Instructor: Dr. J. Jerome Smith    Classroom: SOC 132          Meetings:  M,W 11:00-12:15 
Office Hours:  T,R 9:30-11:30 in SOC 009 (Undergraduate Advising)     Phone: 974-0791  By appointment in SOC 118 (Faculty Office)                                Phone: 974-0783  E-mail: jsmith@luna.cas.usf.edu  
REQUIRED TEXTS  
1. FR: An Introduction to Language (Fromkin and Rodman, 6^th ed.) — NEW EDITION 
2. LF: Language Files (Jannedy, Poletto and Weldom, 6^th ed.) 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION  
1. Non-majors may elect to take this course on an S-U basis by completing a contract with the instructor by the end of the second week of classes. 

2. Requests for "I" (incomplete) grades will be considered strictly in light of current department, college, and university policy. A contract with the instructor is required. 

3. Academic dishonesty and disruption of academic process are serious matters. They will be understood and dealt with strictly in light of current Undergraduate Bulletin guidelines. 

4. In case of building evacuation, class will continue. Specific instructions will be given when we have reassembled across the street, east of the Social Science building.   This course may be used to meet three (3) semester hours  of the General Education requirement in the Social Sciences.

COURSE OBJECTIVES 

This course is designed to provide the student with a basic comparative knowledge of the structure and function of language in its cultural context. The course will emphasize the anthropological study of language—its origins, evolution, and present diversity in speech communities around the world. Language and related communication systems, such as writing, will be viewed as primary means of human adaptation. It is hoped that this orientation will enhance the student’s awareness and appreciation of the intimate relationships between language and other aspects of culture. 

This course will especially emphasize analytical, conceptual and creative thinking about language and its relationships with other aspects of culture. You will also have many opportunities during the course to express your growing understanding of language as a human cultural system through written and oral presentations. Substantively, particular attention will be paid to the role of language as a system of communication interacting systematically with critical dimensions of human unity and diversity, including gender, race, ethnicity, age and the dynamics of change, among many others. 

 
THE BASIC PLAN OF ACTION 

Our class in Anthropological Linguistics meets twice a week — Monday and Wednesday mornings for seventy-five minutes. Mondays will be lecture and discussion days, primarily. I will introduce and direct a consideration of topics you will have read about in your text and other literature resources. Lecture will be punctuated by other more interactive exercises, but I will be "center stage" most of the time. 

Wednesdays will be typically devoted to encouraging your creative participation in the learning process. Readings and earlier discussions will serve as a basis for Wednesdays will be typically devoted to encouraging your creative participation group activities and exercises that will empower your personal and collective exploration of the topics at hand. Except as noted elsewhere in this syllabus, these activities will not be directly evaluated. Rather, they will constitute part of your continuing engagement with anthropological linguistics so as to maximize your opportunities for doing well in those activities that will be graded. 

  
GRADED ACTIVITIES 

For purposes of formal grading, you will engage in three distinct but interrelated activities during the semester, each making a weighted contribution to your overall performance in the course (1000 points in all): 

1. Weekly journal (5%, 10 submissions, 50 points): You should have a file folder in which to keep a journal of your thoughts about the course. In our Wednesday class meeting each week, you may devote the final ten minutes of class to think and write about your involvement in the course so far. Think and write continually during the time allotted and submit your work to me at the end of class. Each submission (no more than one sheet of 82 x 11 paper, please) will be worth 5 points, so you will need to turn in up to ten of them during the semester to get full credit in this area of performance. Credit is for submission only; your writing will not be otherwise graded. I will respond to your journal entries as appropriate and — with your permission — share some of the more thoughtful and challenging of your ideas with the class. Submitted entries will be returned the following Monday.

2. FR and LF exercises (35%, 350 points — 35 exercises, 10 points each): Over the span of the semester, you will submit thirty-five exercises (no more than five per week) from weekly chapter and file readings listed in the Schedule of Activities. Make your submissions on the following Mondays, except as specifically noted. Please include only exercises from chapters and files listed for that week. No late exercises will be accepted without specific permission.

