University of Makati

College of Education
Advanced Foundations of Education
Language and Writing
What is Language?

Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary

: the system of words or signs that people use to express thoughts and feelings to each other
: any one of the systems of human language that are used and understood by a particular group of
people
: words of a particular kind

Oxford Dictionary:
[MASS NOUN] The method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the
use of words in a structured and conventional way: a study of the way children learn language[AS
MODIFIER]: language development

"Language is a set of sounds with a particular meaning attached to each sound" (Horton and Hunt,
1980)

A body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are the same community
or nation. "Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas,
emotions and drives by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols" (Santico and Panopio)

Language is not only a collection of sounds and utterances; it involves a set of rules regarding
pronunciation, grammar and semantics used in speech.

A language whether primitive, pre-literate or modern-should possess grammar, syntax, phonetics,

vocabulary, among other things.

The Structure of Language

• Phoneme: basic speech sounds
– Fundamental sound units or vibration.
– Considered as building blocks of language.
• Morphemes: smallest unit of language that contains meaning
– Structurally combined words that have meaning through each word possesses
independent meaning.
• Grammar: a system of rules that enable us to speak and understand
• Semantics: rules we use to derive meaning from morphemes
– Refers to the meaning of words expressions and sentences
• syntax: rules we use to order words into sentences
– Refers to the order and relationship between words

Classification of Language
• Typological
– Study of syntactic and morphological similarities in language without regard to
their history
Examples:

Anthropological Foundations of Education

Prepared By: Jamin L. Candolesas
 University of Makati
College of Education
Advanced Foundations of Education
“Ang paglalakad ay mabuti para sa iyong kalusugan.””(Filipino)
“Walking is good for your health.” (English)
“Caminando es Bueno por tu salud.” (Spanish)
They follow the basic Subject-Verb-Object sentence construction.
• Genetic
– It divides into families on their basis of historical development
– Group of languages descend historically from the same common ancestor form of
language family.
Example: Austronesian languages include Malay, Javanese, Hawaiian and Maori.

Diversities of Language
The Philippines is made up of over 7000 islands with between 120 and 175 languages.
With 2 national and 12 auxiliary languages, there is a very diverse mix that confuses many
experts.
• Dialect
• Geographically distinct language varieties
• Product of limited communication between different parts of a community that
share one language
• Slang
• Informal vocabulary, especially short-lived coinages, that do not belong in the
standard vocabulary
• “..all slang is metaphor and all metaphor is poetry.” (Gilbert Keith Chesterton,
1901)
• Argot
• A nonstandard vocabulary exclusively used by groups, criminals, gay / lesbian
federations and special organizations.
• Usually intended to be incomprehensible to outsiders.
• Jargon
• Comprises the specialized vocabulary of particular trade or prefession
• Such as; medical, legal, engineering, and the like
• Pidgin
• Is a simplified form of speech formed out of one or more existing languages and
used by people who have no other language in common.
• Is nobody’s mother toungue, and it is not a real language at all; it has no elaborate
grammar, it is very limited in what it can convey, and different people speak it
differently. (R.L. Trasc, Language and Linguistics; The Key Concepts, 2007)
• Creole
• Developed in colonial European plantation settlement in the 17th and 18th centuries
as a result of contact between groups that spoke mutually unintelligible languages.
• From Latin creare, meaning “to beget” or create
• Mixed language associated with cultural and often racial mixture

What is WRITING?
"Writing" is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation and spaces) to
communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form.

Anthropological Foundations of Education

Prepared By: Jamin L. Candolesas
 University of Makati
College of Education
Advanced Foundations of Education
• Language existed long before writing, emerging probably simultaneously with sapience,
abstract thought and the Genus Homo.

• As long ago as 25,000-30,000 years BP, humans were painting pictures on cave
walls. Whether these pictures were telling a "story" or represented some type of "spirit
house" or ritual exercise is not known.

Functions of Writing
• Communication
– Exchange of information between individuals by means of speaking, writing or
using common systems of sign or behavior.
• Preservation
– Maintaining or keeping something of historic value without changing the substance
of cultural heritage.

Types of Writing System

• Pictographic and Ideographic Writing
– Simplified way of writing, utilizing pictures to represent concepts or ideas clearly.
• Logographic Writing System
– A letter, symbol, or sign that represents the entire word in contrast to letters.
• Consonantal Writing System
– Consonantal value of a syllable ignoring the vocalic elements.
• Alphabetic Writing System
– Epitomizes the phonological structure of the language.
• Hieroglyphic Writing
– Ancient pictorial writing of Egypt.
– The term hieroglyph implies “sacred carving”
• Cuneiform Writing
– The manner of writing using wedge-shaped strokes engraved on clay, stone, metal,
wax, and others.
– Came from Latin – cuneus
– Originated in Southern Mesopotamia
– Speculated that Summerians invented it.
–
The fact of the matter is that language is both an abstract system and a socially constructed practice.
As a social construct, it is fluid, changing as it is used. (Larsen-Freeman 1997)

Anthropological Foundations of Education

Prepared By: Jamin L. Candolesas
 University of Makati
College of Education
Advanced Foundations of Education
Kinship, Descent, and Marriage
• "kinship … has to do with reproduction" (Schneider 1984:198)
• Kinship is highly considered as the point of departure and arrival of every human existence.
• It refers to human relations based on biological descent and marriage.
• The argument that reproduction – a universal – is the basis upon which kinship relations
are defined via the parent-child relationship is appealing in its simplicity.

