Living Language

Laura M. Ahearn, PhD, is a curriculum developer for the International Baccalaureate Organization and former tenured professor at Rutgers University. She is the author of Invitations to Love: Literacy, Love Letters, and Social Change in Nepal and the first three editions of Living Language. A 2014 Science and Technology Policy Fellow, she led research projects at USAID and later served as Senior Technical Director at Social Impact. Catherine R. Rhodes, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, with affiliated appointments in Latin American Studies, Educational Linguistics, and Organization, Information, and Learning Sciences. She holds a dual PhD in Anthropology and Education from the University of Pennsylvania and was a 2024-2025 Fulbright U.S. Scholar fellow to Mexico. She is author of Undoing Modernity and co-author of Migration Narratives.

• List of Figures ixList of Tables xiNote to the Reader xiiiAcknowledgments xixPart I Language: Some Basic Questions 11 The Socially Charged Life of Language 3So, What Do You Need to Know in Order to “Know” a Language? 9Examples of Linguistic Diversity 13Examples of Diversity in Research Topics in Linguistic Anthropology 17Keith BassoJenny Davis 18Marjorie Harness GoodwinH. Samy Alim 18Bonnie UrciuoliJonathan Rosa 19Alessandro DurantiE. Mara Green 20Kathryn A. WoolardAnna Babel 20James M. WilceSteven Black 21Key Terms in Linguistic Anthropology 21Multifunctionality 22Language Ideologies 24Practice 26Indexicality 29Conclusion: The Inseparability of Language, Culture, and Social Relations 332 Discourse, Power, and Agency 35What is Discourse?What is Power?Power Through HegemonyFoucault’s Power Relations and DiscoursePractice Theory and PowerWhat is Agency?The Grammatical Encoding of AgencyTalk About Agency: Meta-Agentive DiscourseConclusion3 The Research Process in Linguistic Anthropology 54What Kinds of Research Questions Do LinguisticAnthropologists Formulate? 55How do Linguistic Anthropologists Plan for Their Research?What Kinds of Data Do Linguistic AnthropologistsCollect, and with What Methods? 57Participant Observation 58Interviews 58Surveys and Questionnaires 60Naturally Occurring Conversations 60Experimental Methods 62Matched Guise Tests 63Written TextsMixed Methods and Interdisciplinary Research 64How Do Linguistic Anthropologists Analyze Their Data?Analyzing Conversations and Discourse and the Importance of ‘Scale’ 64What Products Do Linguistic Anthropologists Generate from Their Research? 67What Sorts of Ethical Issues Do Linguistic Anthropologists Face? 68Conclusion4 Language Acquisition and Socialization 72Language and HumansLanguage Acquisition and Socialization ProcessesThinking Critically about Language Acquisition and SocializationGaps in the “Language Gap” Approach 78Language Socialization in Bilingual, Multilingual, and Translanguaging Contexts 81Language Socialization throughout the Lifespan 84Conclusion 885 Language, Thought, and Culture 90A Hundred Years of Linguistic Relativity 91Linguistic Relativity and the So-Called Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 94Investigating the Effects of Language on Thought 97Language-in-General 98Linguistic Structures 102Color 106Space 108Time 110Language Use 111Conclusion 117Part II Communicating Across Time, Space, and Scale 1216 Global Communication 123Defining “Speech Community” 124Size and Location of the Community 124What Is Shared by the Members of a “Speech or Sign Community”? 125The Type of Interactions that “Speech or Sign Community” Members Have 125Alternatives to the Concept of “Speech Community” 129Speech Areas 129Speech Networks 130Communities of Practice 132Multilingual and Transnational Linguistic PracticesDiglossia, Code-Mixing, and Code-Switching, Translanguaging, and Heteroglossia 129Diglossia 145Code-Switching 146Code-Mixing 148TranslanguagingHeteroglossia 151Conclusion 1527 Literacy Practices 153From Literacy to Literacies 155Ethnographic Examples of Literacy Practices 156Preschool Literacy Practices in the Southeastern United States 158“Unsanctioned” Literacy PracticesPema Kumari’s letter 162Love-letter Writing in NepalFrom Literacy to Narrative 164Conclusion8 Digitally Mediated Communication 170Who’s Zoomin’ Who?Online AvatarsInstant Messaging (IMing)Text Messaging and BeyondArtificial Intelligence (AI) and LiteracySo Close and Yet So FarOnline Research and (New) MediaConclusion9 Performance, Performativity, and the Constitution of Communities 186Performance Defined in Opposition to Competence 188Performativity 189Performance as a Display of Verbal Artistry 197Ethnographies of Performance and Performativity 200ConclusionPart III Language, Power, and Social Differentiation 21110 Language and Gender 213What is Gender, and How Does it Relate to Language? 215Do Men and Women Speak Alike or Differently? 221Cultural Variation in How We Do Gender 233Reflecting on Myths and Realities 237Conclusion11 Language, Race, and Ethnicity 240Defining Race and Ethnicity 241The Rule-Governed Nature of African American English 246Invariant or Habitual “Be” 248Copula Deletion 249Double Negatives 250The Reduction of Final Consonants 251Pronouncing the Word as “Ask” or “Aks” 252Racist Language and Racism in Language 253Language and Racial/Ethnic Identities 258Conclusion 26112 The Politics of Language Revitalization 262Dangerous Metaphors 265Metaphors to Live By 270Emergence as PracticeWhose Practice?Why Does Language Shift Happen? 276PCan Language Shift Be Reversed? 278Conclusion 28013 Conclusion 281Notes 313References 328Index 364