Linguistic anthropologists help people understand the ways that language expresses social meaning.
On the one hand, we have a finely tuned sense of the social meaning embedded in language, especially when we have face-to-face conversations. (Note that for autistic speakers, the social meaning is often different than it is for allistic speakers.)
As adults, we’ve been trained for years to understand the subtle cues that let us know how people think about themselves, how they feel about us, and how they feel about the things that they’re talking about. We may leave a conversation thinking, “Oh, he didn’t like me one bit,” or “Well, she thinks she’s very fancy,” or “Boy, they’re really excited about that stuff.”
But on the other hand, we misinterpret social meanings all the time, especially when there are more than one set of rules at play. This is true for people from different cultural backgrounds, and also true for interactions between allistic and autistic speakers.
We interpret social cues according to the set of rules we were socialized into, rules that are so implicit that they just seem natural and normal and like the way things are supposed to be. So implicit that we don’t recognize that someone else may have been raised with a different set of rules, and is encoding and sending out social meaning in a different way. We may end up drawing conclusions about their personality (self-centered!), their intelligence (not so quick), or their affect (so emotional!). And these conclusions may be completely wrong.
In addition, we all have unconscious bias, and this bias is expressed most frequently through language. The people expressing their unconscious biases through language almost never realize that they are doing it. And, without some education as to why seemingly innocuous or light-hearted comments can actually be problematic and are linked to systematic patterns, people don’t change their linguistic behaviors. This can lead to all kinds of problems, including workplaces that feel hostile to women, people of color, LGTBQ+ employees, or disabled people.
Linguistic anthropology is a social science that is centered on language, culture, and social meaning. Training based on linguistic anthropology teaches people how to recognize systematic patterns in speech and writing, and gives them a toolkit to make sure their good intentions get translated into good impact.
A few ways linguistic anthropology helps solve real-world issues:
1. Anti-bias training. We've found that scientific, language-based training that brings in ideas about diversity, equity and inclusion can bypass the backlash that sometimes comes from diversity discussions. Also, learning about language, why it matters, and how to send the social message you want to send leaves people feeling empowered and like they have concrete and comprehensible steps they can take.
2. Inclusive language audits and training. Language is ever-changing, context-dependent, and incredibly complicated. The new 21st century etiquette feels unclear to many, who may feel like they are walking in a linguistic minefield, are worried they’ll say the wrong thing and get cancelled, or just want to learn more and do better. This is where linguistic anthropology can help. When they get training on principles of inclusive communication, really get granular about what really happens when we write to and talk with each other, people learn to recognize patterns that apply to all kinds of situations and all kinds of identities. They leave feeling more confident in their own skills, and able to evaluate inclusive language on their own.
3. Identifying and solving problems with business communication. Doctor/patient interactions that go badly and result in negative reviews on websites. Meetings that don't seem to go well and leave people feeling annoyed or angry. Websites and recruiting materials that send the wrong message. Presentations that don't land the way you want them to. Needing to communicate with people from another cultural background and not wanting to make mistakes. Linguistic anthropology can help with all of these and more.