Language often operates at an unconscious level to influence our

thoughts, beliefs, and actions. To participate competently in society,

people cannot be so self-conscious about the use of language in everyday 【M1】__________

life. But those aspects of language that people are least aware of has the 【M2】__________

greatest impact on how people perceive the world. Thus, linguistic

anthropologists draw in different methodological techniques to analyze 【M3】__________

the conventions and patterns embed in and across speech, writing, sign 【M4】__________

language, gesture, and body movements. They consider how grammar,

language use, and people’s beliefs and ideas about language interaction. 【M5】__________

Linguistic anthropologists typically use ethnographic methods to

participate in and observe communicative styles and social interactions.

These methods rely on document, through writing field notes and/or 【M6】__________

using audio or film to record language use in practice. Some linguistic

anthropologists may interview people to find more about how their 【M7】__________

practices and beliefs around language shape politics and society. Other

linguistic anthropologists design experiments or use computational

methods to evaluate how grammatical forms or writing systems reflect

and influence human cognition and thought.

Like cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology is mainly

concerned with present-day phenomenon, though some linguistic 【M8】__________

anthropologists also rely on archival methods to investigate how

contemporary sociolinguistic forms have or appear to have changed

historically. Some also conduct longitudinal studies to look at the

socialization of language in time. Socialization refers to how novices use 【M9】__________

spoken language, sign language, and homesigns (gestural systems with

language-like structures ) to acquire cultural and communicative

competence. These studies examine how identities and languages are

reproduced over people’s lifespans.

Some linguistic anthropologists also study visual worlds and digital 【M10】_________

spaces to understand how new media, information, and communication

technologies impact the way people communicate and use language. That

may include looking at how people use social media platforms,

smartphones, or virtual meeting platforms.

The English can be under no illusion that the language of the same

name is exclusively theirs. The small matters of other nations in the 【M1】__________

British Isles, and of the superpowers across the Atlantic, makes clear 【M2】__________

that it is joint property. But these countries—along with Canada,

Australia and other Anglophone peoples—must at some point come to

terms with the fact that, even collectively, its language no longer 【M3】__________

belongs to them. Of the estimated one billion people speak English, less 【M4】__________

than half live in those core English-speaking countries.

Every day, the proportion of English-speakers born outside the

traditional Anglosphere grew. Perhaps 40% of people in the European 【M5】__________

Union speak English, or about 180 million—vast more than the 【M6】__________

combined population of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

In India, calculations range from 60 million to 200 million. Most such

estimates make it the second-biggest Anglophone country in the world.

English-speakers pride themselves in the spread of the language, 【M7】__________

and often contribute that to an open, liberal-minded attitude whereby it 【M8】__________

has happily soaked up words from around the world. In the coming

century, though, English will do more than to borrow words. In these 【M9】__________

non-Anglophone countries, it is becoming not just a useful second

language, but a native one. Already it is easy to find children in

northern Europe who speak as though they come from Kansas, the

production of childhoods immersed in subtitled films and television in 【M10】_________

English, along with music, gaming and YouTube.

Terms can arise as a way of increasing efficiency. A paper

published last year, by Ronald Burt of Bocconi University and Ray

Reagans of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, looked for how 【M1】__________

jargon emerges naturally among groups. It describes an experiment

which volunteers are assigned to teams. Each team member is separately 【M2】__________

assigned a set of symbols, and one symbol is common to all of them.

Team members must quickly identify this shared symbol by sending

messages to each other that describe what they have given. 【M3】__________

To start with, the teams use quasi-sentences and general words to 【M4】__________

get across what they are seeing (one symbol “looks like its leg is out in a

kicking motion”). Soon enough everyone in the team is calling them 【M5】__________

” kicking man” or “ kicker”. As rounds progress a tacitly agreed

vocabulary allows teams to identify the common symbol more and more

quickly. Different teams alight on different forms of jargon for each

symbol, and the effect is the same: everyone knows what is meant and 【M6】__________

things get done faster.

Jargon can also be desperately unhelpful. The criminal-justice

system is made more intimidated, to victims and suspects alike, by 【M7】__________

confusing terminology. Conversations between doctors and patients go

much better when everyone understands each other. One reason why

management jargon arises so much irritation is that it usually substitutes 【M8】__________

for something that was doing the job perfectly well.

There is an awfully lot of non-useful blather out there, in other 【M9】__________

words. But the fact that jargon emerges spontaneously and repeatedly

suggests it has its merits. In the right circumstances it can help build the 【M10】_________

culture and act as useful shorthand. If you think jargon is worthless, it

may be time to circle back.