Week 6 and 7 slides

1
Week 6 and 7 slides
2
Dialect, Register and Style
3
Language vs. Dialect

• A language is a dialect with an army and a
  navy.
• Usually language refers to the DOMINANT
  dialect, which is perceived as closest to the
  STANDARD form used in writing.

4
Dialect

• A dialect is a regionally or socially distinctive
  variety of a language, identified by a particular
  set of words (vocabulary) and grammatical
  structures, as well as a certain phonology.
• To avoid the stigma of dialect, most linguists
  use the word variety instead

5
Prestige and Stigma

• A prestige variety is a dialect associated with
  mainstream social prestige for example a
  dialect that sounds educated or sophisticated
• A stigmatized variety is a dialect associated
  with negative features, from a mainstream social
  perspective e.g. uneducated lower class

6
Negative prestige

• A negative prestige variety is one that is
  associated with negative social value, but also
  carries a lot of prestige in certain social
  groups.
• Example Male speakers of certain regional
  dialects (North End Boston) are often considered
  extra-masculine within their social group

7
Language Attitudes

• Language attitudes are attitudes about language.
  
• Examples include beautiful, ignorant, lazy,
  logical, clear, melodious, primitive, precise,
  passive, forceful etc.
• What are some of the stereotypes we relate to
  different dialects in the US?

8
(No Transcript)
9
American Tongues

• Think about this quote from two leading
  sociolinguists
• Although public discrimination on the grounds of
  race, religion and social class is not now
  acceptable, it appears that discrimination on
  linguistic grounds is publicly acceptable, even
  though linguistic differences may themselves be
  associated with ethnic, religious and class
  differences.
• quote from L. Milroy and J. Milroys Authority in
  Language

10
Do we all speak one language?

• One language ? One culture
• Obvious examples from American Tongues
• What cultural differences did people focus on
  when also describing regional or socio-economic
  differences in language?

11
Language and cultural differences

• communicative practices are habitual language
  practices groups of people use to communicate
  with each other and to create and maintain
  distinct groups/identities
• Example use of rising intonation in Southern
  dialects of English.
• http//classweb.gmu.edu/accent/english45.html

12
Speech Community

• A speech community is a group of people who share
  a set of rules and norms for communication and
  interpretation of speech.
• Rules and norms includes everything from
  intonation and vocabulary, to body positioning
  and eye contact

13
Our word

• The overwhelming winner was
• TIPPIN with 41 votes
• tippin means so-so or on the fence
• naked, mug and sexile all had about 18 votes

14
Do we all speak one language?

• One language ? One culture
• Obvious examples from American Tongues
• What cultural differences did people focus on
  when also describing regional or socio-economic
  differences in language?

15
American Tongues

• Are dialect and worldview connected?
• Examples of prestige, stigmatized and negative
  prestige dialects?

16
Language and cultural differences

• communicative practices are habitual language
  practices groups of people use to communicate
  with each other and to create and maintain
  distinct groups/identities
• Example use of rising intonation in Southern
  dialects of English.
• http//classweb.gmu.edu/accent/english45.html

17
Language is not homogenous!

• Language isnt now and never was homogenous, that
  is, the same across all speakers, regions or
  situations.
• In fact, variation across speakers or groups of
  speakers is part of the reason why language
  change occurs

18
Register

• register is a term that describes how language
  varies across situations
• Ottenheimer varieties of a language that are
  considered appropriate to specific situations
  formal informal babytalk
• Agar examples Scuba divers, junkies

19
Ways of Speaking

• Registers can be described as ways of speaking
• The way you speak to an older person
• a baby
• when you are
  joking

20
Register features

• Registers exist WITHIN dialects.
• However, registers usually involve variations in
  vocabulary, pitch, pacing, and sometimes
  phonology and intonation.
• e.g. most formal registers in English have less
  pitch variation than informal ones, plus a
  distinct vocabulary, and pacing that may be
  slower or faster than casual ones

21
Speech Communities
22
Speech Community

• A speech community is a group of people who share
  a set of rules and norms for communication and
  interpretation of speech.
• Rules and norms includes everything from
  intonation and vocabulary, to body positioning
  and eye contact
• Ottenheimer pg. 94 A speech community is a
  group of people who share one or more varieties
  of language and the rules for using those
  varieties in everyday communication.

23

• The idea of a speech community allows us to do
  two things
• 1) Focus on a smaller social unit than all the
  speakers of a language.
• 2) Get away from the idea that one language
  one culture
• Can we belong to more than one speech community?

24
Competence

• Communicative competence refers to what we know
  when we really know a language. It means that we
  can recognize and use a broad range of registers,
  and that we know the meanings of different
  communicative practices used by most people in a
  given speech community.

25
Ethnography of Speaking

• The ethnography of speaking focuses on describing
  features of different speech communities
• includes descriptions of explicit norms for
  communication
• details verbal, nonverbal and social expectations
  surrounding interaction
• focuses on particular contexts and types of
  speech events, and how language changes in
  different situations

26

• Members of a speech community SHARE ideas about
  appropriate conduct in different speech
  situations
• When two people come from different speech
  communities and dont share ideas about
  appropriate conduct, miscommunication often
  occurs.

