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Anthropology 430
Language and Culture
Fall Semester, 2014
Yukti Mukdawijitra
mukdawijitra@wisc.edu
5462 Social Sciences Building, Observatory Drive
Office Hours: Friday 1:00-4:00 pm. or by appointment.
Course Description
This course surveys concepts and theories in linguistic anthropology. It approaches
language as social, cultural and political phenomena in comparative perspectives. This
course explores how language corresponds to thought, how language represents social stratification and conflicts, language and state formation, orality and literacy, and
issues of language policy and language rights.
Assessments
1)
Class participation
30%
Participation in class discussion is very important. To facilitate discussion, before attending the class, students must take notes and prepare questions relating to the
readings. Students may choose to team up with one of your classmates to summarize
the main ideas and interesting points of the weekly readings. Prepare questions regarding what is unclear or comments relating to the weekly readings. Turn in the
notes in the class. The notes will not be returned, so please make a copy for yourself
prior to attending the class.
2)
Two critical book reviews 40% (=20+20)
(Students who enrolled for 4 credits are required to write an additional book review)
Undergraduate students write two (or three) 5-7-page (double-spaced) critical book
review essays. Choose two books from the following list to review:
- Basso, Keith. 1996. Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the
Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of. New Mexico Press.
- Bambi B. Schieffelin. 1990. The Give and Take of Everyday Life: Language Socialization of Kaluli Children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Cameron, Deborah and Don Kuklic. 2003. Language and Sexuality. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
- Kroskrity, Paul V. and Margaret C. Field. 2009. Native American Language Ideologies:
Beliefs, Practices, and Struggles in Indian Country. Arizona: University of Arizona
Press.
- Messick, B. 1993. The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim
Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
The book review essays must present the books main arguments or issues as well as
the reviewers (the students) critical and academic discussion about the authors content, argument, and data. Students are encouraged to bring issues discussed in this
class or the class materials into the book reviews.
Graduate students write two 8-10 page (double spaced) book reviews comparing
and contrasting two books. Choose books from the list above or consult with the
instructor to find other books that are relevant to students interests.
The book reviews are due in WEEK V and VI of the course. For 4-credit students,
turn in an additional book review in WEEK XIV

3)
One research paper
30%
Write a linguistic anthropology research paper based on field experiences, documents,
course materials, interview, participant observation, and other necessary information.
Topics of the paper are various. Use theories, concepts and information taken from the
assigned readings as a starting point.
A research paper is 12-15-page (double-spaced) for undergraduate students and 1720-page (double-spaced) for graduate students.
Turn in a one-page research topic and propose theory and methodology appropriated for the topic in WEEK VII. Students must consult the instructor while gathering data and report briefly to the class periodically. The research paper is due on
December 15.
Class Schedule
PART ONE: OVERVIEW
WEEK I (September 5): overview
Watch in the class: The Class (Entre les murs (2008) by Laurent Cantet) in the class.
PART TWO: SCOPE AND HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
WEEK II (September 12): history, scopes and new directions of linguistic anthropology
Read:
- Hymes, Dell. 1970. Linguistic Method in Ethnography: Its Development in the United
States. In Method and Theory in Linguistics. Paul L. Garvin ed. Pp. 249-325. The
Hague: Mouton.
- Black, Steven P. 2012. Linguistic Anthropology in 2012: Language Matter(s) American Anthropologist 115(2): 273-285.
WEEK III (September 19): language forms and history
Read:
- Duranti, Alessandro. 2007. The Word as a Unit of Analysis (read topic 5.2), Meaning In Linguistic Forms (read topic 6.1-6.5). In Linguistic Anthropology. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
- Enfield, Nick J. 2005. Areal Linguistics and Mainland Southeast Asia, Annual Reviews in Anthropology 34,1:181-206.
Watch in the class: History of English in Ten Minutes (2011, by The Open University,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3r9bOkYW9s)
PART THREE: LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT
WEEK IV (September 26): linguistic relativism
Read:
- Boas, Franz. 1964. [1911] Linguistics and Ethnology (excerpted) In Language in Society and Culture: A Reader in Linguistics and Anthropology. Pp. 17-22. Hymes, Dell,
eds. New York: Harper and Row.
- Boas, Franz. 1964. [1934] On Geographic Names of the Kwakiutl In Language in
Society and Culture: A Reader in Linguistics and Anthropology. Pp. 171-176. Hymes,
Dell, eds. New York: Harper and Row.
- Sapir, Edward and Swadesh, Morris. 1964. [1946] American Indian Grammatical Categories. In Language in Culture and Society: a reader in linguistics and anthropology. Dell Hymes ed. Pp. 101-111. New York: Harper and Row.

- Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1959. [1939] The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior
to Language In Benjamin L. Whorf. Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writing
of Benjamin Lee Whorf. John B. Carroll, ed. Pp. 134-159. New York: the Technology
Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and John Wiley and Son, Inc.
WEEK V (October 3): language we live by
- Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press. Chapters 1-11 (pp. 3-55).
- Basso, Keith H. 1967. Semantic Aspects of Linguistic Acculturation American Anthropologist. 69(5): 471-477.
WEEK VI (October 10): new directions in linguistic relativism
Read:
- Gumperz, John and Levinson, Stephen. 1997. [1996] Introduction to Part I. In Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Gumperz, John and Levinson, Stephen eds. Pp. 21-36.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Slobin, Dan I. 1997. [1996] From Thought and Language to Thinking for
Speaking In Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Gumperz, John and Levinson, Stephen
eds. Pp. 70-96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Kay, Paul. 1997. [1996] Intra-Speaking Relativity. In Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Gumperz, John and Levinson, Stephen eds. Pp. 97-114. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
PART FOUR: STRUCTURALISM
WEEK VII (October 17): structure of language
Read:
- Saussure, Ferdinand de. 2000. [1916] The Nature of the Linguistic Sign, Language
and Linguistics, Linguistic Value In The Routledge Language and Cultural Theory
Reader. Burke, Lucy, Tony Crowley, and Alan Girvin. eds. Pp. 21-32, 53-63,
105-113. London: Routledge.
- Leach, Edmund. Leach, E. 1964. Anthropological aspects of language: animal categories and verbal abuse In New Directions in the study of Language. E. Lenneberg
ed. Pp. 23-63. Cambridge, MA: the MIT Press.
PART FIVE: LANGUAGE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE
WEEK VIII (October 24): speaking is acting
Read:
- Malinowski, B. 1923. The problem of meaning in primitive languages In C. K. Ogden and I.A. Richards. 1923. The Meaning of Meaning. London: Kegan Paul (International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method). Supplement 1.
- Austin, John. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
(Lecture I, pp. 1-11; Lecture VIII-IX, pp. 94-119).
- Irvine, Judith. 1993. Insult and Responsibility: Verbal Abuse in a Wolof Village In
Responsibility and Evidence in Oral Discourse. Jane Hill and Judith Irvine, eds. Pp.
105-134. New York: Cambridge University Press.
WEEK IX (October 31): ethnicity, code-switching and ways of speaking
Read:
- Basso, Keith. 1979. Portraits of 'the Whiteman': Linguistic Play and Cultural Symbols
Among the Western Apache. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
WEEK X (November 7): ethnography of speaking

Read:
- Hymes, Dell. 1974. Studying the Interaction of Language and Social Life and Social
Anthropology, Sociolinguistics and the Ethnography of Speaking In Foundations in
Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Pp. 23-66, 83-117. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Bauman, Richard. 2004. [2001] What Shall We Give You?: Calibrations of Genre in a
Mexican Market In A World of Others Words. Pp. 58-81. Malden, MA.: Blackwell
Publishing.
- Miller, Laura. 2004. Those Naughty Teenage Girls: Japanese Kogals, Slang, and Media Assessments Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14(2):225247.
- Cavanaugh, Jillian R. et al. 2014. What Words Bring to the Table: The Linguistic Anthropological Toolkit as Applied to the Study of Food Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 24(1): 8497.
PART SIX: LANGUAGE AND POLITICS
WEEK XI (November 14): politics of language
Read:
- Voloshinov, V. N. 1993. [1973 in English and 1929 in Russian] Part I: Philosophy of
Language and Its Significant for Marxism (Chapters 1 and 2) and Part II: Toward a
Marxist Philosophy of Language (Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4) In Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Pp. 7-24, 43-106. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
- Kulick, Don. 1998. Anger, Gender, Language Shift, and the Politics ofRevelation in a
Papua New Guinean Village. In Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory. B. B. Schieffelin, K. A. Woolard, and P. V. Kroskrity, eds. Pp.87-102. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
WEEK XII (November 21): language and power
Read:
- Smith-Hefner, Nancy J. 2009. Language Shift, Gender, and Ideologies of Modernity
in Central Java, Indonesia Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 19(1): 5777.
- Bourdieu, Pierre. 1983. [1977] The Production and Reproduction of Legitimate Language In Language and Symbolic Power. Pp. 37-65. Oxford: Polity Press.
Watch in the class: The American Tongues (1987)
WEEK XIII (November 28) 2014 HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!
WEEK XIV (December 5): literacy
Read:
- Goody, Jack. 1968. Introduction In Literacy in Traditional Society. J. Goody ed. Pp.
1-26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Street, Brian. The new literacy studies In Cross Cultural Approaches to Literacy. Pp.
1-22. B. Street ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Yukti Mukdawijitra. 2011. Language Ideologies of Ethnic Orthography in a Multilingual State: the case of ethnic Thai orthographies in Vietnam Journal of Southeast
Asian Linguistics Society 4:2 (December 2011): 92-119.
- Tambiah, Stanley. 1968. Literacy in a Buddhist Village in North-East Thailand In
Literacy in Traditional Societies. J. Goody, ed. Pp. 85-131. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Watch in the class: Grabbing the Tiger: The Past and the Future of Northern Khmer
Musical Arts (2012 by Peter Vail, Majid Bagheri, Cheymonkol Chalermsukjitsri, Haruka
Sugimori, David Tan)

WEEK XV (December 12): linguistic pluralism and language rights

Read:
- Harrison, K. David. 2007. A World of Many (Fewer) Voices. In K. David Harrison,
When Languages Die: The Extinction of the Worlds Languages and the Erosion of
Human Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.3-21
- Kolbert, Elizabeth. 2005. Letter from Alaska: Last Words, A Language Dies. The
New Yorker, 6 June 2005.
- Romaine 2001. Multilingualism. In Aronoff, Mark and Janie Rees-Miller (eds.). The
Handbook of Linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp 512-532.
Watch in the class: The Linguists (2008).