Why should we study language? How do the ways in which we communicate define our identities? And how is this all changing in the digital world? Since 1993, many have turned to Language, Culture, and Society for answers to questions like those above because of its comprehensive coverage of all critical aspects of linguistic anthropology. This seventh edition carries on the legacy while addressing some of the newer pressing and exciting challenges of the 21st century.

Preface 1. Introducing Linguistic Anthropology 2. Methods of Linguistic Anthropology 3. The Nuts and Bolts of Linguistic Anthropology I: Language Is Sound 4. The Nuts and Bolts of Linguistic Anthropology II: Structure of Words and Sentences 5. Communicating Nonverbally 6. The Development and Evolution of Language: Language Birth, Language Growth, and Language Death 7. Acquiring and Using Language(s): Life with First Languages, Second Languages, and More 8. Language Through Time 9. Languages in Variation and Languages in Contact 10. The Ethnography of Communication 11. Culture as Cognition, Culture as Categorization: Meaning and Language in the Conceptual World 12. Language, Culture, and Thought 13. Language, Identity, and Ideology I: Variations in Gender 14. Language, Identity, and Ideology II: Variations in Class, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality 15. The Linguistic Anthropology of a Globalized and Digitalized World