Book for Language and Culture

[Lynne Murphy]

I teach a course called "Cross-Cultural Linguistics", which is a weird
course--in that we do a lot of stuff that's not directly linguistic
(it's more a communication course).  I use:

- Stewart & Bennett's _American Cultural Patterns_ (Intercultural
Press):  Good for showing students that the American way is not the only
way of behaving, nor can American behaviors be considered "normal".
- Samovar & Porter's (eds.) _Intercultural Communication: A Reader_
(Wadsworth):  I have just moved from the 8th ed. to the 9th, and I liked
the 8th better.  The 9th spends a lot of space on things like "gays and
communication," "the aged and communication," "the disabled and
communication."  It seemed to me that the 8th edition got out of America
more, and the 9th got rid of some of my favorite readings from the 8th
(on Japan and Finland).
- Anna Wierzbicka's _Understanding Cultures through their Key Words_
(Oxford):  Very detailed in the few areas she covers--a semantic
comparison of cultures.  We get a LOT of conversation out of her
discussion of words for 'friendship' in various languages and how they
reveal different attitudes toward personal relationships.

I supplement these with a lot of other readings from other sources...

Lynne
--

M. Lynne Murphy, Assistant Professor in Linguistics
Department of English, Baylor University
PO Box 97404, Waco, TX 76798 USA
Phone:  254-710-6983     Fax:  254-710-3894
http://www.baylor.edu/~M_Lynne_Murphy