Dell Hymes

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Hymes developed a valuable model to assist the identification and labeling of components of linguistic interaction that was driven by his view that, in order to speak a language correctly, one needs not only to learn its vocabulary and grammar, but also the context in which words are used.

The model had sixteen components that can be applied to many sorts of discourse: message form; message content; setting; scene; speaker/sender; addressor; hearer/receiver/audience; addressee; purposes (outcomes); purposes (goals); key; channels; forms of speech; norms of interaction; norms of interpretation; and genres. [18]

Hymes constructed the acronym SPEAKING, under which he grouped the sixteen components within eight divisions: [19]

Setting and scene

"Setting refers to the time and place of a speech act and, in general, to the physical circumstances" - [20] The living room in the grandparents' home might be a setting for a family story. Scene is the "psychological setting" or "cultural definition" of a setting, including characteristics such as range of formality and sense of play or seriousness. [21] The family story may be told at a reunion celebrating the grandparents' anniversary. At times, the family would be festive and playful; at other times, serious and commemorative.

Participants

Speaker and audience - Linguists will make distinctions within these categories; for example, the audience can be distinguished as addressees and other hearers. [22] At the family reunion, an aunt might tell a story to the young female relatives, but males, although not addressed, might also hear the narrative.

Ends

Purposes, goals, and outcomes - [23] The aunt may tell a story about the grandmother to entertain the audience, teach the young women, and honor the grandmother.

Act sequence

Form and order of the event - The aunt's story might begin as a response to a toast to the grandmother. The story's plot and development would have a sequence structured by the aunt. Possibly there would be a collaborative interruption during the telling. Finally, the group might applaud the tale and move onto another subject or activity.

Key

Clues that establish the "tone, manner, or spirit" of the speech act - [24] The aunt might imitate the grandmother's voice and gestures in a playful way, or she might address the group in a serious voice emphasizing the sincerity and respect of the praise the story expresses.

Instrumentalities

Forms and styles of speech - [25] The aunt might speak in a casual register with many dialect features or might use a more formal register and careful grammatically "standard" forms.

Norms

Social rules governing the event and the participants' actions and reaction - In a playful story by the aunt, the norms might allow many audience interruptions and collaboration, or possibly those interruptions might be limited to participation by older females. A serious, formal story by the aunt might call for attention to her and no interruptions as norms.

Genre

The kind of speech act or event; for the example used here, the kind of story - The aunt might tell a character anecdote about the grandmother for entertainment, or an exemplum as moral instruction. Different disciplines develop terms for kinds of speech acts, and speech communities sometimes have their own terms for types. [26]

Family and personal life

Hymes' spouse, Virginia Dosch Hymes, was also a sociolinguist and folklorist. [3] They met at Indiana University, marrying in 1954. [27]

Religious associations

Hymes was a member of the Guild of Scholars of The Episcopal Church.

He was a congregant of St. Paul Memorial Church and Peace Lutheran Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. [27]

Awards

Hymes was awarded the Gold Medal of Philology in 2006. [28]

