Talking Culture: Ethnography and Conversational Analysis (University of Pennsylvania publications in conduct and communication)
By Michael Moerman
* Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
* Number Of Pages: 256
* Publication Date: 1988-02
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0812280725
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780812280722
Product Description:
Argues that anyone--anthropologist, psychologist, or policeman--who uses what people say to find out what people think had better know how speech itself is organized.
Summary: The Illuminating Light of Communication
Rating: 4
Although the various essays in this book have different values, Society in a Grain of Rice, was a particularly insightful piece. Chapter One, Conversation Analysis, was not inspiring; Chapter Two, Life in Dry Dust, illuminated a conflict in people's values and how they might be shown or hidden in conversation. Chapter Four, Motives in Action, built on the earlier theme of hiding or showing material in a conversation by looking at how a researcher can find the purpose or motive in a conversation. But only Society in a Grain of Rice really connected to my imagination.
This essay looks at how words are used differently in different societies. Words like I and you, for example, are not used in Thai -- I reflected as I read this that they are similarly omitted in Arabic, Korean and Japanese. Korean has no word for "you." I remember a Japanese gentleman even commenting on how much foreigners love to talk about themselves as illustrated by the excessive use of the Japanese word for I. In fact, the Americans in the company did not speak of themselves more than their Japanese counterparts, but the Japanese people simply omitted the word, "Watashi," from the sentence when they spoke.
I reflected also on the author's mention that the word, "Khap," was often used in the rural areas of Thailand to mean, "Yes, I'm listening," and not necessarily as it was preceived to mean by foreigners and Bangkok officials, "Yes, it will be done." I reflected on the social value of the verbal listening cues so prominent in Japanese and wondered if this were the problem I have experienced living in Egypt. Is it possible that the people I discuss rowing plans with at the Rowing Club where I volunteer actually mean to say, "Yes, I hear you," and not "Yes, it will be done." Often, I find that after I ask the captain if we can do something, he says, "Yes," but then does something very different. I now realize, thanks to Mr. Moerman, that it might not be the words themselves, but their socially embedded meaning that I mistook.
Mr. Moerman's analysis of Geertz' description of the value of words triggered another revelation. Mr. Moerman argues in the book, that the meaning of the word need not be it's literal translation, but must be understood in the social process. He argues moreover that the value of spaces between the words, sounds like, "um, er, and laughter, that are not words," must be understood. I suddenly realized that the entire process of learning Arabic in Egypt is not in the words.
Arabic and Spanish are full of "honey talk," and people most frequently do not listen to the words themselves. Instead, they focus on the eyes and body language of the speaker.
"Flowers" or a collection of compliments that are woven into daily conversations making them sound more pleasant are a standard means of communicating in Arabic, Spanish and Japanese. Direct communication is less frequently used. When I commented on this to my Japanese roommate, she said something fascinating.
"It is only in America that you value vulgar talk as straight and direct, because you have so many different cultures. For other countries, like us Japanese, we do not need to be so explicit -- so vulgar -- because we can understand what we mean through subtly."
The truth of her statement struck me immediately. Egyptians do not value my straight talk, because they operate very well within the honey talk that they use. The only person struggling with the communication method is the foreign oberserver - me.
Mr. Moerman's book shed a wealth of light on communication issues I have been struggling with for years. |
楼主: 帆帆
honological Spectrum" aim at giving a comprehensive overview of current developments in phonological theory, by providing a number of papers in different areas of current theorizing which reflect on particular problems from different angles. Volume I is concerned with segmental structure, and focuses on nasality, voicing and other laryngeal features, as well as segmental timing. With respect to nasality, questions such as the phonetic underpinning of a distinctive feature [nasal] and the treatment of nasal harmony are treated. As for voicing, the behaviour of voicing assimilation in Dutch is covered while its application in German is examined with an eye to its implications for the stratification of the German lexicon. In the final section of volume I, the structure of diphthongs is examined, as well as the treatment of lenition and the relation between phonetic and phonological specification in sign language.