Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
ethnography of speaking [Grk éthnos ‘a people’] (also ethnography of communication)
This approach, introduced in the 1950s and early 1960s by D.Hymes and J.J.Gumperz (see also Pike 1954), is concerned with the analysis of language use (
usage vs use) in its sociocultural setting. In contrast to the then popular linguistic theories of structuralism and transformational grammar, this approach is based on the premise that the meaning of an utterance can be understood only in relation to the ‘speech event,’ or ‘communicative event,’ in which it is embedded (see Hymes 1962). The character of such speech events (e.g. a sermon, a trial, or a telephone call) is culturally determined. It is believed that the rules governing language use can be established by systematic observation, analysis of spontaneous language, and interviews with native speakers ( field work).
Ethnography of speaking led to the ethnographic approach to discourse analysis, in which conversational inferences play a key role: participants link the content of an utterance and other verbal, vocal, and non-vocal cues with background knowledge ( contextualization) in order to come to an understanding about the specific interchange. For example, in a situation involving doctor and patient, code-switching (or even a change in loudness) may indicate whether the doctor is talking to the patient or the nurse. Furthermore, the way in which discourse proceeds may demonstrate how social identities are negotiated (see Erickson and Shultz 1982). The ethnographic approach is close to other current sociological approaches in its methodology and areas of research (see Goffman and Cicourel in discourse analysis; for an overview, see Corsaro 1981). ( also conversation analysis)
References
Bauman, R. and J.Sherzer (eds) 1989. Explorations in the ethnography of speaking, 2nd edn. (1st edn 1978.) Cambridge.
Boden, D. and D.Zimmerman (eds) 1992. Talk and social structure. Cambridge.
Cicourel, A. 1975. Discourse and text: cognitive and linguistic processes in studies of social structures. Versus 12. 33–84.
——1980. Three models of discourse analysis. DPr 3. 102–32.
——1987. The interpretation of communicative contexts: examples from medical encounters. Social Psychology Quarterly 50. 217–26.
Duranti, A. 1988. Ethnography of speaking: toward a linguistics of the praxis. In F.Newmeyer (ed.), Linguistics: the Cambridge survey. Cambridge. Vol. 4, 210–28.
Erickson, F. and J.Shultz. 1982. The counselor as gate keeper. New York.
Goffman, E.
1971. Relations in public. New York.
——1974. Frame analysis. New York.
——1981. Forms of talk. Philadelphia, PA.
Grimshaw, A. (ed.) 1991. Conflict talk. Cambridge.
Gumperz, J.J. 1982. Discourse strategies. Cambridge.
——(ed.) 1982. Language and social identity. Cambridge.
Hymes, D. 1962. The ethnography of speaking. In T. Gladwin and W.C.Sturtevant (eds), Anthropology and human behavior. Washington, DC. 99–138.
——1972. Models of the interaction of language and social life. In J.J.Gumperz and D.Hymes (eds), Directions in sociolinguistics: the ethnography of communication. New York. 35–71.
Lindenfeld, J. 1990. Speech and sociability at French urban marketplaces. Amsterdam.
Pike, K.L. 1954. Language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of human behavior. The Hague. (2nd edn 1967.)
Saville-Troike, M. 1989. The ethnography of communication, 2nd edn. Oxford.
Tannen, D. (ed.) 1981. Analyzing discourse. Gurt.
——1984. Conversational style. Norwood, NJ.
——(ed.) 1984. Coherence in spoken and written discourse. Norwood, NJ.
——1986. That’s not what I meant. New York.
contextualization, discourse analysis
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