Language
Ecology Course Information, Syllabus, Reading
Psychology/CS 124 and Psychology 290G –
Spring 2004
Faculty
Dan Slobin - Psychology, Linguistics (coordinator
) Patricia
Baquedano-López - Education
Andrew Garrett -
Linguistics, William
Hanks - Anthropology, Linguistics Leanne Hinton -
Linguistics Claire Kramsch - German, Education
Johanna Nichols
- Slavic Languages and Literatures, Linguistics Richard Rhodes -
Linguistics Eve Sweetser - Linguistics, Cognitive Science Alan Timberlake
- Slavic Languages and Literatures Alexei Yurchak - Anthropology Tim Beyer - GSI – Psychology Lillian Park - GSI – Psychology
This is not a traditional psycholinguistics or cognitive
science course, but rather an experimental attempt to integrate the
disciplines that study language in a broader framework that we refer
to as "language ecology." This is part of an emerging interdisciplinary
effort at Berkeley to explore language within its individual, societal,
cultural, and historical frameworks. The course is designed and co-taught
by a group of faculty members from several departments and disciplines
in the social sciences and humanities. We situate language in contexts
of individual mental processes as well as contexts of interaction between
individuals in a society and between social groups. We approach language
learning and language use as a nonlinear, relational human activity,
co-constructed between humans and their environment, contingent upon
their position in space and history, and a site of struggle for the
control of social power and cultural memory. Language ecology embraces
seven broad themes of investigation: (1) language, mind, and individual;
(2) language in society; (3) language, culture, and meaning; (4) population
and language; (5) language and political economy; (6) language and symbolic
systems; (7) teaching and learning endangered languages.
Lectures are MW 2-3 in 101 Morgan (undergrads
and grads); undergrad sections are on Fridays; the concurrent grad seminar
(Psych 290G) is F 2-4 in 2129 Tolman. Recommended readings are on reserve
in the Ed-Psych Library, 2nd floor, Tolman Hall. Undergraduates should
consider required graduate readings as recommended for undergraduates.
Requirements for Undergraduates:
There will be four short written research projects and a take-home essay
final exam. Each project = 12%; section attendance and contribution
= 12%; final = 40%. Policy on late submission of project reports: one-week
extension with reasonable excuse; 10% reduction in points for every
day beyond one week.
Requirements for Graduates:
Read all of the required readings—for both undergraduates
and graduates. There will be a term paper on a topic of the course.
Graduates will also be responsible for conducting part of a seminar
discussion.
See last page for web resources on contributing faculty and course topics.
Go to “Course Information” on the Blackboard site for a
detailed description of the field of language ecology
Section I: What is language?
The purpose of this section is to explore the notion of “language,”
making it clear that it means different things in different disciplines,
and emphasizing the ways in which “language” will be relevant
to issues of “language ecology” in the course
Wed., Jan. 21 Slobin: Orientation to the course
Fri., Jan. 23 Slobin: Language is more than syntax
Required undergraduate reading: Altmann, G. T. M. (1997). The ascent of
Babel: An exploration of language, mind,
and understanding. “In the beginning”
(pp. x-xi), Chapter 1: “Looking towards Babel: Introducing the
mysteries of psycholinguistics” (pp. 1-8); Chapter 14: “The
descent from Babel: Not all languages were created equal” (pp.
226-233). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Required graduate reading:
Tomasello, M. (1998). Introduction (“A Cognitive–functional
perspective on language structure”) from M. Tomasello (Ed.), The
new psychology of language: Cognitive and functional approaches to language
structure. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Clark, H. H. (1997). Dogmas of understanding. Discourse processes, 23,
567-598.
Wed., Jan. 28 Sweetser: What is language from the point of view of
linguistics?
Required undergraduate and graduate reading
Sweetser, E. (1999). Compositionality and blending: Semantic composition
in a cognitively realistic framework. In T. Janssen & G. Redeker
(Eds.), Cognitive linguistics: Foundations, scope, and methodology
(pp. 129-162). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Mon. , Feb. 2 Hanks: What is language from the point of view of anthropology?
