Description Fall 2009
GRADUATE INTRODUCTION TO
LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/stross/ant392n_files/ant392n.htm
Instead of Blackboard, this course will utilize this webpage, along with e-mail, for syllabus, notices, and student support
This course is a graduate
introduction to core concepts and methodologies that go with the
anthropological study of
language, and to a sampling of books and articles that have helped
develop the field. It provides an overview of some key areas of
current linguistic anthropological
research and a consideration
of some important topics of past research.
Topics covered include:
Language Structure and
Function; Language and World View; Ethnosemantics;
Speech
Socialization; Speech Play and Verbal Art; Language and Social Structure;
Ethnography of Speaking;
Discourse and Semiotics; Language Change and Reconstruction;
Variation in Language and
Speech; Nonverbal Communication
(including Writing Systems,
Sign Language, Body
Language);
No prior training in linguistics is assumed,
presupposed, or required.
1) Class preparation and appropriate class participation
(including reading articles, chapters,
and/or books; and being class
facilitator for one or more class assignment discussions, depending
on the size of the class)
2) Three short papers based on projects assigned during the
semester, due dates are on the syllabus,
(up to 10 pages each). One of them may be presented in the
format of a research
proposal rather
than as an ethnographic
description and analysis. Some general
suggestions for a research grant proposal
can be found here.
N. Bonvillain Language, Culture and Communication
[any
edition – used copy can be gotten for reasonable price at Amazon, Half.com,
or
Half Price books] (required)
B. Blount (ed.) Language, Culture, and Society [2nd
Edition] (required)
K. Basso Portraits of
"The Whiteman (required) [short book. Read in library,
or
buy used for under $4.00]
R. Bauman and J. Sherzer, Explorations
in the Ethnography of
Speaking (optional)
Robin Tolmach Lakoff, Talking Power: The Politics of Language. (optional)
P.P. Giglioli, Language
and Social Context (optional)
Assigned readings not in
texts can be found in the PCL library, may be in digital form, and most are on
reserve.
OUTLINE OF COURSE TOPICS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
TOPICS Language, ethnography of speaking,
sociolinguistics, discourse analysis,
semiotics, cognition, performance, verbal
art, relativity and universals, variation
and
change, acquisition of communicative competence, multilingualism,
language
origins, language as mirror, etc.
seeing the other
HOMEWORK (due for week 2): 1)
read [and take notes for class discussion in week 2];
Bonvillain
- Ch. 1,2 . Blount – Ch. 3 Sapir's "Language":
Miner’s Body Ritual &
Bright on writing vs
speech (internet sites).
TOPICS a) speech act components b) consonants and vowels (the
IPA) c) phoneme 1,
phoneme
2, phoneme definition and phonemecisation problems d) Chontal segmentation
problem
(may be distributed in week 3 instead).
Film: The Human Animal – Language of the Body
HOMEWORK (due week 3)
3) read (for discussion in week #3): Blount
- Boas "Introduction...",
Hymes,
"the ethnography of speaking" (in Blount);
((Extra
reading for those so inclined: Shaul&Furbee
- Introduction, Chapter 1,
Chapter
2. Hymes - Part I. Haugen and Bloomfield – Moulton,
Keenan.
Hockett
"The origin of speech" (in Scientific American offprints).
Lounsbury
"1OO years...". Stross,
"The nature of language";
Finegan&Besnier
- Ch 1&2. Farb – pp.1-8O. Trudgill, 13-33.
G.
Urban, "Rhetoric of a war chief";
Sapir "Psychological
Reality of the Phoneme"
(in
Mandelbaum ed. Selected Writings of Edward Sapir 46-51).
Giglioli – Fishman, Hymes, Gumperz.))
Week 3 EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, RELATIVITY IN LANGUAGE [9/21] BRETT
a) phonemicisation problems II b) morpheme problems
c) morphophonemics
inc. English plural. d) Tzeltal numbers
e. proverbs, refranes & dichos ;
Film: Do You Speak American: Up North
Homework
(due week 4) 1) read and prepare to
discuss markedness,
2)
“Sapir-Whorf” problem (to be
distributed in week 3);
3) Read (for discussion in
week 4): Bonvillain Ch. 3.
Blount
- Whorf "The relation of habitual
thought and behavior to language".
Hoijer
"The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis" ;
Sapir "The unconscious patterning...".
Lucy
"Whorf's view…"
((Extra reading
for those so inclined: Hymes - Part II,
Ferguson "Language
problems of variation and repertoire". Finegan&Besnier Ch. 3&4. Farb, 289-328.
Wang
"The Chinese language" (in Scientific American offprints).
