ETHNOLINGUISTICS (ADVANCED COURSE)

The course is part of the related or additional studies of the master’s degree program in Cultural Anthropology, Ethnology, Anthropological Linguistics and is compulsory for all curricula. It aims to provide the knowledge required for reflecting and operating on language and languages from an anthropological point of view, with particular attention to the linguistic expression of gender and the related issue of gender-inclusive language.

By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to rigorously frame the question of the relationship between languages and cultures in light of the anthropologically salient linguistic phenomenology. Specifically, students are expected to acquire a general knowledge of the history, theories, methods, and fields of application of Ethnolinguistics and a thorough knowledge of the functioning of grammatical gender systems, of lexical and morphological means used for the expression of gender, and of the linguistic strategies adopted for a gender-inclusive language. Students are also expected to acquire the ability to expose issues and problems relevant to Ethnolinguistics using appropriate terminology.

The course requires basic knowledge of general linguistics. These notions will be recalled during the lectures for those who have not previously attended a basic linguistic course. Non-attending students who do not possess these notions are required to read G. Berruto, Corso elementare di linguistica generale, Torino, 1997 (chapters 1-5). The course also requires the ability to understand English written texts and a good knowledge of the Italian language for foreign students.

The first part of the course will cover the following general contents: the history of Ethnolinguistics; the relationship between language and culture; the social dimension of language; the communicative dimension of language; culturally significant functions and uses of language. The second part of the course will focus on the semantic and formal criteria on which grammatical gender systems are built up and on their interaction, on the strategies of gender agreement, with particular attention to the gender resolution rules in case of ambiguity, on the phenomena of motion, as well as on the strategies adopted for a gender-inclusive language.

Compulsory bibliography

G. R. Cardona, Introduzione all’etnolinguistica, Novara, 2006 (chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8).
M. Mancini, B. Turchetta (eds.), Etnografia della scrittura, Roma, 2014 (chapters 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7).

Further readings

As to further readings, attending students are only required to read the excerpts commented on during the classes. Non-attending students are required to read three texts selected from the list (I) and four texts selected from the list (II). Texts which cannot be consulted online will be made available on the Moodle platform.

(I) The relationship between language and culture
F. Boas, Handbook of American Indian Languages, I, Washington, 1911, pp. 5-83.
F. Boas, Language, in General Anthropology, Boston, 1938, pp. 124-145.
E. Sapir, The Status of Linguistics as a Science, in «Language» 5, 1929, pp. 207-214.
B. Malinowski, Coral Gardens and their Magic, London, 1935, pp. 3-74.
B. L. Whorf, The relation of habitual thought and behavior to language, in Language, Culture, and Personality, Menasha, 1941, pp. 75-93.
C. Lévi-Strauss, L’analyse structurale en linguistique et anthropologie, in «Word» 1, 1945, pp. 1-21.
C. Lévi-Strauss, Language and the Analysis of Social Laws, in «American Anthropologist» 53, 1951, pp. 155-163.
C. Lévi-Strauss, Linguistics and Anthropology, in Results of the Conference of Anthropologists and Linguists, Baltimore,1953, pp. 1-10.
K. L. Pike, Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behaviour, The Hague-London, 1967, pp. 1-7.
D. Hymes, Foundations in Sociolinguistics. An Ethnographic Approach, Philadelphia, 1974, pp. 1-65.
P. Wolff, K. J. Holmes, Linguistic Relativity, in «Cognitive Science», 2, 3, 2011, pp. 253-265.