Required undergraduate reading
Hanks, W. F. (1996).Language and Communicative
Practices. Chapters 1, 2. (1-38)
Sapir, E. 1973 [1933]. Language. SWES, 7-32; Blount ed. 43-63
Required graduate reading Boas, F. 1966 [1991]. Introduction tothe Handbook of American Indian Languages. Parts II,
IV, & V, 10-39, 55-79.
Recommended reading
Lévi -Strauss, C. Language and the analysis of social laws. In
Blount ed.143-151. [Blount, B. ed. 1997.Language, Culture and Society,
a book of readings.Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland
Press.]
Labov, W. The study of language in its social context. In
Giglioli ed., LSC, 283-308.
Hanks, W.F. Foundations of indexical context: Social mediations of the
body. In Intertexts, Chapter 2:19-68.
Wed. Feb. 4
Kramsch: Language and social theory or “Ce
que parler veut dire”
Required undergraduate reading
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge,
Mass: Harvard U Press. Editor’s Introduction, Pp.1-31.
Required graduate reading
Cameron, Deborah. 2000. Introduction. Good to Talk? Living and working
in a
communication culture. London: Sage. pp.1-23.
Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Ch.3 A social theory of discourse Discourse
and Social
Change. Cambridge, UK: Polity press, pp. 62-100.
Recommended reading
Bernstein, Basil. 1972. A sociolinguistic approach to socialization,
with some reference to educability. In Gumperz, J.J and D.ymes, Directions
in Sociolinguistics. Oxford:
Blackwell, 465-497.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge,
Mass: Harvard U Press. Ch.1. Pp.32-65.
Bourdieu, Pierre and Jean Claude Passeron. 1977. Reproduction in Education,
Society and Culture. Trsl. Richard Nice. London: Sage.
Butler, Judith. 1997. Introduction: On linguistic vulnerability.
Ch.4 Implicit Censorship and discursive agency. In Excitable Speech.
A politics of the performative.
New
York: Routledge, 1-41; 127-163.
Cameron, Deborah. 2000. Good to Talk? Living and working in a communication
culture. London: Sage. Ch. 6 pp.148-183.
Cameron, Deborah. 1998. ‘Is there any ketchup, Vera?’: gender,
power and pragmatics. Discourse & Society 9:4, 437-455.
Fairclough, Norman. 1989. Language and Power. London: Longman.
De Certeau, Michel. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life. Popular
culture: Ordinary
Language; “Making do”. Berkeley: UC Press.
Gee, James, Glynda Hull & Colin Lankshear. 1996. The New Work
Order: Behind the language of the new capitalism. Ch.2, 4 and
5
Fri., Feb. 6: Design the Personal Linguistic History
Project in sections. The goal is to describe the use of language(s)
and dialect(s) in each undergraduate student’s home and family
back to the grandparental generation, including an interview with a
relative. Project due on Feb 27.
Section II: Endangered languages
and the field of human ecology
Required undergraduate and graduate
reading:
Lyle Campbell, "What drives linguistic diversification and
language
spread?" (2002). In Peter Bellwood & Colin Renfrew, eds., Language-Farming
Dispersals. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Jane Hill, "Language spread among hunter gatherers" (2002). Unpublished Paper
Jared Diamond & Peter Bellwood, "Farmers and
their languages: The
first expansions" (2003). Science, 300, 597-602. Article
Required undergraduate reading:
Whorf, B. L. (1940). Science and linguistics. Technology
Review, 42, 229-231, 247-248.
