The Ethnography of Speaking

The Ethnography
of Speaking
communication is
governed by our
communicative
competence rather
than just linguistic
competence. What
does that mean ?
Chomsky se the goal of

linguistic theory as the
description of the ideal
speaker-hearers competence,
his knowledge of
grammaticality rather than
appropriateness.
He hit me.
It was me who he hit.
Hymes (1971) argues that Chomskys

definition of competence is too narrow.
Linguistics ought to concern itself with
communicative competence.
He suggested that an adequate
approach must distinguish and
investigate four aspects of
competence:
1.Semantic potential.
2.Appropriateness.
3.Occurrence.
4.Feasibility.
Hymes feels such an approach would still be too

narrow so he suggested a second descriptive
science of language, the ethnography of
speaking, concerned not simply with language
structure, but with language use, with the rules of
speaking, the ways in which speakers associate
particular modes of speaking, topics, or message
forms, with particular settings and activities.
As Duranti (1997: 85) says, an 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.
Ethnographers try to provide accounts which show
Speech Community
John Lyons (1970: 326)defines speech

community as All the people who use a given
language (or dialect).
Hymes rejects Lyons definition on the grounds
that:
1.People using the same language may not
understand each other sometimes.
2.Speakers of the same language may have
different norms of greetings, appropriate topics,
turns of conversation, ..etc.
. A Speech Community is any group which
shares both linguistic resources and rules for
Blom and Gumperz (1972)

investigated the possibility for a
speech community to have more
than one variety and what
influences the switch from one
variety to another.
their work in the Norwegian
village of Hemnesberget lead
them to make a certain
hypothesis about that particular
speech community. What was the
Dorian (1982) raised a different

question about membership of speech
community what is the status of
semi-speakers or near passive
bilinguals?
Corders (1973) definition of speech
community is people who regard
themselves as speaking the same
language.
Labov (1972) argues a different
definition that says a speech
Conclusion
About Speech
Community
The previous
examples make
clear that the speech community
is an idealization as speakers
do not fall neatly into categories
just like isoglosses dont fall
neatly one on top of another.
The ethnography of speaking

must describe the linguistic
options open to the speech
community and distinguish
them one from another. This
leads us to the study of:
Speech Styles
Hemnesberget speech community has

two varieties (standard language and
local dialect).
Tamil and Greek have two standard
languages (High and Low).
Joos (1967) suggested 5 degrees of
formality within the one standard
language (English).
Javanese suggested 3 major styles
Halliday (1964) suggested a finer

distinction in terms of Register.
Halliday then suggests that it is more
useful to see a speech community as
comprising a set of styles.
Style is a way or mode of doing
something.
Styles can be recognized in terms of 2
kinds of relation:
1. Paradigmatic (alteration)
Distinction between:
Register
Style
Is not connected to a
particular situation, as
alteration suggests.
Is governed by
topic and
context-specific
Choosing between different
lexis.
e.g., a register
of sermons is
the language
used in giving
sermons.
styles serves some social

meaning, e.g.:
Choosing inappropriate style

in a particular occasion to
make people laugh. Speaking
informally and sarcastically
about religion may cause
Hymes recognized two kinds of stylistic

features:
Stylistic
TheyModes
accompany
and color the rest

of whats done.
Stylistic
They Structure
are verbal forms
organized in terms of
defining principles of
development of
They include
recurrence. E.g.:
The organization of
paralinguistic
sentences and utterances
features like
into larger units:
modifications of
greetings, farewells,
the voice resulting
prayers,etc.
in singing,
The systematic
chanting,
exploitation of linguistic
Bricker (1974) presented an initial division of

style into:
Formal
Informal Genres
They Genres
are all
structurally alike
and expressed in They have no
common structure
semantic
and generally
couplets.
avoid
couplets.
E.g.; song,
E.g.; gossip and
prayer, myth,
discussions.
..etc.
Some genres are more overt than others. For
example, conversations, until very recently,
were considered to have no identifiable
structure.
Its very important to distinguish

between a genre (which is a unique
combination of stylistic mode and
structure) and the doing of a genre.
Thus, Hymes suggested the
categories of:
speech event
And
speech act
Since the study of language must go beyond the
sentence and bring in the social context, it must deal

with the real texts that make up human
communication and social situation in which they are
used. The focus of attention then shifts from the
sentence to the very act of communication. (Spolsky,
1998: 14)
Speech acts are related to the theory that words
perform actions in the world such as promising,

marriage announcement, threatening,etc.
Since an ethnography of communication entails a
broader range of investigation, speech acts are then

seen as part of speech situations, or what is known
as:
Speech
Events
An event may consist of a single
speech act, but will often

comprise several.
One ultimate aim of ethnography
of speaking is to provide a
comprehensive list of the speech
acts and speech events of a
particular speech community.
There were problems in achieving
Hymes proposed an ethnographic
framework providing a description of

all the factors relevant in
understanding how a particular
communicative event achieves its
objectives, by using the word
SPEAKING as an acronym for the
factors he deemed relevant:
Setting & scene, Participants, Ends,

Act sequence, Key, Instrumentalities,
Norms and Genres
Setting & Scene

All speech acts occur in time and space
sometimes its one of the defining criteria of an

event that it occurs at a specific time and
space.
When a speech act is not restricted to a
particular setting, the setting may affect either

the stylistic mode or the stylistic structure.
The scene refers to the abstract psychological
setting, or the cultural definition of the

occasion: formal, informal, serious or festive.
Participants
Traditionally speech has been described in
terms of two participants: a speaker and a

listener.
Hymes argues that there are at least 4
participant roles: addressor, speaker,

addressee and hearer or audience.
Important aspects relating to participants
are concerned with filling the participant

roles and taking turns to speak.
There are two major problems
concerning the addressors role:

