Ethnography of Communication

Hi readers, this time I will discuss about the area of discourse analysis. In this occasion, I will explain about the expert of ethnography of communication.

The expert of ethnography of communication that I will discuss is Dell Hymes. Dell Hathaway Hymes, an anthropologist, linguist, and educator, is best known for his studies of the language and culture of Native Americans at the Warm Springs reservation in Central Oregon. He was born in Portland, Oregon on June 7, 1927, the son of Howard Hathaway and Dorothy (Bowman) Hymes.

After two years of military service (1945-1947), Hymes received his undergraduate degree from Reed College (1950) and went on to study linguistic anthropology under Carl Voegelin at Indiana University. Thus was the beginning of his lifelong linguistic study of the Wasco tribe. 

Hymes was married to Virginia Dosch Wolff and had four children. After his marriage to Virginia Margaret Dosch in 1954, Hymes continued his post-graduate work with Harry Hoijer at UCLA.

With his ability, he taught at Harvard University (1955-1960) and the University of California, Berkley (1960-1965), Hymes joined the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. During twenty-two years tenure at Penn he was a professor of folklore, linguistics, sociology and education. In 1975, he was promoted to Dean of the Graduate School of Education (1975-1987). He also served on various committees at Penn Including the Committee on problems of War and Peace, the Christian Association, the Committee on Language, Culture and Society, and the Haney Foundation Editorial Committee. He won in 2001 the highest award for a scholar in Linguistics, the Gold Medal of philology.

As a folklorist, Hymes believes that all narratives in the world are organized around implicit principles of form which convey important knowledge and ways of thinking and of viewing the world. He argues that understanding narratives will lead to a fuller understanding of the language itself and those fields informed by storytelling, in which he includes ethnopoetics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, rhetoric, semiotics, pragmatics, narrative inquiry and literary criticism.

Hymes responded on Noam Chomsky's influential distinction between competence and performance. He proposed the notion of communicative competence, or knowledge Necessary to use language in a social context, as an object of linguistic inquiry. Since Appropriate language use is conventionally defined, and there are language varies in different communities. Hymes refers to this as "the ethnography of speaking." After discussions with Ray Birdwhistell at the University of Pennsylvania, Hymes renamed the "ethnography of speaking" the "ethnography of communication" to reflect the broadening of focus from instances of language production to the ways in the which communication (including oral, written, broadcast, acts of receiving / listening) is conventionalized in a given community of users, and to include non-verbal as well as verbal behavior.

Hymes' first published work was in historical linguistics, Language in Culture and Society (1964). He believed that those who studied both linguistics and anthropology need to develop an opinion on the relation of language to culture. All of Hymes' works has been a response to finding a relationship between the two. He argues that linguistics should be based on a conception of language as social phenomena. As a result of this perspective, Hymes became a principal proponent of the emergent field of sociolinguistics. His other edited works include The Use of Computers in Anthropology (1965), Studies in Southwestern Ethnolinguistics (1967), Pidginization and Creolization of Languages (1971), Reinventing Anthropology (1972). Some later published works include Foundations of Sociolinguistics (1974), Language in Education: ethnolinguistic essays (1980), In Vain I Tried to Tell You: essays in Native American ethnopoetics (1981), American Structuralism (with John Fought, 1981). He returned to his historical perspective with the work Essays in the History of Linguistic Anthropology in 1983. With John Gumperz, he edited Directions in Sociolinguistics: the enthnography of communication (1986) that views speech as a part of a broader cultural system of communication action.

In 1972, Hymes founded the journal Language in Society and served as its primary editor until 1992. Other associate editor services include work with The Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (1966-1993), American Journal of Sociology (1977-1980), Journal of Pragmatics (1977-), and Theory and Society (1976-1996). In 1987, Hymes accepted the position of professor of Anthropology and English at the University of Virginia and became emeritus in 2000.

In one of his books entitled "Foundations of Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach", Hymes developed a valuable models to identify and label the components of linguistic interaction, in order to speak a language Correctly, one needs not only to learn its vocabulary and grammar, Also the context but in the which words are used. It calls "The Speaking Model".

