Exam 1

Question 1

Lakoff’s Triangle

Answer 1

• sematics:
• meaning/form:
• syntax/pragmatics:
• function:

Question 2

Face

Answer 2

• positive: consistent self image or personality, crucially including the desire that that self image is appreciated and approved
• negative: basic claim to territories, personal preservation, rights to non-distraction, freedom from action and imposition

Question 3

non-referential vs. referential usage

Answer 3

• non-referential: “Shit I’m late for class”, doesn’t actually refer to literal shit
• referential: “stop leaving your dogs shit in my yard” refers to actual shit

Question 4

idiomatic function

Answer 4

• creating a casual space

- profanity can make the space more relaxed and casual

Question 5

function of slurs

Answer 5

• tools of oppression
• used to maintain power with one particular group
• group that is oppressed is silent
• slurs express values, identity and power
• slur words can be used to put people in different classes

Question 6

gendered usage

Answer 6

• men and women uses cuss words equally
• women use it less openly, more when their around friends and use different cuss words
• women and men see different words worse than others
• men cuss more openly

Question 7

SPEAKING model

Answer 7

Setting, Participants, End: social business, Act sequence: order that stuff happens, Key: tone of interaction, Instrumentality: type of language used, Norms, Genre

Question 8

circle around language

Answer 8

-values, class, culture, ethnicity, beliefs, body language, religion all get excluded

Question 9

rich points

Answer 9

• points in communication where you can’t understand the language unless you understand the culture
• not understanding the language can lead to miscommunication/violence

Question 10

1 mentality

Answer 10

your culture and religion is the best

Question 11

fallacy of normalcy

Answer 11

• no such thing as normalcy
• the assumption that your behaviors are normal
• precludes any sort of analysis
• everyone else is varying degrees of wrong

Question 12

comparative approach

Answer 12

• no right or “correct” way to communicate
• compares communication practices across different sociocultural groups
• concerned with determining what is at stake? and how is communication embedded in wider structures of power and authority

Question 13

V.I.P.

Answer 13

• what social business hopes to achieve
• values: affirming a value or challenging a cultural value
• identity: creating identity or going against identity
• power: negotiating power, challenging power

Question 14

social business

Answer 14

• is: what an interaction achieves socially; what the doing is doing
• is not: what someone is trying to do

Question 15

play

Answer 15

• as soon as lines and rules are drawn a trickster pops up to test the limits
• she/he will metacommunicatively signal “this is play” but the game still has the possibility of changing social structure

Question 16

reflexive awareness

Answer 16

ability to observe one’s own culture and actions critically

Question 17

power

Answer 17

performances both resist and reinforce power and hegemony

Question 18

emergent quality of performance

Answer 18

• culture is always changing, uphold or challenged between performers or audience members
• through performance, its able to change power structures and people place themselves at the center of attention and reshape social structure to gain power

Question 19

icon (Wilce signs)

Answer 19

• sounds like or in some way resembles its object

- imagistic

Question 20

function of silence

Answer 20

• silence is just as important as the words we use in communication
• silence can have many meanings/emotions
• people understand silence based on their culture

Question 21

orthographic representation

Answer 21

• taking the writing and/or language of a group of people and making it more accessible to the audience while still properly representing that particular group
• power/role of ethnographer:

Question 22

entextualization

Answer 22

what you are going to put into text

Question 23

decontextualization

Answer 23

removing a word or parts from context in which they are presented

Question 24

recontextualization

Answer 24

texts being reframed

Question 25

deitics

Answer 25

• things in conversation that need context to understand them
• result of decontextualization

Question 26

single authorship

Answer 26

we assume one person is writing, but its co-constructured with others sometimes

Question 27

master narrative vs narrative

Answer 27

• master narrative: leaves out some people, often a narrow story
• narrative: more general, can include master narrative, most accepted master narrative
• reflect values, identity, and power:

Question 28

conversational signals

Answer 28

-pacing, pausing, loudness, pitch, intonation

Question 29

conversational devices

Answer 29

-expressive reaction, asking questions, complaining, apologizing

Question 30

rapport/report talk

Answer 30

• report: generally public speech used by more men than women, but can be private
• rapport: generally private speech used by women, can be considered inappropriate or unprofessional in public setting

Question 31

Mary Douglas’s “Dirt”

Answer 31

• matters out of place (soil in someone’s bed example)
• language or communication that is out of place
• using profanity in bars is not “dirty” because you expect it, but using it in church is

Question 32

ethnographic approach

Answer 32

• “the cultural study of how and why people do what they do”
• a set of methods, including participant observation, transcripts, interviews, etc.
• a written analysis of your findings and how they relate to theories on the field

Question 33

performance-based approach

Answer 33

• recognizes that culture is always changing and being made
• recognizes that language creates social reality
• argues that we can observe values, identity, and power (or social business) through the performance of language

Question 34

poetics

Answer 34

• cultures and selves are “made up” in everyday life.
• we all play roles
• ethnographers are attracted to non-everyday performances because they show us the possibilities and limits of everyday creativity

Question 35

play

Answer 35

• as soon as lines and rules are drawn a trickster pops up to test the limits
• she/he will metacommunicatively signal “this is play” but the game still has the possibility of changing social structure

Question 36

process

Answer 36

• think of culture as a verb, not a noun

- culture is transacted through performance

Question 37

power

Answer 37

performances both resist and reinforce power and hegemony

Question 38

index (Wilce signs)

Answer 38

correlates with, and therefore refers to, its object (dark clouds are indices of an impending storm)

Question 39

icon (Wilce signs)

Answer 39

• sounds like or in some way resembles its object
• imagistic vs. diagrammatic icons
• a map resembles the world

Question 40

symbol (Wilce signs)

Answer 40

• the relationship to the object is arbitrary but usually understood as natural
• Example: a peace sign with your hand. Your two fingers up do not look like peace, but we understand it to mean peace.