Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T21:40:47.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Directive use in a migrant agricultural community: A test of Ervin-Tripp's hypotheses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

M. Margaret Weigel  and
Ronald M. Weigel
M. Margaret Weigel
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
Ronald M. Weigel
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Institute University of California, Los Angels
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The choice of English directive variants has been hypothesized by ErvinTripp (1976, 1977) to be determined by several social and ecological factors: the relative social ranks of the speaker and recipient, their ages, their familiarity, the presence or absence of outsiders, territorial location, and task expectations. The major goal of this investigation is to test ErvinTripp's hypotheses concerning the relationship between these variables and the choice of the identified syntactically based directive variants (imperatives, imbedded imperatives, need statements), using a distinctly different sample: a predominantly black male migratory agricultural labor population in the United States's eastern seaboard region. The data indicate that the imperative form is used almost exclusively in those contexts where the syntactically based directive variants were expected to occur. Thus, most of the predictions derived from Ervin-Tripp's model for these directive variants were contradicted. The preference for imperatives is suggested to be largely a consequence of the antagonistic relationships within the migrant farm-worker community. The results of this study also suggest that the set of decision rules used in choosing among directive variants according to social criteria is a function of the following factors: crosscultural (i.e., social class and ethnic) variation, and social and physical characteristics of the interaction setting. (Directives, migrant farmworkers, cultural differences, environmental influences, ethology)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , March 1985 , pp. 63 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Altmann, S. A. (1967). The structure of primate social communication. In Altmann, S. A. (ed), Social communication among primates. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 325–362.Google Scholar
Blom, J. P., & Gumperz, J. J.. (1972). Some social determinants of verbal behavior. In Gumperz, J. J. & Hymes, D. (eds.). Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Jones, N. Blurton (1972). Characteristics of ethological studies of human behavior. In Jones, N. Blurton (ed.), Ethological studies of child behaviour. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, N. Blurton (1981). Human ethology —The study of people as if they could not talk? Ethology and Sociobiology 2: 51–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantor, J. (1979). Grammatical variations in persuasion: Effectiveness of four forms of request in door-to-door solicitations for funds. Communication Monographs 46: 296–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chance, M. R. A. & Jolly, C. (1970). Social groups of monkeys, apes, and men. New York: Dutton.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H., & Lucy, P. (1975). Understanding what is meant from what is said: A study in conversationally conveyed requests. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 14: 56–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunbar, T., & Kravitz, L. (1976). Hard traveling: Migrant farm workers in America. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger.Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. (1976). Is Sybil there? The structure of some American English directives. Language in Society 5: 25–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. (1977). Wait for me roller-skate! In Ervin-Tripp, S. & Mitchell-Kernan, C. (eds.), Child discourse. New York: Academic. 165–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedland, W.. & Nelkin, D. (1971). Migrant: Agricultural workers in America's northeast. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Garvey, C. (1975). Requests and responses in children's speech. Journal of Child Language 2: 41–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, D. & Lakoff, G. (1975). Conversational postulates. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. L. (eds.), Syntax and semantics. vol. 3: Speech acts. New York: Academic. 83–106.Google Scholar
Green, G. M. (1975). How to get people to do things with words: The whimperative question. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. L. (eds.), Syntax and semantics, vol. 3: Speech acts. New York: Academic 107–41.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. (1972). The speech community. In Giglioli, P. P. (ed), Language and social context. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 381–86.Google Scholar
Hall, E. T. (1966). The hidden dimension. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Harper, R. G.., Wiens, A. R. & Matarazzo, J. D. (1978). Nonverbal communication: The state of the art. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Hinde, R. (ed.) (1972). Non-verbal communication. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hockett, C. F., & Altmann, S.. (1968). A note on design features. In Sebeok, T. A. (ed). Animnal communication: Techniques of study and results of research. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 61–72.Google Scholar
Hutt, S. J.. & Hutt, C.. (1970). Direct observation and measurement of behavior. Springfield. Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in sociolinguistics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972a). The logic of nonstandard English. In Giglioli, P. P. (ed). Language and social context. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 179–215.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972b). Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972c). Rules for ritual insults. In Sudnow, D. (ed), Studies in social interaction. New York: Free Press. 120–69.Google Scholar
Lamb, S. M. (1966). Outline of stratification grammar. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Mehrabian, A. (1972). Nonverbal communication. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.Google Scholar
Mitchell-Kernan, C., & Kernan, K. (1977). Pragmatics of directive choice among children. In Ervin-Tripp, S. & Mitchell-Kernan, C. (eds.), Child discourse. New York: Academic. 189–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, T. (1965). The slaves we rent. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Nelkin, D. (1970a). On the season: Aspects of the migrant labor system. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Nelkin, D. (1970b). Unpredictability and life style in a migrant labor camp. Social Problems 17: 472–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, B. K. & Cherry, L. J. (1978). Preschool children's production of directive forms. Discourse Processes 1: 233–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, C., & Russell, W. M. S. (1968). The natural history of aggression. In Russell, C. & Russell, W. M. S. (eds.), Violence, monkeys, and men. New York: Dutton.Google Scholar
Searle, J. R. (1975). Indirect speech acts. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. L. (eds.), Syntax and semantics. vol. 3: Speech acts. New York: Academic. 59–82.Google Scholar
Siegel, S. (1956). Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Sinclair, J., & Coulthard, R. M. (1975). Towards an analysis of discourse: The English used by teachers and pupils. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, W. J. (1977). The behavior of communicating: An ethological approach. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sommer, R. (1969). Personal space. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Southwick, C. H. (1967). An experimental study of intragroup agonistic behavior in rhesus monkeys Macaca mulatta. Behaviour 28: 182–209.Google ScholarPubMed
Taylor, M. M. (Weigel) (1977–1978). Unpublished field nótes.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. M. (Weigel) (1980). Crewleader alternatives to coercive power. Florida Scientist 43: 253–56.Google Scholar
Tinbergen, N. (1963). On the aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 20: 410–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weigel, R. M., & Johnson, P. (1981). An ethological classification system of verbal behavior. Ethology and Sociobiology 2:55–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittenberger, J. F. (1981). Animal social behavior. Boston: Duxbury.Google Scholar
Wood, B. S., & Gardner, R. (1980). How children “get their way” Directives in communication. Communication Education 29:264–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, D. (1965). They harvest despair: The migrant farm worker. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar