An Trop Ology

Hawassa university
Hawassa university
Collage of social science and humanities
Department of anthropology
Course name: social anthropology

Course code: Anth 1012
Course instructor: Akmel Nur (PhD)
Group name id no
1, Duresa Gemechu 0861/13
2, Cherinet Solomon 0715/13
3, Dobuol Wie 0857/13
AUGUST 12, 2021

SECTION 68
Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................................1
Historical development.............................................................1
Linguistic anthropology...............................................................1
Other fields similar to linguistic anthropology.........................2
Anthropological linguistics....................................................2
Sociolinguistics......................................................................3
Conclusions..................................................................................3
Reference.....................................................................................4
i|Page
Linguistic anthropology
Introduction
Linguistic anthropology (LA) is an approach to the study of language that focuses
on the relation between language, society, and culture. It is considered by some to
be a branch of general linguistics, by others a branch of anthropology, and by still
others as an autonomous discipline.it is roots are in foundation of linguistics as a
science in nineteenth century after English scholar Sir William Jones, remarked
that Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, and Latin sprang from the same source and thus
belonged to the same ‘language family.’ This suggested that languages shared
structural features and evolved over time from older forms to develop their own
distinct forms. A full-fledged science of language emerged after Swiss philologist
Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) provided a theoretical framework for studying
language as a system in his book, titled Cours de linguistique générale, which was
published posthumously from the notes taken by his students at the University of
Geneva.
Historical development
Linguistic anthropology emerged from the development of three distinct
paradigms. These paradigms set the ways of approaching linguistic anthropology:
the first, now known as "anthropological linguistics", focuses on the
documentation of languages; the second, known as "linguistic anthropology",
engages in theoretical studies of language use; the third, developed over the past
two or three decades, studies issues from other sub-fields of anthropology with
linguistic tactics. Though they developed sequentially, all three paradigms are still
practiced today.
Linguistic anthropology
As implied from the quote above language and communication are key
components of the human experience. Language can be one of the easiest ways to
make connections with other people. It helps us quickly identify the groups to
which we belong. It is how we convey information from one generation to the
next. But language is only one way that humans communicate with one another.
Non-verbal forms of communication are as important if not more so. Linguistic
anthropology is the sub-discipline that studies communication systems, particularly
language. Using comparative analysis, linguistic anthropologists examine the
1|Page
interaction of language and culture. They look at the connection between language
and thought and how it informs about social values and norms. Linguistic data has
been used to examine worldview, migration patterns, origins of peoples, etc.
Linguistic anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of how language influences
social life. It is a branch of anthropology that originated from the endeavor to
document endangered languages, and has grown over the past century to
encompass most aspects of language structure and use.
Linguistic anthropology explores how language shapes communication, forms
social identity and group membership, organizes large-scale cultural beliefs and
ideologies, and develops a common cultural representation of natural and social
worlds
According to Pier Paolo Giglioli in “Language and Social Context,”
anthropologists study the relation between worldviews, grammatical categories as
semantic fields, the influence of speech on socialization and personal relationships,
and the interaction of linguistic and social communities.
In this case, linguistic anthropology closely studies those societies where language
defines a culture or society. For example, in New Guinea, there is a tribe of
indigenous people who speak one language. It is what makes that people unique. It
is its “index” language. The tribe may speak other languages from New Guinea,
but this unique language gives the tribe its cultural identity.
Linguistic anthropologists may also take an interest in language as it relates to
socialization. It can be applied to infancy, childhood, or a foreigner being
enculturated. The anthropologist would likely study a society and the way that
language is used to socialize its young.
In terms of a language’s effect on the world, the rate of spread of a language and
its influence on a society or multiple societies is an important indicator that
anthropologists will study. For example, the use of English as an international
language can have wide-ranging implications for the world’s societies. This can be
compared to the effects of colonization or imperialism and the import of language
to various countries, islands, and continents all over the world.
Other fields similar to linguistic anthropology
Anthropological linguistics -A closely related field (some say, exactly the same
field), anthropological linguistics, investigates the relationship between language
and culture from the linguistics perspective. According to some, this is a branch of
linguistics.
2|Page
This may differ from linguistic anthropology because linguists will focus more on
the way words are formed, for example, the phonology or vocalization of the
language to semantics and grammar systems.
For example, linguists pay close attention to “code-switching,” a phenomenon that
occurs when two or more languages are spoken in a region and the speaker
borrows or mix the languages in normal discourse. For example, when a person is
speaking a sentence in English but completes his or her thought in Spanish and the
listener understands and continues the conversation in a similar way.
Sociolinguistics- Very similarly, sociolinguistics, considered another subset of
linguistics, is the study of how people use language in different social situations.
Sociolinguistics includes the study of dialects across a given region and an analysis
of the way some people may speak to each other in certain situations, for example,
at a formal occasion, slang between friends and family, or the manner of speaking
that may change based on the gender roles. Additionally, historical sociolinguists
will examine language for shifts and changes that occur over time to a society. For
example, in English, a historical sociolinguistic will look at when “thou” shifted
and was replaced by the word “you” in the language timeline.
Conclusions
Linguistic anthropologists of education study language form, in use, as organized
by ideologies, as those ideologies move across social domains and come to identify
individuals.
A linguistic anthropological approach is thus characterized by its refusal to adopt
simple accounts of educational processes and institutions. Instead of studying
either the referential or the social functions of language, linguistic anthropologists
study how speakers deploy both grammatical categories and social indexical to
accomplish reference, social identification, and other functions. Instead of
emphasizing either institutions and power relations or events in which social
relations are constructed – or a simple combination of the two – linguistic
anthropological approaches show how both “macro” and “micro” are abstracted
from a continuum of potentially relevant resources that together constrain and
facilitate the functions of speech. By attending to form, use, ideology, and domain,
linguistic anthropologists provide a more complex picture of educational language
use.
3|Page
Reference
Anthropology module –author ministry of education

Wikipedia
Linguistic anthropology – author university of Pennsylvania
Living language an introduction to linguistic anthropology-author Laura m. Ahearn
https:///topics/social-sciences/linguistic-antropology
https:///what-is-linguistic-anthropology-1691240
https:///science/anthropology/linguistic-anthropology
google and other sources
4|Page

An Trop Ology

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

An Trop Ology

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

An Trop Ology

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Hawassa university

Course name: social anthropology

AUGUST 12, 2021

Anthropology module –author ministry of education

You might also like