DOCSLIB.ORG

June 8, 2012, NIH Record, Vol. LXIV, No. 12

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
June 8, 2012, NIH Record, Vol. LXIV, No. 12 JUNE 8, 2012 The Second Best Thing About Payday VOL. LXIV, NO. 12 ‘Who Gets Heard? What Gets Done?’ Expert Linguist Tannen Looks at Workplace Dynamics By Carla Garnett ABOVE · Demos offer a touch of realism at NIH’s 18th annual Police Awareness Day s your boss overly bossy? Why does ev- event. See more photos, p. 16. Iery conversation with your coworker feel like a competition? Could you be clear- features er about making assignments? How much more could your organization accomplish 1 if you all communicated better? To offer Knowledge of ‘Rituals’ Enhances Workplace Communication insight into these questions, language ex- pert Dr. Deborah Tannen gave a Deputy 3 Director for Management Seminar recent- Studies of Concussion Go High-Tech ly in a packed Masur Auditorium. The goal 10 of the talk was simple. Dr. Deborah Tannen, a scholar at Georgetown ITAS To Require ID Badge for TKs “If we understand ways of speaking and University, talks workplace dynamics at NIH. how they vary, we’ll be able to judge others 16 more accurately,” she said. “You have hopes for your own communication to be judged Police Awareness Day Picnic Draws Crowd more accurately, but also [everyone wants to] get more work done and influence who gets credit for the work that gets done.” see tannen, page 6 departments Bike to Work Day Draws Crowds, Briefs 2 Director Digest 11 As most employees Feedback 12 know, Bike to Work Milestones 13 Day is observed at Seen 16 NIH every day of the year—especial- ly in years like 2012 when there was essentially no win- ter—by quite a few NFL Hall of Famer Darrell Green kicks off NIH’s of our colleagues. 5th annual Take a Hike Day. NIH director Dr. Francis But on May 18, Collins pedals down Conditions Perfect for Healthy ‘Hike’ pedalers were out Center Dr. on BTWD. Masses Hit the Pavement in 5th Annual in force, includ- Employee Exercise Event ing, for the third year in a row, NIH director Dr. Francis Collins, who cruised down Center Bright sunshine. Clear skies. Brisk breeze. All Dr. with his wife Diane Baker on the official in all, NIH’s 5th annual Take a Hike Day on BTWD. And for the 7th year in a row, NIH May 10 was the kind of day that made you had the most registered participants in the happy to be alive, according to honorary run/ event among local organizations, according walk starter and NFL Hall of Famer Darrell to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Green, former standout cornerback for the The NIH Record is recyclable Governments (MWCOG). Washington Redskins. as office white paper. see bike day, page 4 see hike, page 8 purchase cardholders to locate, buy and track purchases from hundreds of the most frequently used suppliers, offering over 12 million laboratory, office and computer items. A free lunch is available to holders of a valid cdc. briefs gov, fda.gov or nih.gov email address; register and qualify for the lunch at www.intramalls.com/show- Author Pink To Give DDM Seminar case. If you require reasonable accommodation to participate, call 1-888-644-6255 during business The Deputy Director for Management (DDM) hours at least 7 days before the event. announces the fourth and final DDM seminar of the 2011-2012 series “Management and Sci- ence: Partnering for Excellence.” The event on Workshop on Informed Risk Assessment Thursday, June 14 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in An innovative interagency program sponsored by Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10, will feature Daniel NIEHS continues its 2012 workshop series with an Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About exploration of “Systems Biology—Informed Risk What Motivates Us and a leading authority of Assessment,” June 14-15 in Washington, D.C. employee management relations and human Part of the National Academies’ Emerging Science motivation in the workplace. for Environmental Health Decisions series, the Videocasting and sign language will be pro- workshop is free and open to the public. Registra- vided. Individuals who need reasonable accom- tions are now being accepted at www.surveygizmo. modation to attend should call (301) 496-6211 or com/s3/911911/Systems-Biology-Registration and the Federal Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339. For webcast registration will soon be available. more information about the series, visit www. The workshop will focus on changes in the risk ddmseries.od.nih.gov or call (301) 496-3271. assessment landscape driven largely by advances in molecular and systems biology, recent reports Jones To Address Exercise Interest Group from the National Research Council and volumes of new test data arising from the Tox21 and European The NIH Record is published biweekly at The exercise interest group (EIG), the newest Bethesda, MD by the Editorial Operations member of NIH’s special interest groups, will be Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restric- Branch, Office of Communications and having its first invited speaker on Wednesday, tion of Chemical substances programs. Public Liaison, for the information of June 13 at 1 p.m. in the Neurosciences Bldg., employees of the National Institutes of Rm. D. Dr. Lee W. Jones will discuss “From Cells MSKCC’s Thompson To Health, Department of Health and Human Services. The content is reprintable without to Society: Exercise as Treatment for Cardiovas- Speak, June 3 cular Injury and Cancer Progression Following a permission. Pictures may be available upon Dr. Craig B. Thompson, Cancer Diagnosis.” request. Use of funds for printing this pe- CEO and president riodical has been approved by the director Jones’ translational research program spans of the Office of Management and Budget of Memorial Sloan- through September 30, 2012. animal models to human trials that: evaluate the Kettering Cancer efficacy of exercise training to prevent and/or Center, will present To receive alerts to our latest issue, send treat the cardiovascular and functional impact of this year’s third and an email to [email protected] with the cancer therapy and elucidate the effects of aero- words “Subscribe NIHRECORD” in the final installment of the message body. bic training and their underlying systemic and annual NIH Director’s molecular mechanisms on tumor progression Lectures on Wednes- NIH Record Office Bldg. 31, Rm. 5B41 and metastatic dissemination. He has published Phone (301) 496-2125 Fax (301) 402-1485 day, June 13, 3-4 p.m. over 100 scientific articles and book chapters in Masur Auditorium, Web address http://nihrecord.od.nih.gov on these topics. He is a member of the interna- Bldg. 10. His talk is Editor tional editorial board for Lancet Oncology and titled “IDH Mutations: Oncometabolite Deregulation Richard McManus his research program is supported by NIH, the of Epigenetic Remodeling.” [email protected] American Cancer Society and the Department of Thompson is a board-certified internist and medical Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. Associate Editor oncologist. He has extensive research experience Carla Garnett For more information contact Dr. Mark Roltsch, in cancer, immunology and translational medicine. [email protected] (301) 435-0535 or [email protected]. His current research focus is the role that metabolic Staff Writer changes play in the origin and progression of Jan Ehrman IntraMall Summer Showcase, June 20-21 cancer. He has also done pioneering research on [email protected] the genes that control programmed cell death and The 14th annual NIH IntraMall Summer Show- The NIH Record reserves the right to how the misregulation of such genes can contribute make corrections, changes or deletions in case will be held in the south lobby of Bldg. 10 to cancer. In earlier work, he contributed to the submitted copy in conformity with the June 20-21 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event development of innovative treatments for autoim- policies of the paper and HHS. is hosted by the IntraMall electronic purchasing mune diseases and leukemia. site designed exclusively for NIH to simplify NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health purchasing. Since opening in June 1998, the IntraMall has become a leading NIH web site for government 2 NIH RECORD JUNE 8, 2012 2 JUNE 8, 2012 JUNE 8, 2012 VOL. LXIV, NO. 12 Can We Reduce Concussions? High-Tech System Monitors Head Impacts By Dever Powell Homer Simpson hits his head, sees stars and everyone laughs. But head injuries are no laughing matter for kids who play contact sports. Nervous moms and dads want to know: are helmets safe? “Research and testing led to the development of helmets effective in preventing traumatic brain injuries,” said Richard Greenwald, president of Simbex. The same cannot be said for relying on helmets to prevent milder—but still serious— traumatic brain injuries (MBTIs), such as concussions. “Most current helmets were not developed spe- cifically for reducing risk of concussion because Richard Greenwald discusses new technology to monitor head injury. we’re only now learning how they might,” said photo: ernie branson Greenwald in his Apr. 17 lecture “Biomechanical Basis of Concussion: Monitoring Head Impact a concussion and not realize it. Some people, including athletes of all ages, are in Sports,” part of the NICHD Director’s Lecture never diagnosed and risk further injury. Research has linked repetitive head Series. injuries to long-term chronic brain injury, including early onset dementia. Despite the frequency of concussions, little research had been conducted on head Spotlight on College Sports impact exposure until recently. Starting in 2001 with the support of NICHD’s National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research, Simbex developed the Head Richard Greenwald’s research found that in Impact Telemetry System (HITS). With this technology, Greenwald and his col- collegiate football: leagues have been working to supply the needed data.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Machine-Gun Question: an Example of Conv'ersational Style *