Publications

  • Cazden, C.B., John, V.P., & Hymes, D.H. (Eds.). (1972). Functions of language in the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.
  • Gumperz, J. J., & Hymes, D. (Eds.). (1964). The Ethnography of Communication. Special issue of American Anthropologist, 66 (6), Part II: pages 137–54.
  • Gumperz, J. J., & Hymes, D. (1972). Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1961). Functions of speech: An evolutionary approach. In F. Gruber (Ed.), Anthropology and education. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
  • Hymes, D. (1962). The Ethnography of Speaking. In T. Gladwin & W. C. Sturtevant (Eds.), Anthropology and Human Behavior (pages 13–53). Washington, DC: Anthropology Society of Washington.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1963). Toward a history of linguistic anthropology. Anthropological Linguistics, 5(1), pages 59–103.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1964a). Directions in (ethno-)linguistic theory. In A.K. Romney & R.G. D’Andrade (Eds.), Transcultural studies of cognition (pages 6–56). American Anthropologist, 66(3), part 2.
  • Hymes, D. (Ed.). (1964) Language in Culture and Society: A Reader in Linguistics and Anthropology. New York: Harper & Row.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1967). Models of the interaction of language and social setting. Journal of Social Issues, 23(2), pages 8–38.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1967). The anthropology of communication. In F.E. Dance (Ed.), Human communication theory: Original essays. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1970). Linguistic method in ethnography: Its development in the United States. In P. Garvin (Ed.), Method and theory in linguistics. The Hague: Mouton.
  • Hymes, D. (1971). Sociolinguistics and the ethnography of speaking. In E. Ardener (Ed.), Social anthropology and language (pages 47–93). London: Routledge.
  • Hymes, D. (1971). On linguistic theory, communicative competence, and the education of disadvantaged children. In M.L. Wax, S.A. Diamond & F. Gearing (Eds.), Anthropological perspectives on education (pages 51–66). New York: Basic Books.
  • Hymes, D. (Ed.). (1971). Pidginization and Creolization of Languages. London: Cambridge University Press.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1972). On communicative competence. In J.B. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics (pages 269–293). London: Penguin.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1972). Editorial introduction. Language in Society, 1, 1–14.
  • Hymes, D. (Ed.). (1972). Reinventing Anthropology. New York: Pantheon.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1972). Toward ethnographies of communication. In P.P. Giglioli (Ed.), Language and social context (pages 21–44). Harmondsworth: Penguin.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1973). Toward linguistic competence. Working Papers in Sociolinguistics, No. 16.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1974). Ways of speaking. In R. Bauman & J. Sherzer (Eds.), Explorations in the ethnography of speaking (pages 433–452). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Hymes, D.H. (Ed.). (1974). Studies in the history of linguistics: Traditions and paradigms. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  • Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1974). An ethnographic perspective. New Literary History, 5, 187–201.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1974). Review of Noam Chomsky. In G. Harman (Ed.), "On Noam Chomsky: Critical essays" (pages 316–333). Garden City, New York: Anchor.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1975). Breakthrough into performance. In D. Ben-Amos & K. Goldstein (Eds.), Folklore: Performance and communication (pages 11–74). The Hague: Mouton.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1976). Toward linguistic competence. Sociologische Gids, 4, 217–239.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1976). Discovering oral performance and measured verse in American Indian narrative. New Literary History, 8, 431–457.
  • Hymes, D. (1980) In five year patterns. In B. H. Davis & R. K. O'Cain (Eds.), First Person Singular (pages 201–213). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Hymes, D. (1980). Language in Education: Ethnolinguistic Essays. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.
  • Hymes, D., & Fought, J. (1981). American Structuralism. The Hague: Mouton.
  • Hymes, D. (1981). "In Vain I Tried to Tell You": Essays in Native American Ethnopoetics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Hymes, D. (1983). Essays in the History of Linguistic Anthropology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1984). Vers la compétence de communication. (Trans. F. Mugler). Paris: Hatier.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1985). Toward linguistic competence. AILA Review/Revue de l’AILA (Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée), 2, 9–23.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1992). Inequality in language: Taking for granted. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 8(1), pages 1–30.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1993). Inequality in language: Taking for granted. In J.E. Alatis (Ed.), Language, communication, and social meaning (pages 23–40). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
  • Hymes, D. (1996). Ethnography, Linguistics, Narrative Inequality: Toward an Understanding of Voice. London: Taylor & Francis.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1998). When is oral narrative poetry? Generative form and its pragmatic conditions. Pragmatics, 8(4), paages 475–500.
  • Hymes, D.H. (1999). Boas on the threshold of ethnopoetics. In R. Darnell & L. Valentine (Eds.), Theorizing the Americanist tradition. University of Toronto Press.
  • Hymes, D.H. (2000). The emergence of sociolinguistics: A reply to Samarin. Dialogue, 312–315.
  • Hymes, D.H. (2001). Poetry. In A. Duranti (Ed.), Key terms in language and culture. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Hymes, D.H. (2001). Preface. Textus, 14, 189–192.
  • Hymes, D. (2003). Now I Know Only So Far: Essays in Ethnopoetics. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

