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    SAVILLE TROIKE

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    5 views9 pages

    Saville Troike

    Uploaded by

    masza

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    Dag cull Treo rsh, SE, Palgrave li The Ethnographic Analysis of Communicative Events Muriel Saville-Troike In undertaking an ethnogrephy of communication in a particular locale, the fest ask is to define at least tentatively the speech community to be studied, attempt to gain some understanding ofits social organization and other salient aspects of the culture, and formulate possible hypotheses ‘concerning the diverse ways these sociocultural phenoment. might relate to patterns of communication. It is crucial that the ethnographic description of other gcoups be approached not in terms of preconceived categories and processes, but with openness to discovery of the way native speakers perceive and structure their communicative experiences; in the case of ethnographers working in their own speech communities, the development of objectivity and relativity is essential, and at the same time dificult Some early steps in description and analysis of patterns of commuaica- tion include identifying recurrent events, recognizing theit salient compo: nents, and discovering the relationship among components and between the event and other aspects of society. The ethnographer is also interested in attitudes toward the event, and how both relevant communicative skills and attitudes are acquired, The ultimate criterion for descriptive adequacy is Whether someone not acquainted with the speech community. might understand how to communicate appropriately in 2 particular situation; beyond that, we wish to know why those behaviors are more appropriate than alternative possibilities. Observed behavior is now recognized as a manifestation of a deeper set of codes and rules, and the task of ethnography is seen as the discovery and explication of the rules for contextually appropriate ‘behavior in a community or group; in other words, what the individual needs to know to be a functional member of the community. ‘Source “The Analysis of Communicative Evens, in Savile‘Trike, M. Gnd edn, 1985) The Etlnography of Cammunieatin: An Induction (Oxford: Basil Blackwell) pp. 107-39 126 a ocee Cinepece aS. Marit Savill-Troike 7 RELATIONSHIP OF ETHNOGRAPHER AND SPEECH COMMUNITY recent years the awarcneas hat grows that the researcher ean develop a deeper understanding of the culture under study by adopting & functional role and becoming a participant. This may in fact be necessary at times ifthe lack of a defined status and role would cause problems of ‘acceptance by the community. Some Kind of rationale may be required for the observer's presence, particularly in studies within his or her own society. When the observer knows the rales of the culture, and the members of the community know that he or she knows the rules of the culture, they expect the observer to behave like 2 member of the society ‘Thus, they are likely to find it aberrant for observers to inquire about oF record behavior which they are assumed to know, and little tolerance wil bbe shown for violations of rules. There is considerable awlwnrdnos, severe constraints are involved, and problems of ethics emerge. In addition, observers, taking for granted large aspects of the culture because they aze alzeady known “out of awareness,” may find it dificult and less intellectually rewarding to attempt to discover and explicate the seemingly obvious, the ‘unmarked’ case, Nevertheless ethnographers, precisely because of this knowledge of broad range of the world’s cultures, are able to bring a comparative perspective to work even within their own society. And by keeping a ments] distance from the objects of observation, and by teating subcultures such as that of the school or the factory as ‘exotic,’ they can maintain some af the detached objectivity for which anthropology is noted (One of the advantages of studying one’s own culture, and attempting to make explicit the systems of understanding which are implicit, is that cthnographers are able to use themselves as sourees of information and interpretation. Chomsky's view of the native speaker of a language as knowing the grammar of the language opened the way 10 introspection by native speakers as an analytical procedure, and recognized thatthe vastness of this knowledge extended far beyond what had revealed in most linguistic

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