linguistic anthropology

421 Pages·2008·3.76 MB·English

In this innovative textbook Alessandro Duranti introduces linguistic
anthropology as an interdisciplinary field which studies language as a
culturalresourceandspeakingasaculturalpractice.Heshowsthatit
reliesonethnographyasanessentialelementoflinguisticanalyses,and
that it draws its intellectual inspiration from interactionally oriented
perspectivesonhumanactivityandunderstanding.Unlikeothercurrent
accountsofthesubject,itemphasizesthatcommunicativepracticesare
constitutiveofthecultureofeverydaylifeandthatlanguageisapower-
fultoolratherthanasimplemirrorofpre-establishedsocialrealities.An
entirechapterisdevotedtothenotionofculture,andthereareinvalu-
able methodological chapters on ethnography and transcription. The
theoriesandmethodsoflinguisticanthropologyareintroducedthrough
adiscussionoflinguisticdiversity,grammarinuse,theroleofspeaking
in social interaction, the organization and meaning of conversational
structures,andthenotionofparticipationasaunitofanalysis.
Original in its treatment and yet eminently clear and readable,
LinguisticAnthropologywillappealtoupper-levelundergraduateand
graduatestudents.

CAMBRIDGE TEXTBOOKS IN LINGUISTICS
GeneralEditors:s. r. anderson, j. bresnan, b. comrie,
w. dressler, c. ewen, r. huddleston, r. lass, d. lightfoot,
j. lyons, p. h. matthews, r. posner, s. romaine, n. v. smith,
n. vincent
LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
Inthisseries
p. h. matthewsMorphologySecondedition
b. comrieAspect
r. m. kempsonSemanticTheory
t. bynonHistoricalLinguistics
j. allwood, l.-g. anderson, ö. dahlLogicinLinguistics
d. b. fryThePhysicsofSpeech
r. a. hudsonSociolinguisticsSecondedition
j. k. chambers and p. trudgillDialectology
a. j. elliottChildLanguage
p. h. matthewsSyntax
a. radfordTransformationalSyntax
l. bauerEnglishWord-Formation
s. c. levinsonPragmatics
g. brown and g. yuleDiscourseAnalysis
r. huddlestonIntroductiontotheGrammarofEnglish
r. lassPhonology
b. comrieTense
w. kleinSecondLanguageAcquisition
a. cruttendenIntonation
a.j.woods,p.fletcheranda.hughesStatisticsinLanguageStudies
d. a. cruseLexicalSemantics
f. r. palmerMoodandModality
a. radfordTransformationalGrammar
m. garmanPsycholinguistics
w. croftTypologyandUniversals
g. g. corbettGender
h. j. giegerichEnglishPhonology
r. cannFormalSemantics
p. j. hopper and e. c. traugottGrammaticalization
j. laverPrinciplesofPhonetics
f. r. palmerGrammaticalRolesandRelations
b. blakeCase
m. a. jonesFoundationsofFrenchSyntax
a. radfordSyntacticTheoryandtheStructureofEnglish:AMinimalist
Approach
robert d. van valin, jr. and randy j. lapolla:Syntax:Structure,
MeaningandFunction
a. duranti:LinguisticAnthropology
LINGUISTIC
ANTHROPOLOGY
ALESSANDRO DURANTI
professor of anthropology,
university of california at los angeles
  
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge  , United Kingdom
Published in the United States by Cambridge University Press, New York
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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521445368
© Cambridge University Press 1997
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 1997
ISBN-13 978-0-511-06545-3 eBook (NetLibrary)
ISBN-10 0-511-06545-0 eBook (NetLibrary)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-44536-8 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-44536-1 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-44993-9 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-44993-6 paperback
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Tomystudents

CONTENTS
Preface page xv
Acknowledgments xix
1 Thescopeoflinguisticanthropology 1
1.1 Definitions 2
1.2 Thestudyoflinguisticpractices 5
1.3 Linguisticanthropologyandotherdisciplinesinthehumanities
andsocialsciences 10
1.3.1 Linguisticanthropologyandsociolinguistics 13
1.4 Theoreticalconcernsincontemporarylinguisticanthropology 14
1.4.1 Performance 14
1.4.2 Indexicality 17
1.4.3 Participation 20
1.5 Conclusions 21
2 Theoriesofculture 23
2.1 Cultureasdistinctfromnature 24
2..2 Cultureasknowledge 27
2.2.1 Cultureassociallydistributedknowledge 30
2.3 Cultureascommunication 33
2.3.1 Lévi-Straussandthesemioticapproach 33
2.3.2 CliffordGeertzandtheinterpretiveapproach 36
2.3.3 Theindexicalityapproachandmetapragmatics 37
2.3.4 Metaphorsasfolktheoriesoftheworld 38
2.4 Cultureasasystemofmediation 39
2.5 Cultureasasystemofpractices 43
2.6 Cultureasasystemofparticipation 46
2.7 Predictingandinterpreting 47
2.8 Conclusions 49
ix