 

3. Examinations (60%, 600 points — 160 points each [480 points] plus an additional 120 points in the cumulative portion of the final examination ): At the end of each unit of the course (as indicated in the Schedule of Activities), you will be examined over the topics covered in that unit. You will have fifty minutes to respond to the multiple-choice, fill-in, short answer, problem analysis and other items on the test. The final examination will allow for an additional forty minutes to respond to items covering the entire semester’s materials.

• Extra Credit (6%, 60 points — 20 points each): On each exam day you may submit a 3-5 page paper (typed, double spaced) on a topic of your choice that is relevant to that unit of the course. Your ideas and comments should be clearly developed and supported by the published research of others.

UNIT 1: Weeks 1 to 6 

Language Competence: phonology, morphology, syntax 
 
In this unit of the course we will examine the nature of language as a formal object of study. There are several thousand languages currently spoken by people all over the world. They have much in common but each is also unique in many ways. What is language? What is a language? What do we know when we know a language? How is it that we can generate and interpret the grammatical sentences of any language we know? How can this knowledge be described and accounted for? A grammar of a language (a model of what we know about that language) is an account of our linguistic competence for that language. It is the kind of formal object we will be thinking, talking and writing about in this unit. In later units we will consider how language as a formal system of rules, i.e., as a grammar, is interrelated with more encompassing systems of human knowledge and action. 

In this unit you will have an opportunity to develop your analytical and conceptual thinking skills through a consideration of the nature of language and linguistic theory and by means of several specific types of linguistic analysis. You will be writing in your journal and the exercises will require both written and oral presentations. The examination will require you to know and comprehend the material covered. You will also be asked to apply your knowledge to new material by way of analytical problems and short answer essays. 

 
UNIT 1: Weeks 1 to 6 

Language Competence: phonology, morphology, syntax 

Wk. Activities 

1-5 Mondays (3-6): Submit up to five exercises from chapters and files assigned the previous week, as listed below. 

Wednesdays (1-5): Produce and submit one of up to ten journal entries. 

 
1 1- 5 What is language? Read: FR 1; LF 1. Video: Discovering Human Language. 

1- 7 Phonology introduced. Read: FR 6; LF 3. Small group exercise: Groups develop sets of general and specific language characteristics for class consideration. 

2 1-12 Phonemics introduced. Read: FR 7; LF 4. 

3 1-19 Martin Luther King Holiday. No class meeting. (Turn in homework on 1-21.) 

1-21 Phonology & phonemics: Sound patterns of language. Reread: FR 6, 7; LF 3, 4. 

Small group exercise: Groups work on individual suspicious pairs to arrive at a phonemic analysis of sample language data. 4 1-26 Morphology: "Word" patterns of language. Read: FR 3; LF 5. Small group exercise: Groups perform morphemic analyses on sample language data. 

5 2- 2 Syntax: Sentence patterns of language. Read: FR 4; LF 6. Small group exercise: Groups develop phrase structure rules for sample language data. 6 2- 9 Review. 

2-11 Unit 1 examination. Unit 1 extra credit paper due (your option). 
 

