In the course of this seminar, we will take an anthropological and cultural linguistic approach to English and some of its contact languages in the Polar North. Starting from an understanding of the anthropological and cultural linguistic paradigms as well as the World Englishes paradigm more generally, we will focus mainly on varieties of Inuit in Greenland and Canada as well as on the roles of English in Canada and Northern Norway. The guiding interest will lie on the language-culture-mind nexus as well as on cognitive processes that come to light in patterns of language use, e.g. in the semantics of words and phrases. Ultimately, we want to understand how culture impacts on language structures and linguistic properties, and we hope to uncover both cultural conceptualisations and cultural metaphors that are specific to each of the varieties studies.

In the course of this seminar, we will take an anthropological and cultural linguistic approach to English and some of its contact languages in the Polar North. Starting from an understanding of the anthropological and cultural linguistic paradigms as well as the World Englishes paradigm more generally, we will focus mainly on varieties of Inuit in Greenland and Canada as well as on the roles of English in Canada and Northern Norway. The guiding interest will lie on the language-culture-mind nexus as well as on cognitive processes that come to light in patterns of language use, e.g. in the semantics of words and phrases. Ultimately, we want to understand how culture impacts on language structures and linguistic properties, and we hope to uncover both cultural conceptualisations and cultural metaphors that are specific to each of the varieties studies.