From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village

Alessandro Duranti

University of California Press, Aug 22, 1994 - Foreign Language Study - 208 pages

Alessandro Duranti explores the way traditional oratory in a Samoan village is shaped by the needs of the political process and shows how language insulates ceremonial speakers from the perils of everyday confrontation. He proposes a "moral flow hypothesis" in discourse, to describe a grammar that distributes praise and blame and in that way defines the standing of individuals in the community. This ethnographic journey from linguistic to political anthropology demonstrates that the analysis of grammar in context needs ethnography just as much as the conduct of politics needs grammatical analysis.

Contents

• The Political and Moral Dimensions: 3
• The Relevance of Genre: 9
• Field Linguistics: 15
• Research Agendas and Acquired Social: 22
• 3: 44
• Temporal Boundaries: 61
• 15: 72
• Speaking: 77
• 17: 79
• Heteroglossia in the Fono: 85
• 19: 91
• The Lauga as an Epic Genre: 100
• Variations within the Fono: 106
• 5: 114
• Grammatical Structures as Framing Devices: 121
• 222: 126
• Mitigated Agency: 129
• Agency and Power: 138
• 6: 144
• 7: 167
• Narrative Accounts: 175
• REFERENCES: 193
• INDEX: 203

About the author

Alessandro Duranti is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Bibliographic information

• Title: From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village
• Author: Alessandro Duranti
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of California Press, 1994
• ISBN: 0520083857, 9780520083851
• Length: 208 pages
• Subjects: Foreign Language Study / Oceanic & Australian Languages; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Sociolinguistics; Language Arts & Disciplines / Reference; Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social; Social Science / Anthropology / General; Social Science / Customs & Traditions