ANTH 112 Introduction to Socio-Cultural Anthropology
Winter 2018
Mar. 27: Linguistic anthropology.
READ: Fordham, Signithia (1999) “Dissin’ ‘the standard’: Ebonics as guerrilla warfare at Capital High.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 30(3): 272- 293.
    
Fordham’s research is in the area of linguistic anthropology
 What do linguistic anthropologists study?
    Characteristics of (human) language:
        - Productivity: can produce an infinite number of messages about an infinite number of subjects
        - Displacement: can discuss things not actually occurring
        - Arbitrary: it is a socially constructed system of symbols

    Descriptive Linguistics:
        - Phonology: the study of sounds
            - phonetically distinct sounds versus phonemes
        - Morphology: the study of meaningful sound sequences
            - Morphemes: bound and free
        - Syntax: ordering morphemes into sentences

    Sociolinguistics: The study of language in its social context (This is where Fordham fits in)
        - Dialect, language and politics; language and gender
        
    Nonverbal communication
        - Proxemics: distance
        - Kinesics: body language
        - Bodily adornment     

Fordham focuses on the politics of language
Jamila Lyiscott: https://www.ted.com/talks/jamila_lyiscott_3_ways_to_speak_english?language=en
- what language is her paper written in?
- what is “Ebonics”?
- where does Fordham conduct her research?
- what does Fordham argue?
    - how do the African American students in her study use language? Why do they do so?

Context:
    - what is important to know about the context within which the students use the languages they do?

Concepts:
    - language as “basic medium of group identity” (Fordham 1999: 275)
    - standard versus vernacular language
    - linguistic inversion
    - weapons of the weak
    - leasing the standard
        - “appearing to but not to be” (e.g. Fordham 1999: 278)
        - “acting White” (e.g. Fordham 1999: 278)
            - relationship to hegemonic system of power relations

Evidence:
    - when do these students speak which dialect?
        - which students strategize in what ways around their dialectical options?
    - how do students use avoidance to resist what they see as hostile to their identity?
    - what does “leasing” standard English involve, especially for high achieving students?
    - why do these students resist talking and acting "White"?

Conclusion:
    - what does Fordham suggest might work to improve the under-achieving students’ academic performance?

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