Linguistic Anthropology
Code: 101250 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2500256 Social and Cultural Anthropology | OT | 3 |
| 2500256 Social and Cultural Anthropology | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Rosario Reyes Izquierdo
- Email:
- rosario.reyes@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
This course has no prerequisites. However, it is designed for students of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Objectives and Contextualisation
Objective
The aim of the course is to train students of social and cultural anthropology in the understanding of the fundamental theories and concepts of linguistic anthropology, as well as in the relationship between language, culture and society. This approach aims to provide students with the tools for a critical analysis of communicative practices in relation to social inequalities. It also seeks to deepen the analysis of current linguistic diversity and the political responses to this diversity.
Specific objectives
- To provide training in the more general questions of the discipline of linguistic anthropology from an anthropological perspective.
- To provide an understanding of global linguistic diversity, its dynamic processes and their implications for culture and society
- To examine the influence of language contact on linguistic variation
- To provide insight into the mechanisms of language acquisition and use in different contexts
- To explore ethnographic techniques for capturing linguistic diversity in a specific social context with specific power relations
- To understand languages in different ideological frameworks
- To analyse the challenges and possibilities of linguistic anthropology in a globalised world
Competences
- Social and Cultural Anthropology
- Apprehending cultural diversity through ethnography and critically assessing ethnographic materials as knowledge of local contexts and as a proposal of theoretical models.
- Demonstrating they know and comprehend the epistemological and methodological debates in Anthropology and the main investigation techniques.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
Learning Outcomes
- Analysing a contemporary fact from an anthropological perspective.
- Applying the knowledge of cultural variability and its genesis to avoid ethnocentric projections.
- Apprehending cultural diversity through ethnography and critically assessing ethnographic materials as local context knowledge.
- Assessing critically the explicit and implicit theoretical models in the ethnographic materials.
- Distinguishing between the theoretical concepts of Anthropology and the indigenous concepts.
- Interpreting the cultural diversity through ethnography.
- Knowing and assessing the various processes of intercultural relationship.
- Summarising acquired knowledge about the origin and transformations experienced in the several fields of anthropology.
- Summarizing the characteristics of a written text in accordance to its communicative purposes.
Content
I. Introduction to linguistic anthropology.
1. What is linguistic anthropology?
2. A brief history of linguistic anthropology.
3. Linguistic diversity, basic vocabularies, classifications.
II. Language, culture and thought
1. Sapir's theory
2. Whorf's hypothesis of linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism
3. Theoretical Alternatives to Linguistic Relativism
III. The development and evolution of language
1. Communication and its channels
2. Communication to the animal world
3. When a communicative system becomes a language.
IV. Languages in variation and languages in contact
1. Idiolects, Dialects and Styles
2. Contact languages, pidgins and creole languages
3. Contact languages in the contemporary world
V. Language acquisition. First languages, second languages, or other approaches
1. Language acquisition
2. Social aspects of multilingualism
3. Code-switching or dysglossia
4. New Approaches: Multilingualism and Other Approaches
VI. Language and ideology: variations in class, gender, ethnicity and nationality
1. Linguistic ideologies
2. Language and social class
3. Language and gender
4. Language and ethnicity
5. Language and nationality
VII. Linguistic Anthropology in the Globalised World, Challenges and Possibilities
1. Language and globalisation
2. The commodification of languages
3. Endangered languages
4. Multilingualism and endangered languages
5. The treatment of languages at school
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Master classes | 42 | 1.68 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Individual or group tutoring | 15 | 0.6 | 1, 3, 5, 8 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Reading and analysis of texts, direct empirical research or through documentary support, study and elaboration of the work. | 93 | 3.72 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 |
The main teaching methodology will be lectures, always combined with classroom discussions in small groups or open class and discussion in the office in individual or group tutorials on the development of the assigned tasks.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 assignments based on required readings and field research | 50% | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 |
| Final exam | 30% | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 |
| Midterm exam | 20% | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 |
Assessment
1)Delivery of two papers of maximum 10 pages (one of them in group) based on the compulsory readings of the different subjects, and a small field research following a guideline posted on the Virtual Campus (50% grade); the characteristics and the date of delivery of the papers will be fixed at the beginning of the course and posted on the virtual campus. All two papers must be submitted in order to be assessed.
2) Partial exam in the classroom (20%). The date of the exam will be set at the beginning of the course on the virtual campus.
3) Final exam in the classroom (30%). The exam date will be set at the beginning of the course on the virtual campus.
Bibliography
Follows a list of manuals. The specific bibliography for each topic will be provided in class and posted on the virtual campus.
Manuals
- Bourdieu, P. (1985). What does it mean to speak? Economy of linguistic exchanges. Barcelona: Akal.
- Buxó, M. J. (1983). Linguistic anthropology. Barcelona: Cuadernos de Antropología.
- Casado Velarde, M. (1991). Language and culture. Madrid: Síntesis.
- Duranti, A. (1997). Linguistic anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Duranti, A. (2001). Linguistic anthropology: A reader. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell.
- Foley, W. A. (1997). Anthropological linguistics: An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Franzé, A. (2014). Language policies, immigration and citizenship: 'Spanish for immigrants'. In C. Peláez-Paz & M. I. Jociles (Eds.), Ethnographic studies of public policies in educational contexts (pp. 370-377). Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños.
- Gumperz, J. J., & Bennett, A. (1981). Language and culture. Barcelona: Anagrama.
- Junyent, M. C., & Comellas Casanova, P. (2019). Linguistic anthropology. Madrid: Síntesis.
- Martín-Rojo, L. (2016). Language and power. In The Oxford handbook of language and society (p. 77). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Salzmann, Z., Stanlaw, J., & Adachi, N. (2014). Language, culture, and society: An introduction to linguistic anthropology. Westview Press.
- Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak?. In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271-313). Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
- Velasco Maillo, H. M. (2003). Speaking and thinking, cultural tasks: Linguistic anthropology and cognitive anthropology. Madrid: UNED.
- Woolard, K. A., & Kroskrity, P. V. (Eds.). (2012). Linguistic ideologies: Practice and theory. Madrid: La Catarata.
General Bibliography
- Virtual Issue: The Anthropology of Language, in American Anthropologist. Over a century of key articles in the discipline.
Software
No specific programming is required
Language list
Information on the teaching languages can be checked on the CONTENTS section of the guide.