Contextual Components: Outline of an Ethnography of Communication

1. Contextual Components: Outline of an Ethnography of Communication Chapter 4

2. Language in Context • Context = cultural and social situation • How does context affect language? • Malinowski (1884-1942) • Translation requires knowledge of context • Context can shift meanings • Indirection • Saving Face.

3. Communicative Competence • Ability to speak a language “well” • Ability to use your language “correctly” • In a variety of social situations • Compare with Linguistic Competence • Ability to produce (and recognize) grammatically correct expressions • Chomsky’s “ideal speaker” • Not distracted by environment.

4. Some Environmental “Distractions” • When ‘bad’ means ‘good’ • When is not appropriate to respond honestly • Different words/expressions among cultures/subcultures • Greetings and address terms • ‘Hello’ / ‘Hi’ / ‘Sup!’ • Usted vs. tu, vosotros/vois • How do you learn these “rules?” • Ethnography of Speaking….

5. Ethnography of Speaking Developed in 1960s by Dell Hymes • Focus on language in total cultural context • How people use language in real situations • Communicative competence • The importance of fieldwork • What are the rules for speaking? • For not speaking? • How do children learn the rules?.

6. Ethnography of SPEAKING • Setting/Situation/Scene • Where? • Participants • Who are the speakers? • Who can speak? • Who should speak? • Ends: • What are the goals? • Bargaining • Asking for (and giving) directions • Report-talk vs rapport-talk.

7. Ethnography of SPEAKING • Act Sequence • Exactly what gets said? • Speech Acts • Promises, commands, apologies • Speech Events • Exchanging greetings, telling jokes, giving speeches • Status and type or order of greetings • Speech Situations • Classrooms, conferences, parties, ceremonies • Key • Tone of voice, manner of delivery • Mourning, joking, irony, teasing.

8. Ethnography of SPEAKING • Instrumentalities • Languages & dialects • Mutual intelligibility • Politics and attitudes: languages and their speakers • Ideas about “Standard” and “Non-standard” • Cousin Joe and the performance of identity thru dialect • ‘warsh’ ‘fouath flouah’ ‘pahking the cah’ • “A language is a dialect with an army and navy.”

9. Ethnography of SPEAKING • Norms • Expectations • Speaking vs silence • Directness vs indirectness • Lying vs politeness • Taking turns and interrupting • Taboos and avoidances • Genres • Kinds of speech acts or events • Lectures, Poetry Readings, Joking, Gossip.

10. Speech Communities Linguistic Communities • A speech community is • A group of people who share • One or more varieties of language • And the rules for using them in interaction • A linguistic community is • A group of people who share • A single language variety • And who identify with that language variety • A community of practice is ???.

11. Language Across Cultures • Different communities = different rules • Easy for misunderstandings to occur • Rich Points • Moments of misunderstanding • Corn pudding • Interviewing for a job • Asking for a ride • Signal differences in rules • Ways to say ‘no’ • Ways to take turns • Indirectness.

12. Communicative Interactions Chapter 5

13. Structural Properties of Conversation • Speakers have options of ways to express themselves. • Conversational interaction • Turn-taking • Influence of context • Sensitive to status of participants • Turn-constructional units • Adjacency pairs • Tag questions • Turn-entry devices

14. Active Listening • Eye-contact • Paraphrasing • Acknowledgement • Using I vs. You messages • Function? • Politeness

15. Cross Cultural Repairs • Michael Agar’s ‘MAR’ • Recognize/acknowledge ‘Mistake’ in using rules • Develop Awareness of different rules • Ethnography of Communication as a method • Repair understanding of rules • Finding appropriate ways to say ‘no’ • Learning to take turns without ‘interrupting’ • ‘Hearing’ and responding to a request for a ride.