Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology (01:070:108)

Ruth Adams Building (RAB), Rm.001 Monday and Thursday, 9:15-10:35 a.m.

Professor Laura M. Ahearn Spring 2011

Prof. Ahearn’s office Ruth Adams Building, Rm. 308 Section H1: Mon, 10:55-12:15, RAB 018

TA: Ms. Tayo Jolaosho Section 01: Mon, 12:35-1:55, HCK 123

Section 02: Mon, 2:15-3:35, HCK 113 Section 03: Wed, 12:35-1:55, HCK 129

Prof. Ahearn’s office hours: Thursdays, 11:00-1:00, or by appointment, in RAB 308

Ms. Jolaosho’s office hours: Mondays, 11:00-12:00, or by appointment

in RAB 311 Prof. Ahearn’s e-mail: ahearn@rci.rutgers.edu

Ms. Jolaosho’s e-mail: ojolao@eden.rutgers.edu

Sakaicoursewebsitewithallreadingsonit:http://sakai.rutgers.edu

Overview The main goal of this course is to provide you with a basic understanding of various anthropological approaches to the study of language. You will learn about how language both reflects and shapes thought, culture, and power. You will also learn how to apply the concepts we study to your everyday experiences with language. While this is an introductory course requiring no background, my expectations of you will be high. The format of most class sessions will be a mixture of lecture and discussion. The additional discussion sections will enable you to interact in smaller groups. Come to all classes ready to engage actively with the readings, and be prepared to apply what you are learning to your own experiences with language in everyday settings.

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Core Curriculum Learning Goals

Core Curriculum Learning Goals Met by this Course This course meets the II.C.q learning goal: II: Areas of Inquiry C: Arts and Humanities q. Understand the nature of human languages and their speakers.

Assessment of SAS Core Curriculum Learning Goals Met by this Course Achievement of the II.C.q SAS Core Curriculum learning goal will be assessed as follows: Students will be assessed on their achievement of this learning goal through the midterm and final exams, and through the language autobiography essay.

Exams, Written Assignments, and Grading

There will be four pop quizzes, two hour exams, a language autobiography essay, and a final quiz. The course assignments will require you to read, think, and write a lot. While I will not be taking attendance before each lecture, the pop quizzes may occur at any time, and there will be no make-ups for them. Your worst pop quiz grade will, however, be dropped. Attendance at sections is mandatory. The TA will be taking attendance, and that will be part of your final grade, along with your participation in section. You can expect to lose one point off of your final grade for each section you miss.

Make-ups for the hour exams and final quiz will require a note from your Dean and will only be allowed in extreme emergencies. Travel arrangements that conflict with these exams will not be considered an acceptable excuse.

Language autobiographies that are handed in late will be penalized one half-grade per day. Students found cheating on exams, handing in assignments containing plagiarized passages, or otherwise violating academic integrity policies will be turned in to the appropriate Dean for punishment. All written assignments will be screened by Turnitin.com. Please familiarize yourself, therefore, with the Rutgers academic integrity policy, posted online at http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml. If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, take one of the following tutorials, or talk to me:

(1) http://library.camden.rutgers.edu/EducationalModule/Plagiarism (2) Consult “Don't Plagiarize: Document Your Research! for tips about how to take notes so that you

don't plagiarize by accident: http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/lib_instruct/instruct_document.shtml

Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

Pop quizzes (best three grades out of four) 15% (5% each) Hour exam #1 (Thurs, Feb 24th) 20% Hour exam #2 (Mon, April 4th) 20% Language autobiography (due May 10th by 4pm) 20% Final in-class, 30-minute quiz (Mon, May 2nd) 10% Section attendance and participation 15% 100%

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You will also have many opportunities during the semester to earn extra credit through optional assignments, online participation in discussion boards on Sakai (http://sakai.rutgers.edu), and other projects. Students who provide at least three meaningful comments can earn bonus points on their final grade.

Readings There is no textbook for this class. Readings for this course are available online through the Sakai course website (http://sakai.rutgers.edu). If you have any problems gaining access to the readings, please let me know. You will be expected to have read the assignment listed for each class period BEFORE class begins. Be prepared to discuss the reading assignment, ask questions about it, or debate the issues raised in it. There will also be four pop quizzes, so do not fall behind on the readings.

