Language and power are intimately related. Language indexes the power relationships of a society and naturalizes them. It reinforces power relationships. Language is a tool in the creation and recreation of power and may be a tool in A counter-creation@ . In this graduate seminar, we will explore some models linguists are currently using to explicate this interrelationship, applying these models to a few case studies.
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Aug. 28 First day of class, exploration of the parameters of interests
Sept. 4 Building a model: Linguistic Relativity/Determinism?
Jane H. Hill and Bruce Mannheim (1992) Language and World View in Annual Review of Anthropology 21:381-406.
Sept 11 Ideology, is it power?
Kathryn A. Woolard and Bambi B. Schieffelin (1994) in Annual Review of Anthropology 23:55-82.
Sept 18 Language as currency, Bourdieu-esque
Judith T. Irvine (1996) When Talk isn= t Cheap: Language and Political Economy in The Matrix of Language: Contemporary Linguistic Anthropology. Donald Brenneis and Ronald K.S. Macaulay, eds. Westview Press: Boulder, Colorado, pp. 258-283
Sept. 25 What we control and don= t control, language encoding social structures and beliefs thereof
Jane H. Hill (1996) The Grammar of Consciousness and the Consciousness of Grammar in The Matrix of Language: Contemporary Linguistic Anthropology Donald Brenneis and Ronald K.S. Macaulay, eds. Westview Press: Boulder, Colorado. pp. 307-323.
Oct. 2 Stereotyping and the media
Rosina Lippi-Green (1997) Teaching Children how to Discriminate: what we learn from the Big Bad Wolf in English with an Accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. Routledge: New York. pp. 79-103.
Oct 9 Language and the schools
Rosina Lippi-Green (1997) The educational system: fixing the message in stone. in English with an Accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. Routledge: New York. pp. 104-132.
Oct. 16 The power of the standard
Michael Silverstein (1996) Monoglot A Standard@ in America: Standardization and Metaphors of Linguistic Hegemony@ in The Matrix of Language: Contemporary Linguistic Anthropology Donald Brenneis and Ronald K.S. Macaulay, eds. Westview Press: Boulder, Colorado. pp. 284-306.
Oct. 23 The persistence of variation
Rosina Lippi-Green (1997) Hillbillies, rednecks and southern belles: the language rebels. in English with an Accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. Routledge: New York. pp. 202-216.
Oct. 30 Meaning of variation
Sylvia Moosmüller (1989) Phonological variation in parliamentary discussions in Language, Power and Ideology: studies in political discourse. Ruth Wodak, ed. John Benjamins Publishing: Philadelphia, PA. pp. 165-180. and
Elizabeth Mertz (1994) Legal Language: Pragmatics, Poetics and Social Power. in Annual Review of Anthropology 23: 435-455.
Nov. 6 Power in social science and linguistics?
Deborah Cameron, Elizabeth Frazer, Penelope Harvey, Ben Rampton and Kay Richardson (1999) Power/Knowledge: the Politics of Social Science in The Discourse Reader. Adam Jaworski and Nikolas Coupland, eds. Routledge: New York. pp. 141-157. and
Deborah Cameron, Elizabeth Frazer, Penelope Harvey, Ben Rampton and Kay Richardson (1997) Ethics, Advocacy and Empowerment in Researching Language in Sociolinguistics: a Reader. Adam Jaworski and Nikolas Coupland, eds. St. Martin= s Press: New York. pp. 145-163. and
Peter Riersma and Lawrence M. Solan (2002) The Linguist on the Witness Stand: forensic linguistics in American Courts. in Language 78:221-239.
Nov. 13 First of student presentations on alternative power/language/domain relations
Nov. 20 AAAs
Dec. 4 last student presentations.
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Requirements:
1. participation in class discussion 20%
2. completion of assignments for ANTH 368 60%
3. class presentation of domain of interest analyzed with respect to language and power interactions 10%
4. written version of this research project 10%
The written report is due at the date and time of the scheduled final, id est: Tuesday, Dec. 17, 1-5 p.m. I must have this by 5....