LING 6320, Fall, 2008
Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology
Professor: J. Andrew Cowell, LING
Office: Eaton Humanities 317
Office Hours: Tuesday 10-11, Thursday 11-12 and by appointment
Time: T/R 5-6:15, Humanities 125
Contact: James.Cowell@colorado.edu, 303-492-8270
This course will provide a broad introduction to socio-cultural perspectives and methods in linguistics, focusing on linguistic anthropology, but also examining sociological perspectives on language. We will read a basic introduction to the topic, as well as numerous articles which provide examples of specific applications. Students will also be expected to engage with linguistic data, including at least one independent project involving data gathered on their own. Topics to be covered include: ethnographic methods; the idea of 'culture' and different theories of culture from within linguistic anthropology; relationships between language and culture on the level of lexicon and grammar; the concept of 'speech community' and ethnography of communication; cultural models and metaphors; language and inequality (including relationship between language and social status); language and power (including the formation of social discourses); language ideology; language socialization; ethnopoetics, narrative and performance; language, identity and subjectivity; language, interactionism, and the construction of social relationships; and language change from a socio-cultural perspective, including language shift, pidgins, creoles, and language endangerment.
Texts:
William A. Foley, Anthropological Linguistics
Alessandro Duranti, Linguistic Anthropology
Alessandro Duranti, ed. Linguistic Anthropology, A Reader
Sherry Ortner, Anthropology and Social Theory
and articles to be placed on e-reserve.
Course Outline:
Week 1: Introduction
Aug. 26. In-class discussion.
Aug. 28. Read: Duranti, Chp. 1; Foley, Chp. 1
Culture and Theories of Culture
Sept. 2. Read: Duranti, Chp. 2; Ortner Introduction
Sept. 4. Read: Duranti, Chp. 7
Feedback Paper #1 due Friday, Sept. 12 by 5 pm (hard copy or email attachment).
Language and Culture
Sept. 9. Read: Foley, Chps. 4-7 (on Universalism)
Sept. 11. Read: Foley, Chps. 8, 10 (on Relativism); Whorf (Chp. 15 in Duranti reader)
Metaphor and Mental Models
Sept. 16. Read: Foley, Chp. 9 (on models and metaphors); Sweetser (e-reserve); Lakoff (e-reserve)
Sept. 18. Read: Foley, Chps. 11-12 (on spatial and classifier systems); Basso Chp. 4 (e-reserve)
Speech Communities and Speech Genres
Sept. 23. Read: James Weiner, The Empty Place, Chp. 2 (e-reserve); Foley, Chp. 13; Duranti, 3.3-3.5;
Sept. 25. Read: Gumperz; Hymes; Bailey (all in Duranti reader)
Sept. 30. Read: Marcyliena Morgan, Language, Discourse and Power in African-American Culture, Chps. 1-2 (hard-copy on reserve); Duranti (selection in reader); Spitulnik; Mitchell-Kernan (in reader)
Ethnographic Methods
Oct. 2. Read: Duranti, Chps. 4-5; complete HRC Tutorial by this date!
Feedback Paper #2 due Friday, October 10 by 5pm (be email or in my box)
Language Socialization
Oct. 7. Read: Foley, Chp. 17; Ochs and Schieffelin (in Duranti); Badequano-Lopez (in Duranti)
Oct. 9. Read: Philips (in Duranti); Heath (in Duranti)
Language Ideology
Oct. 14. Read: nothing! (presentation in class by professor)
Oct. 16. Read: Lesley Milroy, "Britain and the United States: Two Nations Divided by the Same Language (and Different Language Ideologies)" in Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 10, 1 (2000): 56-89 [available on-line through Norlin library, in Anthro Source]; Aneta Pavlenko, "'We Have Room for but One Language Here' Language and National Identity in the US at the turn of the 20th Century" in Multilingua 21, 2-3 (2002): 163-196 [available on-line through Norlin library]; Kroskrity (in Duranti)
Language, Identity, and Subjectivity (inc. race and gender)
Oct. 21. Read: Foley, Chp. 14; Badequano-Lopez (again); Ortner Chp. 1, 3, 4
Oct. 23. Read: Foley, Chp. 15; Morgan Chps. 3-5; Ortner Chp. 5
Interactionism and Intersubjectivity
Oct. 28. Read: Duranti, 6.5-6.9; Goodwin and Goodwin; Ochs and Schieffelin (again)
Oct. 30. Read: Duranti, Chps. 8-10; Ortner Chp. 6
Feedback Paper #3 is due Friday, Nov. 7 by 5pm.
Language and Inequality
Nov. 4. Read: Foley, Chp. 16; Gal; Ochs and Taylor
Nov. 6. Read: Hill; Review: Morgan
Language, Power, and Discourse
Nov. 11. Read: Foley, Chps. 20-21; Heath (again)
Nov. 13. Morgan, Chp. 6; Halualani, Introduction; Abu-Lughod, Chp. 8
Ethnopoetics, Narrative and Performance
Nov. 18. Read: Foley, Chp. 18; Abu-Lughod, Chp. 8 (cont.)
Nov. 20. Read: Bauman, Story, Performance, Event, Chp. 5; Kroeber, Trad'l Lit. of American Indian, Introduction (both on e-reserve)
Dec. 2 Toelken and Scott, "Poetic Retranslation"; Weiner, The Empty Place, Chps 3-5 (hard copies on reserve)
Language Change: Pidgins, Creoles, etc.
Dec. 4 Read: Foley, Chp. 19
Language Change: Language Endangerment
Dec. 9. Read: Nettle and Romaine, Introduction, Chps. 1-2; Annual Rev. of Anthropology, "Will Indigenous Languages Survive?"
Dec. 11 Read: Meek; Cowell
Course Requirements:
Attendance and Participation = 15%
Data gathering and analysis project = 20%
Feedback Papers (3, brief) = 15%
Final Paper = 50%
Final Paper should be in the range of 20 pages. It should be turned in on Monday, December 15 by 5pm.
Data gathering and anaysis: For this course, you will be required to do a language documentation project, involving either video or audio. The projects can be in one of three areas: documentation of naturally-occurring conversational interaction; documentation of single-speaker narrative; or interview. You will be required to transcribe at least some of the documented material, and present a written analysis to the professor of some linguistic feature or set of features (can be highly technical, or just lexical choices, for example) in the data in relationship to anthropological categories and criteria. You will also do a self-critique of the quality of your data, and the limitations of the data and your analysis.
Feedback papers: these will be 2-3 page papers in response to class discussions, which will encourage you to formulate carefully your ideas about key theoretical questions of the course such as "agency and resistance" or the idea of a "speech community."
Final paper: There will be two options for the final paper: either a further extension and analysis of the data gathering (or additional data gathering); or a theoretical survey and reflection paper on a key theme of the course, oriented towards your particular area of interest (for example, if you are especially interested in pidgins and creoles, and your geographic area of study is the Caribbean, a general survey and critique of the literature on creoles and identity in that region would be an appropriate topic).