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Mar 18, 2026
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Undergraduate Catalog 2026-2027
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ANT 155 Language and Culture Credits: (3)
This is an introductory course in anthropological linguistics and charts how human languages are formed, evolve, and disappear. The main topics will include the nature of human language as distinct from other communication systems; how we organize sound to make a language, i.e. how we identify sound patterns (phonology), create words (morphology), group words into sentences (syntax), and attribute meaning to these sounds (semantics and semiotics); the relationships between language, culture, and human thought; changes in language used in different socio-cultural contexts; and the historical development of languages and writing systems.
SUNY Gen Ed Area(s): Humanities, Social Sciences
Designation(s): Liberal Arts
Learning Outcomes
- Define and work with the basic concepts and methodologies of anthropological linguistics (e.g. phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and semiotics) to describe and analyze the sound patterns, words, and organization of any language.
- Compare and contrast human language with non-human animal communication, particularly primate communication.
- Describe and analyze dialects, pidgins, and creoles in their broader social contexts of culture change.
- Describe patterns of change among a variety of Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages using the basic tools of historical linguistics.
- Discuss the relationship between language and writing using writing systems and scribal traditions from around the world as examples
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