Anth 515P: Discourse Centered Approaches to Anthropology
Spring 2007
Dr. Brenda Farnell
Office: 209E Davenport Hall
Tel: 244-9226
bfarnell@uiuc.edu
Office Hrs: by appointment
Course Outline and Objectives
In this course we examine the various meanings of “discourse” and “discourse
centered” approaches to sociocultural/linguistic anthropology. The goal is to provide you
with both the theoretical resources and techniques of transcription and analysis necessary
to conduct linguistically informed ethnographic research.
As ethnographers we collect, translate, and selectively interpret discourses of all kinds
in light of our particular research questions. We engage in conversations with our
informants/consultants, shift to an internal dialogue when trying to analyze what it all
means, and read and talk with teachers/colleagues in the discipline. Moreover, we were
all socialized into ways of thinking about and using “language” long before we had heard
of anthropology or this class! Our goal is to develop an explicit, reflexive awareness of
these processes, grounded in a historically situated familiarity with Western theories of
language as they have been applied to anthropological research over the past century.
We shall explore various modes of transcription, analysis and interpretation and acquire
the skills to choose amongst these options appropriately.
Discourse centered approaches to anthropology do not constitute a theoretical
“school,” rather they bring together ideas from several different disciplinary sources, all
of which share an interest in understanding language-in-use (‘talk’) as “the means by
which social action, cultural knowledge and social institutions are achieved, maintained
and enacted” (Farnell & Graham 1998). From this perspective “culture” becomes a
dynamic, emergent dialogical process arising from the interaction of embodied persons
in socio-linguistic/semiotic spaces of all kinds.
We shall begin with a reflexive examination of the common (or not so common) sense notions about “language” that we all bring to the subject, given our personal life
experiences and specific cultural backgrounds. A brief look at recent work on ‘language
ideologies’ will assist you to situate your own experiences in socio-political/economic
terms as well as personal ones, while illustrating how some of the recent work in
linguistic anthropology forges connections between analyses of micro-discourse (talk)
and macro-Discourses (a la Foucault).
Since new ideas in the theory of language frequently revolutionize other fields,
including anthropology, we shall proceed with a summary overview of the fundamental
theoretical shift from ‘language’ viewed as a formal structure used by individual speakerhearers, towards language as socially constituted, and speaking as social action.
2
This theoretical shift grounded the “breakthrough to performance” and the emergence
of an “ethnography of speaking/communication”—an interdisciplinary move that was
instigated by Hymes and Gumperz and developed by Bauman, Sherzer, Tedlock and
others in the 1970’s. (These developments occurred in direct opposition to the
Chomskian agenda that had revolutionized the discipline of linguistics, as we’ll see).
These developments also revitalized an interest in “ethno-poetics”––a focus on verbal
arts that continued the interest in oral literature from Boasian linguistic anthropology, but
with new attention to features of performance.
The focus on poetics and performance, while illuminating in many ways, tended to
overlook the role of power and politics in language as social action, so we next consider
the influence of Bourdieu, and Foucault’s suggestive concepts of “discourse” and
“power” in more recent work. We explore some techniques of discourse analysis
informed by these influences (and Marxism) which enable an investigator to see exactly
how talk achieves the effects it does in social interaction. Additional important insights
come from Silverstein’s use of “indexicality,” in Peircian semiotics, and Bahktin’s
concepts of “heteroglossia,” “dialogic” and “intertextuality.” Analytic exercises both inclass and at home will provide you with lots of practice in applying these varied
resources. You will also have the opportunity to apply the theories and methods of
transcription and analysis learned in the course to a final research project that focuses on
some arena(s) of ‘talk’ (and related semiotic processes – ‘discourse’ can be more than
verbal/vocal language!) pertinent to your own specific research interests.
Required Texts:
Duranti, Alessandro (ed.) 2001. Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Duranti, Alessandro & Charles Goodwin (eds.) 1992. Rethinking Context: Language as
an Interactive Phenomenon. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gee, James Paul, 1999. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge.
Hill, Jane H. and Judith T. Irvine (eds.) 1992. Responsibility and Evidence in Oral
Discourse. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Holquist, Michael 1990. Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World. London: Routledge.
Lutz, Catherine and Lila Abu-Lughod. 1990. Language and the Politics of Emotion.
Cambridge University Press.
Santa Ana, Otto. 2002. Brown Tide Rising. University of Texas Press.
Recommended:
Bauman Richard & Joel Sherzer, (eds.) 1989. Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking.
2nd edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Blount, Ben G. (ed.) 1974. Language, Culture and Society: A Book of Readings. 2nd Edition.
Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Duranti; Alessandro. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge University Press.
