Matrix Of Language

The Matrix of Language introduces students and other readers to recent debates in the study of language and culture. The articles in this anthology, selected for their readability, present a range of methodological approaches and well-known case studies that illustrate the interconnection of language, culture, and social practice. The editors' introductory essays compare and contrast specific approaches in four broad areas: language and socialization, gender, the ethnography of speaking, and the role of language in social and political life. The book is a valuable introduction in linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics courses and a resource for anyone exploring the relation of language to psychology, political theory, feminist studies, and literature and folklore. 1. Introduction Part One: Learning Language, Learning Culture 2. What No Bedtime Story Means: Narrative Skills at Home and School 3. Detective Stories at Dinnertime: Problem-Solving Through Co-Narration 4. Hard Words: A Functional Basis for Kaluli Discourse Part Two: Gender, Power, and Discourse 5. A Cultural Approach to Male-Female Miscommunication 6. Norm-Makers, Norm-Breakers: Uses of Speech by Men and Women in a Malagasy Community 7. The Whole Woman: Sex and Gender Differences in Variation Part Three: Genre, Style, Performance 8. Biography of a Sentence: A Burmese Proverb 9. Any Man Who Keeps More'n One Hound'll Lie to You: A Contextual Study of Expressive Lying 10. Carne, Carnales, and the Carnivalesque: Bakhtinian Batos, Disorder, and Narrative Discourses Part Four: Language as Social Practice 11. Grog and Gossip in Bhatgaon: Style and Substance in Fiji Indian Conversation 12. Reflections on a Meeting: Structure, Language, and the Polity in a Small-Scale Society 13. When Talk Isn't Cheap: Language and Political Economy 14. Monoglot Standard in America: Standardization and Metaphors of Linguistic Hegemony 15. The Grammar of Consciousness and the Consciousness of Grammar