The Cultural Nature of Language (FRSEM-UA 496 section 001)
Fall 2014
W 2-4:45pm Waverly Room 570
Prof. Bambi B. Schieffelin
25 Waverly Pl (Rufus Smith)
ph: 212 998 8556 bs4@nyu.edu
Dept. of Anthropology
Room 510
off hours: Thur 10-11:30/and by appt.
Required Books:
*Basso, K. 1979. Portraits of “The Whiteman.” NY: Cambridge University Press.
*Basso, K. 1996. Wisdom Sits in Places. Albuquerque: Univ. New Mexico Press.
*Bauer, L. & Trudgill, P. (eds.) 1998. Language Myths. NY: Penguin.
*Bauman, R. 1983. Let Your Words be Few. NY: Wheatmark
Readings and SQs: on NYU Classes, are in the folder called RESOURCES. Within Resources,
there are two folders: Readings and External links, and Assignments (SQs and interview
protocols).
I am not using NYU Classes for email, except to send messages to the class.
Please use the email address above to send me anything by email.
Week 1
Introduction to the class
9/3
Film: “The Wild Child” 1970 Francois Truffaut.
Week 2
Feral Children
9/10
Itard, Jean
1799/printed 1801. The Wild Boy of Aveyron, 'Of the First Developments of the Young Savage
of Aveyron,' pp. 91-140 (SQs)
1806/printed 1807. 'Report on the Progress of Victor of Aveyron,' pp. 141-179 (SQs) In L. Malson, Wolf
Children and the Problem of Human Nature. NY: Monthly Review Press, 1972.
Lane, Harlan
1976 The Wild Boy of Aveyron. Cambridge: Bantam. Chapter 7 Interpreting the Legend.
Written Essay (1) due Friday, September 12, 5pm by email.
Week 3
Isolated Children
9/17
Curtiss, S.
1977. Genie: A psycholinguistic study of a modern-day "Wild Child." Pp 3-51. (SQs)
Rymer, R.
1993. Genie. NY: HarperPerennial. Chapters 1-12, 17, 22 (SQs)
Film: “Secrets of a Wild Child” PBS NOVA 1984 60 minutes
Week 4
Language Socialization: Becoming a member of a community
9/24
Sapir, E.
1927. The unconscious patterning of behavior in society. In The Unconscious Patterning of
Behavior, ed. E.S. Dummer. NY: Alfred Knopf, pp. 29-42. (SQs)
Ochs, E. and Schieffelin, B. B.
1984. Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories. In Culture Theory,
ed. R. Shweder and R. Levine. NY: CUP, pp. 276-320. (SQs)
Ochs, E., Pontecorvo, C., and Fasulo, A.
1996. Socializing taste. Ethnos 61:7-46 (SQs)
Week 5
Fashioning communities 1
10/1
Bauman, R.
1983. Let Your Words be Few. Ch 1-5 (SQs)
Trip to 15th Street Quaker Meeting Sunday 10/5
Week 6
Fashioning communities 2
10/8
Bauman, R.
Let your words … Ch 6-9 (SQs)
Basso, K
1970 'To give up on words': Silence in Western Apache culture. Southwestern J. of
Anthropology 26, 3: 213-230.
Written Essay (2) due Friday, October 10, 5pm by email.
Week 7
Ethnography of Speaking
10/15
Malinowski, B.
1922[1961]. Introduction. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Pp. 6-25 (SQs)
Geertz, C.
1973. Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture. In The Interpretation of
Cultures. NY: Basic Books. (read the edited selection, 2 pages)
Goffman, E.
1967. On face-work. In Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face to Face Behavior. NY: Pantheon.
(SQs)
Basso, K.
1996. Wisdom Sits in Places. (SQs)
Written Essay (3) due Friday, October 17, 5pm by email.
Week 8
Verbal Play 10/22
Persistent myths about languages
Language myths
#2 "Some languages are just not good enough"
#7 "Some languages are harder than others"
#10 "Some languages have no grammar"
#19 "Aborigines speak a primitive language"
Basso, K.
1979 Portraits of “The Whiteman.” New York, CUP. (SQs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw Key and Peele Substitute Teacher
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/03/18/174639342/six-moments-of-code-switching-inpopular-culture
Week 9
Bilingual identities/social stereotypes
10/29
Woolard, K.
1997. Between Friends: Gender, Peer Group Structure and Bilingualism in Urban Catalonia. Lang
in Soc 26, 4:533-560. (SQs)
2011. Is there Linguistic Life after High School? Lang in Soc 40, 5: 617-648.
Koven, M.
1998. Two languages in the self/The self in two languages. Ethos 26,4:410-455. (SQs)
Film: “Being Myself”
Lippi Green, R.
1994. Accent, standard language ideology, and discriminatory pretext in the courts. Lang in Soc
23, 163-198. (SQs)
Persistent myths about languages and people
Language myths
#9 “In the Appalachians they speak like Shakespeare”
#11 “Italian is beautiful, German is ugly”
#17 “They speak really bad English down South and in New York City”
#20 “Everyone has an accent except me”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dABo_DCIdpM
English in 24 accents
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k
21 Accents English
Written Assignment (4): due Friday, November 7, 5pm by email.
