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Ethnography of Communication / Speaking

Ethnography of Communication / Speaking. Mardziah Hayati Abdullah. Overview (1). Ethnomethodology Ethnography of communication/speaking Communicative / speech event Factors governing events Speech Acts Structure of conversations Conversational interchange Turn-taking. Overview (2).

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Ethnography of Communication / Speaking

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  1. Ethnography of Communication / Speaking Mardziah Hayati Abdullah MHA BBI3204

  2. Overview (1) • Ethnomethodology • Ethnography of communication/speaking • Communicative / speech event • Factors governing events • Speech Acts • Structure of conversations • Conversational interchange • Turn-taking MHA BBI3204

  3. Overview (2) • Politeness • Terms of address • Cooperation (Grice & Goffman) • Gricean maxims • Face (Grice & Goffman) MHA BBI3204

  4. Phenomenological view of the world The world is something people must constantly keep creating and sustaining for themselves. Language plays a very significant role in that creating and sustaining process. MHA BBI3204

  5. Ethnomethodology (1) Study of •  processes and techniques that people use to interpret the world around them and to interact with that world • categories and systems that people use in making sense of the world • construction of social world • production and interpretation of everyday action as skilled accomplishment MHA BBI3204

  6. Ethnomethodology (2) Focus on • everyday existence • practical reasoning / ‘commonsense’ or tacit knowledge MHA BBI3204

  7. Activity In the previous lesson, you discussed some utterances in terms of the contexts in which they might be used, the nature of the relationship between speaker and listener for each utterance, and the contexts in which they might be inappropriate. How did you know the answers? MHA BBI3204

  8. Ethnographic research (1) • Focused • In-depth • Descriptive MHA BBI3204

  9. Ethnographic research (2):Triangulation • Different sources of data • Human respondents • Events, settings • Documents, archives, etc. • Different forms of data • Interview data • Observation data • Reports, photographs, etc. • Field notes, etc. MHA BBI3204

  10. Ethnography of a communicative* / speech event (*Note: communicative event has a broader application.) MHA BBI3204

  11. Communicative event • Definition: An act of communication • Examples of communicative events MHA BBI3204

  12. Ethnography of a speech event A description of all the factors that are relevant in understanding how that particular speech event achieves its objectives MHA BBI3204

  13. Hymes’ ethnographic framework: Ethnography of Communication • Communication is more than linguistic knowledge; we must understand context • Seven (7) distinct factors – captured in an acronym: SPEAKING • Each associated with a different function but all closely related • Each event governed by socially recognised rules MHA BBI3204

  14. Hymes’ ethnographic framework • S – Setting and Scene • P – Participants (Speaker – Hearer) • E – Ends (Purposes, goals, outcomes) • A – Act sequence (Form & order of events) • K – Key (Tone, manner, spirit) • I – Instrumentalities (Form and style of speech) • N – Norms of interaction and interpretation • G – Genre MHA BBI3204

  15. Speech Acts (*Information taken from various texts, including the website of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition) MHA BBI3204

  16. Speech Act (1): Definition • An utterance that serves a function in communication. • May contain just one word ("Sorry!“) or several words or sentences: "I’m sorry I forgot your birthday.” • Include real-life interactions • Require knowledge of the language and appropriate use of that language within a given culture. MHA BBI3204

  17. Speech Act (2): Examples • Greeting:   "Hi, Eric. How are things going?" • Request:   "Could you pass me the mashed potatoes, please?" • Complaint:   "I’ve already been waiting three weeks for the computer, and I was told it would be delivered within a week." • Invitation:   "We’re having some people over Saturday evening and wanted to know if you’d like to join us." • Compliment:   "Hey, I really like your tie!" • Refusal:   "Oh, I’d love to see that movie with you but this Friday just isn’t going to work." MHA BBI3204

  18. Speech Act (3): Interpretation • L2 learners must know idiomatic expressions or cultural norms in the L2; they must recognize what is transferable to other languages. • Example of misinterpretation: • Sarah (native English speaker): "I couldn’t agree with you more. " • Cheng: "Hmmm…." (Thinking: She couldn’t agree with me? I thought she liked my idea!) MHA BBI3204

  19. Speech Act (4): : Levels Searle (1969) • Locutionary act: the performance of an utterance • Illocutionary act : expresses the speaker’s intent; has illocutionary force • Perlocutionary act : an illocution that causes listeners to do things its actual effect, such as persuading, convincing, scaring, inspiring, or otherwise getting someone to do or realise something MHA BBI3204

  20. Speech Act (5): Locutions and illocutionary force Speakers can use • different locutions to achieve the same illocutionary force: • Could you switch off the air-con please? • I’m freezing! • one locution to achieve different purposes: e.g., It’s cold in here, isn’t it? • A question (to verify) • A request (to switch off the air-con) • A conversation opener MHA BBI3204

  21. Speech Act (6): Performatives Austin (1975) • Performative utterance: saying and doing something, e.g., I do (while participating in a marriage ceremony); I name this ship Liberty Bell: I sentence you to 5 months’ jail. (Less explicit: I promise…, I apologise…, I warn you…) • Felicity conditions must be met for performatives to be successful: • A conventional procedure must exist. • All participants must execute the procedure properly to completion. • Necessary thoughts, feelings, intentions must be present in all parties. MHA BBI3204

  22. Activity Why might each of the following be said to fail as a performative? • I sentence you to five years of misery. • I congratulate you on your failure to win the Cup. • I order you to resume breathing. • (Small boy to dog): I order you to stop! MHA BBI3204

  23. Speech Act (7): Phatic speech Malinowski (1923) • Phatic communion / communication: a type of speech in which ties of union are created • Words may not have meaning; principal aim: to fulfill a social function • Nice day! • How do you do? MHA BBI3204

  24. The Structure of Conversations MHA BBI3204

  25. Conversational interchange • Examples: telephone call, service encounters, bargaining • Structured – has distinct parts • Rule-governed; rules and conventions vary across contexts (e.g., answering the telephone – see Wardhaugh, 2002, p. 299) • Turn-taking and interruptions MHA BBI3204

  26. Activity If you are involved in a conversation with two or more people involved, how do you know when to jump into the conversation? When is it appropriate to do so? How do speakers signal when they wish to speak? MHA BBI3204

  27. Politeness • Recognition of a person’s right in a situation • Terms of address: vary across cultures • Important principle used in conversation: adjacency pair – utterances that co-occur • greeting • question and answer • apology • compliment • complaint MHA BBI3204

  28. Cooperation, Maxims & Face in conversation (refer Wardhaugh, 1998, p. 286 – 291) MHA BBI3204

  29. Cooperation in conversation (1) • Over-riding principle in conversation is the cooperative principle (Grice, 1975): We act in conversation in accord with a general principle that speakers and listeners are engaged in an activity that is of benefit to all. MHA BBI3204

  30. Cooperation in conversation (2) Gricean maxims (rules) of conversation: • Quantity • Quality • Relation • Manner MHA BBI3204

  31. Cooperation in conversation (3) • Conversation depends on speakers and listeners sharing a set of assumptions about what is happening. • We make use of a common-sense knowledge and employ principles of practical reasoning; we cooperate to deal with the world in much the same way. MHA BBI3204

  32. Activity If you said each of the following ‘completely out of the blue’, what might happen and why? • Your husband/wife is still faithful. • The sun did rise this morning, • Your shoes are clean today. • Tomorrow’s Friday. MHA BBI3204

  33. Cooperation in Conversation (4): Face & Face-work • In conversation, speakers and listeners tend to accept each other for what they claim to be: they accept the face that the other offers. • Face-work (Goffman, 1955): the work of presenting faces to each other, protecting our own face and protecting the other’s face. ~ All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players. ~ (Shakespeare, As You Like It) MHA BBI3204

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