ANTH391-LIVING LANGUAGE: AN INVITATION TO LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

FALL 2023 - KENYON COLLEGE . DESIGNED AND IS BEING BE TAUGHT

We all engage and utilize language daily, whether through conversation, reading or writing. We also use it to define ourselves in relation to each other: our identities, social relations, and interpretations of our own and others’ behavior. Language is one of the features unique to our species and meaning-making through language is a central project of human history. Yet we often take language for granted, despite its importance to all human societies.

This course offers an introduction to the foundational relationship between language and culture by examining anthropological approaches to the study of language. In this course, you will learn how language both reflects and creates thought, culture, and power relations. You will also learn how to apply the concepts we study to your own everyday experiences with language. How does language produce social realities? How does language construct us as individuals and mark us as members of groups? What role does language play in processes like socialization, globalization, and domination? These are some of the questions we will grapple with over the course of the term. The topics we will cover include theories of language, linguistic relativity, language diversity and inequality, gender, language shift, and the creative use of language in performance, and mass media. We also consider language use in specific social contexts, such as courtrooms, medical and scientific settings, and political campaigns.