DOCSLIB.ORG

Social Meaning-190702.Pptx

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Social Meaning-190702.Pptx Indexicality Indexical Intersections-I ¤ Meaning making through language ¤ 3 types of (linguis<c) signs 7-2-2019 ¤ Referen<al indexes and nonreferen<al/social indexesl, indexical presupposi<on, indexical creavity/entailment ¤ Indexical order ¤ Indexical field 1 2 The Linguistic Sign Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) ¤ De Saussure’s defini<on of linguis<c sign: link between a concept (signified) and a sound paern (signifier), e.g., ‘cat’, ‘tree’ ¤ The link is arbitrary ¤ Symbol 3 4 The Semiotics of Linguistic Signs The Semiotics of Linguistic Signs ¤ “Semiocs”: The study of signs – things that stand for other things – and their nature and func<on. Peirce called the ¤ The sign itself: produc<on of meaning “semiosis” ¤ The object: ¤ A sign has three inseparable parts: ¤ The interpretant: 1) The sign itself or sign vehicle (Something A stands for something else) 2) The object for which the sign stands 3) The interpretant, which takes the sign for a sign (“the effect or outcome of the semio<c relaonship between the sign and the object” (Ahearn 2012, 27)) Example? 5 6 1 The Semiotics of Linguistic Signs The Semiotics of Linguistic Signs ¤ Three different ways that signs stand for their objects. ¤ Iden<fy the type of the following signs 1. INDEX or INDEXICAL: signs are grounded in relaon to their objects by spaotemporal connec&on or conguity (context 1 2 3 dependent) 2. ICON or ICONICITY: signs are grounded in relaon to their objects by resemblance/similarity 3. SYMBOL or SYMBOLISM: signs are grounded in relaon to their objects by convenon; the relaonship is arbitrary. 4 5 7 8 The Semiotics of Linguistic Signs The Semiotics of Linguistic Signs ¤ Some linguis<c signs have a very important indexical ¤ More examples: Tense elements in English verbal construc<ons dimension: they require context for interpretaon. (like –ed and ‘will’),‘this, that’, ‘here, there’, and pronouns ‘I’, e.g. “yesterday”: what day was it uMered? ‘you’, etc. ¤ When someone says “yesterday” the context of ¤ These kinds of linguis<c elements are some<mes called uMerance, “today”, must be there. Saying ‘shiers’ (because their meaning changes/shi^s depending on “yesterday” can be said to index a 24-hour <me context) (Silverstein 1976). period that is located prior to “today.” ¤ Michael Silverstein (1976) refers to these forms as ‘referenal indexes/indexicals.’ § They are indexical: meaning requires context § They are referen<al: picks out some piece of the world and designate it (i.e., referent) § They are “duplex signs” 9 10 Social Indexes/Indexicals ¤ ‘Social indexes/indexicals’nonreferen<al indexes “pure ¤ Indexical presupposi<on: An aspect of the indexes” (Silverstein 1976): Language can ‘point to’ something social or contextual without func<oning in a referen<al way. speech situaon is presupposed by the sign Such indexes can call into being the very social relaons that token. they are indexing. Linguis<c elements can index a relaonship, a character type, an aribute, atude, stance, etc. They create social meanings. ¤ Indexical creavity/performance: Social indexicals have a creave poten<al: They create ¤ e.g., Forms of address/address terms: the world – they are part of accomplishing or dude, bro, girl, babe, Honey, Bobby, Robert, Ms/r. Smith, Dr. Smith, Ma’am/Sir producing relaonships (in<macy, distance), stance, power, social categories, character(isc)s, etc. 11 12 2 Functional Characteristics of Indexes/ Social Indexicals Index Types and Tokens ¤ Social indexicals have a creave poten<al: They create the world – they are part of accomplishing or producing relaonships (in<macy, distance), stance, power, social categories, personae, character(isc)s, etc. 13 14 Social Indexicals ¤ How do social indexicals create social categories, character(is<c)s, relaonships, etc.? ¤ Examples: ¤Address terms ¤Dialect or accent features 15 16 Indexical Order, Indexical Field Silverstein 2003 ¤ Indexical order § ‘Indexical order’ is the concept necessary to showing us how to relate the micro-social to the macro-social frames of analysis of any sociolinguis<c phenomenon. (p. 193) § Dialec<cal relaonship between indexing and indexed § Order not defined as linear (by Silverstein) 3 Johnstone et al. 2006 *however, this table implies linearality nth order (+ nth order)… pp. 194 ¤ nth order (a.k.a. “1st order