Pidgin and creole languages - CH3

INDEX

INDEX..................................................................................................................................................................1DIALECTS AND REGISTERS - CH2...............................................................................................................................1

PIDGIN AND CREOLE LANGUAGES - CH3......................................................................................................................2LANGUAGE CHOICE IN MULTILINGUAL COMMUNITIES - CH2-YULE...................................................................................4

CHOOSING A CODE - CH4 – WARDAUGH...................................................................................................................4CHAPTER 4 - CHOOSING A CODE...............................................................................................................................5

SPEECH COMMUNITIES - CH5...................................................................................................................................6CHAPTER 6 - REGIONAL AND SOCIAL VARIATION..........................................................................................8CHAPTER 7 - VARIATION STUDIES: SOME FINDINGS AND ISSUES.......................................................................11LANGUAGE AND CULTURE - CH 7............................................................................................................................13ETHNOGRAPHY & ETHNOMETHODOLOGY..................................................................................................................14SOLIDARITY & POLITENESS.....................................................................................................................................16

DIALECTS AND REGISTERS - CH2VARIETY OF LANGUAGE= a set of linguistic items with similar meaning (Standard English, Cockney,

Oxford English, lower-class NYC speech)LANGUAGE/DIALECT= in English can be interchangeable

STANDARDIZATION= process by which a language has been codified in some way; it involves development of grammars, spelling books, dictionaries

Examples: a) Wycliff's and Luter's translations of Bible into English, German b) Caxton’s establishment of printing

c) Dr. Johnson’s dictionary of English, 1755-Italian is less standardized than E or G; Black English not at all

STANDARD ENGLISH= variety of English used in print/ taught in schools / broadcasting-current tendency- local dialects tend to converge towards the standard

Bell’s 7 criteria:

VITALITY= refers to existence of a living community of speakers (Manx and Cornish are dead x Classical

Greek and Latin- dead but still forceful)HISTORICITY= a particular language belongs to a particular group of people

AUTONOMY= a language must be different from other languageREDUCTION= a particular variety of language may be regarded as sub-variety (Cockney) or considerable

restrictions in use= pidginMIXTURE= pidgin and creole= difficult to be classified as full languages

DE FACTO NORMS= difference between good and bad speaker

DIALECT= subordinate variety of language-(Texas English, Jamaican English-urban)PATOIS= rural forms of speech, lower strata of society – Jamaican English

DIALECT CONTINUUM= crossing dialect boundaries

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DIALECT GEOGRAPHY= term used to describe attempts to map the distribution of various linguistic features

BOUNDARIES= ISOGLOSSES= to distinguish an area in which a certain dialect features are present or absent

RP= received pronunciation= also called non-localized accentSOCIAL DIALECTS= among social groups/classes, British public school dialect, NY or Detroit – Black

dialectREGISTEr= sets of vocabulary items (among social groups= jazz fans, airline pilots, surgeons)

PIDGIN AND CREOLE LANGUAGES - CH3LINGUA FRANCA= common system of communication where is the basic need to understand each other Other names for LF= a TRADE LANGUAGE (Hausa, Swahili), CONTACT LANGUAGE (Greek koine).

INTERNATIONAL (English), AUXILIARY (Esperanto, Basic English)LF= Greek koine, Vulgar Latin (Mediterranean world), Sabir (since Middle Ages through Crusades up

to 20th cent.); Arabic, Hindi, Swahili – Islam; North America: Chinook Jargon- coastal phenomenon (words like: potlach-gift giving; cheechakoo= greenhorn; high mucky-muck= arrogant official) and

Plains Sign Language – interior on the plateau-social factor important in their development – CHJ and PSL among slaves

PIDGIN= a language with no native speaker- but a contact language; i.e. product of multilingual situation- improvise- simple codes; a reduced variety of a language= simplification of grammar/

vocabulary/ phonological variationCREOLE= a pidgin that has become the first language of a new generation of speakers = normal

language with native speakerse.g. Haitian Creole (french-based) x Jamaican Creole (english-based)

