Showing papers in "Pragmatics in 1992"

The Role of Language in European Nationalist Ideologies

Abstract: In his book on Natiorts and nationalism since 1780, E.J. Hobsbawm concludes that "the phenomenon [of nationalism] is past its peak." (p. 183) Before he gets to this conclusion (apparently written some time in 1989, still before German reunification became a realistic possibility and before the process of fragmentation in some countries of the old Communist Bloc had gained momentum) he shows quite convincingly, and almost prophetically, that a new 'Europe of nations' in the Wilsonian sense (with independent entities such as Catalonia, Corsica, Slovenia, Estonia, etc.) could not produce 'a stable or lasting political system.' (p. 177) For one thing, "the first thing most such hypothetical new European states would do is, almost certainly, apply for admission to the European Economic Community, which would once again limit their sovereign rights, [...]." (p. 177) Indeed, nation-states with highly autonomous 'national economies' probably belong to the past. However, it is far from clear that such a confrontation with economic reality, which will no doubt change the historical content and direction of nation-building processes, has any direct influence on nationalism from an ideological perspective. After all, as Hobsbawm demonstrates equally convincingly, the essence of nationalism from the 19th century onwards has been the definition of imagined communities'along conceptual ines out of touch with 'objective reality' (a theme also developed in Barth ed. 1982 and by Anderson 1983). An assessment of the ideological processes involved requires access to 'the view from below.' But,

Language Ideology: Issues and Approaches

Abstract: This special issue of hagmarl'cs derives from a day-long symposium on "l^anguage Ideology: Practice and Theory" held at the annual meeting of the American Anthropology Association in Chicago, November 1991.1 The organizing premise of the symposium was that language ideology is a mediating link between social structures and forms of talk, if such static imagery for some very dynamic processes can be forgiven. Rather than casting language ideology as an epiphenomenon, a relatively inconsequential overlay of secondary and tertiary responses (Boas 1911; Bloomfield 1944),, the symposium started from the proposition that ideology stands in dialectical relation with, and thus significantly influences, social, discursive, and linguistic practices. As such a critical link, language ideology merits more concerted analytic attention than it has thus far been given. In this first attempt to bring form to an area of inquiry, we have adopted a relatively unconstrained sense of "language ideology." Alan Rumsey's definition, based on Silverstein (1979), is a useful starting point: linguistic ideologies are "shared bodies of commonsense notions about the nature of language in the world "(1990: 346). We mean to include cultural conceptions not only of language and language variation, but of the nature and purpose of communication, and of communicative behavior as an enactment of a collective order (Silverstein 1987: l-2). I use the terms "linguistic" and "language" ideology interchangeably, although in the articles that follow one might detect differences in their uses, perhaps varying with the degree to which the authors focus on formal linguistic structures or on representations of a collective order. In order to build toward a general understanding of the cultural variability of language ideology and its role in social and linguistic life, the symposium brought

The Uses and Utility of Ideology: Some Reflections

Abstract: Without wishing to commit the etymological fallacy in the understanding of a word's meaning, I would like first to comment on the traditions of usage of the term ideoloqv, a theme elegantly announced in Woolard's introductory discussion of "issues and approaches." As is well known, it was Antoine Louis Claude Comte Destutt de Tiacy (1754-1836) who invented the term, in that naturalizing move of the French Enlightenment rendition of l,ocke (or, to be sure, Condillocke) that sought to understand human "nature." Ideology was proposed as that special branch of zoology that recognizes the condition of humans, we animals who have ideas as the content of what we should call our minds. Central here is the fact that any ideas more developed than physiological sensations are dependent on such ideas'being clothed in signs, the organization of which by some systematic grammar allows the discursive xpression of a logical faculty of mind. Hence, for Destutt de Tiacy, there is the general scientific field of ideology proper, the science of ideas, of which the subfield of grammar studies the signiffing externalizations, as it were, in structured systems of articulated signs, and the subfield of logic the modes of rationality oriented to truth and certitude of inferential states of mind (i.e., formation and combinatorics of ideas). Such a science would, for its propounder, also allow us to diagnose and understand "the causes of incertitude and flogical] error," thus presumably leading to an amelioration of the human condition vis-d-vis its natural mental faculties. It is particularly interesting, therefore, to see the fate of this term, proposed as a formation parallel to any of the other "-ologies" of a systematic scientific outlook. It has obviously become a word that now denotes a part or aspect of Destutt de Tiacy's very object of investigation, and in many appearances has the specifically "pejorative" use to pick up on Jane Hill's invocation of Raymond Geuss (1981: 12-22) that presupposes we know certain ideas to be dubious, in error, and

"Today there is no respect": Nostalgia, "Respect" and Oppositional Discourse in Mexicano (Nahuatl) Language Ideology

Abstract: \"Today there is no respect\" (dxdn dmo cah resp€to) is one formula of a discursive system through which speakers of Mexicano (Nahuatl)in the Malinche Volcano region of Central Mexico express \"nostalgia\" about days gone by, in achtol. The discourse of nostalgia consists of formulaic pronouncements on a restricted list of themes: in achto,language was unmixed: no one knew, or needed to know,castilla 'Spanish,'but instead spoke puro mexicano. In Mexicano, ritual kinsmen greeted each other on the village paths, parents commanded children, and neighbors spoke to each other of the ancient tasks of cultivation. Work was hard, but goods were cheap, measured in traditional quantities and paid for with small coins with ancient names. People ate traditional foods with Mexicano labels, especially neuctli'pulque,' fermented from the sap of agaves. The interactional qualities of in achto can be summarized as in achto 1catca respeb 'In those days, there was respect.' Today people are educated and know Spanish, but the Spanish is full of errors, and children come out of school groseros, rude and disrespectful. The discourse of nostalgia is \"ideological\" in both the \"ideational\" and \"pragmatic\" senses (Friedrich 1989). Not only is it made up of a set of propositions about the past, but. through the implicit and explicit positive evaluations of the past that the discourse asserts, people who benefit from practices that they believe are legitimated by tradition put forward their polit icalinterests. Central to the discourse of nostalgia is a \"linguistic ideology\" that suggests that the Mexicano language, especially in some \"pure\" form, is a peculiarly appropriate vehicle for the social forms of long ago. irr achto,, and especrally for \"respect.\" On the other hand, Spanish, and the mixing of Spanish and Mexicano, are peculiarly associated with the social forms of today, dxdtt, and with the loss of respect. While the discourse of nostalgia is universally interpretable in the Mexicano towns of the Malinche region. not everyone produces it. Most l ikely to repeat its formulas are relatively successful men. Women, and men who possess l itt le in thp

Ideologies of Honorific Language

Abstract: All sociolinguistic systems, presumably, provide some means of expressing respect (or disrespect); but only some systems have grammaticalized honorifics. This paper compares several languages Javanese, Wolof, and Zulu, plus a glance at ChiBemba with regard to honorific expressions and the social and cultural frameworks relevant thereto.2 The main question to be explored is whether one can identiff any special cultural concomitants of linguistic systems in which the expression of respect is grammaticalized. Javanese "language levels" are a classic and well-described example of a system for the expression of respect. In the sense in which I shall define "grammaticalized honorifics," Javanese provides an apt illustration. Wolof, on the other hand, does not. Of course, Javanese is only one of several Asian languages well known for honorific constructions, while Wolof, spoken in Senegal, comes from another part of the globe. But the presence or absence of honorifics is not an area characteristic of Asian languages as opposed to African languages. As we shall see, Zulu has a system of lexical alternates bearing a certain typological resemblance to the Javanese system. Moreover, many other Bantu languages (such as ChiBemba) also have grammaticalized honorifics, but in the morphology rather than in the lexicon. Focusing on social structure instead of on geographical area, one might hypothesize that grammaticalized honorifics occur where there are royal courts (Wenger 1982) and in societies whose traditions emphasize social rank and precedence. Honorifics would be a linguistic means of expressing conventionalized differences of rank. The languages I shall compare will make it evident, however, that a hypothesis causally linking honorifics with court life or with entrenched class differences cannot be

Anger, Gender, Language Shift and the Politics of Revelation in a Papua New Guinean Village

Abstract: Anger, gender, language shift, and the politics of revelation in a Papua New Guinea village