Homework 

Wk Ass.# 

2 1 FR 1: 5 

2 FR 6: 6 

3 FR 6: 7 

4 LF 3. 4 

5 LF 3. 5: 6 

3 6 FR 7: 3 

7 FR 7: 9 8 LF 4. 4: 1. 1 9 LF 4. 4: 2. 7 

10 LF 4. 4: 3. 2 
 

Wk Ass.# 

4 11 FR 3: 2 

12 FR 3: 3 

13 LF 5. 6: 1. 1 

14 LF 5. 6: 1. 2 

15 LF 5. 6: 2. 4 

5 16 FR 4: 7 

17 FR 4:10 

18 LF 6. 1: 2 

19 LF 6. 5: 1 

20 LF 6. 6: 2 UNIT 2: Weeks 7 to 12 

Language Dynamics: origins, acquisition, history 

This unit addresses topics of language dynamics. After first considering how language is designed as a communication system, we will explore evidence for several theories of language origins and evolution within the human species. We will then turn our attention to the process of language acquisition for individual humans. Finally, at a societal level, we will examine how languages change over time, both as individual languages and as interrelated groups or families of languages. Here again we will see the interplay between unifying and diversifying dimensions of language. On the one hand, the basic capacity for language is shared by all of us as part of our species’ evolutionary heritage. On the other hand, the unique adaptive demands confronting different language communities leads to an emergent and ever changing configuration of relationships between languages and the people who use them in their daily lives. 

In this unit you will continue to develop your analytical and conceptual thinking skills through a consideration of the evidence for language origins and evolution. The design model of communication systems will be especially challenging and important. You will also continue to write in your journal, and to complete relevant exercises. The examination will again require you to know and comprehend the material covered, and you will again be asked to apply your knowledge to new material by way of analytical problems and short answer essays. The study of language history will call special attention to the dimension of ethnicity, as we consider the many ways in which peoples in contact affect their mutual lives, both present and future. 

 
UNIT 2: Weeks 7 to 12 

Language Dynamics: origins, acquisition, history 

 Wk. Activities 

7-11 Mondays (8-12): Submit up to five exercises from chapters and files assigned the previous week, as listed below. 

Wednesdays (7-11): Produce and submit one of up to ten journal entries. 

7 2-16 Language and communication. Read: The Human Revolution (Hockett and Ascher in Cohen on 2-hr reserve); LF 2. Small group exercise: Hockett and Ascher’s design feature model will be utilized to develop comparisons between human language and systems of communication both within and beyond our own species. 

8 2-23 Language origins. Read: FR 1:22-26,FR 2; LF 13. Video: Apes and Language. 

9 3- 2 Language acquisition. Read: The Capacity for Language Acquisition (Lenneberg in Cohen on 2-hr reserve); FR 2, 8; LF 9. Video: The Mind #7: Language. 

10 3- 9 Spring Break. No class meetings this week. (Turn in homework on 3-16.) 

11 3-16 Language change: the syllables of time. Read: The ABCs of Lexicostatistics (Glottochronology) (Gudschinsky in Hymes on 2-hr reserve); FR 11; LF 10. Small group exercise: Groups will work with LEXISTAT simulation software to determine historical relationships among several sample languages. 

12 3-23 Review. 

3-25 Unit 2 examination. Unit 2 extra credit paper due (your option). 

 
Homework 

Wk Ass.# 

7 21 FR 1: 4 

22 FR 1: 7 

23 LF 1. 6: 1 

24 LF 1. 6: 3 

25 LF 1. 6: 4 

8 26 FR 6: 2 

27 FR 7: 3 

28 FR 3: 9 

29 LF 3. 5: 2 

30 LF 6. 2: 1 
 

Wk Ass.# 

9 31 FR 8: 6 

32 FR 2: 2 

33 LF 9. 1: 2 

34 LF 9. 5: 1 

35 LF 9. 5: 2 

11 36 FR 11: 6 

37 FR 11:12 

38 LF 10. 5: 1 

39 Handout #39 

40 LF 10.14: 1 

UNIT 3: Weeks 13 to 17 

Communicative Competence: culture, cognition, social interaction 

In this final unit we will explore directly the relationships between language and other aspects of human culture and society. While we dealt with linguistic competence - knowledge about generating and interpreting grammatical sentences - in Unit 1, we will now examine communicative competence - knowledge about the appropriate use of language in social situations. Language in use is a powerful means by which people create and identify the unifying and diversifying dimensions of the human condition, such as age, gender, ethnicity, and sociocultural status. Because language is such a pervasive and powerful resource for communicating these dimensions, it is vital that we understand the ongoing role that it plays in our daily lives. 

