Conversation style talking on the job deborah tannen

Anthropology

Language and Communication

Culture….

“is a system of symbols that allows us to represent and communicate our experience.” (McCurdy, Shandy and Spradley, 28)
Words…..

Symbols…

Anything we can perceive with our senses that stands for something else
Words such as “lawn” or “barn”
A symbol is a mark, sign or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship.
Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen
Language…

our most highly developed communication system
Uses the channel of sound (for many)
For others eg: deaf may use sight
Human beings have the capacity

to assign meaning to anything they experience in an arbitrary fashion which allows limitless possibilities for communication.
Symbols greatly simplify the task of communication… making it possible to communicate the immense variety of human experience whether past/ present; tangible or intangible; good or bad.
Two features of human language:

1) “Infinite productivity” - ability to communicate many messages efficiently
2) “Displacement” –allows people to talk about displaced domains [past, future & immediate present]…including imagined domains…fantasy & fiction
Contrast with chimps and gibbons
Gibbons have nine calls that convey useful messages…follow, hurt, danger (Miller 2002:292)
Current view:

early humans began to develop language about 50,000 years ago using calls, body posture, and gestures.
How many “living languages” catalogued (Ethnologue)?

Many non-western languages have never been written down;
Wide range of different sounds;
Inadequacy of the western alphabet to represent such sounds (Miller 2004:290)
Over the past 500 years…..about half of the world’s 12,000 or so languages have become extinct as a result of warfare, epidemics, and forced assimilation brought on by colonial powers.

One of the most powerful forces of language change is the domination of one social group over another.

US / Indian policies

China

Russia (Russification)

Linguistics (scientific study of language)

Course in General Linguistics (1916)
Language as a system of signs
Langue (language) and
Parole (speech)
Swiss linguist and semiotician whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments both in linguistics and semiology in the 20th century

Langue – language as a system

Each of us inherits a language… we learn as babies…
Native tongue often called “mother tongue”
Storehouse (treasure house) passed on from generation to generation
Language…
both a “social invention” and a “social institution”
Language…or not language?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4V4rvVcglU
Parole (speech)

The actual behavior or performance of individuals (in contrast to language as a system)
Language = a system of cultural knowledge used to generate and interpret speech
Speech = thee behavior that produces vocal sounds; the behavior generated and interpreted as language.
Language operates at multiple levels

1) Phonology (sounds)
2) Morphology (words)
3) Syntax / grammar (structure, word order, sentences)
4) Semantics (meaning…relates vocal symbols to their referents)
5) Power (political economy)
Two approaches to studying language

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Sociolinguistics

Sapir Whorf Hypothesis

The “real world” is to a large extent built up on the language habits of a group.
The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached (Edward Sapir 1949 cited in Delaney 137).
EG American standard English
Hopi
Linguistic relativity. …words and grammar of a language are directly linked to culture and affect how speakers of the language perceive and think about the world
Linguistic determinism to Linguistic relativity

Language determines thought
Language influences thought
Sociolinguistics

The study of the relationship between language and society,
examines how social categories (such as age, gender, ethnicity, religion, occupation, and class) influence the use and significance of distinctive styles of speech.
1960s/70s
Studies language in relation to society
Language as a political act
Language and power relations
American Tongues

Language differences & social attitudes…

Accents
Regional (geography)
Social (class)
Subcultural variations
American standard English
Immigrant accents
AAVE
Youth culture, millennials, Generation Z
Social attitudes about/ towards…certain speakers or social groups (ethnic, immigrant, religious, political groups, musical, etc etc)
Language shaped by

Geography
Class
Gender
Race/ ethnicity
Age
Language…v s

Non-linguistic symbols
Non linguistic symbols

Transcend spoken language…but we “read” the cues:

Rolling the eyes
How we dress
What kind of car we drive
How many bathrooms our house has (material culture…conveying status)
Non-verbal communications

Gesture
1) Kinesics (gestures)
2) Proxemics (space)
3) Paralanguage
50 facial muscles…7,000 facial expressions

More than 60% of our communication takes place… non-verbally

Do you pay more attention to what someone says…or to their behavior?

