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Linguistic Anthropology in Canada: Some Personal Reflections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Regna Darnell*
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario

Abstract

Linguistic anthropology can be understood as attention to the use and communicative context of language across cultures and societies. The legacy of linguistic anthropology for both of its constituent disciplines resides in qualitative research methods and the attention paid to the particular words of particular speakers. Linguistic anthropologists have also modelled ethical ways of doing collaborative research. Canadian linguistic anthropology has been pragmatic and closely tied to the maintenance and revitalization of First Nations (Native Canadian) languages. Issues of language are inseparable from those of community and larger social processes: this can be seen in the context of traditional Algonquian languages in the Prairies as well as in the adaptation of English to First Nations purposes. The latter is a reaction to the imposition of residential schooling that alienated students from their culture, their community, and their language, and escalated language loss. Current research on life-history narratives indicates that nomadic legacies of subsistence hunting are still present in the decision-making strategies of contemporary Algonquian peoples in southern Ontario.

Résumé

Résumé

La linguistique anthropologique est préoccupée par l’usage linguistique et le contexte communicatif de la langue tel qu’ils se manifestent dans différentes cultures et sociétés. L’héritage des disciplines constitutives de la linguistique anthropologique se trouve dans les méthodes de recherches qualitatives et l’attention portée sur la spécificité des locuteurs et de leurs façons de parler. La linguistique anthropologique, par l’entremise de ses modèles de recherches collaboratives, a contribué au développement de normes déontologiques. Au Canada, l’anthropologie linguistique a un aspect pragmatique étroitement lié avec le maintien ainsi que la renaissance des langues autochtones (les premières nations). Les préoccupations linguistiques sont inséparables de celles portant sur la communauté et les processus sociaux pris dans leur globalité : on le constate dans le contexte des langues traditionnelles algonquiennes des plaines, et aussi dans l’adaptation de l’anglais aux besoins autochtones. Ce dernier fait suite à l’imposition des écoles résidentielles, ce qui a aliéné les étudiants de leur culture, leur communauté et leur langue, et a accéléré la perte des langues. Les recherches en cours portant sur les narrations biographiques indiquent que les traditions nomadiques de chasse de subsistance sont toujours présentes dans les décisions des peuples algonquiens contemporains du sud de l’Ontario.

Type
Part II: Language in Time and Space
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2005

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