Description
Culture and Communication
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF CULTURE THROUGH COMMUNICATION
AND THE THEORY OF SIGNS
Fall 2007 Brian Stross Unique# 30845, 52165 (ANT 307, LIN 312)
MWF 11-12
UTC 3.120
Office
Hours MW 12-1 & by
appointment in EPS 2.204
Web Page: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/stross/ant307_files/ant307.htm
This section is an honors course with a substantial writing
component
FINAL EXAM - FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14,
2-5 PM Location(s): UTC 3.120
Requirements
/ Exams and Writing projects
One midterm exam (25%) and
one final (25%) Final is Friday, Dec. 14, 2-5pm
and two formal written projects and one informal written exercise (totaling 18-20 pages) 45% of grade.
Class
participation 5% of grade.
Texts:
Required 1) Tracy Novinger 2001. Intercultural
Communication: A
Practical Guide. ISBN:
0-292-75571-6
Required 2) Deborah Tannen 1986. That's Not
What I Meant.
ISBN:
0-345-34090-6
Required 3) Keith Basso. 1979. Portraits of
the Whiteman.
ISBN: 0-521-29593-9
Recommended:
E.T. Hall The Silent Language.
ISBN: 0-385-05549-8
E.T. Hall Beyond Culture.. ISBN: 0-385-12474-0
Deborah Tannen 1990.
You Just Don't Understand.
ISBN: 0-345-37205-0
Deborah Tannen 1994. Talking from 9
to 5. ISBN: 0-380-71783-2
Deborah Tannen 1998.
The Argument Culture
El Guindi, Fadwa 2004.
Visual Anthropology:
Essential Method and Theory
Nancy Bonvillain. 2000 Language, Culture, and
Communication.
ISBN: 0-13-097953-8
Joel Sherzer 2002. Speech Play and
Verbal Art.
Robert L. Young. 1999. Understanding Misunderstandings.
ISBN: 0-292-79606-4
Phil Agre Information
Studies (home page)
Rationale
for the Course Organization
WEEKS Film info may be revised
1. 8/29, 8/31
Introduction - Culture, Language, Communication,
Meaning (notes )
Topics: What are culture, communication, language, (
semiotics
and the theory of signs),
( sociolinguistics
), ethnography of speaking, discourse, reality and its social construction, seeing the other,
the
speech act and its functions,
Themes this semester:
politics and propaganda;
information and disinformation;
speech play, verbal art and memory
(learning, education);
technology and communication;
Homework: Read - Portraits
of the Whiteman (Basso), seeing the other
Optional Further Background: The Silent Language (Hall),
Beyond Culture
(Hall)
Film on Friday 8/31 A World of Differences (Audio-Visual
library video 30 min.),
2. 9/5, 7
Message
Form - Sounds, Words, Sentences
Topics:
What are (phonemes, morphemes,
lexemes, sentences;
meaning),
Homework:
Read Tannen Ch. 1; do Hebrew
exercise ; revisit the phoneme;
study this notes
link for the midterm exam.
Informal writing assignment
(or see Informal
exercise) due 9/17/06
Film on Friday 9/7 A World of Gestures (Audio-Visual library video 28 min.),
3. 9/10, 12,
14
Message
Form II -
More Sounds, Words, Sentence
Topics: Manual language,
nonverbal communication. Documentary
film.*
Instant messaging.
Homework: read Tannen Ch.
2, read online essay on documentary
film
Start thinking about your first project,
deciding on one of the alternatives,
First draft due on 10/1, final revisions due on
12/7/00 Writing
Help
Film
on Friday 9/14
Do
You Speak American: Up North
4. 9/17, 9/19,
9/21
Language
and Cultural Meaning -
The Expression of Meaning
Topics:
linguistic determinism/Sapir-Whorf, Moonhawk on Sapir-Whorf,
lexical and semantic
components, classification, recoding,
markedness/implicational
universals, fuzzy sets,
focal meanings and prototypes, cultural presuppositions,
metaphor and metonym,
Homework: read Novinger Ch.
1, Tannen Ch. 3
Film on Friday 9/21 First
Contact (dept. video 54
min.)
5. 9/24,
9/26, 9/28
Contextual
Components: Ethnography of
Communication
Topics: Evolution of language (autonomous,
non-autonomous;
rhetorical style; involvement vs non-involvement)
Power and solidarity, performance,
respect,
Austin and Searle on speech acts,
gossip (see week 11)
Homework: read Novinger Ch. 2, Tannen Ch. 4, Klein
(PtheP)
Film on Friday 9/28 The
Human Animal – Language of the Body (Desmond Morris)
6. 10/1, 10/3,
10/5
Communicative
Interactions
Topics:
interactional synchrony
conversational
structure, conversational postulates,
(directives and responses), routines (greetings,
apologies), politeness,
social
networks,* networking,* verbal
art*
Homework: read Novinger Ch. 3, Tannen Ch. 5
Film on Friday 10/05 Do
You Speak American: Down South
Turn in first project on Monday 10/1 Rewrites,
based on feedback, due on 12/5
Hints on how to write
goodly.
7. 10/8,
10/10, 10/12
Societal
Segmentation and Linguistic Variation: Class & Race
Topics:
social stratification (race, class, caste),
Black English in the US,
the structure of AAVE, settings and contexts.
Homework: read Novinger Ch. 4, Tannen Ch. 6 , and Black English (see E-mail).
