This page intentionally left blank In this innovative textbook Alessandro Duranti introduces linguistic anthropology as an interdisciplinary field which studies language as a culturalresourceandspeakingasaculturalpractice.Heshowsthatit reliesonethnographyasanessentialelementoflinguisticanalyses,and that it draws its intellectual inspiration from interactionally oriented perspectivesonhumanactivityandunderstanding.Unlikeothercurrent accountsofthesubject,itemphasizesthatcommunicativepracticesare constitutiveofthecultureofeverydaylifeandthatlanguageisapower- fultoolratherthanasimplemirrorofpre-establishedsocialrealities.An entirechapterisdevotedtothenotionofculture,andthereareinvalu- able methodological chapters on ethnography and transcription. The theoriesandmethodsoflinguisticanthropologyareintroducedthrough adiscussionoflinguisticdiversity,grammarinuse,theroleofspeaking in social interaction, the organization and meaning of conversational structures,andthenotionofparticipationasaunitofanalysis. Original in its treatment and yet eminently clear and readable, LinguisticAnthropologywillappealtoupper-levelundergraduateand graduatestudents. CAMBRIDGE TEXTBOOKS IN LINGUISTICS GeneralEditors:s. r. anderson, j. bresnan, b. comrie, w. dressler, c. ewen, r. huddleston, r. lass, d. lightfoot, j. lyons, p. h. matthews, r. posner, s. romaine, n. v. smith, n. vincent LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Inthisseries p. h. matthewsMorphologySecondedition b. comrieAspect r. m. kempsonSemanticTheory t. bynonHistoricalLinguistics j. allwood, l.-g. anderson, ö. dahlLogicinLinguistics d. b. fryThePhysicsofSpeech r. a. hudsonSociolinguisticsSecondedition j. k. chambers and p. trudgillDialectology a. j. elliottChildLanguage p. h. matthewsSyntax a. radfordTransformationalSyntax l. bauerEnglishWord-Formation s. c. levinsonPragmatics g. brown and g. yuleDiscourseAnalysis r. huddlestonIntroductiontotheGrammarofEnglish r. lassPhonology b. comrieTense w. kleinSecondLanguageAcquisition a. cruttendenIntonation a.j.woods,p.fletcheranda.hughesStatisticsinLanguageStudies d. a. cruseLexicalSemantics f. r. palmerMoodandModality a. radfordTransformationalGrammar m. garmanPsycholinguistics w. croftTypologyandUniversals g. g. corbettGender h. j. giegerichEnglishPhonology r. cannFormalSemantics p. j. hopper and e. c. traugottGrammaticalization j. laverPrinciplesofPhonetics f. r. palmerGrammaticalRolesandRelations b. blakeCase m. a. jonesFoundationsofFrenchSyntax a. radfordSyntacticTheoryandtheStructureofEnglish:AMinimalist Approach robert d. van valin, jr. and randy j. lapolla:Syntax:Structure, MeaningandFunction a. duranti:LinguisticAnthropology LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY ALESSANDRO DURANTI professor of anthropology, university of california at los angeles    Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge  , United Kingdom Published in the United States by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521445368 © Cambridge University Press 1997 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 1997 ISBN-13 978-0-511-06758-7 eBook (EBL) ISBN-10 0-511-06758-5 eBook (EBL) ISBN-13 978-0-521-44536-8 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-44536-1 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-44993-9 paperback ISBN-10 0-521-44993-6 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of s for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Tomystudents