Ebook: Anti-Languages

American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 78, No. 3 (Sep., 1976), pp. 570-584
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
Accessed online: 12/09/2010 21:27At certain times and places we come across special forms of language generated by some kind of anti-society; these we may call "anti-languages." An anti-language serves to create and maintain social structure through conversation, just as an everyday language does; but the social structure is of a particular kind, in which certain elements are strongly foregrounded. This gives to the anti-language a special character in which metaphorical modes of expression are the norm; patterns of this kind appear at all levels, phonological, lexicogrammatical, and semantic. The study of anti-languages offers further insights into the relation between language and social structure, and into the way in which text functions in the realization of social contexts.