PIDGINIZATION= simplification of a language, reduction in morphology, syntax and pronunciationCREOLIZATION= involves expansion of the morphology and syntax, regularization of phonology

+-127pidgines and creoles= 35 English-basedENGLISH-BASED P AND C: Hawaiian Creole, Gullah, Jamaican C, Guyana C, Krio, Sranan and Djuka,

Camaroan Pidgin E., Tok Pisin, Chinese Pidgin English

FRENCH-BASED: Louisiana C, Haitan C, Seychelles C, Mauritian C = all of them mutually intelligible unlike English-based

Portugal-based: Papiamentu, Guine C, Senegal, and Saramaccan

Spanish-based: Cocoliche (Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires)Dutch-based: Negerhollands, Afrikaans

Italian-based: Asmora Pidgin in EtiopiaGerman-based: Yiddish, Gastarbeiter Deutsch

Russenorsk= Russian-Norwegian contact language

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RELAXIFICATION=when those who spoke it were out off from contact with EnglandTok Masta= term used by Papua New Guineas to describe the attempt by anglophones to speak Tok

PisinTOK PISIN= few basic vowels, less consonants, no contrast between: IT and EAT; or PIN and FIN, SIP

and SHIP and CHIP; contrast between Ship and Sheep expressed by calling the first SIP and the second SIP SIP; lack of distinction between P/F

MOPHOPHONEMIC VARIATION: phonological relationship between words; morpheme= the small bit

of meaning in word- no such variations in Pidgin; development of such v. = example of creolization

THEORIES OF ORIGIN OF PIDGIN AND CREOLE: 1) AFRICAN SUB-STRATUM: p and c retain certain characteristics of ancestral African languages

2) POLYGENESIS: (Hall- creolist) - p and c have a variety of origins, certain simplified forms of English have developed independently in a number of places- giving rise to a variety of pidgin In English

3)COMPARATIVE METHOD: used by historical linguistics- to make hypothesis concerning PROTO-PIDGIN(original p)- form which those that we observe currently maybe said to derive from Latin

4) MONOGENESIS: quest to discover a common origin for p and c; similarities among p and c might be attributable to a common origin in the land language of sailors in some kind of nautical jargon

BICKERTON, 1981: BIOPROGRAM= theory of universal language learning

DECREOLIZATION= standard version under influence of creolized version= intermediate varieties

development

LANGUAGE CHOICE IN MULTILINGUAL COMMUNITIES - CH2-YULEDOMAINS: speech communities- different patterns of code choice according to American

sociolinguist JOSHUA FISHMAN; a domain involves typical interactions between typical participants in typical settings: family/ friendship/religion/ education/ employment

DIGLOSSIA: two distinct varieties of the same language are used in the community (one HIGH one LOW); e.g. Greek- Dhimotiki (L) and Katharevousa (H)

each variety is used for quite distinct functions, H and L complement each other; no one uses the H variety in everyday conversation

POLYGLOSSIA: where a community regularly uses more than two languages; many different codes for different purposes

CODE switching/mixing

SITUATIONAL SWITCHING= when people switch from one code to another for reasons which can be

identifiedMETAPHORICAL SWITCHING= code-switching for rhetorical reasons= drawing on the association of both

codes

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CHOOSING A CODE - CH4 – WARDAUGH

Code=language= variety of language – neutral term unlike (dialect, style, pidgin…)Recodification= further manipulation of a code

Language varieties- High (sermons, lectures, parliament, political speechLow (conversation with familiars, soap-operas, folk-literature)

Diglossic situation in UK since 1066 – Norman ConquestCODESWITCHING= is a term referring to alternation between two or more languages, dialects, or

language registers in the course of discourse between people who have more than one language in common; e.g. Singapore= 4 official languages: English, Mandarin, Tamil and Malay

CONVENTIONALIZATION= asking the other which language is preferredDerogatory terms to describe code-mixing

FRANGLAIS (French and English in Quebec)FRAGNOL (French and Spanish in Argentina)

SPANGLISH (Cuban Spanish and English in USA)TEX- MEX (English and Mexican Spanish in Texas)

MATCHED-GUISE= choice of code also reflects how you want to appear to others

SOCIAL STEREOTYPES= only evaluation of speaker on the grounds of his dialect

CHAPTER 4 - CHOOSING A CODE

CODE: any kind of system that two or more people employ for comm.

DIGLOSSIC SITUATION: one code is employed in one set of circumstances and the other in an entirely different set, High variety: prestige, more logical, expressive, literature, learned in formal setting-

taught Low variety: all children learn L, borrows words from H, more basic pronunciation system – kept apart in their functions (after Norman Conquest: Norman French H + English L), reinforces social

distinctions (Haiti, Greece), stable Classical Arabic(Qur´an)X colloquial varieties, Standard German X Swiss German, Standard French X Haitian Creole

* when literacy limited to a small group, literature in a language closely related to the natural langMONOLINGUALISM ability to use but a single language code (widely accepted norm in western world)

BILINGUAL X BIDIALECTAL (Tukano NW Amazon, Siane of New Guinea Salisbury) Paraguay: Guarani-national lang, 90% + Spanish: official language of government & edu, preferred in the cities X

Fishman: Spanish H, Guarani Lcan lead to loss, diffusion (Balkans, S of India, Sri Lanka)

CODESWITCHING conversational strategy to establish, cross or destroy group boundaries, to create, evoke or change interpersonal relations (Singapore: English-trade, Mandarin-international Chinese,

Malay-regional, Tamil-language of important ethnic group + Hokkien, Kenya: Swahili, English)lang-symbolic role-negotiating position in the community, reduce social differences, subconscious

(diglossia: by situation but mainly relationship, type of activity) CONVENTIONALIZATION asking the other which language is preferred, may be a form of political expression, solidarity with listeners, choice of

topic, social & cultural distance (West Indians in London)

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SITUATIONAL SWITCHING according to the situations (some are socially prescribed-taught) METAPHORICAL SWITCHING a change of topic requires a change in the lang, formal-informal, official-personal, serious-

humorous, politeness, solidarity GUMPERZ: we-type – suitable for in-group (Norway: Ranamal, Austria: Slovenian), informal X they-type – out-group, formal (N: Bokmal, A: German)

CODE-MIXING usage of both langs together, change from one to the other in the course of a single utterance. conversational code-mixing-without associated topic change, used primarily as a solidarity

marker, requires conversants to a sophisticated knowledge & community norms – can show solidarity & familiarity

not uniform phenomena, norms defined by region of origin, local residence, social class, occupational niche

MATCHED-GUISE EXPERIMENTS choice of code reflects how you want to appear to others LAMBERT-how listeners react to various characteristics in speech, social stereotypes

code and message are inseparable, listeners are affected by code choices (linguistic prejudice-people have different feelings about different codes)

SPEECH COMMUNITIES - CH5Lang-individual & social possession SPEECH COMMUNITY- employs the same code

IDEAL SPEECH COMMUNITY CHOMSKY completely homogeneous speech community, theoretical REAL SPEECH COMMUNITY LYONS all the people who use a given lang (dialect) SC is not co-terminous with

a lang (may employ more lang) SPEECH MARKERS for social categorization (linguistic characteristics, social, cultural, political, ethnic)

SC LABOV defined by participation in a set of shared norms SC for linguistic purposes-only a single lang spoken, speakers share a common feeling about linguistic

behaviour, that is observe certain linguistic norms MILROY emphasis on a search for criteria that make individuals feel that they are members of the

same community GUMPEREZ SC may be bi- or even multidialectal

LINGUISTIC COMMUNITY held together by frequency of social interaction patterns, defined partially through their relationships with other communities, must have social cohesiveness, cut off from

other communities BLOOMFIELD SC people who interact by means of speech CUT-OFF CRITERION-defined by what it is not GUMPERZ SC share a set of grammatical rules, regular

relationships between lang use & social structureSPEECH AREA (SPRACHBUND) Czech, Austrian, German, Hungarian – share only certain rules (e.g.

