Anthropology Movie Notes
02/19/2009
Discovering the Human Language:
What allows us to have language? Is there an underlying thread that is the same between all languages?
Language is what differentiates us from other species.
Linguists: How we use language, and how it functions in the mind?
There are rules that are unconsciously known in language.
	languages are systematic that there are rules
Noam Chomsky - you are asking the wrong questions. what is a possible human language? there is some rule in your head that you use to make sounds.
	Went from defining human language to finding the potential of creating new language
You can still understand sentences that have never been said before; so there must be some sort of pattern or system of understanding language
	The system starts with words: the smallest seperate piece of a language that all by itself it will have a meaning
		But within words there are smaller units that have meaning as well
	There isn't spacing in speech, how does the brain separate words?
	Words are representations of concepts...
	As the length of what you're saying increases the possibility of the things you can say exponentially increases
	There is no longest sentence, so the possibilities are infinite
	The system is strict but you still have a lot of freedom to create sentences
How did sound and meaning get linked together? Grammar and syntax.
	Grammar organizes words
	The form of the sentence is independent of its meaning - puzzle of syntax
	"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" - form doesn't imply proper meaning
		this sentence is in the correct form, but it means nothing
There is a universal grammar, there is a basic set of words that are the same in every language
language is arbitrary it's random it's abstract

Chimp Talk
Humans are not the only animals that can understand language.
Kanzi the chimpanzee

02/26/2009
Tradtional Kung Life
most food of the kung was gathered and women did the gathering
kung territories had no boundaries, attempted to eat all sorts of plants
when they could no longer eat, they would move