Reading the cues…including silences

Gestures

A division of kinesics known as proxemics is the cross-cultural study of humankind’s perception and use of space.
Founded by Edward Hall who coined the term, he found that different cultures have unique ways of dividing and utilizing space.
He identified four categories of spatial use.
Proxemics

Intimate (0-18 in)
Personal-Casual (1.5-4 ft)
Social-Consultive (4-12ft)
Public (12+ ft)
People’s personal bubbles can be challenging to others

Paralanguage

The second component of the gesture call system is paralanguage –
specific voice effects that accompany speech and contribute to communication.
These vocalizations include: crying, laughing, signing, grunting, moaning.
How you speak is more important than what you speak
Major focus of the Kavanaugh hearing before the Senate

“Metaphors” and “Frames”

Difference?

Metaphors

Figure of speech… implies comparison
usually linguistic
suggests how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in another
“The curtain of night”
“All the world’s a stage”
Linking passion (affection and hatred) to temperature eg “hot”… “cold” (39)
Frames:
Social constructions

Of social phenomena or social interactions
Choice of words “frame” one’s position

EG: “illegal alien” vs “undocumented migrant”
- EG: “looting” vs “finding” or “surviving”

People construct frames

to convey a particular point of view
People construct frames to advance a particular message that they want people to hear
News (CNN, MSNBC, Fox, Al Jazerra, etc)
Political movements, political cartoons
Marketing…ad campaigns
EG: ad on TV for a sleep aid (dark background with a green luminescent moth)
Essays in Conflict and Conformity: Readings in Cultural Anthropology

“Shakespeare in the Bush”
by Laura Bohannon
“Manipulating Meaning: The Military Name Game”
by Sarah Boxer
“Conversation Style: Talking on the Job”
by Deborah Tannen
“Shakespeare in the Bush”
by Laura Bohannon

Overall, what did you think of the essay?

How does it illustrate some of the terms, concepts and theme of the chapter, Language and Communication?

Questions …end of chapter…

1. In what ways does Bohannan try to tell the story of Hamlet to the Tiv illustrate the concept of naïve realism? (48)

Naïve realism

“The notion that reality is much the same for al people everywhere.” (4, 388)
The belief that people everywhere see the world in the same way.
Naïve realism in “Shakespeare in the Bush”

1) Involves an American fieldworker (Laura Bohannan) telling the story of Shakespeare to Tiv elders in Nigeria;
Assumes Shakespeare’s message of tragedy is universal
2) Illustrates naïve realism on the part of the elders as they reinterpret the story of Hamlet using their own categories (“frames”)
Remote village, hillock of some 140 people
Elders assume that Laura just needs to get better informed by the elders of her tribe
A friend advised Bohannon

“…you Americans, often have difficulty with Shakespeare. He was after all a very English poet, and one can easily misinterpret the universal by misunderstanding the particular.” (41)
Bohannan in West Africa (SoEa Nigeria)

Bohannan wanted to learn about important rituals and ceremonies… (1961)
Storytelling rather than ceremonies (shaped by rising waters/ receding waters)
Proxemics…what did the Tiv do when it rained/ what did Bohannan do (at least initially)? How did this shape perceptions of each other?
When Bohannan was asked to tell a story to the group, she was nervous

Art of Storytelling in West Africa
Rich oral traditions
“Skilled” storytellers
2. How does Bohannan’s experience of telling the story of Hamlet to the Tiv

and the response of the Tiv elders to her words illustrate cross-cultural misunderstanding?
Starts right from the beginning…

“Not yesterday, not yesterday, but long ago, a thing occurred. One night three men were keeping watch outside the homestead of the great chief (Hamlet’s father) when suddenly they saw the former chief approach them.”
Supernatural eg: ghosts/ witches

The Tiv lacked a concept for what Europeans call a ghost.
The Tiv felt that the ghost of Hamlet’s father was really an omen sent by a witch
3. What are the most important parts of Hamlet

that the Tiv found necessary to reinterpret? Why?
Differing cultural worldviews (Frames):