    Journal of Pragmatics 5 (1981) 383 ·~-3 97 383 North-Holland Publishing COlnpany THE MACHINE-GUN QUESTION: AN EXAMPLE OF CONV'ERSATIONAL STYLE * DEBORAH TANNEN Scholars in many disciplines have written about style, a tenn Hymes (1974) aptly calls "protean". In a paper originally published in 1927, Sapir includes style as one of five levels of speech contributing "'to judgments of personality, defining it as "an everyday facet of speech that characterizes both the social group and the individual" (1958:542). Robin Lakoff (1979) follows Sapir in identifying speech style with what is popularly perceived as "personality". Ervin-Tripp (1972) places the study of style in the framework of theoretical linguistics. She discusses use of the term by Hymes, Geertz, and Labov, and suggests that linguistic choices are made on two levels. Syntagmatic relations, following rules of co-occurrence, result in idt1ntifiable styles. Paradigmatic relations, following rules of alternation, result in choices among styles and make possible style..switching, on the model of code..switching. Hymes (1974) builds on this work, noting that a speech community is comprised of a set of styles, and asserting that he uses the term in "the root sense of a way or n10de of doing something". Thus speech styles are simply "ways of speaking". He terms styles associated with specific situations registers, thus accounting for what is often thought of as formal vs. informal speech. The sense in which I shall use style is perhaps closest to Hymes' term varieties: "major speech styles associated with social groups". My use of style refers as well to no more nor less than a way of doing something.
    [Show full text]
  • Indirectness in Discourse: What Does It Do in Conversation?
    Intercultural Communication Studies III:1 1993 Sanae Tsuda Indirectness in Discourse: What Does It Do in Conversation? Sanae Tsuda Tokaigakuen Women's College Introduction This paper tries to explore the various aspects of indirectness in conversational discourse. In the beginning, the theoretical frameworks for the analysis of indirectness are explored by examining Grice's theory of conversational implicature and cooperative principles, Ervin Goffman's theory of face, the application of the idea of face to politeness by Brown and Levinson, and Deborah Tannen's theory of conversational style of message and metamessage. Secondly, different functions of indirectness in conversational interaction will be explored in the light of these analyses. In particular, avoidance of confrontation, manipulation of information, joking, and understatement will be examined as manifestations of violations of Grice's cooperative principles. Cultural differences of indirectness will also be explored. I. Theoretical Frameworks for Indirectness in Conversation 1. Conversational Implicature According to Grice (1975), conversational implicature plays an important role in our personal interactions. In conversation, we usually understand what others are saying even when people do not express their intentions straightforwardly. Grice provides a theory which explains how we correctly interpret what others are implying by universal conventions in human interaction which are called cooperative principles. These 63 Intercultural Communication Studies III:1 1993 Sanae
    [Show full text]
  • The Handbook of Discourse Analysis
    The Handbook of Discourse Analysis Edited by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton The Handbook of Discourse Analysis Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics This outstanding multi-volume series covers all the major subdisciplines within linguistics today and, when complete, will offer a comprehensive survey of linguistics as a whole. Published Works: The Handbook of Child Language Edited by Paul Fletcher and Brian MacWhinney The Handbook of Phonological Theory Edited by John Goldsmith The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory Edited by Shalom Lappin The Handbook of Sociolinguistics Edited by Florian Coulmas The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences Edited by William Hardcastle and John Laver The Handbook of Morphology Edited by Andrew Spencer and Arnold Zwicky The Handbook of Japanese Linguistics Edited by Natsuko Tsujimura The Handbook of Linguistics Edited by Mark Aronoff and Janie Rees-Miller The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory Edited by Mark Baltin and Chris Collins The Handbook of Discourse Analysis Edited by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton The Handbook of Variation and Change Edited by J. K. Chambers, Peter Trudgill, and Natalie Schilling-Estes The Handbook of Discourse Analysis Edited by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton Copyright © Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2001 First published 2001 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 Blackwell Publishers Inc. 350 Main Street Malden, Massachusetts 02148 USA Blackwell Publishers Ltd 108 Cowley Road Oxford OX4 1JF UK All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnicity As Conversational Style* (-
