|
Language and Culture
The ability to communicate through elaborate linguistic and symbolic systems is part of what makes humans social beings. Across cultures, different communication styles flourish at various levels of complexity in terms of language use and semiotic resources. These resources include gesture, space, body adornment, intonation and other forms of non-verbal communication. Language and Culture is concerned with the linguistic, discourse and symbolic systems that construct and represent social life and culture. Courses under this category are concerned with how language use constructs, constitutes and represents society and culture. |
|
|
This course introduces students to basic concepts and qualitative methods in the social sciences including ethnographic fieldwork and the analysis of face-to-face communication. It focuses on the details of everyday activities across a number of communities and interactive environments. It is meant to provide a bridge between communications, the social sciences, linguistics and socio-cultural anthropology through the introduction of concepts and analytical techniques that privilege observation, participation, video recording and transcription of spontaneous interaction (as opposed to experimental tasks or introspection). Topics include language socialization, literacy, music and the visual arts, the power of language, miscommunication, and universal and culture-specific properties of human communication. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