Ghosts
Witches/ bewitching
Chiefs/ Line of succession
To the brother/ not the son
Hamlet’s madness
And revenge
Marriage customs
Length of mourning time of widow
The Tiv approved of Hamlet’s mother’s marriage to her husband’s brother within a month of her husband’s death
Monogamy/ polygamy
4. Building off of Bohannan’s experience,

can you think of ways in which cross-cultural misunderstanding shape interactions in other settings?
Overall “Shakespeare in the Bush”

Illustrates miscommunication due to lack of cross-cultural fit;
The story of Hamlet does not retain its original meaning when told to a Tiv audience.
Language and communication… the essay is often used as a means of understanding how perspective affects perception and expectation.
“Manipulating Meaning: The Military Name Game” by Sarah Boxer

Questions

1. Why do military commanders and public officials take the naming of military operations so seriously?
2. How has the procedure for naming military actions changed since campaigns were first given names in World War II?
3. What pitfalls are there in choosing names for military actions in the U.S., today? Are there solutions to such problems?
4. What evidence supports or challenges the belief held by many in authority that the way something is portrayed in words does actually affect how people will understand it?
“Manipulating Meaning: The Military Name Game”

Essay begins with references to Sept 11th
Why?
How does this essay address matters of “framing”?
Post 9/11

Name change…“Infinite Justice”…to “Enduring Freedom” (perceptions-int’l relations)
Council of American Islamic Relations

Former historic precedents…Panama “Blue Spoon” to Just Cause (PR)

Former Sec of State, Donald Rumsfeld

24 Defense Dept entities

Naming strategies date back to World War II

Code names for military operations
originated with the Germans in World War II and were intended to be secret.
Germany…Mythology/ heroes from antiquity (Archangel, Valkyrie)
Defending Kuwait from Iraq
Peninsula Shield, Crescent Shield, Desert Shield
Boxer (the author) argues that at the time she wrote the article,

naming military operations involved using two-word verb-noun phrase that is positive but that is almost meaningless.
Promote Liberty, Restore Hope
Winston Churchill

“Naming your operation is like naming a baby”
Should NOT be frivolous or ordinary
Consider recruiting a young generation in an operation called Operation Bunnyhug
Or “Ballyhoo”

Concepts

Sociolinguistics…talk is complicated.
What you say depends on your social identity and who you are talking to.
Trying to motivate armed services or recruit vs how it may sound to “others” with ancestry in diff parts of the world
Framing shapes impression management
“Barbarossa” vs “Blue Spoon” vs “Bunnyhug” vs “Masher” vs “Peace” vs “Infinite Justice”vs “Enduring Freedom”
Metaphoric level of reference
“War on Poverty” etc
(current example: Building a Wall)
Shifts in naming practices
Colors to nouns and adjectives

Secret codes to PR images
EG : 1989 US Invasion of Panama
Operation “Blue Spoon”….to “Just Cause”
By the time of the Korean War … “aggressive nicknames”
EG: Roundup, Killer, Ripper, Audacious, Courageous, and Dauntless used by Gen. MacArthur
By the end of Vietnam…NICKA system (computer assisted)
Sound like “mission statements” verb-noun sequences eg Promote Liberty, Restore Hope, etc (52)
Major point in the essay

Military operations shaped by/ toward shaping nat’l & int’l perceptions
Looking Glass Self & Impression Management

Overall, in the article the author

Illustrates the U.S. military's attempt to frame its operations in a positive light
Presents a history of naming operations starting with WWII;
Focuses on how the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were named;
Difficulty of “framing”… despite every effort to make them benign, most recent attempts at naming military operations manage to offend someone.
Question

How do you think the “naming game” or rhetoric of the new administration of Donald Trump is shaping cultural relations within the US, internationally?
“Build a Wall”

“Immigrant or Refugee Ban”

“Muslim Registry”

“Conversation Style: Talking on the Job” by Deborah Tannen

This article excerpted from

Discusses misunderstandings in the work place based on the different speaking styles of men and women.

Tannen’s “Conversational Style: Talking on the Job”?

