Creating Meaning: Linguistic Anthropology & Morphology

Just as culture is learned so is language.  Language learning occurs through one’s lifetime.  The first words uttered demonstrate the beginning of our mastery of a language, and we continue to learn not only words but how to modify, change, and adapt them to communicate specific and complex meanings.  By this I mean that a word in and of itself can often have limited meaning.  For example, the word “food” can conjure up a variety of different meanings, from specific types of food to emotional connections we may have with food generally or specific types of food.  We can, however, move beyond just the word “food”, which is a noun, to other words or modifications of the word itself to provide additional meaning.  For example, by adding an s to the word food it becomes plural, referring to more than one type of food (e.g., the foods of the world versus the food on the plate).  We can also refer to the act of eating food by slightly modifying food to feed, a verb.  Feed, however, can also be a noun if we are referencing a type of food (e.g., chicken feed, or chicken food).  These complexities of language are nuanced and unique to every language and can sometimes be culturally specific, which brings us to today’s topic: morphology. This blog post will discuss what morphology is and how the study of the morphological aspects of a language provides us insights into culture.

 

Morphology is defined as the structure and formation of words.  Word structure comes from the sounds present within a language, which when strung together create specific words.  The subtleties of sounds can distinguish the word and its meaning, e.g., bath (a place to bathe or wash up) versus path (a trail or track one moves along).  While sounds help create a word the subtle changes to those words, such as in tense (past versus present versus future; singular versus plural), descriptor words (e.g., adjectives or adverbs, which are attached to verbs or adjectives), and gendered (or gender neutral) language, is where morphology is concerned. 

 

Each language has specific rules that are followed in order to create and provide sensical communication.  These rules are learned through those around you, as well as can be learned formally through education and/or instruction.  Typically, one often first picks up the word structure first from family and peers, creating a cadence to the way someone speaks that someone can pick up on from listening to multiple speakers and might adopt themselves over time.  Further reinforcement or acquisition of the rules of language can also be learned formally, which several of you may recall from your grammar lessons in school.

 

Ultimately, though, these rules provide speakers ways of communicating effectively, but they also reflect cultural values.  We can see this with the use of pronouns.  In English there is a singular and plural you, but ultimately, we do not know which is being used unless there are additional words used alongside the you since you can be singular or plural.  For example, Pink Floyd’s song “Hey You” suggests a singular you based on the lyrics, but the ambiguity of the use of “you” in the lyrics makes it applicable to more than one individual, including a group of individuals.  In another Pink Floyd song, “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”, it is clearer that the singular you is being used with the lyric, “You! Yes, you behind the bike sheds, stand still laddy!” by qualifying with the singular “laddy” (British term for boy).  In other languages, such as French or Spanish, there are distinctions between the singular and plural you.  You may have learned both if you are native speaker of either language or if you learned either later, although you may not have learned both if the teacher felt that one, often the formal plural you, was unimportant.  In Awin, a language spoken in Papua New Guinea, there is a singular you, a you referring to two individuals, and a you for three or more individuals.  These distinctions in pronouns and the breadth of pronouns available demonstrate cultural values as recognizing individuals versus groups is distinguished.  This is also conveyed in the singular they post, which addresses how gender neutrality allows for acknowledgement of individuals who identify outside of the gender binary but also allows for greater versatility in meaning when communicating about individuals or groups of individuals, particularly if and when gender identity is unknown.

Reference

Welsch, Robert Louis, and Luis Antonio Vivanco. Cultural Anthropology: Asking Questions about Humanity. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.