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Journal Article•DOI•

A Cross-Cultural Study of Oral Narrative Style

Deborah Tannen
25 Sep 1978-Vol. 4, Iss: 4, pp 640-650
TL;DR: The 4th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (BLS) as discussed by the authors was held in Berkeley, California, USA, 1978, with the theme of "Linguistics and Language".
Abstract: Proceedings of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1978), pp. 640-650

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UC Berkeley
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics
Society
Title
A Cross-cultural Study of Oral Narrative Style
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7xt7h18w
Journal
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 4(4)
ISSN
2377-1666
Author
Tannen, Deborah
Publication Date
1978
Peer reviewed
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A Cross-Cultural Study of Oral Narrative Style
Author(s): Deborah Tannen
Proceedings of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics
Society (1978), pp. 640-650
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Citations
More filters
Journal Article•DOI•
The Consequences of Literacy in Pragmatic and Theoretical Perspectives

[...]

F. Niyi Akinnaso1•
University of California, Berkeley1
01 Sep 1981-Anthropology & Education Quarterly
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of literacy on cultural traditions, linguistic behavior, socio-economic organization, cognitive processes, and child development are examined, and the implications for anthropological, psychological, and linguistic theories of increased attention given to the study of literacy and its effects on language, thought, and society.
Abstract: education, this paper examines critically the effects of literacy on cultural traditions, linguistic behavior, socio-economic organization, cognitive processes, and child development. Attention is given to the question of whether literacy causes new cognitive capabilities or only promotes the deployment of preexisting ones. The paper also considers the implications for anthropological, psychological, and linguistic theories of the increased attention given to the study of literacy and its effects on language, thought, and society. Suggestions are offered about how school curricula and general educational policies could make use of relevant findings in devising literacy programs that are socially and culturally relevant. LITERACY, COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, LANGUAGE EVOLUTION, SOCIO- AND EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS, EDUCATIONAL POLICY, ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATION.

47 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Spanish Speakers Apologizing in English: A Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Study.

[...]

Marisa Cordella1•
Monash University1
01 Jan 1991-Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
TL;DR: The authors examined the frequency, distribution and function of apology strategies used by Chileans and Australians in a situation of having missed an important appointment with 'a boss' and found that Chileans preferred positive politeness strategies while Australians did not favour them.
Abstract: This paper investigates the speech act of apologizing in English between Chileans and Australians. It examines the frequency, distribution and function of apology-strategies used by both groups in a situation of having missed an important appointment with 'a boss'. Results indicate that L2 Chileans and Australians do not differ significantly in the frequency of using some apology-strategies, nevertheless striking divergences emerged from the modification attached to them (Bluin-Kulka et al. 1989). This finding may indicate that each group of speakers coined a different weight to the apology strategies. Thus while 'remedial work' (Goffman 1971) in Spanish is accomplished by the use of positive politeness strategies (Brown and Levinson 1987), Australians appear not to favour them. These differences may anticipate some communication problems which may lead to 'sociopragmatic failure' (Thomas 1983) between both groups. Moreover the sex of the apologizer and the recipient is an important factor which determines the speaker's performance in the act of apologizing.

27 citations

Book•
Processes and Consequences of Conversational Style

[...]

Deborah Tannen
01 Jan 1979
TL;DR: Tannen as mentioned in this paper described the processes and consequences of conversational style in a paper entitled Processes and Consequences of Conversational Style by Deborah Frances Tannen A.B.1979.
Abstract: Processes and Consequences of Conversational Style By Deborah Frances Tannen A.B. (State University of New York, Binghamton) 1966 M.A. (Wayne State University) 1970 M.A. (University of California) 1976 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Linguistics in the GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY DEGREE CONFERRED JBHE16.1979 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

19 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Literacy as Symbolic Strategy in Greece: Methodological Considerations of Topic and Place

[...]

Michael Herzfeld1•
Indiana University1
01 Jan 1990-Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors suggest that the study of orality and literacy/literality in modern Greece has some theoretical as well as purely descriptive or local significance, and that the ancient culture which is responsible for some of our current theoretical concerns with literate discourse, becomes in the modern Greek context an object of ethnographic interest, and the high authority consequently given to the written word in at least one reading of modern Greek culture.
Abstract: Against reification: what is a context? This paper provides me with an opportunity to suggest why the study of orality and literacy/literality in modern Greece has some theoretical as well as purely descriptive or local significance. For social anthropology, comparison between societies and cultures is a central task. While the study of modern Greek culture displays a remarkably persistent level of methodological introversion, its singular characteristics are very germane to the comparativist perspective. In part, this is due to the peculiar political circumstances that make the ancient forebears of the Greeks so much a part of current debates about the status of the modern culture. The ancient culture, which is responsible (blamed?) for some of our current theoretical concerns with literate discourse, becomes in the modern Greek context an object of ethnographic interest, and the high authority consequently given to the written word in at least one reading of modern Greek culture allows us to see...

8 citations

Cites background from "A Cross-Cultural Study of Oral Narr..."

  • ...Anthropology and the Greeks (London)....

    [...]

  • ...The very closeness of the modern Greek terminology to its Classical roots may further blind us to the important divergences between technical English-language and everyday Greek usages, as may an Anglo-Saxon cultural valuation of the literal over the metaphorical that one does not seem to find so prominently amongst Greeks (Tannen 1978, 1982; see also Chock 1987; but...

    [...]

  • ...But the attribution of intention is probably best left to the actors; indeed, it is often a strategy in its own right, as when Greeks complain that petty bureaucrats act in certain ways from etsithelismos (caprice), hoping thereby either to shame their tormentors into a different course of action or to justify their failure to their peers....

    [...]

  • ...In part, this is due to the peculiar political circumstances that make the ancient forebears of the Greeks so much a part of current debates about the status of the modern culture....

    [...]

  • ...…may further blind us to the important divergences between technical English-language and everyday Greek usages, as may an Anglo-Saxon cultural valuation of the literal over the metaphorical that one does not seem to find so prominently amongst Greeks (Tannen 1978, 1982; see also Chock 1987; but...

    [...]

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