In the table of contents, the editors write:

“ On the job, men and women use distinctive conversation styles to ask for help, teaching them to evaluate performance and character differently.”
Tannen notes that

most people blame miscommunication on the intentions, different abilities, and character of others, or on their own failure or the failure of the relationship.
What is HER main idea?
Or what are some central points that she makes?
Gender and
language

Miscommunication in the work place often occurs between men and women because
gender is a basic indicator of identity and
because men and women learn different styles of speaking (socialization)
speaking styles are “ritualized” forms of verbal interaction
Questions (p.59)

1. What does Tannen mean by conversational style?
2. What is the important style difference in the way men and women ask for directions?
3. What is Tannen’s hypothesis about why males avoid asking other people for directions?
4. In Tannen’s perspective, what conclusions do men and women draw about each other when they display typically different approaches to asking directions?
“Conversation Style: Talking on the Job”

Defines "speaking styles“…and looks at the different speaking styles of men and women
Focuses on the impact of contrasting gender speaking styles on men and women in the workplace
Argues that men avoid "one down" positions with each other by using humor
Argues that women seek to soften criticism
What examples does she provide to illustrate her argument?

Example #1: Men and women talking on the job

Amy, a manager, tried to tell her employee, Donald, how to change an unsatisfactory report.
Men often refrain from asking for directions

while women often seek to create the appearance of equality in a conversation.
Women’s conversation often works at the appearance of equality. Men’s conversation, on the other hand, is often directed at avoiding the one-down position by using oppositions such as banter, joking, teasing, and playful putdowns.
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Example #2: When NOT asking directions is dangerous to your health

Why don’t men like to stop and ask for directions?

What examples does Tannen offer to further her ideas?

A few examples…

1) Airplane pilots
2) An intern at a hospital making a decision about a dosage for a patient?
3) female (medical) intern in training
Each style has its pitfalls

Male pilots or doctors who fail to ask questions may endanger their own or other people’s lives.
Female doctors and managers who ask too many questions may risk signaling that they are tentative or unsure of themselves. They may see uninformed and less intelligent.
How might this affect the question of “the glass ceiling” in getting promoted on the job?
Men in general wouldn’t ask questions if not understanding….

Cultural differences play a role too….

Middle eastern student asked a Prof a question

What rationale did many men provide

As to why they don’t ask for directions?
Advantages cited by men for refraining from asking questions?

They avoid receiving incorrect information.
They learn to discover answers for themselves.
They can feel superior to other people by not showing their ignorance.
“You learn a lot about a neighborhood, as well as about navigation by driving around and finding your own way.”
Tannen notes that men often fail to ask for directions

and that women usually do ask for directions.
Because it is easy to show that not asking for directions can have dire consequences, she suggests that men should be flexible, asking for directions when it seems appropriate to do so!
Are there dominant social patterns in whose ideas get listened to…

Or who gets believed?

Contemporary research notes that men interrupt more often than women

How was “gender” evident in or discussed

Any other points that Tannen makes applicable?

in the recent Blasey-Ford/ Kavanugh hearings?
Styles of speaking? In a “job interview”?
What did you respond to

Overall, what did you think of the essay?
What do you think of the argument? Buy it or not? Explain.
How do our ideas of femininity and masculinity translate into

Daily “conversational rituals” (Tannen)?
Apologies
Criticism
Thank yous
Praise
Complaints
Jokes
Fighting (incl. ritual fights of sparring)
“Conversational styles”

Applicable to politics?

What do you mean?

1) Apologies (w: mask competencies)
2) Criticism (M:direct/W:indirect)
3) Thank yous (w: ritual, reciprocity)
4) Fighting (m: sparring; w: need to learn)
5) Praise (m: saying nothing; w:encourage)
6) Complaints (w:commiserate-m:want to fix the problem
7) Jokes (m: razzing, teasing, mock-hostile attacks – w: self-mocking)
M-F styles/ patterns

Adjectives
Politeness
Interruptions
Gossip
Next class - American Tongues

How “other factors” shape language especially speech
What perceptions do people have of “others” speech?
Do people have (+/-) attitudes about the way that others speak? What shapes this?
Works Cited:

American Tongues. POV films. Filmakers: Alvarez, Louis and Andrew Kolker. (1988)
Haviland, William, Harold Prins, David McBride and Walrath Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge 14th Edition. Cengage, 2015
McCurdy, David W. , Dianna Shandy and James M. Spradley (Eds) Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology/ Edition: 15TH by Pearson
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