A colleague writes to ask:
I read your article ‘Code Switching’ in Sociocultural Linguistics. What I wonder is [why] you didn’t write something about the author Grosjean (1982, Life with Two Languages). He also used the term Code Switching as one of the first. And I can’t get the differences between ‘ language alternation’ and ‘ code switching’? Can you describe the differences?
These are excellent questions.
Now that we’re getting deeper into 2010 and some dust has settled, it might be a good opportunity for me to introduce myself to you.
My name is Alex Enkerli and I define myself as an “informal ethnographer.” My background is indeed in linguistic anthropology, at least in part, but I’ve been involved in a variety of other ethnographic fields including ethnomusicology and folkloristics.
Language, Culture and History conference
Call for Papers, Abstracts due March 1
Official Website: http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/anthropology/info.asp?p=19234
Department of Anthropology
Co-sponsored by the journal Ethnohistory
University of Wyoming
July 1-2, 2010
The Department of Anthropology at Georgia State University seeks nominations for a linguistic anthropologist at the rank of assistant or associate professor to join a… Read More »Potential Search for a Linguistic Anthropologist
[Update: a student representative has been found] The AAA is creating a Student Representative Caucus and wishes to include representatives from the various sections. Although… Read More »Grad student SLA representative to AAA Student Rep Caucus [Update: Found]
We are now seeking nominations and applications for a new editor (or editorial team) for JLA.
Charting Multilingual Confluences within Education Eric Johnson (ejj AT tricity.wsu.edu) Building on the “Circulation” theme for the 2010 AAA meetings, the committee on Multicultural and… Read More »Joint Call for Papers for Society for Linguistic Anthropology and Council on Anthropology and Education
CWA would like to work with sections to co-present a collaborative workshop at the 2010 annual meetings on World Anthropologies Curriculum and Syllabus Development.
The Commission on World Anthropologies (CWA) is seeking proposals from sections for invited sessions featuring the participation of international scholars at the 2010 AAA annual meetings.
The Economist picks Tuyuca, an Eastern Amazon language as the world’s hardest language for its 50-140 noun classes http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15108609 (Thanks to Alexander King and Sierra… Read More »Economist on the World’s Hardest Language
Basic Background:
Sign languages are different from both spoken languages and from each other. There is no universal sign language. Because Deaf people can’t hear the spoken language of the country, a sign language like American Sign Language has a different grammar from spoken language. It is also different from other sign languages—even British Sign Language—because of the separate histories of American and British Deaf communities. Sign languages are also not spelled out words, although fingerspelling can be used if you want to translate a written words like the name of an unfamiliar town into sign language.
According to Ben Zimmer, various aliens in Star Wars spoke Quechua, one of the most widely spoken indigenous languages in South America, and Haya, a Bantu language spoken in Tanzania.
The new film Avatar features Na’vi, a constructed language said to “out-Klingon Klingon.”
The Edward Sapir Book Prize was established in 2001 and is awarded in alternate years to a book that makes the most significant contribution to… Read More »Call for submissions for the Sapir Prize (2010)
An article passed on by Ken Ehrensal from the New York Times on Campbell’s monkeys having grammar. The grammar is pretty simple but looks like… Read More »Monkey Grammar?
One of the new website features we are very excited about is the new Program Directory. We hope this will become the most reliable place… Read More »Tell us about your program!
I was particularly moved by a memorial at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association for Dell Hymes. Hymes founded the ethnography of speaking, developed the concept of communicative competence, and pioneered the study of ethnopoetics.
Welcome back home! The Philadelphia meetings were a great success and it was wonderful to see so many old friends and colleagues. The Society for… Read More »The AAA Meetings were a great success
Panels and meetings of interest to linguistic anthropologists at the 2009 meeting of the American Anthropological Association.
Call for submissions for the Sapir Prize
Conference Announcement, Conference Registration Now Open 15th ANNUAL CONFERENCE on Language, Interaction, and Social Organization University of California, Santa Barbara May 14-16, 2009* The annual… Read More »15th ANNUAL CONFERENCE on Language, Interaction, and Social Organization University of California, Santa Barbara May 14-16, 2009*