Concentration in Language Development (dsm)

Assessment

Readings (5) 10%

Summaries (2) 10 %

Exam 1 (mid) 20 %

Exam 2 (final) 60%

TOTAL 100 %

Other readings as provided throughout the course, primarily from Gary Ferraro, Cultural Anthropology: an Applied Perspective (various editions) and James Spradley and David McCurdy, Anthropology: the Cultural Perspective (1989)

ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS

CODE

PREREQUISITE NONE

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  Be familiar with some basic theories and concepts of cultural anthropology
  
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  Have developed an understanding, appreciation, and respect for people of other cultures, as well as an ability to interact with such people.
  
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  To have come to a better understanding of oneself and the adjustment that has to be made in order to work effectively in a cross-cultural setting.
  
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  To be familiar with cross-cultural field research, how to analyse data and how to write it up.
  
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  Be sensitive to ethical issues in data collection
  
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  Have a basic knowledge of the relevant literature and know how to apply the content.
  

At the end of the course the student should be able to know/and or do the following:

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  Know an overview of the basic theories and concepts of cultural anthropology
  
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  Techniques to learn how to live and work in a cross-cultural setting
  
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  How to collect data in an actual cross-cultural field research situation and how to analyse the data.
  
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  Learn how to write up field notes
  
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  How to be ethical in data collection
  
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  Be made familiar with literature relevant to cultural anthropology
  
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  Learn practically how to combine theory with practice
  

Final Assessment 70%

After completing this course students will have been introduced to major fields within the discipline of linguistic anthropology, literature that describes how linguistics and anthropology relate to and influence each other, how language and culture are interrelated, and realize that one cannot be studied without using the tools of the other. Students will have been exposed to some of the ways languages are structured in terms of their sound system and grammars, the ways they create meaning, and some of the ways in which they reflect the cultures of the people who speak them. Students will become further acquainted with the International Phonetic Alphabet and issues surrounding orthographies and identity. They will be introduced to some factors that influence languages change, ways in which language and identity are intertwined, and why the vast majority of the world’s languages are dying today. We will review the history of writing, the issues of multilingual education, including the globalization of English, and reading theories such as the Phonics-Whole language debate. Students will also be alerted to the different forms of language used by genders in societies, and how those forms of language both reflect and reinforce gender ideologies.

By the end of the course serious students will have learned some of the basic theories and concepts of linguistic anthropology, developed an understanding, appreciation and respect for people who speak other languages or varieties of a language, and will have been exposed to some skills that can help them communicate better with people from other speech communities. Students will also come to a better understanding of themselves and the skills they will need in order to live and work effectively in a globalized, increasingly multilingual world.

REQUIREMENTS:

Students are expected to attend all class sessions, to read all assigned readings, and to hand in assignments on time. Graded work includes: quizzes over readings, written homework, one mini-project, one field project, a mid-term exam and a final exam. For written homework, students will be asked to answer questions from the workbook, or to write short reaction in which they are asked to reflect on how they observe the central idea of the articles at work in their own, or other languages around them. These are to be handed in on the day they are due. Each student should be sure to include their name, the date, and the specific assignment on each piece of homework. Students will be graded according to how well they interact with the central arguments of the articles. The mini-project will require a student to collect a list of at least 30 words or metaphors and their meanings from a specific domain of their choice. The field project, which must be instructor or TA approved, will be to choose one of an approved list of scripts from the Bible, and identify the context, who each speaker is, what specific speech formulae they used, what ritual acts accompanied the formula, and suggest how to go about translating these passages in a meaningful way. There will be both a mid-term and a final exam for this course.

Final course grades will be based on the following criteria: grades on weekly written hand-ins (reaction papers or workbook questions) ; daily quizzes; mini-project, field project; mid-term exam (30%) final exam (70%).

Blum, Susan D. 2009. Making Sense of Language: Readings in Culture and Communication. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Salzmann, Zdenek, Stanislaw, James, and Adachi Nobuko. 2012. Language, Culture, and Society: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology (fifth edition). Boulder, CO.: Westview Press.

Any additional readings not taken from these books will be provided by professor.

The principles and methods necessary for the production of dictionaries, including the use of pertinent software tools.

By the end of the course students will be able to

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  explain the vocabulary, principles and methods of constructing a dictionary
  
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  design a dictionary for a particular audience, whether bilingual or monolingual
  
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  gather lexical information, using both corpus and semantic domain techniques
  
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  organize data in a lexical database such as Fieldworks
  
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  write good dictionary definitions
  
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  apply the skills learned by doing a small dictionary project in their own language
  
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  understand ethical principles of lexicography and apply them to a dictionary project
  

A dictionary is the central component of a program of language documentation, bringing together key observations on the phonology, grammar, semantics, usage, and history of the language. It lays a foundation for many aspects of a language development program, including orthography development, literacy, and literature development, as well as other tasks such as language learning and translation.