FILM on
Friday 10/12: American Tongues (dept. video, 56 min)
Start thinking about your second project,
deciding on one of the alternatives,
First draft due on 11/9, revisions due on 12/7/00
8. 10/15,
10/17, 10/19
Language
and Gender: English and English Speakers
Topics: Pronunciation, intonation, grammatical
variation,
vocabulary, conversational
style, gender bias
Homework: read Novinger Ch. 5, Tannen Ch. 7
Midterm exam on Friday of
this week 10/19 (covering material
through the 7th week of
classes) (sample
midterm exam)
9. 10/22, 10/24, 10/26
Cross-Cultural
Studies of Language and Gender
Topics: power, complexity of form, linguistic
marking of gender,
Gender-exclusive patterns,
linguistic and stylistic preferences,
images of gender in linguistic form.
Homework: read Novinger Ch. 6, Tannen Ch. 8
Film on Friday 10/26 Gender
Issues
10. 10/29,
10/31 , 11/2
Language
Learning
Topics: language acquisition, LAD, rule vs. rote, sequences in
sounds, grammar, vocabulary,
speech socialization (instructional
strategies).
feral children (1, 2),
Homework: read Novinger Ch. 7, Tannen Ch. 9 , (Are there "bad" words)
FILM on Friday 11/2 : Do
You Speak American: Out West
11. 11/5, 11/7,
11/9
Acquisition
of Communicative Competence
Topics: Learning communicative styles (functional categories,
politeness, expressing
feelings, disputing), learning status and
role, learning the rules of
conversation (turn taking, affirmations,
narration), speech play &
verbal art, gossip (see week 5),
Turn in second Project on Friday 11/9 revisions due 12/5
Film on Friday 11/9 Teaching
Sign Language to the Chimpanzee Washoe
(dept. video, 48 min.)
12. 11/12,
11/14, 11/16
Multilingual
Nations
Topics: linguistic diversity, language standardization,
language minorities,
code switching, attitudes
towards other languages and speakers,
bilingual education,
indigenous/native languages, Creole languages.
Homework: read Novinger Ch. 9,
FILM on Friday 11/16: I'm British, but...
(dept. video, 30 min.)
13. 11/19, 11/21 (Thanksgiving holiday 11/22-24)
Bilingual
Communities
Topics: language change (contact, innovation),
language use in
bilingual speech communities,
bilingual conversational strategies,
language revitalization,
language shift, interethnic
miscommunication.
Homework: Rewrite your lecture notes. Think about an encounter you've had
recently in an Educational, Media, Legal, or Medical institutional
framework and
come prepared to discuss it in class.
14. 11/26, 11/28, 12/30
Language and Institutional Encounters
Topics: language labels and status, institutional
contexts. Literacy
(education, health, law, the
media, the military).
Homework: Analyze the discourse in this link: George Galloway & Congress
&
come to class prepared to discuss one element of this speech act
FILM
on Friday 11/30: To Make the Balance (Audio-Visual library, 33 min)
15. 12/3, 12/5, 12/7
Communication
and the Senses
Topics: use of furniture and arrangement, space and distance, time, silence.
Review of semester.
Homework: none.
Turn in revised projects on 12/7 -
Final Exam will
be held at scheduled time (Final is Friday, Dec. 14, 2-5 pm, UTC 3.120). (sample
final exam)
This course will
have one Midterm Exam and one Final Exam.
Each will count for 25% of your
course
grade. In addition there will be 3
written homework assignments (projects),
counting 50%
of your grade
(10% + 20% + 20%). The exams will
cover lectures and homework assignments
from the
textbooks. Attendance can affect your
course grade as well.
The following books will be useful to
those who would like to pursue
some of the course topics in more
depth.
BOOK RESOURCES
S. Beebe and
J. Masterson. Communicating in
Small Groups. (7th ed.
2003)
J. Blumler, J. McLeod, and K. Rosengren (eds) 1992.
Comparatively Speaking
P 91 C563 1992 pcl stacks
Donal Carbaugh 1990. Cultural Communication And Intercultural
Contact
P 91 C85 1990 pcl
stacks
Kristine Fitch Speaking Relationally. HM 132 F576 1998 pcl stacks
Cynthia Gallois and Victor Callan.
1997. Communication And
Culture: A Guide for Practice. Wiley.
Ulf Hannerz Transnational
Connections. CB 428 H365 1996 pcl
stacks
Steven Johnson Interface
Culture. T 58.5 J64 1997 pcl
stacks
M. Lustig and J. Koester. Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication
Across Cultures
(4th ed. 2003).
L. Malandro and L. Barker
1983. Nonverbal Communication.
S.U. Philips, S. Steele & C.
Tanz. 1987. Language, Gender & Sex in Comparative Perspective.
L. Samovar, R. Porter and L. Stefani 1998. Communication
Between Cultures,
3rd Edition.
Wadsworth 0-534-52218-1 P 94.6 S26 1998 pcl stacks
Stella Ting-Toomey Communicating
Across Cultures. GN 345.6 T56 1999
pcl stacks
Anna Wierzbicka. 1997.
Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words.
Julia T Wood. 2004.
Communication Theories in Action:
An Introduction.
VIDEO RESOURCES
That's
Not What I Meant (AV library video VIDCASS
9706 )
The Iron Chef
Unforgivable
Blackness The Rise & Fall of Jack Johnson
Joe Leahy's Neighbors (dept. video 90 min.)
(update on Joe
Leahy) (long review of First Contact, Joe Leahy's Neighbors, and Black Harvest
in Visual Anthropology Review Vol 10, no. 2 [1994])
