department of anthropology

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DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY ANTHROPOLOGY 208

Linguistic Anthropology

Fall Term 2019 Course Outline Dr. Kate Kingsbury

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Class time: autumn term Tues and Thurs 12:30-1:50 Place: H. M. Tory Building B-38

Instructor: Dr. Kate Kingsbury

E-mail address: [email protected] Eclass: ANTHR208

My Office: H M Tory Building, Office 13-15

Office Hours: By appointment only, on Tuesday afternoons.

If you have any minor concerns please email me. For clarification on more substantial questions such as assignments, exams etc. please book an appointment with me. I am here to help you. Do not be afraid to ask. No question is inconsequential.

Student Accessibility Services:

If you have special needs that could affect your performance in this class, please let me know during the first week of the term.

Course Description: This autumn course is intended to educate students in linguistic anthropology, conveying key concepts at the core of this topic, thus giving them the means of analysing and understanding human language from an anthropological point of view.

Course Goals and Objectives: The bottom line is that this course will teach you about what linguistic anthropology is. That is the key objective. You will learn about some of the most important theories and concepts. This course will also imbue students with critical thinking skills as well as an understanding of how, as Sapir and Whorf suggested: the structure of a language can strongly influence or determine someone’s weltanschaaung or world view. This weltanschaaung provides the individual with a sense of existence and provides a theoretical framework for generating, sustaining and applying knowledge.

Course Requirements: You are responsible for doing all readings, completing all assigned readings, assignments, and exams by deadline. The course is based on materials from the required readings, lectures, films, and seminars. Students are expected to read the assigned materials in advance of the lectures. Questions on unclear elements from the course and/or readings are welcomed and indeed encouraged. I am available on email, although on evenings or weekends responses will not be immediate.

READINGS:

The key text that we will be using in many weeks is:

Ahearn, Laura M. 2017. Living Language : an Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Second edition.

This is available online for free at the library as I do not want my students to spend their precious dosh on books, I know you have got other things you want to be big spenders on. All readings are always available, gratis, on Eclass.

Every week there are 1-4 readings, this is because I know how dull theory can be and I hope that with some choice in the matter, something might pique your curiosity. You DO NOT need to read all the

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readings, just choose those which interest you. Also do not pick them through for detail, skim read them!

Any key points will be made clear in lectures.

When it comes to studying for tests, the slides always outline all the key concepts in all the readings, study those and you will know everything you need to know.

GRADES:

Grade Evaluation: All examinations, assignments, and participation evaluations will contribute to a cumulative score (out of 100) which will then be translated into a final letter grade. Students will be expected to hand in work by the deadlines allotted and will be penalised for failing to meet deadlines or failing to do readings. If students cannot do the work required they are expected to provide justification in advance and not the day of or the night before.

Descriptor Letter Grade Grade Point Value

Excellent A+

A A-

4.0 95-100 4.0 90-94 3.7 85-89

Good B+

B

3.3 81-84 3.0 75-80

Satisfactory B-

C+

2.7 71-74 2.3 67-70

Mediocre C

C-

2.0 64-66 1.7 61-63

Poor D+ 1.3 56-60 Minimal Pass D 1.0 50-55 Failure F 0 0-49

Course requirements:

There are three tests in this course. Two of these tests will consist of multiple-choice questions. There will also be an in-class essay test. The in-class essay and tests assess your ability to integrate different aspects of the course material and apply them to new contexts. For good marks, you MUST demonstrate knowledge of the course material and be able to apply your knowledge.

Requirements for the course will include:

1. Multiple choice test: 30% 3rd October 2. In-class writing test: 35% 17th October

3. Final multiple choice test 35%: 26th November

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ABSENCES from tests: If you cannot attend a test you will have to rearrange to take it on another day.

Unless properly justified, any absence will be penalized by a deduction of 17% from your mark for that test.

CONTENT: This class is designed to cover breaking-edge material such as LGBTQ, gender, hate speech and rap music. If you are not interested in or comfortable with this content please consider choosing another course.

WEEK 1:

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Tuesday 3rd September

What is Linguistic Anthropology? We will cover key concepts of the topic.

Section entitled ‘the Socially Charged Life of Language’

Or ‘Making Meaning’ Chapter 3 Pages 29-35 only, in Lavenda, R. and Schutz, E. Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology. 2013. McGraw Hill.

Thursday 5th September

Against diversity: Burnistoun elevator clip

WEEK 2:

SPEECH COMMUNITIES:

What are speech communities? How is the term flawed? What other distinctions might one want to make?

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Tuesday 10th September

part II pages 119-135 in Ahearn, Laura M. 2017. Living Language : an Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Second edition.

Spitulnik, Debra. "The social circulation of media discourse and the mediation of communities." Journal of linguistic anthropology 6, no. 2 (1996): 161-187.

Bucholtz, Mary. "Word up: Social meanings of slang in California youth culture." A cultural approach to interpersonal communication: Essential readings (2006): 243-267.

Ali G vid on de ganj WEEK 3:

SOCIALISATION, SIGNS AND SYMBOLS

We will learn about semiotics, namely de Saussure and Pierce’s influential theories of signifier and signified. How are we socialised into learning signs?

