Institute of Foreign Languages

Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

QUALITATIVE SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Ethnography/ Ethnography of communication/
Ethnography of speaking

introduced by Dell Hymes in 1974

Definition: An ethnography of a communicative event is a description of all the
factors that are relevant in understanding how that particular communicative event
achieves its objectives (Wardhaugh 2006). (e.g. a case hearing in a court of law)

Origin: Dell Hymes research in the communities of indigenous American people.

Focus: awareness of culture-bound assumptions in the analysis of language use;
application to the analysis of unfamiliar cultures.
Vytauto Didiojo universitetas

Institute of Foreign Languages

Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

Methodological insights
A methodology for studying linguistic patterns of a community based on:
1. participant observation (first-hand observations | in a group of people | in their
natural settings/ insider vs. outsider)
2. sociolinguistic interviews
3. and a researchers long-term involvement in the community.
Main postulates:
Approach of ethnography best explanations of human behaviour (including
linguistic) are particular and culturally relative rather than general and universal
(Wardhaugh 2006),
The communitys speech and writing are themselves cultural aspects worth
of investigation (Johnstone 2000).

One of the most prominent field methods in qualitative sociolinguistics

Institute of Foreign Languages

Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

Aims of Ethnographies

to discover how people use language, what they believe about language and why
they believe so (Monica Heller 2008:250);

to examine how members of a community understand their own world as this is

conveyed through their particular language patterns (cf. Aurelija Tamoinait);

to study language use in its cultural and social environment.

Institute of Foreign
Languages
Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

Research focus -- Ethnography of Communication

Groups of people (speech communities | communities of practice)
which can be very diverse:
1. one speech community (e.g., a Polish community in Lithuania or Russian
communities in Estonia or Latvia),
2. a neighborhood community or a community of practice (e.g. a seminar group),
3. a city community,
4. just a random group of people.
Speech community -- May be defined by subjective or objective criteria.
Objective criteria would group speakers together on the basis of the distribution of
linguistic variable. Subjective criteria would group speakers together if they
shared a sense of and belief in co-membership.
Community of practice a group of people that develop ways of doing things
together, activities, common knowledge and beliefs, and ways of talking, e.g. a
sports club, Parliament, local market, etc. (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003:57).

Institute of Foreign Languages

Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

Main components/concepts

Setting and Scene

Participants
Ends
Act sequence
Key
Instrumentalities
Norms of interaction and interpretation
Genre

SPEAKING

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

In order to analyse a
communicative event:
(1)in a patterned way
(2)taking into
consideration the
cultural environment

According to Hymes talk is a complex activity

all components have to be observed
When talk goes wrong = some of the given components might have been neglected.
Vytauto Didiojo universitetas

Institute of Foreign Languages

Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

Main components/concepts:
Hymes SPEAKING model in detail (1)
1. Setting the particular circumstances, namely time and place, of a
communicative event. Scene the abstract psychological setting of the event
or the occasion (e.g. Presidents annual report, Queens (the UK) address to the
parliament, a lecture etc.)
2. Participants the interlocutors or actors of the event, various combinations of
speaker-listener, addressor-addressee (e.g. a lecturer, a student + audience), a
sender receiver (e.g. email) ( e.g. dyads, group interaction, their attributes
gender, ethnicity, relationship, etc.)
3. Ends conventionally recognized and expected outcomes of an exchange (the
purpose and function of the event in general and the particular objectives of
each participant -- what was desired to be achieved and what was in fact
achieved), the goals of different participants may differ (E.g. Social end of a trial
in a courtroom vs. goals of various participants: the jury, the judge, prosecution,
plaintiff, barrister, defendant, etc.)
Vytauto Didiojo universitetas

Institute of Foreign Languages

Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

Main components/concepts:
Hymes SPEAKING model in detail (2)

4. Act sequence actual order, form and content of what is said and how the
communicative event proceeds, the language, the exact words used (e.g. a lecture
as a communicative event: the lecturer entails speaking, listening on the side of the
speakers, question-answer exchanges, discussions, etc.)

