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Regular version of the site

Linguistic Anthropology

2024/2025
Academic Year
ENG
Instruction in English
5
ECTS credits
Course type:
Compulsory course
When:
5 year, 1, 2 module

Instructor

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Linguistic Anthropology is an area within social anthropology with a special focus on the connections between language and culture, cultural and social dimensions of language use. It readily adopts and adjusts to anthropological agenda methods from other disciplines that help to enhance our understanding of language and communication as social and cultural practice (such as conversation analysis or discourse analysis). This course is designed specifically for historians in their senior BA-years. It aims to introduce students to the main ideas and methods of linguistic anthropology and to give them tools from its store useful for their analysis of different written and oral historical sources. The course gives general overview of the main problems of Linguistic Anthropology, such as linguistic relativity, and the key notions and concepts of the discipline. Yet the main focus is on the particular ways of understanding oral and written interaction elaborated by linguistic anthropologists. Practical exercises should help students to master particular techniques of oral and written communication analysis.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • To introduce students to the key concepts and notions of Linguistic Anthropology
  • To familiarize students with the Linguistic Anthropology approach to oral and written interaction
  • To teach students to apply some practical methods of oral and written communication analysis
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • Students are able to read and understand scholarly texts in Linguistic Anthropology
  • Students know the key notions and ideas of Linguistic Anthropology
  • Students are familiar with various methods of anthropological analysis of oral and written communication
  • Students are able to select and apply a method of anthropological analysis of oral and written communication suitable for their particular goals
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Introduction: What is linguistic anthropology?
  • Language and culture
  • Semiotics and the theory of sign
  • Speech situations and models
  • Performative
  • Language as social activity
  • Social rituals
  • Meaning in the context
  • Participation
  • Oral and written
  • Narrative analysis
  • Discourse analysis
  • Language ideologies
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • Partially blocks (final) grade/grade calculation Written assignment 1. Conversation analysis
    To be done in the week between modules, to be graded in the 2nd module. Take-home assignment: Please, take any piece of oral interaction 3 minute long, transcribe it in the Jefferson system and indicate as many features of oral communication as you can. Comment your findings in a small essay (1000 words): comment the turn-taking and anything else that caught your eye. If you plagiarize you fail. If AI is detected by the Antiplagiat.ru, you fail. If AI is not detected, but your work looks suspicious to me, you are invited for personal discussion of the work in question. Later submissions are downgraded: 1 point per day after the deadline
  • Partially blocks (final) grade/grade calculation Exam research essay
    Research essay written at home. Please, take any source, oral or written, and apply any of the methods and theories from the course to analyze it. You can use: discourse analysis, narrative analysis, semiotics of bureaucratic documents, theory of face and politeness, footing, dialogical approach, performative theory or semiotic ideology. If you plagiarize you fail. If AI is detected by the Antiplagiat.ru, you fail. If AI is not detected, but your work looks suspicious to me, you are invited for personal discussion of the work in question. Later submissions are downgraded: 1 point per day after the deadline
  • Partially blocks (final) grade/grade calculation Seminar activity
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • 2024/2025 2nd module
    0.5 * Exam research essay + 0.2 * Seminar activity + 0.3 * Written assignment 1. Conversation analysis
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Ahearn, L. M. (2017). Living Language : An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1367895

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology. (2014). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsnar&AN=edsnar.oai.repository.ubn.ru.nl.2066.132105

Authors

  • LYUBAVINA SVETLANA VYACHESLAVOVNA
  • KASATKINA ALEKSANDRA KONSTANTINOVNA