Greeting, conversational topics) HYMES lang≠SC can´t be defined solely through the use linguistic criteria, distinguishes between

participating in a SC & being a full memberBROWN & LEVINSON groups as relative concepts – being a unit that is relevant only in relation to units

of like size that for immediate purposes are contrasted with X groups in relatively concrete terms.

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independently isolable units of social structure. An individual must belong to various SCs at the same time, but on any particular occasion will identify with only one of them

INTERSECTING COMMUNITIES consequence: linguistic variationROSEN geographical & social class model would be false

London is not a single SC, composite of small SCs not betterhow individuals relate to society through the lang(s) or varieties the employ, C-any set of individuals

united for a common end (distinct from ends pursued by other groups), a person may belong to at any one time to many different groups depending on the particular ends in view

BOLINGER no limit to the ways in which individuals can classify themselves, +bonding: individual share some features X -bonding: lack some features, sharing the same dialect might be of no significance,

communities may overlap

NETWORK & REPERTOIRES

NETWORK way of viewing how an individual relates to other individuals in society: 1)strongly linked (equally linked) 2)weakly linked 3)one providing all connections 4)the link from A to E achieved

through C (p128)MULTIPLEX NETWORK individual tied to others in a variety of ways (working together, playing,

intermarriage)UNIPLEX NETWORK people are related to others in only a single way (only one of these provides a link)

several UN-loose & diffusefocuses on the individual´s relationship to society at large through the individual contacts that person

hasSPEECH REPERTOIRE control of a number of varieties PLATT & PLATT range of linguistic varieties which the

speaker has at his disposal & which he may appropriately use as a member of his SC. To describe the communicative competence of individual speakers, utilized by a SC

VERBAL REPERTOIRE at a particular speaker´s disposal

CHAPTER 6 - REGIONAL AND SOCIAL VARIATIONREGIONAL DIALECT = variety associated with people from a specific region

SOCIAL DIALECT = variety associated with specific social class or group- studies of social variation grew out of studies of regional variation

DIACHRONIC or HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS = well-established part of the study of how languages change over time

DIALECT GEOGRAPHY – uses methods drawn from diachronic linguistics- over sufficient time, the resulting dialects become new languages as speakers of the resulting

varieties become unintelligible to one anothermethods and concepts of traditional historical linguistics:

- FAMILY TREE = Latin – French/Italian/Spanish/Romanian …- PHONEMIC SPLIT = now /F/ and /V/ are different phonemes in Engl. but used to be allophones

(phonetic variants of a single phoneme) earlier- PHONEMIC COALESCENCE = in Engl. EA and EE spellings once had different pronunciation

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- COMPARATIVE METHOD OF RECONSTRUCTION = Engl. KNAVE vs. Germ. KNABE – the same source- INTERNAL RECONSTRUCTION = though MOUSE and MICE now have different vowel sounds, this was

not always the caseISOGLOSS = a line on a map = a geographical boundary of the distribution of a particular linguistic

featuresDIALECT ATLASES - quite often the dialect boundary coincides with some geographical, political or old

ecclesiastical factor (typical for Germany)FOCAL AREA = area from where some feature is spreading to the neighbours

RELIC AREA=area unaffected by changes-dialect studies are focused almost exclusively on rural areas – regarded as conservative (urban areas

innovative)→ have serious limitations because tend to ignore densely populated areas

DIALECT MIXTURE = variation of an individual, who uses one variety on one occasion and another variety

on a different occasion…….alternative explanation = FREE VARIATION = random “meaningless” variation of no significance

- investigation of social dialects uses different techniques from those used in dialect geography- pioneer work of William Labov – attempted to identify how language varies in the

communityLINGUISTIC VARIABLE = linguistic item which has identifiable variants - e.g. SINGING – can be pronounced

[Η]SINGIΗ or [N]SINGIN’ – the final sound [η] is a linguistic variable with two variantsVARIABLES CAN BE – PHONOLOGICAL (Labov’s study, Trudgill’s study)

