Anthropological Linguistics

William A. Foley is Professor of Lingusitics at the University of Sydney. He is author of Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar (with R. van Valin) and The Papuan Languages fo New Guinea, and editor of The Role of Theory in Language Description.

• Preface. Part I: Introduction.1. Introduction.Part II: The Evolution of Language.2. The Evolution of Language.Part III: Universalism: Innate Constraints of Mind.3. Mind, Universals and the Sensible World.4. Structuralism.5. Cognitive Anthropology.6. Kinship.7. Color.Part IV: Relativism: Cultural and Linguistic Constraints on Mind.8. On Relativist Understanding.9. Models and Metaphors.10. Linguistic Relativity and the Boasian Tradition.11. Space.12. Classifiers.Part V: The Ethnography of Speaking.13. Speaking as a Culturally Constructed Act: A Few Examples.14. Politeness, Face and the Linguistic Construction of Personhood.15. Language and Gender.16. Language and Social Position.17. Language and Socialisation.18. Genre: Poetics, Ritual Languages and Verbal Art.Part VI: Culture and Language Change.19. Contact Induced Language Change.20. Standard Language and Linguistic Engineering.21. Literacy.References.Index.

"Foley's book illustrates quite convincingly that 'Linguistics without anthropology is sterile, anthropology without linguistics is blind'(Hockett 1973: 675)" Gunter Senft, Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics"I applaud Foley for having overcome one of the main constraints of structuralist - inspired approaches to analysis." Peter Muhlhausler, University of Adelaide