    ,/ Indirectness in Discourse: Ethnicity as Conversational Style* (- ..... ~... "~ tJ _ i S CO u rs..€ i race$<"" t ~ ~'. ~ ~ ~ 9 ~ u _ t'J 1- '? - I." 9 / • f ./ "' <::---"--. ~o /-. f ~ l DEBORAH TANNEN Georg~town University This paper focuses on indirectness in discourse 85 a feature of convcfl\ational style. Reported researcb emphasizes social differences in elpcctations ofindirectness in the contexl ofconver­ Alion between married partners. To discover patterns of interpretation, findings are drawn from (I) interviews with Greeks and Americans about their interactional experience and (2) a pilot study consisting of a ques­ tionnaire based on • conversation reported in (I) and including (a) paraphra~ choices (b) short answers and (c) open-ended interview/discussions with respondenls. Resuhs suggest that Greeks lie more likely 10 expect indirectness in the context pre~cnled, and IhaC Greck­ Americans who may not speak Greek bave retained the innuence of Greek communicalive strategies. Discussion of differences in interpretive strategies focuses on I) the discourse function of questions and 2) the significance of ellipsis, yielding a br~v;ly efftct. associated for Greeks with an ~nlhusUum constraint. 1"heoraical implicationS include an aUernalive 10 Bems(ein~5 hypothc~i5 about restricted and daborated codes, such that restriction and elabor3liun are nOl monolithic. Rather. groups differ with respect to which contexts, channels, and cues require elaboration. I once began a paper on misunderstandings due to differences in conversational style by referring to the following experience. While I was staying with a fa":lily on the island ofCrete, no maUer how early I awoke, nlY hostcs~ nlanagcd (0 have a plate of scrambled eggs waiting on the table for me by the (hnc I was up and dressed; and at dinner every evening, dessert included a pile of purple seeded grapes.
    [Show full text]
  • Conversational Strategy and Metastrategy in a Pragmatic Theory: the Example of Scenes from a Marriage*
    Conversational strategy and metastrategy in a pragmatic theory: The example of Scenes from a Marriage* ROBIN TOLMACH LAKOFF and DEBORAH TANNEN The question of artistic verisimilitude - the relationship between the representation and the reality - is one of the more intriguing issues in a theory of aesthetics. Until now, linguists have largely been isolated from this area of philosophical speculation because it seemed irrelevant to our interests and impervious to our methodology. But as we get more involved in the formal analysis of naturalistic conversations - through tape recordings or transcripts - we are struck, often, in a perverse way by their apparent unnaturalness, their difficulty in being understood. Com­ pared, say, with the dialog in a play or a novel, naturalistic conversation strikes us as not what we expected, not working by preconceived pattern. We would not claim that constructed dialog represents a reality lacking in transcripts, but rather that artificial dialog may represent an internal­ ized model or schema for the production ofconversation - a competence model that speakers have access to. If, then, we are interested in discovering the ideal model ofconversational strategy, there is much to be gained by looking at artificial conversation first, to see what these general, unconsciously-adhered-to assumptions are; and later returning to natural conversation to see how they may actually be exemplified in literal use. Thus, we are not claiming that the artificially-constructed dialog we are going to discuss literally represents natural conversation, but rather that one can inspect a different level of psychological reality and validity through the use of literary data, and in this paper we will illustrate how such work might responsibly be done.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 DEBORAH TANNEN Department of Linguistics Georgetown University