indexicality”) § Any form with indexical value (Eckert 2008) § “…this creave indexical effect is the movated realizaon, or performable execu<on, of an already cons&tuted framework of semio&c value.” § nth order presupposes its referent ¤ n + 1st order (a.k.a. “2nd order indexicality”) § “…always already immanent as a compeng structure of values poten<ally indexed in-and-by a communicave form of the nth order…” § “…drive entailing indexicality at the 1st, and thus become instruments of strategic, “performave” social interac<on cons<tuted by liMle acts of use of any of the indexical forms.” (pp. 216) ¤ The two orders are in dialec<c compe<<on ¤ n + 1st order can supplant or merge with the nth order ¤ Dialec<cal effect causes linguis<c change Johnstone et al. 2006 *however, this table implies linearality Silverstein’s examples 1. T/V deference en<tlement i. 1st order – deference indexicality ii. 2nd order – enregistered honorificaon 2. Contrast b/w English thou/thee vs you/ye) 3. Javanese speech levels i. 1st order (Ngoko: Krama) – lexical variants of pragmac paradigms ii. 2nd order (Ngoko: Krama Inggil) – binary system where Ngoko items can subs<tute for a Krama Inggil form iii. 3rd order (Ngoko: Krama Andap) – grammacoseman<c codings of ‘agents’ and ‘daves’ iv. 4th order (Madya) – usage level between Ngoko and Krama in deference-indicang value Silverstein’s examples Paraphrased 3. Norms informed by standardizaon (Labov’s NY study) ¤ Eckert 2008 § st th st 1 order index = indicator (Labov) in variaon i. Dialectal (n ) vs. superposed (n + 1 ) variability o What indexes people’s membership in a populaon a. dialectal (also presupposing) index of group- or category-iden<ty of § 2nd order index = marker (Labov) the Speaker o When Speakers begin to use the 1st order index stylis<cally and creavely b. Superposed index is informed by group-internal cultural expectaAon of alternaAon à usually leads to enregisterment of a variety ¤ Compernolle 2011 § nth order (1st order): any feature of language that can be associated with a 4. “Wine talk” or oinoglossia par<cular group or seman<c func<on § n + 1th order (2nd order): assigned ethno-metapramacally driven nave i. Lingo, or a way of speaking, can have “the indexically interpretaon (Silverstein 2003) à carries meaing in one or more local entailing effect or creave power to index consubstan<al ideologies traits in the speaker.” (pp. 226) § (n + 1) + 1th order (3rd order): a feature that has realized meaning within another (not necessarily local) ideological schema ii. “fashion of speaking” iii. Higher-order indexical authorizaon ¤ Both emphasize the “orders of indexicality” are not linear 4 Indexical Field (Eckert 2008) ¤ The meanings of variables are not precise or ¤ "Variables occur only as components of styles, fixed but rather cons<tute a field of poten<al and interpre<ng variables requires an analysis of meanings--an indexical field, or constellaon of these components" (Eckert 2008: 456) ideologically related meanings, any one of ¤ Styles associated with types in the social which can be ac<vated in the situated use of the landscape bear an important relaon to class, variable. The field is fluid, and each new but not a direct one. They are the product of ac<vaon has the poten<al to change the field enregisterment (Agha 2003) (Eckert 2008: 456) by building on ideological connec<ons (Eckert 2008: 453; see also p.464) 25 26 Beijing Yuppies Linguistic Variables Examples (Zhang 2005, 2018) ¤ Rhotacizaon “Beijing Smooth Operator Variable” “Beijingers are said to be to be smooth, the so- hua ‘flower’ [Standard Mandarin] è huar [Beijing Mandarin] called Beijing Smooth Operator, mainly because ¤ Lenion “Beijing Smooth Operator Variable” Beijing speech has a lot of rhotacizaon. xuesheng ‘student’ [Standard Mandarin] è xuereng [Beijing Mandarin] Beijingers are naturally gied with gab, and with ¤ Interdental realizaon of (ts) “Alley Saunterer Variable” heavy r-sounding, tHen [Beijingers] appear to be hai-zi ‘child’ [Standard Mandarin] è hai-thi [Beijing Mandarin] smooth. Have you heard anybody saying the ¤ Full tone realizaon of neutral tone “Cosmopolitan Cantonese have ‘oily accent, slippery tone’? That’s Variable” because their tongues can’t curl.” piao4liang0 ‘prey’ [Standard Mandarin] è piao4liang4 [Southern, non-Mainland Mandarin] 29 30 5 [Beijing speech] sounds mellow, familiar, and smooth. Such accent features … are determined ¤ Rhotacizaon and leni<on by Beijingers’ cultural character, formed over a long history of being the residents of the capital. … As such, Beijingers are well versed in the ways of the world. THis makes tHeir speecH sound smootH and mellow…. The extensive use of ‘rhotacizaon,’ which smoothes out the edges and corners of speecH … [makes it] sound smootH and mellow, and engenders a feeling of warmth and in<macy” 31 32 Different Linguistic Styles ¤ Interdental Full tone ¤ Comparison between state managers and yuppies 33 34 ¤ Gender variaon in each group Rebecca, chief representave of a European Bank David, deputy representave of the same bank 35 36 6 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Paper Super-Diversity Discourse
    Paper Super-diversity discourse by Karel Arnaut©& Massimiliano Spotti© (KU Leuven / Tilburg University) [email protected] [email protected] © January 2014 Draft -- Do not quote Entry: Super-diversity discourse For: The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction (Wiley Blackwell) Editor: Karen Tracy Authors: Karel Arnaut (KULeuven) & Massimiliano Spotti (Tilburg University) E-mail addresses: [email protected] ; [email protected] Abstract: Super-diversity discourse is a relatively new, primarily academic discourse whose increasing presence in the domains of social work, institutional policy, urban and national politics, and the media is signalling a rapidly growing uptake, albeit one that is disciplinarily fragmented and geographically unevenly spread. Arguably, super-diversity’s uptake suggests that its discourse is catching the imagination of the humanities and social sciences as a recognizably productive and an auspiciously novel vantage point that sits comfortably with certain existing explicitly post-colonial anthropological and sociolinguistic takes on diversity and identity, as well as with more recent diversity-related shifts or ‘turns’ towards, among other things, complexity and (urban, digital, etc.) translocality. After presenting the notion of super-diversity, exploring its conceptual Umwelt and its uptake most prominently in sociolinguistics, attention is given to the future prospects and perceived dangers surrounding its discourse. 1. Super-diversity and its conceptual Umwelt Super-diversity rests on the growing awareness that over the past two and a half decades the demographic, socio-political, cultural and socio-linguistic face of societies worldwide has been changing as a result of (a) ever faster and more mobile communication technologies and software infrastructures, along with (b) ever expanding mobility and migration activity related to major geo-political changes around 1990 (Blommaert 2012).
    [Show full text]
  • Charles Sanders Peirce - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia 9/2/10 4:55 PM
    Charles Sanders Peirce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 9/2/10 4:55 PM Charles Sanders Peirce From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced /ˈpɜrs/ purse[1]) Charles Sanders Peirce (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Peirce was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years. It is largely his contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, and semiotics (and his founding of pragmatism) that are appreciated today. In 1934, the philosopher Paul Weiss called Peirce "the most original and versatile of American philosophers and America's greatest logician".[2] An innovator in many fields (including philosophy of science, epistemology, metaphysics, mathematics, statistics, research methodology, and the design of experiments in astronomy, geophysics, and psychology) Peirce considered himself a logician first and foremost. He made major contributions to logic, but logic for him encompassed much of that which is now called epistemology and philosophy of science. He saw logic as the Charles Sanders Peirce formal branch of semiotics, of which he is a founder. As early as 1886 he saw that logical operations could be carried out by Born September 10, 1839 electrical switching circuits, an idea used decades later to Cambridge, Massachusetts produce digital computers.[3] Died April 19, 1914 (aged 74) Milford, Pennsylvania Contents Nationality American 1 Life Fields Logic, Mathematics, 1.1 United States Coast Survey Statistics, Philosophy, 1.2 Johns Hopkins University Metrology, Chemistry 1.3 Poverty Religious Episcopal but 2 Reception 3 Works stance unconventional 4 Mathematics 4.1 Mathematics of logic C.
