THESES SIS/LIBRARY TELEPHONE: +61 2 6125 4631 R.G. MENZIES LIBRARY BUILDING NO:2 FACSIMILE: +61 2 6125 4063 THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY EMAIL: [email protected] CANBERRA ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA USE OF THESES This copy is supplied for purposes of private study and research only. Passages from the thesis may not be copied or closely paraphrased without the written consent of the author. Language in a Fijian Village An Ethnolinguistic Study Annette Schmidt A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Australian National University. September 1988 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates sociolinguistic variation in the Fijian village of Waitabu. The aim is to investigate how particular uses, functions and varieties of language relate to social patterns and modes of interaction. ·The investigation focuses on the various ways of speaking which characterise the Waitabu repertoire, and attempts to explicate basic sociolinguistic principles and norms for contextually­ appropriate behaviour.The general purpose is to explicate what the outsider needs to know to communicate appropriately in Waitabu community. Chapter one discusses relevant literature and the theoretical perspective of the thesis. I also detail the fieldwork setting, problems and restrictions, and thesis plan. Chapter two provides the necessary background information to this study, describing the geographical, demographical and sociohistorical setting. Description is given of the contemporary language situation, structure of Fijian (Bouma dialect), and Waitabu social structure and organisation. In Chapter 3, the kinship system which lies at the heart of Waitabu social organisation, and kin-based sociolinguistic roles are analysed. This chapter gives detailed description of the kin categories and the established modes of sociolinguistic behaviour which are associated with various kin-based social identities. Chapter 4 focuses on discourse of everyday life, dealing with the general rules and norms by which Waitabu individuals construct their everyday sociolinguistic behaviour including: male and female speech;greetings and leave-taking; deference and politeness markers; and conversational strategies. Chapter 5 provides detailed investigation of the cerem.......... onial speech event. This event is.characterised by special rules of speech and nonverbal behaviour, and is distinguishable by clearly defined opening and closing sequences with set sequencing of components in between. The chapter describes the specific principles and norms governing the linguistic, social and kinesic behaviour. In chapter 6, the decline of chiefly respect language is described. First, I detail distinguishing lexical, grammatical and speech act features of the speech style traditionally used towards the village chief. Then, I investigate the loss of these specific rules and norms in contemporary Waitabu, exploring factors in this change. Chapter 7 gives detailed description of dialect levelling evident in Waitabu. The various dialect varieties and their domains are described. Language attitudes and factors conducive to dialect shift are also investigated. Then follows analysis of how individuals creatively use these dialect differences