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Ch 9 - Words and Culture

Ch 9 - Words and Culture. Linguistic relativity = people who speak different languages perceive and think about the world differently (Sapir and Whorf)

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Ch 9 - Words and Culture

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  1. Ch 9 - Words and Culture • Linguistic relativity = people who speak different languages perceive and think about the world differently (Sapir and Whorf) • Linguistic determinism = humans are only able to think about objects, processes and conditions that have language associated with them --> the language we use determines how we see the world • This says that instead of language being affected by culture, culture is created by language (looks at certain grammatical functions in Native American languages rather than European languages) TEST: How many objects are here? How many different groups of objects are there? • Maybe this idea is too strong? What would happen to how we see the world as language changes?

  2. Ch 9 - Words and Culture • If there is this connection that we see the world through our language, then how does that affect the PC movement of trying to rid English of sexist, racist, etc-ist, language? Does using non-sexist language mean that the speaker is not sexist? • What about speaker identity expressed through language (style?)? Is this connected by a shift in our perception of ourselves in our own societies - is this what Bell was talking about in speaker initiated shifts? • Also, if language, culture and personal identity are all inter-related, then what are the impacts of standard and non-standard language use in education? (remember the Do You Speak American video of the school in Watts? Are there possible arguments against calling it African American language? What about the non-African American students?)

  3. Wardhaugh – Chapter 10 – Ethnographies • What are different cultures expectations of talk? !Kung example, Western Apache, etc. • What is required in your culture? Are there different rules in your family, circle of friends, etc, than in larger society? • What type of talk is required along gender lines in our culture? What are you SUPPOSED to talk about on a date? • Ethnography is a way of doing research that combines qualitative and quantitative data - usually in depth observations - more anthropological (Eckert used ethnographic approach in her Jocks and Burnouts case)

  4. Wardhaugh – Chapter 10 – Ethnographies • Ethnography of speaking (Hymes) - SPEAKING

  5. Wardhaugh – Chapter 10 – Ethnographies • Ethnography of speaking (Hymes) - SPEAKING

  6. Wardhaugh – Chapter 10 – Ethnographies • Communicative competence - Gumperz • “Whereas linguistic competence covers the speaker’s ability to produce grammatically correct sentences, communicative competence describes his[sic] ability to select, from the totality of grammatically correct expressions available to him[sic], forms which appropriately reflect the social norms governing behavior in specific encounters.” (p. 250 in Wardhaugh) Sociolinguistic Competence = the ability to interpret the social meaning surrounding the choice of linguistic forms (including variable forms in both stable and language change situations) and to use language to create the appropriate social meaning for the situation

  7. Stable social factors are aspects of individuals in society that can be ascribed to them (things that you are) SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE Dynamic social factors are aspects of our identity that we manipulate from setting to setting (things that you do) Production of ling forms/variation based on dynamic social factors (includes stylistic variation used to construct identity) Production of ling forms/variation based on stable social factors Perception/Evaluation of ling forms/variation with their social meaning (includes Percep/Eval of social factors affecting ling forms) Things I haven’t thought of yet . . . As shown below, this descriptive production aspect (blue) is only one aspect of my model of Sociolinguistic Competence

  8. Wardhaugh – Chapter 10 – Ethnographies • Ethnomethodology (also conversation analysis) - Garfinkel and Sacks • How members of society make sense of the world around them (through language) and the categories involved in this process • Jocks and Burnouts used to make sense of social realty and used ling variation to mark membership into these groups • Conversation analysis examines the structure on interaction through conversation - things like turn taking, adjacency pairs (question/answer) • What is going on during conversation in terms of interaction - what speakers are thinking in contrast to what they are saying

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