Overview

Alessandro Duranti explores the way traditional oratory in a Samoan village is shaped by the needs of the political process and shows how language insulates ceremonial speakers from the perils of everyday confrontation. He proposes a ""moral flow hypothesis"" in discourse, to describe a grammar that distributes praise and blame and in that way defines the standing of individuals in the community. This ethnographic journey from linguistic to political anthropology demonstrates that the analysis of grammar in context needs ethnography just as much as the conduct of politics needs grammatical analysis.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alessandro Duranti
Publisher:   University of California Press
Imprint:   University of California Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.408kg
ISBN:  

9780520083851

ISBN 10:   0520083857
Pages:   232
Publication Date:   22 August 1994
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1 Introduction The Place of Grammar The Political and Moral Dimensions of Grammatical Choices Getting to the Facts Intertextuality and Heteroglossia Representations of the Social Order Change Talk and Conflict: The Relevance of Genre Distinctions What Kind of Pragmatics Is This? A Speech Event Approach 2 Methods as Forms of Life Field Linguistics Ethnographic Linguistics In Search of a Method The NSF Project Research Agendas and Acquired Social Identities Interviews, Metalinguistic Awareness, and Native Taxonomies Discovering the Fono Interpreting the Texts The Fa)alupega or Ceremonial Address of Falefa What's in a Transcript? Writing Interaction 3 Hierarchies in the Making: Space, Time, and Speaking in a Fono A Love for Order and Its Permutations Space Temporal Boundaries Speaking Conclusions 4 Politics and Verbal Art: Heteroglossia in the Fono Variations across Contexts The Lauga Plan The Lauga as an Epic Genre Formalized Language and Power Variations within the Fono Conclusions 5 The Grammar of Agency in Political Discourse The Content of Political Speechmaking Grammatical Structures as Framing Devices The Expression of Agency in Samoan Grammar Ergative Agents in Fono Discourse: Claims of Accountability Human Agents in the Fono Discussion Mitigated Agency Agency and Power Conclusions 6 From Political Arenas to Everyday Settings: The Grammar of Agency across Contexts The Expression of Agency across Social Situations In Search of Fully Expressed Agents The Politics of Everyday Interaction I: Blaming The Politics of Everyday Interaction II: Giving Credit Illocutionary Force of Transitive Clauses with Agents Conclusions 7 Conclusions Ethnographic Linguistics Conflict and Grammar The Grammar of Human Agency: From Information Flow to Moral Flow Narrative Accounts Samoan Politics APPENDIX: ABBREVIATIONS IN INTERLINEAR GLOSSES NOTES REFERENCES INDEX

Reviews

"""Not only a valuable contribution to Samoan and Polynesian ethnography but also a stimulating and highly readable commentary on theory and method in anthropology.""--""Choice"

""Not only a valuable contribution to Samoan and Polynesian ethnography but also a stimulating and highly readable commentary on theory and method in anthropology.""--""Choice

Not only a valuable contribution to Samoan and Polynesian ethnography but also a stimulating and highly readable commentary on theory and method in anthropology. -- Choice

Author Information

Alessandro Duranti is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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