Final answer:
In linguistic anthropology, 'focal vocabulary' identifies specialized terms used by a particular culture or social group that reflect their unique activities and experiences, central to understanding language's role in culture.
Step-by-step explanation:
In linguistic anthropology, the term focal vocabulary refers to a specialized set of terms and expressions used within a particular culture, profession, or social group that captures key aspects of their experiences and activities. Examples of focal vocabularies can be found in various domains, such as the jargon used by lawyers or the technical language used by computer scientists. These terminologies are part of larger linguistic relativity and folk taxonomies, which are the systems of categories that reflect how people organize their knowledge about the world. Focal vocabulary reflects how language can be a powerful tool to convey complex meanings and is central to the production of human culture. It is through the lens of such specialized vocabulary that linguistic anthropologists understand how language shapes our thinking, helps in expressing complex technical or cultural nuances, and operates within different speech communities.