linguistic anthropology

Compound of linguistic +‎ anthropology. Attested from the 19th century.

linguistic anthropology (usually uncountable, plural linguistic anthropologies)

1. (anthropology, originally and chiefly US) The branch of anthropology that studies language and language use.
   • 1881, Otis T. Mason, “Progress of Anthropology in America during the year 1880”, in The American Naturalist‎, page 621:

     Linguistic anthropology is the study of language, first in its origin, as the medium of communicating thought, emotion and volition.

   • 2017, James Wilce, Culture and Communication, page xvi:

     Additionally, linguistic anthropology is one of the four subfields of anthropology, so my linganth tribe’s work overlaps, unsurprisingly, with the work of archaeologists, biological anthropologists, and, especially, social and cultural anthropologists

• cultural anthropology
• social anthropology
• physical anthropology
• biological anthropology
• archaeology
• applied linguistics