ANTH 604
SEMINAR IN LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
SPRING 2015
David Kamper, Ph.D., Associate Professor & Chair, Department of American Indian Studies
CLASS: Mon. 9 – 11:40 am, EBA 245
OFFICE: Arts & Letters 331B
OFFICE HOURS: Mon. 12 – 1 pm & Tues. 3 – 4 pm, or by appointment
E-MAIL: dkamper@mail.sdsu.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This seminar provides an introduction to the major works that have influenced, molded and constitute the
field of linguistic anthropology. Our goal here is to understand the interdependent relationship between
language and culture and how various theorist and analyst have looked at this relationship from
philosophical and ethnographic perspectives.
COURSE TEXTS
All required readings will be posted to Blackboard in an electronic form, they come from various articles
and book chapters.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
 In-Class Presentation/Lead Discussion (30%)
 Seminar Paper (60%)
 Attendance and Participation (10%)
COURSE POLICIES, GUIDELINES AND OTHER HELPFUL INFORMATION
 Graduate seminars depend entirely on the active participation of their members. My job here is to
facilitate, direct, and encourage your growth as a scholar. Your job is to read, think, and talk to each
other.
 Different norms govern discussion in graduate and undergraduate settings. We set the bar a bit lower
in undergraduate settings, where the goal is to get everyone to read the text, have a feeling about it,
and generate a coherent interpretation. Here at the graduate level, I will expect more of you. Our goal
is to prepare you to participate in the professional discussion of anthropology. Scholarship is a
hierarchical field: the best work demonstrates a respectful awareness of all the scholarship that has
come before, as well as daring confidence in its own originality. All of this is to say that you may
experience something new in this class: I may correct something you say. Not all answers are
equally good ones, and I may intervene to improve the quality of our discussion. I understand this
may be an uncomfortable experience, but being a scholar requires gracefully fielding challenges to
your thought and discovering where it needs to be strengthened. Don’t take it personally. I am just
doing my job. Please do contact me after class if you feel like you need to process your experience in
seminar.
 The SDSU Academic Senate defines plagiarism as “the act of incorporating ideas, words, or specific
substance of another, whether purchased, borrowed, or otherwise obtained, and submitting same to
the University as one’s own work to fulfill academic requirements without giving credit to the
appropriate source.” Please do your own work and use MLA-style parenthetical documentation to
credit the ideas of others appropriately. If you need assistance with an assignment or have questions
about how to use source material appropriately, please contact me. Committing plagiarism will harm
your grade in this class and endanger your status at SDSU.
 The most reliable way to contact me is by e-mail. If I receive your email Monday through Friday, I
will generally be able to answer it within twenty-four hours. I generally do not check my email on
the weekends. If you need help with more complicated questions and concerns—for example,
developing a paper topic or reviewing a draft—these are better handled in person. For these kinds of
questions, please come see me during office hours or contact me to make an appointment outside of
office hours.
DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENTS
Attendance and participation (10%): I will evaluate the quality and frequency of your
participation in seminar, as well as your attendance. Missing more than two seminar meetings
will impact your grade. There are no excused absences. You do not need to contact me to
explain or ask permission for absences.
In-Class Presentations (30% each): Every student will give two presentation. You are expected
to give background information on the authors, such was where they studied and whom they
studied with and how this influenced their work. You are also expected to be able to summarized
the basic argument of the author. You also need to be able to draw out connections between the
readings of each week and consider how the readings might connect to previous texts we have
read throughout the semester. You are also responsible for coming up with 3 – 5 discussion
questions that will help the discussion and conservation going.
Seminar paper (60%): Your major assignment in this course is a 15-page seminar paper that
presents an original critical treatment of aspect of linguistic anthropology not covered
extensively in this class. This will give you an opportunity to dive more deeply into a topic or
consider how a topic might relate to a specific language or community. I encourage you to
choose a topic that will be useful for or at least relate to the Master’s research that you are
already doing as part of your degree here. I also encourage you to consult with me at least once
as you develop your paper topic.
A WORD ABOUT GRADES
In assigning grades, I will consider both your conduct in seminar discussions and presentations
as well as your written work. I give out three varieties of grades in graduate settings:
A
Exceeds expectations for MA-level scholarship; excellent work
AMeets expectations for MA-level scholarship; satisfactory work
B+ or B
Does not meet expectations for MA-level scholarship
If you have a question about your final grade, I will be happy to offer you a breakdown of its
computation. I do not negotiate grades. I reserve the right to exercise my professional judgment
in evaluating your class performance.
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1 (Sept. 26th)
Week 2 (Feb. 2nd)
Introduction: General introduction to the readings and to each other. Go over
syllabi and course requirements. Schedule presentations.
Linguistic Turns: These reading detail broad social scientific theoretical
shifts that draw our attention toward language and semiotics.
Reading: Sheri Ortner, “Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties” pp. 126166; Elizabeth Mertz, “Semiotic Anthropology” pp. 337-353; Assif
Agha, “The Object Called ‘Language’ and the Subject of
Linguistics” pp. 217-235.
Week 3 (Feb. 9th)
Early Continental Notions of Language: Current semiotics and theories of
how language and communication works to Saussures, and Bakhtin makes an
argument for the variety of way in which we use language.
Reading: Ferdinand de Saussure, Selections from Course in General
Linguistics pp. 1-37, 65 – 78, 189-209; M.M. Bakhtin, “The
Problem of Speech Genres” pp. 60 – 102.
Week 4 (Feb. 16th)
Linguistics Crosses the Pond: Study of language is affected by
Enlightenment notions of rationality and science and this affects the way
language is view in general. These readings consider this idea and how it
relates to the early American linguists.