·         Setting and Scene

Setting refers to the time and place of a speech act and, in general, to the physical circumstances. The living room in the grandparents' home might be a setting for a family story. Scene is the "psychological setting" or "cultural definition" of a scene, including characteristics such as range of formality and sense of play or seriousness. The family story may be told at a reunion celebrating the grandparents' anniversary. At times, the family would be festive and playful; at other times, serious and commemorative.

·         Participants

Speaker and audience. Linguists will make distinctions within these categories; for example, the audience can be distinguished as addressees and other hearers. At the family reunion, an aunt might tell a story to the young female relatives, but males, although not addressed, might also hear the narrative.

·         Ends

Purposes, goals, and outcomes. The aunt may tell a story about the grandmother to entertain the audience, teach the young women, and honor the grandmother.

·         Act Sequence

Form and order of the event. The aunt's story might begin as a response to a toast to the grandmother. The story's plot and development would have a sequence structured by the aunt. Possibly there would be a collaborative interruption during the telling. Finally, the group might applaud the tale and move onto another subject or activity.

·         Key

Cues that establish the "tone, manner, or spirit" of the speech act. The aunt might imitate the grandmother's voice and gestures in a playful way, or she might address the group in a serious voice emphasing the sincerity and respect of the praise the story expresses.

·         Instrumentalities

Forms and styles of speech. The aunt might speak in a casual register with many dialect features or might use a more formal register and careful grammatical "standard" forms.

·         Norms

Social rules governing the event and the participants' actions and reaction. In a playful story by the aunt, the norms might allow many audience interruptions and collaboration, or possibly those interruptions might be limited to participation by older females. A serious, formal story by the aunt might call for attention to her and no interruptions as norms.

·         Genre

The kind of speech act or event; for our course, the kind of story. The aunt might tell a character anecdote about the grandmother for entertainment, but an exemplum as moral instruction. Different disciplines develop terms for kinds of speech acts, and speech communities sometimes have their own terms for types.

Hymes died on 13 November 2009 at the age of 82 years in Charlottesville, Virginia. His son said that Hymes died from complications of Alzheimer's disease. In one poem, he concludes :

'Now, all allow, even the most dogmatic,

One should be at least a bit "pragmatic."'

This is one of works of Dell Hymes about Language in Education: ethnolinguistic essays (1980). http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED198745.pdf (Copy this domain)

