Showing papers in "Language in Society in 1977"

The Female Register: An Empirical Study of Lakoff's Hypotheses.

Abstract: Sociolinguists (e.g. Swacker 1975) and anthropologists (e.g. Hall 1959) are increasingly aware of the fact that sex, like social class or subcultural group, is a variable which strongly affects speech (Thorne & Henley 1975). While sexexclusive differentiation (i.e. separate male and female languages) now appears to be an almost nonexistent phenomenon, sex-preferred differentiation seems to be widespread across a number of languages and language families (Bodine 1975). In particular, recent studies indicate that syntax (Labov 1966), intonation (Brend 1972), and pronunciation(Trudgill 1972) in spoken English all vary as a function of the sex of the speaker.

A model for polyglossia and multilingualism (with special reference to Singapore and Malaysia)

Abstract: Ferguson's concept of diglossia and its later extension and coupling with bilingualism (Fishman et al.) is developed further into the concept of polyglossia with multilingualism by discussion of various speech communities where these phenomena are in evidence. A general model is suggested which could cope with cases of polyglossia by a continuum ranging from H(igh) varieties through M(edium) varieties to L(ow) varieties. Devices for status ranking of speech varieties are discussed and established. The general matrix is then applied to two of the special cases discussed previously, namely the English-educated Chinese communities of Singapore and Malaysia. (Speech varieties and domains, multilingual societies, speech varieties and educational policies; Singapore, Malaysia.)

Same Setting, Different Norms: Phone Call Beginnings in France and the United States.

Abstract: French native speakers' reactions to phone calls in the United States are an indication of a difference in the norms of interaction between the two countries. This difference, in turn, is understood when one realizes that the phone call, constituting a speech event, is open to different cultural interpretations, in spite of a similarity in the physical conditions of the interaction between the caller and the answerer. (Sequencing conventional opening; cultural variability; telephone calls; France and United States.)

The clarification request as a feature of adult interactive styles with young children

Abstract: The analysis of videotaped naturally occurring adult—child interaction led to the isolation of the clarification request as a consistent feature of adult interactive styles The analysis of the form and function of adult clarification requests demonstrated the importance of the interactive demands adults encounter when interacting with young children The nature of these interactive demands and how adults deal with them are discussed in regard to Cicourel's (1970) notion of interpretive procedures Finally, a discussion of the possible effects of adult interactive style on the child's development of communicative competence is presented (Developmental sociolinguistics, conversational analysis, adult—child interaction, US English)

English and Sinhala bilingualism in Sri Lanka

Abstract: This study describes the language situation of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and examines the factors governing the language choice of Sinhalese bilinguals while attempting to correlate such factors with domains and role relations. It also examines the way in which such correlations reflect social differences in Sri Lankan society. The use of two languages by the same speakers almost inevitably affects the forms of the languages so used. The use of English by Sinhalese speakers has led to the functional elaboration of both English and Sinhala. Bilinguals show varying degrees of proficiency in the languages they use. Such disparities in performance have led to differing patterns of bilingualism manifested in different phonological and grammatical features. Materials are drawn from the English of newspapers, fiction, drama, poetry etc. and personal knowledge. (Language as a class indicator; bilingualism; conflict of speech norms; Sri Lankan English.)

Class differences in syntactic complexity in the Flemish town of Maaseik

Abstract: The linguistic foundation of Bernstein's code theory is tested in a bidimensional sociolinguistic investigation. Not only class, but also situation is controlled. In the Flemish town of Maaseik each of eight informants (four middle class and four working class) have been interviewed in two different situations, one formal and one informal. In the formal situation standard Netherlandic was spoken and in the informal the local dialect. Five measures of syntactic complexity constituted the linguistic variable. The results in the formal situation corroborate those of Bernstein: the middle-class subjects exhibit a greater degree of syntactic complexity than the working-class subjects. In the informal situation all subjects exhibit about the same degree of syntactic complexity, and for the middle-class subjects this degree is less than that in the formal situation (as might be expected). The striking result is that the working-class informants exhibit significantly higher complexity in the informal situation. In the discussion these findings are compared to those of previous studies, Bernsteinian and other. In an appendix sample data for formal and informal styles from one middle- and one working-class subject are presented. (‘elaborated’ and ‘restricted’ codes, social vs. cognitive meaning, syntactic variation; Flemish cf. Maaseik, Belgium).

