Living Language

List of Figures ix List of Tables xi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xix Part I Language: Some Basic Questions 1 1 The Socially Charged Life of Language 3 So, What Do You Need to Know in Order to “Know” a Language? 9 Examples of Linguistic Diversity 13 Examples of Diversity in Research Topics in Linguistic Anthropology 17 Keith Basso 18 Marjorie Harness Goodwin 18 Bonnie Urciuoli 19 Alessandro Duranti 20 Kathryn A. Woolard 20 James M. Wilce 21 Key Terms in Linguistic Anthropology 21 Multifunctionality 22 Language Ideologies 24 Practice 26 Indexicality 29 The Inseparability of Language, Culture, and Social Relations 33 2 Gestures, Sign Languages, and Multimodality 35 Bakhtin’s Double-Voiced Discourse 37 Goffman’s Participation Framework and Production Format 38 Speech and the Analysis of Conversation 39 Gestures and Other Forms of Embodied Communication 42 Sign Languages 47 Poetry, Whistled Languages, Song, and Images 50 3 The Research Process in Linguistic Anthropology 54 What Kinds of Research Questions Do Linguistic Anthropologists Formulate? 55 What Kinds of Data Do Linguistic Anthropologists Collect, and with What Methods? 57 Participant Observation 58 Interviews 58 Surveys and Questionnaires 60 Naturally Occurring Conversations 60 Experimental Methods 62 Matched Guise Tests 63 Written Texts 64 How Do Linguistic Anthropologists Analyze Their Data? 64 What Products Do Linguistic Anthropologists Generate from their Research? 67 What Sorts of Ethical Issues Do Linguistic Anthropologists Face? 68 4 Language Acquisition and Socialization 72 Language Acquisition and the Socialization Process 74 Gaps in the “Language Gap” Approach 78 Language Socialization in Bilingual or Multilingual Contexts 81 Language Socialization throughout the Lifespan 84 Conclusion 88 5 Language, Thought, and Culture 90 A Hundred Years of Linguistic Relativity 91 The Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis 94 Investigating the Effects of Language on Thought 97 Language-in-General 98 Linguistic Structures 102 Color 106 Space 108 Time 110 Language Use 111 Conclusion 117 Part II Global Communities of Speakers, Hearers, Readers, and Writers 121 6 Global Communities of Multilingual Language Users 123 Defining “Speech Community” 124 Size and Location of the Community 124 What is Shared by the Members of a Speech Community? 125 The Type of Interactions that Speech Community Members Have 125 Alternatives to the Concept of “Speech Community” 129 Speech Areas 129 Speech Networks 130 Communities of Practice 132 Multilingual and Transnational Linguistic Practices 136 Diglossia, Code-Mixing, and Code-Switching 144 Diglossia 145 Code-Switching 146 Code-Mixing 148 Heteroglossia 151 Conclusion 152 7 Literacy Practices 153 Literacy Events vs. Literacy Practices 155 “Autonomous” vs. “Ideological” Approaches to Studying Literacy 156 Some Examples of Situated Literacy Research 158 Preschool Literacy Practices in the Southeastern United States 158 Pema Kumari’s letter 162 Love-letter Writing in Nepal 164 Instant Messaging: More like Speech or Writing? 166 8 Online Communities and Internet Linguistic Practices 170 Online Literacy Practices 171 Capitalization, Punctuation, and Emojis 172 Online Communities, Relationships, and Social Media 175 Who’s Zoomin’ Who? 177 Online Avatars 179 So Close and yet so Far 183 Conclusion 185 9 Performance, Performativity, and the Constitution of Communities 186 Performance Defined in Opposition to Competence 188 Performativity 189 Performance as a Display of Verbal Artistry 197 Ethnographies of Performance and Performativity 200 Part III Language, Power, and Social Differentiation 211 10 Language and Gender 213 What is Gender, and How Does it Relate to Language? 215 Do Men and Women Speak Alike or Differently? 221 Do Women and Men of All Ages and All Ethnic, Racial, and Cultural Backgrounds Share the Same Gendered Differences in Their Language Use? 233 Some Thoughts on Myths and Realities 237 11 Language, Race, and Ethnicity 240 Defining Race and Ethnicity 241 The Rule-Governed Nature of African American English 246 Invariant or Habitual “Be” 248 Copula Deletion 249 Double Negatives 250 The Reduction of Final Consonants 251 Pronouncing the Word “Ask” as “Aks” 252 Racist Language and Racism in Language 253 Language and Racial/Ethnic Identities 258 Conclusion 261 12 Language Endangerment and Revitalization 262 Enumerating the Crisis: How Many Endangered Languages are There? 265 What Dies When a Language Dies? 270 Why Do Languages Die? 276 Can Endangered Languages Be Saved? 278 Conclusion 280 13 Conclusion: Language, Power, and Agency 281 What is Power? 283 Hegemony 284 Foucault’s Power Relations and Discourse 285 Practice Theory and Power 287 Agency 298 The Grammatical Encoding of Agency 302 Talk About Agency: Meta-Agentive Discourse 305 Power and Agency In/through/by/of Language 310 Notes 313 References 328 Index 364