Homework - Reading Questions for Everett, Parts II and III

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Anthropology

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Dec 6, 2023

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Anth 3 – Culture and Language Professor Claire Cesareo Homework: Reading Questions - Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes , Parts II and III Please answer these questions based on your reading and submit. 1. The Pirahã language is one of the languages which uses very few phonemes (sounds)? Why do they only need these few sounds, according to Everett, and how does this demonstrate the impact of language on culture and not the reverse? 2. How does Pirahã use different channels of communication (tone and pitch, for example) more extensively than languages such as English? 3. What is Pirahã whistle speech? Why is it only used by men? 4. Pirahã lacks grammatical numbers, as was mentioned in Part I. How does Everett connect this to the cultural value of the immediacy of experience among the Pirahã? 5. Everett states that while Pirahã nouns are simple, their verbs are complicated. How is this so? What are evidentials? 6. Why don’t the Pirahã talk about things outside their experience, and how does this impact their language? 1

7. What is the significance of Everett’s story about how he tried to learn left from right? What is the difference between endocentric and exocentric orientation? 8. What is recursion, and why is it surprising that it does not exist in the Pirahã language? 9. Why is the Pirahã language a challenge to the Chomskyian notion of “universal grammar”? 10. What is the immediacy of experience principle (IEP), and how does it explain much of what Everett found to be the uniqueness of Pirahã language? How does Everett see this as a positive rather than negative explanation? 11. The Pirahã, like other cultures we studied, lack any form of “baby talk.” Why does Everett think this is the case? 2

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Homework - Reading Questions for Everett, Parts II and III

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