社会语言学-10- Ethnography and Ethnomethodology.ppt

Chapter 10：Ethnography and Ethnomethodology; Speech is used in different ways among different groups of people. Each group has its own norms of linguistic behavior. For example, a particular group may not encourage talking for the sake of talking, and members of such a group may appear to be quite taciturn to outsiders who relish talk, or they may feel overwhelmed by the demands made on them if those others insist on talking. In contrast, in another group talk may be encouraged to the extent that it may even appear to be quite disorderly to an observer who has internalized a different set of ‘rules’ for the conduct of talk. We must try to understand how different groups of people use their language (or languages) if we are to achieve a comprehensive understanding of how that language (or those languages) is related to the society that uses it. ;Varieties of Talk It is instructive to look at some of the ways in which various people in the world use talk, or sometimes the absence of talk, i.e., silence, to communicate. For example, !kung people, a bush-dwelling people of South West Africa are talkative people, but principally about food and gift-giving,.  Whereas the !Kung speak to prevent uncertainty in human relationships, the Westem Apache of east-central Arizona choose to be silent when there is a strong possibility that such uncertainty exists. Silence is often communicative and its appropriate uses must be learned. Among other things it can communicate respect, comfort, support, disagreement, or uncertainty. The Puliyanese of south India, The Aritama of Colombia, Danes, etc In contrast, other people talk for the sheer pleasure of talking. the Roti, the residents of the southwestern tip of the island ofTimor in eastern Indonesia, The Bella Coola of British Columbia, etc. P239; The social situation in Antigua in the West Indies requires another kind of indulgence in talk. In Antigua people speak because they must assert thems