Language, Culture, and Communication The Meaning of Messages Nancy Bonvillain By Nancy Bonvillain

Language, Culture, and Communication The Meaning of Messages Nancy Bonvillain By Nancy Bonvillain

Chapter 1 – Introduction Chapter Objectives

After reading this chapter students should be able to:

1.Explain the concept of a speech community.

2.Explain the goals and methodologies of ethnolinguists.

3.Explain the goals and methodologies of sociolinguists.

4.Describe the similarities and differences between ethnolinguistic and sociolinguistic approaches to communicative behavior.

5.Define discourse and understand its importance in the study of interaction.

6.Explain what language ideologies are and how they are connected to language use.Chapter Overview This chapter introduces the student to the basic connections between language, identity, and ideology as well as some methodologies to explore these connections. The chapter begins by describing the difference between situational, social, and cultural meanings, as well as stressing the importance of context and cultural models on communicative behavior. Next, the author introduces the student to the ideas of speech community and speech network, noting the differences between the two notions and how both affect language use. The different levels of linguistic pressures and control in dense and weak social networks are also addressed. Following this, students are presented with the basic assumptions, goals, and methodologies involved in ethnolinguistics, sociolinguistics and language variation studies, discourse analysis, and critical discourse analysis. Finally, the chapter defines language ideologies and gives basic background information about the dissemination and effects of language ideologies.Technical Terms: anthropologist, Critical Discourse Analysis, cultural meanings, cultural model, discourse, discourse analysis, ethnographic, ethnography of communication, ethnolinguist, ethnolinguistic approach, language ideologies, linguist, linguistic variation, situational meanings, social meanings, sociolinguistic approach, sociolinguistics, speech community, speech network Chapter Outline

• Introduction

Speech Communities Ethnolinguistics Sociolinguistics Discourse Copyright © 2014, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.  All rights reserved. 1

Language Ideologies II. Plan of the Book Discussion Questions

• Labov states that members of speech communities have shared language norms and

attitudes. Has a member of your speech community ever corrected your language use, or have you ever corrected someone else? What do these corrections reveal about the norms and attitudes of your speech community?

• Which variables in your own speech are tied to certain aspects of your identity? For

example, are there any things you say (or ways that you say them) that connect to your geographical region, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, political orientation, profession, etc.?

• Do you think your speech changes based on the situation—what you are doing, where

you are, or who you are with? Does it remain the same? If it does change, in what ways does it vary?

• Brainstorm some things that people “should” and “should not” do with language. What

do the ideas generated in the brainstorming session reveal about the language ideologies of the class or the larger community?Research Questions

• Observe coworkers communicating at work. Write down any specialized terms you

hear the employees use. Write an essay in which you describe the jargon used in that workplace setting and reflect upon the social meanings of those terms.

• Linguist Penelope Eckert has posited that there are three waves of variation studies in

sociolinguistics. Read her article on this subject and write an essay which compares and contrasts the three approaches to linguistic variation that she describes.

• Choose a social factor that affects language use—gender, race, age, socioeconomic

class, etc.—and investigate studies that examine that factor. Write a review of the literature you find that discusses the linguistic effects of that particular social factor.

Other Readings:

Gumperz, John J. and Dell Hymes (Eds.). 1986. Directions in Sociolinguistics: The

Ethnography of Communication. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Ltd.

Hymes, Dell. 1974. Foundations of Socio-Linguistics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Copyright © 2014, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.  All rights reserved. 2

Speech Communities and Social Networks Hymes, Dell. 1986. Models of interaction of language and social life. In Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication, ed. J. Gumperz and D. Hymes.

Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Ltd.

Labov, William. 1966. The survey of the Lower East Side. Ch. 6, The Social

Stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied

Linguistics, pp. 154-204.Labov, William. 1972. The linguistic consequences of being a lame. Ch. 7, Language in the Inner City: Studies in Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 255-292.Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Milroy, Leslie. 1980. Language and Social Networks. Oxford: Blackwell.

Milroy, Leslie. 2002. Social networks. In The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, ed. J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill and N. Schilling-Estes. Oxford: Blackwell, pp.

549-571.

Milroy, Leslie and James Milroy. 1992. Social network and social class: Toward an

integrated sociolinguistic model. Language in Society 21:1-26

Patrick, Peter. 2002. The speech community. In The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, ed. J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill and N. Schilling-Estes. Oxford: Blackwell Ethnolinguistics

Hymes, Dell. 1980. Language in Education: Ethnolinguistic Essays. Language and

Ethnography Series, 1. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Sociolinguistic Variation

Eckert, Penelope. 2002. Linguistic Variation as Social Practice: The Linguistic

Construction of Identity in Belten High. Oxford: Blackwell.

Eckert, Penelope and John R. Rickford (Eds.). 2001. Style and Sociolinguistic Variation.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Labov, William (Ed.). 1980. Locating Language in Time and Space. New York:

Academic Press.Lucas, Ceil, Robert Bayley, and Clayton Valli. 2001. Sociolinguistic Variation in

American Sign Language. Wasihngton, DC: Galludet University Press.

Copyright © 2014, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.  All rights reserved. 3