in constructing their sociolinguistic behaviour, to mark certain contexts and role-relationships as distinct. Focus is on the specific rules and norms for sociolinguistic behaviour in the netball peer-group and in interaction with Indians. Chapter 8 investigates the special patterns of language use which characterise two institutionalised modes of communication in Waitabu society - religion and education. Chapter 9 gives a summary of the Waitabu investigation. i Table of Contents Declaration vi Acknowledgements vii Orthography viii Abbreviations x Maps xi 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. AIM 1 1.2. THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF SPEAKING 4 1.3. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THIS STUDY 14 1.3.1. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM 15 1.3.2. FUNCTIONING OF A SOCIOLINGUISTIC SYSTEM 18 1.3.3. DISTRIBUTION OF SOCIAL IDENTITIES AND 23 SOCIOLINGUISTIC ROLES 1.3.4. SUMMARY OF THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE 25 1.4. FIELDWORK 27 1.4.1. SELECTION OF FIELDSITE 27 1.4.2. FIELDWORK SETTING 28 1.4.3. PROBLEMS AND RESTRICTIONS 29 1.5. DATA COLLECTION AND THESIS PLAN 30 2. SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE 34 2.1. FIJI OVERVIEW 34 2.1.1. GEOGRAPHY 34 2.1.2. DEMOGRAPHY 35 2.1.3. LANGUAGES 36 2.2. SOCIOHISTORICAL SETTING 40 2.2.1. PREHISTORY 41 2.2.2. PRE-WHITE CONTACT 41 2.2.3. CHANGES IN POST-CONTACT PERIOD 43 2.3. CONTEMPORARY WAITABU VILLAGE 44 2.3.1. LOCATION 45 2.3.2. EFFECTS OF WESTERNISATION 45 2.3.3. LANGUAGE VARIETIES AND THEIR USE 47 2.3.4. SOCIAL ORGANISATION 48 2.3.5. SOCIAL CATEGORIES AND SOCIAL GROUPS 50 2.4. THE BASIC ORGANISATION OF FIJIAN GRAMMAR 52 Appendix 2.1 LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF OLD HIGH FIJIAN, 55 STANDARD FIJIAN, & COLLOQUIAL FIJIAN 3. KINSHIP 56 3.1. DESCRIPTION. OF THE KINSHIP SYSTEM 58 3.2. ROLE-RELATIONSHIP TYPES & MODES OF SOCIOLINGUISTIC 67 BEHAVIOUR 3.2.1. AVOIDANCE 68 3.2.2. JOKING 72 3.2.3. AUTHORITY 74 ii 3.3. SOCIAL CATEGORIES & DISTRIBUTION OF KINSHIP ROLES 77 3.4. COMMUNICATION 'NETWORK 78 3.4.1. ASCRIBED & VOLUNTARY TIES 78 3.4.2. MANIPULATION OF THE KINSHIP SYSTEM 79 3.5. SOCIOLINGUISTIC CHANGE 80 3.6. SUMMARY 81 Appendix 3.1 KIN TERMS OF REFERENCE AND ADDRESS 83 Appendix 3.2 SPONTANEOUS TAVALE {CROSS-COUSIN) JOKING 85 CONVERSATION 4. SOCIOLINGIBSTIC RULES FOR EVERYDAY INTERACTION 87 4.1. MALE vs FEMALE SPEECH 87 4.1.1. SOCIAL VALUES & ATTITUDES 88 4.1.2. LINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES 89 4.2. GIVING & TAKING 94 4.2.1. THE 'ERE'ERE "REQUEST" SPEECH ACT 94 4.2.2. FORMAL GIVING VA'AVA'ACABO 99 4.3. DEFERENCE & POLITENESS MARKERS 105 4.3.1. PLURAL PRONOUN 106 4.3.2. SUPRASEGMENTAL FEATURES 107 4.3.3. REQUESTS 107 4.4. GREETINGS & LEAVE-TAKING 111 4.4.1. GREETINGS 111 4.4.2. LEAVE-TAKING 114 4.5. FIJIAN ETHOS & THE NATURE OF THE FIJIAN LANGUAGE 116 4.5.1. VOICE QUALITY 117 4.5.2. MINOR FOCUS ON AGENTIVITY 117 4.5.3. CONVERSATIONAL STRATEGIES 118 4.6. CONCLUSION 121 5. SPEECH RITUAL -THE LANGUAGE OF CEREMONIES 123 5.1. INTRODUCTION 123 5.1.1. PARTICIPANTS 124 5.1.2. THE GIFT 125 5.1.3. POSTURE AND POSITION 126 5.1.4. RANGE OF CEREMONIES = 128 5.2. ISEVU CEREMONY - A REFLECTION OF SOCIAL HIERARCH~ 129 5.3. LINGUISTIC FEATURES . 