ANTHROPOLOGY 393, LINGUISTICS 396
TOPICS IN LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY: LANGUAGE AND POWER
Wednesday 9-12, Spring 2010, Unique # 30635, EPS 1.130KA
Professor:
Elizabeth Keating
Office: EPS 2.206, phone 471-8518, email: ekeating@mail.utexas.edu,
Office hours: Tuesday 1-3
This course explores notions of power as they emerge and are constructed in language, ways in which linguistic
exchanges can express relations of power, and the role that power can play in the structure of human interaction.
Readings include both ethnographic studies and theoretical work about language and power across a range of
disciplines and cultures. Early on in the course students will collect language data from a context of their choice,
and this data will be analyzed both collaboratively and individually in terms of the concepts and issues examined in
the readings and in class discussions.
Work and Grading: Students will be responsible for short written summaries of weekly class readings to be
emailed to the professor and the other seminar members before class, one individual research paper, and an oral
presentation.
Books & Other Materials:
Wetherell, Margaret, Stephanie Taylor, and Simeon Yates. 2001/2005. Discourse Theory and Practice.
Sage Publications (DTP)
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1994. Language and Symbolic Power, Harvard University Press (LSP)
Drew, Paul and John Heritage. 1992. Talk at Work. Cambridge University Press. (TW)
Anderson, Benedict. 2006. Language and Power. Equinox Publishing (LP)
Pdf’s of some readings on the Blackboard site for the class; please download the journal articles cited
Week 1 (January 20) Introduction, Course Mechanics
Week 2 (January 27) Introduction, Language and Power
Bourdieu (LSP), pages 1-42 (various Introductions)
Kress, Gunther (in DTP), Reading 2. From Sassure to Critical Sociolinguisitcs: the turn towards a
social view of language.
Potter, Jonathan (in DTP), Reading 3. Wittgenstein and Austin.
Dumont, Louis. 1970. From Homo Hierarchicus, pp. 1-21.
Collins, P. 1993. Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination from: Lemert, C., ed. Social Theory.
San Francisco: Westview Press.
Anderson, B. 2006 (LP) Part I, Power, Chapters 1 and 2
Week 3 (February 3) Prelude
Giddens, A. 1987. Structuralism, Post-structuralism and the Production of Culture, from A. Giddens and J. Turner.
Social Theory Today. Stanford: Polity Press
Foucault, M. 1972. The Unities of Discourse, from: The Archaeology of Knowledge, NY: Pantheon
Weatherall. 2005. Reading 7, 16
Anderson, B. 2006 (LP) Part II, Language, Chapters 4 and 5
1
Week 4 (February 10) Signs, Sentences, Meaning
Wetherall et al., Reading 4, 6, 8
Goffman, E. 1956. The Nature of Deference and Demeanor from: Interaction Ritual: Essays on face-to-face
Behavior, NY: Pantheon Books
Brown, R. and Gilman, A. 1960. The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity. In Sebeok, T., ed. Style in
Language. MIT Press.
Week 5 (February 17) Methodologies, Contexts
Weatherall, Reading 9, 11, 12, 22
Goodwin, C. 2007. Formulating the Triangle of Doom. Gesture, 7(1). pp. 97-118.
Taylor, T. 2006/2009. Beyond Fun. Instrumental Play and Power Gamers. In Play Between Worlds: Exploring
Online Game Culture. MIT Press
Week 6 (February 24) Talk at Work: Micro-Analysis of Talk-in-Interaction
Drew, P. and J. Heritage, 1992. Analyzing Talk at Work: an Introduction, from Talk at Work, Cambridge
University Press.
Gumperz, J.1992. Interviewing in Intercultural Situations, from Drew and Heritage Talk at Work.
Drew, P. 1992. Contested Evidence in Courtroom Cross-Examination: the Case of a Trial for Rape, from
Drew and Heritage Talk at Work.
Weatherall, Reading 9
Week 7 (March 3) Theory and Practice: Cross-Cultural Issues
Bourdieu, Chapters 1, 3
Bloch, M. Introduction, from M. Bloch, ed. Political Language and Oratory in Traditional Society. NY: Academic
Press.
Kuipers, Joel. 2007. Comments on ritual unintelligibility. Text & Talk, 27, 4: 559-566
Gal, S. 1995. Language and the "Arts of Resistance" Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 407-424
Week 8. (March 10) Political Field (s)
Bourdieu (LSP), Chapters 7, 8, 9
Keating, E. 1998. Honor and Stratification in Pohnpei, Micronesia. American Ethnologist, 25(3):399-411.
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~ekeating/Publications/AmerEthnol.pdf
McElhinny, Bonnie. 2003. Fearful, Forceful Agents of the Law: Ideologies about Language and Gender in Police
Officers’ Narratives about the Use of Physical Force. Pragmatics 13(2):253-284.
Week 9 (March 17) Spring Break
2
Week 10 (March 24) Constructing Authority
Bourdieu, Chapter 4, 5
Keating, E. 1997. Honorific Possession: Power and Language in Pohnpei, Micronesia. Language in Society, 26(2):
247-268. http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~ekeating/Publications/Honorific%20Possession.pdf
Cohn, Carol. 1987. Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals. Signs: Journal of Women
in Culture and Society, vol 12, no. 4
Week 11 (March 31) More Constructing Authority
Bourdieu, Chapter 6, 2,
Philips, S. 1993. Evidentiary Standards for American Trials. From J. Hill and J. Irvine, eds. Responsibility and
Evidence in Oral Discourse, Cambridge University Press
Irvine, J. 1993. Insult and Responsibility: verbal abuse in a Wolof Village. From J. Hill and J. Irvine, eds.
