Lecture: 2 hrs/week
Seminar: 2 hrs/week
Lectures, in-class tutorials, group work, group discussion, problem solving, data analysis, short reports by students
Part I: Language
1. What is Language?
Defining language; language and speech; language and society; language and culture
2. Studying Language
The scientific approach to language; anthropological linguistics; linguistic analysis; language, mind and culture; language, discourse and variation
3. The Origin and Evolution of Language
Theories; reconstruction; core vocabularies; language change; primate language experiments
4. Language Levels
Describing language; the phonological level; the morphological level; the syntactic level; the semantic level
Part II: Language and Society
1. Language and Social Phenomena
Language and gender; markedness theory; language and style; naming people; artificial languages
2. Using Language
Conversational devices; speech acts; situational focussing; language functions; language and myth
3. Writing
Writing systems; literacy; abbreviated writing; online communication
4. Variations
Variant types; slang; jargon; borrowing
Part III: Language, Mind and Culture
1. Language and Classification
The Whorfian Hypothesis; specialized vocabularies; made-up languages
2. Language and Concepts
Sound symbolism; words and concepts; anthropomorphism; grammar and thought
3. Metaphor
What is a metaphor?; conceptual metaphors; metonymy and irony; metaphor and gesture; cultural reification
4. Pop Language
What is pop language?; hip talk; hip talk and gender
Students will develop an appreciation of cultural diversity by analyzing a variety of language samples drawn among different languages, Indo-European and non-Indo-European.
By the end of term, the successful student will:
- demonstrate a good understanding of the role the non-structural parts play in language;
- implement some strategies to analyse and compare language samples;
- recognize cultural diversity and demonstrate awareness of the fact that different cultures may have different linguistic strategies to encode concepts.
Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in a course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation must be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.
A typical assessment would include the following elements:
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Attendance/participation/preparation: 15%
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Short oral reports as part of in class discussions: 25%
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Four assignments at 5% each (data analysis, problem solving): 20%
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Four exams: 20%
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Portfolio: 5% (to accompany the poster, as a way of keeping track of the progress)
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Poster presentation: 15% (final work)
(Note: no assignment will be more than 20%)
A current edition of a textbook such as the following:
Danesi, Marcel. Language, Society and Culture: Introducing Anthropological Linguistics. Toronto: Canadian Scholars, Inc.
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