Universidade Estadual da Paraíba

Centro de Educação
Departamento de Letras e Artes
Curso de Letras Inglês
Componente Curricular: Introdução à Sociolinguística
Carga Horária Total: 60 horas
Oferta: Semestral Ano: 2022.1
Professora: Karyne Soares Duarte Silveira
Alunos(as): __________________________________

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TEXT:

“THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION / POLITENESS”
(WARDHAUGH, Ronald; FULLER, Janet M. Languages, Dialects, and Varieties. In.: WARDHAUGH,
Ronald; FULLER, Janet M. An introduction to sociolinguistics. 7th ed. Oxford: Blackwell publishers,
2015.)

01. How can you define the ethnography of communication?

Ethnography of communication is defined as the concern of speakers of a native language

to reproduce their knowledge for the community, it can also be pointed out as the study of
language that focuses on describing native speakers and how they use that language for
communication.

02. What is the difference between communicative competence (HYMES) and linguistic
competence (CHOMSKY)?

Sometimes the term communicative competence is used to describe the knowledge of

using language in culturally appropriate ways, as cited in the text in the first chapter, the term
suggested by Hymes (1972) which differs from the linguistic competence brought by Chumsky
which focused on in the ideal knowledge of speakers and listeners of the grammatical part of the
native language. Hymes brought that knowledge to something greater than that. Gumperz
(1972, 205) explains this term: language involves much more than that. Gumperz (1972, 205)
explains the term: ‘Whereas linguistic competence covers the speaker’s ability to produce
grammatically correct sentences, communicative competence describes his ability to select,
from the totality of grammatically correct expressions available to him, forms which
appropriately reflect the social norms governing behavior in specific encounters.’

03. Explain the process of language socialization.

When we are learning a new language, what to learn for its purpose, this is learning for
the purpose of communicating in certain groups and situations, after learning to make a change
to the group we are learning to differentiate one group from another, one language to another.
Communication competence is a key to social competence. This is called language socialization.

04. What do the letters in the SPEAKING acronym stand for? Explain each one and what
Hymes’ offers us with this formula.

S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G means Scenario and Scenario, Participants, Purposes, Sequence of Acts,

Key, Instrumentalities, Norms and Genre.
S is for setting and scene, setting refers to place and time, as circumstances the speech takes
place and scene refers to the cultural definition of the occasion.

P is for the participants, that is, the speaker and the listener, usually fill specific social roles.

And it is for the expected result of an exchange, the objective of the participants in a specific
situation.

A is for the sequence of acts which is the way the contents are said, how words are used and
how they are used.

K is the way a key, which has been sent, is the happy one, for a key, etc.

I is for instrumentalities, which is the choice of channel for a conversation, oral, written, among
others.

N is for norms of interaction and interpretation, it's about behavior and properties that can be
noticed by those who don't share it either, like volume.

G is for clearly marked utterances, such as poems, these are specifically marked in contrast to
casual speech.

Hymes offers with SPEAKING work is a complex necessary to show that speaking is an activity,
whatever particular is a qualifier.

05. What types of data are relevant for ethnomethodological studies in sociolinguistics? What
is not relevant?

Ethnomethodologists are interested in techniques people use to interpret the

world around them and how they interact with it, they want to discover and categorize
the system people use to make sense of the world. Large-scale pupil surveys are no longer
of interest, they do not elaborate very sophisticated theoretical models of social
organization or hypothesize social theories.

06. How can you explain the concept of “face” and its importance to social interaction?

According to Goffman's (1995, 1967), in social interactions we show our face to other
faces, we protect our face and create an image for when we go to talk to another person. This is
important for social interaction, as it is a way of defending against judgments.
POLITENESS STRATEGIES
What would you do if you saw a cup of pens on your teacher’s desk, and you wanted to use
one? Would you say:
a. “Oh, I want to use one of those!”
b. “So, is it O.K. if I use one of those pens?”
c. “I’m sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to ask if I could use one of those pens?”
d. “Hmm, I ‘m sure I can use a blue pen right now.”

*If you answered A, you made no effort to minimize imposition on the teacher.
 *If you answered B, you recognized that your teacher has a desire to be respected. It also
confirms that the relationship is friendly and expresses group reciprocity.
*If you answered C, you recognized that your teacher wanted to be respected. However, you also
assume that you are in some way imposing on him/her. Some other examples would be to use
the formulas: “Would you mind…” or “I was wondering if…”.
*If you answered D, your purpose was to take some of the pressure of you. You are trying not to
directly impose by asking for a pen. Instead you would rather it be offered to you once the
teacher realizes you need one, and you are looking to find one. The same may happens when, on
purpose, someone decided not to return someone’s phone call, therefore you say: “I tried to call
a hundred times, but there was never been any answer.”

Other examples of politeness strategies:

*An emergency:
HELP!
*Task oriented:
Give me that!
*Request:
Put your coat away.
*Alerting:
Turn your headlights on! (when alerting someone to something they should be doing)

Comment: When the speaker uses the strategies above, there is no effort to reduce the impact of them
on the hearer. He will most likely shock the person to whom he is speaking, embarrass him/her, or make
him/her feel a bit uncomfortable. However, this type of strategy is commonly found with people who
know each other very well, and are very comfortable in their environment, such as close friends and
family.

*Attend to the hearer:

“You must be hungry, it’s a long time since breakfast. How about some lunch?’
*Avoid disagreement:
A: “How is she? Small?”
B: “Yes, yes, she’s small, smallish, um, not really small, but certainly not very big.”
*Assume agreement:
“So, when are you coming to see us?”
*Opinion:
“You know something. You should try harder.”

Comment: The strategies above are usually seen in groups of friends, or where people in the given social
situation know each other fairly well. It usually tries to minimize the distance between them by
expressing friendliness and social interest in the hearer’s need to be respected.

*Forgiveness:
“You must forgive me, but…”
*Minimize imposition:
“I just want to ask you if I could use your computer?”
*Pluralize the person’s responsibility:
 “We forgot to tell you that you needed to buy your plane ticket by yesterday.” (This takes all the
responsibility off you, even if you were the only person responsible for telling the hearer when
the deadline was to buy the ticket.)

Comment: The main focus for using the strategies above is to assume that you may be imposing on the
hearer. Therefore, these automatically assume that there might be some social distance in the situation.

*Being indirect:
“I’m looking for a comb.” (You don’t want to impose and take the hearer’s time. Therefore, you
hope he/she will offer to go and find one for you)
*Give hints:
“It’s cold in here”
*Be vague:
“Perhaps someone should have been more responsible.”

Comment: The purpose of the strategies above is to remove any imposition on the hearer whatsoever.