References

  1. 1 2 Dell Hymes. 1997. Language in Society. In The Early Days of Sociolinguistics: Memories and Reflections, ed. by Christina Bratt Paulston and G. Richard Tucker, pages 243–245. Dallas: SIL International.
  2. ↑ "Reed Magazine: Ways We Speak (1/4)". www.reed.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-01.
  3. 1 2 Bromley, Anne E. (November 18, 2009). "U.Va. Professor Emeritus Dell Hymes, Influential Linguistic Anthropologist, Has Died". UVA Today. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  4. ↑ A fellow folklore graduate student at Indiana was his former Reed classmate, the poet Gary Snyder
  5. ↑ Howard, Victoria; Mason, Catharine; Jacobs, Melville (2021). Clackamas Chinook performance art: verse form interpretations. Studies in the anthropology of North American Indians series. Lincoln Bloomington: University of Nebraska Press American Indian Research Institute, Indiana University. ISBN   978-1-4962-2411-8.
  6. ↑ Sally A. Downey, Dell Hathaway Hymes, 82, Penn education dean philly.com. Retrieved on November 19, 2009.
  7. ↑ Hymes (2003), page x.
  8. ↑ Hymes (2003), pages ix-x.
  9. ↑ Hymes, D. (1972). Models of the interaction of language and social life. In J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (Eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication (pages 35–71). New York: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston.
  10. ↑ Hymes, D. (1964). Two types of linguistic relativity: Some examples from American Indian ethnography. Sociolinguistics. WilliamBright, ed, pages 114–167.
  11. ↑ Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (1984). On the relationship of the 'ethnography of speaking' to the 'ethnography of communication.' Papers in Linguistics: International Journal of Human Communication, 17(1), pages 7–32.
  12. ↑ Leeds-Hurwitz, W., & Sigman, S. J. (2010). The Penn tradition. In W. Leeds-Hurwitz (Ed.), The social history of language and social interaction research: People, places, ideas. Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press, page 236.
  13. ↑ Leeds-Hurwitz, W., & Sigman, S. J. (2010). The Penn tradition. In W. Leeds-Hurwitz (Ed.), The social history of language and social interaction research: People, places, ideas. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, pages 254-6.
  14. ↑ Leeds-Hurwitz, W., & Sigman, S. J. (2010). The Penn tradition. In W. Leeds-Hurwitz (Ed.), The social history of language and social interaction research: People, places, ideas. Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press, pages 256-8.
  15. ↑ He also had to master the grammars of several Native American languages in the process, and was probably the last person who could recite texts in Clackamas Chinook, an extinct language.
  16. ↑ Hymes 2003:vii
  17. ↑ Hymes 1981:6–7
  18. ↑ Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pages 53–62.
  19. ↑ Note that the categories are simply listed in the order demanded by the mnemonic, not by importance
  20. ↑ Hymes (1974), page 55.
  21. ↑ Hymes (1974), pages 55–56.
  22. ↑ Hymes (1974), pages 54 and 56.
  23. ↑ Hymes (1974), pages 56–57.
  24. ↑ Hymes (1974), page 57.
  25. ↑ Hymes (1974), pages 58–60.
  26. ↑ Anticipating that he might be accused of creating an (English language) "ethnocentric" mnemonic — and, thus, by implication, an (English language) "ethnocentric" theory — Hymes comments that he could have, for instance, generated a French language mnemonic of P-A-R-L-A-N-T: namely, participants, actes, raison (resultat), locale, agents (instrumentalities), normes, ton (key), types (genres) (1974, page 62).
  27. 1 2 "Dell Hathaway Hymes's Obituary". Legacy.com. November 17, 2009. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  28. ↑ "Ancient Medal Winners". International Society of Philology. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2018-06-22.

Further reading

Dell Hymes
Born(1927-06-07)June 7, 1927
Portland, Oregon
DiedNovember 13, 2009(2009-11-13) (aged 82)
Charlottesville, Virginia
Academic background
Alma mater Indiana University Bloomington (PhD), Reed College
Educational offices
Preceded by Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
1975–1987		Succeeded by
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