Anthropology Midterm Part 8

Question 1

The way something is phrased may send information about…

Answer 1

status, class, gender, age, etc.

Question 2

Things beyond the words also convey information.

Answer 2

Things like silences, pauses, tone, intonation, repetition, body language, etc. So, the meaning of language is greatly influenced by the context in which it occurs.

Question 3

speech community

Answer 3

A speech community is a group of people who speak the same language, share norms about appropriate uses of language, and share social attitudes towards language and its use. In other words, people who belong to a speech community share not only a language, but also what to say in certain circumstances and how to say it.

Question 4

language conventions

Answer 4

the rules people must follow.

Question 5

linguistic competence

Answer 5

meaning that you know the grammar and have a large vocabulary, but you might not be communicatively competent.

Question 6

communicative competence

Answer 6

the ability to achieve communicative goals in a socially appropriate manner.

Question 7

ethnography

Answer 7

An ethnography is a description and analysis of a culture based upon fieldwork, or living with and like people as much as possible. The purpose is to “grasp the native’s point of view.”

Question 8

An ethnographic approach to the analysis of language stresses the fact that…

Answer 8

each culture, and beyond that each speech community, has specific rules of communication defining behaviors that should occur, that may occur, and that should not occur in given contexts

Question 9

enculturation

Answer 9

a process that begins at birth but also continues throughout our lives as we move into and out of different speech communities.

Question 10

Children may be overtly instructed about how to act and what to say (or not to say) in particular places and with particular people. For example, a parent might say: “Say thank you to the nice lady” or “Don’t talk loudly in church.”

Answer 10

But children, and adults, mostly learn rules of appropriate communicative behavior from their own observations of family, peers, and even strangers in public places.

Question 11

In order to conduct an ethnography of communication, the first thing that needs to be done is to define the specific unit of speech behavior that is to be observed.

Answer 11

true

Question 12

There are three levels of analysis:

Answer 12

➔Speech situation – the context in which speaking occurs, broadly speaking.
➔Speech act – each individual component of a communicative encounter such as a greeting,
question, a statement, etc.
➔Speech event – the stringing together of a number of speech acts to form a larger exchange
such as a conversation, a dialog, etc. This is the level we are most interested in analyzing.

Question 13

the anthropologist Dell Hymes laid out the specific components of the any speech event and he used the mnenomic device of S P E A K I N G to remember them

Answer 13

Settings
Participants
Ends
Act sequences
Keys
Instrumentalities
Norms of interaction
Genres

Question 14

Settings

Answer 14

Simply speaking this is the particular time, place, and physical circumstances under which a speech event takes place. It can include things such as the size of the room, the arrangement of the furniture, the number of participants, the time of day, etc.

Question 15

setting formal

Answer 15

Settings for communication can be classified along a continuum of formality and informality. In formal situations, the communicative behavior is more prescriptive. There is more structure, more pat responses, and less creativity. Markers of formality may include pronunciation, intonation, facial expressions, grammar use, and vocabulary.

Even the right to speak may be curtailed to some in formal situations. Sometimes the event is limited to a specific issue or happening, and this curtails certain uses of language. For example, during religious ceremonies in our culture, speech is limited by participants’ roles. It is highly predetermined with few opportunities to shift focus.

Question 16

setting informal

Answer 16

Communicative behavior in informal settings is much more diffuse and flexible. Speakers are able to select stylistic features of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary based on their own habits and preferences rather than on dictates of the situation. There is more spontaneity, and certain shifts in focus are the norm.

Question 17

Participants

Answer 17

The participants include the speaker (the sender of the message), the addressees (the intended hearer or receiver of the message), and audience members (those people who just happen or hear or see the message). Things to consider might be the age, sex, ethnicity, and social status of the individuals involved, as well as any other relevant categories.

Question 18

relationships of participants

Answer 18

The relationship of the individuals might also be important. If the relationship is not known, it may be determined by terms of address used (Professor Cesareo-Silva vs. Claire), pronouns used (such as formal vs. informal forms like usted and tu in Spanish), kinship terms (for example, Aunt Betty), and honorifics (like sensei in Japanese, which means teacher and is used to address most professionals).

Question 19

how do people make designs based on other participants?

Answer 19

People also usually make choices about language use based on the other participants in the speech event. So, for example, if someone gets into a car accident they will usually speak differently about the event to the other person involved, to the police, and to their friends when they recount the story. We are always editing what and how we say things to fit the situation, especially in terms of participants.

Question 20

Ends

Answer 20

e ends is the reason or purpose of the speech event. This includes both the topic and the conventionally recognized goals of the event. It can also include the personal goals of each participant, which may be different and even at odds. For example, a person might make small talk with another person, when their ultimate purpose it to form an alliance of some sort for personal gain. Obviously, sometimes the ends are covert and therefore difficult to discern.

Question 21

Act Sequences

Answer 21

This refers to the order of speech acts within a speech event, and the importance of that order. It might be characterized by turn-taking or overlapping discussion, and may shift throughout the event. It might start with a question, then move to a declaration, and end with an insult.

Question 22

keys

Answer 22

This is the emotional tone, manner, or spirit in which a speech act is carried out. For example, it might be light-hearted, serious, mocking, sarcastic, conciliatory, apologetic, complaining, reporting, etc.

Question 23

Instrumentalities

Answer 23

This includes the choice of code and channel used. Code stands for language and variety of language used such as formal, dialect, slang, etc. Sometimes people engage in code-switching, such as when they switch back and forth between two languages during the course of a speech event.

The channels include the acoustic channel (oral), the optical channel (visual), and the tactile channel (touch). For example, spoken speech would be through the acoustic channel, gestures would be through the optical channel, and handshakes would be through the tactile channel.

Question 24

Norms of Interaction

Answer 24

This includes what is appropriate and what is not, as well as what happens if something inappropriate is said or done. For example, how would other participants act if one of the participants shouted in a library? It tells us what is common knowledge in regards to the rules of communication.

Question 25

Genres

Answer 25

Genre refers to the specific type of act taking place, such as a joke, a story, a lecture, a prayer, a sermon, a conversation, etc. Within a speech event, there can be multiple genres as the conversation moves from act to act.
Taken together, all of these components can tell us a lot about a speech event, and the culture in which it takes place, that goes far beyond the words being spoken.