Abstract
‘What is culture? What is communication? How are communicating and communing related? If communication is more than conveying information – if indeed communication is a form of social action – what does it accomplish?’ (p. xviii). These are some of the key questions that James M Wilce sets out to answer in his introductory textbook on culture and communication. The textbook is targeted at communication, linguistics and anthropology students interested in linguistic anthropology, defined as ‘the anthropological field that mines the practices of communication – language in particular – for their sociocultural significance’ (p. xv). Wilce explains that linguistic anthropology ‘studies human life, human culture, and human societies through the social production, exchange, circulation, and reception of signs in society’ (p. xv). Some of the overarching themes in his book are semiotics, discourse, reflexivity, subjectivity and intersubjectivity, agency and social activities. The textbook consists of 12 substantive chapters. Each chapter starts with learning objectives and introduction, and ends with conclusion, summary, questions, exercises and additional resources. In chapter 1, ‘Society, Culture and Communication’, Wilce defines society as ‘an organized population that transcends an aggregate of individuals’ (p. 3), and culture as ‘the set of principles guiding human thought and action together with the products of thought and action in a society and in the now-continuous intersocietal encounters’ (p. 4). Communication is in turn defined in chapter 2 as a social practice or activity, or as ‘the production and circulation of signs and their effects’ (p. 47). Chapter 3 then delves deeper into the study of signs and metasigns. Chapter 4 looks at the structure of language by introducing students to phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and textuality. Chapter 5 considers the process of language evolution. Chapter 6 explores the relationship between language and culture, and the importance of linguistic diversity. Chapter 7 then introduces students to different linguistic anthropology methods mainly in the framework of ethnomethodology such as participant observation and the playback interview. Chapter 8 is devoted to human social semiotics – the use of language as a tool for social action. Chapter 9 then explores the process of language socialization, while chapter 10 interrogates two concepts – performance and performativity. Performativity is defined as ‘the ability of language-in-use to accomplish things and even, in the eyes of cultural insiders, to move the world, the cosmos’ (p. xxii). Chapter 11 then explicitly explores the intersections between linguistic anthropology and media and mediatization studies. It also interrogates the relationship between globalization, media and emotion, and between globalization, language and communication. The final chapter focuses on applied anthropology – the practical application of some of the concepts discussed in previous chapters. Wilce’s ability to critically interrogate a range of key concepts, theories and processes in a clear and engaging way makes his textbook an essential reading for communication, linguistics and linguistic anthropology students and scholars.