ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION

1. ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION As a domain of inquiry, linguistic anthropology starts from the theoretical assumption that words matter and from the empirical finding that linguistic signs as representations of the world and connections to the world are never neutral… (Duranti, 192002: 5).

2. Quantitative methods Urban environments Developed in the 1950’s and 60’s Connected to sociology Qualitative methods Small scale societies Subfield of Anthropology Developed by Frank Boas (early 1900’s) Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology

3. Influenced by Ethnography of Communication • Dell Hymes (1960’s and 1970’s) • Linguistics in the widest possible way: folklore, international linguistics, cognitive anthropology, sociology, etc

4. Ethnography of communication: The study of communication in its widest cultural and social context, including rules of language, norms of appropriate language use in particular settings, and evaluations given by members of a culture to various speech styles

5. Concern with: • Segmentation of a speech communities: class, gender, race, age, and ethnicity • Alternative means utilised by speakers to obtain goals • The roles of speakers as social actors; • The function of speaking as a social activity

6. Speech event and Context • “Would you be so kind as to pass me the salt? • “Gimme the salt!

7. Communicative rules: • Exist in all cultures • Define acceptable behavior • Give directives • shape behaviour and help in evaluating others • May change from context to context • Cultural specific

8. The most important aspects of a communicative interaction are: • Settings • Participants • topics • Goals • They are interconnected • Two types of communicative interactions: formal and informal

9. Formal: University Class • Setting: a fixed arranged local, A university classroom • Participants: are defined:students and teachers • Topics; fixed: math, history, anthropology, etc • Goals: to teach and learn, etc.

10. Setting: • Arena for action • Define events • Culturally defined formalities

11. Universal Aspects of Formality (Irvine, 1979) • Increased structuring: rules of etiquette • Consistency of co-occurrence choices: stylistic choices • Emphasis on positional identities of participants: play of multiple roles or identities • Emergence of a central situational focus: constrains on choice of topic

12. Participants • Speakers, addressees, and audiences • Choice of speakers: --pronunciation --prosodic features --syntax --choice of words --nonverbal cues

13. Terms of address • FN, • Title + Last name (TLN) • Reciprocal FN and TLN • Non-reciprocal: FN-TLN and TLN-FN • Pronouns: T and V from the French Tu and Vous • Honorifics: markers that signal respect

14. Nahuatl degrees of respect • I. intimacy and subordination: prefixes between intimates of similar age and status to signify closeness • II. Neutrality and distance; prefixes employ among strangers • III Honour: to address older woman and men • IV Restricted to people who are in a compadrazgo relationship

15. TOPICS and GOALS TOPICS • Preference of co-participants • Disapproval of violations of rules GOALS • Individual and collective • Expressed in a variety of forms • Formal or informal language

16. SUMMARY • Sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology • Dell Hymes: Ethnography of Communication • Language and context • Alternative linguistic means to achieve goals • Language functions