Department of Culture and Communication
Masters program in Language and Culture in Europe
2011-10-24
Language, Culture, and Linguistics (6 ECTS credits)
Course Description and Schedule Fall 2011
Course instructor and supervisor: Charlotte Lundgren (CL)
Schedule (revised version 2011-10-24)
Week
45
Day
Monday
Time
10-12
Room
KG32
Topics
Introduction to the course: What is
linguistic anthropology?
Culture and linguistic diversity
Foley pp 1-40, 398-416
Duranti pp 1-83
Instructor
CL
45
Friday
13-15
KG45
Meaning and interaction
Foley pp 5-29
Duranti pp 162-213
CL
46
Tuesday
10-12
KG32
Speaking as a culturally constructed act
and speaking as construction of culture
Foley pp 249-259
Duranti pp 214-243
CL
47
Monday
10-12
KG32
Ethnographic methods and transcription
Duranti pp 84-161
CL
47
Friday
13-15
KG32
Socialization, politeness and face
Foley pp 345-358, 260-285
Ochs 1996
CL
49
Monday
10-12
KG32
The linguistic construction of identity
Foley pp 286-343
+ 2 articles
CL
3
Monday
10-15
Presentation seminar, day 1
CL
3
Tuesday
10-15
Presentation seminar, day 2
CL
Course Description:
The course is given in the form of seminars that demand active participation from the
students. The students participation demands reading and digesting of the literature,
preparation for participation in the seminar discussion, written reports of pre-seminar
discussions, independent initiative in finding relevant research literature outside the course
literature, and an oral review of a research article together with a written review of the article
to be handed in to the course instructor / course supervisor.
For each course seminar:
(1) Students should meet in discussion groups of 4-5 students to formulate answers to the
discussion questions that accompany the chapters in the course literature and discuss
questions that students might have concerning these chapters that will be dealt with in the
seminar.
(2) Each discussion group should be prepared to give an oral presentation of the
formulated answers and any discussion of students’ own questions.
(3) A written version of the presentation must be handed in to the course instructor with
the names of the participants in the pre-seminar discussion group.
The course ends with two whole day presentation seminars (a mini-symposium) where
students present oral reviews of research articles related to topics that have been taken up in
the course. Research articles should be taken from recent issues of research journals in the
area of Anthropological Linguistics. Students will be required to choose a research article
by the end of the third week of the course. The choice of research article must be made in
close consultation with the course instructor / course supervisor.
A print-out written version of the review (ca 5 pages A4 1½ spaced Times Roman) is to be
handed in to the course instructor/course supervisor at the presentation seminar. The written
review must also be submitted to the course instructor /course supervisor via Urkund.
The course demands full-time studies amounting to at least 160 working hours.
Literature:
 Duranti, Alessandro (1997) Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
 Foley, William (1997) Anthropological Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.
 Ochs, Elinor (1996) "Linguistic resources for socializing humanity." Rethinking
linguistic relativity, ed. by J. Gumperz & S. Levinson. Cambridge University Press.
pp. 407-438.
 Research articles from scientific journals (presented later).
 Additional reading may be introduced during the course.
Examination:
The individual student is examined by way of an assessment of the student’s participation
in the seminar discussions, written hand-in assignments dealing with the course literature
and by way of an assessment of the student’s oral presentation and written review of a
relevant research article.
Obligations:
To receive a passing grade for the course, the student must complete and pass all course
requirements.