Tuesday 17th September

Section ‘Language Acquisition and the Socialization Process’ pages 71-75 Section ‘Language Socialization throughout the Lifespan’ 81-85

in Ahearn, Laura M. 2017. Living Language : an Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Second edition.

Or

‘We are like Doctors’ -please stop at ‘Sobering Codas’- pages 29-39 in Jacobs-Huey, Lanita. 2006. From the Kitchen to the Parlor: Language and Becoming In African American Women's Hair Care. Oxford:

Oxford University Press.

Or

Chandler, Daniel. 2007. Pages 17-41 (read indexical mode and then stop) in section Models of the Sign, In Semiotics. The Basics. Routledge.

The Deaf Children of NICARAGUA Silent Children, New Language

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WEEK 4:

Tuesday 24th-26 September No Classes

WEEK 5:

LANGUAGE AS SOCIAL ACTION

How does language ‘do’ things? What are speech acts? From hate speech to casting spells, we discuss language as social action.

Tuesday 1st October

Section ‘Performativity’ 164-171

in Ahearn, Laura M. 2017. Living Language : an Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Second edition.

Tambiah, S. (1968). The Magical Power of Words. Man, 3(2), new series, 175-208. doi:10.2307/2798500 Read pages 175-184 only

Wednesday 3rd October

Multiple Choice Test

WEEK 6:

LANGUAGE, RACE AND CLASS

Language is never neutral; it is produced in each setting and has implications. Critical to the understanding that race is a social construction is the recognition that language must play a strong role in assigning racial meaning to bodies. Language may be used from marking racial solidarity with groups such as African Americans or conversely reifying stereotypes about blackness.

Tuesday 8th October

pages 214-236 in Ahearn, Laura M. 2017. Living Language : an Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Second edition.

Cutler, C. A. (2007). The co-construction of whiteness in an MC battle. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), 17(1), 9-22.

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Thursday 10th October Film: 8 Mile

WEEK 7:

Tuesday 15th October Film continued

Thursday 17th October In-class test

WEEK 8:

THE GENDER OF LANGUAGE

What is the relationship between language and gender? How do we stereotype certain types of language?

How is language used to empower and disempower gender groups?

Tuesday 22nd October

Section: Language and Gender pages 187-213 in Ahearn, Laura M. 2017. Living Language : an Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Second edition.

Thursday 24th October

Chapter 1: Slutty skank hoes and nasty dykes: a comprehensive list of gendered insults I Hate

in Montell, Amanda .2019. Word Slut A feminist guide to taking the English Language Back, Harper- Collins

WEEK 9:

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LGBTQ LANGUAGE Tuesday 29th October

Boellstorff, T. 2004. Gay language and Indonesia: Registering belonging. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 14(2), 248-2

‘I don’t speak Spritch’ in Hall, K., & Livia, A. 1997. Queerly phrased: language, gender, and sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press.

‘Homophobic Slang and Coercive discourse’ in Hall, K., & Livia, A. 1997. Queerly phrased: language, gender, and sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press.

Thursday 31st October Film: Do I Sound Gay?

WEEK 10:

LANGUAGE, CLASS, POWER AND HIERARCHY

We look at linguistic anthropologists’ analyses of language and the relationship to power, class and hierarchy.

Tuesday 5th November

Readings :

Labov, W. (1986). The social stratification of (r) in New York City department stores. In Dialect and language variation (pp. 304-329). Academic Press.

‘Some Words on Women’s Silence’, Lakoff, Robin Tolmach, and Mary Bucholtz. Language and Woman's Place : Text and Commentaries. Rev. and expanded ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Whiteley, P. (2003). Do "language rights" serve indigenous interests? some hopi and other

queries. American Anthropologist, 105(4), 712-722.

doi:http://dx.doi.org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/10.1525/aa.2003.105.

Dynel, Marta. Swearing methodologically : the (im)politeness of expletives in anonymous commentaries on Youtube. Journal of English Studies, v. 10, p. 25-50, may 2012

Thursday 7th November Analysis of political speeches

WEEK 11:

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MONDAY 11th- SUNDAY 17th November READING WEEK

WEEK 12:

THE LANGUAGE OF DREAMS Tuesday 19th November

Foulkes, David. 1978 ‘Dreaming and Language’ in A Grammar of Dreams. The Harvester Press.

Kracke, W. 2009. Dream as Deceit, Dream as Truth: The Grammar of Telling Dreams. Anthropological Linguistics, 51(1), 64-77.

Mannheim, Bruce. 1987 ‘A Semiotic of Andean Dreams’ in Tedlock, Barbara, Dreaming:

Anthropological and Psychological Interpretations. Cambridge University Press.

Pound, L. 1934. On the Linguistics of Dreams. American Speech, 9(3),

Also cited:

Guthell, Emil. 1939. The Language of the Dream.

Thursday 21st November Dream analysis

FINAL WEEK:

Tuesday 26th November

FINAL MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST

Thursday 28th November No class

ANTHR208 Dr.

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