Anthropological Linguistics

Abstract

Anthropological linguistics is the subfield of linguistics (and anthropology) concerned with the place of language in its wider social and cultural context, its role in forging and sustaining cultural practices and social structures. While Duranti (2001) denies that a true field of anthropological linguistics exists, preferring the term linguistic anthropology to cover this subfield, I regard the two terms as interchangeable. With some cogency, Duranti (2001) argues that due to current concerns of mainstream linguistics with the explicit analysis of the formal structures of language in contrast to anthropology's broader approach of looking at how humans make meaning through semiotic systems in cultural practices, this subfield is properly included within anthropology rather than linguistics. However, I beg to differ, believing that the current historical divisions of academic turf are just that—historical and contingent—and subject to change, and I would be loath to institutionalize such divisions by insisting on rigidly labeled compartments. The current disciplinary concerns of linguistics do not reflect its earlier history in which it was firmly enjoined to anthropology (Boas, 1940; Sapir, 1949; Haas, 1977, 1978). It is my firm hope that, over time, this more inclusive view will reassert itself, and hence my preference is to use both terms to cover this subfield, although, as titled, I will stick with the label anthropological linguistics in this article.