History and structure of the Arabic language in its various forms. Graduate-level requirements include a research paper on any phonological, morphological, or syntactic structure of any variety of Arabic.

The development and exchange of scholarly information, usually in a small group setting. The scope of work shall consist of research by course registrants, with the exchange of the results of such research through discussion, reports, and/or papers.

An introductory survey of the major linguistic-anthropological theories and modes on analysis as these have developed over the last century, with a textual focus on original articles. Topics include: language; culture and thought; semiotics; social interaction; verbal art.

This is a methods based class in linguistic anthropology designed: 1) to give students hand-on experience in linguistic analysis at the level of discourse and 2) to interrogate the micro/macro relationship between discourse patterns, ethnography, and sociopolitical context.

Practice in asking linguistically informed and ethnographically sensitive questions in face-to-face interaction with a linguistic consultant; techniques of language data analysis and description.

This course introduces students to the basic techniques for documentation, analysis and description of a language in the field. Topics will include (but are not limited to): ethical issues in language documentation, basic recording and transcription techniques, phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic elicitation, narrative and (if possible) discourse documentation. Students will work with a native speaker consultant of an unfamiliar language, both in a group setting and one-on-one.

The main goal of this seminar is to discuss a range of theories and approaches in relation to what is generally called "social meaning" in language use/practice, in contrast to "referential/denotational meaning" or "content meaning". Particular attention will be given to research and literature in the overlapping fields of linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics. In terms of theoretical issues that are important in understanding how linguistic forms and practices take on meaning and become meaning-making resources, we will deal with indexicality, indexical order, indexical field, enregisterment, style, stance, interdiscursivity and dialogism, metadiscourse, and language ideology (as it plays a crucial role in all of the foregoing areas). In addition, by drawing on the insights from these theoretical and conceptual tools, we will discuss how to link linguistic analysis at the so-called "micro" level to socio-cultural processes and structures at the "macro" level. With regard to analytical approaches to social meaning, we will discuss research in sociolinguistic variation (quantitative analysis of meaning), discourse analysis, and experimental studies on perception and interpretation of meaning. In addition to familiarizing with the theories and analytical approaches, we'll also analyze data from the participants' ongoing projects or linguistic materials that are potentially interesting to students. The course provides both an opportunity to survey the latest developments in the investigation of meaning-making through language as well as an opportunity to (re)examine our own data by applying some of the theories and methods learned from the course. By the end of the course, participants will be equipped with a conceptual and methodological tool kit for investigating the social meaning of language in use. This course would be of interest to students at various stages of their graduate career: pre-dissertation and Master's students, students writing research grants, and those in post-fieldwork and write-up stage.

Contributions of the ethnography of communication, language variation studies, and conversation/discourse analysis to the interdisciplinary development of sociolinguistics.

Survey of the nature of the interrelationships between language and other cultural phenomena. Graduate-level requirements include a research paper and a journal-style review of a major monograph.