Negative Incorporation in French and American Sign Language.

Abstract: This paper examines Negative Incorporation in various lects of two historically related sign languages, French Sign Language and American Sign Language. Negative Incorporation not only offers interesting insights into the structure of French and American Sign Language, but also into the descriptive and explanatory power of variation theory. By viewing Negative Incorporation in a dynamic framework, we are able to describe the variable usage of Negative Incorporation as a phonological process in French Sign Language and as a grammatical process in American Sign Language, to argue for possible early creolization in American Sign Language, to show the historical continuum between French Sign Language and American Sign Language despite heavy restructuring, and to demonstrate the influences of social variables on language variation and change, especially illustrating the progressive role of women in sign language change and the conservative forces in French Sign Language as compared with American Sign Language. (Sociolinguistics, sign language, creolization, linguistic changes.)

Tone of voice in Japanese conversation

Abstract: An experimental study of the role of tone of voice in Japanese conversations, using both Japanese and American subjects, has uncovered situational determinants of voice quality not related to emotion. Some of these variations are perceived differently by the two sets of subjects, some in the same way. The nature of the situational determinants casts new doubt on the plausibility of 'language' as a natur;al subset of human communications. (Tone of voice, non-linguistic communication, ethnography of communication, Japan.) When a beggar at the door says, 'I'm hungry', and a child not wanting to go to bed says, 'I'm hungry', what remains the same in those two utterances has traditionally been considered linguistic, and what changes has been considered non-linguistic (Bloomfield I933: I42, I59). Two major intellectual currents in linguistics and anthropology have combined to make that distinction less rigid than the written records of linguistics indicate was true for the years up to the I960s. (A complementary much different oral tradition can be traced to Edward Sapir.) In linguistics, the detailed investigation of variation in speech behavior by individuals in different situations, and by groups of speakers within a speech community, has been led by William Labov (I972) and C.-J. Bailey (1972) and has been justified on grounds related to the requirements of a satisfactory linguistic theory. Some of the variation in the two utterances of 'I'm hungry', above are now dealt with as linguistic in import. In anthropology, an orientation toward field study and integrative theory of communication has been led by Dell Hymes (I964), who has argued that the theoretical outlook that distinguishes ethnography of communication from linguistics is necessary for an understanding of human communication. Harvey Sarles (I969) has persuasively demonstrated that a very similar orientation, especially insofar as it challenges assumptions about 'language' based more on faith than on observations, will be required before human communication can be understood in a comparative framework that includes other species, and in a framework that integrates man as a biological as well as a cultural being.

