User:Alleycat41498/sandbox

Historical development[edit]
Linguistic anthropology emerged from the development of three distinct paradigms.These paradigms set the ways of approaching linguistic anthropology: the first, now known as "anthropological linguistics," focuses on the documentation of languages; the second, known as "linguistic anthropology," engages in theoretical studies of language use; the third, developed over the past two or three decades, studies issues from other sub-fields of anthropology with linguistic tactics. Though they developed sequentially, all three paradigms are still practiced today.

Original text in italics, edits in regular text.

they were the languages of native North America on which the first members of the subdiscipline focused to

with special focus on the languages of native North American tribes

''The unresolved issue of linguistic relativity (associated with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf but actually brought to American linguistics by Franz Boas working within a theoretical framework going back to European thinkers from Vico to Herder to Humboldt). The so-called Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis is perhaps a misnomer insofar as the approach to science taken by these two differs from the positivist, hypothesis-driven model of science. In any case, it was Harry Hoijer (Sapir's student) who coined the term.''

Linguistic relativity honestly probably doesn't need any of the other science name-dropping when there's already a link to the separate page.

''Dell Hymes was largely responsible for launching the second paradigm, which fixed the name linguistic anthropology in the 1960s, though he also coined the term ethnography of speaking (or ethnography of communication) to describe the agenda he envisioned for the field. It would involve taking advantage of new developments in technology, including new forms of mechanical recording.''

The second paradigm can be marked by the switch from anthropological linguistics to linguistic anthropology, signalling a more anthropological focus on the study. This term was coined by Dell Hymes, who was also responsible for the idea of ethnography of communication. This term was Hymes' vision for the future of linguistic anthropology, where language would be studied in the context of the situation, and relative to the community speaking it.

''A new unit of analysis was also introduced by Hymes. Whereas the first paradigm focused on ostensibly distinct "languages" (scare quotes indicate that contemporary linguistic anthropologists treat the concept of "a language" as an ideal construction that covers up complexities within and across so-called linguistic boundaries), the unit of analysis in the second paradigm was new, the "speech event." (The speech event is an event defined by the speech occurring in it, like a lecture, so a dinner is not a speech event, but a speech situation, a situation in which speech may or may not occur.) Much attention was devoted to speech events in which performers were held accountable for the form of their linguistic performance as such. ''

A new unit of analysis was also introduced by Hymes in this paradigm. Unlike the first paradigm, which focused on linguistic tools like measuring of phonemes and morphemes, the second paradigm's unit of analysis was the "speech event". A speech event is an event defined by speech occurring during it (ex. a lecture, debate). This is different from a speech situation, where speech could possibly occur (ex. dinner).

''In the third paradigm, which has emerged since the late 1980s, instead of continuing to pursue agendas that come from a discipline alien to anthropology, linguistic anthropologists have systematically addressed themselves to problems posed by the larger discipline of anthropology but by using linguistic data and methods. Popular areas of study in this third paradigm include investigations of social identities, broadly shared ideologies, and the construction and uses of narrative in interaction among individuals and groups. ''

The third paradigm, which began in the late 1980's, refocused on anthropology by providing a linguistic approach to anthropological issues. Rather than focusing on exploring language, third paradigm anthropologists focus on studying culture with linguistic tools. Themes include:


 * investigations of personal and social identities
 * shared ideologies
 * construction of narrative in interactions among individuals

Furthermore, like how the second paradigm made use of new technology in it's studies, the third paradigm heavily includes use of video documentation to support research.