Description
Book SynopsisLanguage is the core of human culture - anthropologists have always put it at the centre of their agenda. So too have many linguists. The amalgam of the two disciplines, anthropological linguistics, aims to document and examine how language mirrors social structure and culture-specific thought patterns.
Language, Society, and Culture provides a concrete method for studying the relation between language and society.
Intended for use in introductory-level courses in linguistics that adopt a cultural focus, this text is also suitable for supplementary use in more theoretical linguistics courses. Written in Danesi's accessible and engaging style, highlighting the fascinating and vital work going on in anthropological linguistics, this book will also appeal to a broad audience of language students, scholars, and enthusiasts.
Table of Contents
- Part I: Language
- 1. What Is Language?
- Defining Language
- Language and Speech
- Learning to Speak
- Language and Society
- Language and Culture
- 2. Studying Language
- The Scientific Approach to Language
- Anthropoligical Linguistics
- Linguistic Analysis
- Language, Mind, and Culture
- Language, Discourse, and Variation
- 3. The Origin and Evolution of Language
- Theories
- Reconstruction
- Core Vocabularies
- Language Change
- Primate Language Experiments
- 4. Language Levels
- Describing Language
- The Phonological Level
- The Morphological Level
- The Syntactic Level
- The Semantic Level
- Part II: Language And Society
- 5. Language and Social Phenomena
- Language and Gender
- Markedness Theory
- Language and Style
- Naming People
- Artificial Languages
- 6. Using Language
- Conversational Devices
- Speech Acts
- Situational Focusing
- Language Functions
- Language and Myth
- 7. Writing
- Writing Systems
- Literacy
- Abbreviated Writing
- Online Communication
- 8. Variation
- Variant Types
- Slang
- Jargon
- Borrowing
- Part III: Language, Mind, And Culture
- 9. Language and Classification
- Classification
- The Whorfian Hypothesis
- Specialized Vocabularies
- Made-up Languages
- 10. Language and Concepts
- Sound Symbolism
- Words and Concepts
- Anthropomorphism
- Grammar and Thought
- 11. Metaphor
- What Is Metaphor?
- Conceptual Metaphors
- Metonymy and Irony
- Metaphor and Gesture
- Cultural Reifications
- 12. Pop Language
- What Is Pop Language?
- Hip Talk
- Hip Talk and Gender
- Concluding Remarks
- Glossary of Technical Terms
- Bibliography
- Index
