Linguistic Anthropology Roundup #12

Things seem to be happening, on our linguistic anthropology landscape. (Since Language Log has a “plaza,” we might as well name a landscape for ourselves, like people in Cibeque.)

Westerm Washington University‘s Judy Pine has started blogging for us and “Linguistic Anthropology Roundup #11” was a blogpost about “bad words,” invented languages, and youth.

Our revered Digital Content Editor, University of Wyoming‘s Leila Monaghan has posted Haitian linguist’s Yves Dejean‘s petition about Creole language instruction in Haiti, on hebalf of MIT’s Michel DeGraff. As might be expected whenever Creole languages are discussed, that post has sparked some interesting reactions. (As an aside, I haven’t found more information about Yves Dejean’s affiliation or a personal webpage.)

And the “linktrail” from my own Linguistic Anthropology Roundup #10 went on a bit further.

1. In Defense of Difference § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM.
2. Daily Data Dump – Wednesday | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine.
3. Linguistic diversity = poverty | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine.
4. Language loss | john hawks weblog.
5. Linguistic Anthropology Roundup #10 | Society for Linguistic Anthropology.
6. Linguistic Diversity Does Not Equal Poverty | Creighton Barrett (Unfortunately, this blog is currently down.)
7. Linguistic diversity, other views | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine.
8. Language extinction ain’t no big thing? « Neuroanthropology.
9. Cultural Diversity, Economic Development and Societal Instability » Gene Expression.
10. Virginia Heffernan vs. ScienceBlogs « Neuroanthropology.
11. Qeyḥ bāḥrī » Linguistic diversity; good thing… or the cause of African poverty!!.
12. Songs From The Wood » Death of A Language.
13. And possibly some other links.

I stopped looking at these but, with a bit of time spent on this, one could map out the intertextual links. Eventually, some enterprising person could even analyze how language and languages are conceptualized in those blogposts.

Something of an emerging linktrail that I was noticing is about attitudes toward theoretical perspectives on the so-called “Universal Grammar” (UG). I only picked a few items but it’s a rich topic for linguistic anthropology, given both four-field anthropology‘s far-reaching approach to “universals” and linguistic anthropology’s field-specific answers and reactions to linguistics (Lx) as practiced in linguistics departments.

1. Language Log » Universal Grammar haters.
2. Why Chomsky doesn’t count as a gifted linguist | Metaphor Hacker – Hacking Metaphors, Frames and Other Ideas.
3. languagehat.com: Gifted Linguists.

Finally, a query about “fake translations as bilingual humour” that I sent to our LingAnth mailing-list has generated some reaction.

National Dong Hwa University‘s Kerim Friedman (fake translations as Internet meme in Taiwan and other issues of language humour)

Miami University‘s Mark Allen Peterson (Monty Python’s Hungarian phrasebook sketch)

University of Pennsylvania‘s Harold Schiffman (political humour and translation)
Language policy Cartoon images.

And, again, Kerim Friedman (how Hollywood represents languages).

How Hollywood represents foreign speech: a video slide show. – By Eric Hynes – Slate Magazine.

be sure to visit the actual thread on LingAnth and feel free to add to it.

In addition, University of South Carolina‘s Janina Fenigsen sent us the following list of relevant clips: