Key Terms in Language and Culture is a new collection of 75 short original essays written by leading scholars in linguistic anthropology and related fields, and covering the major issues in the contemporary study of language and culture. Together these essays provide a lexicon of language from an anthropological perspective. Each essay includes a brief description of a key concept, the issues associated with the concept, and the major contributions to its study. There is a set of suggested readings at the end of each essay that provides readers with a good starting point for a further study.

"Exploratory, generous, clear, and provocative, Key Terms in Language and Culture is an invaluable resource for any scholar concerned with the role and shape of language and communication in human lives, both present and past. Beyond this, it makes explicit the many complex but tightly woven links between language and culture, demonstrating with energy and to good effect the multiple ways in which language indeed matters." Don Brenneis, University of California at Santa Cruz

"This book is a unique collection -a set of key terms and definitions by many of the leading scholars in linguistic anthropology. An excellent overview and orientation to the study of language in culture, it is filled with gems of condensed yet clear formulation and stimulating commentary. A model of collaborative enterprise." Susan Gal, University of Chicago

"This volume, which includes contributions by some of the leading scholars in the field, is a unique companion for introductory courses in language and culture and advanced seminars in anthropology." Discourse Studies

Alessandro Duranti is Professor of Anthropology at UCLA and author of a number of books, including Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon (edited with Charles Goodwin, 1992), From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village (1994), and Linguistic Anthropology (1997). In 1999 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the UCLA Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award. He is a former president of the Society of Linguistic Anthropology and current editor of the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.