…And remember: the only dumb question is the one you don’t ask…

From time to time, we will be viewing videos during lectures or in section. If you miss class on the day a video is shown, you are responsible for viewing it yourself. Exams will include questions about the content of the videos and about the remarks of any guest speakers who visit. Dates and assignments may change during the semester. All changes will be announced in class and/or noted on Sakai.

Classroom Atmosphere My goal is to create a classroom environment that is relaxed and conducive to free intellectual exchange. In order to foster an atmosphere in which all students feel comfortable asking questions and sharing comments, it is essential that you demonstrate respect for one another as well as for the TA and me. You are expected to refrain from activities such as reading the newspaper, doing the crossword puzzle, talking on the phone, or working on assignments for other classes while in this classroom. Because pop quizzes are held at the very beginning of class, it is essential that you come to class on time. If you arrive after a quiz is finished, you will not be allowed to take it. If you must have your cell phone on in case of an emergency, please put it in vibrate mode before class begins. If you would like to use your laptop to take notes, you must take a seat in the last two rows. You may not surf the web or have any other windows open besides your note-taking window. If the TA or I see that you have not been abiding by this rule, you will not be allowed to use a laptop again in class during the semester. The main reasons for these rules are to minimize distractions to other students and to encourage you to focus on the lecture itself.

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Unit 1 : The “Socially Charged” Life of Language Th, 1/20 Introduction – no reading assignment

NO SECTIONS THE FIRST WEEK

M, 1/24 Ahearn, Laura M. “Preface” and Chapter One, “The Socially Charged Life of Language,” from Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, forthcoming from Wiley-Blackwell.

SECTIONS WILL MEET

FOR FIRST TIME THIS WEEK (1/24 - 1/28) Th, 1/27 Wolkomir, Richard. 1992. “American Sign Language: ‘It’s not mouth stuff – it’s brain

stuff.’” Smithsonian 23:30-41.

Osborne, Lawrence. 1999. “A linguistic big bang.” New York Times Magazine, 24 October 1999, pp.84ff.

“Deaf Culture.” Talk of the Nation radio show transcript, National Public Radio, 2 February 2005.

Harrison, K. David. 2007. “Handy Talk, Talking Hands.” In When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge (pp. 230-233). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

M, 1/31 Ahearn, Laura M. “The Research Process in Linguistic Anthropology,” Chapter Two

from Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, forthcoming from Blackwell.

VIDEO in section: “A World of Gestures: Culture & Nonverbal Communication” (2-2693)

Unit 2: Language Acquisition and Schooling Th, 2/3 Ahearn, Laura M. “Language Acquisition and Socialization,” Chapter Three from

Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, forthcoming from Wiley-Blackwell.

VIDEO in section: “Acquiring the Human Language, Part 2: Playing the Language Game” (2-2402) M, 2/7 Elinor Ochs and Bambi B. Schieffelin. 1984. “Language Acquisition and Socialization:

Three Developmental Stories and Their Implications.” In Richard A. Shweder and R.A. LeVine (eds.), Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.276-320.

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ALSO LISTEN TO THIS MP3 FILE: “Talkin’ about Talk: Language Acquisition” from the Five-Minute Linguist (file on Sakai)

VIDEO in lecture: “Diverted to Delhi” (2-6381) Unit 3: Language, Thought, and Culture Th, 2/10 Ahearn, Laura M. “Language, Thought, and Culture,” draft of Chapter Four from Living

Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, forthcoming from Blackwell. GUEST LECTURE – DON’T MISS IT: Ms. Tingting Gao!!

M, 2/14 Deutscher, Guy. “Does Your Language Shape How You Think?” New York Times

Magazine, online edition. Aug. 26, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html (or on Sakai)

ALSO LISTEN TO INTERVIEW WITH JOHN LUCY (mp3 file posted on Sakai) Th, 2/17 Cohn, Carol. 1987. “Sex and death in the rational world of defense intellectuals.”

Signs: The Journal of Women in Culture and Society 12:687-718.