5. Key the choice of style, register, tone, manner and spirit in which a particular
message is conveyed: serious, formal, light-hearted, precise, ironic, etc. (e.g. a
lecture semi-formal academic style, with possible jokes and other informal inserts)
When there is a mismatch between what is being said and the key the listeners are
more likely to pay attention to the key.

Vytauto Didiojo universitetas

Institute of Foreign Languages

Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

Main components/concepts:
Hymes SPEAKING model in detail (3)

6. Instrumentalities the choice of a channel (e.g. oral, written, Skype messaging,

etc.) and the actual code employed (e.g. dialect, vernacular usage, formal written
legal English, etc.) or code-switching. Several instrumentalities at one time ( e.g.
standard language of a lecture + dialect for a joke+ an expression in Latin + a quote
from Shakespeare).
7. Norms of interaction and interpretation specific behaviour and properties of
speaking which may be shared by the participants or may be not: loudness, silence,
gaze, turn-taking, etc. (e.g. strict norms of religious rituals in church, lecture norms)
8. Genre the category of communication (e.g. a poem, a speech, a religious
sermon, etc.
Vytauto Didiojo universitetas

Institute of Foreign Languages

Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

Some studies in ethnographies

Scholar

Community

Linguistic aspects

Sherzer (1983)

Kuna community from Panama

Public language, gatherings, curing,

music, festivities

Hill and Hill (1986)

Malinche of Central Mexico

Daily life,

Lindenfeld (1990)

Paris, Rouen and Grenoble

Talk of vendors, vendor-customer talk,

politeness routines, small talk, jokes,
insults, etc.

Hazen (2002)

North Carolina: 3 local groups

African, European and Native
Americans.

Expression of cultural identity via

linguistic choices

Vytauto Didiojo universitetas

Institute of Foreign Languages

Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

Main components/concepts:
Hymes SPEAKING model -- rounded up
The model:

helps to systematise the process of observation and inquiry (Johnstone (2000: 99).

is significant for students and others who find themselves interacting with people from
other cultures because of the way it helps people understand the ways that
communication differs in different cultural situations
Some short comings:
time span required for data collection long time spend in a particular community;

methodologically, it is very much based on the researchers introspection what one

chooses to describe (insider vs.outsider);
observers paradox is it always solved?

Vytauto Didiojo universitetas

Institute of Foreign Languages

Dr. Vilma Bijeikien

Example of application (Holmes 2013)

Where are the mismatches from the perspective of Hymes model?

Virtual environment

Setting and Scene

Participants
Ends

Derek- internationally known expert, Louise teenage student

Eliciting assistance

Act sequence

Greeting, delivery of the request, farewell

Key

Transgression from the required serious/ formal

Instrumentalities

Written form

Norms

Conventions | use of rules of politeness | formal style

Genre
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E-mail

References
Eckert, Penelope & Sally McConnell-Ginet, 2003. Language and Gender,
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town: Cambridge University
Press.
Heller, Monica, 2008. Doing Ethnography, in The Blackwell Guide to Research
Methods in Bilingualism and Multilingualism, ed. by Li Wei and Melissa G. Moyer,
Malden, Oxford, Melbourn: Blackwell Publishing, 249262.
Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Routledge.
Johnstone, Barbara, 2000. Qualitative Methods in Sociolinguistics, New York,
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Romaine, S. 2000. Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguisitcs. 2nd ed.
Oxford: Oxford UP.
Wardhaugh, R. 2006. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 5th ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1949. Science and Linguistics. Reprinted in Carroll 1956.
http://aidasresearch.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/how-to-analise-a-communicative
-event-hymes-proposal/
http://www.cios.org/encyclopedia/ethnography/5applying_speaking.htm.