FALL 2002 ANTHRO L200/L300 SOC S431 Language & Culture/Language & SocietyDr Bob Mucci Office: Lindenwood 231. Office hours: Tues & Thurs 1:30 to 4:00 -- (other times by appointment--or just drop by, I am often on campus on other days, and if I am in my office I will usually be able to see you). My office telephone number is 980-6607 (voice mail also). Leave messages and papers at Sociology & Anthropology Main Office, located in Lindenwood 214 (tel 980-6789). If I am not in my office during office hours, call or visit the Sociology & Anthropology main office--I'm probably there or on an errand, and they can find me for you. You may call me at home:(773) 929-0456.

IUN email Rmucci@iun.edu Home email Rmucci@uic.edu

COURSE OBJECTIVE: to provide an introduction to the anthropological study of language, sensu lato.

REQUIRED BOOKS FOR EVERYONE: The Language Instinct, by Steven Pinker

Language, Culture, & Society, 2^nd edition, by Zdenek Salzmann

If a Chimp could Talk, by Jerry Gill

Chomsky for Beginners, by David Cogswell

REQUIRED BOOKS FOR L300/S431 ONLY: Language and Culture, by Shaul & Furbee

Sociolinguistics, 4^th edition, by Trudgill

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: I expect that you will attend all of the lectures, read and study all the assigned readings, and relate the two via your class notes. The average student should spend SIX hours per week just studying for this course. There are NO term papers or other library assignments for this course, nor are there any "traditional" exams. Two-thirds of your grade will be determined by four exams: two take-home essay exams, and a mid-term and final (both in-class, open books, open notes). The rest of your grade will depend on your preparation for, and participation during, lectures and discussions, so read the assignments thoughtfully before each class; this one-third of your grade also includes the linguistic analyses done in the discussion sections and the homework assigned there. While you very well might not understand many of the things you will read, be prepared to talk about what you did understand, and be able to identify the concepts you did not understand so that we can talk about them also, and why you and other students may have had difficulty with them. Taking notes as you read is a good idea, and it will help you find things for the exams. Since participation in the lectures, discussions, and audio/visual events is a part of what you are being given academic credit for, multiple unexcused absences result in lower grades.

COURSE NUMBERS: L200 is the basic course number for this class; it is an IU Bloomington number and this course should transfer with no problems; at both IUB and IUN, L200 is one of the required core courses for the anthropology major.

L300 is the number that allows students to get upper lever anthropology credit for the course; it is also the number used by IUPUI, so if you are going to transfer there, use this number. But see below.

S431 allows students to get sociology credit for this course; this option serves both traditional sociology majors who want to count it as an elective within their major, and for students in the new sociology/anthropology BA curriculum who want to take a cross-listed anthro/soc course to fulfill the requirement for a sociology course in communication. But see below.

CLASS WORK for L300 and S431: obviously if you want upper level credit, you have to do more work; rather than having the 300/400 level people write a term paper, I have assigned them two more books. They are responsible for being prepared to discuss these readings in addition to those for L200, and they will have to answer additional questions on the exams.

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: although you registered for one of the two discussion sections, you can attend either one in any week, just be sure you attend one. Given that the class is unusually large this semester, much of the discussions will take place in them, but they will also be packed full of language problems and analyses, fun projects like puzzles, and a few movies. Rather than print out a schedule of activities, topics, and films, I prefer to decide what to do next as we go along. But week one we will do some puzzles.

LECTURE/READING SCHEDULE: the details are in the following table, but the general pattern is:

Introduction, language and culture, mechanics of descriptive linguistics, history of language, anatomy of language, mental aspects of language, social aspects of language, evolution of language, and second looks at some of the topics at a higher level.

SCHEDULE OF TOPICS, READINGS, AND EXAMS: rev 1.0