M, 2/21 Review for Hour Exam #1 – no reading assignment Th, 2/24 HOUR EXAM #1

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Unit 4: Speech Communities – Monolingual and Multilingual

M, 2/28 Ahearn, Laura M. “Communities of Language Users,” Chapter Five from Living

Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, forthcoming from Wiley-Blackwell.

Th, 3/3 Debra Spitulnik. 1996. “The Social Circulation of Media Discourse and the Mediation

of Communities.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 6(2):161-187. M, 3/7 Romaine, Suzanne. 2001. “Multilingualism.” In Aronoff, Mark and Janie Rees-Miller

(eds.), The Handbook of Linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp.512-532.

EXTRA CREDIT: Kimmelman, Michael. 2010. “Pardon My French.” New York Times, online edition, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/arts/25abroad.html

VIDEO in lecture: “Speaking in Tongues” (10-1736) VIDEO in section: “Lost in Translation” (owned by Prof. A.)

Unit 5: Performance Th, 3/10 Jones, Graham and Lauren Shweder. 2003. “The Performance of Illusion and

Illusionary Performatives: Learning the Language of Theatrical Magic” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 13(1):51-70.

GUEST LECTURE: Ms. Tayo Jolaosho, “Protest and Performance in South Africa” SPRING BREAK!! Unit 6: Literacy Practices M, 3/21 Shirley Brice Heath, “What No Bedtime Story Means: Narrative Skills at Home and

School,” in A. Duranti, Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001, pp. 318-342.

Th, 3/24 Jones, Graham M. and Bambi B. Schieffelin. 2009. “Enquoting voices, accomplishing talk: uses of be + like in instant messaging.” Language and Communication. 29:77-113.

Rich, Motoko. 2008. “Literacy debate: online, R U really reading?” New York Times, 27 July 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html.

Unit 7: Language Ideologies M, 3/28 Paul V. Kroskrity, “Language Ideologies.” In Duranti, Alessandro (ed.), A Companion

to Linguistic Anthropology. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004, pp. 496-517.

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VIDEO in lecture: “American Tongues” (2-390)

Unit 8: Language & Gender

Th, 3/31 Review for Hour Exam #2 M, 4/4 HOUR EXAM #2 Th, 4/7 Cameron, Deborah. 2007. The Myth of Mars and Venus: Do Men and Women Really

Speak Different Languages? Oxford University Press, pp.1-40. M, 4/11 Cameron, Deborah. 1998. “Performing gender identity: young men’s talk and the

construction of heterosexual masculinity.” In J. Coates (ed.), Language and Gender: A Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell. EXTRA CREDIT: Harrison, K. David. 2007. “Man-Talk, Woman-Talk.” In When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge (pp. 228-230). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Th, 4/14 Kulick, Don. 1998. “Anger, Gender, Language Shift, and the Politics of Revelation in a

Papua New Guinean Village.” In B.B. Schieffelin, K.A. Woolard, and P.V. Kroskrity (eds.), Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.87-102.

Unit 9: Language, Race, & Ethnicity M, 4/18 Bonvillain, Nancy. 2000. “African American English in the United States.” In N.

Bonvillain, Language, Culture, and Communication: The Meaning of Messages. Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., pp. 153-158.

VIDEO in lecture: “Do You Speak American? Part 1, Up North” (10-645, part 1)

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VIDEO in section: “The Human Voice: Exploring Vocal Paralanguage” (2-2695)

Th, 4/21 Urciuoli, Bonnie. 1991. “The political topography of English: the view from a New

York Puerto Rican neighborhood.” American Ethnologist 18(2):295-310. M, 4/25 Jane H. Hill. 1998. “Language, Race, and White Public Space.” American

Anthropologist 100(3):680-689. ALSO LISTEN TO “Linguistic Profiling” piece on NPR (mp3 file is on Sakai)

Unit 10: Language Death and Revitalization Th, 4/28 Harrison, K. David. 2007. “A World of Many (Fewer) Voices.” In K. David Harrison,

When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World’s 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. EXTRA CREDIT: Listen to NPR “Talk of the Nation” show on endangered Alaskan

languages at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1139510

VIDEO in lecture: “The Linguists” (10-1516) M, 5/2 FINAL 30-MINUTE QUIZ

LANGUAGE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES DUE BY 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 10th!