– GRAMMATICAL (the Detroit study) e.g. multiple negation, HE TALKS/TALK, SHE IS HAPPY/SHE HAPPY ETC. Labov distinguishes:

INDICATOR = linguistic variable to which little or no social import is attachedMARKER = does carry a social significance = potent carrier of social information, people are aware of

markersSTEREOTYPE = popular and conscious characterization of the speech of particular group e.g. New York

BOID for BIRD, need not conform reality - to draw any conclusions the variable must be in some way related to quantifiable factors in society

e.g. social class, sex, age, ethnicity etc.- most complicated factor of all of this is social class – you may consider various scales: occupational

scale, educational scale, income scale, etc.- alternative approaches – not dependent on socio-economic ranking – church membership, leisure-

time activities etc.example studies:

Labov – New York City – education, occupation, income – to set up social classesTrudgill – Norwich, England

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Shuy – Detroit study

SOCIOLECTS= speech characteristics of members of social group (averagely taken)IDIOLECTS = speech characteristics and linguistic behaviour of individuals

collection and analysis of data:

- the observer might be biased – this effect must be minimized in the study- data collection devices: QUESTIONNAIRE – must be designed for the situation

CATEGORIZING THE CIRCUMSTANCES: interview situation

reading aloud of a storycasual situation

reading aloud of the list of words- SUBJECTIVE REACTION TEST – the person must react to samples of speech containing the

variables he was concerned with

- SAMPLING = finding a representative group of speakers- the best is a random sample

- judgment sample – the investigator chooses the person according to a set of criteria

- studies employing the linguistic variable are essentially CORRELATIONAL in nature we distinguish between DEPENDENT AND INDEPENDENT VARIABLES – only the dependent ones are

important

CHAPTER 7 - VARIATION STUDIES: SOME FINDINGS AND ISSUES

Fischer – early study:

- study of pronunciation of [ng] in SINGING [Η] or SINGIN‘ [N] - interviewed children in New England- boys used to say more –IN’ forms than girls

- he compared a model boy (was doing well at school, thoughtful) and a typical boy(normal, strong)

- used various situations from the most to the least formal one- the model boy used –ING more often than the typical boy who used IN’ more often

- conclusion: the choice between ING and IN’ variants appears to be related to sex, class, personality (aggressive/cooperative) and mood (tense/relaxed) of the speaker, to the

formality of the conversation and also to a specific verb spoken- but no statistical testing

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Labov: New York City:

- r variable in NYC

- worked in three department stores – Saks, Macy’s and S.Klein – demarcated by social class- in NYC pronouncing R in words like CAR and GUARD are highly valued (that is different in

England) and associated with the upper middle class- made several graphs

CROSS-OVER in the graph = phenomenon of HYPERCORRECTION – the lower-middle class speakers know the prestigious r-pronunciations and in reading list of words the out-perform the upper-middle class

speakers - he also investigated the pronunciation of th in THING and THREE with possible variants [Θ] [TΘ]

[T] –the last one is the most nonstandard and mostly associated with the working class- this variable indicates there is a sharp break in linguistic behaviour between working class

groups and middle-class groups – this is called SHARP STRATIFICATION

Trudgill and Chesire: Norwich and Reading:

- analysis of ng, t and h variables - females showed greater preference for Η than males

- important points: - the lower the social class the greater the incidence of nonstandard variant

- if the class is kept constant, the less formal the style the greater the incidence of the nonstandard

- s variable in the case of extension of third-person singular verb marking to all other persons e.g. I KNOWS, WE HAS

- points: - S variable not used if the verb was followed by a clause and not in auxiliary verbs e.g. I FORGOT WHAT THE PLACE IS CALLED.