Responsibility and Evidence in Oral Discourse, Cambridge University Press
Week 12 (April 7) Gender, Language and Power
LaFrance, M. & E. Hahn.1994. The Disappearing Agent from: Roman, Juhasz, and Miller, The Women and
Language Debate. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.
hooks, b. 1990. Reflections on Race and Sex and Representations: Feminism and Black Masculinity
from hooks, b. Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Boston: South End Press.
Weatherall, Reading 24
Goodwin, M. 2003. The Relevance of Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Children's Peer Negotiations. In Handbook
of Language and Gender. Janet Holmes and Miriam Meyerhoff, eds. Pp. 229-51. Blackwell.
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/goodwin/RelevanceEthnicityClassGender.pdf
Week 13 (April 14) Representations, Reported Speech
Bourdieu (LSP), Chapters 10, 11
Keating, E. 2002. Everyday Interactions and the Domestication of Social Inequality, IPRA Pragmatics
12:3.347-359. http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~ekeating/Publications/Pragmatics%202002%202.pdf
Schieffelin, B. 2000. Introducing Kaluli Literacy. In Kroskrity, Paul, ed. Regimes of Language:
Ideologies, Polities, and Identities. Santa Fe: School of Am. Research.
http://homepages.nyu.edu/~bs4/Bambi--Website_Assets/BBS%20PDFs/IntroKaluliliteracy.pdf
Mertz, Elizabeth. 1994. Legal Language: Pragmatics, Poetics and Social Power. In Annual Review of Anthropology
23: 435-455.
Week 14 (April 21) Conclusion and Review
Week 15 & 16 (April 28, May 5) Wrapping Up; Class Presentations
Other suggested readings:
Silverstein, Michael. 2000. Whorfianism and the Linguistic Imagination of Nationality. In Kroskrity, P. ed.,
Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities, and Identities. Santa Fe: School of American Research.
Wertsch, J. 1985. Extending Vygotsky’s Semiotic Analysis: Propositional and Discourse Referentiality from:
Vygotsky and the Social Formation of Mind. Harvard University Press.
Goodwin, Marjorie. 2006. The Hidden Life of Girls. Blackwell
Duranti, Alessandro. 1994 From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
3
Other Information
Religious Holidays:
Religious holy days sometimes conflict with class and examination schedules. If you miss an examination, work
assignment, or other project due to the observance of a religious holy day you will be given an opportunity to
complete the work missed within a reasonable time after the absence. It is the policy of The University of Texas at
Austin that you must notify your instructor at least fourteen days prior to the classes scheduled on dates you will be
absent to observe a religious holy day.
Special Needs:
Students with disabilities who require special accommodations need to get a letter that documents the disability
from the Services for Students with Disabilities area of the Office of the Dean of Students (471-6259 voice or 4714641 TTY for users who are deaf or hard of hearing). This letter should be presented to me at the beginning of the
semester and accommodations needed should be discussed at that time. Five business days before an exam the
student should remind me of any testing accommodations that will be needed. See following website for more
information: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/ssd/providing.php
University Electronic Mail Notification Policy (Use of E-mail for Official Correspondence to Students):
All students should become familiar with the University's official e-mail student notification policy. It is the
student's responsibility to keep the University informed as to changes in his or her e-mail address. Students are
expected to check e-mail on a frequent and regular basis in order to stay current with University-related
communications, recognizing that certain communications may be time-critical. It is recommended that e-mail be
checked daily, but at a minimum, twice per week. The complete text of this policy and instructions for updating
your e-mail address are available at http://www.utexas.edu/its/policies/emailnotify.html. In this course e-mail will
be used as a means of communication with you. You will be responsible for checking your e-mail regularly for
work and announcements. Note: if you are an employee of the University, your e-mail address in Blackboard is
your employee address.
Use of Blackboard in this Class:
This course uses Blackboard, a Web-based course management system in which a password-protected site is
created for each course. You will be responsible for checking the Blackboard course site regularly for class work
and announcements. As with all computer systems, there are occasional scheduled downtimes as well as
unanticipated disruptions. Notification of these disruptions will be posted on the Blackboard login page. Scheduled
downtimes are not an excuse for late work. However, if there is an unscheduled downtime for a significant period
of time, I will make an adjustment if it occurs close to the due date. Blackboard is available at
http://courses.utexas.edu. Support is provided by the ITS Help Desk at 475-9400 Monday through Friday 8 am to 6
pm, so plan accordingly.
Note about Feedback:
Feedback is an important part of learning. Without feedback on how well you understand the material, it is more
difficult for you to make good progress. During this course you will give me feedback on your learning in informal
and formal ways, such as assignments or exams. Please let me know when something is not clear. This will enable
me to provide additional information when needed or to explain a concept in different terms.
Academic Honesty:
Although I encourage you to work together, you are expected to do your own work and acknowledge use of anyone
else’s work or ideas. Academic dishonesty includes: (a) copying another student’s work or letting another student
copy your work and (b) copying passages or ideas directly from another source and passing them off as your own;
that is, without properly referencing them. When scholastic dishonesty is suspected, I am required to notify you
and possibly turn the matter over to the Dean of Students office. Penalties for academic dishonesty include a
failing grade on the assignment or in this course and possible expulsion form the university. If you have specific
questions about these issues, contact the Office of the Dean of Students in FAC 248.
4