Power in Performance: The Creation of Textual Authority in Weyewa Ritual Speech. Joel C. Kuipers.... more Power in Performance: The Creation of Textual Authority in Weyewa Ritual Speech. Joel C. Kuipers. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990. 198 pp. $24.95 (cloth)
1989 Comparative Aspects of Aleut Syntax. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aika-kauskirja/Journal de l... more 1989 Comparative Aspects of Aleut Syntax. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aika-kauskirja/Journal de la soci6t6 finno-ougrienne 82:7-80. 1994 Aleut Dictionary-Unangam Tunudgusii. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Lan-guage Center. Bobaljik, Jonathan David 1996 Assimilation ...
A Wenner-Gren Foundation international symposium entitled "Rethinking Linguistic Relativity" was ... more A Wenner-Gren Foundation international symposium entitled "Rethinking Linguistic Relativity" was held in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, May 3-n, 1991. The meeting brought together scholars from seven nations and a range of disciplines including linguistics, anthropology, education, cognitive psychology, developmental psy chology, and cognitive science. The original idea of lin-I.
Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon. Alessandro Duranti and Charles Goodwin... more Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon. Alessandro Duranti and Charles Goodwin. eds. Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language, 11. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.363 pp.
The town of Las Margaritas, Chiapas, is a locus for language contact between Tojol-ab'al and the ... more The town of Las Margaritas, Chiapas, is a locus for language contact between Tojol-ab'al and the local dialect of Spanish. Younger speakers are receiving education in Spanish, and the way they speak Tojol-ab'al reflects this. I examine the recorded speech of one young man, who passionately discusses the importance of maintaining Tojol-ab'al language and culture; however, the ways he uses Spanish while speaking Tojolab'al reveals several moments of tension between his expressed hopes and desires for the language and his current practice. I focus my analysis on these points of tension. He uses a good deal of Spanish "mixed," as he says, into the Tojol-ab'al he speaks, which goes against traditional Tojol-ab'al principles or ideologies of language use. The ways in which he incorporates Spanish reflect the linguistic structure of Tojol-ab'al. Additionally, on the recording we hear his son's voice calling out to him in Spanish, revealing that bilingual education may not be occurring in his home. It remains to be seen if language use by young Tojol-ab'al speakers represents a trend toward incorporating more Spanish into the language, or if speakers will become more conservative as they become more mature adults.
A recent paper by G. K. Pullum (1981) discusses languages where object precedes subject in basic ... more A recent paper by G. K. Pullum (1981) discusses languages where object precedes subject in basic word order sentences and includes a catalogue of languages which exhibit this order. One language which appears in that catalogue, Tojolabal (Mayan), is discussed in terms of the notion of basic word order (BWO). Two assumptions which have generally been made regarding BWO are critically investigated: (1) that all languages have a single BWO, and (2) that BWO is a uniform phenomenon across all languages. It is shown that while all six logically possible orders ofS, V, and Ο occur in grammatical sentences in Tojolabal, no single order meets all the criteria generally offered in the literature for basic word order: VOS order sentences meet most criteria, but are extremely rare in discourse and are difficult for speakers to process and comprehend when presented in isolation; SVO order sentences are the most frequent in discourse but are pragmatically highlighted. Examination of sentences in context reveals the fact that discourse factors account for the various or der ings found. It is concluded that BWO sentences have different functions in different languages and that therefore the notion of BWO is not uniform across all languages.
With the development of writing systems and the spread of literacy, authors in Latin American Ind... more With the development of writing systems and the spread of literacy, authors in Latin American Indian communities are now beginning to produce written works in their native languages. 1 When indigenous authors present material from the oral tradition of these communities (folktales, etc.) in the written medium, there arises an ideal environment in which to examine possible differences between spoken and written narrative for languages without a written tradition. Some of these differences are explored here through a comparison of two versions of a folktale by native speakers of the Mayan language Tojolabal. 2 What I hope to show is that Tojolabal folktales, as part of the Tojolabal oral tradition, exhibit elaborate and artistic structure; that the spoken form is carefully constructed and emphatically not defective; and that features identifi ed by Chafe (1982) as characteristic of spoken language are transferred from the primary spoken medium into the secondary written medium. In the course of this exploration of some of the differences between spoken and written Tojolabal in a lab-like situation of minimal contrast, I hope to suggest some new directions for the exploration of orality and literacy not as "gross typological constructs" but in terms of the "understanding of speaking and writing in human life on the basis of soundly empirical, cross-cultural investigations" (Bauman 1986:10). The story presented in two versions below is from the ample Tojolabal oral tradition. It is a well-known folktale of the community, and provides an account of the reason behind the major yearly pilgrimages of many Tojolabal people to Santo Tomás in Oxchuk and to San Bartolomé in Venustiano Carranza. These pilgrimages are in general part of a larger complex of religious activities and in particular part of a yearly supplication for rain. The two recountings originate from different storytellers. The written version was inscribed by a man who is bilingual and fairly comfortably literate
The everyday art of conversation is valued in Mayan speech communities. The frequency and structu... more The everyday art of conversation is valued in Mayan speech communities. The frequency and structure of back-channels in Mayan conversations makes sense when conversations are understood to be structured around cycles rather than turns. Examination of conversation in seven Mayan languages results in a preliminary classification of back-channels
Power in Performance: The Creation of Textual Authority in Weyewa Ritual Speech. Joel C. Kuipers.... more Power in Performance: The Creation of Textual Authority in Weyewa Ritual Speech. Joel C. Kuipers. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990. 198 pp. $24.95 (cloth)
1989 Comparative Aspects of Aleut Syntax. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aika-kauskirja/Journal de l... more 1989 Comparative Aspects of Aleut Syntax. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aika-kauskirja/Journal de la soci6t6 finno-ougrienne 82:7-80. 1994 Aleut Dictionary-Unangam Tunudgusii. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Lan-guage Center. Bobaljik, Jonathan David 1996 Assimilation ...