27
Miscommunication

• miscommunication - a misinterpretation of
  intended meaning failure to achieve
  communication
• Miscommunication occurs all the time within
  speech communities, but across speech communities
  miscommunication often occurs at regular points
  where rules and norms are different in the two
  communities

28
Bailey article

• Example of ethnography of communication
• About miscommunication across ethnic lines

29
Politeness strategies

• involvement strategy express approval and
  emphasizes solidarity (African-American)
• restraint strategy emphasizes unwillingness to
  impose on others (Korean)

30
Social Consequences of Miscommunication

• Each side engages in inappropriate behavior by
  the standards of the other
• The service encounter breaks down
• Cultural stereotypes and animosity are reinforced

31
Norms and expectations

• Koreans business encounter should not be
  personal should focus on business and involve
  minimum of speaking
• African American business encounter should be a
  social encounter that emphasizes a relationship
  between interactants

32

• According to the information Bailey gives, do
  Koreans and African Americans in LA belong to
  different speech communities?
• Understanding how norms for communication differ
  across communities can help ease
  tensions/stereotypes

33
Pragmatics
34

• Pragmatics studies language from the point of
  view of speakers, esp. the constraints they
  encounter in using language in social
  interaction.
• Pragmatic constraints control complex linguistic
  choices such as register and dialect switching,
  vocabulary choice, intonation, and so forth.

35
Example Communicating Focus

• How many different ways can you say
• I dont want to go.
• Ty bachyla zelenu tashku?
• you saw green bag

English communicates focus through volume/stress
Ukrainian communicates focus through intonation
and word order
36
What do pragmatic cues do?

• Orient us to context (what is going on?)
• Orient us to appropriate behavior
• For example register, loudness, topics,
  turn-taking rules
• Orient us to the attitude and intentions of the
  other person
• What happens when two people dont share the same
  set of pragmatic cues?

37
More miscommunication

• At a British airport, South Asian cafeteria
  servers would say to customers Gravy. to ask
  whether a person wanted gravy.
• Why did this result in miscommunication?

38
Some examples of pragmatic cues

• Gaze where you are looking
• Speed of speech
• proxemics/kinesics
• tone of voice

39
Pragmatic cues communicate

• intention
• e.g. respect, disrespect, sarcasm
• whether we want to include or exclude someone
  from the group/conversation
• our social roles and where we stand with one
  another

40
Example of pragmatic miscue

• An American professor says Hi, how ya doing? to
  a foreign visitor to the university.
• The foreign visitor starts to talk about his
  problems, but the American just keeps walking.

41
Next up

• How do pragmatic cues allow us to coordinate our
  understandings of what is going on so that we can
  communicate effectively?

42
Doing Things with Words
43
Language as Social Action

• What kinds of things can we do with words that
  have real social consequences in the world?
• Examples
• labeling/name-calling
• spreading rumors

44
Study of British Tabloids

• Kate Clark Suns reporting of sexual assaults.
• Blonde divorcee vs. Divorced mum of two
• Hubby kicks no-sex wife out of bed
• Sex-starved man strangled blonde, 16 Love ban
  by teenage wife.

45
Terms of Address

• Terms of address are ways of addressing (speaking
  to) someone
• Name, nickname
• Title, honorific or derogatory term
• Kinship term
• Terms of reference are ways of referring to
  (speaking about) someone

46
Naming in English

• Nickname
• First name
• Kin term (Grandma)
• Kin term plus first name (Aunt Thelma)
• First and last name, first last and middle name
• Last name
• Mr., Mrs., Ms, Miss first name
• Mr., Mrs., Ms, Miss last name
• Title plus first name (Judge Judy, Dr. Phil)
• Title plus last name (Dr. Brown)
• Title only (Doctor)

47
Reciprocal vs. Non-reciprocal

• Reciprocal you and the person you are talking
  to use the same format
• (First name First name)
• Non-reciprocal you give one kind of name and
  receive another kind of name
• Grandma Sally
• Doctor - Fred

48
Characterizing relationships

• Ottenheimer (pg. 108) points out that conventions
  for terms of address vary a great deal across
  cultures
• Reciprocal usage means
• closeness
• distance, respect
• students use first names doctors may call each
  other Dr. Smith and Dr. Brown
• Non-reciprocal usage means
• inequality in status
• You may say Prof. Brown and she calls you by
  your first name You may call your boss Mr. or
  Doctor and he may call you by your first name

49
Registers and names

• Situation has a lot to do with which name you
  choose for someone.
• In some registers, such as a legal register,
  certain kinds of names (nicknames, first name
  only) may not be used
• Switching name types can signal a change in the
  register you are using.

50
Terms of address characterize relationships

• Terms of address can actually make or break a
  relationship
• In many languages, there are different pronouns
  that can be used to address or refer to someone
  based on your relationship to them.