Multiplicity and Contention among Ideologies: A Commentary

Abstract: It is a pleasure and a challenge to comment on this fine set of papers because they bring together a great diversity of ethnographic materials and a range of approaches towards \"linguistic ideology.\" They are all trying to define and use this conceptual category in new ways, while sensing its familiarity. Woolard urged uS, in her introduction, to start not with strict definition of terms but from the broad premise that \"linguistic ideology is a mediating link between social structures and forms of talk.\" I hope that the term can provide a reframing or Nekker cube effect: the realization that many of the things we have been studying under different labels common sense notions, metalinguistics, status/solidarity, rhetoric, language attitudes, worldviews in language can be brought together, revealing family resemblances, and inspiring novel analytic onnections. Therefore, my aim here is simply to highlight the most important themes that emerge from these papers despite the following important differences in subject matter: The social groups discussed range from face-to-face communities of hunter-gatherers in Venezuela, to Quebecois industrial and clerical workers, Haitian farmers, Catalan students, US, Haitian and Indonesian scholars and academics. The linguistic materials discussed are similarly diverse, including interactional genres in classrooms, in mourhing, in shamanistic song, as well as writing systems, details of linguistic elicitation sessions and, most generally, what people explicitly say or have historically written -about their languages and language use. One kind of evidence notably missing is full scale formal or variational analysis of linguistic structure. But common themes are more interesting. It may point to a welcome blurring of the well-known divisions of scale and geography within our sub-discipline that the scholars gathered here include several who have written about social units of more than one scale e.g. national language policy as well as face-to-face interaction (Collins, Errington, Heller, Schieffelin), and have conducted research in several different geopolitical ocations (Briggs, Collins, Schieffelin). The themes and questions I would like to emphasize can best be grouped around three points.

Primer for the field investigation of spatial description and conception

Abstract: This pamphlet aims to stimulate the interest of field working anthropologists, linguists and psychologists in issues of spatial conception, and to provide some rough and ready framework and methods for investigation, as tried and tested in the field by researchers affiliated with the Cognitive Anthropology Research Group. The discussion has been kept superficial with minimal theoretical intrusion, and readers who find these matters engrossing should write to the Group for working papers that exempliff the issues and the problems in detailed case studies. Some of these papers, together with introductory texts, are listed in the bibliography at the end; while more detailed references are placed in the footnotes. This pamphlet will be continuously updatedas we accumulate more field experience and ourselves understand the issues more clearlv.2 J

Linguistic Ideology and Praxis in U.S. Law School Classrooms

Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between linguistic ideology and praxis through an examination of the language of U.S. law school classrooms. These classrooms afford an exciting opportunity for examining the socially powerful role of linguistic ideology as it intersects with and regiments linguistic practice. The language of professional socialization is at once a key part of the process whereby social identities are forged and changed, and an expression of the epistemologies of professional cultures that have important connections with the power structures of our society. lrgal socialization is particularly intriguing because legal institutions serve a special translating function in Western society. When rendering diverse realms of cultural experience in a common language, legal institutions use language as an important and integral part of a socially transformative process. Thus the act of translation2 to legal language is one in which linguistic and social regimentation mesh and law school classrooms are accordingly heavily focused upon the role of language in social process, predictably rich in linguistic ideologies. Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) have described the educational process as one in which a new relation to language and culture is transmitted, in an apparently autonomous institutional setting that nonetheless constantly contributes to the reproduction and legitimization of the established social order. Similarly, anthropolo$sts and sociolinguists working in classroom settings have frequently found in the language of the classroom a powerful orienting social practice (Anyon 1981; Collins 1986; Gee 1985; Heath t977, 1983; Mehan n.d.; Philips 1972). Hidden behind the apparent content of a lesson may be a deeper message about how the world operates, about what kind of knowledge counts, about who may speak and how to