- vernacular (hovorové) verbs are more likely to take the S ending - these two conditions are called CONSTRAINTS ON USAGE and work in opposite

directions- in this case the pattern of variation was the degree of “toughness” such as ability to fight and

steal –for boys especially, but in case of girls the speech appears to be a more personal process - less rigidly controlled by vernacular norms

Shuy, Wolfram, Riley : The Detroit Study:

- variation = use of multiple negation

- age: children are less standard in their linguistic behaviour than adults with similar social backgrounds

- sex: males are less standard than females- racial origin

- also studied grammatical variables: zero copula HE TIRED. invariant BE as in HE BE TIRED. S suffixes

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multiple negation - observed GRADIENT STRATIFICATION = regular step-like progression in means which matches

social group, typical for the distribution of phonological variables- as opposed to SHARP STRATIFICATION = clear break, typical for grammatical variables

other studies:

Macaulay: Glasgow - vowels in HIT, SCHOOL, HAT, NOW and glottal stops in BUTTER and GET

Sankoff and Cedegren: L – in Montreal FrenchHudson: Teheran Persian

Milroy: Belfast

- importance of social networks – originate in kinship ties, determine an individual’s access to

employment etc.- he says: vernacular norms are ‘perceived as symbolizing values of solidarity and reciprocity

rather than status and are not publicly codified or recognized’- the greater the network strength the greater the incidence of the variants identified with

Belfast vernacular

some controversies:

- linguistic variables may show correlations not only with social variables but also with other linguistic features

- Wolfram and Fasold – cluster simplification – like TES’ for TEST or RISSING for RISKING – they try to predict certain linguistic behaviour – there are CONSTRAINTS – interact and affect the

distribution of a variable, they analyze the linguistic environment e.g. preceding sonorants or non-sonorants etc.

- We have to face considerable difficulties in trying to write a single variable rule, because the rules usually interact

- ISOLECT=individual speech behaviour, SOCIOLECT= group speech behaviour- the LECTS of a language differ from one another along a continuum, which forms a POLYLECTAL

or PANLECTAL GRID

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE - CH 7CULTURE - whatever a person must know to function in a particular society, knowledge is socially

acquired, everything is learned no genetics:)THE WHORFIAN HYPOTHESIS 1)structure of lang determines the way in which speakers of that lang view the world (V influential in predisposing a particular world view)

2)XC of a people finds reflection in the lang they employ, influences how a lang is used 3)there is little or no relationship between lang & C (Boas)

+SAPIR: close relationship between lang & C, you could not understand or appreciate one without a knowledge of the other (+HUMBOLDT)

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the relationship lang-C is a deterministic one, agreement which holds throughout a SC is codified in the patterns of our lang, no individual can describe nature with absolute impartiality, different

speakers view the world differently in so far as their langs differ structurally, is speakers have words to describe things-easier to talk about things, if a lang makes distinctions, then speakers will more

readily perceive differences in their environment, grammatical categories help&limit users to perceive the world in a certain way

based on 2 kinds of experience: investigation of origins of fires, linguistic work on American Indian langs, principally Hopi of Arizona-contrasted with Standard Average European-differ widely: Hopi

orientation towards world, SEA toward time & space-objectify reality, Hopi: see world as ongoing set of processes, not discrete & countable, time is not fragmentedXSAE:discrete, measurable, countable,

recurrent→lang provides a screen or filter to reality, defines your experience for youlangs needn´t refer to all characteristic-still aware of them, syntactic evidence suggests that langs

allow their speakers to make certain observations more easily in some cases , attempts made to relate types of lang structure to patterns of social organization failed

quite unproved, every natural lang provides its speakers with a lang for talking about every other lang-METALANG + provides them with an entirely adequate system for making any kinds of

observationsKINSHIP SYSTEMS universal features of langs, impossible exhaustive account, make use of factors such

as sex, age, generation, blood, marriage – readily ascertainable, certain terms recur to mark different relationships-collect the various K terms in use and attempt to determine the basic components of

each term: BURLING-Najamal(Australian aborigines), HUDSON: Seminole Indians. As social conditions change, we can expect K systems to change to reflect the new conditions, new longer phrasal terms

indicate the current lack of importance given to certain K relationshipsTAXONOMIES FOLK TAXONOMY a way of classifying a certain part of reality so that it makes some kind of