51
European languages T vs. V

• Most European languages have two forms of the
  second person singular pronoun (see Ottenheimer
  pp. 95-6)
• you (informal) and You (formal)
• Using the French forms tu and Vous this is called
  a T/V system

52
Choosing pronouns

• Because choosing between formal and informal
  pronouns is SOCIALLY, not GRAMMATICALLY
  motivated, it is a good example of LANGUAGE AS
  SOCIAL ACTION
• By choosing the T or V pronoun, you are choosing
  to represent your relationship to another person
  in a particular way

53
T-V, V-V, T-T

• T-V non-reciprocal. One person has higher
  status than the other. V is offered as a sign of
  respect T is offered as a sign of affection
• V-V formal reciprocal. Reflects distance and
  respect, equality
• T-T informal reciprocal. Reflects equality and
  closeness

54
Switching

• Lovers may use V-V in a professional context, but
  switch to T-T in private
• Parents and children might use T-T, but switch to
  V-V to signal a break in the relationship
• Schoolteachers might use T toward students until
  they reach high school, when they begin using V
  to them.

55
Language and social change

• English used to have both forms, You and Thee,
  but gradually eliminated Thee
• Russian aristocracy adopted the T/V system from
  French, and it trickled down
• In China, the used of the formal pronoun nin (a
  V form) has declined and instead the informal
  pronoun ni is used when addressing one person

56
Japanese I

• watakushi ordinary, formal
• watashi ordinary, female speaker
• atashi female speaker, informal
• boku male speaker, informal
• washi aged male speaker, informal
• chin emperor
• ore male speaker, casual, intimate
• atai young girls of lower class

57
A more complex case Thai

• http//www.into-asia.com/thai_language/pronouns/i.
  php

58
Speech acts
59
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words
will never hurt me

• BUT
• Philosophers of language John Austin and John
  Searle argued that many kinds of language are
  SOCIALLY AND CULTURALLY RECOGNIZED AS REAL
  ACTIONS

60
In other words

• The idea behind speech acts is that language
  allows us to accomplish goals.
• For example, we can state, assert, promise,
  persuade, argue, forbid, etc.
• These are kinds of speech acts that are
  recognized in our culture and have names in our
  language.

61
Bourdieu

• Bourdieu points out that AUTHORITY plays a big
  role in who can perform certain kinds of speech
  acts.
• I now pronounce you husband and wife
• Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth,
  and nothing but the truth? I do.
• I lay a curse on this house.

62
Language and social action

• Issues like Who has authority? or What does
  saying this mean? are CULTURAL.
• The kinds of things you can accomplish socially
  with words depends on the culture youre
  operating in, and your position in it.

63
Cultural Power of Words

• Ottenheimer (pp. 89-91) gives many examples of
  indirectness in communication
• Stalking with stories Basso article discusses
  storytelling as a means of indirect social
  critique
• In Bassos example, telling a mythological story
  can be a powerful social act in Western Apache
  culture

64
Basso article

• Metaphors stories are arrows land is like a
  relative that reminds us to live right
• How do stories shoot people like arrows?
• How does the land remind the Western Apache of
  who they are?

65
Western Apache stories

• Tied to the landscape so when you see a
  landscape feature, you are reminded of a myth
  that has a moral to it.
• These myths have contemporary meaning they
  remind people to live right
• Pointing out a landscape feature is a way of
  reminding a person of their social obligations
  and reprimanding them for not living right.

66
Main points

• In order to understand Western Apache culture,
  Basso had to learn about the landscape, place
  names, and the stories tied to them
• Language, in the form of stories, is used in this
  culture to perform specific social actions
  influencing the behavior of group members

67
Do we do this in English?

• How can you exert subtle social pressure on
  someone who is acting in a way that is not
  proper?
• Do we tell stories with moral evaluations in
  them? Are they tied to the landscape?
• Words as weapons Thuongjang (Dinka) saying The
  statement stabbed me English biting words
  cutting statement tongue lashing it was a slap
  in the face

68
Collusion
69
What is collusion?

• Collusion comes from the Latin word meaning to
  play together
• Outside of anthropology, it has a negative
  meaning similar to conspire
• Is collusion good or bad?

70
Collusion in conversation

• Conversation, like many other kinds of social
  situations, requires collaborative achievement of
  consensus about what is going on
• For smooth social interactions, the participants
  must be on the same page as to what kind of
  interaction is taking place and what the goals of
  the interaction are.

71
Agar example 164-168

• Miscommunication between Anglos and
  Athabaskans due to differences in expectations
• What were some differences that led to
  miscommunication?
• How power relationships are expressed differently
• Speaker turnover
• Exit strategies

72
Agar says

• The interpretation one has of the other isnt
  just that a problem occurred, that the talk isnt
  working right and its the others fault. The
  interpretations are that the other is deficient
  in some way, that he or she lacks the qualities
  that hold people inside the boundaries of normal
  behavior. pg. 167

73
S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G

• Otteheimer pp. 96-11
• Setting
• Participants
• Ends
• Acts
• Key
• Instrumentalities
• Norms
• Genres