In this final unit you will bring all you have learned so far to bear on the question of language and its relation to culture and social interaction. This will require you to think carefully about how knowledge becomes action. Chapter 10 of the FR text will provide challenging material on dialects, such as Black and Hispanic English, and on sociolinguistic issues, such as sexism and other forms of negative language stereotyping. Similarly, the Language Files text presents information about regional dialects, language contact, standard and non-standard language forms, and the uses of language in propaganda and advertising. How do we transform what we know as speakers of one or more languages into a system of action that defines who we are for others? How, in turn, do we apply that knowledge in the ongoing business of making sense of the people around us? Considerations of the unifying and diversifying dimensions of gender, age and ethnicity will be critical components of the work we do in this unit. Your journal entries may often involve personal experiences with people different than you. Your growing knowledge of language should cast new light on how you think about these experiences. How different are the perceived differences? Are there some differences that make more of a difference than others? Similarly the exercises you are doing will often relate to our everyday lives. The last examination will again require you to know and comprehend the material covered, and you will again be asked to apply your knowledge to new material by way of analytical problems and short answer essays. 

  
UNIT 3: Weeks 13 to 17 

Communicative Competence: culture, cognition, social interaction 

Wk. Activities 

13-17 Mondays (13-16): Submit up to five exercises from chapters and files assigned the previous week, as listed below. (Wk 16 due 4-22.) 

Wednesdays (13-16): Produce and submit one of up to ten journal entries. 

 13 3-30 Language & culture. Read: FR 9, 12; LF 14.6, 14.4, 14.5. Audio tape: A Word in Your Ear. 

4- 1 Video: American Tongues. Small group exercise: Individuals will apply for and — if successful — be inducted into the Rose and Petal Society 

14 4- 6 Semantics: the meanings of language. Read: FR 5: 158-190; LF 7. Small group exercise: Groups will share componential analyses of kinship terminologies and other comparative language data. 

15 4-13 Pragmatics: the uses of language. Read: FR 5: 190-201; LF 8. Small group exercise: Groups will develop information processing models for decision making in the playing of several simple card games. 

16 4-20 Language in society. Read: FR 10; LF 11, 12, 14.3. Small group exercise: Using primary data from research in a local CB radio speech community, students will examine the role of gender differences in a communication subculture. 

4-22 Last class meeting. Review. Course evaluation. Last journal entry (sign-in sheet). Unit 3 extra credit paper due (your option). Wk 16 homework due. 17 5- 1 Last Examination. Friday, 5-1, 10:30-12:30 (per final exam schedule). 

Homework 

Wk Ass.# 

13 41 FR 12: 1 

42 FR 12: 4 

43 FR 12: 7 

44 FR 12: 9 

45 FR 9: 7 

14 46 FR 5: 1 

47 FR 5: 7 

48 FR 5: 8 

49 FR 5:11 

50 FR 5:12 
 

Wk Ass.# 

15 51 FR 5:17 

52 FR 5:19 

53 LF 8. 2: 4 

54 LF 8. 3: 4 

55 LF 8. 4: 1 

16 56 FR 10: 7 

57 LF 12. 6: 4 

58 LF 4. 4: 1. 3 

59 LF 6. 3: 1 

60 LF 10. 5: 7 

 ADDITIONAL READING 

Texts, monographs and readers 

Bauman, R. and Sherzer, J., Eds.  1989 Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking. Second Edition. Carroll, J., Ed.  1956 Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cohen, Y., Ed.  1974 Man in Adaptation: The Biosocial Background. Second Edition. Eastman, C.  1990 Aspects of Language and Culture. Second Edition. Farb, P. 

American Anthropologist 

GN1 A4 

Anthropological Linguistics 

GN4 A47 

International Journal of American Linguistics 

P1 I5 

Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 

P35 J66 

Language 

P1 L26 

Language and Communication 

P87 L36 

Language in Society 

P1 L285 

 Each syllabi the intellectual property of the author.