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  lectures
  
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  word studies
  
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  group discussions
  
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  practical exercises
  
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  readings and reading reports
  
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  term project
  
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  student presentations of term project
  

Power point, handouts, FieldWorks software

This module builds on Introduction to Grammar and applies analytical techniques to larger units of language than clauses. The analytical approach is basically structural and taken from the work of Longacre and Levinsohn. Students describe typical features of different types of prominence and cohesion, chart texts, analyze discourse segmented into hierarchical units, and indicate evidence for foregrounding and back grounding (or mainline and supportive information). The techniques are applied to student's own and other (mostly African) languages. The major emphasis is on narrative discourses, but later in the course procedural, and expository texts are also studied.

The students will work on their own language (or another African language). At the end of the module the students will know:

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  That each language has its own distinct discourse patterns
  
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  That each discourse has its own distinct discourse pattern
  
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  The difference between foreground and background information within a text and according to a specific genre
  
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  The different participants and their tracking system including pronouns and demonstratives
  
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  The different ways of combining clauses
  
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  How to identify highlighting, the functions of idiophones, interjections and reported speech
  

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  Present texts in charted form and have a write-up of all the findings they made
  
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  Segment a text into all its discourse units (paragraphs, episodes, conclusion etc.) according to linguistic features
  
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  Analyse and describe the use of tense/aspect/mood in different genre and its relationship to foreground and background information
  
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  Analyse and describe the use of connectives in different genre
  
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  Analyse and describe the use of development markers within a text
  

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  The knowledge of discourse analysis for doing translation
  

Unit 1 Introduction

Differences between discourse and grammatical analysis

Written and oral language

Charting of texts
Unit 2 Important concepts in discourse

Event-line and the distinction of foreground/background information

Participants/Participant tracking

Setting/staging

Paragraphs and episodes

Plot structure

The marking of peak
Unit 3 Functional relations in discourse

Connectors

Development markers

Direct, indirect, semi direct speech

Topic and Focus

Clause chaining, switch reference

Interjections, Idiophones

Modes of delivery

The teaching methods will include a mixture of lectures, discussion and practical work on language data.
Instructional materials/Equipment

Power point, video presentations, ICT

Tests after each unit 5%

Assignments 5%

Term project 20%

Final examination 70%
Text books

Levinsohn, Stephen H. (2010). Self-instruction materials on narrative discourse analysis. PDF. SIL International. http://www.sil.org/~levinsohns

Dooley Robert & Stephen Levinsohn (2000) Analysing Discourse: A Manual of basic concepts. SIL International.

Longacre, Robert & Shin Hwang (2012) Holistic Discourse analysis. Dallas: SIL International.

Beaugrande, R. & W. Dressler (1981). Introduction to Text Linguistics. London: Longman.

Blakemore, Diane. 2002. Relevance and Linguistic Meaning: The semantics and pragmatics of discourse markers. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.

Blass, Regina. 1990. Relevance Relations in Discourse: A study with special reference to Sissala. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.

Brown, Gillian & George Yule (1983). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Callow, Kathleen (1974). Discourse Considerations in Translating the Word of God. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Chafe, Wallace. 1994. Discourse, Consciousness, and Time: The flow and displacement of conscious experience in speaking and writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Grimes, Joseph E. (1975). The Thread of Discourse. The Hague: Mouton.

Hatim, B. (1990). Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman.

Longacre, Robert E. (1996). The Grammar of Discourse.

______ (1990). Storyline Concerns and Word Order Typology in East and West Africa. Los Angeles: UCLA.

Levinsohn, Stephen (2006) “Reasoning styles and types of hortatory discourse” in: Journal of Translation. Vol.2: No 2: 1-10.

Renkema, Jan (1993). Discourse Studies: An Introductory Textbook. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Schiffrin, Deborah (1994). Approaches to Discourse. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

______ (1987). Discourse Markers. Cambridge: CUP.

Stirling, Lesley (1993) Switch-reference and discourse representation.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Trosborg, Anna 1997. Text typology: Register, Genre and Text Type. Text Typology and Translation: 3-23.

Van Djik, Teun (1971) “Foundation for typologies of texts.” International symposium on Semiotic Studies: La classification des textos littere’raires”, Urbino (Italy 17-23, 1971.