Ethnolinguistics

An original approach to ethnolinguistics, discussing how abstract concepts such as love and hate are expressed across cultures and ethnicities.

This book presents a description and analysis of sociolinguistics written from a demographer’s perspective. It synthesizes the data on the materials, methods, and issues of this interdisciplinary field, pulling together the scattered materials published in this area into a coherent whole. Drawing on a wide range of sciences in addition to demography and sociolinguistics, including sociology, anthropology, statistics, psychology, neuroscience, and public policy, the book treats theoretical and applied issues, links methods and substantive findings, covers both national and international materials, and provides prehistorical, historical, and contemporary illustrations. The book treats the theoretical issue of how the language we use develops socially on a base of linguistic genetic capacity and the practical issue of how the intervention of the state and public figures may profoundly alter the natural evolution of the language. As such, this book will appeal to a wide range of users, from students to teachers and practitioners of social demography, sociolinguistics, cultural anthropology, and particularly to those social scientists interested in ethnic studies and human migration.

Focusing upon the Mission Métis of Lac la Biche, the author examines the use of French, Cree, and English as a means of garnering insight into the mechanisms of western Canadian Métis cultural and linguistic variation. He concludes that the relationship of the people to their environment is inextricably bound to an understanding of their language and culture and that the delineation of cultural boundaries is, therefore, a highly complex matter.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications.It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other.The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.

In this valuable book, ethnographer and anthropologist Brigittine French mobilizes new critical-theoretical perspectives in linguistic anthropology, applying them to the politically charged context of contemporary Guatemala. Beginning with an examination of the Ònationalist projectÓ that has been ongoing since the end of the colonial period, French interrogates the ÒGuatemalan/indigenous binary.Ó In Guatemala, ÒLadinoÓ refers to the Spanish-speaking minority of the population, who are of mixed European, usually Spanish, and indigenous ancestry; ÒIndianÓ is understood to mean the majority of GuatemalaÕs population, who speak one of the twenty-one languages in the Maya linguistic groups of the country, although levels of bilingualism are very high among most Maya communities. As French shows, the Guatemalan state has actively promoted a racialized, essentialized notion of ÒIndiansÓ as an undifferentiated, inherently inferior group that has stood stubbornly in the way of national progress, unity, and developmentÑwhich are, implicitly, the goals of Òtrue GuatemalansÓ (that is, Ladinos). French shows, with useful examples, how constructions of language and collective identity are in fact strategies undertaken to serve the goals of institutions (including the government, the military, the educational system, and the church) and social actors (including linguists, scholars, and activists). But by incorporating in-depth fieldwork with groups that speak Kaqchikel and KÕicheÕ along with analyses of Spanish-language discourses, Maya Ethnolinguistic Identity also shows how some individuals in urban, bilingual Indian communities have disrupted the essentializing projects of multiculturalism. And by focusing on ideologies of language, the author is able to explicitly link linguistic forms and functions with larger issues of consciousness, gender politics, social positions, and the forging of hegemonic power relations.

This interdisciplinary study investigates the relationship between culture, language and cognition based on the aspects of social structure, space and possession in Tonga, Polynesia. Grounded on extensive field research, Volkel explores the subject from an anthropological as well as from a linguistic perspective. The book provides new insights into the language of respect, an honorific system which is deeply anchored in the societal hierarchy, spatial descriptions that are determined by socio-cultural and geocentric parameters, kinship terminology and possessive categories that perfectly express the system of social status inequalities among relatives. These examples impressively show that language is deeply anchored in its cultural context. Moreover, the linguistic structures reflect the underlying cognitive frame of its speakers. Just as several cultural practices (sitting order, access to land and gift exchange processes) the linguistic means are not only expressions of stratified social networks but also tools to maintain or negotiate the underlying socio-cultural system."

This is an open access book. Linguistics as a field of study discussing languages plays a fundamental role in the life of humans. It affects the human way of thinking in various aspects. In turn, there is a pervasive influence of language on our daily lives. The impact is that the work of linguists is no longer only managing language in one discipline, but relating and interconnecting the linguistics with other fields at a further level. Linguistic studies have now been carried out in various fields including psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, law, philosophy, computer science, communications, and education. Linguistics enthusiasts find practical solutions for their linguistic training in the computer, law, and forensic industries, teaching foreign languages ​​and English as a second language, translation and interpretation, speech pathology, lexicography, and policymaking in government and education. Nowadays, these jobs are, however, no longer operational but encounter many challenges, especially in the global era. The digital revolution has created new avenues for language use and new communication modalities. The existence of technology mediates our linguistic and social interactions. The pervasive influence of technology on human development has the potential to influence language acquisition and change social behavior. In this global era, many challenges in human life arise. Our brave new digital world has caused some discord for language activists – and if harsh text speakers do not feel good, woe ensues our new diet of round-shaped emojis. Our language and our relationship to language have developed to keep pace with cultural changes. Furthermore, since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, society has been carrying out communication online through the internet and social. To , society has been accustomed to doing it that way. One of the challenges linguistics studies are facing is the implementation of appropriate language capacity. There are conditions for the use of inaccurate languages ​​according to standardized rules in communication through online media. To solve this, reciprocal interactions are also important for creating a pool of different perspectives among the smart human community. In total, digital technologies are also changing the ways we learn and teach, as well as the ways we compose and research. These changes are occurring throughout the academy, including the humanities — a set of disciplines less associated with technology. In an effort to vanquish the challenges trending in the linguistic study in order to depict the future perspectives on it established in the description above, fresh ideas from the younger generations are needed. For that purpose, the Graduate School of Linguistics, the Postgraduate Program University of Warmadewa in collaboration with other institutes presents an international academic discussion forum in the form of a conference. This event is themed “The 2nd Student Conference on Linguistics: Trends and Future Perspectives in Language study and Language Teaching”. Through the forum students from various parts of the world are expected to share bright and innovative ideas to discover solutions to the problems and challenges faced by linguistics today and in the coming future.