This version of the course guide is provisional until the period for editing the new course guides ends.

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Linguistic Anthropology

Code: 101250 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Social and Cultural Anthropology OT 3
Social and Cultural Anthropology OT 4

Contact

Name:
Montserrat Ventura Oller
Email:
montserrat.ventura@uab.cat

Teachers

Victor Navarro Izquierdo

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

  1. Analysing a contemporary fact from an anthropological perspective.
  2. Applying the knowledge of cultural variability and its genesis to avoid ethnocentric projections.
  3. Apprehending cultural diversity through ethnography and critically assessing ethnographic materials as local context knowledge.
  4. Assessing critically the explicit and implicit theoretical models in the ethnographic materials.
  5. Distinguishing between the theoretical concepts of Anthropology and the indigenous concepts.
  6. Interpreting the cultural diversity through ethnography.
  7. Knowing and assessing the various processes of intercultural relationship.
  8. Summarising acquired knowledge about the origin and transformations experienced in the several fields of anthropology.
  9. Summarizing the characteristics of a written text in accordance to its communicative purposes.

Content

I. Anthropology and Linguistics
										
											
										
											II. Language and Thought
										
											
										
											III. The Domestication of Savage Thought
										
											
										
											IV. Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: Classifications
										
											
										
											V. Languages in Variation and Languages in Contact
										
											
										
											VI. Language and Ideology: Variations in Class, Gender, Ethnicity, and Nationality
										
											
										
											VII. Language Acquisition
										
											
										
											VIII. Linguistic Anthropology in the Globalized World: Challenges and Possibilities
										
											
										
											IX. Endangered Languages and Linguistic Revitalization I
										
											
										
											X. Multimodality in Linguistic Anthropology
										
											
										
											XI. Linguistic Documentation and Applications in Communities

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Master classes 42 1.68 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 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, 9, 8

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
Conference attendance 5 0 0 1, 7, 8
Participation in 2 working seminars 30 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 9, 8
Presentation of research results 10 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 9, 8
Reflection Essay 20% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 9, 8
Research essay 35% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 9, 8

Assessment

1) Submission of a research paper based on the mandatory readings of the different topics, and a small field research following a guideline posted on the Virtual Campus (35% grade); the characteristics and date of submission of the papers will be set at the beginning of the course and will be posted on the virtual campus.

2) Submission of a reflection paper based on compulsory readings and case analysis (20% of the grade); the characteristics and date of submission of the papers will be set at the beginning of the course and will be posted on the virtual campus.

3) Oral presentation in the classroom of the results of the work (10% of the grade); the characteristics and date of the presentations will be set at the beginning of the course and will be posted on the virtual campus.

4) Participation in two thematic work seminars (15% each, with a total value of 30%)

5) Attendance at the conferences that will be scheduled during the course (with a weight of 5% of the grade). The dates and names will be announced during the course and published on the Virtual Campus

ALL INFORMATION WILL BE EXPANDED AND SPECIFIED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE COURSE IN THE SPECIFIC PROGRAM AND WILL BE UPDATED ON THE VIRTUAL CAMPUS

All tasks must be submitted within the required deadlines to be assessable.

SINGLE EVALUATION; the content will be the same; it will include an oral exam (30%), and a written exam (70%)

Plagiarism, from classmates, published materials or internet, is not useful for learning, is punishable by law, and will be grounds for suspension.


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, Pierre (1985). ¿Qué significa hablar? Economía de los intercambios lingüísticos. Barcelona: Akal.
    • Buxó, Maia Jesús (1983). Antropología lingüística. Barcelona: Cuadernos de Antropología.
    • Duranti, Alessandro (1997). Antropología lingüística. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    • Duranti, Alessandro (2001). Linguistic anthropology: A reader. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell.
    • Foley, William A. (1997). Anthropological linguistics: An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
    • Franzé, Adela (2014). Políticas lingüísticas, inmigración y ciudadanía: ‘español para inmigrantes’. En C. Peláez-Paz & M. I. Jociles (Eds.), Estudios etnográficos de las políticas públicas en contextos educativos (pp. 370-377). Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños.
    • Junyent, Maria Carme, & Comellas Casanova, Pere (2019). Antropología lingüística. Madrid: Síntesis.
    • Martín-Rojo, Luisa (2016). Language and power. In The Oxford handbook of language and society (p. 77). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    • Stanlaw, James, Adachi, Nobuco & Salzmann, Zdenek, (2014). Language, culture, and society: An introduction to linguistic anthropology. Westview Press.
    • Spivak, Gayatri Ch. (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, Honorio (2003). Hablar y pensar, tareas culturales:Antropología lingüística y antropología cognitiva. Madrid: UNED.
    • Woolard, Kathryn. A., & Kroskrity, Paul V. (Eds.). (2012). Ideologías lingüísticas: Práctica y teoría. 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


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed