exzerpt_duranti_linguistc anthropolgy chapter 1 3 4.odt

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Excerpt DURANTI: Linguistic Anthropology. Chapter 1

Linguistic Anthropology own field,

was part of classical four field approach 1. human biology 2. linguistic 3. culture 4. archiological

1.1

Underlying veiw on langauge:

languge = cultural practice

a form of action that presupposes and establish ways of being in the world

Hymes on Linguistic Anthropology:

„the study of speech and language within the the context of anthropolgy“

Field:Study of langauge as a cultural resource and speaking as a cultural practice

language is cultural practice that is > interpsychological

> intrapsychological

View speakers = are scocial actors

Distinguishing lingA. from other languge studies, just as dialectologists and sociolinguists:

examines language through the lenses of anthropological concern

language a set of symbolic recourses that enter the constitution of the social fabric

ie. Legitimation of power, cultural construction of person, etc

1.2

Fundaemntal theoratical assumptions

> words matter

> lingusitc representation of world never neutral

Language not merly reflective tool but way to enter in an interactional space

Resumen: What is unique about linguistic anthropology lies somewhere else, namely, in

its interest in speakers as social actors, in language as both a resource for and a

product of social interaction, in speech communities as simultaneously real and

imaginary entities whose boundaries are constantly being reshaped and negoti-

ated through myriad acts of speaking



1.3.

Contributions from other authors and field

>Bourdieu: importance of socialization: culture as system mad up of beliefes and rules

>Giddens: regionlization... zoning of time and space in relation to social practices

>Foucult: discourse and space.....the relationship language context, powersituatios

1.31.

Sociolinguistic and lingA very similar: Hymes tried to merge in languge use

Social Linguistic topic: Language change and Language choice, from formal view

LingA topic: Speaker as Member of a speaking community.

LingA three theoratical concerns:

1. Performance

> Chomsky: distiction competence and performance

competence: knowledge an ideal speaker has

perormance: implementation of kn in speech acts

(use of linguistic system)

> Austin:... performative verbs, you always do something (doing things with words)

>folklore studies (Baumann, Briggs):...poetic function of speach

speaching is putting something on stage

in focus: asthetic aspects, being evaluated, creativity

2. Indexicality

> Kants distinction: arbitraray and natural sign

(letter) (smoke → fire)

Charles Pierce Indexes → indexicallty (this, that, there, now)

also code switching used as an index

degree of deixis

> Sliverstein: maximally creative/ performative: du / sie, you

> Gumperz: contextualization cues

3. Participation

speaking part of larger activities; speech acts inside speech communities

the social collective quality of speaking



Chapter 3

Language diversity Tardition

• Sociolinguistics choose opposite route to Chomskies (underlyig homogenity)

•

Sociolinguistic study of linguistic variation in relation to context

• Linguistic Anthropolgy: „linguistic relatictiy hypotheisi“ (connection language thought)

• language ideology

3.1.

Boas insisted on theoractial need to know langauge of obserevd ethnicity

Boas : If ethnology is understood as the science dealing withthe mental phenomena of the life of t he peoples of the world,human language, one of the most important manifestations of mental life,

would seem to belong naturally to the field of work of ethnology.

A.L. Kroeber

In short, culture can probably function only on the basis of

abstractions, and these in turn seem to be possible only through

speech,

lingusitcis sytsmen is a guide to cultural system, Boas legacy: publishing tradtional text

Boas cultural realism, 5 independet Eskimo words of snow

3.2 linguistic relativity

> Sapir: each langauge has its own inner logic. Also view: individual vs. Society

>Whorf: relationship langauge and worldfiew... language structures metaphysiks

no time stream in Hopi language

linguistic relativity principle:

The worlds inwhich different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely thesame world with different labelsattached . Sapir

whorf exampel: The empty exploting barrel

Langauge as objectiving:

Humbodld---> Kants cognitive categories → langauge categories

downside (might be universal) (specific)+

Cassires escaping the prison of language = art



3.2.3. Lanaguage as guide to the world: Metaphors

providing conceptual shemata, Lakoff Johnson... ie theory as buidling

Language and science:

When language is like glasses on our noses, how can we describe in langauge, how others percieve

the world through language?

