3.00 Credits
A Comparative Course that examines language as humans' primary means of communication. Although virtually all animals communicate in some form, language is considered distinctly human as a result of cognitive, cultural, and physiologically distinct features of our species. The course examines language as both a system and performance. The systematic approach towards language study examines the structural components of language: phonemes, morphemes, syntax, grammar, etc., while a performance approach towards language study examines the art and style of communication (regional accents and dialects, slang, etc.). Anthropologists widely consider language to be the single most important aspect of human culture, as language is the means by which culture is transmitted to others. Other key topics to be examined in the course include language and identity, bilingualism, the critical age of language development, language shift vs. language maintenance, the development of pidgins and Creole languages (with a particular focus on Black English Vernacular, Spang/ish, and the Ca/6 dialect of the Southwestern United States), the prescriptive vs. descriptive debate within linguistics, linguistic profile, language prejudice, and the rise of linguistic nationalism (as seen in cases such as the situation in Quebec among Franco-Canadian nationalists and the English as the Official Language debate in the United States.
Prerequisite:
ANTH 121 and Junior class standing.