The Matrix of Language: Contemporary Linguistic Anthropology

Rating:
Summary: Not Even a Mention of Aspirated Ts
Review: I'll be honest from the start: If I could have avoided linguistic classes in college, I would have. Trying to remember the difference between a labial and a slide isn't exactly mind-blowing stuff. But beyond all that work reminiscent of fourth-grade phonics, linguistics might just be where the most interesting work in anthropology is taking place. This book, a collection of papers from sociolingist, shows why on a level you (usually) don't need a Ph.D. to understand. Take, for instance, the believe-it-or-not humorous scholastic paper on gender differences of Malagsy speakers. In the community the author, Elinor Kennan (Ochs), studies, women are seen as blunt and crass, while men are seen as verbal mediators, smoothing over the problems the hot-headed women create. Then there's José E. Limon's purposefully unobjective study of working-class Mexican-Americans that combines male bonding, Marxism and marination. The point isn't whether you believe Limon is doing real science. The point is that these essays breathe life into their subjects in a way that is often lacking from scholastic describtions. These papers allow the reader to see people as they really are: people. Not cultural oddities, not fleshy collections of folklore, not even disenfranchised subjects of pity. These are people being described on a level which we can all related to, because we all use it. And never once did I have to remember what sound the theta symbol stands for.