#culinary linguistics
Hi All,
Happy New Year and good news - I passed my dissertation proposal defense and should now have some time to keep posting articles (as I’ll be teaching an undergrad sociolinguistic course in the spring and may need to brush up on some classics). I hope your 2018 ended with a bit of joy for the new year, and here’s a great article by Gretchen McCullochaboutemojis teaching young children to learn language to hold you over in the meantime! Happy Holidays!
LL Recipe Comparison:
This article reminds me of the recipe for Linguine with Artichokes and Lemon:
Much as this article goes over the steps children take to acquire language, this recipe gives you nice and easy steps to turn artichoke hearts into delicious tangy goodness! The rosemary, lemon zest, and whipping cream add a special touch to this dish, just as the article’s addition of an explanation of how adults text in emoji charades or to create art while kids tend to stop sending strings of emojis when they learn to read is what sets this article apart. Bon Appétit!
MWV 1/1/19
Hi All,
Apologies again for my lengthy delay in reviewing articles- just one more week till I defend my dissertation proposal and hopefully become ABD in time for 2019! I’ll have to continue my break until I get that sorted in early December, but in the meantime here’s an interesting article on what a linguist can learn from looking at a gravestone.
LL Recipe Comparison:
This article reminds me of the recipe for Linguine al Limone:
Much as you will be surprised to learn the amount of information linguists can glean from gravestones, you’ll find yourself surprised at the simple deliciousness of this easy yet luscious dish! This is a perfect complement to any kind of seafood main course or as a stand alone treat, much as this article will remind you that despite how we are buried alone our words will live on as a complement to our lives, and that’s something to be thankful for! Good cooking!
MWV 11/19/18
Hi All,
Apologies about the lack of article reviews lately, but I’m in the middle of suffering through writing a proposal for my PhD dissertation, which I will be defending halfway through next month (gulp gulp). I’m afraid I’ll need to take a bit of a break while I desperately write about narratives, reported speech, and deception. However, while I’ll be back to posting articles in a few weeks, in the meantime enjoy this article about how linguists could actually help us talk to aliens.
LL Recipe Comparison:
This article reminds me of the recipe for Linguine with Gremolada:
Much as this article points out that we can’t assume we will know if aliens rely on sight to communicate, in making this recipe it would be good to assume that only a few people will know how to make Gremolada (minced garlic, parsley, and lemon zest FYI). The combination of the Gremolada with some orange zest and garlic is sure to spice up your day, similar to how we need to spice up our understanding of the possible ways that aliens communicate. Good Cooking!
MWV 10/25/18
Abduction, Dialogicality and Prior Text: The Taking on of Voices in Conversational Discourse
By: Deborah Tannen
Published by: Linguistic Society of America
Annual Meeting Plenary Address
January 8, 2009
LL Abstract:
In this address, Deborah Tannen outlines a theoretical framework for the notion of dialogicality, or the way that people draw on constructed voices of others to display identities that either display relationship status or hierarchies in a given interaction. Focusing on the constructed dialogue strategy of ventriloquizing, or the practice in which a speaker uses phonological, lexical, and syntactic resources to take on the voice of another or of an alternative personal persona. Illustrating her claims with examples from natural conversation, she argues that this animation allows speakers to negotiate two dynamics shaping conversation: relative closeness or distance on one hand, and relative hierarchy or equality on the other.
LL Summary:
Tannen (2009) begins this address by connecting Penelope Eckert’s work on indexicality and personae to her framework of meaning in interaction, noting the influence of Bateson, Bakhtin, and Becker. Describing her address as dealing with prior text and thus intertextuality, she next introduces her focus on the discursive strategy of reported speech, which she characterizes as “constructed dialogue” due to how speakers use this strategy to “take on the persona” of others. Tannen then outlines her theoretical framework, beginning with Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1952-53 [1986])views on dialogicality (or the interplay between current and previously experienced instances of language). Bakhtin describes every utterance as full of echoes and reverberations of other utterances, so that a current utterance is in “dialogue” with previous utterances. After explaining Gregory Bateson’s (1979) ideas on meaning as relationships from things to other things, Tannen ends this section by adopting A.L. Becker’s (1995) concept of ‘languaging’, where language is context-shaping (in other words, context is created by language) and outlined by a series of six relations. Before moving on to further examples, Tannen explains her own theoretical framework of the ambiguity and polysemy of connection and power. In her concept, every utterance and relationship results from a combination of two dynamics driving conversational discourse: relative closeness vs. distance and relative hierarchy vs. equality. She gives the example of overlapping speech, which can be in some instances be an interruption (or power maneuver) and in others be a cooperative overlap (as an enthusiastic chiming in or “cooperative overlap”, a connection maneuver). In her theory, such a display can be both polysemous (both a connection and power play) or ambiguous (can be either of the two moves). In the next part of her address, Tannen uses examples of ventriloquizing to show how people take on voices of others to introduce a persona, and to borrow characteristics from that persona in a move of creating closeness or distance with their interlocutor. In the family interactions she describes, fathers take on the voices of mothers to downplay directives, mothers voice dogs to get their kids to clean toys, children voice themselves and fathers, and expecting mothers voice their unborn children to chastise fathers-to-be. In these examples, Tannen argues that speakers communicate meaning by taking on voices that create personas, then borrow recognizable characteristics associated with them to negotiate relative connection and hierarchy. She concludes by revealing the role of this linguistic strategy in shaping family relations, arguing that intertextuality plays a key role in shaping discourse and the negotiation of connection and power in interaction.