1. Roles change frequently and rapidly.
2. The definition of role is not entirely
clear.
.Two major problems also arise
concerning the addressees role:

1. Not all ratified hearers are being directly
addressed.
2. The movement in and out the
addressees role is rapid and of short
term.
Addressees
Ratified
addressees
Directly
addresse
d
Unratified
addressees
Not directly
addressed
Pseudoaddressees
overheare
rs
Eavesdropp
ers
The transmission from eavesdropper

through overhearer to ratified participant
is very familiar especially at parties: I
couldnt help (over)hearing what you
Ends
Ends refer to the purpose of
the speech event, the

conventionally or socially
recognized and expected
outcome of an exchange as
well as to the personal goals
that participants seek to
accomplish in particular
situations.
Act Sequence
Act sequence refers to the way a
messages content and form contribute

to meaning, in other words: how
something is said is part of whats said.
The messages content refers to the
topic of the communication which may

either have little effect or can be
strongly marked.
The messages form is involved in all the
rules of speaking and it affects the

concept of face.
Face is a persons public self-image. There
are two kinds of face, either negative face

(freedom from imposition) or positive face
(the need to be connected and belong to a
group).
Some interactive acts can constitute a
threat to face (face threatening act) or can

save face (face saving acts).
Indirectness increases the relative politeness
of expressions. The following examples

become progressively more polite, making it
more easy to the hearer to say no
(emphasizing a negative face):
Answer the phone.

I want you to answer the phone.
Will you answer the phone?
Can you answer the phone?
Would you mind answering the phone?
Could you possibly answer the phone?
Key
Key refers to the tone, manner or spirit in
which a particular message is conveyed: lighthearted, serious, precise, mocking, sarcastic

and so on.
the key may also be marked unverbally by
certain kinds of behaviour, gestures, posture,

etc.
When there is a lack of fit between what the
person is saying and the key used, listeners

will pay attention to key rather than the actual
content.
Instrumentalities
This concept refers to the choice of
channel, e.g. oral, written or telegraphic

and to the actual forms of speech
employed.
The development of TV and radio
created a situation in which a speech

event has enormous unseen and
unheard audience.
The channel itself allowed the creation
of new speech events.
Norms
This aspect is divided into norms of
interaction and norms of interpretation and

is concerned with shared understanding.
The full description of norms necessitates
an analysis of social structure and social

relationships.
All communities have an underlying set of
non-linguistic rules which governs when,

how and how often speech occurs.
There are certain norms governing
the physical distance, turn-taking

and encoding difficulties.
Clashes of norms produces
personal discomfort, tension and

unjustified criticism.
Major problems arise when
participants assume that they
Genres
Genres are unique combinations of stylistic
structure and modes. They refer to categories

such as poem, tale, riddle, letter, sermon,
prayer, lecture, ..etc.
While particular genres seem more
appropriate on certain occasions than others

(sermons are inserted into church service)
they can be independent as we can ask
someone to stop sermonizing as we
recognize a genre of sermons when an
instance of it or something resembling it
occurs outside its usual setting.
Rule Breaking
A successful ethnographer of speaking will
describe the norms of speech events in

particular speech community. Yet, these
norms are not always adhered to and each
speech community has its own rules of
interpreting rule-breaking which is either
deliberate (for specific effect like insult) or
not.
Policeman: whats your name, boy?
Doctor: Doctor Poussaint. Im a physician
Policeman: Whats your first name, boy?
Conclusion
Ethnographies are based on first-hand
observations of behaviour in a group of

people in their natural settings.
These people are said to belong to a speech
community characterized by a variety of

features.
Human communication is best described in
relation to speech events which are described

in terms of specific factors which vary from
one speech community to another.

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The Ethnography

Chomsky se the goal of

Hymes (1971) argues that Chomskys

Hymes feels such an approach would still be too

John Lyons (1970: 326)defines speech

Blom and Gumperz (1972)

Dorian (1982) raised a different

The ethnography of speaking

Hemnesberget speech community has

Halliday (1964) suggested a finer

styles serves some social

Choosing inappropriate style

Hymes recognized two kinds of stylistic

and color the rest

Bricker (1974) presented an initial division of

Its very important to distinguish

Since the study of language must go beyond the

sentence and bring in the social context, it must deal

perform actions in the world such as promising,

broader range of investigation, speech acts are then

An event may consist of a single

speech act, but will often

Hymes proposed an ethnographic

framework providing a description of

Setting & scene, Participants, Ends,

Setting & Scene

sometimes its one of the defining criteria of an

particular setting, the setting may affect either

setting, or the cultural definition of the

terms of two participants: a speaker and a

participant roles: addressor, speaker,

are concerned with filling the participant

There are two major problems

concerning the addressors role:

concerning the addressees role:

The transmission from eavesdropper

Ends refer to the purpose of

the speech event, the

messages content and form contribute

topic of the communication which may

The messages form is involved in all the

rules of speaking and it affects the

are two kinds of face, either negative face

threat to face (face threatening act) or can

Indirectness increases the relative politeness

of expressions. The following examples

Answer the phone.

which a particular message is conveyed: lighthearted, serious, precise, mocking, sarcastic

certain kinds of behaviour, gestures, posture,

person is saying and the key used, listeners

This concept refers to the choice of

channel, e.g. oral, written or telegraphic

created a situation in which a speech

of new speech events.

interaction and norms of interpretation and

an analysis of social structure and social

non-linguistic rules which governs when,

There are certain norms governing

the physical distance, turn-taking