sense to those who have to deal with it (FRAKE's Suzann of Mindanao: hierarchy of terms, BURLING: pronoun system in Palung) To organize data in ways that appear to indicate how speakers use their

langs to organize the world around them, develops with little or no conscious attentionCOLOUR TERMINOLOGY BERLIN&KAY, all langs make use of basic colour terms order in the development

of terms: 1. black&white 2.red 3.yellow&green 4.blue&brown +grey, pink, orange, purple, consistent & uniform ideas about typical colours(Difficult to identify precise borders on spectrum), communities

with little technological development employ the fewest colour terms, PROTOTYPE THEORY ROSCH concepts are best views as prototypes, individuals have ideas of typical

instances of colors+other things & these ideas are similar among various cultures HUDSON easier account of how people learn to use lang, prototype-based concept can be learnt on the basis of a

very small number of instances X feature-based definition would be much harder to learn, need vases+non-cases, Offers a possible way of looking at how concepts may be formed-at the cognitive

dimensions of linguistic behaviour + at how we achieve our social competence in the use of langTABOO certain things are not said not because they can´t be but because people don´t talk about

them or in roundabout ways, society expresses its disapproval of certain kinds of behaviour (harmful) either for supernatural reasons or because such behaviour is held to violate moral code, linguistic Ts

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violated to draw attention to oneself, to show contempt, to be aggressive, provocative, to muck authority, or Freud: as a form of verbal seduction, HAAS: certain lang Ts arise from bilingual situations

NADEL Nupe of West Africa, distinguishing sharply between expressions suitable for polite conversation and not EUPHEMISM to avoid mentioning certain matters directly

ETHNOGRAPHY & ETHNOMETHODOLOGY

each group has its own norms of linguistic behaviour, important fce of communication is social maintenance

MARSHALL: Kung-speech helps to maintain peaceful social relationships by allowing people to keep in touch with one another about how they are thinking & feeling X Basso: Western Apache view of

silence-be silent when there is strong possibility of uncertainty, ambiguity. Silence is often communicative, uses must be learned-respect, comfort, support, disagreement GARDNER: Puliyanese

of S India not find much to talk about, The Aritama of Colombia: taciturn, evasive when speaking, Danes appreciate silence, FOX: Roti talk for sheer pleasure of talking,

HYMES: SPEAKING-TALK IS COMPLEX ACTIVITY, need of framework to help us make systematic٭observations and comments concerning what we find about the different ways people use talk

ETHNOGRAPHY description of all the factors that are relevant in understanding how that particular communicative event achieves its objectives

Setting&Scene: time&place, abstract psychological setting, or the cultural definition of the occasion Participants: speaker-listener, addressor-addressee, sender-receiver

Ends: conventionally recognized and expected outcomes of an exchange as well as the personal goals that participants seek to accomplish on particular occasions

Act sequence: The actual form and content of what is said, precise words used, how they are used, relationship of what is said to the actual topic at hand

Key: tone, manner, spirit in which a particular message is conveyed, can be marked nonverbally by behaviour, gestures, posture, deportment

Instrumentalities: the choice of channel, actual forms of speech employed, may be different in the course of a single verbal exchange

Norms of interaction &interpretation: specific behaviours and properties that attach to speaking & how these may be viewed by someone who does not share them

Genre: clearly demarcated types of utteranceethnographic studies: SHERZER (Kuna of Panama), HILL&HILL (Malinche of Central Mexico), LINDENFELD (lang of marketplaces) ,attempt to describe the different fces of lang in communications JAKOBSON, ROBINSON: avoidance ٭

conformity o norms, aesthetics, encounter regulation, performative, regulation, affective, marking of emitter, role relationship marking, referential, instruction, inquiry, metalanguage HALLIDAY: fces:

instrumental(satisfying some material need), regulatory (regulating the behaviour of people), interactional (maintaining social relationships), personal (expressing personality),

heuristic(investigating the environment), imaginative(playing&creating), representational(expressing propositions)

