Our courses: Linguistic anthropology

A course in linguistic anthropology covers variation of linguistic structures in cross-cultural perspective. The course considers language as a cultural resource and behavior. It provides a general overview of the empirical and methodological studies of linguistic categorization (e.g. the study of color terms, kinship terms, cardinal and relative directions, noun categorization); social functions of proper names and ethnography of naming; linguistic taboos; genderlects; ethnography of speaking; functions and structural properties of ritual languages; properties of traditional texts and story-telling. It will also introduce the students to the basic methods of molecular anthropology in reconstructing the global history of human kind and local histories and language contacts. Although this course is rarely included in MA programmes in theoretical linguistics, some of the above aspects of the study of language are highly relevant for field research, on the theoretical level, to understand and document worldwide variation of linguistic functions and often, on the practical level, to conduct linguistic research and carry out analysis of naturalistic discourse. It is not coincidental that the main provider of shareware software for field linguists, Summer Institute of Linguistics (http://www.sil.org) has recently included, in its range of products, a special utility to document kin systems and lineages.