
Language Endangerment (ANT 320L [31620]/LIN 373 [39785]) Monday/Wednesday/Friday 2-3 pm, WCP 4.118 Instructor: James Slotta Office: WCP 5.134 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tuesdays 1-3 pm or by appointment Course Description The 21st century, linguists say, could see the “death or doom” of 90 percent of the world’s languages. In response, non-governmental organizations, academics, and communities have responded with campaigns to preserve and revitalize “dying” languages. At the same time, sociolinguists and political theorists have tried to create the groundwork for the recognition of “language rights” as a tool for defending small-scale and minority language communities against the spread of national and global languages. In this course, we examine such efforts in order to ask: why does the idea of language death inspire all of this work and attention? What is “a language” – what properties are seen to inhere in language – that drives these activities? Here we will explore views of language that underpin the anxieties and efforts of the language rights and revitalization movements: from the place of language in the 19th and 20th century politics of national autonomy to the role of language as a repository of worldviews and an emblem of our shared humanity. In the process, we see how “language” and distinct “languages” are situated at the center of imaginations of community and moral anxieties over autonomy, with all of the political and ethical implications that result for people who are recognized as having their own language as well as those who recognize the “languagedness” of others. Course Schedule (Subject to Change) 1. Language Diversity Jan 22 Introduction: How Many Languages? Jan 24 What is Language Diversity? ○ Nicholas Evans. A Great Feast of Languages & A Galapagos of Tongues. In D ying Words, pp. 45-68 Jan 27 Group Work: First Presentation ○ Group A (Guugu Yimithirr) − Stephen Levinson. Language and Cognition: The Cognitive Consequences of Spatial Description in Guugu Yimithirr. J ournal of Linguistic Anthropology 7 (1): 98–131. − John Haviland. Anchoring, Iconicity, and Orientation in Guugu Yimithirr Pointing Gestures. J ournal of Linguistic Anthropology 3 (1): 3–45. ○ Group B (Pirahã) − Daniel Everett. Changing Channels with Pirahã Sounds. In D on’t Sleep, There are Snakes, pp. 177-191. − Daniel Everett, Daniel Leonard. Phonetic Rarities in Pirahã. J ournal of the International Phonetic Association 12 (2): 94–96. − Peter Ladefoged and Daniel Everett. The Status of Phonetic Rarities. Language 72 (4): 794–800. − http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/MYP/myp.html 2 ○ Group C (Tuyuca) − Janet Barnes. Evidentials in the Tuyuca Verb. International Journal of American Linguistics 50 (3): 255–71. ○ Group D (Inuit languages) − Shanley Allen. Polysynthesis in the Acquisition of Inuit Languages. In T he Oxford Handbook of Polysynthesis , pp. 449-472. ○ Group E (Kalam) − Andrew Pawley. A Language Which Defies Description by Ordinary Means. In T he Role of Theory in Language Description , pp. 87-129. ○ Preparation for presentations Jan 29 The Range of Linguistic Diversity ○ Presentations on different languages Jan 31 The Range of Linguistic Diversity ○ Presentations on different languages Feb 3 The Range of Linguistic Diversity & Its Value to Linguists ○ Colapinto, John. 2007. The Interpreter: Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language? T he New Yorker. Apr. 16. ○ RMW Dixon. Today’s Priorities. In T he Rise & Fall of Languages, pp. 116-127 ○ Quiz (Presentation-based): Language Diversity and Its Value to Linguists Feb 5 Project Time: Pick a Language ○ Come to class with 2 possible languages for your group project 2. Language, Culture, Thought Feb 7 Language, Thought, and Culture ○ Franz Boas. Introduction to the H andbook of American Indian Languages (Grammatical Categories, Discussion of Grammatical Categories, Interpretation of Grammatical Categories, pp. 20-23, 31-39) ○ Benjamin Lee Whorf. L anguage, Thought, and Reality. (Language, Mind, and Reality, pp. 246-270). Feb 10 Is Language Loss, Culture Lost? ○ Kwachka & Basham. Literacy acts and cultural artifacts: on the extension of English modals. (Pp. 413-429) ○ Anthony Woodbury. Documenting rhetorical, aesthetic, and expressive loss in language shift. In E ndangered Languages , (pp. 234-238) ○ Anthony Woodbury. A Defense of the Proposition, ‘When a Language Dies, a Culture Dies.’ (pp. 8-16) 3 Feb 12 Project Time: Second Presentation ○ Quiz: Language, Culture, and Thought Feb 14 Language Loss is Culture Preserved? ○ Don Kulick. A Death in the Rainforest ( Forward, Chapters 1-6) Feb 17 Language Loss is Culture Preserved? ○ Don Kulick. A Death in the Rainforest (Chapters 7-13) Feb 19 Language Loss is Culture Preserved? ○ Don Kulick. A Death in the Rainforest. ( Chapter 14-17, Postscript) ○ Debate Prep Feb 21 Debate: Language Loss is Culture Lost ○ Debate 3. Language, Self-Determination, and Nationalism Feb 24 Kultur, Language, and the Politics of Self-Determination ○ Norbert Elias. Sociogenesis of the difference between K ultur and Zivilisation in German Usage. In The Civilizing Process, pp. 3-28 ○ Benedict Anderson. Old Languages, New Models. In Imagined Communities. Feb 26 Language & the National Self ○ Richard Handler. Nationalism & the Politics of Culture in Quebec (Chapter 2 and Chapter 7, pp. 159-75 only) Feb 28 Project Time: Second Presentation ○ Quiz: Language, Self-Determination, and Nationalism ○ Presentation Prep Mar 2 Second Group Presentations Mar 4 Second Group Presentations Mar 6 Decolonization and the Difficulties with National Languages ○ Abram De Swaan. W ords of the World (pp. 6-17) ○ Joshua Fishman. The Impact of Nationalism on Language Planning. In Can Language Be Planned? ○ Midterm Prompts 4 Mar 9 Language, Identity, and the Politics of Indigeneity ○ Sam L. No'eau Warner. Kuleana: The Right, Responsibility, and Authority of Indigenous Peoples to Speak and Make Decisions for Themselves in Language and Cultural Revitalization (Pp. 68-93) ○ Jane Hill. “Today there is no respect”: Nostalgia, “Respect” and Oppositional Discourse in Mexicano (Nahuatl) Language Ideology. In Language Ideologies. ○ Film Mar 11 Language, Identity, and the Politics of Indigeneity ○ Discussion of Film and Readings Mar 13 Midterms Due 4. Language, Globalization, and Neoliberalism Mar 23 Global Languages & the Neoliberal Logic of Communication ○ Abram De Swaam. The political economy of language constellations & Conclusion. In Words of the World , Introduction (pp. 25-40) and Conclusion (pp. 176-193) Mar 25 Neoliberal Globalization & the International Market of Languages ○ Film Mar 27 Neoliberal Globalization & the International Market of Languages ○ Heller: Globalization, the new economy, and the commodification of language and identity. ○ Quiz: Language, Globalization, and Neoliberalism Mar 30 The Ethics of Language Endangerment ○ Peter Ladefoged. Another View of Endangered Languages. (pp 809-811) ○ Nancy Dorian. Discussion note: A response to Ladefoged’s other view of endangered languages. (pp. 575-9) ○ Debate Prep & Group Work Apr 1 Debate: Let Languages Die ○ Debate Apr 3 Project Time: Third Presentation ○ Work on Presentations Apr 6 Third Group Presentations 5 Apr 8 Third Group Presentations 5. Language Rights, Revitalization, and Authenticity Apr 10 Linguistic Human Rights ○ Robert Phillipson, Mart Rannut, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas. Linguistic Human Rights. (“Introduction” pp. 1-22) ○ Quiz (Presentation-based): Comparison of Social and Political Situation of Languages Apr 13 The Limits of Language Rights ○ Kymlicka & Patton Language rights and political theory. (pp. 9-17) ○ Joshua Fishmann. On the Limits of Ethnolinguistic Democracy. In L inguistic Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination, pp. 49-53 ○ Philippe van Parijs. L inguistic Justice for Europe and the World. ( Linguistic Justice as Parity of Esteem, pp. 117-132) Apr 15 The Language of Language Rights ○ Jan Blommaert. The Asmara Declaration as a Sociolinguistic Problem: Reflections on Scholarship and Linguistic Rights (Pp. 131-142) ○ Skutnabb-Kangas & Phillipson with Kontra. Reflections on scholarship and linguistic rights: A rejoinder to Jan Blommaert. (Pp.143-155). Apr 17 Project Time: Briefing Paper ○ Quiz: Language Rights & Their Limits Apr 20 Possessive Individualism & Language Rights: Are Language Rights Cultural Wrongs? ○ Peter Whiteley. Do "Language Rights" Serve Indigenous Interests? Some Hopi and Other Queries. (Pp. 712-722) ○ M. Eleanor Nevins. “Learning to Listen: Confronting Two Meanings of Language Loss in the Contemporary White Mountain Apache Speech Community.” (Pp. 269–88) Apr 22 Revitalization: Preservation and/or Transformation? ○ Hinton & Ahlers. The Issue of "Authenticity" in California Language Restoration. (Pp 56-67) ○ Peterson & Webster. Speech play and language ideologies in Navajo terminology development (pp. 93-116) Apr 24 Group Briefing Paper Due ○ Quiz: Language Revitalization and Authenticity 6 6. Language Vitality Apr 27 Language Vitality ○ John McWhorter, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue (Introduction, Chpts. 1-2) Apr 29 Language Vitality ○ John McWhorter, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue (Chpts. 3-4) May 1 Why Save Endangered Languages? ○ John McWhorter, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue (Chpt. 5) ○ Debate Prep May 4 Debate: Language Preservation is Impossible ○ Debate May 6 The Heroic Age of Linguistics ○ Bernard Perley. Zombie linguistics: Experts, endangered languages and the curse of undead voices. (Pp. 133-149) ○ Film: The Linguists May
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