SOCIOLOGY VOCABULARY  

Genie

1.     imprinting  = the making of a permanent mark in the memory.

2.     in vogue = in fashion

3.     interest waxes and wanes = interest increases and decreases.

4.     weaning = taking a child slowly off milk while introducing solid food.

5.     fleeting = passing quickly. (a fleeting moment)

6.     copious tears = a large amount of tears.

7.     survival is paramount = survival is of utmost importance.

8.     condescending attitude = an attitude that assumes an air of superiority

9.     innate = inborn, existing in the creature from birth

10.   close proximity = nearby

11.   in utero = in the womb

12. .  articulated speech = speech that is varied and complex, well expressed

13.   patronize = to make someone feel inferior as if they cannot do a given task.

14.   primitive grammar = primitive set of rules (for language)

15.   linguistics = the study of how language works and evolves.

16.   feral child = wild child, grew up without influence from society.

17.   language acquisition = ability to acquire language

18.   rescue fantasies = the fantasy to help someone

19.   explore the meat tactilely = to touch the m                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              eat all over.

20.   sleep spindles = bunching up of lines on a graph paper indicating mental retardation.

21.   Bonnaterre = biologist who worked with Victor in France.

22.   philosophers and their ilk = philosophers and their kind.

23.   Forbidden Experiment = raising feral children.

24.   defecating = pooping

25.   Jean Marc Itard = medical student who wanted to make a name for himself in medicine by working with Victor.

26.   the analogy with Genie began to hit.  The parallels to Genie began to hit.

27.   Anatomists and their ilk.  … and their kind

28.   Forbidden Experiment = isolating children to see how they will develop.

29.   Critical Period Hypothesis = the point beyond which one cannot learn one’s first language like a native speaker.

30.   Not a nice little bourgeoise deaf kid – bourgeoise = upper class

31.   Read philosophy astutely  = with great insight and understanding

32.   Examined tactilely = by touching

33.   Sleep spindles = bunching lines on a graph indicating

34.   Stimulus = something that causes a reaction in an ogranism

35.   Latent  = hidden

36.   Hoard  = to collect large amounts

37.   Hue = a shade of colour

38.   Entourage = the group that surrounds an important figure

39.   Surrogate parent = substitute parent

40.   Linguistic coup (French for blow) = a breakthrough

41.   Ambiguity = unclearness

42.   Diabolic  = relating to the devil

43.   Protolanguage = a simple, slow and deliberate language (Genie’s)

44.   Depositions = sworn statements indicating the truth

45.   Empathize = to feel what another is feeling  

45 a) elicit = to draw out 

45 b) rescue fantasies = people who think they can save others often have these

45 c) Chomsky versus Lenneberg.  Chomsky said we are born with the ability to learn langauge.
                                                Lenneberg said there is a finite time (puberty) by which we can learn our first langague.

JULIE'S BRAIN

46.   Freudian Slip = letting what you are really thinking slip out, and then trying to catch it.

47.   Unencumbered  = unhindered, free

48.   Tabula rasa  = clean slate

49.   mnemonics = memory aids

50.   neurotransmitters = substances in the brain that transmit electrical signals and help create feelings of moods.

51.   serotonin = a neurotransmitter linked to aggression and peace

52.   semantics = small packets of info, focusing on the details

53.   emergentism = a mixture of nature and nurture.

54.   episodic coming in spells, in episodes

55.   malleable = shapeable

56.   nadir = low point

57.   zenith = high point  

58.   karma = the force generated by a person's actions held to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical 
consequences to determine the nature of the person's next existence.  In today's term, the energy that
you give out  follows you.

59.   preening = cleaning oneself, making oneself neat and tidy

60.   folkways  = small behaviours that irritate in society.

61.   mores = behaviours that bother society and threaten its stability.

62.   norms = group-shared rules of behaviour which in turn are based on the shared values of a community

63.   internalize = to make a part of oneself.

64.   values = shared assumptions about what is good, right or important.

65.   ethnocentric = belief that one's group is superior to another in some way.

66.   faux pas = a false step.  An embarassing act done because one does not know any better in the culture.

67.   opportunist = taking advantage of opportunities or circumstances often with little regard for principles or consequences.

68.   upstarts = trouble makers

69.   abominable = causing disgust or hatred

70.   eradicate = to erase, get rid of,

71.   Vigilantes = people who take the law into their own hands

72.   unrequited love = love that is not returned in kind.

73.   troubadour = one of a class of lyric poets and poet-musicians often of knightly rank who flourished from 
the 11th to the end of the 13th century chiefly in the south of France and the north of Italy and whose major 
theme was courtly love

74.   Yaki Dance = the biggest dance among the Wodaabe (remember Djajeejo).

75.   harem = a group of women associated with one man

76.   pejorative = a term to belittle,

77.   boisterous group = loud group

78.   a negative construct (idea)

79.   reconciled = to make up (differences), to restore friendship

80.   confederate = a person who works in an experiment on the side of the experimenter.

81.   independent variable = the one variable that changes across experimental trials.  It causes the change that is observed.

82.   white collar worker = a professional

83.   blue collar worker = a worker

84.   malevolent = evil, mean spirited

85.   morose = gloomy

86.   doleful = full of grief

87.   psychoepistemology  = the study of the nature of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity and 
 relating to the mind.

88.   epidemiology = a branch of medical science that deals with the incidence, distribution, and control of disease in 
 a population

89.   indigenous = born in the area, true locals

90.  bourgeoisie = those interested in material wealth, the capitalists.

91.   mandatory (compulsory) to walk erect

92.   degradation = reducing human behaviour to the lowest demoralized level.

93.   expediter (one who makes shipment easy and fast) of Jews

94.   phlegmatic (cool) witness

95.  proletariat = the working class.

96.  cicatrize = to scar the body.

97.  shaman = the spiritual leader of a tribe,  priest or priestess who uses magic for 
the purpose of curing the sick, divining the hidden, and controlling events.

98.  rhetoric = the study of writing or speaking as a means of persuasion.

99.  bell curve = the normal distribution of a group being measured or tested.