Master of Arts in Anthropology- Linguistic Anthropology

Wayne State University

Linguistic anthropology examines the relationship between language and nonlinguistic aspects of culture, focusing on the social and cognitive processes by which language affects and is affected by human behavior. Language is the means by which culture is learned and the means by which ethnographers acquire knowledge of culture and so the systematic examination of language is crucial to students in cultural, medical and business anthropology.The written forms of language, no less significant than spoken ones, are highly relevant to our understanding of the past, and so linguistic anthropology is vital to archaeologists as well. The evolved capacity for language and the relationship between language and brain function are important subjects of study in biological anthropology.