Language in Culture

Michael Silverstein (1945–2020) was the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology, Linguistics and Psychology at the University of Chicago. His groundbreaking semiotic programme was shared with hundreds of students through his Language in Culture course, which he taught for almost fifty years and is distilled in this book. Silverstein was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 1982 and the Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology in 2014. Dedicated to growing the field of linguistic anthropology, he was a president of the Society of Linguistic Anthropology, and the founding Director of the Center for the Study of Communication and Society.

• List of Figures; Foreword; Preface; Introduction: Getting – and getting across – the message; Lecture 1: Text; Lecture 2: Event; Lecture 3: Context; Lecture 4: Enregisterment; Lecture 5: Variation; Lecture 6: Categoriality; Lecture 7: Relativity; Lecture 8: Knowledge; Editorial acknowledgments; References; Index.

'Brilliant, comprehensive, and always thought-provoking, Language in Culture is a truly singular contribution. Silverstein has brought his subtle and elegantly laid-out theoretical approach together with the acute and generative exploration of detailed exemplary cases - and always in his own distinctive and engaging voice. This is bound to be an immediate classic of lasting resonance.' Don Brenneis, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, University of California, Santa Cruz