Giglioli -
Goffman, Searle (pp. 61-66, 136-154)
))
class discussion: a)
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis b) color
terms c) markedness
d) deixis Film: Do You Speak American:
Down South
Homework (to do for
meeting of week 5): 1) Kinship
problem (Burmese)
2)
Bonvillain Ch. 4 .
3)
Blount - Frake "The ethnographic study..."; Silverstein "Shifters..."
Special project # 1 (due Week
4) [repetition requests / pronominal
metaphor / backchannel cues ]
((Extra reading
for those so inclined:
Shaul&Furbee – Chapters 3 and 4.
Giglioli
– Schegloff. Hymes, Part
III. Sapir, Language, chs.
3-5.
Berlin
and Kay 1969, Basic Color Terms.
Berlin and Berlin 1975.
"Aguaruna
color categories" American Ethnologist 2:61-87; Kay, Berlin
and Merrifield
"Biocultural implications..."
in Blount;
Witkowski and
Brown "An explanation of color nomenclature universals."
AA 79:5O-57. Lucy and Shweder (1979) "Whorf and his
critics:...color
memory"
AA 181:581-6O7.; Witkowski and Brown
"Whorf and universals
of
color nomenclature" JAR 38(1982):411-42O.
Greenberg, Language Universals.
G.W. Grace
1988. The Linguistic Construction of
Reality.))
G.A. Miller
"the magical number seven, plus or minus two".
Farb,
191-213; Carroll (ed) Whorf LTR "Science and linguistics"
(2O7-219). Leach "Anthropological aspects of
language: animal
categories and
verbal abuse"; F&B Ch 5, 6. ))
class discussion:
a) washing terms b) eating terms c) kinship terms d) pronouns
(Hanunoo,
TZE) and componential analysis, e)
plant taxonomies f) food
Film: Do You
Speak American: Out West
Bonvillain -
Chs. 5
((Extra reading
for those so inclined: Hymes, Part
IV. Farb, 214-23O;
Brown
and Levinson in Goody 56-295. Lounsbury
"the structural analysis of
kinship
semantics"; Tyler pp. 28-59, 78-9O, 93-l36, l93-211, 255-3lO.
Hymes "On
personal pronouns: 'fourth' person and
phonesthematic
aspects" in
Studies in Linguistics; In Honor Of George L. Trager,
(M.E. Smith, ed,
pp. 1OO-121). Stross "Speaking of
speaking".
Casson, The semantics of kin term usage..". Shaul&Furbee – Chapters 7 and 8
class discussion:
a) ground rules for functioning communication
systems b) Grice's Maxims c) Goffmanology & presentation of self
Homework: Bonvillain Chs. 7, 8, 9 ; Blount Chs.
21, 23
Film: American Tongues
a) gender differentiated speech b) politeness 1 2
c) baby talk g)
language acquisition studies d)
indirection e) misdirection f) persuasion
(e.g. viral marketing – (Rumours , Chain letters with warnings , "Leaked"
information ,
Gossip
, Urban myths , Secondhand versions of official reports)
Homework (due week
8): read: Bonvillain – Ch. 10
Blount – 16 (Turner
"Words, utterance..." ); 24 (Briggs and Bauman "Genre...")
K. Basso Portraits of "The Whiteman
to gossip". Goffman Presentation of Self….
Giglioli – 4, 5, 7, 8, 9. Hymes, Part
V. Farb, 41-63.
M.F.
Brown "The role of words in
Aguaruna hunting magic" American Ethnologist
11:545-558. R. Brown A First Language. R. Brown "Development of the first
language
in
the human species" (in Haugen and Bloomfield). Haas, "Mens and
womens
speech in Koasati". S. Feld Sound and Sentiment; F&B Ch. 15.
))
d) speech
games (e.g. pig latin); e) cosmology and history in myth and legend.
f) humor in
language g) gossip h) propaganda 1 i.)
lies and disinformation
j) word play
Homework read
(due weeks 9,10): 1) Bonvillain 6, 11
2) J. Hill's
article on Mock Spanish (supplied by
prof)
3) W. Labov's article on "Academic
Ignorance" (supplied by prof)
4)
Special
project # 2 (due Week 8 [graffiti]
((Extra reading for those so inclined: Farb, 83-156; .Gossen "To speak with a
heated
heart".
Kirschenblatt-Gimblett Speech
Play.
Cowan
"Mazateco whistle speech".
Shaul&Furbee - 9, 10 .
Basso
"Wise words of the Western
Apache"; J. Sherzer "Talking backwards in Cuna..."