• Being an artist

• looking deeper, on what is underneath... Freud

• Silverstein solution: metapragmatics

Always in tension between Subjectivism and Objectivism

every school built theories leaning more to one side context important common rules behind

Linguistic A. Formal Linguists

3.3

language =/= a langauge, sociolinguistics prefer term: varitiy

3.4 Linguistic repertoire

“the totality of linguistic forms regularly employed in the course of socially significant interaction.”

concept Gumperz:

questions:

• variation (what are the variations)• meaning (what does it mean to change the contex)

• social and cultural organization (the context)

3. 5 Speech communities

Chomsky I-language vs. E-language

internal external

pure

sociolinguistic and LingA critic: no pure speach communities just mixture

(Against Chomsky) Bakhtin: lingusitic homogenity is a n ilusion,

sprung from the ideology of national states

but allways a heteroglossia

centripedal forcel impossing „oficial“ langauage

centrifugal forces changing language on periphery of social system



defining speach communities

• Chomsky: access ideal form

• Labov: participation in a set of shard forms/ and same evaluation of linguistic patterns

ie: (kärntnarish is schen)

• Dorian: speech community is made up of people who regard as speaking the same language

• Duranti: the product of the communicative activities engagen in by a given group

• Rossi-Landi: speech community as market

the circulation og linguistic signs, like goods with valous

Conclusion:

Chapter 4: Ethnographic methods:



emphasize on the logic of research habits and procedures

Commonly used:

Participant-observation,

work with native speaker

elicitation techniques

4.1. Ethnography

Goal: study linguistic forms as constitutive elements of social life

V V V V

methods have to connect linguistic forms with particular cultural practice

→ therefore must integrate ethnography

4.1.

Ethnography is the written description of the social organization, social activities, symbolic and material

resources,and interpretive practices characteristic of a particular group of people

needs: 1. a step back → objective view Geertz: experience-distant concepts

2. empathy → emic view experience near

Therefore best ethnography:

a style in which the researcher establishes a dialogue between different viewpoints and voices, including

those of the people studied, of the ethnographer

But in analogical anthropology --- therefore → dialogical anthropology

(voice of studied not graspable) (transcripts)

4.1.1.1.

ethnographic work always influenced by theoretical background

interest in diversity

I interest in similarity

difference to other human science → as close as possible to the cultural experience

participant-observation → ethnography is experience process

General interest of ethnography the constitution of society and culture



(1) how is social order constituted

(what makes this group of people a functioning unit)

(2) how do individuals make sense of their way of living,

how do they explain (to themselves first) why they live the way they do and differently from others

Doing so they have to respect analytical, methodological, as well as ethical standards

• maximum contact

• use vernacular language

• not relying on only one consultant

• statements not to be taken as objective facts …... Firth

4.1.2 Ethnographers as cultural mediators between two transitions

always adopting to

I realize his vision of his world......... MalinowskiV

to fit in their lives

just as they fit in our study

There is always the surrounding context of a far bigger dialog

researcher culture and researched culture

4.1.3. How comprehensive

One person cannot cover all aspects of a culture

focusing on one field and relying on others for the rest

4.2 Two kinds of field linguistics

linguists in field vs. anthropological linguist in field

linguists in the field: focus language

access to all kind of speaker

training language consultants for intuition judgment tests

Interest of linguistic Anthropologist



general theme: is the different ways in which language as an abstract system of classification

and as a mode of social interaction provides the material out of which a group of people

recognize themselves as community

4.3 Participant-observation:

passive participation

complete participation

but mostly bystander and overhearer

4.4 Interviews

not with experts but with speaker

each community has its own conceptualizations about interview

understand the local ecology of questioning, (who is allowed to ask what)

variation in performance no to to mix up with variation of participation

s peaking differently because of himself s peaking differently because of interview context

4.5. Using local local language



not creating a gap in the communicative matrix … Gumperz

not ignoring any code they use but focus on the monolingual speaker of a group

4.6. Writing down conversations

any process of documentation is, by definition, partial, that is, it assumes a point of view and it is

selective I I I I I I I I

v v v v v v v but we can work with it because..

An analysis is, after all, a selec-tive process of representation of a given phenomenon with the aim

of highlightingsome of its properties

in best case it focuses

camera--> camera behaviour as part of the particpant-observer paradox,

not avoid it nut deal with it

4.8 Goals and ethics of fieldwork

Harvey: it is not always easy to inform the consultants about the goal of your work

Awareness of possible consequences of making research puplically

exzerpt_duranti_linguistc anthropolgy chapter 1 3 4.odt

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