DISCOURSE-CENTERED APPROACH TO LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Greg Urban presented on the discourse-centered approach to language and culture. Key points in this perspective are that culture is localized in publicly-accessible signs; the non-transparency of meaning (what people say during an interview is not necessarily what they would say in other contexts); and the circulation of discourse.

The discourse-centered approach to culture has the central premise that culture is localized in publicly-accessible signs. The most important ones are actually occurring instances of discourse, and have a representational value. Because it is publicly accessible, it is possible to compare actual instances of discourse usage to empirically study the extent of sharing and continuity of culture (Urban 1991).

This approach diverts from mid-twentieth century scholars who viewed culture as a synthesis, where one society has one language and one culture. The three realms were seen as discrete units, and could be studied independently of one another. This synthesis became problematic because boundaries between cultures are not clear-cut, and cultural elements are not shared equally between individuals.

Culture is socially learned and socially transmitted. Because it travels from an individual or group to another, instead of asking questions about what someone’s culture is, the discourse-centered approach emphasizes questions about what travels between groups and people, and how it makes that journey. In other words, culture cannot be studied as a static entity; culture exists in motion (Urban 2001).

Different forces affect cultural motion. The first of these is inertia: culture that is already there will tend to be transmitted. Entropy is the tendency to disorder, which disrupts perfect copying or transmission of culture, and hence induces changes in the course of motion (“drift”). Interest in different cultural elements also affects their transmission. Different cultural elements may hold differing degrees of interest for individuals, and therefore achieve different breadth or rates of transmission and longevity. Finally, metaculture (or culture about culture) may impart a force to the object culture; for example, film reviews affect the acceptance of a film.

Families and kinship form part of circulating discourse. Narratives (myths, stories, news, gossip, etc.) are the discourse loci where expectations about kinship roles and other identities unfold. Roles are generalized rules about narrative expectations. The narratives about roles lead to specific behaviors, which would be fleeting without them. There is a circulatory relationship between discourse and action; discourse both makes and remakes social context within which it occurs.

This presentation triggered several questions:

· Source of narratives and the relationship between the source and recipient

· Movement of discourse

Narratives come from different sources. If they originate from an official person, they might not be culturally sensitive to the community. People decide whether or not to adopt a new discourse, and the relationships that people have with whoever is trying to bring discourse in community can be traced.

The circulatory property of discourse means that the circulation of representations requires conduits but creates them at the same time. Both the direction and acceleration of discourse are researchable.

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 712