Sarah Lawrence College (ANTH-4036-R)
Spring 2002
Instructor: David Valentine Class location: Andrews 101, Wednesday. 2:00-5:00pm
Office: Sheffield 05 Class dates: January 23- May 15, 2002
Phone: 914.395.2363 email: [email protected]
Course Description:
The "English Only" movement in the United States has been attempting for years to have English recognized as the nation's official language.... On a daily basis, people with non-standard accents are asked where they come from.... In New Guinea, languages which have thrived for centuries are dying out... People claim that they can "tell" if someone is gay or straight by the way they speak. While language is a universal feature of human culture, and a vital resource for humans' ability to describe and relate to the world around them, language is also deeply political in nature.
This course aims to consider, from an anthropological perspective, how language as a social phenomenon is enmeshed in relations of social power. The complex relationship between language and culture raises important questions: how does language shape our view of the world? What relations of power are encoded in language use and beliefs about language? How is language used creatively to produce social worlds? What are the politics of using one variety of language over another? This course seeks to explore these and other questions from a variety of perspectives, including language and world view, the use of metaphors in everyday speech, language socialization, language shift, and language and identity. Above all, we will be concerned with the relationships of power that are deeply enmeshed in everyday language use, and consequently, the major themes of this class revolve around the politics of language and language ideologies.
Course Requirements:
Three 5-6 page papers are due in class on dates to be determined. There will also be two short research projects.
Evaluations and attendance:
All papers and projects are due in class on Wednesdays. No late assignments will be accepted ? if you fail to hand in a paper on time in class it will not be evaluated. You are expected to attend all of the classes except in the cases of documented illness or emergency. Please note: more than two unwarranted absences will result in loss of credit.
Assigned Texts:
The following books are required for the course and are available at the university bookstore.
1. Bauman, Richard (1990) Let your words be few: symbolism of speaking and silence among seventeenth-century Quakers. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press.
2. Cameron, Deborah (1995) Verbal hygiene. New York: Routledge.
3. Duranti, Alessandro (ed.) (2001) Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Cambridge, MA: Blackwells.
4. Kulick, Don (1992) Language shift and cultural reproduction: socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua
New Guinean village. Cambridge: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
In addition, assigned books and course readings are available in the reserve library.
Course Outline
January 23: Introduction to the course
Readings:
Duranti, Alessandro
2001 Linguistic anthropology: history, ideas, issues. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp. 1-38. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
January 30: Language as an Object of Anthropological Investigation
Readings:
Boas, Franz
[1911] Introduction to the handbook of American Indian languages. in Language, culture and society: a book of readings. Ben G. Blount (ed). p. 12-31. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop.
Boas, Franz
[1889] On alternating sounds. In The shaping of American anthropology 1883-1911: A Franz Boas reader. George W. Stocking (ed.) Pp. 72-77. New York: Basic Books.
Sapir, Edward
1968[1933] Communication. In Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture and
Personality. David G. Mandelbaum, ed. 104-109. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Sapir, Edward
1974 [1927] The unconscious patterning of behavior in society. In Language, culture and society: a book of readings. Ben
G. Blount (ed.). Pp.32-44. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop.
Saussure, Ferdinand de
1985 [ ] The linguistic sign. In Semiotics: an introductory anthology. Robert E. Ennis (ed.) pp28-46. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Part 2: Language and World View
February 6: The "Whorfian Hypothesis" and "Habitual Thought"
Readings:
Whorf, Benjamin Lee
2001[1939] The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp. 363-381. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Hojier, Harry
1974 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. In Language, Culture and Society: A Book of Readings. Ben G. Blount, ed. pp.120-131. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop.
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs and Mary Louise Pratt
1980 The Whorfian hypothesis. In Linguistics for students of literature. pp. 106-110. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Orwell, George
1983 [1949] Appendix: the principles of Newspeak. In Nineteen Eighty Four. Pp. 257-268. New York: Penguin.
Bulmer, R.
1973 Why the cassowary is not a bird. In Rules and meanings: the anthropology of everyday life. Mary Douglas (ed.) pp. 167-193. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
February 13: Metaphors, Models, and Modes Film: Darmok
Readings:
Reddy, Michael J.
1979 The conduit metaphor: a case of frame conflict in our language about language. In Metaphor and thought. Andrew Ortony (ed.) pp.284-324. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohn, Carol
1996 Sex and death in the rational world of defense intellectuals. In Gender and scientific authority. Barbara Laslett et al (eds). Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Lakoff, G. and Z. Kovecses
1987 The cognitive model of anger inherant in American English. In Cultural models in language and thought. D. Holland and N. Quinn (eds). Pp. 195-222. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Basso, Keith
1988 "Speaking with names": language and landscape among the Western Apache. Cultural Anthropology 3(2):99-130.
February 20: Social Stereotypes Film: American Tongues
Readings:
Lippi-Green, R.
1994 Accent, standard language, language ideology, and the discriminatory pretext in the courts. Language in Society 23:163-198.
Haarman, H.
1984 The role of ethnocultural stereotypes and foreign languages in Japanese commercials. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 50:101-120.
Preston, Dennis R.
1982 'Ritin 'Fowklower Daun 'Rong: Folklorists' failure in phonology. Journal of American Folklore 95(377):304-326.