Jokes and covert language attitudes: the curious case of the wide-mouth frog

Abstract: In the early I970s, a strange piece of whimsy circulated orally in the United States. The modern joke in question concerned a 'wide-mouth' frog who evidently lacked the knowledge of what to feed its newborn babies. In the course of his or her attempts to question other animals about their normal regimes of infant diet, the wide-mouth frog is eventually put in the position of having to radically alter its customary speech pattern. This piece of folklore thus contains an explicitly metalinguistic aspect. Let me present representative texts of the story before discussing its possible significance. There once was a mommy wide-mouth frog and a daddy wide-mouth frog. They had a baby wide-mouth frog. They didn't know what to feed their baby wide-mouth frog so the daddy wide-mouth frog went to the zoo to ask mommies what they fed their babies. When he got there, he asked the mommy giraffe, "Mama Giraffe, whaddaya feed your BABIES?' [spoken with a wide open mouth] The giraffe (in a very dignified voice) 'I feed them leaves from the highest trees.' 'OH, IS THAT SO?' [again spoken with a wide mouth]. Then he asked the mommy rhinoceros, 'Mama Rhinoceros, whaddaya feed your BABIES?' The rhinoceros (in a deep voice) 'I feed them mud from the swamp bottoms.' Again the wide-mouth frog says, 'OH, IS THAT SO?' Then he asked the mama hippopotamus, 'Mama Hippopotamus, whaddaya feed your BABIES!' 'I feed them little wide-mouth frogs.' 'oh is that so?' [with a small tight mouth, in a soft voice].' It should be obvious that most of the power of the joke lies in the performance and specifically the shifts of 'dialect' from wide-mouth speech, to normal speech, and finally to 'narrow-mouth' speech. To fully appreciate the story, one needs to do more than read the text of the joke. Rather one should hear and see it performed. The critical paralinguistic and kinesic features essential to the joke's performance cannot really be successfully translated into the format required by the orthographic exigencies of the printed page. Let me nevertheless present a second version before attempting to analyze the joke.

A stylistic analysis of speaking

Abstract: Stylistic analysis takes account of the dynamic continuities in communication behavior. It is concerned with how people talk or sing or move in relation to each other, rather than what it is they say or sing or do to or with each other. The presence of these styling qualities can, we discover, be reliably assessed; and, as they cluster together, giving each cultural tradition its distinctive performance models, they have remarkable stability through time. However, these patterns of style are not inflexible: they are models comprising a stable set of ranges within which performers can adjust their behavior to the demands of a genre, of a familiar situation, of sex, age or status roles, and to the unexpected. The comparison of these performance models, cross-culturally, reveals factors that tie communication to social structure on the one hand and to cultural traditions on the other.

American Linguistic Prescriptivism: Its Decline and Revival in the 19th Century

Abstract: Aspects of nineteenth-century American life are crucial to the understanding of the history and nature of American prescriptivism. The story is not merely one of continuity from eighteenth-century Britain. An examination of linguistic thought of the nineteeth-century reveals that the prescriptive doctrine met with significant intellectual challenge from 1820 through the 40s. This reaction grew partly out of a specific revolt against rote learning, partly out of the development of national consciousness, and partly out of the ‘boundless’ intellectual tenor of the times. The thought of the period 1850 through the 70s was a significant source of the doctrine's subsequent vigor which was to exhibit a curious and remarkable continuity into and throughout the present century. During the latter half of the century the doctrine of correctness revived with new vehemence in a new drive for uniformity and conformity. This was facilitated and accommodated in general by the intellectual milieu of the time: national integration and consolidation. The single most important specific factor was the development of the genteel cultural apparatus, as manifested linguistically by an interest in language, especially in ‘linguistic etiquette’ in genteel publication; in the reaction against innovation; in the application of intellect and logic to language; in the high premium placed by the genteel on books and authority; in the anglophile tendency of the genteel; and in the desire for a responsible, stable community.

On the bases of experimental phonology

Abstract: Although the process of scientific discovery is not fully understood, there are two aspects of it that are important. One involves such activities as theorizing, gaining insights, speculating, using intuition, and extrapolating. This part can be called ‘extension’ (in the sense of adding to current ideas). The other aspect involves collecting data, noticing patterns, identifying processes, and exhaustively describing given phenomena. This can be called ‘consolidation’ (in the sense of filling in the gaps in what is known). While linguists are always engaged in both types of activities (with different focus during different eras), within generative work there has been special emphasis on ‘extension’, on formulating theory and using intuition; indeed, this emphasis has been one of the attractions of generative grammar. Complementary to this emphasis on extension there has been developing an increased interest in ‘consolidation’, in doing field work and conducting phonological experiments, for example. My purpose here is to discuss experimental phonology as a consolidative activity, and to show how the consolidative function of experiments puts special requirements on the way they are run. A secondary purpose is to place consolidative work within a moderately general framework.