• Cazden, C.B., John, V.P., & Hymes, D.H. (Eds.). (1972). Functions of language in the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.
• Gumperz, J. J., & Hymes, D. (Eds.). (1964). The Ethnography of Communication. Special issue of American Anthropologist, 66 (6), Part II: 137-54.
• Gumperz, J. J., & Hymes, D. (1972). Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
• Hymes, D.H. (1961). Functions of speech: An evolutionary approach. In F. Gruber (Ed.), Anthropology and education. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
• Hymes, D. (1962). The Ethnography of Speaking. In T. Gladwin & W. C. Sturtevant (Eds.), Anthropology and Human Behavior (pp. 13–53). Washington, DC: Anthropology Society of Washington.
• Hymes, D.H. (1963). Toward a history of linguistic anthropology. Anthropological Linguistics, 5(1), 59-103.
• Hymes, D.H. (1964a). Directions in (ethno-)linguistic theory. In A.K. Romney & R.G. D’Andrade (Eds.), Transcultural studies of cognition (pp. 6-56). American Anthropologist, 66(3), part 2.
• Hymes, D. (Ed.). (1964) Language in Culture and Society: A Reader in Linguistics and Anthropology. New York: Harper & Row.
• Hymes, D.H. (1967). Models of the interaction of language and social setting. Journal of Social Issues, 23(2), 8-38.
• Hymes, D.H. (1967). The anthropology of communication. In F.E. Dance (Ed.), Human communication theory: Original essays. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
• Hymes, D.H. (1970). Linguistic method in ethnography: Its development in the United States. In P. Garvin (Ed.), Method and theory in linguistics. The Hague: Mouton.
• Hymes, D. (1971). Sociolinguistics and the ethnography of speaking. In E. Ardener (Ed.), Social anthropology and language (pp. 47-93). London: Routledge.
• Hymes, D. (1971). On linguistic theory, communicative competence, and the education of disadvantaged children. In M.L. Wax, S.A. Diamond & F. Gearing (Eds.), Anthropological perspectives on education (pp. 51-66). New York: Basic Books.
• Hymes, D. (Ed.). (1971). Pidginization and Creolization of Languages. London: Cambridge University Press.
• Hymes, D.H. (1972). On communicative competence. In J.B. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics (pp. 269-293). London: Penguin.
• Hymes, D.H. (1972). Editorial introduction. Language in Society, 1, 1-14.
• Hymes, D. (Ed.). (1972). Reinventing Anthropology. New York: Pantheon.
• Hymes, D.H. (1972). Toward ethnographies of communication. In P.P. Giglioli (Ed.), Language and social context (pp. 21-44). Harmondsworth: Penguin.
• Hymes, D.H. (1973). Toward linguistic competence. Working Papers in Sociolinguistics, No. 16.
• Hymes, D.H. (1974). Ways of speaking. In R. Bauman & J. Sherzer (Eds.), Explorations in the ethnography of speaking (pp. 433-452). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Hymes, D.H. (Ed.). (1974). Studies in the history of linguistics: Traditions and paradigms. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Hymes, D.H. (1974). An ethnographic perspective. New Literary History, 5, 187-201.
• Hymes, D.H. (1974). Review of Noam Chomsky. In G. Harman (Ed.), "On Noam Chomsky: Critical essays" (pp. 316-333). Garden City, NY: Anchor.
• Hymes, D.H. (1975). Breakthrough into performance. In D. Ben-Amos & K. Goldstein (Eds.), Folklore: Performance and communication (pp. 11-74). The Hague: Mouton.
• Hymes, D.H. (1976). Toward linguistic competence. Sociologische Gids, 4, 217-239.
• Hymes, D.H. (1976). Discovering oral performance and measured verse in American Indian narrative. New Literary History, 8, 431-457.
• Hymes, D. (1980) In five year patterns. In B. H. Davis & R. K. O'Cain (Eds.), First Person Singular (pp. 201-213). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Hymes, D. (1980). Language in Education: Ethnolinguistic Essays. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.
• Hymes, D., & Fought, J. (1981). American Structuralism. The Hague: Mouton.
• Hymes, D. (1981). "In Vain I Tried to Tell You": Essays in Native American Ethnopoetics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Hymes, D. (1983). Essays in the History of Linguistic Anthropology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Hymes, D.H. (1984). Vers la compétence de communication. (Trans. F. Mugler). Paris: Hatier.
• Hymes, D.H. (1985). Toward linguistic competence. AILA Review/Revue de l’AILA (Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée), 2, 9-23.
• Hymes, D.H. (1992). Inequality in language: Taking for granted. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 8(1), 1-30.
• Hymes, D.H. (1993). Inequality in language: Taking for granted. In J.E. Alatis (Ed.), Language, communication, and social meaning (pp. 23-40). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
• Hymes, D. (1996). Ethnography, Linguistics, Narrative Inequality: Toward an Understanding of Voice. London: Taylor & Francis.
• Hymes, D.H. (1998). When is oral narrative poetry? Generative form and its pragmatic conditions. Pragmatics, 8(4), 475-500.
• Hymes, D.H. (1999). Boas on the threshold of ethnopoetics. In R. Darnell & L. Valentine (Eds.), Theorizing the Americanist tradition. University of Toronto Press.
• Hymes, D.H. (2000). The emergence of sociolinguistics: A reply to Samarin. Dialogue, 312-315.
• Hymes, D.H. (2001). Poetry. In A. Duranti (Ed.), Key terms in language and culture. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Hymes, D.H. (2001). Preface. Textus, 14, 189-192.
• Hymes, D. (2003). Now I Know Only So Far: Essays in Ethnopoetics. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

References :

http://www.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.Ms.Coll.55-ead.xml

http://www1.appstate.edu/~mcgowant/hymes.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Hymes