ANT 254, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS
Instructor: Dr. Tim Wallace
Homework Assignment No. 4
Instructions: Turn in the answers to each assignment questions by the due date. If one word is sufficient to answer the question, then that will be enough. However, if the question asks for your opinion, please answer in a narrative style in complete sentences. Please note that the assignment answers should be emailed to me directly: tmwallace@mindspring.com. Please paste the answers into the email message itself rather then sending them as attachments.
(Revised January 2008.)This assignment covers topics dealing with writing and with sociolinguistics, i.e., dialects. The first three questions are on writing, then one on kinesics and paralinguistics, and then there are some more questions on dialects. Make sure you turn in twelve answers!
Start by reading the following essays about writing, (and also take a look at what Salzmann says about writing).
1. Please read first the Susan Grice article. You can reach it through this link, Grice: Sequoyah's Syllabary. After you have read uit, including the additional information at the end of the article that I wrote, please, in your own words, discuss the difference between a word-writing system, a syllabic system and an alphabetic system. Describe the reasons why Sequoyah decided to use a syllabic system for Cherokee and explain how it worked?
2. Go to the following website: http://greatscott.com/hiero/ Read the various sections until you can answer the questions that follow. This is a site that gives some examples of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Read through the pages about Egyptian writing, and try to understand how it works. What is the "rebus principle" of writing? How would you describe the Egyptian writing system? Is it more like a word-writing (logographic) system, a syllabic system or an alphabetic system? How does it work? How does the direction of writing vary?
3. What is the difference between our written English alphabet and a phonetic alphabet of the English language? What are the advantages or disadvantages of a phonetic alphabet? of our current written alphabet?
4. Define kinesics, proxemics and paralinguistics. (See Salzmann's chapter on this, too.) Give an example of each from your own personal habits.
.5. What is a dialect? What is a regional or geographic dialect? How many are there in the United States, if any? Finally, about how many people speak dialects in the USA?
6. Following Carver, where is Southern spoken and what are its distinguishing characteristics? Why is this dialect older than Northern American English? Why do you think that the Southern forms continue to flourish after so long? Why is it that the Northern dialect has been changing more rapidly than the Southern dialects?
7. What do you think is going to happen to Appalachian dialects (See Tony Earley, The Quare Gene.)
8. What is the history of the Spanish language in the New World? What new information about Spanish in the USA have you learned from reading Craddock? What percentage of the geography of the USA was heavily influenced by Spanish language inhabitants prior to their annexation into the US, and if you were a teacher of a mixed ethnic classroom with Hispanics, African Americans and European Americans (i.e, Whites) in it how would your teaching be affected after reading this article? From your personal experience, if you are familiar with any examples of "code-shifting" among Hispanics, please describe some of those situations.
9. What is a pidgin language? (See Robert A. Hall.) How is it different from a Creole? Where are Gullah speakers located? Cajun speakers? Using tidbits from the films you may have seen or from course readings, try to imagine how "Black English" may have originated from a pidgin. (See also Salzmann, chapter 8.)
10. Define diglossia and give some examples of it. (See Eastman's article and look in Salzmann also.)
11. Cite some grammatical characteristics of Black English (see handout and Spears in Wallace) that differentiate it from "Standard American English". From reading Spears try to explain why and how Black Vernacular English ("Black English") differs from Standard Black English? What do you think are the pros and cons of using something like "Ebonics" for assisting teachers in public schools where there are many "Ebonic"-speaking students? Should children in Oakland County, California be taught using Ebonics?
12. "Style-shifting" is a very common phenomenon. It refers to a circumstance in which one changes from one variety or forms a speaking to another, depending on context. For example, when I referee a soccer match, I would speak differently to the players and coaches than when I am speaking to colleagues at an anthropology conference. During a match, I might have to use terms specific to the setting: "direct kick," "goal kick," "yellow card, " etc., and I must be brief, polite and firm in what I say. During an anthropology lecture, I may be formal rather than polite, and long-winded rather than brief. Sometimes when I referee a match, I meet a present or former student or colleague and we engage in a conversation that mixes soccer and anthropology topics. If another referee not familiar with anthropology comes up to us I would probably switch back to the "soccer style" of conversation. When s/he leaves, I would probably go back to the "anthropology style." In so doing I have engaged in style shifting. A preacher does this when s/he tells a joke during a sermon. Give three personal examples in which you yourself have engaged in "style-shifting."