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COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE ability to use lang in order to do certain things that people do with that lang (learned when learning lang)

to specify what it means to be a competent speaker of a particular langETHNOMETHODOLOGY concerned with talk viewed as a phenomenon in its own right- sustains reality

and is itself part of it, categories and systems used in making sense of the world, processes and techniques used to interpret the world and to interact with it

MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIZATION DEVICES allow us to assign certain meanings to wordsPHENOMENOLOGICAL VIEW OF THE WORLD the world is st that people must constantly keep creating and

sustaining for themselves-lang significant roleCOMMONSENSE KNOWLEDGE understandings, recipes, maxims, definitions we employ in daily living as we

go about doing things, acquired through experiencePRACTICAL REASONING the way in which people make use of their commonsense knowledge & how they

employ that knowledge in their conduct of everyday life (SCRIBNER)GARFINKEL how we conduct our everyday existence in ways that clearly demonstrate how we do not question certain kinds of

assumptionsunderstanding depends on the willingness of each party to work with the other to develop a

common scheme of interpretation for what is being talked about, conversation proceeds on the assumptions that certain vagueness is normal, does not require precision

SOLIDARITY & POLITENESS

CONTENT & FORM are inseparable, certain linguistic choices indicate a social relationship that the speaker perceive to exist between him and the listener

T/V FORM T-familiar, intimacy, solidarity V-polite I(tu/Lei) Swedish(du/ni), Greek(esi/esis) G:T ascribed solidarity of family relationships, recent move back toward more conservative F:T acquired

solidarity developing out of some sort of shared fate, may predict certain opinions by listening to T/V usage I:T family solidarity, camaraderie, age only factor to bring about non-reciprocal usage, expect

the same form they use; 1party must initiate the use of T-has the better power-based claim, the richer, older, employer, female, impossible to go back to T/V or V/V

T/V usage-power no longer as important shift to solidarityEnglish:no active T/V distinction (archaic, in fixed formulas-prayers, plays) T-solidarity

Address Terms

by title, first name, last name, nickname, combination, nothing

Nuer, Sudanese people-personal/birth name + second personal name from maternal grandparents+ clan name(formality)+ ox names

BROWN AND FORD´s study of naming practices in England-analyses of modern plays, observed in a business in Boston, reported usage of business executives and children in mid-western US &

Yoredale, England: TLN inequality, unfamiliarity, FN equality, familiarity switch from TLN to FN initiated by more powerful scale:T(devoid of personal content, least intimate, TLN, FN(presuming

intimacy you do not recognize, asserting some power over you), nickname/pet name

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Pidgin and creole languages - CH3

non reciprocal FN: heavily marked for power(whites X blacks); solidarity X familiarity – possible dangers in cross-cultural communication (NA: FN not necessarily friendship or respect, can refer to

public figures), one person may have a variety of address termsIn English possibility of avoidance, greetings may also indicate non/familiar address terms

VIETNAMESE: kinship terms for addressing, generation & age oriented with terms both for paternal and maternal sides

SOCIAL FACTORS(govern choice): occasion, status, sex, age, family relationship, occupational hierarchy, race, degree of intimacy

in hierarchical structure, those at the bottom seek to minimize the difference in status, those at the top try to maximize it

SOCIAL CHANGES → changes in lang of a complex system of address termsPERSON´S STATUS derives from achievements-few distinctions in address (may use only one basic term),

other means X ascribed status-sets if finely graded address termsPOLITENESS AWARENESS OF SOCIAL CUSTOMS-shown through the general politeness-socially prescribed

(rules of P)JAVANESE, lang of Indonesia-high, middle, low speech style-3 distinct variants for many words, highest

style: old aristocrats, highest levels of society, middle style: town-dwellers not close friends, peasants addressing superiors, low level: children, everyone

longer utterances considered more polite (1initating mitigating component or absence, 2central request or order component,3 final component or absence) 0-2-0 power-loaded, impolite long1-2-3

overdone, superior to inferior-sarcastic

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