SWJA
197O:343-453. J. Sherzer
"Strategies in text and context." JAF 92:145-163.
Stross
"The language of Zuyua".
Dundes "Here I sit".
Hymes, Part VI.
Irvine
"Formality and informality in communicative events" AA 81:773-79O.
J.
MacDowell Children's Riddling; F&B
10. W. Mieder, The Politics of
Proverbs. ))
Class
discussion: a) names b) multilingualism
c) social dialects, aave/bev
d) social
structure, variation and change. e) an international language, esperanto
f) networks g)
language in media
Homework: 1) Blount - 15 (Ervin-Tripp
"Sociolinguistics." );
14
(Gumperz "Linguistic and Social interaction in two communities"
);
17
(Hill "The grammar of Consciousness…")
Homework
(due week 11):
2)
read: Bonvillain Ch. 12, 13
3) Blount - 19 (Hunn's
"Ethnoecology…" )
4) Internet - M.
Duke's article Writing Mazateco
((Extra reading for those so inclined: Giglioli
10, 11, 12, 13, (Part 4).
Sorenson
"Multilingualism in the Northwest Amazon" AA 69(1967):67O-82.
Albert
"Culture patterning of speech behavior in Burundi"
(in Gumperz and
Hymes, Directions In Sociolinguistics).
Sherzer Kuna Ways Of Speaking. ; Hymes, Part VII.
Farb,
157-187. Trudgill, chs. 2,3,4,7. Hymes, "Speech and language...";
Salmond
"Rituals of encounter". T.
Gregor "exposure and seclusion..."
Ethnology.
T. Gregor Mehinacu; F&B 12, 13 . ))
class discussion: a) comparative method b) reconstruction problems
c) teaching
indigenous languages
Homework (due week
12): 1) comparative reconstruction
problem
2) read:
Blount - 10 (Berlin's "Speculations…") 20 (Kay et al's Biocultural implications…"
).
3) Bonvillain Ch.
12;
((Extra
reading for those so inclined: Hockett
"F". Labov "On the
mechanism of linguistic
change". Kay "Language evolution and speech
style" (in Sanches and Blount).
Kay
"Synchronic variability and diachronic change in basic color terms".
Dozier
"Two examples of linguistic acculturation". Sherzer "A problem in Cuna
phonology". Hymes, Part VIII. Farb,
331-367. Giglioli – 14, 15 (part.
5).
Thieme
"The Indo-European language" (in Scientific American reprints).
C. Brown
"Growth and development of folk botanical life-forms in the
Mayan language
family". Stross
"Reconstructed humor in a Tzeltal ritual formula".
Finegan&Besnier
Ch. 14; Thieme "The comparative method for reconstruction in
linguistics"
(in
Hymes' reader); ))
class discussion a) internal reconstruction b) glottochronology c) paleography
d) linguistic
diffusion e) language
shift, f) revitalization,
more
shift
Homework (due
Week 13) - read: Bonvillain pp.
35-46.
Schmandt-Besserat
"The earliest precursor of writing" (in Scientific American
reprints);
Oliver Sacks "The president's speech".
Special Project # 3 (due Week 12)
[occupational jargon / names ]
Extra reading for
those so inclined: Hymes, part
IX. Watkins (in Haugen and
Bloomfield). Greenberg, chs. 3, 6. Finegan&Besnier Ch. 9.
E. Sapir
"Time perspective in aboriginal American culture" SWES pp. 389-462.
Gossen
"Temporal and spatial equivalents in Chamula ritual symbolism".
E.
Sapir "Internal evidence suggestive of the northern origin of the
Navaho"
SWES,
pp. 213-224. M. Swadesh, The Origin
And Diversification of Language.
M.
Swadesh "What is glottochronology", "linguistics as an
instrument of
prehistory",
"Diffusional cumulation and archaic residue as historical
explanations".
class discussion:
a) writing systems b) gesture and
posture
c) developments in
semiotics. d) pointing, gesture, spaces, and mental maps
((Extra
reading for those so inclined: E.T.
Hall, The Silent Language,
E.T.
Hall, The Hidden Dimension;
&/or Mark L. Knapp,
Nonverbal Human
Communication. &/or Desmond Morris, Manwatching; I. Gelb
A Study
of
Writing. Giglioli – 4 Basso. C. Cherry, On Human Communication.
Benthall
and Polhemus (eds.), The Body as a
Medium of Expression; F&B
Ch.
