1. Linguistic Anthropology Language and Culture

2. Language in Action Beyond language to speech – – Language in context… – – Ethnography of Communication… – – Communicating across cultures….

3. 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 – – Recognizing indirection: Asking for a ride Saying “no.”

4. 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.

5. Some Environmental “Distractions” When ‘bad’ means ‘good’ When two positives make a negative Greetings and address terms – – Ty and vy, du and Sie – – ‘Hello’ / ‘Hi’ / ‘Sup!’ How do you learn these “rules?” – – Ethnography of Speaking….

6. 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… – – S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G… – – Speech communities… The importance of fieldwork – – What are the rules for speaking? – – For not speaking? – – How do children learn the rules?.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. Ethnography of SPEAKING Instrumentalities – – Languages & dialects Mutual intelligibility Politics and attitudes: languages and their speakers – – Ideas about “Standard” and “Non-standard”   ‘warsh’ ‘fouath flouah’ ‘pahking the cah’   “A language is a dialect with an army and navy.” – – Registers Situation-specific – – Prestigious, formal, scientific, academic, colloquial Politics and attitudes about registers and their use

10. 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.

11. 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 ???.

12. Rules in Speech/Linguistic Communities Are a part of the community’s culture Are different in different communities Can be learned/studied in the field.

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

14. Cross Cultural Repairs Michael Agar’s ‘MAR’ – – Recognize/acknowledge ‘Mistake’ in using rules Can also think of ‘Mistake’ as ‘Miscue’ – – 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.

15. Creating a Language: Difference in Action Identify some different linguistic situations – – formal/informal, teasing/serious Or identify a ‘difference’ in identity – – male/female, Senior/Junior, major/non-major choose a way for your language to index (mark, indicate, signal) these differences – – degrees of loudness? – – Specific words only used by one group? – – Specific words only used in certain situations?

16. Creating a Language: Politeness create a greeting create a farewell taboo one of the words in your lexicon – – why did you taboo this word? create a euphemism for it – – why did you choose this euphemism?.