Language, Culture, and Society: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology

Front Cover
Avalon Publishing, Jul 8, 2014 - Social Science - 450 pages
Why should we study language? How do the ways in which we communicate define our identities? And how is this all changing in the digital world? Since 1993, many have turned to Language, Culture, and Society for answers to questions like those above because of its comprehensive coverage of all critical aspects of linguistic anthropology. This seventh edition carries on the legacy while addressing some of the newer pressing and exciting challenges of the 21st century, such as issues of language and power, language ideology, and linguistic diasporas. Chapters on gender, race, and class also examine how language helps create-and is created by-identity.

New to this edition are enhanced and updated pedagogical features, such as learning objectives, updated resources for continued learning, and the inclusion of a glossary. There is also an expanded discussion of communication online and of social media outlets and how that universe is changing how we interact. The discussion on race and ethnicity has also been expanded to include Latin- and Asian-American English vernacular.

 

Contents

1 Introducing Linguistic Anthropology
1
2 Methods of Linguistic Anthropology
21
Language Is Sound
43
Structure of Words and Sentences
79
5 Communicating Nonverbally
109
Language Birth Language Growth and Language Death
143
Life with First Languages Second Languages and More
189
8 Language Through Time
215
10 Ethnography of Communication
265
Meaning and Language in the Conceptual World
285
12 Language Culture and Thought
309
Variations in Gender
343
Variations in Class Race Ethnicity and Nationality
389
15 Linguistic Anthropology in a Globalized World
421
Bibliography
449
Index
487

9 Languages in Variation and Languages in Contact
243

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Common terms and phrases

About the author (2014)

Zdenek Salzmann, a native of Prague, is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and adjunct professor at Northern Arizona University. A specialist in Native American languages and folklore, he is the author, with his wife, Joy, of Native Americans of the Southwest.

James Stanlaw is professor of anthropology at Illinois State University. His areas of interest include linguistic anthropology, cognitive anthropology, language and culture contact, and Japan and Southeast Asia. He is the author of Japanese English: Language and Culture Contact.

Nobuko Adachi is associate professor of anthropology at Illinois State University. Her interests include language and transnationalism, ethnohistory, and ethnic studies. She is the author of Japanese Diasporas: Unsung Pasts, Conflicting Presents, and Uncertain Futures.

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