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Posts Tagged ‘Dell Hymes’

Using English refers to the use of English as the media of communication. Using English can be formal and can be informal. Formality and informality in using language especially English depends on the situation and the manner. Formal English is usually used in the formal situation such as teaching and learning process, debate, speech, etc. English is used informally as daily conversation language.
In this field of the study, using English refers to the application of English in spoken, formally or informally.

To study the communication in which a language is used, Hymes proposed basic units of language use; speech community, speech situation, speech event, speech act, speech style, and ways of speaking.

2.3.1 Speech community

Bloomfield in Dinneen (1967:250) defined a “speech community” as “a group of people who interact by means of speech”. In the other word, Corder (1973:53) said “A speech community is made up of individuals who regard themselves as speaking the same language; it need have no other defining attributes.”

It is clarified by Carbaugh in Blackwell Reference Online who stated a speech community as a group of people who share rules for using and interpreting at least one communication practice. A communication practice might involve specific events, acts, or situations, with the use and interpretation of at least one essential for membership in a speech community.

2.3.2 Speech situation

Speech situation occurs within a speech community. You can find a speech situation by finding times when people talk or don’t talk. Dell Hymes and Ghumperz (in Mu’in and Kamal, 2006:9) defined speech situation as a situation in which a speech occurs. Within a society, we may detect many situations associated with (or marked by the absence of) speech. Such situations will be described as ceremonies, fights, hunts, meals, lovemaking, and the like.

2.3.3 Speech event

Fasold (1990:42) said “a speech event takes place within a speech situation and is composed of one or more speech acts”. Hymes added that a speech event has a beginning and end. It also refers to activities that are governed by rules or norms for speech (1974:52). Speech events, on the other hand, are both communicative and governed by rules for the use of speech.

2.3.4 Speech act

Saville-Troike cited that speech act is generally coterminous with a single interactional function, such as referential statement, request, or command, and may be either verbal or nonverbal (1982:29). Dell Hymes (in Fasold, 1990:42) defined a speech act as follow;
Speech act is the simplest and the most troublesome level at same time. It is the simplest because it is the minimal term of the set. It represents a level of distinct from sentences, and cannot be identified with any single portion of other levels of grammar, nor with segments of any particular size defined in terms of other levels of grammar. An utterance may have the status of command depending on conventional formula.

Speech act or communicative act is smaller units of speech. This is an utterance that serves a function in communication. Speech act describes what action is getting done when particular words are used.

2.3.5 Speech style

Speech style or communicative style refers to the way someone usually speaks. You could say that it is characteristic of someone to speak in a certain way. Someone’s style also can be noted by patterns in their speech.
Someone may speak very informally or very formally; his choice of the style is governed by circumstances. Ceremonial occasion almost require very formal speech; public lectures are somewhat less formal; casual conversation is quite informal; and conversation between intimates on matters of little importance may be extremely informal and casual (Mu’in and Kamal, 2006:10).

2.3.6 Way of speaking

Mu’in and Kamal stated that a way of speaking refers to how a language speaker uses in accordance with behavior of communication regulated in his speech community (2006:11). The way of speaking refers to speech not necessarily within one of the other unit. Ways of speaking can refer to styles of speech that may be used in various situations and events. It can also be used to describe speech patterns and norms that are characteristic of a culture.

2.3.7 Components of speech

Dell 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 was comprised of 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.
To facilitate the application of his representation, Hymes constructed the acronym “S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G” under which he grouped the sixteen components within eight divisions; Setting, Participants, Ends, Act sequence, Key, Instrumentalities, Norms, and Genre.

a. Setting and Scene or Situation
Setting refers to the time and place of a speech act and, in general, to the physical circumstances (Hymes, 1974:55). He added that scene is the psychological setting or cultural definition of a scene, including characteristics such as range of formality and sense of play or seriousness (Hymes, 1974:55-56).
This component explores two aspects of context: the physical setting in which it takes place, and the scene, i.e., the participants’ sense of what is going on when this practice is active.

