The Ethnography of Communication: Origins and Key Concepts

The Ethnography of Communication: Origins

THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATIONORIGINS

• Proposed by Dell Hymes (1960s)
• Approach that combines anthropology and linguistics
• Foundations of sociolinguistics in 1974
• Studies a variety of forms and functions available for communication
• Taking premises from ethnography

Purpose of Ethnography of Communication

PURPOSE . The goal of ethnography of communication is to study the communicative competence of a specific speech community by discovering and analyzing patterns of communication that organize the use of language in particular communicative activities. . The aim of the ethnography of communication is to explore the means of speaking available to members of a particular community (formal, informal, ritual events within a particular group of speakers

• Language use particular social and cultural settings, drawing together both anthropological and linguistic views on communication

Main Concepts in Communication Ethnography

MAIN CONCEPTS WHO SAYS WHAT TO WHOM UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES?

• SPEECH COMMUNITY
• SPPECH SITUATION
• SPEECH EVENT
• SPEECH ACT
• WAYS OF SPEAKING
• FLUENT SPEAKER
• RULES OF SPEAKING
• FUNCTIONS OF SPEECH

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Speech Community Characteristics

SPEECH COMMUNITY

• Shared language use
• Frequency of interaction by a group of people
• Shared rules of speaking and interpretation of speech performance.
• Shared attitudes and values regarding language forms and use.
• Shared sociocultural understanding and presuppositions with regard to speech. (Saville-Troike, 1984)

Speech Situation Definition

SPEECH SITUATION This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

• An activity bounded or integral in some recognizable way.
• Social occasion in which speech occurs (family reunion)

Speech Events and Their Rules

SPEECH EVENTS This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC FOR Hymes, are activities that are directly governed by rules or norms for the use of speech. (1974a:52). Hymes gives stories, conversation, lectures and formal introductions as examples of speech events. In Hymes' view speech events should be treated as analytically independently of one another, as one speech event (for example, a sermon) may be invoked in another speech event, or situation for a certain effect. Example: A conversation in a family reunion. Iv reur

Speech Acts: Fundamental Discourse Units

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• Smallest unit and the most fundamental level for the management of discourse (Functions of messages in whatsapp) TELL ME WHICH ONES ...

Ways of Speaking in a Community

WAYS OF SPEAKING WHY SPEAKING POSITIVELY MATTERS SO DAMN MUCH

• A community's communicative conduct entails determinate patterns of speech activity
• Patterned ways of speaking about the weather, politics, education, medicine determines the community a group belongs to.
• Ethnographers of communication explore various ways of communicating (according to situations, events, acts.

Fluent Speaker and Speaking Rules

FLUENT SPEAKER RULES OF SPEAKING

• Depends on the community
• Speaking fluently involves notions about abilities in different communities.
• To mark strategies of communication (from Standard English to slang; from normal tone to whisper tone)

Systematic Analysis of Communication Practice

ONCE EOC (ETHNOGRAPHERS OF COMMUNICATION) IDENTIFY SITUATIONS, EVENTS, ACTS. ..

• A SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE PRACTICE IS NEEDED AS IT OCCURS IN ITS NORMAL SOCIAL CONTEXT ....
• SO HYMES (1972) PROPOSED A CLASSIFICATION GRID AS A DESCRIPTIVE FRAMEWORK FOR EOC:THE SPEAKING GRID

Hymes' SPEAKING Grid Elements

HYMES' SPEAKING GRID

• Situation/Scene/setting
• Participants: actors
• Ends: purpose, outcome of talk
• Act sequence: relationship between what is said and how it is said
• Key: Tone or manner of speaking (emotional feeling, ironic, humorous)
• Instrumentalities: Channel being used to communicate
• Norms: norms related to speak and interactions (at a bar versus a religious ceremony)
• Genre: cultural category of talk and level of formality) REVIEW THE SPEAKING GRID IN: Dell Hymes' SPEAKING Grid\Acronym, Ethnography of Communication

SPEAKING Model: Complexity of Talk

SPEAKING MODEL

• What Hymes offers us in his SPEAKING model is a very necessary reminder that talk is complex activity, and that any particular bit of talk is actually a piece of 'skilled work'. To be successful, the speaker must reveal a sensitivity to and awareness of each of the eight factors outlined above. Speakers and listeners must also work to see that nothing goes wrong. When speaking does go wrong, as it sometimes does, that going- wrong is often clearly describable in terms of some neglect of one or more of the factors. Since we acknowledge that there are 'better' speakers and 'poorer' speakers, we may also assume that individuals vary in their ability to manage and exploit the total array of factors. Working with an ethnographic or functional approach, then, we may attempt to specify just what is meant to be a competent speaker of a particular language.

Sample Data Analysis

SAMPLE ANALYSIS OF DATA (p. 142) The ethnography of communication by Alba-Juez.