    [Show full text]
  • 30 June, 2017 Curriculum Vitae Michael Silverstein
    30 June, 2017 Curriculum Vitae Michael Silverstein phone: 773/ 702-7713 Department of Anthropology facs: 773/ 702-4503 The University of Chicago 1126 East 59 Street email: [email protected] Chicago, Illinois 60637-1580 U.S.A. Born 12 September 1945, Brooklyn, New York Education Peter Stuyvesant High School, New York, New York, September 1959 – June 1962. Diploma (Class Salutatorian). Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 1962 – June 1965 [Social Class of 1966]. A.B., summa cum laude, in Linguistics and Romance Languages, June 1965. Phi Beta Kappa, 1965. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, July 1965 – June 1969. National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow in Linguistics, July 1965 – June 1969. Teaching Fellow in Linguistics, September 1966 – June 1969. Ph.D. in Linguistics, June 1972. Sigma Xi, 1971. Regular Teaching Employment The University of Chicago: Associate Professor of Anthropology and of Linguistics, July 1971 – June 1974 [on leave, 1971-72]; Associate Professor of Anthropology, Linguistics, and Behavioral Sciences (Cognition and Communication), July 1974 – January 1978 [on leave, October 1974 – December 1975; July – December 1976; 1977-78]; Professor, February 1978 – June 1984 [on leave, 1978-79; October – December 1979; October – December 1980]; Samuel N. Harper Professor (with concurrent appointment in the Committee on Analysis of Ideas and Study of Methods, 1984-1996; Committee on General [from 2002- , Interdisciplinary] Studies in the Humanities, 1996- ), July 1984 – June 1997 [on leave, January – June 1985]; Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology, Linguistics, and Psychology (with concurrent appointment in the Committee on General [changed to: 2 Interdisciplinary] Studies in the Humanities), July 1997 – [on leave, January – December 2002; 2012-13].
    [Show full text]
  • Tilburg University How Language Communities Intersect Silverstein
    Tilburg University How Language Communities Intersect Silverstein, Michael Publication date: 2014 Document Version Peer reviewed version Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Silverstein, M. (2014). How Language Communities Intersect: Is “superdiversity” an incremental or transformative condition? (Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies; No. 107). General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 29. sep. 2021 Paper How Language Communities Intersect: Is “superdiversity” an incremental or transformative condition? by Michael Silverstein © (The University of Chicago) [email protected] © September 2014 1 How Language Communities Intersect: Is “superdiversity” an incremental or transformative condition? Michael Silverstein The University
    [Show full text]
  • The Pragmatics of Qualia in Practice
    AN44CH33-Harkness ARI 21 September 2015 19:32 The Pragmatics of Qualia in Practice Nicholas Harkness Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138; email: [email protected] Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2015. 44:573–89 Keywords The Annual Review of Anthropology is online at interaction, materiality, sensorium and the senses, phenomenology, anthro.annualreviews.org qualisigns, semiosis This article’s doi: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-102313-030032 Abstract Copyright c 2015 by Annual Reviews. Access provided by Harvard University on 10/23/15. For personal use only. This review addresses general anthropological understandings of practice All rights reserved Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2015.44:573-589. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org and a technical semiotic approach to pragmatics through the concept of qualia. Qualia are pragmatic signals (indexes) that materialize phenome- nally in human activity as sensuous qualities. The pragmatic role of qualia is observed through exemplary accounts of the “feeling of doing” from the ethnographic record of practice in four domains: linguistic practices, phatic practices organized explicitly around social relations, practices organized around external “things,” and body-focal practices. Attention to qualia en- ables anthropologists to consider ethnographically what is continuous semi- otically across and within practices—from communication to embodiment. The article concludes with a discussion of praxis in relation to practice and pragmatics and offers suggestions for future research
