Key Terms in Language and Culture

Key Terms in Language and Culture is an exciting new collection of 75 original short essays, written by leading scholars in linguistic anthropology and related fields, covering all the major issues in the contemporary study of language and culture.

Together these essays provide a contemporary lexicon of language from an anthropological perspective. Each 1,000–word essay includes a brief description of a key concept, the issues associated with the concept, and the major contributions to its study. There is a set of suggested readings at the end of each essay that provides readers with an excellent starting point for further study.

Key Terms in Language and Culture is a comprehensive collection written in a clear and intellectually engaging manner. It is an ideal companion for introductory courses in language and culture, as well as advanced seminars in anthropology. It also constitutes a useful reference book for scholars and educators who want to know more about how language matters are being studied within anthropology.

Preface: Alessandro Duranti.

1. Acquisition: Susan Ervin–Tripp.

2. Act: Marina Sbisà.

3. Agency: Laura M. Ahearn.

4. Body: Mariella Pandolfi.

5. Brain: John Schumann.

6. Category: Ward H. Goodenough.

7. Codes: Celso Alvarez–Caccamo.

8. Color: Paul Kay.

9. Community: Marcyliena H. Morgan.

10. Competence: Jack Sidnell.

11. Conflict: Marco Jacquemet.

12. Contact: Christine Jourdan.

13. Control: Allen D. Grimshaw.

14. Crossing: Ben Rampton.

15. Deaf: Carol Padden.

16. Dreams: Laura R. Graham.

17. Endangered: Robert E. Moore.

18. Evolution: Kathleen R. Gibson.

19. Expert: Aaron Cicourel.

20. Functions: Michael Silverstein.

21. Gender: Mary Bucholtz.

22. Genre: Richard Bauman.

23. Gesture: John B. Haviland.

24. Grammar: John W. DuBois.

25. Healing: James Wilce.

26. Heteroglossia: Vyacheslav Ivanov.

27. Humor: William O. Beeman.

28. Iconicity: Bruce Mannheim.

29. Identity: Paul V. Kroskrity.

30. Ideology: Joseph Errington.

40. Ideophone: Dennis Tedlock.

41. Improvisation: R. Keith Sawyer.

42. Indexicality: William F. Hanks.

43. Individual: Barbara Johnstone.

44. Inference: John J. Gumperz.

45. Intentionality: Alessandro Duranti.

46. Interview: Charles Briggs.

47. Literacy: Niko Besnier.

48. Maxim: Stephen C. Levinson.

49. Media: Debra Spitulnik.

50. Metaphor: Bran Ben–Amos.

51. Meter: Giorgio Banti.

52. Music: Steven Feld & Aaron Fox.

53. Names: Betsy Rymes.

54. Narrative: Harriet E. Manelis Klein.

55. Orality: Alan Rumsey.

56. Oratory: Joel Kuipers.

57. Participation: Marjorie H. Goodwin.

58. Particles: Haruko M. Cook.

59. Performativity: Kira Hall.

60. Plagiarism: Ron Scollon.

61. Poetry: Dell Hymes.

62. Power: Susan Philips.

63. Prayer: Patricia Baquedano–Lopez.

64. Prophecy: John Leavitt.

65. Proverb: Kwesi Yankah.

66. Reconstruction: Victor Golla.

67. Reflexivity: John A. Lucy.

68. Register: Asif Agha.

69. Relativity: Alessandro Duranti.

70. Repetition: Penelope Brown.

71. Signing: Leila Monaghan.

72. Socialization: Elinor Ochs.

73. Space: Elizabeth Keating.

74. Style: Norma Mendoza–Denton.

75. Switching: Benjamin Bailey.

76. Syncretism: Jane H. Hill.

77. Theater: Ingjerd Hoëm.

78. Translation: Regna Darnell.

79. Truth: Susan D. Blum.

80. Turn: Sally Jacoby.

81. Variation: John Baugh.

82. Vision: Charles Goodwin.

83. Voice: Webb Keane.

84. Writing: Antonio Perri.

Alessandro Duranti is Professor of Anthropology at UCLA and author of a number of books, including Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon (edited with Charles Goodwin, 1992), From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village (1994), and Linguistic Anthropology (1997). In 1999 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the UCLA Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award. He is a former president of the Society of Linguistic Anthropology and current editor of the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.

"Exploratory, generous, clear, and provocative, Key Terms in Language and Culture is an invaluable resource for any scholar concerned with the role and shape of language and communication in human lives, both present and past. Beyond this, it makes explicit the many complex but tightly woven links between language and culture, demonstrating with energy and to good effect the multiple ways in which language indeed matters." Don Brenneis, University of California at Santa Cruz

"This book is a unique collection –a set of key terms and definitions by many of the leading scholars in linguistic anthropology. An excellent overview and orientation to the study of language in culture, it is filled with gems of condensed yet clear formulation and stimulating commentary. A model of collaborative enterprise." Susan Gal, University of Chicago

"This volume, which includes contributions by some of the leading scholars in the field, is a unique companion for introductory courses in language and culture and advanced seminars in anthropology." Discourse Studies