Seminars on Linguistic Anthropology
Proposed Syllabus
语言人类学教学大纲（初稿）
授课语言：英语
时间：9~16 周 每周周二 3~4 节 三 7~8 节
地点：三教 405
Luo Yongxian
Associate Professor, University of Melbourne
Aims and objectives:
These seminars propose to present an overview of the theoretical and methodological foundations
of study of language structure and language use from a sociocultural perspective. Discussions
focus on linguistic, philosophical, psychological, and anthropological contributions to the
understanding of verbal communication as social activities embedded in culture.
1.
Introduction
Why study linguistic anthropology?
Linguistic anthropology and anthropological linguistics
The domain of anthropological linguistics/linguistic anthropology
The meaning of “meaning”
The nature of linguistic sign
Summary
2.
Universalism
Mind, universals and representations
Greenberg’s language universals
Structuralism: Saussure
The phoneme
Contributions of the Prague School
Cognitive anthropology
Componential analysis and conceptual analysis
Taxonomy: prototype theory
Biological taxonomies: Berlin’s approach to ethnobiological classification
Taxonomies in other domains
Summary
3.
Colour
Colour classification
Berlin and Key: basic colour terms
Types of basic colour terminologies
Universal constraints on basic colour terminologies
The culture of colours
Summary
4.
Relativism and linguistic relativity
Linguistic relativity and the Boasian tradition
Boas, Sapir
Whorf’s theory of “cognitive appropriation”
Neo-Whorfianism
The idea of relativism
The problem of translation
Hermeneutics and translation of grammatical categories
Summary
5.
Metaphor
Metaphor as model of understanding
Metaphor and embodied experience
Cultural models and metaphors: emotions across cultures
Emotion and taste
Conceptual metaphors
Summary
6.
Space
Universals of space
Relativities in spatial conceptualization
Topological properties of space
Linguistic space
Space and time
Summary
7.
Ethnography of speaking
Linguistic practice: ethno-syntax, ethno-semantics and ethno-pragmatics
Politeness, and the concept of face
Cross-cultural differences in politeness and face
The cooperative principle and the conversational maxims
Talking among Australian aboriginals
Talking among Hebrews
Greetings: Anglo-American and Oriental style
Summary
8.
Sociolinguistics and socio-cultural linguistics
Gender differences in linguistic practices
Social inequality: class, power, and prestige
Male dominance; social roles, social status
Gender deixis and gender markers; mother-in-law language
Communicative norms
Social deixis and honorifics: the case of Japanese
Genre: poetics and verbal arts
Parallelism and poetic function
The issue of translation
Summary