Linguistic Anthropology

The linguistic anthropology subfield prepares students to investigate the role of language in community, national, and cross-cultural interactions. It is distinguished from purely linguistic perspectives by its concern with the social and cultural factors that underlie people’s use of language to share information and shape social reality and that contribute to communicative dysfunctions in community life. The Anthropology Doctoral Program cooperates with the Linguistics Doctoral Program in the sharing of faculty and in the offering of courses preparing students for the study of urban problems that involve language. The offerings include courses in sociolinguistics, urban linguistics, applied linguistics, bilingualism, and other issues involving the role of language in public education and public life in general in a multilingual city. Relevant courses in linguistic anthropology not offered at CUNY may be taken at New York University through the consortial arrangement. The unusual number of specialists in creole languages among Anthropology and Linguistics faculty allows a concentration on public education policies for speakers of such languages for whom English is a second language or, with even more subtle problems, a second dialect.

Sample Dissertations

  • Riley, Kathleen. 2001
    “The Emergence of Dialogic Identities: Transforming Heteroglossia in the Marquesas, F.P.”
  • Wright, Pamela Ann. 1986
    “Language Shift and the Redefinition of Social Boundaries Among the Carib of Belize”
    Latin America.
    Ethnicity, Class, Capitalism, Globalization, Transnational Processes, Policy.
  • Takahashi, Junichi. 1984
    “Case Marking in Kiowa: A Study of Organization of Meaning”
    United States.
    Ethnicity.
  • Moore, Dennis. 1984
    “Syntax of the Language of Gaviao Indians of Rondonia, Brazil”
    Latin America.
  • Takahashi, Junichi. 1984
    “Case Marking in Kiowa: a Study of Organization of Meaning”
    United States.
    Ethnicity.
  • French, Walter T. 1983
    “Northern Naga: A Tibeto-Burman Mesolanguage”
    Asia.
  • Van Horn, Lawrence Franklin. 1977
    “Differential Language Use at Burnt Church, a Bilingual Indian Community of Eastern Canada”
    North Atlantic.
    Applied, Capitalism, Globalization, Transnational Processes, Policy.
  • Beatty, John Joseph. 1972
    “Mohawk Morphology”
    United States.
    Ethnicity.
  • Hopkins, Alice W. 1988
    “Topics in Mohawk Grammar”
    North America.

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