(Meets with CMCL S727, Section 1119)  For much of the 20th century, the
study of language has been dominated by perspectives oriented toward
language as an abstract formal system. There has, however, been a highly
productive counter-perspective, centering around the social semiotics of
language and built upon a conception of language as socially constituted,
with an emphasis on the situated use of language in the conduct of social
life. In this course, the second of a two-semester sequence, we will
examine sociological and ethnographic perspectives on the social semiotics
of language, including (but not limited to) the work of Edward Sapir,
Alfred Schutz, Bronislaw Malinowski, Erving Goffman, and Dell Hymes, and
practitioners of conversation analysis, the ethnograpy of speaking, and
other current lines of inquiry in linguistic anthropology.

The course will be conducted as a seminar, based upon assigned readings.
Each week a seminar member will be charged with the responsibility of
coordinating the session. Written work will include a paper of 20-25 pages
in length.