Ethno- (Cultural) Linguistics

Lecture No. 6
Course: Key Trajectories in
Contemporary Linguistic
Research
Date: November 9, 2020
 Agenda of the lecture
• Ethnolinguistics as a branch of linguistic research
• Language relativity hypothesis
• Collective memory & ethnotext
• Yuriy Zhluktenko and his ethnolinguistic research projects
• Heritage language & ethnolect
• Ethnography of speaking & Dell Hymes’ SPEAKING model
• Ethnocentrism as a phenomenon. Cultural Stereotypes.
• Bennet’s Developmental Model of Intercultural
Sensitivity
• Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions (6D) model
 Етнолінгвістика
• Selivanova: marginal branch of studies in linguistics that
deals with the reflection in the language and speech
(ethnotexts – J. Bouvier) of the ethnical consciousness,
mentality, national character and culture
• Batsevych: наукова дисципліна, яка перебуває на межі
етнографії і лінгвістики та вивчає стосунки між етносами
і мовами. Включає елементи соціолінгвістики, етнології,
охоплює сфери етногенезу та етнічної історії, етномовні
процеси у внутрішніх і міжмовних контактах, роль мови
у формуванні етнічних спільнот, специфіку
комунікативної поведінки членів певної національної
лінгвокультурної спільноти тощо.
 demarcation lines…
• anthropological • sociologically-oriented
ethnolinguistics focuses ethnolinguistics aims to
on the cultural heritage determine the place
of a given national and functions of
community manifested language in culture and
in the language of this society (i.e. “a language
community (i.e. “culture in culture”)
in a language”).
 Subject matter: мовна репрезентація особливостей етнічної свідомості
й культури
→ lingual representation of the features of ethnic consciousness and
culture

• Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" that

is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals
that characterize a community, nation, or
ideology. 
Ethnolingustic studies in Ukraine
 “Language-thinking”
• Many would argue that thinking is mostly universal that makes any
translation theoretically possible.
→ constructed on universal cognitive principles

• the principle of Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis)

1) The linguistic structures of different languages, which can be very
diverse, encourage or oblige their speakers to pay greater attention to
certain aspects of the world at the expense of others.
2) A hypothesis is holding that the structure of a  language affects the 
perceptions of reality of 
its speakers and thus influences their thought patterns and worldviews.

language determines thought
 Collective memory
• Collective memory is sustained through a continuous production
of representational forms.
• Collective memory can be shared, passed on, and constructed, by
large and small social groups → dynamic phenomenon
• Етнотекст : ethnotext – текст, мовний код котрого (мова) є
рідним для автора - носія певних етнокультурних рис, в
структурі та семантиці одиниць якого відбились особливості
світосприйняття (мовна картина світу) конкретного етносу.
• Narratives and images are reproduced and reframed, yet also
questioned and contested through new images and so forth.
• Collective memory enables one to focus on the selectiveness of
cultural information as actualized – really or probably – in a newly
generated text.
the frame
 Ukrainian dumy in English translation

Translations by George Tarnawsky

and Patricia Kilina.
Introduction by Natalie K. Moyle.
Camridge: Canadian Institute of
Ukrainian Studies and Harvard
Ukrainian Research Institute.
1979. – 219 p.
 Provisional Strategies
• Ethnocultural neutralization
“smooth, rather fluent writing”: застосування
гладкопису (розмовно-просторічні відхилення
→ стандартизовані літературні форми)
• Signal translation: transliteration/transcription
so as to “inform” the T reader about the ethnic
specificity of the work
 Illustrations
• Speaking names are partially
transliterated, but the “telling” part is
translated:
Хведір Бездольний – Khvedir the Luckless
• Inconsistency in translation decisions
reflects in loss of the symbolism of the
name:
Козак Голота – Cossack Holota
Голота – (знижена характеристика
представників непривілейованих
прошарків суспільства) простолюддя,
простонароддя
Юрій Олексійович Жлуктенко
• Українсько-англійські міжмовні
відносини. Українська мова в США і
Канаді. — К., 1964.
• Українська мова на лінгвістичній
карті Канади. — К., 1990.

Етнолект : ethnolect refers to a

language variety, formed in the foreign
ethnical space by the group of “comers”
that wish to preserve their first native
language (mother tongue) in everyday
communication
 Heritage language
• Останнім часом у зв'язку з розпорошенням української етнічної групи по
величезній території Канади відбулися значні зміни у статусі української мови.
Якщо раніше більшість членів української етнічної групи вважали українську
мову своєю рідною, то в нинішній час вона перетворилася у другу мову (тобто
мову набуту, вивчену як іноземну), часто вживається відносно неї термін
heritage language, тобто мова „культурної спадщини“.
→ a language that was acquired first, but was not completely learned because the child
switched to another language that was dominant in the community and in the
educational system.
• Деякі канадські науковці, зокрема М.Марунчак, вважає, що мовна асиміляція не
тотожна з національною асиміляцією, тобто нівеляцією самої народності.
• Ю.Жлуктенко у своїй монографії „Українська мова на лінгвістичній карті Канади“
зауважує:
„Якщо послідовно дотримуватися цієї лінії, то навіть тоді, коли в Канаді вже не
залишиться жодної людини, яка ще б розмовляла українською мовою, можна
буде продовжувати запевняти, що ніякої асиміляції, власне, не сталося: мова та
культура зникли, зате залишилася… „ідентичність“.
 Ethnography of speaking

