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 an 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/