Anthropology

ETHNOGRAPHY OF SPEAKING

• An “Ethnography of Speaking” describes “ways of speaking”, or how language is used in particular cultural contexts.

• Developed in 1960s by Dell Hymes, an anthropological linguist

• http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/fghij/hymes_dell.html

Components of knowing a language

• Grammatical/linguistic competence

• Grammar (syntax), phonology, morphology, lexicon, semantics

• Chomsky: this is the only focus of study

Communicative Competence

• The ability to use and interpret language appropriately is called Communicative Competence.

• This goes beyond knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, etc.

• This term, used by Hymes, is important in the field of Ethnography of Communication

Communicative Competence: an example

• There are many ways of asking people to do something, such as giving you a ride home. E.g. – “Pick me up in 5!” – “Could you give me a ride home tonight?”

• Both are grammatical, but not always appropriate!

• If you are communicatively competent, you know when to use which form.

How do you know what is appropriate?

• How do we know which ways of speaking are appropriate in which contexts? What factors might be relevant?

• Hymes’ “SPEAKING” model provides a framework for describing the relevant contextual factors.

Hymes’ “SPEAKING” Framework

• Setting

• Participants

• Ends

• Act sequence

• Key

• Instrumentalities

• Norms

• Genre – NOTE THAT “SPEAKING” IS AN ACRONYM

Setting: SPEAKING

• Setting/Situation/Scene – Where is the speaking taking place?

– Different settings have different “rules”: • Think about what different kinds of speaking might take

place in the different settings shown in these photos.

Participants: SPEAKING – Who are the speakers? What is

their relationship? – In all the images shown,

features of the participants (role, age, status, relationship, etc.) will affect the style of speaking which occurs.

Ends: SPEAKING

• Ends: – What are the goals of someone’s speech? A few

examples: • To impress other people

• To mark yourself as an insider

• To get someone to do something for you

• To get a better price (e.g. bargaining) or to make a sale

• To build a closer relationship with someone

– The goals of a speaker will affect his/her “way of speaking”.

Act Sequence: SPEAKING

– Exactly what gets said and in what order?

– In many speaking situations, there are regular patterns and sequences.

• Speech Acts – question/answer, apology/acknowledgement

• Speech Events – Exchanging greetings, telling jokes, giving speeches

Key: SPEAKING

• Key

– Tone of voice, manner of delivery

• Mourning, joking, irony, teasing.

Instrumentalities: SPEAKING

• What means of communication are used?

– What language(s)/ dialects are used?

– What register is used? (E.g. slang vs. formal language? Is the language legal, religious, academic, “textese”, etc.?)

– Is the language spoken or written?

– Is there communication via body language, gestures, hand signals, etc.?

Norms: SPEAKING

• Norms

– Expectations

• Speaking vs. silence (e.g. Western Apache, Classroom norms)

• Directness vs. indirectness (e.g. New Zealanders tend to be more indirect in their speech than Americans)

• Taking turns and interrupting, pause length (e.g. Ottenheimer)

• What topics are acceptable / unacceptable for discussion?

SPEAKING: Genres

– Genres are names given to ways of speaking, speech acts or events

– A few examples: lecture, group discussion, joke, gossip, prayer, small talk, fairy tale, sermon, debate, sales pitch, political speech

– Which genres are illustrated in the images?

An example: Kenyan tea auction

• Listen to (or read) the following NPR story about Kenyan tea auctions, and then try to fill out the ethnography grid on the next slide:

• “In Kenya, Tea Auction Steeped In Tradition, Gentility”; NPR September 16, 2009

• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112620157

Ethnography of Speaking Grid

Component Description

Setting

Participants

Ends

Act sequence

Key

Instrumentalities

Norms

Genre

Audio/text: In Kenya, Tea Auction Steeped In Tradition, Gentility; NPR September 16, 2009 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112620157

Summary

• This PowerPoint has introduced the Ethnography of Communication.

• The framework is used to describe and analyze the special features of how people communicate in different settings.

• It is interesting to think about the many “ways of speaking” used in different situations within a single culture or across different cultures.