Holdcroft, David. 1991. Saussure: Signs, System, and Arbitrariness. Cambridge
University Press.
Sampson, Geoffrey, 1980. Schools of Linguistics.
Robins, R.H. A Short History of Linguistics.
3
The texts can be purchased from http://www.addall.com (a website that compares prices
from many online sources); Amazon.com; Pages For All Ages Bookstore; or the publisher.
In addition, all the text books and paper copies of articles are on Library Reserve at the
Undergraduate Library Media Reserve Desk. The articles are also available on electronic
reserve (go to UIUC Library website, click on Course Reserves, choose professor’s name
and course number. All the books on reserve are listed. Click on #8 “e-reserves” to go to
list of articles).
Class Participation:
This is a graduate seminar so…. you are expected to come to each meeting having done the
selected readings. Our meetings each week will include a lecture component, round table
discussions, and presentations. You will be asked to lead some discussions and to present
your paper proposal to the class. Please arrive fully prepared to make substantial
contributions to the discussion, and to ask questions both during and after my
lecture/presentation.
Written work:

A five page paper, mid-term exam (take home), homework exercises (transcription
and data analysis), final research paper.
 Grade Structure: Class participation and preparedness: 10%
5 page paper: 10%
Mid-term Exam: 30%
3 Transcription and Analytic Exercises: 15%
Final Paper: 35%
________________________________________________________________________
Weekly Schedule of Topics and Readings
August 25 (1) Introduction and Overview
Follow Up Reading:
Farnell, Brenda & Laura Graham. 1996. First section of “Discourse Centered Methods.”
In Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. H. R. Bernard (ed.). London:
Altamira Press, pp. 411-419.
Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. “The Scope of Linguistic Anthropology.” In Linguistic
Anthropology, pp. 1-22.
Lutz, Catherine and Lila Abu-Lughod. 1990. “Introduction: Emotion, Discourse and the
Politics of Everyday Life.” In Language and the Politics of Emotion, pp. 1-23.
**Assignment: 5 page paper due September 8th
____________________________________________________________
4
September 1
(2) Linguistic Ideologies
Readings:
Kroskrity, Paul V. 2000. “Regimenting Languages: Language Ideological Perspectives.”
In Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Politics, and Identities, pp. 1-34.
Woolard, Kathryn, A. 1998. “Introduction: Language Ideology as a Field of Inquiry.” In
Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory. B. Schieffelin, K. Woolard and P.
Kroskrity, eds. New York Oxford University Press, pp. 3-47.
Irvine, Judith T. and Susan Gal. 2000. “Language Ideology and Linguistic
differentiation.” In Kroskrity, ed. Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Politics, and
Identities, pp. 35-83.
Recommended Further Readings:
Woolard, Kathryn A. & Bambi Schiefflin, 1994. “Language Ideology.” Annual Review
of Anthropology 23:55-82.
Kroskrity, Schieffelin and Woolard eds. Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory. B.
Schieffelin, K. Woolard and P. Kroskrity, eds. New York Oxford University Press.
*Kroskrity, Paul. 1998. Arizona Tewa Speech as a Manifestation of a Dominant
Language Ideology. Reprinted in Duranti reader, pp. 402-419.
________________________________________________________________________
September 8 (3) Seminal Contributions: Saussure, Wittgenstein, Whorf
Readings:
Ellis, John M. Language, Thought and Logic. Ch 1 & 2, pp. 1-25; ch 8 (+ endnotes)
De Saussure, Ferdinand. 1916. C. Bally and A Sechehaye (eds.) Course in General
Linguistics (extracts).
Holdcroft, David. 1991. Saussure: Signs, System and Arbitrariness (extracts)
Thibault, Paul J. 1997. Re-Reading Saussure: The Dynamics of Signs in Social Life.
London: Routledge, pp. 3-50.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations (extracts) para. 19, 23, 241
Lucy, John A. 1995. “Whorf’s View of the Linguistic Mediation of Thought “ In B.
Blount (ed.) Language Culture and Society 2nd Edition, pp. 415-438.
Whorf, Benjamin Lee, 1956 [1941] Science and Linguistics. In Language, Thought and
Reality. JB Carroll (ed.) pp. 207-219.
Foley, William. 1997. Linguistic Relativity and the Boasian Tradition. In
Anthropological Linguistics, pp. 192-208.
Recommended Further Readings:
Bloor, David 1983. Wittgenstein: A Social Theory of Knowledge, 1-33, 50-64.
Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1941. “The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to
Language.” Reprinted in Blount (ed.) Language Culture and Society 2nd Edition, pp.
64-84.
Durkheim, Emile. 1902. What is a Social Fact? In Rules of Sociological Method
Sampson, Geoffrey, 1980. Schools of Linguistics. Chapters on Saussure and Chomsky.
