Linguistic anthropology of AI: an afterword Anthropologie linguistique de l'IA : le mot de la fin

Abstract

This reflection on the themed cluster of articles on linguistic anthropology and AI addresses what social anthropologists might wish to know about the linguistic anthropological analytical toolkit when turning to large language models (LLMs) as objects of analysis. In particular, this afterword discusses what agency might be understood to be when the scholarly attention is focused largely on how people use communicative repertoires to accomplish complex social tasks with others. Building on how linguistic anthropologists understand human semiosis, the article makes apparent how human communicative agency differs from the communicative agency expressed by LLMs.