    [Show full text]
  • ELE 2016.Pdf
    Language Documentation and Conservation in Europe edited by Vera Ferreira and Peter Bouda Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 9 PUBLISHED AS A SPECIAL PUBLICATION OF LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION &CONSERVATION LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION &CONSERVATION Department of Linguistics, UHM Moore Hall 569 1890 East-West Road Honolulu, Hawai’i 96822 USA http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I PRESS 2840 Kolowalu Street Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822-1888 USA © All texts and images are copyright to the respective authors. 2016 CC All chapters are licensed under Creative Commons Licenses Cover design by Vera Ferreira and Peter Bouda Cover photograph Language Fair by Ricardo Filipe / CIDLeS - Interdisciplinary Centre for Social and Language Documentation Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data ISBN: 978-0-9856211-5-5 http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24654 Contents Contributors iii Foreword ix 1. Authenticity and linguistic variety among new speakers of Basque 1 Jacqueline Urla, Estibaliz Amorrortu, Ane Ortega, and Jone Goirigolzarri 2. Lemko linguistic identity: Contested pluralities 13 Michael Hornsby 3. New speakers of Minderico: Dynamics and tensions in the revitalization process 26 Vera Ferreira 4. Kormakiti Arabic: A study of language decay and language death 38 Ozan Gulle 5. Identity and language shift among Vlashki/Zheyanski speakers in Croatia 51 Zvjezdana Vrzi´cand John Victor Singler 6. The sociolinguistic evaluation and recording of the dying Kursenieku language 69 Dalia Kiseliunait¯ e˙ 7. Language Revitalization: The case of Judeo-Spanish varieties in Macedonia 80 Esther Zarghooni-Hoffmann 8. El árabe ceutí, una lengua minorizada. Propuestas para su enseñanza en la escuela 93 Francisco Moscoso García 9. Multilingualism and structural borrowing in Arbanasi Albanian 103 Jana Willer-Gold, Tena Gnjatovi´c,Daniela Katunar, and Ranko Matasovi´c 10.
    [Show full text]
  • TO THB EMPIRES Englishl
    Pragmatics5:2. I 85-195" InternationalPragmatics Association DOI: 10.1075/prag.5.2.04sil FROM THE MEANING OF MEANING TO THB EMPIRES OF THE MIND: OGDEN'S ORTHOLOGICAL ENGLISHl MichaelSilverstein As part of a project I have been engagedin on "Modern Prophetsof Language,"2 I havebeen investigating the creationof so-calledBASIC English,the word BASIC beingan acronymfor ^British- American- Scientific- /nternational - Commercial, the variousrealms or spheresin which it is to be useful at least as an auxiliary language,if not a first language.Of course, for British, American, and even Australian,New Zealander,etc. speakersof Englishas their primary language,this takesthe form of a specificlexical register that contains,other than numerals and such,850 permissibleor included lexical primes. For others, as for example the immigrantstaught it in Massachusettsduring the 1940s,it became the primary exposureto at least a form of usable English,one that functionally instantiates somethingof what we now recognizeas a pidginizedvaiery of English. It would be of some interest in its own right to examine Basic English trom thesepoints of view. One might try to see whether or not, for example, a non-English-speakinglearner could go on and build on the pidginizedvariety so as to convertit into a functional lexical register of more fully developed English competence.Ancl one might try to see what paradigmsof lexical conjugates3are associatedwith the lexicalregister of BasicEnglish in sucha person'scompetence, andhow various indexical values emerge in the use of suchconjugate sets. But that is not my purposehere. ' I thank Michael Locher for his help as my researchassistant during the initial period of bibliographicsearch and gathering of materials on Ogden and Richards, tasks he carried out with distinction.