Deictic categories as mitigating devices

Abstract: In pragmalinguistic research the phenomenon of mitigation has been studied both as a specific and a global object of analysis. In general, there seems to be a certain consensus concerning the fact as to which linguistic expressions count as mitigating devices and which do not. Nevertheless, up till now no attempt has been undertaken to establish a formal framework within which the linguistic properties of these expressions can be consistently described. It is the aim of the present paper to partially bridge this gap by focusing on a set of deictic categories that should be integrated into such a framework. In an insightful paper, Fraser (1980) specifies the concept of mitigation in terms of the intention of the speaker to reduce unwelcome effects of his/her performing a certain kind of speech act. The perlocutionary aims the speaker wishes to achieve involve, among others, making it more acceptable for the hearer to face bad news, to react cooperatively to a criticism and to accept the authority of the speaker in case the latter issues a command. We may say, therefore, that mitigation is a special form of politeness, or, to put it in Fraser's words:

The "Real" Haitian Creole: Metalinguistics and Orthographic Choice

Abstract: Language can be examined as a rich resource for understanding the ways in which speakers represent themselves, how they represent others, and how they are represented by others. In this paper we explore a set of language beliefs in conjunction with language practices of Kreydl speakeis. We are interested in how metalinguistic telms used by Haitians regarding varieties of spoken Kreydl manifest themselves in debates regarding which orthography best repreients the language. This is followed by an analysis of competing orthographies in teims of how tt "y rnit" the language looi and which sounds are.given graphirepresentation. We view the pro..r, of Jreiting an orthography for Kreydl not is u n"utril activity which simply reduces an oral language to witten form, but as an important symbolic vehicle for'representing its speak"ers In terms of national and international identity. We propose thai conteste-d orthographies be viewed as sites of contested identities iather ittun ur neutral academic or fnguistic arguments without political, social or educational consequences. We suggest that the debates regarding the sounds of Kreydl as well as how those sounds should be written are about different representations of its speakers. These different arguments and the

Dynamism and Assertiveness in the Public Voice: Turn-Talking and Code-Switching in Radio Talk Shows in Jamaica

Abstract: Radio phone-in talk shows in Jamaica are a potential gold mine for the study of conversational techniques and language styles. On the one hand, they facilitate the listener's unimpeded access to the range of language styles in English and Jamaican Creole used by hosts and their guests potentially all those individuals in the society with access to telephones who constitute the talk-show population. On the other, they provide a context for the study of the conversational strategies employed in the society for generating and maintaining discussion about national and international issues. In addition, they provide an ideal data base for the study of spontaneous speech. This paper uses data tape-recorded from such shows as a basis for the discussion which follows.

Dichotomy in the Structures of Honorifics of Japanese

Abstract: In discussing the strategies of politeness, Brown and lrvinson (1978) claim that treating "the respect for face as norms or values subscribed to by members of a society" (p. 67) is a basic human desire. It seems that all languages have strategies to satisfy this basic human desire. According to Brown & Irvinson, one of the politeness strategies is the use of impersonal constructions, that is, agentless constructions such as passives as in (1). Such impersonal constructions could lead to the assumption that the speaker linguistically indicates his politeness by avoiding expressions which could be interpreted as imposition. Other impersonal constructions involve: dative-agent deletion, as in (2); use of modals with deletion of pronouns to remove traces of person in verbal agreement, as in (3); use of "stativephrasing", i.e. intransitive verbs instead of transitive verbs, as in (a) @rown & Irvinson 1978: 197-L98); and conditionals, as in (5).

Methapor, meaning, and comprehension

Abstract: In an effort to dismantle comparison and in general substitution theories of metaphor. Black proposed in a later essay what be called the 'strong creativity thesis' for metaphor2. It treated metaphors as the bearers of an irreducible cognitive content that was typically new and created by the metaphor itself. Thus, against those who claimed that the meaning of a metaphor can be expressed by a literal statement at the cheap cost of losing nothing but its ornamental component. Black argued that what he called authentic, interesting metaphors (strong metaphors), admitted of no literal substitution or equivalent. If metaphor was to have any value apart from the decorative role assigned to it by substitution theories, then it must be the fulfilling of a cognitive function: the bridging of the gap between the old and the new, the known and the unkown 3. Black conceived

On Preposing and Word Order Rigidity

Abstract: SOV languages are said to have less rigid word order than SVO languages because they allow scrambling. This study attempts to demonstrate that the 'freedom' of SOV languages is also expre ...