Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology

Undergraduate / Graduate

How do we use language when we interact with others (and ourselves)? What lies beyond semantic meaning, or the presupposed function of language to deliver "information"? In this introductory course to the field of linguistic anthropology, we explore how power, inequality, and difference are enacted through various communicative features of human interaction-features that include, but are not limited to, what we refer to as "language." We ask how the things that we say (and how we say them) signal and shape our identities (such as race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, and class). Furthermore, we investigate how language enacts forms of human relationality-forms that, among others, encompass solidarity, conflict, and hierarchy in face-to-face interactions as well as in mass-mediated productions. Through this course, student will engage with and analyze linguistic features of human interaction in their cultural and political contexts.