    [Show full text]
  • Language in Culture Syllabus Petko Ivanov Connecticut College, [email protected]
    Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College Slavic Studies Course Materials Slavic Studies Department 2015 Language in Culture Syllabus Petko Ivanov Connecticut College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/slaviccourse Recommended Citation Ivanov, Petko, "Language in Culture Syllabus" (2015). Slavic Studies Course Materials. Paper 1. http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/slaviccourse/1 This Course Materials is brought to you for free and open access by the Slavic Studies Department at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Slavic Studies Course Materials by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. C o n n e c t i c u t C o l l e g e Spring 2015 ANT/SLA 226 René Magritte This is not a pipe (1936) Language in Culture Prof. Petko Ivanov ANT 226: Language in Culture Connecticut College Spring 2015 ANT / SLA 226 Language in Culture Spring 2015, Wednesday/Friday 2:45-4:00 Olin 113 Foucault, Lacan, Lévi-Strauss, and Barthes Instructor: Petko Ivanov Blaustein 330, x5449, [email protected] Office hours W/F 1:30-2:30 and by appointment Course Description The course is an introduction to linguistic anthropology with a main focus on language “use” in society. Among the main topics to be addressed are the notions of language ideology (how language is conceptualized by its users, e.g., what they think they do with language when they talk and otherwise utilize their language); pragmatics and metapragmatics; socio-cultural semiosis of linguistic practices, incl.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Organization of a University of Chicago Unit Dealing with Linguistics Michael Silverstein Department of Linguisti
    The history of organization of a University of Chicago unit dealing with linguistics Michael Silverstein Department of Linguistics University of Chicago 2006 Already in the first Annual Register of The University of Chicago, for the academic year 1 July 1892 – 1 July 1893, Carl Darling Buck is listed (p.34) as “Assistant Professor of Sanskrit and Indo-European Comparative Philology,” and the “Department” of which he was the sole member is titled “Department of Sanskrit and Indo-European Comparative Philology,” the caption matching precisely the name of William Dwight Whitney’s chair at Yale (Whitney [1827-1894] was William Rainey Harper’s teacher and Doktorvater for his 1875 Yale Ph.D.) Buck rose to Associate Professor in 1894, Professor in 1900, and “Head of Department,” a title bestowed by the administration both distinct from and concurrent with the professorship, in 1903. The short title of the Department was “Department of Comparative Philology.” By the year 1905-06, as noted in the AR, p.198, Buck is joined in the Department by a varying succession of others, in that academic year notably including Samuel Northrup Harper, A.B., son of William Rainey Harper, as “Associate in Russian,” and Ghen-Ichiro Yoshioka, Ph.B., “Docent in Japanese.” These affiliations reveal that what we might term miscellaneous languages not under the purview of the various distinct Classical and Modern European Language and Literature departments were taken up by this Department of Comparative Philology as its charge, prefiguring the “LangLing” responsibilities of the present-day Department of Linguistics precisely. Also notable for 1905-06 (AR, p.199) is the course numbered 1, “General Introduction to the Study of Indo-European Philology,” taught by Buck in Spring Quarter, 1906.
    [Show full text]
  • Anthropological Encounters of a Semiotic Kind Richard J
    Document generated on 09/28/2021 4:09 p.m. Recherches sémiotiques Semiotic Inquiry Anthropological Encounters of a Semiotic Kind Richard J. Parmentier Recherches anthropologiques Article abstract Anthropological Inquiries This article prints for the first time two oral presentations occasioned by visits Volume 32, Number 1-2-3, 2012 to Brandeis University by the medievalist Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak and the classicist Gregory Nagy. The path-breaking and authoritative papers and books URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1027778ar by these two scholars provide key insights for anthropologists working from a DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1027778ar semiotic perspective. Bedos-Rezak’s proposal that the practice of sealing documents in pre-scholastic France can be seen as evidence for a general semiotic ideology of the “imprint” raises the possibility that the systematicity of See table of contents sign processes and corresponding metasemiotic discourses reflects esoteric attempts to conceal pragmatic variability in favour of nostalgic coherence. Similarly, Nagy’s insistence on the importance of the performance contexts for Publisher(s) the shaping of the Homeric epics is grounded in the recognition that the semiotic ideology of radical “decentring” found in these texts masks the Association canadienne de sémiotique / Canadian Semiotic Association changing course of their actual pragmatic enactment. ISSN 0229-8651 (print) 1923-9920 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Parmentier, R. J. (2012). Anthropological Encounters of a Semiotic Kind. Recherches sémiotiques / Semiotic Inquiry, 32(1-2-3), 187–199. https://doi.org/10.7202/1027778ar Tous droits réservés © Association canadienne de sémiotique / Canadian This document is protected by copyright law.
