Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking

Classic case studies surveying the use, role and function of language and speech in social life.

Richard Bauman (Edited by), Joel Sherzer (Edited by)

9780521379335, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 October 1989

532 pages
21.5 x 17.1 x 3.3 cm, 0.77 kg

First published in 1974, this collection of classic case studies in the ethnography of speaking had a formative influence on the field. No other volume has so successfully provided a broad, cross-cultural survey of the use, role and function of language and speech in social life. The essays deal with traditional societies in Native North, Middle, and South America, Africa, and Oceania, as well as English, French, and Yiddish speaking communities in Europe and North America and Afro-American communities in North America and the Caribbean. Now reissued, the collection includes a key introduction by the editors that traces the subsequent development of the ethnography of speaking and indicates directions for future research. The theoretical and methodological concepts and perspectives that illuminated the first edition are recognized anon and valued by many disciplines beyond that of linguistic anthropology. Scholars and students whose backgrounds may be in literature, speech communication, performance studies or ethnomusicology will equally welcome this edition.

Introduction to the second edition
Part I. Preface and Introduction: Preface
Introduction
Part II. Communities and Resources for Performance: Introduction
1. A quantitative paradigm for the study of communicative competence Gillian Sankoff
2. Language identity of the columbian vaupés indians Jean Jackson
3. 'Our ancestors spoke in pairs': rotinese views of language, dialect, and code James J. Fox
Part III. Community Ground Rules for Performance: Introduction
4. Warm springs 'indian time': how the regulation of participation affects the progress of events Susan U. Philips
5. Contrapuntal conversations in an Antiguan village Karl Reisman
6. Norm-makers, norm-breakers: uses of speech by men and women in a malagasy community Elinor Keenan
7. Speaking in the light: the role of the quaker minister Richard Bauman
Part IV. Speech Acts, Events, and Situations: Introduction
8. Strategies of status manipulation in the wolof greeting Judith T. Irvine
9. Rituals of encounter among the Maori: sociolinguistic study of a scene Anne Salmond
10. Speaking of speaking: Tenejapa tzeltal metalinguistics Brian Stross
11. Black talking on the streets Roger D. Abrahams
12. Namakke, Sunmakke, Kormakki: three types of cuna speech event Joel Sherzer
13. The concept and varieties of narrative performance in east European jewish culture Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Part V. The Shaping of Artistic Structures in Performance: Introduction
14. Correlates of cree narrative performance Regna Darnell
15. An analysis of the course of a joke's telling in conversation Harvey Sacks
16. When words become deeds: an analysis of three iroquois longhouse speech events Michael K. Foster
17. The ethnographic context of some traditional mayan speech genres Victoria R. Bricker
18. To speak with a heated heart: Chamula canons of style and good performance Gary H. Gossen
Part VI. Toward an Ethnology of Speaking: Introduction
19. Data and data use in an analysis of communicative events Allen D. Grimshaw
20. The ethnography of writing Keith H. Basso
21. Ways of speaking Dell Hymes
Notes
References
Index of names.

Subject Areas: Physical anthropology [JHMP], Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF], Sociolinguistics [CFB]