    DEBORAH TANNEN Department of Linguistics Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057 202/687-5910 Education Ph.D. Linguistics. University of California, Berkeley. 1979 M.A. Linguistics. University of California, Berkeley. 1976 M.A. English Literature. Wayne State University. 1970 B.A. English Literature. Harpur College. 1966 Diploma. Hunter College High School. New York, NY. 1962 Honorary Doctorates University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 2002 St. Mary's College, St. Mary's City, MD, 1998 Weber State University, Ogden, UT, 1997 St. Michael's College, Colchester, VT, 1996 Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, 1993 Professional Positions University Professor, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University, 1991-present 1989-1991: Professor, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University 1985-1989: Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University 1979-1985: Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University Visiting 2012-2013 Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA June 1997 Faculty, 1997 Linguistic Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 1992-1993 Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA Spring 1992 Visiting Scholar, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ Fall 1991 McGraw Distinguished Lecturer, Council for the Humanities and Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 1986-1987 Research Associate, Joint Program in Applied Anthropology, Teachers College, Columbia University,
    [Show full text]
  • Making Sense of Metaphors: Visuality, Aurality and the Reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse
    Pittsburgh University School of Law Scholarship@PITT LAW Articles Faculty Publications 1994 Making Sense of Metaphors: Visuality, Aurality and the Reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse Bernard J. Hibbitts University of Pittsburgh School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_articles Recommended Citation Bernard J. Hibbitts, Making Sense of Metaphors: Visuality, Aurality and the Reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse, 16 Cardozo Law Review 229 (1994). Available at: https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_articles/122 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship@PITT LAW. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@PITT LAW. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. ARTICLES MAKING SENSE OF METAPHORS: VISUALITY, AURALITY, AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF AMERICAN LEGAL DISCOURSE Bernard J.Hibbitts* TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: "AN EAR FOR AN EYE" .................... 229 I. METAPHORS IN LIFE AND LAW ........................ 233 II. "MIRRORS OF JUSTICE": VISUALITY AND LEGAL D ISCOURSE ............................................. 238 A . Seeing Culture ..................................... 238 B. Visuality and Power ................................ 264 C. Law and the Phenomenology of Sight ............. 291 III. "FAIR HEARINGS": AURALITY AND THE NEW LEGAL LANGUAGE ............................................ 300 A. Hearing Culture ...................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Pragmatics of Cross-Cultural Communication1
    The Pragmatics of Cross-Cultural Communication1 DEBORAH TANNEN Georgetown University, Washington 1. INTRODUCTION The study of cross-cultural communication is a paradigm example of the insepar- Downloaded from ability of linguistic theory and application. Linguists study cross-cultural com- munication for its applied significance, which is enormous, given the heterogeneity of societies affected by global migrations and the increasingly cross-cultural nature of commerce, diplomacy, and personal relationships throughout the world. And we also study cross-cultural communication because it provides a discourse analog to the starred sentence in linguistic argumentation. By examining interactions in which http://applij.oxfordjournals.org/ habits and expectations about how to show what is meant by what is said are not shared, we can see semantic processes—how language means—which are harder to observe in the seamless surface of successful communication. I will illustrate the range of aspects of communication that can vary from culture to culture by discussing and exemplifying eight levels of differences in sig- nalling how speakers mean what they say. These aspects of ways of speaking are not extra-linguistic nor even paralinguistic but are the essence of language. Just as physicists understand the nature of physical elements by observing their behavior in various environments and in interaction with other elements, so we at University of South Carolina - Columbia on September 4, 2012 come to understand the nature of language by observing it in communication and in contact with other systems of communication. In analysing the pragmatics of cross-cultural communication, we are analysing language itself. 2. LEVELS OF COMMUNICATION DIFFERENCES What is it that can be culturally relative in communication? The answer is, just about everything—all the aspects of what to say and how to say it.
