Language in the Wild Paper
fmosattat
language_in_the_wild_.pptxLANGUAGE IN THE WILD
1. Choose your example of language in use: what counts as a speech act/event?
2. Present/describe the speech act in context.
3. Analyze your speech act using course concepts.
Speech act/Speech event
Speech act: an utterance considered as an action, particularly with regard to its intention, purpose, or effect.
Speech event: a type of communicative event in which speech is the main component.
Examples of complex speech events: meeting, conference, summit, wedding, funerals, elections, party, primaries, exam, etc.
greeting or small talk are speech events with less complex structure.
For our purposes, think about a speech event as falling into some “genre” of talk and potentially involving multiple speakers or “turns at talk.”
Choose your example of language in use: what counts as a speech act/event?
A single utterance.
A section of dialogue (between two or more speakers).
An excerpt of a text (not preferred—important to think about context)
Presenting an utterance.
a spoken word, statement, or vocal sound.
the action of saying or expressing something aloud.
an uninterrupted chain of spoken or written language/ a continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a clear pause
As for me, I am sad only for
such a, such a demand, for one
who would claim something of
his own, who will say, “Well,
look, they took away my don-
key.” “Well how did they take
it away from you?” Well like
this and like this, one is sad in
his soul because they took it
[etc]
(Hill and Hill 1986: 86)
[with translation]
Neh, solamente nimo-
yolcocoa para ce, para ce
demanda, para ce crrecla-
maroz ce cosa ihuaxca,
quihtoz, ‘Pos xiquitta
onechcuilihqueh in noax-
noh.’ ’Pos ?quen
omitzcuilihqueh?’ Pos ih-
quin huan ihquin,
[etc.]
Presenting dialogue & translated speech.
[translated from Kuna]
CC: Yes you appear as always.
RC: Indeed.
CC: In truth.
You still appear.
In good health.
RC: Indeed
[five lines skipped]
CC: In truth evil spirits.
In truth I do not want.
I utter.
RC: Indeed.
CC: Powerful evil spirits, see.
Then I do not want them to enter.
RC: Indeed.
CC: In truth I am still in good health, say.
In truth still this way.
RC: Indeed
(Sherzer 1983: 75)
22 Mother: una uma na e ai?
Have you finished eating?
23 Son: ((nods))
24 Mother: alu ese la‘ia ma iga.
Then get away from here.
25 Son ‘o lea e sau avaku le mea lea.
I’ve come here to take this thing.
(Duranti 1994: 156)
What kinds of speech acts/events should you choose?
What kinds of speech acts/events should you choose?
A language socialization interaction (dyadic or otherwise).
A literacy event.
A statement that reflects or comments upon a speaker’s, hearer’s or third party’s identity/ies.
A statement of or about language policy, language rights or immigrant language.
Multilingualism/bilingualism: a section of dialogue (or a single utterance) in which more than one language is spoken, linguistic competence is negotiated, one or both speakers’ language competence is raised on or the qualities or value of one or more languages is commented on.
Statements that reflect on or exemplify a relationship between language and cognition (difficult).
How to describe the speech act/event.
Participant structures: who? What languages spoken or competencies possessed? What relationship between participants.
Social context: What kind of interaction or genre of talk is this (“friends talking,” “office hours,” “strangers on a bus making small talk about sports,” etc)?
What was said before (or after) that is required to make sense of this section of talk?
Think about context broadly: general speech environment or language ecology in which the act takes place (relevant features).
What do we know about what the actors are doing or trying to do in this interaction?
Step 3: Analysis
What concepts, categories or ideas about language from the course are relevant to this interaction?
Start out using course concepts or vocabulary to describe what’s going on in the interaction.
Think about what a given framework of analysis would lead us to expect.
E.g. if this is a language socialization event, and the participants are mainstream, middle-class white Americans, we would expect that this interaction is likely to take the form of a face-to-face, dyadic exchange, that there will be babytalk register used, that the caregiver will scaffold the child’s attempts to produce coherent speech, etc.
Is that what’s going on? Does the interaction conform to expectations? Why or why not?
For the first part of the assignment (due Nov. 2nd in class)
Give me a transcription of the speech event or utterance you’re using.
Tell me when, where, who—relevant features of context.
What do I need to know in order to understand what is being meant or done by the speaker(s)?
Keep in mind: what do we need to know in order to analyze this bit of talk in terms of one or more course concepts.
Research Ethics.
Get permission from all participants to use for a class.
If you record, ask permission first, and specify what the recording is for.
Can make agreement with the participants to delete recordings after transcribing, store them securely, and preserve anonymity.
In transcript and paper, use pseudonyms for all participants but yourself.
A: If I went to a
more segregated schoo:l?
not like racially segregated,
but just like, g:roup segregated?
and more shit was defined?
cause at some schools there’s like,
<inhaling from marijuana pipe.
<sing song> {the jo::cks}
you know,
the sports players
and then there’s the
n-
you know, like,
academics
and then there’s the
s::toners
and the
you know
there’s just like
<inhaling from the marijuana pipe>
but here it’s like
you can be a jock,
a s:toner,
an academic,
all at the same time.
M: Right
A: You know,
and so how do you label yourself
you know…
(Bucholtz, 2011: 48)
EXAMPLE