(II) Gender
A. Sabatini, Il sessismo nella lingua italiana, Roma, 1986.
A. Sabatini, Raccomandazioni per un uso non sessista della lingua italiana, Roma, 1987.
G. Lakoff, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, Chicago, 1987, pp. 91-114.
G. Corbett, Gender, Cambridge, 1991.
A. Bodine, Androcentrism in prescriptive grammar; singular ‘they’, sex-indefinite ‘he’, and ‘he or she’, in The Feminist Critique of Language: A Reader, London, 1998, pp. 129-146.
F. Orletti, Il genere: una categoria sociolinguistica controversa, in Identità di genere nella lingua, nella cultura, nella società, Roma, 2001, pp. 7-21.
L. Boroditsky, L. A. Schmidt, L. W. Phillips, Sex, Syntax, and Semantics, in Language in Mind. Advances in the Study of Language and Thought, Cambridge, 2003, pp. 61-79.
K. Plaster, M. Polinsky, Women are not dangerous things: Gender and categorization, in «Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics» 12, 2007, pp. 1-44.
V. Gheno, Femminili singolari. Il femminismo è nelle parole, Firenze, 2019.
D. Ronca, V. Moscati, The interaction of Morphological Gender with Stereotypical Information:
An Eye Tracking Study on Gender Inferences, in «International Journal of Linguistics» 11, 2019, pp. 111-125.
G. Castenetto, S. Ondelli, The Acceptability of Feminine Job Titles in Italian Newspaper Articles, in Language Gender and Hate Speech. A Multidisciplinary Approach, Venezia, 2020, pp. 75-90.
C. Cettolin, Ma se parlo al maschile, le vedi le donne? Maschile non marcato e visibilità femminile, in Le italiane e l’italiano: quattro studi su lingua e genere, Trieste, 2020, pp. 49-77.
F. Fusco, L’abitudine fa la sindaca e l’avvocata. Il genere femminile nella lingua italiana, anche a partire da Alma Sabatini, in Il sessismo nella lingua italiana. Trent’anni dopo Alma Sabatini, Pavia, 2020, pp. 44-73.
Y. Sheydaei, Gender identity and nonbinary pronoun use: exploring reference strategies for referents on unknown gender, in «Gender and Language», 15, 2021, pp. 369-393.

Learning will be assessed through an interview on the topics of the course and compulsory texts for attending students, on the topics of compulsory texts and selected further readings for non-attending students. In particular, mastery of the topics, ability in presentation, and terminological adequacy will be taken into account for evaluation.

Classroom-taught classes with the help of presentations for reading and commenting on excerpts from the further readings.

Italian

On-line texts:
Boas 1911 https://archive.org/details/handbookamerica00fracgoog/
Sapir 1929 https://www.jstor.org/stable/409588
Malinowski 1935 https://archive.org/details/coralgardensthei01mali
Whorf 1941 https://www.jstor.org/stable/42581315
Lévi-Strauss 1945 https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1945.11659244
Lévi-Strauss 1951 https://www.jstor.org/stable/663872
Wolff - Holmes 2011 http://psychology.emory.edu/cognition/wolff/papers/Wolff%20Holmes%202011.pdf

Sabatini 1986 https://web.uniroma1.it/fac_smfn/sites/default/files/IlSessismoNellaLinguaItaliana.pdf
Sabatini 1987 https://www.funzionepubblica.gov.it/sites/funzionepubblica.gov.it/files/documenti/Normativa%20e%20Documentazione/Dossier%20Pari%20opportunit%C3%A0/linguaggio_non_sessista.pdf
Bodine 1998 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4166805?seq=1
Orletti 2001 https://www.google.it/books/edition/Identit%C3%A0_di_genere_nella_lingua_nella_c/WxHhmAFMqA0C?hl=it&gbpv=1&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover
Boroditsky - Schmidt - Phillips 2003 https://web.stanford.edu/class/linguist156/Boroditsky_ea_2003.pdf
Plaster - Polinsky 2007 https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3209556/Women%20are%20not%20dangerous%20things%20-%20Pol,%20M.pdf;sequence=2
Ronca - Moscati 2019 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335403801_The_Interaction_of_Morphological_Gender_With_Stereotypical_Information_An_Eye_Tracking_Study_on_Gender_Inferences
Castenetto - Ondelli 2020 https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/media/pdf/books/978-88-6969-479-0/978-88-6969-479-0-ch-04.pdf
Cettolin 2020 https://www.openstarts.units.it/handle/10077/31186

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development