Republic of the Philippines

University of Rizal System

Pililla, Rizal

GRADUATE SCHOOL

Reniel M. Domingo Prof. Jameson Martinez

Student Graduate Lecturer

DELL H. HYMES: A man of

Excellence
This man of exceptional qualities and
achievements is Professor Dell H. Hymes, a
prominent anthropologist, linguist and
educational visionary whose work echoes
and blown the roof as the first one to study
major concepts and conducted ground-
breaking research studies about language.
In his initiative, he studied the concepts of the
amalgamation of Society and Language called
Sociolinguistics. This focuses on “a
reconstruction of social theory in the light of
linguistic methods and findings, and of linguistic
theory on a social basis”. He asked how social variation
affects language and how language affects the society. He hoped
for an “’integrative” theory of language that would question the very notions of
“language” and “dialect” and that would start from the assumption that structure follows
function rather than the other way around, as “the significance of features of language
cannot be assessed without knowledge of their social matrix”. This was not a modest
set of aims. For Hymes, the goal of sociolinguistics, “if such research is to be more than
a novel name for a hodge-podge of pre-existing activities, pursued helter-skelter,” was
“to change the terms of reference for scientific, and informed public discussion, of
‘language’ … to put an end to theory and research in terms of ‘language’ and
‘languages,’ and to replace it by theory and research in terms of the true forms in which
linguistic resources are organized, change and are changed, in human lives”
In addition to his valuable and smart ideals, Hymes made a foregone conclusion when
he changed the direction of Noam Chomsky’s Linguistic Competence to Communicative
Competence which refers to both the tacit knowledge of a language and the ability to
use it effectively. Noam believes that a language learner needs to master linguistic rules
and vocabulary of that language that is necessary to building his/her intellectual and
lexical capacity. However, Hymes did not diminish the paramount importance of
Noam’s linguistic principle. He cleared that a language user needs to use the language
not only correctly or based on linguistic performance, but also appropriately based on
communicative competence. He stressed that “…a normal child acquires knowledge of
sentences not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate. He or she acquires
competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom,
when, where, in what manner. In short, a child becomes able to accomplish a repertoire
of speech acts, to take part in speech events, and to evaluate their accomplishment by
others.”

Therefore, the target of Hyme’s approach to language is to prepare language users

holistically aligned to the 4 key principles in acquiring the communicative competence;
1. Linguistic Competence, which focuses on the branches of linguistics namely the
following; Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics and Phonetics. 2. Sociolinguistic
Competence, focuses on the social variation and sociocultural use of the language 3.
Discourse Competence deals with the coherence and cohesion in different text types. It
is the ability to produce texts through the mode of the macro skills. And 4. In deeper
sense, it the ability to connect and repair the communication breakdown and make the
communication simultaneous and spontaneous is called Strategic Competence.
If those were not enough, the blood of being an anthropologist runs in his veins, he
connected it as he conducted and acknowledged as best known for his founding role in
the Ethnography of Communication. Hymes initially proposed the Ethnography of
Speaking, but later amended to Ethnography of Communication as he tried to delineate
a new approach to see the function of language in a larger context. According to
Hymes: the purposes of the Ethnography of Communication are 1. “to investigate
directly the use of language in contexts of situations so as to discern patterns proper to
speech activity”
2. “to take as framework a community, exploring its unrestrained habits as a whole”. He
said that ‘language cannot be studied in isolation. It has to be studied in the wider
context of cultural and social aspects. Language is not limited to a mere technical set of
grammatical rules. In fact, it has a specific context, both in terms of the individual and
the cultural norms and beliefs. They cannot be separated. Hymes divides speech into
two components: ‘means of speech’ and ‘speech economy’. ‘Means of speech’ means
‘the features that enter into styles, as well as the styles themselves’. ‘Speech economy’
refers to the relationships within a speech community where the people use their means
of speech.’
Throughout his career, he examined carefully the very purpose of the language and the
effect to the society. This man is indeed a man next to Einstein. He has exceptional
superior qualities as he studied the very concepts of language that brought merit and
grace to his name.

References:
Chomsky, Noam (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
Hymes, Dell H. (1966). “Two types of linguistic relativity”. In Bright, W. Sociolinguistics.
The Hague: Mouton. pp. 114–158.
Hymes, Dell H. (1972). “On communicative competence”. In Pride, J.B.; Holmes,
J. Sociolinguistics: selected readings. Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 269–293.1
Barbara Johnstone, Carnegie Mellon University, Edited by Nikolas Coupland, University
of Wales College of Cardiff, Cambridge University Press
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107449787.020 pp 417-432
19 - Language theory in contemporary sociolinguistics: Beyond Dell Hymes?
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sociolinguistics/language-theory-in-
contemporary-sociolinguistics-beyond-dell-
hymes/B56C18085136CC9D4B44904F07E788E4
Ethnography of Communicationin COMMUNICATION / GENERAL,
https://www.communicationtheory.org/ethnography-of-communication/