Key Terms - Paperback

by Alessandro Duranti (Editor)

Key Terms in Language and Culture is a new collection of 75 short original essays written by leading scholars in linguistic anthropology and related fields, and covering the major issues in the contemporary study of language and culture. Together these essays provide a lexicon of language from an anthropological perspective. Each essay includes a brief description of a key concept, the issues associated with the concept, and the major contributions to its study. There is a set of suggested readings at the end of each essay that provides readers with a good starting point for a further study.

Back Jacket

Key Terms in Language and Culture is an exciting new collection of 75 original short essays, written by leading scholars in linguistic anthropology and related fields, covering all the major issues in the contemporary study of language and culture.

Together these essays provide a contemporary lexicon of language from an anthropological perspective. Each 1,000-word essay includes a brief description of a key concept, the issues associated with the concept, and the major contributions to its study. There is a set of suggested readings at the end of each essay that provides readers with an excellent starting point for further study.

Key Terms in Language and Culture is a comprehensive collection written in a clear and intellectually engaging manner. It is an ideal companion for introductory courses in language and culture, as well as advanced seminars in anthropology. It also constitutes a useful reference book for scholars and educators who want to know more about how language matters are being studied within anthropology.

Author Biography

Alessandro Duranti is Professor of Anthropology at UCLA and author of a number of books, including Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon (edited with Charles Goodwin, 1992), From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village (1994), and Linguistic Anthropology (1997). In 1999 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the UCLA Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award. He is a former president of the Society of Linguistic Anthropology and current editor of the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.