Michael Silverstein

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the American business consultant and author, see Michael J. Silverstein.

Michael Silverstein
Born(1945-09-12)12 September 1945
Karl Teeter[1]
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Chicago
Semiotics
 
General concepts
Fields
Methods
Semioticians
Related topics

Michael Silverstein (12 September 1945 – 17 July 2020)

grammatical theory, together with his own theoretical contributions, yielding a comprehensive account of the semiotics of human communication and its relation to culture. He presented the developing results of this project annually from 1970 until his death in a course entitled "Language in Culture".[4] Among other achievements, he was instrumental in introducing the semiotic terminology of Charles Sanders Peirce, including especially the notion of indexicality, into the linguistic and anthropological literature; with coining the terms metapragmatics and metasemantics[5] in drawing attention to the central importance of metasemiotic phenomena for any understanding of language or social life; and with introducing language ideology as a field of study.[6] His works are noted for their terminological complexity and technical difficulty.[7]

Academic work

Silverstein earned his undergraduate degree at

MacArthur Fellowship in the second year of the prize's existence, and was the youngest person, at the time, to be awarded the grant.[9] He was also a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows, in Anthropology
.

He was a prime influence in defining 'language ideologies' as a field of study. Language ideologies are socially grounded beliefs and conceptualisations of language, its functions and its users.[10] Based on work of Benjamin Lee Whorf and Charles Sanders Peirce, and incorporating insights from structuralism, philology, history and social theory, he saw 'language ideologies' as patterns that guide speakers' use of language and so, eventually, change that language. We talk on the basis of what we believe we can do with and in language, and by doing that we shape our language. Thus, language ideologies form the bridge between language patterns and social and cultural structure, as the socially grounded beliefs in what language is and does convert into particular patterns of use that are understandable, precisely because they fit these beliefs and the expectations they generate. The connections between usage and beliefs are empirically identifiable as 'metapragmatics' - the articulation of beliefs about language use in language use (as when one uses polite formulae in addressing someone in a superior position).[11]

Silverstein's work caused a theoretical and conceptual shift in anthropology, linguistics and sociolinguistics. It led to a renewed interest in the study of

Chomskyan' conceptions of language and it has boosted a critical and politically sensitive trend in the study of language in society, influencing notably the study of language policy, language planning, and language in education.[12]

He also studied the indigenous languages of

Australia and the Americas
.

In 2014, he was awarded the "most prestigious award in anthropology", the Franz Boas award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology by the American Anthropological Association[13]

Publications

References

  1. ^ Stephen O. Murray. 1998. American Sociolinguistics: Theorists and Theory Groups. John Benjamins, pp. 236–37.
  2. ^ "Michael Silverstein, groundbreaking anthropologist and linguist, 1945-2020". uchicago news. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Michael Silverstein". University of Chicago Department of Linguistics. Archived from the original on 8 July 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  4. ^ "Michael Silverstein, groundbreaking anthropologist and linguist, 1945-2020". uchicago news. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  5. ^ Jonathan Yovel and Elizabeth E. Mertz. "Metalinguistic Awareness". Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights. Ed. an-Ola Östman, Jef Verschueren, Jan Blommaert, Chris Bulcaen,. 2010. p. 252-3
  6. ^ Blount, Ben G. 1995. Language, Culture, and Society: A book of Readings. Waveland Press. Inc. pp. 106-7
  7. ^ ""Linguistic Relativity, Whorf, Linguistic Anthropology"". Society for Linguistic Anthropology. 1 September 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2020. "Over an extensive set of publications not designed for the casual reader, Michael Silverstein ... has brought Whorf to bear in formulating one of the key research paradigms of contemporary linguistic anthropology, the investigation of the linguistic and social concomitants of linguistic ideologies."
  8. ^ Stephen O. Murray. 1998. American Sociolinguistics: Theorists and Theory Groups. John Benjamins, pp. 236–37.
  9. ^ "Michael Silverstein". MacArthur Foundation. 1 August 1982. Archived from the original on 21 December 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  10. ^ Jonathan Yovel and Elizabeth E. Mertz. "Metalinguistic Awareness". Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights. Ed. an-Ola Östman, Jef Verschueren, Jan Blommaert, Chris Bulcaen,. 2010. p. 262
  11. ^ Woolard, Kathryn A. 1998. Introduction: Language Ideology as A Field of Inquiry. in Language Ideology: Practice and Theory. Schiffelin, Bambi B., Kathryn Woolard and Paul V. Kroskrity (eds.) Oxford University Press.
  12. S2CID 158637970. Archived
    from the original on 24 May 2023 – via The University of Chicago Press: Journals.
  13. ^ "Michael Silverstein Honored With Most Prestigious Award in Anthropology" (PDF). American Anthropological Association. 24 November 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Silverstein&oldid=1219279061"