A Holistic Humanities of Speaking: Franz Boas and the Continuing Centrality of Texts

Epps, Patience; Webster, Anthony K.; Woodbury, Anthony C.

doi:10.1086/689547

Cited by 23 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Following a recent turn in theoretical linguistics to the study of language use, naturally occurring data has been favored over data derived from elicitation or introspection, quite in line with the Boasian tradition of placing texts at the center of linguistic and cultural studies (Carr and Meek ; Epps et al. ). The observation‐based approach has contributed to recent shifts in language documentation practice: proper linguistic “documents” are now expected to include recordings of natural conversations, interviews or at least monologues produced spontaneously by speakers (Seifart ).…”

Section: Naive Perception Of Language Endangermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Linguists and Speakers Do Not Agree: The Endangered Grammar of Verbal Art in West Africa

Nikitina

2018

J Linguistic Anthropol

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Across Africa, linguistic techniques that are closely associated with traditional genres are vulnerable to changes in traditional habits, and often become extinct long before the language is recognized as endangered. Their loss accounts for the discrepancy between professional linguist's assessment and the speakers’ perception of the vitality of the language. The study discusses an array of endangered storytelling strategies accumulated by Wan (Mande; Côte d'Ivoire) in response to the needs of traditional narrative performance. Such strategies include morphosyntactic means that allow the storyteller to manage a complex narrative without resorting to explicit lexical encoding or multiplying the number of sentences.

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Section: Naive Perception Of Language Endangermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Linguists and Speakers Do Not Agree: The Endangered Grammar of Verbal Art in West Africa

Nikitina

2018

J Linguistic Anthropol

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“…In so doing, I have suggested something of the value of an ethnography of poetry, or poetic practice. his ethnography of poetry is a part of a broader project that Epps, Webster, and Woodbury (2017) have called a humanities of speaking. A humanities of speaking is focused on not just (ethno)poetic traditions, but also in the local aesthetic sensibilities that inform such practices and so too the theories, the metacreative discourse, about such (ethno)poetic practices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As more work is done in the ethnography of poetry, lesh will be added to the comments made here. In the conclusion, I will place this work within a broader concern with a humanities of speaking approach (Epps, Webster and Woodbury, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“A Line Will Take Us Hours Maybe:”Craft and Inspiration from the Ethnography of Poetry

Webster¹

2017

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“…Though tiny, I think the fragment demonstrates well Sherzer's stance, as just described, as the participants move from commentary to metacommentary and from social and cultural relationships among intimates and strangers, to humor and teasing, to commentary on personality, respect, and even philosophies of language and linguistic representation. In making this paper about a tiny text fragment, I am working in a tradition of which Joel Sherzer has been an important, influential part, and which I have tried to articulate alongside two colleagues who are also represented in this volume in Epps, Webster, and Woodbury ().…”

Section: Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

He Suffocates Me: A Playful Dimension of Exact Transcription, and of Being an Iluraq

Woodbury

2019

J Linguistic Anthropol

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A fragment of conversation is presented demonstrating Joel Sherzer's premise that discourse is ‘the nexus, the actual and concrete expression of the language‐culture‐society relationship’. The passage passes from commentary to metacommentary and from humor and teasing, to personality, social and cultural relationships among intimates and strangers, respect, and even philosophies of language and linguistic representation. The fragment was recorded in 1978 in Chevak, Alaska during my initial linguistic documentation of the Cup'ik variety of Central Alaskan Yupik that is spoken there. It took place among elders in a traditional communal men's house that had just been built there. The passage begins with humorous skewering of my eagerness to transcribe every sound and noise in texts I had recorded, evoking both local and academic ideologies of language and philology. It continues as the eldest man comically challenges his iluraq (male cross‐cousin of a male), typically a joking relationship, who in turn challenges his own iluraq. These parts of the text, and subsequent reflections on whether the teasing might be too harsh, nicely express the emotional flavor of the relationship, as well as its boundaries. They also show a kind of interaction often described but infrequently presented as a linguistic text.

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A Holistic Humanities of Speaking: Franz Boas and the Continuing Centrality of Texts

Cited by 23 publications

References 52 publications

When Linguists and Speakers Do Not Agree: The Endangered Grammar of Verbal Art in West Africa

When Linguists and Speakers Do Not Agree: The Endangered Grammar of Verbal Art in West Africa

“A Line Will Take Us Hours Maybe:”Craft and Inspiration from the Ethnography of Poetry

He Suffocates Me: A Playful Dimension of Exact Transcription, and of Being an Iluraq

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