Week 10 Style, identity, difference, meaning
11/5
Thurlow, Crispin
2010. Speaking of Difference: Language, Inequality and Interculturality. In The Handbook of
Intercultural Communication, ed. T. Nakayama and R. T. Halualani. Malden: Blackwell, pp 227247. (SQs)
Mendoza-Denton, Norma
1996. ‘Muy Macha’: Gender and Ideology in Gang Girls’ Discourse about Makeup.
Ethnos 61, 1-2:47-63. (SQs)
Jones, Graham and Schieffelin, B. B.
2009. Enquoting Voices, Accomplishing Talk: Uses of be + like in Instant Messaging. Language
and Communication 29:77-113. (SQs)
Shankar, Shalini
2011. Style and Language Use Among Youth of the New Immigration. Identities 18:646-671.
(SQs)
Geoff Nunberg "Using 'like'" on NPR Fresh Air (archives) 3/14/01
Week 11 What we do to language!
11/12
Language changing – talking/reading/writing
Orwell, George
1949. Appendix to 1984, The Principles of Newspeak.
Cameron. Deborah
1994. ‘Words, Words, Words’: The Power of Language. In The War of the Words, ed S. Durant.
London: Virago, pp. 15-34. (SQs)
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003020.html “brief history of ‘spaz’”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/22610823
http://nyti.ms/16VZ93z Food truck – ethnic slur
Language myths
#1 “The meanings of words should not be allowed to vary or change”
http://www.mysteriesofvernacular.com/
#3 “The media are ruining English”
#8 “Children can't speak or write properly anymore”
#12 “Bad grammar is slovenly”
Jones, G. and Schieffelin, B. B.
2009. Talking Text and Talking Back: My BFF Jill … J. Computer Mediated Communication
14, 4:1050-79. (SQs)
Teens, Tech And Language: A Tired Old Tale Retold : NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92406717&sc=emaf
Franglais http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7221918.stm
English in Japanese http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23079067
http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=2101618 Geoff Nunberg
Week 12 Language out of Place 11/19
Aciman, A. (ed.)
1999. Letters of Transit. NY: The New Press.
place(s), memory/memories, language(s).
Written Assignment (5) due Monday, December 1, 5pm by email.
Week 13
Research Project
11/26
THANKSGIVING
Week 14
Research Project
12/3
Week 15
Research Projects
12/10
11/27-28
Class expectations:
1. Come to class on time, do the readings, actively participate. (Cell phones must be turned off
during class).
2. If you have questions about the readings, or any assignment, email me. Please note: Between 7pm
and 8am I do not read email.
3. If you have to miss a class due to illness, please email me.
4. Late papers will not be accepted without a medical note.
5. If you see anything interesting/relevant to the class in the newspaper (or on a website), send me
an email with the link so I can bring it to the attention of the class.
Assignments:
SQs guide you in reading the materials, help you sort out issues, and put concepts in your own words.
Download the SQs as WORD docs, type out your responses, which may be in outline form. They
will be used in class discussion, and turned in at the end of class for me to read and give you
feedback. They are required but not graded.
Written Essays/Assignments: These five assignments are designed to help you integrate a set of
ideas, and carry out and write up your findings from a mini-research project and language
biography. They are 6-8 pages double spaced, and are graded (each 17% of course grade). For
assignments 2 and 3, also prepare a one-page outline of your main points, and for assignments 4
and 5, the same for your most significant findings.
For all 5 assignments, include one or two sentences at the end of your paper indicating your
“take-away” from the assignment.
The Group Research Projects will give you a chance to work collaboratively in small groups. On
the last day of class, Project findings will be orally presented to the class, one report per group
will be turned in, and each group will receive a grade for the project (15% of final grade). The
projects will focus on aspects of contemporary language use, highlighting changes in writing and
speaking, including new media.
The five written assignments:
Written Essay (1) The Wild Boy of Aveyron
Writing this essay from the perspective of any one of the participants:
What were the main challenges Itard faced in educating Victor and what methods did he use?
What were Itard's social and cultural ideas regarding educability, in particular, what were his
ideas about learning language, and social and emotional development? What dilemmas arose in
terms of rehabilitation and scientific investigation?
Written Essay (1) due Friday, September 12, 5pm by email.
Written Essay (2): The meanings of silence
Discuss silence among Western Apache and Quakers comparing the cultural, social and political
meanings of “giving up on words” and “letting your words be few.” In a paragraph or two,
include insights from your observations at Quaker Meeting to add a contemporary dimension to
Bauman's historical perspective.
Written Essay (2) due Friday, October 10, 5pm by email.
Written Essay (3): Doing ethnographic research on language
A. What insights does Basso’s book offer about language, memory, and community? B. Discuss
Goffman’s notions of facework as they apply to the fieldwork experiences of the ethnographer, as
well as for the Western Apache themselves. What connections do you see between A and B?
Written Essay (3) due Friday, October 17, 5pm by email.
Written Assignment (4): Language and social stereotypes
Interview a friend about their ideas (stereotypes) about language(s) spoken in the United States
and write up your findings relating them to the readings. (An interview protocol will be
distributed).
Written Assignment (4): due Friday, November 7, 5pm by email.
Written Assignment (5): Language biography
Audio record and transcribe an interview of a multilingual person and using this material, write
up his or her language biography. (An interview protocol will be distributed). Note any
connections with the essays in Letters of Transit.
Written Assignment (5) due Monday, December 1, 5pm by email.