130 5.3.1. LIMITED RANGE OF TOPICS 130 5.3.2. FORMULAIC ORDERING OF TOPICS 131 5.3.3. FOSSILISED WORD SEQUENCES 131 5.3.4. CEREMONIAL FORMS 136 5.3.5. SEMANTICS 140 5.4. COMPARISON OF VA'AVA'ACABO & CEREMONIAL GIVING 142 Appendix 5.1 RANGE OF CEREMONIES PERFORMED IN 146 CONTEMPORARY WAITABU 6. DECLINE IN THE SPEECH STYLE OF CHIEFLY RESPECT 148 6.1. TRADITIONAL SITUATION 148 6.2. DECLINE IN THE SPEECH STYLE OF CHIEFLY RESPECT 155 6.3. FACTORS IN THE DECLINE OF CHIEFLY RESPECT 159 7. DIALECT MIXING 163 7.1. INTRODUCTION 163 7.2. TRADITIONAL BOUMAN DIALECT 164 7.2.1. PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES 165 7.2.2. GRAMMATICAL ITEMS 165 7.2.3. MORPHOLOGY 168 7.2.4. LEXICON 168 7.3. DIALECT VARIETIES & THEIR DOMAINS IN CONTEMPORARY 169 WAITABU 7.4. GAUGING THE EXTENT OF DIALECT MIXING 17_.2 7.4.1. METHOD 172 7.4.2. TEST SENTENCES 173 7.4.3. PRONOUN PARADIGM 174 7.4.4. LEXICON 182 7.4.5. UNDERSTANDING TEST 189 7.4.6. FREQUENCY OF BOUMAN GRAMMATICAL FEATURES IN 190 TEXTS 7.4.7. SUMMARY OF TESTS 194 7.5. INTERMARRIAGE - AS A SOCIAL FACTOR CONDUCIVE TO 197 DIALECT LEVELLING 7.5.1. FEMALE POPULATION OF WAITABU 197 7.5.2. THREE BASIC SPEAKER GROUPS 198 7.5.3. NON-ASSIMILATING FEMALES 198 7.5.4. SPEECH OF PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN 202 7.6. ATTITUDES TO DIALECT MIXING 204 7.7. FACTORS CONDUCIVE TO THE MAINTENANCE & DECLINE 205 OF THE BOUMAN DIALECT 7.8. SOCIAL USES OF DIALECT DIFFERENCES 208 7.8.1. USING THE DIALECT CONTINUUM AS A RESOURCE 208 7.8.2. YOUNG GIRLS' NETBALL SPEECH 215 7.8.3. INDIAN/PIDGIN FIJIAN 218 7.9. SUMMARY 221 8. CHURCH & SCHOOL 224 8.1. THE CHURCH 224 8.1.1. CO-EXISTENCE OF TWO RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS 225 8.1.2. LANGUAGE VARIETIES WITHIN THE CHURCH DOMAIN 226 8.1.3. FEATURES OF OLD HIGH FIJIAN 228 8.2. EDUCATION 244 8.2.1. DESCRIPTION OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM 244 8.2.2. SCHOOL AS A DOMAIN OF VERBAL INTERACTION 245 8.2.3. IMP ACT OF EDUCATION ON W AITABU COMMUNITY.~ .. 247 9. SUMMARY OF THE WAITABU INVESTIGATION 249 Appendix A. TEST SENTENCES 258 Appendix B. CORE & PERIPHERAL VOCABULARY TEST 260 Appendix C. UNDERSTANDING TEST 261 Appendix D. SCORES PER ITEM IN TEST SENTENCES 262 Appendix E. URU NI 'UILA CEREMONY 266 iv List of Figures Figure 1-1: SOCIAL CATEGORIES, IDENTITIES & 26 SOCIOLINGUISTIC ROLES Figure 5-1: SEATING POSITIONS IN CEREMONY 127 Figure 7-1: SCORES IN TEST SENTENCES CORRELATED WITH 176 AGE Figure 7-2: ORDER OF DROPPING BOUMAN DIALECT 180 FEATURES Figure 7-3: NUMBER OF BOUMAN PRONOUN FEATURES 181 RETAINED Figure 7-4: NUMBER OF IRREGULAR BOUMAN FORMS 183 RETAINED Figure 7-5: CORE VOCABULARY -12 ITEM WORD LIST 185 Figure 7-6: PERIPHERAL VOCABULARY -12 ITEM WORD LIST 186 Figure 7-7: UNDERSTANDING TEST -12 ITEM WORD LIST 187 Figure 7-8: PROCESS OF DIALECT MIXING 222 v List of Tables Table 2-1: RURAL/URBAN LIVING BY ETHNIC GROUP, 1976 35 Table 2-2: HOURS PER WEEK OF BROADCASTING 39 Table 2-3: NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION 1984 40 Table 3-1: SUMMARY OF KINSHIP TERMS CURRENT IN 59 WAITABU Table 3-2: KIN TERMS AND CATEGORIES 64 Table 3-3: KIN CATEGORIES & MODES OF BEHAVIOUR 69 Table 3-4: PRONOUN & RELATIONSHIP TYPE 71 Table 3-5: KIN CATEGORY OF EGO'S BEST FRIEND 79 Table 4-1: FREQUENCY OF SOFTENING.