Anthropology (ANTH) 354
Language and Culture

This version of ANTH 354 closed. To current version.

Delivery modes: Individualized study or grouped study. Audio component.*
*Overseas students, please contact the University Library before registering in a course that has an audio/visual component.
Credits: 3 - Social Science
Prerequisite: ANTH 275 is recommended but not required.
Centre: Centre for Work and Community Studies
Challenge for Credit: ANTH 354 has a Challenge for Credit option.
Téluq equivalency: LIN 1001
Learn more online: Course home page

>> Overview | Outline | Evaluation | Course Materials | Course Fees | Course Availability

Overview

ANTH 354 introduces students to a subfield of anthropology—linguistic anthropology. Culture cannot be studied without the aid of language, but linguistic anthropology contributes more than the means to study culture. For example, descriptive linguistics can help anthropologists to study language and culture. Historical linguistics provides clues that assist archaeologists in their reconstruction of past ways of life. This course presents some of the techniques and methods used by linguistic anthropologists.

Outline

The course consists of the following ten units.

  • Unit 1 The Study of Language and the Nature and Origins of Human Languages
  • Unit 2 Phonology 1: The Scientific Study of the Production of Speech Sounds
  • Unit 3 Phonology 2: The Study of Sound Patterns and Phonological Environments
  • Unit 4 Morphology and Writing Systems
  • Unit 5 Language Change, History, and Classification
  • Unit 6 Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Languages
  • Unit 7 Language Acquisition
  • Unit 8 Semantics
  • Unit 9 Ethnolinguistics
  • Unit 10 Sociolinguistics: Language and Society

Evaluation

To receive credit for ANTH 354, students must achieve a course composite grade of at least "D" (50 percent). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

Assignment 1 Assignment 2 Assignment 3 Final Exam Total
24% 32% 24% 20% 100%

Course Materials

Textbooks

Fromkin, Victoria, and Robert Rodman. 1988. Introduction to Language,4th ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Hickerson, Nancy Parrott. 1980. Linguistic Anthropology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Other Material

The course materials include a student manual, study guide, and a book of readings.

Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice.
Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized-study counterparts.

[AU Home Page]
Athabasca University
1 University Drive
Athabasca, AB T9S 3A3
(780) 675-6111, (800) 788-9041
Ask AU
Opened in Revision 2, 1993.
This page was updated by G. Zahara