, as in many others, the metaphors are not some cover-up or "fancy
dress" but constitute reality for us. (p. 129)
 British anthropologist Edmund Leach analyzed the metaphoric construction of

terms of abuse (or cursing):
 Why he asks should expressions like “you son of a bitch”, or “you swine” carry
the connotations that they do, when “you son of a kangaroo” or “you polar
bear” have no meaning whatsoever?!
 What is the relation between animal categories and terms of abuse (and for
that matter names of genital organs)?
 Complicated, but simply: British classification of animals, in terms of distance

from oneself, is homologous with a classification of both living environments
and kinship relationships. (4 categories of kin and of animals)
 Terms of abuse derive from animals that are closest to us, so do some terms of
endearment (lamb) or names for the unmentionable parts of the human
anatomy.
More metaphors: sexual metaphors:

 Procreation: seed-soil theory: “the man begets a son” and “the woman
bears a son”
=> man plants the seed in the woman who nurtures it and who is otherwise a barren soil.
=> Man, as creative, engendering, identity-giving (he begets) and woman as supportive, not
a co-creator (she bears). The child, in essence, is the seed.
 Index: social roles and assumptions about femininity and masculinity
(passivity vs. activity)
=> DNA shows it is half woman half man, not only that, but woman does all the work!
II. Language in Use
 Discusses the way class, race and gender are indexed, which is closely
related to the ways power and dominance are enacted linguistically.
 Language and gender
 One of the first linguistic issues concerning gender has to do with
pronouns.
 Use of “he” to stand for both “he” and “she” and the way that the generic
“man” is intended to stand both for “men” and “women”.
 Languages that don’t have gendered pronouns, how does subjectivity differ?
II. Language in Use
 Sensitive to whether inclusive the language is: recent writing in anthropology (using
“she”)
 Along with the discussion of pronouns: marital status of women is linguistically
indicated, as opposed to that of a man (Miss vs. Mrs. term of address (a "miss" is
incomplete, whereas absent in the case of "Mr.")
 Gendered talk: girls are socialized to talk differently than men. Female talk is full of:
1. Hedges (I kind of want to go)
2. Qualifiers (that was so very, very kind of you)
3. Distinction phrases (oh dear, I dropped the house key!)
4. Tag questions (that looks okay, doesn’t it?)
II. Language in Use
"Gendered language […] creates images in the mind that are difficult to
supplant. They affect the way we imagine things to be, and that affects the
way we respond." (p. 135)
II. Language in Use
 Language and power/identity

Ex: as an anthropologist, my speech “indexes” my social class, education
level, gender, emotional state, relation to my interlocutor, etc...: it makes
them elements of the context of interaction. (grammar I use, terms I say; in
Lebanon: speaking English and French)
Ex: African Americans: double negative => a way of defying linguistic norms
and creating a “negative” identity, and they perpetuate it to confirm their
loyalty/belonging to the group
II. Language in Use
 People are judged by the way they speak, and the judgments determine
how others will respond, if at all. (140)
Ex: cursing in the demonstrations => what does it say about the people? Do
these people have any other means to express their anger? Sophisticated
terms or phrases?
Language, is clearly, about much more than communication.
It is important to become more aware of the way the language
you use conditions what you think and what you perceive.
Another aspect of language, to which you should pay attention
to, concerns how people use language to influence others and
achieve power. (p.141-142)

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Language

 Language: has long been and remained a topic of anthropological inquiry

 We simply assume that language merely reflects the world.

 Delaney wants to show more: the real world is built up on the

 Ferdinand de Saussure: a theory of how language works to

1- A linguistic sign: a relation between a material form (sound, image) and a

 Theories of language are complicated, but for our purposes, the

 Language (and culture) is what mediates between us and the world or

 Benjamin Lee Whorf:

 Metaphor: the implicit "argument is war" metaphor. (Implicit in ways of

 British anthropologist Edmund Leach analyzed the metaphoric construction of

 Complicated, but simply: British classification of animals, in terms of distance

More metaphors: sexual metaphors:

 Language and power/identity

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