Levinson, S. C. (2003). Language and mind: Let’s get the
issues straight! In D. Gentner & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.), Language
in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 25-46). Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Required graduate reading
Gumperz, J., & Levinson, S. C. (1996). Introduction (“linguistic
relativity re-examined), Introduction to part I (“Linguistic
determinism: the interface between language and thought”). In
J. Gumperz & S. C. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp.
1-36). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levinson, S. C. (1996). Frames of reference and Molyneux’s
question: Crosslinguistic evidence. In P. Bloom, M. A. Peterson,
L. Nadel, & M. F. Garrett (Eds.), Language and space (pp.
109-170). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Recommended reading
Brown, R. (1958). Chapter VII of Words and things (“Linguistic
relativity and determinism”). Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Lucy,
J. A. (1996). The scope of linguistic relativity: an analysis
and review of empirical research. In J. Gumperz & S.
C. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp.
37-69). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Required undergraduate reading Slobin, D. I. (1996).
From "thought and language" to "thinking
for speaking." In J. J. Gumperz & S. C. Levinson (Eds.),
Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp. 70-96). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Bowerman, M., & Choi, S. (2001). Shaping meanings for language:
universal and language-specific in the acquisition of spatial semantic
categories. In M. Bowerman & S. C. Levinson (Eds.), Language
acquisition and conceptual development (pp. 475-511). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Required graduate reading Lucy, J. A., & Gaskins, S. (2001). Grammatical categories
and the development of classification preferences: a comparative approach. In
M. Bowerman & S. C. Levinson (Eds.), Language acquisition and
conceptual development (pp. 257-283). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Boroditsky, L. (2000). Metaphoric structuring: Understanding
time through spatial metaphors. Cognition, 75, 1-28.
Recommended reading Slobin,
D. I. (2003). Language and thought online: Cognitive
consequences of linguistic relativity. In D. Gentner & S.
Goldin-Meadow (Eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the study of
language and thought (pp. 157-192). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Mon., Mar. 1
Pyers: Language as personal and social
tool-kit
Required undergraduate reading de Villiers, J. G., & de Villiers, P. A. (2003). Language
for thought: Coming to understand false beliefs. In D. Gentner & S.
Goldin-Meadow (Eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the study of
language and thought (pp. 335-384). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Tomasello, M. (2003). The key is social cognition. In D. Gentner & S.
Goldin-Meadow (Eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the study of
language and thought (pp. 47-57). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Required graduate reading
Bickel, B. (2000). Grammar and social practice: On the role
of ‘culture’ in linguistic relativity. In S. Niemeier & R.
Dirven (Eds.), Evidence for linguistic relativity (pp. 161-192). Amsterdam/Philadelphia:
John Benjamins.
Recommended reading
Hanks, W. F. (1996). Language form and communicative practices. In
J. J. Gumperz & S. C. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity
(pp. 232-270). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gumperz, J. J. Introduction to Part IV (“The social matrix:
culture, praxis, and discourse”); The linguistic and cultural
relativity of inference. In J. J. Gumperz & S. C. Levinson
(Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp. 359-406). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Wed., Mar. 3
Sweetser: Metaphor
in language and in multimodal communicative interaction
Reading
Sweetser, E. (1998). Regular metaphoricity in gesture: bodily-based
models of speech interaction. In Actes du 16e Congrès
International des Linguistes (CD-ROM), Elsevier.
Section IV: Language and culture
Mon., Mar 8 Rhodes: What's
in an Ojibwe verb?
Required reading Sapir, E. (1921). Language, Chapter
VI: “Types of linguistic
structure.”
Rhodes, R. (1979). On the semantics of the instrumental
finals of Ojibwe. In Papers of the 11th Algonquian Conference.
Required undergraduate reading: Levinson, S. 1983. Pragmatics.
Chapter 1. Deixis.
Required graduate reading Bühler, K. "The Deictic Field of Language and Deictic Words." In
Speech, Place, and Action: Studies in Deixis and Related Topics, edited
by R. J. Jarvella and W. Klein. New York: Wiley, 1982, pp. 9-30.
Spring Break
Section V: Language and society
Mon., Mar 29
Baquedano-López: Language and
identity in educational contexts: From practiceto policy
Rickford, J. & Rickford, R. Spoken soul: The story of Black
English. Chapters 9 (Education) and 10 (Media),
pp. 163-202. New York & Canada: John
Wiley & Sons.