________________________________________________________________________
5
September 15 (4) Towards Speaking as Social Action/ Speech Act Theory
Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. “Speaking as Social Action.” In Linguistic Anthropology, pp.
214-244.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1935. Coral Gardens and their Magic, Vol. 2, part 4.
Tambiah, Stanley. “The Magical Power of Words.” Man NS, 3:175-208.
Austin, John. 1956. How To Do Things with Words (extracts)
Searle, John. 1969. “What is A Speech Act?” In Speech Acts.
Rosaldo, Michelle. 1982. “The Things We do with Words: Ilongot Speech Acts and
Speech Act Theory in Philosophy.” Language in Society 11:203-37.
Further Readings:
Grice, H.P. 1975. “Logic and Conversation”. In Syntax and Semantics, vol. 3, Speech
Acts, pp. 41-58. Academic Press. Reprinted with editing in The Discourse Reader, A
Jaworski and N. Coupland (eds.) London: Routledge. Pp. 76-88.
________________________________________________________________________
September 22
(5) The Ethnography of Speaking/Communication
(NB. No class meeting—will arrange make up class following week.)
Readings:
Foley, William. 1997. Speaking as a Socially constructed Act. In Anthropological
Linguistics, pp. 249-25
Hymes, Dell. 1962. “The Ethnography of Speaking.” In B. Blount (ed.) Language
Culture and Society 2nd Edition, pp. 248-282.
Jakobson, Roman, Linguistics and Poetics ( extracts). In Style in Language T.A. Sebeok
(ed.) 1960.
*Hymes, Dell. 1972. “On Communicative Competence.” In A. Duranti (ed.) Linguistic
Anthropology: A Reader, pp. 53-73.
*Philips, Susan. “Participant Structures and Communicative Competence: Warm Springs
Children in Community and Classroom.” In Duranti Reader, pp. 302-317.
Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. “Speech Events: from Functions of Speech to Social Units.”
In Linguistic Anthropology, pp. 284-294.
Recommended Further Readings:
Sherzer, Joel 1989. Namakke, Sunmakke, Kormakke: Three Types of Cuna Speech
Event. In Bauman and Sherzer (eds.) pp. 263-282.
Irvin-Trip, Susan M. “Sociolinguistics.” “ In B. Blount (ed.) Language Culture and
Society 2nd Edition, pp. 300-366.
Bauman Richard and Joel Sherzer 1989. Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking.
2nd edition.
________________________________________________________________________
6
September 29
(6) Ethno-Poetics and Performance
Readings:
*Bauman, Richard 1975. “Verbal Art as Performance” In Duranti Reader, pp. 165-188.
Friedrich, Paul. “Poetic Language and the Imagination.”
Bauman, Richard and Charles Briggs 1992. Poetics and Performance as Critical Perspectives
on Language and Social Life. Annual Review of Anthropology 19:59-88.
Basso, Keith. “Stalking with Stories: Names Places and Moral Narratives among the
Western Apache. In Western Apache Language and Culture, pp.138-73.
** Practical Exercise #1 Speech Events. Due October 6th.
_____________________________________________________________________
October 6 (7)
The Semiotics of Indexicality
Readings:
Duranti, Alessandro 1997. “From Symbol to Indexes”…. In Linguistic Anthropology,
pp. 204-213.
Peirce, Charles Sanders. “Logic as Semiotic: the Theory of signs.”
Burks, A. W. “Icon, Index, symbol”
*Silverstein, Michael. 1987. “Shifters, Linguistic Categories and Cultural Description”.
In Blount Reader, pp. 187-221.
Urciuoli, Bonnie. 1996. Exposing Prejudice. Intro. and chap. 1
Benveniste, E. 1956. “The Nature of Pronouns.”
*Hill, Jane. 1998. “Language, Race and White Public Space.” In Duranti Reader, pp.450464.
Farnell, Brenda 2004. The Fancy Dance of Racializing discourse. Journal of Sport and
Social Issues 28(1): 30-55.
Farnell, Brenda. 1991. 2002. Dynamic Embodiment in Assiniboine (Nakota) Storytelling
( see CD ROM also) Anthropological Linguistics 44(1): 37-64. [ Embodied
Indexicality]
Urciuoli, Bonnie. 1995. The Indexical Structure of Visibility. In B. Farnell (ed.) Human
Action Signs in Cultural Context, pp. 189-215.
Recommended Further Reading:
*Ochs, Elinor. “Indexing Gender.” In Rethinking Context, pp. 335-358
Silverstein, Michael. 1985. “Language and the Culture of Gender: At the Intersection of
Structure, Usage and Ideology.” In Blount Reader pp.513-550.