• The study of the norms of communication in a speech

community, including verbal, non-verbal and social factors. Every
society has its own norms for communicative behaviour.
• Linguists have long stressed the importance of examining
communicative behaviour in the context of a culture, though the
term ethnography of speaking (or ethnography of
communication) itself was not coined until the 1970s, by the
American anthropological linguist Dell Hymes.
• Investigators have looked at a broad range of variables in a
number of speech communities: loudness of voice, pitch of voice
distance between speakers, expressions and postures, eye
contact, terms of address, rules for initiating conversations, and
 Examples
• Mexicans in conversation prefer to stand much closer together than do
Americans, which can lead to comical results when a Mexican is talking to an
American.
• English-speakers who meet each other but have nothing in particular to say will
begin talking about the weather, since silence is considered unacceptable; but
Chinese-speakers in the same position may choose to remain silent without
giving offence.
• Italians punctuate their speech with animated gesticulations; Swedes do not.
• In the British House of Commons, it is considered technically improper for one
MP to address another directly, and hence all speeches and remarks are formally
directed at the Speaker, and all other MPs are referred to in the third person,
with frozen locutions like ‘the Honourable Member for Tatton’.
• Conclusion: Different cultures often impose quite different conventions for the
use and form of language in comparable social situations, and appropriate
linguistic practices in line with these conventions is a required characteristic for a
speaker’s membership in the linguistic community as a competent member,
what Hymes has called communicative competence.
Dell Hymes: SPEAKING model
 Spanish community in NY
• Spanish falls into second place with almost 20% of New York area
residents speaking the language at home, though like English it has
taken a few twists and turns. In New York, the Spanish tongue has
been influenced by dialects from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the
Dominican Republic, and Ecuador, resulting in a somewhat hybrid
form of the language as immigrants have adapted to their new
surroundings. English has also played a role in changing the way
Spanish is spoken, often peppering the language with pronouns,
which are often omitted in its natural form.
• In Manhattan, just above West Village, a neighborhood known as
Little Spain has served as a social and cultural hub for Spanish
immigrants in the city. There are also Spanish-speaking
communities in the South Bronx, the Lower East Side, Brooklyn,
Queens, and Spanish Harlem.
 Ethnocentrism
• сприйняття й інтерпретація комунікативної поведінки
інших крізь призму своєї культури; етнічні стереотипи і
упередження, що виявляються в оцінці відмінностей
між етносами за принципом “ми — кращі, вони —
гірші”
→ the attitude that uses one’s own culture as a yardstick by
which to measure all other cultures
• All cultures have it, but only those who achieve some kind
of prestige reveal it!
• An ethnocentric attitude allows members of the culture to
remark the world in their own image without realizing
how different that world was.
 Cultural stereotypes
• In an intercultural setting, one of the goals of the
participant is getting to know the attitudes and
personality of the communication partner. In this
process, we apply both evidence and our existing
beliefs about the members of that cultural group.
These are cultural stereotypes.
• Stereotypes can concern one's own group or that of
the other. These are called respectively auto- and
hetero-stereotypes. So hetero-stereotypes simplify
and generalize ideas of the target culture while auto-
stereotypes are fixed distortions of one’s own culture.
 Acculturation
• Whereas enculturation is a process that helps an individual to imbibe social values,
norms, customs etc. of the culture he lives in, acculturation is a two way change process
that takes placed when there is a meeting of two cultures.
• The confrontation with a new culture leads to a process of “acculturation” (Brown 1994),
i.e. a gradual process of adapting to a new culture which may also involve new ways of
thinking and a change of attitude.
• Assimilation is the cultural absorption of a minority group into the main cultural body.
• This acculturation process is also reflected in Bennett’s Developmental Model of
Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennett 1993).
• This model outlines the gradual process of intercultural learning by describing the
different ways in which people react to cultural differences. The model comprises six
stages of increasing sensitivity to differences:
 Cultural Dimensions (6D)
model
• Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory
was created in 1980 by Dutch
management researcher, Geert
Hofstede. The aim of the study was to
determine the dimensions in which
cultures vary.
• It is based on a decade of research and
has become an internationally
recognized standard for understanding
cultural differences.
• Hofstede studied people who worked
for IBM in more than 50 countries. As
his research focused solely on IBM
employees, he could attribute those
patterns to national differences, and
minimize the impact of company
culture.
 Dimensionalizing the culture

Indulgence vs. Restraint

• The indulgence vs. restraint dimension considers the extent and tendency for a society to fulfill its desires. In other
words, this dimension revolves around how societies can control their impulses and desires.
Indulgence indicates that a society allows relatively free gratification related to enjoying life and having fun.
Restraint indicates that a society suppresses gratification of needs and regulates it through social norms.
 For extra reading
• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree
/belief/2016/dec/08/assimilation-threatens-th
e-existence-of-other-cultures