Gutiérrez, K., Baquedano-López, P., & Asato, J.
(2000). "English for the Children": The new literacy
of the Old World Order, language policy and educational reform. Bilingual
Research Journal, 24: 1 & 2: 87-112.
Required graduate reading Baquedano-López, P. (1997).
Creating social identities through doctrina narratives. Issues
in Applied Linguistics 8(1): 27-45
Recommended reading Moll, L., Estrada, E., Díaz, E., & Lopes, L. (1997). The
organization of bilingual lessons: Implications for schooling. In M.
Cole, Y. Engeström, & O. Vásquez (Eds.). Mind, culture,
and activity: Seminal papers from the Laboratory of Comparative Human
Cognition (pp. 254-268). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gutiérrez, K., Baquedano-López, P., & Tejeda, C.
(1999). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and hybrid language practices
in the Third Space. Mind, Culture, and Activity 6(4): 286-303.
Wed., Mar 31
Kramsch: Sociocultural and ecological theories of second
language acquisition
Required undergraduate reading: Lantolf, James. 2000. Introducing
sociocultural theory. In James
Lantolf (ed.) Sociocultural
Theory and Second Language Learning.Oxford: Oxford U Press, pp.
1-26.
Van Lier, Leo. 2000. From input to affordance: social-interactive
learning from an ecological
perspective. In Lantolf, James (d.) 245-59.
Required graduate reading Kramsch, Claire. 2003.
Introduction: “How can we tell the dancer
from the dance?”. In Kramsch,
Claire (ed.) Language Acquisition and Language Socialization. Ecological
perspectives. London: Continuum, pp.1-30
Recommended reading Donato, Richard. 2000. Sociocultural contributions to understanding
the foreign an second
language classroom. In J. Lantolf (Ed.) Sociocultural theory and
second language learning. Oxford:
OUP.
Kramsch, Claire. 2000. Social discursive constructions of self in
L2 learning. In J.Lantolf (ed.) Sociocultural theory and second
language learning.
Oxford: OUP.
Rampton, Ben. 1999. Inner London Deutsch and the animation
of an instructed foreign language. Journal
of Sociolinguistics 3: 480-504.
Larsen Freeman, Diane. 1997. Chaos/complexity science and second language
acquisition. Applied
Linguistics 18:2, 141-65.
Lemke, Jay L. 2003. Language development and identity: Multiple timescales
in the social
ecology of learning. In C. Kramsch (Ed.) Language Acquisition and Language
Socialization. Ecological perspectives. London: Continuum, 68-87.
Ochs, Elinor. 2003. Becoming a speaker of culture. In C. Kramsch (Ed.) Language Acquisition
and Language Socialization. Ecological perspectives. London:
Continuum, 99-120.
Pavlenko, Aneta and Lantolf, James. 2000. Second language learning
as participation and the
(re)construction of selves. In Lantolf, James (Ed.) above, 155-77.
Kramsch, Claire. Forthcoming. The multilingual subject. What it
means to learn, speak and
write a language that is not your own. Chapters 5-6. Oxford:
OUP.
Required graduate reading
Kramsch, Claire. Forthcoming. The multilingual subject. What
it means to learn, speak and
write a language that is not your own. Chapter 2-3. Oxford:
OUP.
Recommended Reading
Norton, Bonny. 2000. Identity and Language Learning. Gender,
ethnicity and educational
change. London: Longman.
Pavlenko Aneta and James P. Lantolf. Second language learning as participation
and the (re)construction
of selves. In J. Lantolf (Ed.) Sociocultural theory and Second Language
Learning. Oxford OUP, 155-77. Pavlenko, Aneta. 2001. Language
learning memoirs as a gendered genre. Applied Linguistics
22:2, 213-40.
Mon, Apr 12: Yurchak: Language and political ideology Audio
of Lecture
Undergraduate Reading Pennycook, Alastair. 1994.
