A Critical Review on the Book "Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology"

Linguistic anthropology, as one of the most important subfields of anthropology, seeks to examine how language, as a social entity, plays an active role in the life of a society and encodes various aspects of social relations in a society. This branch of science, which is interdisciplinary in essence, tries to study the linguistic phenomena in a social context instead of in a vacuum, and thus decipher the hidden social components behind the use of different linguistic levels, from phonology and lexicography to syntax and semantics. The present article critically examines “Living Language: An Introduction to the Anthropological Linguistics” written by Laura M. Ahearn aims to show how the hidden social spheres of language, such as culture, thought, socialization, gender, race, ethnicity, power, etc. can be studied in terms of linguistic use in different contexts. By considering language as a map, we can find a way to understand the society in question.