    [Show full text]
  • Outline of Communication
    Outline of communication The following outline is provided as an overview of and 2.1.2 Types of communication by mode topical guide to communication: • Conversation Communication – purposeful activity of exchanging in- formation and meaning across space and time using vari- • Mail ous technical or natural means, whichever is available or preferred. Communication requires a sender, a message, • Mass media a medium and a recipient, although the receiver does not • Book have to be present or aware of the sender’s intent to com- municate at the time of communication; thus communi- • Film cation can occur across vast distances in time and space. • Journalism • News media • Newspaper 1 Essence of communication • Technical writing • Video • Communication theory • Telecommunication (outline) • Development communication • Morse Code • Information • Radio • Telephone • Information theory • Television • Semiotics • Internet • Verbal communication 2 Branches of communication • Writing 2.1 Types of communication 2.2 Fields of communication 2.1.1 Types of communication by scope • Communication studies • Cognitive linguistics • Computer-mediated communication • Conversation analysis • Health communication • Crisis communication • Intercultural communication • Discourse analysis • International communication • Environmental communication • • Interpersonal communication Interpersonal communication • Linguistics • Intrapersonal communication • Mass communication • Mass communication • Mediated cross-border communication • Nonverbal communication • Organizational
    [Show full text]
  • You Just Don't Understand
    You Just Don't Understand 1 You Jus Don't UNDERSTAND By: Deborah Tannen, Ph.D. Synopsis: Deborah Tannen uses telling examples to stunningly demonstrate how even in the closest of relationships women and men live in different worlds made of different words. The deft way she elucidates how our complex verbal give and take works or does not work and shows how the sexes can unravel their tangled language has made You Just Don't Understand a cultural phenomenon and has kept it on the New York Times best seller list for over 4 years. Also by Deborah Tannen: That's Not what I Meant Scholarly Books: Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse Conversational Style: Analyzing Talk Among Friends Lilika Nakos Linguistics in Context: Connecting Observation and Understanding (Editor) Languages and Linguistics: The Interdependence of Theory, Data, and Application (Co-Editor with James E. Alatis) Perspectives on Silence (Co-Editor with Muriel Saville-Troike) Coherence in Spoken and Written Discourse (Editor) Spoken and Written Language: Exploring Orality and Literacy (Editor) Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk (Editor) 2 You Jus Don't UNDERSTAND Women and Men in Conversation Deborah Tannen, .). Ballantine Books New York Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. if this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as "unsold or destroyed" and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it. Copyright 1990 by Deborah Tannen, Ph.D. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
    [Show full text]
  • Silence and the Construction of Reality
    Ethics and Information Technology (2007) 9:281–295 Ó Springer 2008 DOI 10.1007/s10676-007-9148-0 When Nightingales Break the Law: Silence and the Construction of Reality Sandra Braman Department of Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 210 Johnston Hall, 2522 E. Hartford Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. Strikingly, theorizing about digital technologies has led us to recognize many habitual subjects of research as figures against fields that are also worthy of study. Communication, for example, becomes visible only against the field of silence. Silence is critically important for the construction of reality – and the social construction of reality has a complement, the also necessary contemplative construction of reality. Silence is so sensitive and fragile that an inability to achieve it, or to get rid of it, or to correct the wrong kind of silence often provides early indicators of individual, group, communal, and society-wide stresses from information tech- nologies. Indeed, we might treat difficulties with silence as miners treated canaries in coal mines, as early warning signals. The story has already been told that nightingales in London now have to sing so loudly in order to be heard above the ambient noise that the birds are in danger of breaking the noise ordinance law. Surely something has gone awry if nightingales break the law when they sing. Finding ways to protect silence as an arena of personal and social choice is a particularly poignant, evocative, and instructive ethical and policy horizon at this frontier moment for the human species. This article introduces the theory of the contemplative construction of reality, explores what the study of silence tells us about reality construction processes, and outlines a research agenda.
    [Show full text]
  • Oral and Literate Strategies in Spoken and Written Narratives." Language 58(1982):1.1-21
    ORAL AND LITERATE STRATEGIES IN SPOKEN AND WRITTEN NARRATIVES DEBORAH TANNEN George/ou'" University Comparative analysis of spoken and written versions of a narrative demonstrates (I) that features which have been identified as characterizing oral discourse are also found in written discourse. and (2) that the written short story combines syntactic complexity expected in writing with features which create involvement expected in speaking. Quint- essentially literary devices (repetition of sounds and words, syntactic structures, and rhythm) are shared by written literary language and ordinary spontaneous conversation because both are typified by subjective knowing and by focus on interpersonal involve- ment. In contrast, expository prose and content-focused oral genres, such as lectures and instructions, may be typified by objective knowing and by focus on content.* Linguistic research too often focuses on one or another kind ofdata, without __ its. relationship to other kinds. In order to determine which texts are past and projected research, a perspective is needed on the kinds of language studied and their interrelationships. Moreover, as Lakoff 1981 observes, dis- course analysis needs a taxonomy of discourse types, and ways·of distinguish- ing among them. Through close comparative analysis of spoken and written versions of a narrative produced by the same person, two dimensions crucial to discourse types will be addressed here: (I) spoken vs. written modes, and (2) the rela- tionship between literary language. and the language of ordinary conversation. Following background discussion of related research, recent studies by Ochs 1979 and Chafe 1979a provide initial inventories of features associated with informal spoken and formal written discourse.
    [Show full text]