The world in English. The
cultural politics of English as an international
language. London: Longman pp.1-37.
Graduate reading Brutt-Griffler, Janina. 2002. Ch.3. Ideological and economic crosscurrent
of Empire.
Ch.4 The contested terrain of colonial language policy. World
English. A study of its development Clevedon, UK: Multilingual
Matters. Pp.34-85
Phillipson, Robert. 2002. Ch.2 and 3. English-only Europe? Challenging
language policy. London: Routledge. 1-60
Recommended reading Canagarajah, Suresh. 1999. Resisting linguistic imperialism in
English teaching. Oxford: Oxford
U Press.
Crystal, David. 1997. English as a Global Language. Cambridge:
Cambridge U Press.
Graddol, David. 1997. The Future of English? London: British
Council
Kachru, Braj. 1990. The alchemy of English: The spread, functions
and models of non-native
Englishes. Urbana: U of Illinois Press
Kachru, Braj B. (Ed.) 1992. The Other Tongue: English across cultures (2d.
ed). Urbana: U
of Illinois Press
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 1997. English with an accent. London:
Routledge, pp.41-73. Pennycook, Alastair. 1998. English and the
discourses of colonialism.
London: Routledge.
Phillipson, Robert. 1992. Linguistic imperialism. Oxford:
Oxford U Press.
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove & Robert Phillipson (Eds.) 1994. Linguistic
Human Rights. Overcoming
Linguistic Discrimination. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. 2003. Linguistic genocide in education – or
worldwide diversity
and human rights
Required undergraduate reading Bynon, Theodora. “The
Social Motivation of Language Change.” Historical
Linguistics. Cambridge, 1977. Ch. 5, pp. 198–215. P140.B95.
Milroy, James, and Lesley Milroy. “Belfast: Change
and Variation in an Urban Vernacular.” Peter Trudgill,
ed. Sociolinguistic Patterns in British English. London,
1978. Pp. 19–36. PE1072.S65.1978
Required graduate reading Labov, William. “Contraction, Deletion,
and Inherent Variability of the English Copula.” Language 45
(1969):715–62.
Thomas, Beth. “Differences of Sex and Sects: Linguistic
Variation and Social Networks in a Welsh Mining Village.” Jennifer
Coates and Deborah Cameron, ed. Women in Their Speech Communities: New
Perspectives on Language and Sex. London, 1989. P. 51–60. P120.S48.W65
1988 [Moff]
Required undergraduate reading Hinton, L. (1994). Flutes of fire. Chapters
18, 19, 21, 22. Heyday Books.
Required graduate reading
Fishman, J. (1991) Reversing
Language Shift. Chapter
4: How threatened is 'threatened'? A typology of disadvantaged
languages and ameliorative priorities
Wed, Apr 28 Hinton: E Ola Ka ’Olelo
Hawai’i (a
film by ’Aha Punana Leo, on language revitalization in Hawai’i)
Mon., May 3 Nichols: Population and language, typology, geography,
language in history
Mon, May 10 Slobin: Part of a psycholinguistic synthesis: Why
is language the way it is?
Required undergraduate reading Slobin, D. I. (1979). Chapter 3 (“Psychological constraints
on the form of grammar”), Chapter 7 (“Recapitulation: Form
and function in language”) from Psycholinguistics (2nd ed.). Glenview,
IL: Scott Foresman.
Tomasello, M. (2003). Introduction (“Some surprises for
linguists”) in M. Tomasello (Ed.), The new psychology of
language, Vol. 2. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Required graduate reading Bybee, J. (2003). Cognitive processes in grammaticalization.
In M. Tomasello (Ed.), The new psychology of language, Vol. 2: Cognitive
and functional approaches to language structure (pp. 145-168). Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Recommended reading Slobin, D. I. (2001). Form function
relations: how do children find out what they are? In M. Bowerman & S.
C. Levinson (Eds.), Language
acquisition and conceptual development (pp. 406-449). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