A Wenner-Gren Foundation international symposium entitled "Rethinking Linguistic Relativity" was ... more A Wenner-Gren Foundation international symposium entitled "Rethinking Linguistic Relativity" was held in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, May 3-n, 1991. The meeting brought together scholars from seven nations and a range of disciplines including linguistics, anthropology, education, cognitive psychology, developmental psy chology, and cognitive science. The original idea of lin-I.
Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon. Alessandro Duranti and Charles Goodwin... more Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon. Alessandro Duranti and Charles Goodwin. eds. Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language, 11. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.363 pp.
The town of Las Margaritas, Chiapas, is a locus for language contact between Tojol-ab'al and the ... more The town of Las Margaritas, Chiapas, is a locus for language contact between Tojol-ab'al and the local dialect of Spanish. Younger speakers are receiving education in Spanish, and the way they speak Tojol-ab'al reflects this. I examine the recorded speech of one young man, who passionately discusses the importance of maintaining Tojol-ab'al language and culture; however, the ways he uses Spanish while speaking Tojolab'al reveals several moments of tension between his expressed hopes and desires for the language and his current practice. I focus my analysis on these points of tension. He uses a good deal of Spanish "mixed," as he says, into the Tojol-ab'al he speaks, which goes against traditional Tojol-ab'al principles or ideologies of language use. The ways in which he incorporates Spanish reflect the linguistic structure of Tojol-ab'al. Additionally, on the recording we hear his son's voice calling out to him in Spanish, revealing that bilingual education may not be occurring in his home. It remains to be seen if language use by young Tojol-ab'al speakers represents a trend toward incorporating more Spanish into the language, or if speakers will become more conservative as they become more mature adults.
A recent paper by G. K. Pullum (1981) discusses languages where object precedes subject in basic ... more A recent paper by G. K. Pullum (1981) discusses languages where object precedes subject in basic word order sentences and includes a catalogue of languages which exhibit this order. One language which appears in that catalogue, Tojolabal (Mayan), is discussed in terms of the notion of basic word order (BWO). Two assumptions which have generally been made regarding BWO are critically investigated: (1) that all languages have a single BWO, and (2) that BWO is a uniform phenomenon across all languages. It is shown that while all six logically possible orders ofS, V, and Ο occur in grammatical sentences in Tojolabal, no single order meets all the criteria generally offered in the literature for basic word order: VOS order sentences meet most criteria, but are extremely rare in discourse and are difficult for speakers to process and comprehend when presented in isolation; SVO order sentences are the most frequent in discourse but are pragmatically highlighted. Examination of sentences in context reveals the fact that discourse factors account for the various or der ings found. It is concluded that BWO sentences have different functions in different languages and that therefore the notion of BWO is not uniform across all languages.
With the development of writing systems and the spread of literacy, authors in Latin American Ind... more With the development of writing systems and the spread of literacy, authors in Latin American Indian communities are now beginning to produce written works in their native languages. 1 When indigenous authors present material from the oral tradition of these communities (folktales, etc.) in the written medium, there arises an ideal environment in which to examine possible differences between spoken and written narrative for languages without a written tradition. Some of these differences are explored here through a comparison of two versions of a folktale by native speakers of the Mayan language Tojolabal. 2 What I hope to show is that Tojolabal folktales, as part of the Tojolabal oral tradition, exhibit elaborate and artistic structure; that the spoken form is carefully constructed and emphatically not defective; and that features identifi ed by Chafe (1982) as characteristic of spoken language are transferred from the primary spoken medium into the secondary written medium. In the course of this exploration of some of the differences between spoken and written Tojolabal in a lab-like situation of minimal contrast, I hope to suggest some new directions for the exploration of orality and literacy not as "gross typological constructs" but in terms of the "understanding of speaking and writing in human life on the basis of soundly empirical, cross-cultural investigations" (Bauman 1986:10). The story presented in two versions below is from the ample Tojolabal oral tradition. It is a well-known folktale of the community, and provides an account of the reason behind the major yearly pilgrimages of many Tojolabal people to Santo Tomás in Oxchuk and to San Bartolomé in Venustiano Carranza. These pilgrimages are in general part of a larger complex of religious activities and in particular part of a yearly supplication for rain. The two recountings originate from different storytellers. The written version was inscribed by a man who is bilingual and fairly comfortably literate
The everyday art of conversation is valued in Mayan speech communities. The frequency and structu... more The everyday art of conversation is valued in Mayan speech communities. The frequency and structure of back-channels in Mayan conversations makes sense when conversations are understood to be structured around cycles rather than turns. Examination of conversation in seven Mayan languages results in a preliminary classification of back-channels
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