Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T02:26:55.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The interactional accomplishment of discrimination in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

J. Keith Chick
J. Keith Chick
Affiliation:
Department of General Linguistics and Communication, University of Natal
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper I attempt to show what a micro approach involving fine-grained sociolinguistic analyses has to contribute to the understanding of the causes of discrimination on grounds of race in South Africa. I present analyses of intra- and intercultural encounters involving native speakers of English and Zulu which suggest that differences in sociocultural background and discourse conventions contribute to misinterpretation of intent and misjudgement of attitude and ability. Repeated stressful encounters of this kind, I suggest, generate negative cultural stereotypes. Finally, I sketch how the larger, structural, historically given forces, which are the concern of macro studies, combine with the results of intercultural encounters to achieve a negative cycle of socially created discrimination. (Interactional sociolinguistics, culture-specific discourse conventions. intercultural communication failure and prejudice, South African English)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 1985 , pp. 299 - 326
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

Akinnaso, F. N. (1981). Research on minority languages and educational achivevement: A synthesis and an interpretation. Paper presented at symposium on Urban Communication and Social In-equality at the 80th Annual Meeting of the American Anthoropological Association, Los Angeles, California.Google Scholar
Bennet, A. (1981). Interruption and the Interpretation of conversation. Discourse Processes 4: 171–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1978). Universals in language usage: Politenes Phenomena. In Goody, E. N. (ed)., Questions and politeness. (Cambridge Papers in Socilal Anthropology 8.) Cambridge University Press. 56–289.Google Scholar
W., Chafe (1977a). The recall and verbalization of past experience. In Cole, R. W. (ed.), Current issues in linguistic theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 215–45.Google Scholar
W., Chafe (1977b). Creativity in verbalization and its implications for the nature of stored knowledge. In Freedle, R. D. (ed.), Discourse production and comprehension. Vol. I. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. 41–55.Google Scholar
Collins, R. (1975). Conflict sociology: Towards and explanatory science. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Condon, W. (1977). The relation of interactional synchrony to cognitive and emotional processes. In Key, M. (ed)., The relationship of verbal and nonverbal communication. The Hague: Mouton. 50–65.Google Scholar
Erickson, F. (1975). Gatekeeping and the melting pot: Interaction in counselling encounters. Harvard Educational Review 45(1):44–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erickson, F. (1976). Gatekeeping encounters: A social selection process. In Sanday, P. (ed.), Anthropology and public interest. New York: Academic. 111–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erickson, F. (1978). Timing and context in everyday discourse: Implications for the study of referential and social meaning. Paper delivered at the Conference on Children's Oral Communication Skills. University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Erickson, F., & Schultz, J. (1981). When is a context? Some issues and methods in the analysis of social competence. In Green, J. L. & Wallat, C. (eds.), Ethnography and language in educational settings. (Advances in Discourse Processes V.) Norwood, N.J.: Ablex,. 147–60.Google Scholar
Falk, J. (1979). The duet as a conversational process. Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. J. (1975). An alternative to checklist theories of meaning. In Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society. University of California, Berkeley. 123–31.Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. J. (1976). Frame semantics and the nature of language. In Hamad, S. R. et al. (eds.), Origins and evolution of language and speech. New York: Academy of Science. 20–32.Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. J. (1977). Scenes-and-frames semantics. In Zampoli, (ed.), Linguistic structures processing. North Holland. 55–81.Google Scholar
Gowlett, D. F. (1979). Towards black-white understanding in South Africa. I.S.M.A. Paper No. 36. Johannesburg.Google Scholar
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. (eds.), Syntax and semantics, vol. 3: Speech acts. New York: Academic. 41–58.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. (1982a). Discourse strategies. (Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics I.) Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gumperz, J. (ed.) (1982b). Language and social identity. (Studies in Interactional Scociolinguistics 2.) Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J., Aulakh, G. E., & Kaltman, A. (1982). Thematic structures and progression in discourse. In Gumperz, J. (ed.), Language and social identity. Cambridge University Press. 22–56.Google Scholar
Kendon, A. (1973). The role of visible behaviour in the organization of social interaction. In Von Cranach, M. (ed.), Social communication and movement. New York: Academic. 30–74.Google Scholar
Kendon, A. (1979). Some theoretical and methodological aspects of the use of film in the study of social interaction. In Ginsberg, G. (ed.), Emerging strategies in social psychological research. New York: John Wiley. 67–91.Google Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness: Or minding your p's and q's. In Corum, C., Smith-Stark, T. C., Weiser, A. (eds.), Papers from the Eighth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society. 292–305.Google Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman's place. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1979). Stylistic strategies with a grammar of style. In Oraisainn, J., Slater, M., & Adler, L. Loeb (eds.), Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 327. New York: Academy of Sciences. 53–78.Google Scholar
McDermott, R., Gaspodinoff, K., & Aron, J. (1978). Criteria for an ethnographically adequate description of concerted activities and their contexts. Semiotica 24(3,4):245–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDermott, R. P., & Roth, D. R. (1978). The social organization of behaviour: Interactional approaches. In Siegel, B. et al. , (eds.), Annual Review of Anthropology. Palo Alto: Annual Review. 321–345.Google Scholar
O'Barr, W. M., & Atkins, B. K. (1980). “Women's language” or “powerless language”? In McConnell-Ginet, S., Barker, R., & Furman, N. (eds.), Women and language – Literature and society. New York: Praeger. 93–110.Google Scholar
Ross, R. (1975). Ellipsis and the structure of expectation. San Jose State Occasional Papers in Linguistics. Vol 1. 183–91.Google Scholar
Sacks, H. (1972). On the analysability of stories by children. In Gumperz, J. & Hymes, D. (eds.), Direction in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 329–45.Google Scholar
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., & Jefferson, G. (1978). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn taking for conversation. In Schenkein, J. (ed), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction. New York: Academic. 7–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheflen, A. E. (1973). Communicating structures: Analysis of a psychotherapy transaction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Schegloff, E. A. (1973). Recycled turn beginnings: A precise repair mechanism in conversations' turn-taking organization. Paper presented at the Summer Institute of Linguistics sponsored by the L.S.A., University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Schegloff, E. A., & Sacks, H. (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica 8(4):289–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlemmer, L. (1977). Racial attitudes in southern Africa: The contributions of culture, economic interests, and history. In Shaw, T. M. & Heard, K. A. (eds.), Cooperation and conflict in southern Africa: Papers in a regional subsystem. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America. 161–83.Google Scholar
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. (1982). Narrative, literacy, and face in interethnic communication. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.Google Scholar
Scollon, R. & Scollon, R. (1983). Face in interethnic communication. In Richards, J. C. & Schmidt, R. W. (eds.), Language and communication. London and New York: Longman. 156–88.Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (1979). What's in a frame? Surface evidence for underlying expectations. In Freedle, R. (ed.), New directions in discourse processing. (Advances in Discourse Processes II.) Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. 137–181.Google Scholar