Anthropological

• Anthropological linguistics is concerned with the place of language in its wider social and cultural context
• It focuses on the role of language in forging and sustaining cultural practices and social structures
• Anthropological linguistics overlaps with sociolinguistics, but views language through the prism of the core anthropological concept, culture
• Sociolinguistics views language as a social institution within which individuals and groups carry out social interaction
• Anthropological linguistics seeks to uncover the meaning behind the use, misuse, or non-use of language, its different forms, registers, and styles
• Sociolinguistics seeks to discover how linguistic behavior patterns correlate with social groupings and differences in linguistic behavior with variables defining social groups such as age, sex, class, race, etc.
• An anthropological linguistic approach peels away at language to find cultural understandings
• Sociolinguistics notes correlations between pronunciation variations and social groupings, while anthropological linguistics delves into the meaning behind these variations
• For example, the pronunciation of the progressive/gerundive ending can be correlated with social variables like maleness and working class, indicating a strong masculine self-identity
• In a Yimas village in Papua New Guinea, the choice between Yimas vernacular and Tok Pisin is tied to traditional village life versus the modern world and wider national identity
• Silence among the Cibecue Apache signifies unpredictability and potential danger in social interactions, reflecting the cultural value of predictability in social roles