Define language and show how it can help shape our social reality
What will be an ideal response?
Language is a set of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people
to think and communicate with one another. Verbal (spoken) language
and nonverbal (written or gestured) language helps us describe reality.
One of our most important human attributes is the ability to use language
to share our experiences, feelings, and knowledge with others. Language
can create visual images in our heads. Language also allows people to
distinguish themselves from outsiders and to maintain group boundaries
and solidarity. Anthropological linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin
Whorf have suggested that language not only expresses our thoughts and
perceptions, but also influences our perception of reality. According to the
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language shapes the view of reality of its
speakers.
If people are able to think only through language, then language must precede thought. For
example, the Eskimo language has more than twenty words associated with snow, making
it possible for people to make subtle distinctions regarding different types of snowfalls.
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According to the author, __________ is a set of informal rules governing interpersonal public behavior including violence
a. the code of the streets b. street culture c. a gang code d. the moral code
Psychological identification with a group is not an important part of what makes ethnicity real to people
Indicate whether this statement is true or false.
Endogamy refers to the notion that certain groups marry within that same group
Indicate whether the statement is true or false
The use of devices or procedures to prevent pregnancy is called
A. contraception. B. insemination. C. circumcision. D. none of these.