The idea of this assignment is to get you all to practice being linguistic anthropologists.You'll need to select a
group of people and observe (i.e. listen to) how they use language. The groups you select can be determined
by any variety of means; this includes groups that identify as such, like teams or clubs, groups that are defined
by place, such as the people in the library, or the employees of a store, or residents of a dorm; or broader
categories of people such as an ethnic group. You can encounter this group either in real life or virtually, but
either way you do need to observe their use of language! And when you do so, remember our different
categories of language evidence!
After you've made your observations, please report back (in a ca. 1-page report or an equivalent audio or video
file) with your findings. What is telling or unique about the language used by this group? Are there particular
words/meanings used here? Distinct pronunciations? What kinds of morphology did you pick up on? What
kinds of maxims seemed to govern conversation (if any)?
What are the implications of these findings? Did you have any sense of how language was connected to
culture or social relationships during your observation?
Whatever you do, don’t do anything dangerous or illegal; and don’t include any personally identifying
information about people you encounter unless they explicitly OK it. Be ethical!
Sample Solution