11. Dundes "Seeing is believing". Farb, 231-247. Phillips
in Cazden,
John,
and Hymes (Functions of Speech in the Classroom). Marcus
"Zapotec writing" (in Scientific
American reprints);))
WEB RESOURCES
Archive of the Indigenous
Languages of Latin America
Discourse Analysis -
overview and discussions of various approaches to the topic by Stef
Slembrouck (Belgium)
Etymology word origins – discussion, words, etc.
Zompist Mark Rosenfelder’s Metaverse has several sections on language &
languages - includes numbers in 4000 languages
http://www.percepp.demon.co.uk/index.htm (evolution of cognition and language) http://www.percepp.com/lacus.htm (“Language as a Mirror of the
World” – Robin Allott)
Searle “The authorities arrested the women because
they advocated revolution.”
Useful supplementary Texts
and Readers:
A. Duranti
1997. Linguistic
Anthropology. ISBN 0 521 44993 6
D. Shaul and L. Furbee,
1998. Language and Culture.
ISBN 0-88133-970-9
E. Finegan and N.
Besnier 1989. Language: Its
Structure and Use.
0-15-549175-X (F&B)
V. Fromkin &
R. Rodman, R. (1993). An Introduction to Language. (5th
ed.)
(F&R)
Z. Salzmann, Language,
Culture, and Society (ZS)
J. Doe 1988.
Speak Into The Mirror.
(JD)
W. Hanks 1996. Language
and Communicative Practices
(WH)
P. Farb Word Play
J. Sherzer, Kuna
Ways of Speaking. (JS)
J. Sherzer Speech
Play and Verbal Art.
D.H. Hymes, Language in Culture and Society
P. Trudgill, Sociolinguistics (an
elementary textbook)
W. O'Grady, M.
Dobrovolsky, M. Aronoff, Contemporary Linguistics.
G. Lakoff, Women,
Fire, and Dangerous Things
G. Lakoff
& M. Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh
R. Lakoff, The Language War
"Structuralism seeks to understand how societies preserve their identities over time (Maranda 1972:330)
paraphrase: structuralism seeks to understand how languages preserve their identities over time. Consider this
notion and see if it makes sense to you.
The following information comes from official UT policies
Please, read
carefully
Academic Integrity
Each
student in this course is expected to abide by the University Code of Academic
Integrity. No plagiarized work will be accepted. Sources consulted from books,
journals, or web pages should be acknowledged. Any work submitted by a student
in this course for academic credit will be the student's own work. Papers
bought online or otherwise plagiarized will receive a zero.
You are encouraged to study together and to discuss concepts
covered in lecture and sessions. However, this permissible cooperation should
never involve one student having possession of a copy of all or part of work
done by someone else, in the form of an e mail, an e-mail attachment file, a
diskette, or a hard copy.
Should copying
occur, both the student who copied work from another student and the student
who gave material to be copied will both automatically receive a zero for the
assignment. Penalty for violation of this Code can also be extended to include
failure of the course and University disciplinary action. [During examinations,
you must do your own work. Talking or discussion, comparing notes, and copying
from others are not permitted during examinations. Any such behavior will
result in failure of the exam, and may lead to failure of the course and
University disciplinary action.]
Accommodations for students with disabilities
In compliance with the UT Austin policy
and equal access laws, I am available to discuss appropriate academic
accommodations that may be required for student with disabilities. Requests
for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the
semester, except for unusual circumstances, so arrangements can be made.
Students who require special accommodations need to get a letter that documents
the disability from the Services for Students with Disabilities area of the
Office of the Dean of Students (471-6259- voice or 471-4641 – TTY for users who
are deaf or hard of hearing). This
letter should be presented to the instructor in each course at the beginning of
the semester and accommodations needed should be discussed at that time. Five business days before an exam the
student should remind the instructor of any testing accommodations that will be
needed. See Web site below for more information: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/ssd/providing.php
University Electronic
Mail Notification Policy
(Use of
E-mail for Official Correspondence to Students)
All students should become familiar with the University's official e-mail student notification policy. It is the student's responsibility to keep the University informed as to changes in e-mail address. It is recommended that e-mail be checked daily, but at a minimum, twice per week. The complete text of this policy and instructions for updating your e-mail address are available at
http://www.utexas.edu/its/policies/emailnotify.html.
In this course e-mail will be used to communicate with students. You are responsible for checking your e-mail regularly for class announcements.
The University
of Texas Honor Code
The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the University is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.
Religious
Holidays
It is the policy of The University of Texas at Austin that you must notify each of your instructors at least fourteen days prior to the classes scheduled on dates you will be absent to observe a religious holy day. If you miss an examination, work assignment, or other project due to the observance of a religious holyday you will be given an opportunity to complete the work missed within a reasonable time after the absence.
The
instructor reserves the right to amend this syllabus
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