b. Participants
It refers to who is involved in the speech including the speaker and the audience. Linguists will make distinctions within these categories; for example, the audience can be distinguished as addressees and other hearers (Hymes, 1974: 54 & 56).

c. Ends
Ends or goals refer to the social and personal outcomes that the participants may expect as a result of the speech event. This asks about two ends: the goals participants may have in doing the practice, and the outcomes actually achieved. Communication practice, generally, may target some goals, yet attain other outcomes (intended and not).

d. Act Sequence
Act sequence refers to the order of events that took place during the speech. It includes both form and content. That is, any action can be considered as communicative action if it conveys meaning to the participants. This component invites a careful look at the sequential organization of the practice, its message content, and form.

e. Key
Key refers to the overall tone or manner of the speech. It is cues that establish the tone, manner, or spirit of the speech act (Hymes, 1974:57). Fasold (1990:45) said “Key refers to the manner or spirit in which act is carried out”. This component looks into the emotional pitch, feeling, or spirit of the communication practice.

f. Instrumentalities
Instrumentalities or channels are forms and styles of speech (Hymes, 1974: 58-60). They are the modes or media of the speech event. Instrumentality can refer to the channel through which the event takes place, e.g. on the telephone, writing, or speech. It can also refer to any combination of the above. The range of instruments being used to design a practice, and the ways each is interpreted, are entered into the analysis here.

g. Norms
Norm is defined as what is socially acceptable at the event. It refers to social rules governing the event and the participants’ actions and reaction. Norms of interaction and interpretation are what is culturally and socially expected of the form and content of a speech event.
This component distinguishes the two senses of norms that may be relevant to a communication practice: what is done normally as a matter of habit and what is the appropriate thing to do.

h. Genre
Genre refers to how a specific utterance is marked discursively. It also meant the type of speech that is being given. This might involve identifying the practice as a type of a formal genre such as verbal dueling, or a riddle, or a narrative. Hymes (2003:44) cited “genre often coincides with speech events, but must be treated as analytically independent of them. They may occur in (or as) different event”.

In societies in which two or more languages are used, there are some common phenomenon can occur such as code switching and code mixing. The use of one or more languages may also result in interference.

Code switching refers to alternating between one or more languages or dialects. It also occurs within a particular language. We use different forms of expression depending on the person we are speaking to and where we are speaking to that person. An Online Wikipedia defined Code-switching as a term in linguistics referring to using more than one language or variety in conversation. In a simplest sentence, Mu’in and Kamal explained that code switching occurs when a language is regarded as a system; the language is change from one to another (2006:50).

Although some commentators have seen code-switching as reflecting a lack of language ability, most contemporary scholars consider code-switching to be a normal and natural product of interaction between the bilingual or multilingual speakers.

And then, code mixing, is the change of one language to another within the same utterance. Hudson (1996:53) defined code-mixing as a case “where a fluent bilingual talking to another fluent bilingual changes language without any change at all in the situation”. Code mixing is to mix the codes of the two languages. This can occur in writing and speech.

In code-mixed sentences, pieces of one language are used while a speaker is basically using another language. These pieces of the other language are often words, but they can also be phrases or larger units. Wardhaugh (1992:107) said, “Conversational code-mixing involves the deliberate mixing of two languages without an associated topic change.”

Another phenomenon is interference. Mackey (in Mu’in and Kamal, 2006:61) defined interference as “the use of features belonging to one language while speaking or writing another”. Interference may be viewed as the transference of elements of one language to another at various levels including phonological, grammatical, lexical, semantic and cultural.

Grammatical interference is defined as the first language influencing the second in terms of word order, use of pronouns and determinants, tense and mood. In a cultural level, interference occurs when a speaker introduce new semantic structures. Interference at a lexical level provides for the borrowing of words from one language and converting them to sound more natural in another and phonological interference includes the spelling of one language altering another.