“You have lots of ‘splaining to do”… Senator Tom Corburn (R-Oklahoma) interrupted Supreme Court candidate Sonia Sotomayor’s explanation about gun laws with this phrase, which echoes… Read More »Sotomayor “You have lots of splainin to do”
From Taco- to Chimichanga-Gate * “Insensitive Remarks Know No Party” by Kathleen McKinley,Houston Chronicle (February 18, 2012) http://blog.chron.com/texassparkle/2012/02/insensitive-remarks-knows-no-party/ * “The chimichanga wars” By Dana Milbank,Washington… Read More »Politicians’ remarks about Hispanic voters and chimichangas
This episode of Glee is all about negotiating the Spanish language in an English-dominant US high school. There are some great examples of indexicality and lines… Read More »Glee “The Spanish Teacher” episode
In this clip from the 2012 Golden Globes, the TV series Modern Family is presented with an award, and the legitimacy of Spanish and intelligibility… Read More »Spanish at the Golden Globes
Newt Gingrich argues against bilingual education because English is “the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto.” Here is his “apology”… Read More »Gingrich and the language of prosperity
There was an attack against Romney linking his ability to speak French to all kinds of negative character traits. This video provides more context. Pair… Read More »Attack against Romney for speaking French
Here are a few materials that work for introductory lectures. “Life In A Day” is a historic film capturing for future generations what it was… Read More »Introductory materials for linguistic anthro
The Star Trek clip “Darmok” available on YouTube complements teaching Basso’s ethnography “Wisdom Sits in Places.”
This report aired on Public Radio International in December 2011 discusses the decision to recognize the word “Gypsy” as pejorative and replace it with “Roma”… Read More »Renaming Gypsies in Romania
Recent news events highlight relationships between fact and story telling. Ethan Zuckerman’s recent ruminations on activism and journalism provide a summary and synthesis of one set of ideas, and a piece Michael Wilson contributed to the New York Times’ City Room at about the same time provides another.
“My Mom’s Name is Jean?”: Discussion of deixis- Suriya’s Aircel Ads (first two only): silly lead-in to deixis-
“Why do I need subtitles”: Politics of translation- This comic sketch comments on how people judge linguistic comprehensibility based on the appearance of the person speaking.
Kumail Nanjiani – “Racists”: Discussion of markedness-
Russell Peters sketch “Hello in Indian”: Applies to pragmatics/ translation- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQqzROAZZQ0&feature=BFa&list=PLC41A1610BAFF90CE&lf=mh_lolz [Video no longer available due to copyright]
Here is a youtube playlist that features clips concerning the English-Only movement here in the United States: Included are some of the more noteworthy commercials,… Read More »English Only movement in the United States
With abstracts for the 2012 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting coming due soon, various SLA members have sent out calls for papers. Here is a list of recent calls sent out via LINGANTH.
Barbara Johnstone (2011) “Making Pittsburghese” and Timothy Messer-Kruse (2012) “The ‘undue weight’ of truth on Wikipedia” present very different views of scholar’s experiences with Wikipedia. Johnstone’s evaluation is mostly positive, while Messer-Kruse’s is quite negative.
This political ad features an imagined lecture, in Beijing in 2030 in Mandarin (e.g. after the Chinese have trounced the US) complete with evil ha… Read More »Yellow Peril Political Ads: China as a threat to the US
There was an ad from New Hampshire which featured shots of Jon Huntsman speaking Mandarin, while a commentator asked questions like “the Manchurian candidate. What’s… Read More »Yellow Peril Political Ads: Jon Hunstman
Republican Peter Hoekstra, candidate for US Senate, made a campaign video/mock website with an Asian American doing some Mock Asian (“Your economy get very weak,ours get… Read More »Yellow Peril Political Ads: Peter Hoekstra