Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader

Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader is a comprehensive collection of the best work that has been published in this exciting and growing area of anthropology, and is organized to provide a guide to key issues in the study of language as a cultural resource and speaking as a cultural practice. Revised and updated, this second edition contains eight new articles on speech communities, the power and performance of language, and narratives, among others. Editor Alessandro Duranti′s extensive introduction provides an original perspective on the development of the field and highlights its most compelling issues. Each section of the volume includes a brief introductory statement, a set of guiding questions, and a recommended further reading list. The readings are both historically oriented and thematically coherent, and are grouped according to four themes: speech community and communicative competence; the performance of language; language socialization and literacy practices; and the power of language. Duranti has taken care throughout to trace theoretical and methodological connections among different authors and research agendas from anthropology and other disciplines. This is a collection that stands to serve both scholars and students.

Acknowledgments to the Second Edition. Preface to the Second Edition. Linguistic Anthropology: History, Ideas, and Issues (Alessandro Duranti). Part I: Ideal and Real Speech Communities. Introduction. 1 The Speech Community (John J. Gumperz). 2 The African–American Speech Community: Reality and Sociolinguists (Marcyliena Morgan). 3 The Social Circulation of Media Discourse and the Mediation of Communities (Debra Spitulnik). 4 Communication of Respect in Interethnic Service Encounters (Benjamin Bailey). 5 The Idealised Native Speaker, Reified Ethnicities, and Classroom Realities (Constant Leung, Roxy Harris, and Ben Rampton). Part II: The Performance of Language: Events, Genres, and Narratives. Introduction. 6 Ways of Speaking (Dell Hymes). 7 Formality and Informality in Communicative Events (Judith T. Irvine) 8 Universal and Culture–Specific Properties of Greetings (Alessandro Duranti). 9 Genre, Intertextuality, and Social Power (Charles L. Briggs and Richard Bauman). 10 Narrating the Political Self in a Campaign for US Congress (Alessandro Duranti). 11 Hip Hop Nation Language (H. Samy Alim). Part III: Language Socialization and Literacy Practices. Introduction. 12 Language Acquisition and Socialization: Three Developmental Stories and Their Implications (Elinor Ochs and Bambi B. Schieffelin). 13 Participant Structures and Communicative Competence: Warm Springs Children in Community and Classroom (Susan U. Philips). 14 What No Bedtime Story Means: Narrative Skills at Home and School (Shirley Brice Heath). 15 Creating Social Identities through Doctrina Narratives (Patricia Baquedano–López). Part IV: The Power of Language. Introduction. 16 Arizona Tewa Kiva Speech as a Manifestation of a Dominant Language Ideology (Paul V. Kroskrity). 17 Language Ideology and Linguistic Differentiation (Judith T. Irvine and Susan Gal). 18 The “Father Knows Best” Dynamic in Dinnertime Narratives (Elinor Ochs and Carolyn Taylor). 19 Professional Vision (Charles Goodwin). 20 Language, Race, and White Public Space (Jane H. Hill). 21 No (Don Kulick). Index.

Alessandro Duranti is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Dean of Social Sciences at UCLA. His publications include Key Terms in Language and Culture (Wiley–Blackwell, 2001) and A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology (Wiley–Blackwell, 2004). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and the recipient of various awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the UCLA Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award, and the American Anthropological Association/Mayfield Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

"Alessandro Duranti has succeeded in compiling an excellent reader that many instructors and students will find useful as an introduction to key works in linguistic anthropology. Leaders in the theory and practice of contemporary linguistic anthropology are well represented, and all of the articles are excellent; indeed, most are recognized as contemporary "classics" in the field. This reader is an excellent addition to the growing library of readers in linguistic anthropology and a valuable new resource for both students and teachers." ( Current Anthropology [from 1 st edition]) "Many of the articles included...are examples of highly innovative scholarly work on issues of language related to culture. It provides an excellent (and long overdue) discussion of terminology, American lingustic anthropology′s development within Cultural Anthropology, its subsequent drift away from anthropology towards an independent discipline increasingly focused on theoretical anthropologists in the late 1960s, and its reestablishment as a subfield of anthropology in the 1980s–90s. As a textbook this reader makes a very useful teaching aid, as a source book it provides valuable insights into the discipline of linguistic anthropology." ( Linguist List )