The ethnography of

speaking and structure of

conversation

Ana Maria Garcia Rodriguez

Sociolinguistics

What does the ethnography of

speaking refer to?
The ethnography of speaking is a way of
dealing with the description of speech events
that calls for an analysis of every relevant
factor, all of which are closely interrelated in
forming the structure of the whole event.
The factors are realized and related in
appropriate ways for each genre (kind of
speech event), such as a sermon, a
chemistry lecture or a bargaining session,
etc.

 The speech event (act of human communication)

is in the focus of sociolinguists attention.
The study of language must deal with the real texts
that form human communication and the social
situations they are used in.
The speech event is constituted by seven distinct
factors, each associated with a different function:
(Roman Jakobson and Dell Hymes)
speaker / writer
hearer / reader

message
speech code
topic (expressed by the message form)
channel (visual or aural)
setting (where the speech event is located).

Speaker

priest

Hearer

participant

Message

the actual words, sounds and sentences

Topic

religious context

Channel

direct voice by loudspeaker

Setting

church

Code

the language may understood

What is meant for conversational

interchange?
Linguists generally ignored the study of
spoken language.
Ethnographers, sociologists and
sociolinguists began to explore its
structure.
While linguistic analysis was based on the
written language, the conversational
interchange is the basic unit of the spoken
language (where two or more speakers take
turns to speak).

 There is a formal structure of

conversation determined - by social
rules and
- by the nature of the event.
The structure of conversation was first
studied in telephone conversations
demonstrating the existence of socially
structured rules for conversational
interchanges.

 There have been studies of different

aspects of conversation:
the rules for turn-taking (the
question of who speaks) and
interruption.
the organization of invitations.
the normal patterns of social intercourse
in casual conversations.
the nature of service encounters
(occasions in which one person /client,
customer, patient/ seeks help from
another /seller, clerk/).

Explain the term turntaking

Turn-taking (rules for determining who speaks when in
conversational interchange) physical constraint:
In various formal situations, e.g. in a classroom, in a
parliament or in trials clear rules on the order of
speaking.
In informal conversations and meetings who speaks
depends on power and status. Who has the floor (the
right to talk at any given moment) varies according to
rules of the social group.
Silence leaves the floor open;
Turn-holders ways of signalling that the speaker
intends to continue after a break, and wants to keep the
floor.

What do politeness and politeness

formula refer to?
Politeness consists of this recognition
of the listener and his or her rights in
the situation.
Requests are mitigated by being made
indirectly, as statement or by adding
formulas.
Example:
1. Could you possible pass me the
salt?
2. I think that is the salt beside your

The most kind of politeness formulas

are involved with greetings.
Each social groups has its own set of
rules about who should be greeted,
who should greet first, and what is an
appropriate form of greeting.
Hi!
Hello!
How are you?

What expressions do we use as

terms of address here in Bolivia?
The choice of second person pronoun and
related phenomenon of terms of address in
Western Europe languages shows the
formulization of politeness and status in a
language.
In French
Tu singular pronoun; Vous plural pronoun
V form was used to address someone of higher
status, who would return to T form.
Ex: Servant - master

Tu

Vos

Doa

Seora

Madam

Oficial

Lic.

Dr.

Usted
Seorita
General