Young, Linda Wai Ling
1982 Inscrutability revisited. In Language and social identity. John J. Gumperz (ed.) Pp 72-84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Part 3: Speech Acts, Speech Communities
February 27: Speech Acts and Speech Events ** Paper 1 Due in Class **
Readings:
Hymes, Dell
2001 On Communicative competence. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp. 53-73. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Basso, Keith
1972 "To give up on words:" silence in Western Apache culture. in Language and social context. Pier Paolo Giglioli (ed). New York: Penguin.
Bailey, Benjamin
2001 Communication of respect in interethnic service encounters. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). Pp. 119-146. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Mitchell-Kernan, C.
2001 Signifying and Marking: Two Afro-American Speech Acts. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp.151-164. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
March 6: Speech Communities
Readings:
Gumperz, John
2001 The speech community. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp. 43-52. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Morgan, Marcyliena M.
2001 The African-American Speech Community: Reality and Sociolinguistics. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp. 74-94. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Jackson, Jean
1974 Language identity of the Vaup�s Indians. in Explorations in the ethnography of speaking. Richard Bauman and Joel Sherzer (eds). London ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gal, Susan
1984 Peasant men can't get wives: language change and sex roles in a bilingual community. in Language in Use: Readings in Sociolinguistics. J. Baugh and J. Sherzer, eds. pp.292-304. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Part 4: Language and Identity
March 13: Language and Gender: Is There a "Woman's Language?"
Readings:
Lakoff, Robin T.
1975 Language and woman's place. New York: Harper & Row. (selections)
Tannen, Deborah
1990 You just don't understand: women and men in conversation. New York: Morrow.(selections)
O'Barr, William M. and Bowman K. Atkins
1980 "Women's language" or "powerless language"? in Women and language in literature and society. Sally McConnell-Ginet et al (eds). pp 93-110. New York: Praeger.
Cameron, Deborah
1997 Performing gender identity: young men's talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In Language and masculinity. Sally Johnson and Ulrike Hanna Meinhof (eds). pp.47-64. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Gal, Susan
2001 Language, gender, and power: an anthropological review. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp. 420-430. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
March 20 and 27: ** SPRING BREAK **
April 3: Narrative and Social Identity ** Transcription Project Due in Class **
Readings:
Baquedano-L�pez, Patricia
2001 Creating social identities through Doctrina narratives. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp. 343-358. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness
1982 "Instigating": storytelling as social process. American Ethnologist. [vol/issue]:799-812.
Capps, Lisa and Elinor Ochs
1995 Out of place: narrative insights into agoraphobia. Discourse Processes 19:407-439.
Ginsburg, Faye D.
1987 Procreation stories: reproduction, nurturance and procreation in life narratives of abortion activists. American Ethnologist 14(4):623-636.
April 10: Language, Religion, and Identity
Readings:
Bauman, Richard
1990 Let your words be few: symbolism of speaking and silence among seventeenth-century Quakers. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press.
Part 5: Language Socialization and Language shift
April 17: Language Socialization ** Paper 2 Due in Class **
Readings:
Ochs, Elinor and Bambi Schieffelin
2001 Language Acquisition and socialization: three developmental stories and their implications. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp. 263-301. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Heath, Shirley Brice
2001 What no bedtime story means: narrative skills at home and school. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp. 318-342. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Philips, Susan U.
2001 Participant structures and communicative competence: Warm Springs children in community and classroom. In Linguistic anthropology: a reader. Alessandro Duranti (ed). pp. 302-317. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Rymer, Russ
1992 A silent childhood. The New Yorker April 13 and April 20, 1992. (Responses to Rymer by Susie Curtiss and Vicki Fromkin can be found at http://www.linglist.org/issues/3/3-344.html#dir)
April 24: Language Socialization and Language Shift
Readings:
Kulick, Don
1992 Language shift and cultural reproduction: socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua New Guinean village. Cambridge: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Part 7: Language, Ideology, and Social Power
May 1: Language Ideologies **Paper 3 Due in Class **
Readings:
Woolard, Katherine A.
1989 Sentences in the Language Prison: The Rhetorical Structure of an American Language Debate. American Ethnologist 16(2):268-278.
Kuter, L.
1989 Breton vs. French: Language and the Opposition of Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Values. In Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death. N.C. Dorian, ed. pp.75-89. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Irvine, Judith T.
1992 Ideologies of honorific language. Pragmatics 2,3:251-262.
Harries, Patrick
1988 The roots of ethnicity: discourse and the politics of language construction in southern Africa. African Affairs 87,346:25-52.
May 8: Verbal Hygiene
Readings:
Cameron, Deborah
1995 Verbal hygiene. New York: Routledge.
May 15: Language and the Nation ** Verbal Hygiene Project Due in Class **
Readings:
Schieffelin, Bambi B. and Rachelle C. Doucet
1992 The "real" Haitian creole: metalinguistics and orthographic choice. Pragmatics 2,3:427-443.
Urla, Jacqueline
1993 Contesting modernities: language standardization and the production of an ancient/modern Basque culture. Critique of anthropology 13,2:101-108.
Errington, J.Joseph
1992 On the ideology of Indonesian language development: the state of a language of a state. Pragmatics 2,3:417-426.