Academic Catalogs

ANTH G190: Introduction to Linguistics

Course Outline of Record
Item Value
Curriculum Committee Approval Date 10/20/2015
Top Code 220200 - Anthropology
Units 3 Total Units 
Hours 54 Total Hours (Lecture Hours 54)
Total Outside of Class Hours 0
Course Credit Status Credit: Degree Applicable (D)
Material Fee No
Basic Skills Not Basic Skills (N)
Repeatable No
Grading Policy Standard Letter (S), 
  • Pass/No Pass (B)
Diversity Requirement (GCD) Yes
California General Education Transfer Curriculum (Cal-GETC)
  • Cal-GETC 4 Social & Behavioral Sciences (4)
Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC)
  • IGETC 4 Social&Behavioral Sci (4)
California State University General Education Breadth (CSU GE-Breadth)
  • CSU C2 Humanities (C2)
  • CSU D1 Anthropology (D1)

Course Description

This course introduces students to language and culture issues in historical linguistics and contemporary perspective. It’s about the nature of language and about how people talk and why they talk the way they do. The complex intersections of language, culture, race, ethnicity, and gender will be explored through social interactions and their dynamics. Field research will be discussed, including goal development and analytical methodologies. Transfer Credit: CSU; UC. C-ID: ANTH 130. C-ID: ANTH 130.

Course Level Student Learning Outcome(s)

  1. Course Outcomes
  2. Describe the complex relationship between language, gender, class and ethnicity.
  3. Analyze the biological and cultural aspects of language acquisition.
  4. Describe the structural components of language.
  5. Analyze language change and the relationship among languages.

Course Objectives

  • 1. Describe the basic theoretical and methodological approaches of linguistic anthropology, and identify the structural properties of language.
  • 2. Identify and describe the complex relationship between culture and language, and analyze and exemplify how language and culture are acquired and interrelated.
  • 3. Recognize the fundamental aspects of non-verbal communication, and analyze non-verbal communication cross-culturally.
  • 4. Describe the cultural implications of language change and language loss, and describe factors and consequences of language change (such as loss) over time.
  • 5. Analyze the evolution and modalities of writing systems, and describe the biocultural origins and development of language through time.

Lecture Content

Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology Language in daily life Modern Myths concerning language Brief history of anthropology Anthropology, linguistics, and linguistic anthropology The History and Evolution of Language Communication among non-human primates and other vertebrates When does a communication system become language. Milestones in human evolution Design features of language Language as an evolutionary product Monogenesis vs. polygenesis Estimating the age of language The life and death of languages  Language and Culture How language reflects culture Cultural emphasis From cultural emphasis to ethnosemantics Ethnosemantics as a field method From ethnosemantics to prototype theory Linguistic relativity Linguistic relativity and cultural emphasis Challenging linguistic relativity: the search for the universal The influence of language on culture Testing linguistic determinism Relative space and absolute space: new evidence for linguistic determinism Language, culture and thought What categories tell you about the mind Categories and metaphors Framing metaphors, framing debates  The Sound of Language Phonology Phonetics Phonetics charts and symbols Beyond phonetic charts: suprasegmental Phonemics Beyond phonology: paralanguage Voice quality and intonation Voice gesture and idiophones Speech substitute: drum and whistle languages Etics and emics  Words a nd Sentences Morphology Morphological analysis How morphemes are arranged Allomorph Syntax Syntactic analysis How syntactic units are arranged Ambiguities and other difficulties Kinds of grammars Silent Languages Sign language The history of American Sign Language American sign language structure Manually coded sign languages Describing and analyzing signs Change and variation in sign language Ideologies and signing Gestures and nonverbal communication Encountering nonverbal systems Smell taste and touch as nonverbal systems Proxemics Kinesics Gestures Gestures across cultures Facial expression and eye contact Simple gesture systems Complex gesture systems  Language in Action Culture, ethnicity, gender, status and style Ethnography of communication: an approach to understanding language in action Speech community and related concepts Other approaches to understanding language in action Attituteds toward the use of speech Recent trends in the ethnography of speaking Intercultural communication: issues and ideologies When things "go wrong": cultural miscues Using linguistic anthropology to develop communicative competence  Writing and Literacy Writing and symbolism What is writing. How does writing work. Pictographic writing Rebus writing Logographic writing Syllabic writing Logosyllabic writing Alphabetic writing Issues of classification Decoding a writing system What does it mean to have writing. Literacy and literacies Literacy as technology Literacy and practice Literacy and orality Literacy and permanence Literacy and linguistic awareness The ethnography of reading Literacy and power: the importance of ideology Ideologies of access Ideologies of colonialism Ideologies of orthography Issues of reform Ways of reading and writing Linear vs. multimodal reading and writing Public vs. private reading and writing  How and When is Language Possible. How is language possible. Theories about language beginnings Innateness vs. evolution A four-field approach Defining language The design features of language Productivity, displacement, traditional transmission and duality of patterning Design features and the emergence of language Primate communication Sign language Non-human primates using sign language Children and language Theories about language in children Ethnographies of language learning When is language possible. Language and the brain Language and the human vocal apparatus  Change and Choice How and why languages change External change Internal change The impact of language change From language to dialect From dialect to language Language change and language families Language in contact: pidging and creole Defining pidging and creole Classifying pidgin and creole languages Ideology, politics and education Ideology and choice Bilingualism Diglossia Codeswitching Mock languages Official languages  An Anthropology of Language Doing linguistic anthropology Everyday applications Cross-cultural applications Working with languages communities Language extinction Language revitalization Translating languages and cultures Revealing racist and sexist language Bias in grammar Bias in word Bias in discourse Linguistic anthropology today

Method(s) of Instruction

  • Lecture (02)
  • DE Live Online Lecture (02S)
  • DE Online Lecture (02X)

Instructional Techniques

Lecture. Audio-video material. In-class discussions. Online forums. In-class exercises.

Reading Assignments

Weekly reading assignments will draw from the required textbook. In order to succeed in the course, students will need to integrate the aforementioned readings with lecture material and assigned academic articles.

Writing Assignments

In-class essays and/or take-home exams will be required throughout the semester.

Out-of-class Assignments

Weekly reading assignments. Online quizzes. Exercises on phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, grammar, pragmatics. Research papers.

Demonstration of Critical Thinking

Analysis of cultural mechanisms which lead to linguistic changes through time. Synthesis and critique of the concepts of linguistic relativity, the influence of language on culture, how language affects thought, Universal Grammar, the rebus principle. Sociocultural aspects related to class, gender and ideology power and access to literacy. Problems and pitfalls inherent to intercultural communication."

Required Writing, Problem Solving, Skills Demonstration

Essay examinations are designed to test student recognition of subject-specific terminology and the application of linguistic principles to hypothetical scenarios. Online forums will require students to use critical thinking skills and the scientific method to evaluate recent findings in language and sociolinguistics. Exercises on the application of principles of phonetics, phonology, syntax, grammar, morphology and pragmatics will demonstrate students knowledge of the components of language.

Eligible Disciplines

Anthropology: Masters degree in anthropology or archaeology OR bachelors degree in either of the above AND masters degree in sociology, biological sciences, forensic sciences, genetics or paleontology OR the equivalent. Masters degree required.

Textbooks Resources

1. Required Rowe, B. and Levine, D.. A Concise Introduction to Linguistics, 4 ed. Upper Saddle River: Routledge, 2015