Theories of Kinship
• Lewis Henry Morgan’s Theory
– Speculated that human family and human mating system has evolved through fixed,
successive stages of undiscriminating sexual behavior, group marriage, polygamy,
and monogamy. (Ancient Society, 1877)
• Engle’s Theory
– Friedrich Engels
– Engels argued that kinship was originally matrilineal. In association with
matrilineal descent, Engels continued, every child was raised not just by its parents
alone but by the whole clan.
(The Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State, 1884)
• Sigmund Freud’s Theory
– People have an innate repulsion toward incest.
– Freud proposed that prohibitions exist because we have incestuous urges that need
to be repressed.
• Alfred Radcliffe-Brown’s Theory
– Theorizes that social phenomena such as kinship, marriage, language, custom,
occupancy and possession of land, and sexual pattern enduring system of
adaptation, fusion, and integration of elements.
• Claude Levi-Strauss’ Theory
– Postulated that brothers and sisters of the same mother cannot marry each other

Descent Groups
• Patrilineal Descents
– kinship is traced through the male line
– Men are the primary decision makers and have the most powers
• Matrilineal Descent
– Asserts that the children belong to the clan of the mother and not the father.
• Cognatic Descent
– A system in which everyone has obligation and duties toward both his/her paternal
and maternal kin.
– can expect rights and privileges from both.
• Double Descent
– An individual belongs to two descent groups
– These two groups do not conflict with one another.
• Lineages
– Descended from a single ancestor, as a forefather.
– Regardless if the individual does not exist in reality or only in the mind.

Anthropological Foundations of Education

Prepared By: Jamin L. Candolesas
 University of Makati
College of Education
Advanced Foundations of Education
– Ancient Filipino people believed that their existence was originated from the
incestuous union of Silalac and Sicauay who sprang out of the same bamboo
created by god Captan. (Chirino, 1890)

Different Kinship Groups

• Nuclear Family
– Smallest vital unit in society.
– Married couple and unmarried children
• Extended Nuclear Family
– Polygynous (1 husband + >2 Wives + Children)
– Polyandrous ( >2 husbands + 1 Wife + Children)
– Querida / Kabit system
• Joint Families
– Comprised of two or more nuclear families linked through either paternal or
maternal lines.
– The offspring stays in the family after marriage.
– Clan or Sibs
– Group of families related through a common ancestor.
– Member need not to live in the same residential unit
– The clan is Exogamous – meaning they can marry outside of the clan.

Marriage
• A legal union of two individuals of different sexes who intend to live together as sexual
and domestic partners sanctioned and permitted by the prevailing laws of any society
established by civil or religious ceremony.

Marital Customs
• Endogamy
– The oldest practice of contracting marriage from within one’s own tribe or group
due to limited communication with outside groups during that era.
– Greek word endon – within and gamos – marriage.
• Exogamy
– A complex way of contracting marriage outside one’s tribe or group.
– Preventing the ill effects of inbreeding.
– Greek words exo – outside and gamos – marriage.

Contemporary Forms of Marriage

• Live-In Marriage (Kasal sa Banig)
– Living in the same roof and have children out of wedlock.
• Civil Marriage (Kasal sa Huwes)
– Special contract of permanent union in accordance with the law.
• Church Marriage(Kasal sa Simbahan)
– A sacrament that binds husband and wife according to the teachings of Jesus Christ

Anthropological Foundations of Education

Prepared By: Jamin L. Candolesas
 University of Makati
College of Education
Advanced Foundations of Education
Divorce, Annulment, and Legal Separation
• Divorce
– A legal act by which dissolving a valid marriage.
– Both parties can remarry.
– NO provisions in 1987 Family code.
• Annulment or Nullity
– Act of a court determining the invalidity of marriage from the very beginning. AB
INITIO.
– 1987 Family Code of the Philippines provisions:
• Under age
• Illegal solemnizing officer
• Bigamous / Polygamous marriage
• Incestuous
• Obtained by force
• Incurable disease
• Legal Separation
– Mutual agreement by husband and wife to discontinue living together without
dissolving the contract.
– 1987 Family Code of the Philippines provisions:
• Repeated physical violence
• Pressure to change religious / political affiliation
• Corrupt / induce to engage in prostitution
• Bigamy/ polygamy
• Excessive vices / drug addiction
• Lesbianism / homosexuality

Sources:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/language

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/language

https://www.justlanded.com/english/Philippines/Philippines-Guide/Language/Language-in-the-
Philippines

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/read/PDF_Files/Papers/Read_WhatIsKinship.PDF

https://www.britannica.com/topic/kinship
Foundations of Education Vol.i' 2005 Ed., Recto, Angel S. Rex Bookstore, Inc.. Copyright.

Anthropological Foundations of Education

Prepared By: Jamin L. Candolesas