Language and Culture
Course code
GRT7302.HT
old course code
Course title in Estonian
Keel ja kultuur
Course title in English
Language and Culture
ECTS credits
6.0
Assessment form
assessment
lecturer of 2023/2024 Spring semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
lecturer of 2024/2025 Autumn semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
Course aims
The purpose of the subject is to give an overview of the field of study of linguistic anthropology, its principal research questions and methods. Students are made aquainted to observation methods that help them to understand the differences between languages and cultures. The subject also gives an overview of linguistic fieldwork.
Brief description of the course
The course gives an overview of the most important questions concerning language and culture. Students are taught to understand the subject field and concepts used in linguistic anthropology, e.g. how to do linguistic anthropology, what are the tools of linguistic anthropologist; what is linguistic relativity; if and how our language is affected by our worldview(s); how to effectively map and describe unfamiliar languages, their sound systems, morphology, vocabulary and syntax; what is language and when is language possible; why do languages change and how; languages in contact, pidgin and creole languages; bilingualism, diglossia and code-switching; language and dialect – their differences; how to do fieldwork. We also expand upon the possibility that the speakers of different languages may have different worldviews. We discuss the difference between words and concepts and how words and concepts emerge in languages and dissapear. We also discuss different writing systems (Latin, Arabic, ect.) and the question of literacy. We look at some „exotic“ languages, their system of words and concepts and compare it to the system of words and concepts of some well-known European languages.
Learning outcomes in the course
Upon completing the course the student:
- is able to understand the research areas and the terminology of linguistic anthropology and is capable of describing linguistic differences between diverse languages (including their grammar);
- has acquired basic knowledge on how to carry out fieldwork in theory and practice,
- is capable of making the difference between a word and a concept and has some knowledge of word and concept systems of some unfamiliar languages,
- is acquainted with the hypothesis of linguistic relativity,
- by using his/her own knowledge of linguistic anthropology is capable of creating new language(s) or describing an unknown language in the framework of linguistic anthropology.
- is able to understand the research areas and the terminology of linguistic anthropology and is capable of describing linguistic differences between diverse languages (including their grammar);
- has acquired basic knowledge on how to carry out fieldwork in theory and practice,
- is capable of making the difference between a word and a concept and has some knowledge of word and concept systems of some unfamiliar languages,
- is acquainted with the hypothesis of linguistic relativity,
- by using his/her own knowledge of linguistic anthropology is capable of creating new language(s) or describing an unknown language in the framework of linguistic anthropology.
Teacher
Dotsent Mari Uusküla
Study programmes containing that course