*Gal, Susan. 1991. “Language, Gender and Power: An Anthropological Review.” In
Duranti Reader, pp. 420-430.
*Ochs, Elinor and Carolyn Taylor, 1995. “The ‘Father Knows Best’ Dynamic in Dinnertime
Narratives.” In Duranti Reader, pp.431-449.
______________________________________________________________________
7
October13
(8) The influence of Bakhtin, Vygostky, and Mead
Readings:
* Holquist, Michael 1990. Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World. London: Routledge.
Holland, Dorothy et al. 2001. “On the Shoulders of Bakhtin and Vygostky.” In Identity
and Agency in Cultural Worlds, ch 1 and 2.
Mead, George Herbert. 1936. “The Problem of Society: How We become Selves” and
1934 “Relation of Mind to Response and Environment” In Blount Reader, pp. 85-101
Recommended Further Readings:
Bakhtin, Mikhail 1981. “Introduction” and “Discourse in the Novel” In The Dialogical
Imagination. Michael Holquist (ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press.
*Briggs, Charles and Richard Bauman 1992. Genre, Intertextuality and Social Power. In
Blount Reader, pp.567-608.
_____________________________________________________________________
October 20 (9) Metaphor (An-trope-ology?)
Readings:
Lakoff, George. and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By (extracts)
Fernandez, James. 1986. “The Mission of Metaphor in Expressive Culture.”
Farnell, Brenda 1996. “Metaphors We Move By.” Visual Anthropology 8: 311-335.
*Santa Ana, Otto, 2002. Brown Tide Rising.
** Practical Exercise #2 Metaphors. Due October 20th
________________________________________________________________________
**Mid-term Take Home Exam: Due Oct. 27th
________________________________________________________________________
October 27 (10) From “Role” and “Frames” to Positioning
Readings:
Goffman, Erving. “Role Distance” “Social Life as Drama,” “Frame Analysis,” In. C.
Lemert & A. Branaman (eds.) 1997. The Goffman Reader, pp. 35-42;95-108;147166.
Davies, Bronwyn and Rom Harré. 1994. “Positioning: The Discursive Production of
Selves.”
Harré, Rom and Grant Gillett. 1994. The Discursive Mind. Ch. 1& 2
Recommended Further Reading:
Goffman, Erving. 1955. “ On Face-Work: an Analysis of Ritual Elements in Social
Interaction.” In Blount Reader, pp. 222-247.
________________________________________________________________________
November 3
(11) D/discourse Analysis –1
Readings:
Thompson, John B. 1991. Introduction to Bourdieu’s Language and Symbolic Power.
8
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power (extracts).
Conley & O’Barr. 1998. Just Words: Law, Language and Power. Ch. 2& 4.
*Fairclough, Norman. 2001. Language and Power. Ch 4-7.
Ochs, Elinor. 1979 “Transcription as Theory.” In Developmental Pragmatics, E. Ochs
and B Schieffelin (eds.), pp. 43-72.
** Practical Exercise #3 Discourse Analysis. Due November 15th
___________________________________________________________________
November 10
(12) D/discourse Analysis -11
Readings:
Gee, James Paul. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method, ch 1-7
Hill, Jane H. “’Read my Article’: Ideological Complexity and the Overdetermination of
Promising in American Presidential Politics.” In P. Kroskrity (ed.) Regimes of
Language.
______________________________________________________________________
November 15**
(13) Emotion Discourse
November 24
(14) No Class-Thanksgiving Break
(**NB. Class will meet on Monday 15th due to AAA Meetings)
Reading:
Lutz and Abu-Lughod. 1990. Language and the Politics of Emotion.
______________________________________________________________________
** Paper proposals due to Prof. Farnell Mon. Nov 29th
______________________________________________________________________
December 1
(15) Rethinking “Context”
Readings:
*Goodwin, Charles and Alessandro Duranti. 1992. Rethinking Context: An Introduction.
In Rethinking Context, pp. 1-42.
*Gumperz, John. Contextualization and Understanding.” In Rethinking Context, pp. 229252.
*Spitulnik, Deborah. 2001. “The Social Circulation of Media Discourse and the
Mediation of Communities.” In Duranti Reader, pp. 95-118.
*Bauman, Richard. 1992. Contextualization, Tradition and the Dialogue of Genres:
Icelandic Legends of the kraftaskald. In Rethinking Context, pp. 125-145. (15)
**Present Paper proposals to class
______________________________________________________________________
December 8
(16) Responsibility and Evidence
Readings:
* Hill, Jane and Judith Irvine (eds.) Responsibility and Evidence in Oral Discourse.
**Present Paper proposals to class
______________________________________________________________________
**Final Papers Due Dec 17th