Ethnography of Communication

K. Ethnography of Communication

Trudgill defines ethnography of communication as the study of the norms and rules for using language in social situations in different culture and is thus important for cross-cultural communication (1992: 31).

Meanwhile, Fassold states that the essential concepts of ethnography of communication are the speech community and the units of interaction, which consist of speech situation, speech event, and speech act (1990: 39).

Speech community is a community of speakers who share the same verbal repertoire and share the same norms for linguistic behavior. In this sense, a group of people belongs to the same speech community if they speak the same language and share the same norms of interaction and interpretation (Trudgill, 1992: 69).

The three units are a nested hierarchy in the sense that speech acts are part of speech events which are in turn part of speech situations. Hymes (in Fassold, 1990: 42) describes speech situation as “situations associated with or marked by the absence of speech”. It may be composed of both communicative and other kinds of events, for instance in ceremonies, fights, hunts, and lovemaking.

Speech event, on the other hand, are both communicative and governed by rules for the use of speech (Hymes in Fassold, 1990: 42). A speech event consists of one or more speech acts. Several speech events can occur successively or even simultaneously in the same situation, for example: a joke might be a speech act that is part of conversation (speech event) which takes place at a party (speech situation).

Whereas, speech acts are minimal term of the set. A speech act can have forms ranging from a complex sentence or words (Hymes in Fasold 1990: 42)

There are certain components are strongly relates to three units of speech that are proposed by Hymes. Those components are abbreviated in the form of SPEAKING (Setting or Scene, Participants, Ends, Acts Sequence, Key,

I nstrumentalities, Norms of Interaction, and Genre) (Hymes in Fasold, 1990: 44- 45).

a. Setting or Scene (S)

The setting refers to the aspect of place and time of the speech. It is closely related to its psychological aspect. Setting can be a cultural definition of an occasion as a certain type of scene. Therefore, setting is different with scene. Setting is connected to the physical condition of a speech, while scene is related to the psychological and cultural condition (Hymes in Fassold, 1990: 44).

b. Participants (P)

Participants relate to speaker/addressor, hearer/addressee, the subjects who are present in a speech event and whose presence may have an influence Participants relate to speaker/addressor, hearer/addressee, the subjects who are present in a speech event and whose presence may have an influence

c. Ends (E)

The purpose of an event is called ends. It consists of outcome and goal. Outcome is explained as the purpose of the event from a cultural point of view. While, goal explained as the purpose of the individual participant (ibid: 44).

d. Act Sequence (A)

Act sequence is about the message of event content. It comprises message form and message content. Message form describes how something is said. While, message content describes what is said in that speech event. Both of them involve communicative skills that vary from one culture to another (ibid: 44).

e. Key (K)

Key refers to the tone and manner in which an action is done (Fishman 1972: 52). Tone alludes to the general spirit of the scene, such as brave, fierce, fearful, etc. Manner refers to the participants’ way of behaving toward others, whether it is polite, impolite, intimate, formal, relax, serious, etc. It also refers to the feeling, atmosphere, and attitude (Hymes in Fasold 1990: 44-45). Feeling means the emotions that indicating happiness, terror, anxiety, anger, shock, etc. While atmosphere brings up the feeling that affects the mind in a place or condition such as good, evil, solemn, etc. Whereas attitude points to the participants’ ways of thinking and behaving toward a situation whether it is sympathetic, serious, optimistic, etc (ibid: 45).

The signaling of key may be non-verbal, for instance with a gesture, style or dress, wink, posture, musical accompaniment, smile, and also may be The signaling of key may be non-verbal, for instance with a gesture, style or dress, wink, posture, musical accompaniment, smile, and also may be

f. Instrumentalities (I)

Instrumentalities are the comparisons of channels and forms of speech. According to Hymes, channel is the way a message travels from one person to another. Therefore, it implies the means or medium of speech transmissions. Channel can be oral or transmitted by such means such as telegraph, semaphore, smoke signal, drumming, etc. whereas, form of speech are described by Hymes as language and their subdivisions, such as varieties, codes, dialects, and registers (ibid: 45).

g. Norms (N)

Hymes divides norms of communication into: norms of interaction and norms of interpretation. They are determined by the cultural background of the community. Thus, it can be said that each community has certain norms of interaction that different from other community. Every speech community has certain rules for interpreting the messages conveyed verbally or nonverbally. Hymes states that norms of interpretation implicate the belief system of communication (ibid: 45).

h. Genre (G)

Genre includes some categories such as prayer, lecture, poem, proverbs, myth, riddle, commercial, curse, editorial, form letter, and so on. They often coincide with speech events since a speech genre can occur in more than one kind of speech events (Hymes in Fassold, 1990: 46).