    [Show full text]
  • Review: DEVERNE REED SMITH STATE of MELEKEOK REPUBLIC of PALAU
    154 Pacific Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3-July 1991 Review: DEVERNE REED SMITH STATE OF MELEKEOK REPUBLIC OF PALAU The Sacred Remains is a provocative ethnography. Parmentier presents a description and analysis of the political structure and processes of Ngeremlengui, Palau, l and offers a historical perspective that reveals the different models utilized over time. Although classed as Microne- sian, Palau (Western Carolines) is a primarily Austronesian culture that was settled early 2 and remained in relative isolation for a lengthy period. As such, it provides “a rare glimpse of a fairly large-scale polity without a single overarching system of kingship” (p. 55). Its culture did not accord well with older anthropological models and approaches; therefore, only in recent years have central aspects of Palauan culture been clarified in the scholarly literature. 3 Although I may question the validity of Parmentier’s approach, the richness of the data and his care- ful scholarship made The Sacred Remains a most valuable contribution to the ethnographic literature on Palau. Parmentier conducted two years of field research (1978-1980) in Ngeremlengui, the community (beluu: hamlet, district, state) on the west coast of Babeldaob Island that was chartered by myth with the responsibility and authority to preserve the traditions of Palau. Estab- lishment of modern Palauan political structure took place when, in one part of an epic myth, the goddess Milad gave birth to four children Book Review Forum 155 (each a beluu): Ngeremlengui, oldest son and thus higher in rank and “sacredness” than its three younger siblings; Melekeok, second son, with a tendency toward boastfulness and arrogance, as is true of younger brothers; Imeliik, Milad’s only daughter and cherished because all males require a sibling of the opposite sex to fulfill their exchange/mari- tal obligations; 4 and Koror (Oreor), who, as the youngest son with access to fewer resources, must be more energetic and enterprising.
    [Show full text]
  • Multimedial Parallelism in Ritual Performance (Parallelism Dynamics II)
    Oral Tradition, 31/2 (2017): 583-620 Multimedial Parallelism in Ritual Performance (Parallelism Dynamics II) Frog Ritual performances create situations in which language, movements, spaces, and objects can all be coordinated in powerfully symbolic ways. The turn to performance expanded studies of verbal art from viewing tradition as text to tradition as embodied behavior wherein language is only one part.1 This expanded view on verbal art was well established already decades ago and continues to evolve.2 However, frameworks for analyzing relationships between linguistic and non-linguistic aspects of performance, relationships between speech, gesture, and movement through space, have remained less developed. The present article contributes to discussion by applying parallelism as a tool for approaching some of these relations in ritual practices that engage with unseen forces. On the one hand, the social perceptibility of parallelism between speech and other aspects of performance can be less ambiguous where it appears connected to a ritual’s efficacy. On the other hand, this type of parallelism in ritual leads into significant questions about imaginal understandings of the world where the unseen referred to in verbal art is considered no less “real” than empirical experience. Emphasis is on theory and discussed in relation to a variety of traditions, including those addressed by other authors in this special issue of Oral Tradition, traditions of magic and ritual of cultures in the Baltic Sea region, and some traditions of shamanism. Parallelism is here viewed as a general semiotic phenomenon of sameness or similarity and difference in commensurable units that allows those units to be perceived as parallel members of groups (see also Cureton 1992:263).
    [Show full text]