Reading: William Hanks, “Introduction” & “Language the System” pp. 187; Richard Bauman & Charles Briggs, “Making Language and
Making it Safe for Science and Society” pp. 19- 69 & “The
Foundations of All Future Researches” pp. 255-298.
Week 5 (Feb. 23rd)
Linguistic Relativity: Sapir and Whorf are among the most important
American linguists and anthologists whose work is still impact linguistic
anthropology?
Reading: Edward Sapir, “The Unconscious Patterning of Behavior in
Society” pp. 544 – 559; Benjamin L Whorf, “The Relation of
Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language” pp. 134-159; Regna
Darnell, “Benjamin Lee Whorf and the Boasian Foundations of
Contemporary Ethnolinguistics” pp. 82-95.
Week 6 (Mar. 2nd)
Speech Acts: The first two readings come out of the field of philosophy and
they ask how can we accomplish things with our words/language.
Reading: John Austin, “How To Do Things With Words (Lectures I –V)”
pp. 1-66; John Searle, “What is a Speak Act” pp. 221 – 239;
Michelle Rosaldo, “The Things We Do With Words” pp. 203-237;
Justin Richland, “The Multiple Calculi of Meaning” pp. 829-861.
Week 7 (Mar. 9th)
Ethnomethodology: These readings illustrate the way sociologists in the
1950s and 1960s thought about how language connects to and creates culture
and societal institutions particularly in the quotidian and at the interpersonal
level.
Reading: Harold Garfinkel, “Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday
Activities” pp. 35-75; Erving Goffman, “On Face-Work” pp. 5- 45
& “Footing” pp. 124-159; Keith Murphy, “Collaborative Imagining:
The Interactive Use of Gesture, Talk, and Graphic Representation in
Architectural Practice” pp. 113-145.
Week 8 (Mar. 16th)
Verbal Art and Speech Play: These articles look at how people use language
creatively to make cultural meaning and how to analyze this performative use
of language.
Reading: Del Hymes, “Models of the Interaction of Language and Social
Life” pp. 35 – 71; Keith Basso, “Stalking with Stories” pp. 37 – 70
& “Wisdom Sits in Places” pp. 105-149.
Week 9 (Mar. 23rd)
Performance & Narrative: Performance refers to the way we use language
skillfully, artfully, or creatively to reinforce cultural values individual
identity. In particular some of these reading focus on how people perform
narratives.
Readings: Richard Bauman & Charles Briggs, “Poetics and Performance as
Critical Perspectives on Language on Social Life” pp. 59-88;
Charles Briggs, “Introduction (to Disorder Discourse: Narrative,
Conflict, and Inequality)” pp. 3-40; Elinor Ochs & Lisa Capps,
“Narrating the Self” pp. 19-43; Roderick Labrador, “‘We Can
Laugh at Ourselves’ Hawai’i Ethnic Humor, Local Identity, and
the Myth of Multiculturalism” pp. 288-308.
SPRING BREAK
Week 10 (Apr. 6th)
Habitual Patterning: Bourdieu is known for examining how power is
maintained through culture and institutions, and these reading examine the
role language plays in this asking how language is a part of our habitual
patterning of behavior that creates and sustains culture.
Reading: Pierre Bourdieu, “The Economics of Linguistic Exchanges” pp.
645-668, “The Production and Reproduction of Legitimate
Language” pp. 43-65; William Hanks “Pierre Bourdieu and the
Practice of Language” pp. 67-83; Jennifer Reynolds and Marjorie
Faulstich Orellana, “New Immigrant Youth Interpreting In White
Public Space” pp. 211-223.
Week 11 (Apr. 13th)
Language in Context: The meaning of utterances are heavily dependent on
context and the same time language itself can create context in an ongoing
fashion.
Reading: Charles Goodwin & Alessandro Duranti, “Rethinking Context: An
Introduction” pp. 1-42; Aaron Cicourel, “The Interpenetration of
Communicative Contexts” pp. 293-310; John Lucy, “Reflexive
Language and the Human Disciplines” pp. 9-32 & “Metapragmatic
Presentationals” pp. 91-127.
Week 12 (Apr. 20th)
Language Ideology: These reading look at folk views of language use and
what aspects of our language use we are aware of and which ones we are less
cognizant of.
Reading: Michael Silverstein, “The Limits of Awareness” pp. 1-30 &
“Language and the Culture of Gender” pp. 219-259; Cicourel, “The
Interpenetration of Communicative Contexts” pp. 293-310.
Week 13 (Apr. 27th)
Language & Identity: How linked to identity to language and what happens
when someone is able to speak multiple languages.
Reading: Paul Kroskrity, “An Evolving Ethnicity Among the Arizona
Tewa” pp. 177-212; Don Kulick, “No” pp. 139-151; Kathryn
Woolard, “Sentences in the Language Prison” pp. 268-78; Bambi
Schiefflin and Rachelle Doucet “The ‘Real’ Haitian Creole” pp.
285-316.
Week 14 (May 4th)
Language & Power: Language is inherently tied to the exercise of power
whether by dominant or groups trying to resist regimes of power. How does
language get imbued with this power and are the various sources of power?
Reading: Susan Gal, “Language and Political Economy” pp. 345-367; Judith
Irvine & Susan Gal, “Language Ideology and Linguistic
Differentiation” pp. 35-83; Jane Hill, “Gaffes: Racists Talk without
Racists” pp. 88-118, “Linguistic Appropriation” & “Everyday
Language, White Racist Culture, Respect, and Civility,” pp. 158182.
May 14th
Seminar Papers Due