LL Recipe Comparison:
This address reminds me of the recipe for one-pot Parmesan and Garlic Linguine:
Much as this delicious dish is remarkably easy to make (in one pot!), you will find this address remarkably easy to consume quickly! Tannen raises some thoughtful arguments about the role of prior text in conversation, and you will raise normal arguments with your family about who gets to finish this garlicky, cheesy pasta. I’d recommend adding some sun-dried tomatoes or dried kalamata olives to add a pit of texture to this amazing recipe, and it only takes 15 minutes to make! Good Cooking!
MWV 9/22/18
By: Mark Dingemanse, Giovanni Rossi, and Simeon Floyd
Published by: Language in Society
Volume 46, Issue 2
Pages 129-158
LL Abstract:
In this article, Dingemanse, Rossi, and Floyd look at the use of place references in narratives from 3 societies/languages (Cha’palaa, a Barbacoan language of Ecuador; Northern Italian, a Romance language of Italy; and Siwu, a Kwa language of Ghana). The authors find that place references are used in all three languages to set the stage or foreshadow events and to make the story cohere by anchoring elements of the developing story. This systematic study identifies possible uses of place reference that are generic to narratives across all three languages, suggesting that storytelling in conversation is a useful area to perform such comparative research.
LL Summary:
The article begins with noting the intersubjective notion of place referencing and by defining what exactly is a place reference: a possible answer to a “where-question” - in other words, a place that is logically connected to other places (recursive) and can be represented in a variety of forms. Dingemanse et al. then begin with an example analysis from a conversion in the British TV quiz show QI, demonstrating peoples’ normative understandings for how to begin stories as seen in the words of comedians Jimmy Carr and Sue Perkins. Observing how listeners in this orient to what place references evoke (i.e. inferences to a story’s point or a story’s later events) in this example, the authors introduce their aim in this paper: to identify the affordances of place references in narratives and to find cross-linguistic evidence for their use in conversational storytelling. The article then reviews previous literature from conversation analysis on the structure of story beginnings in various cultures and languages, introducing the background of the data in their current study: 108 narratives from videotaped natural conversations in the three languages of interest: Cha’palaa, Northern Italian, and Siwu. In 56 of these narratives, the analysts find place references that generally perform two affordances across all three languages: setting the stage and making the story cohere. Using a story about graveyard snakes from Siwu and 2 stories (about boar-hunting and women downriver) from Cha’palaa, the authors show how inclusion of place references serve to signal the start of a story and what it’s about (while it’s exclusion leads to sidebar conversation). Next, story beginnings from all three languages are analysed to show the second function of place references- making the story cohere, or providing a reference point for subsequent elements and developments of the story. Again, the authors use counter-examples to illustrate how the lack of a place reference in the appropriate place in a story leads to consequences (such as the humorous asides following one Northern Italian speakers’ lack of specificity). Dingemanse et al. argue that this and other examples reveal that references to places act as a binding technique to introduce and contextualise other elements and developments of the story. The article continues by introducing examples where place is under-specified, usually in narratives about the here and now, where narrators can draw on their current situation or elements of prior talk to make up for the lack of place in their narrative. In the final section, the authors discuss the differences between ‘location’ and ‘setting,’ how references can be ‘recognitional’ (known to the audience) or ‘non-recognitional’ (not intended to be known to the audience), and different language-specific practices for referring to place. Finally, they conclude that speakers flexibly use the interactional affordances of place references to meet the challenges of telling a story in conversation and call for further study of cross-linguistic features in this area of interaction.
LL Recipe Comparison:
This article reminds me of the recipe for Linguine with Cauliflower, Pine Nuts, and Currants:
While Dingemanse et al. find similarities in the ways that three cultures use the same linguistic strategy (place reference) in storytelling, you will count yourself lucky that this recipe combines three different ingredients into the same delicious dish! The brown butter sauce in this recipe brings out the flavor of the savory ingredients, much as the research of Dingemanse et al. brings out the interesting aspects of what makes a story compelling no matter what culture you belong to. And just like a story is incomplete without a grounding in place, this dish would be incomplete without generous amounts of Parmesan! Good Cooking!
MWV 8/22/18
Rights and Responsibilities in Calls for Help: The Case of the Mountain Glade Fire
By: Geoffrey Raymond and Don Zimmerman
Published by: Research on Language and Social Interaction
Volume 40, Issue 1
Pages 33-61
LL Abstract:
In this article, Raymond and Zimmerman use a corpus of 40 calls to 911 about the same event - a fire on the Pacific coast - to examine how callers and call-takers negotiate rights and responsibilities in their talk and the ways these rights affect actions and trajectories of 911 calls. They identify problems in managing these calls that occur over time, showing how callers and call-takers cannot avoid the institutional constraints posed by the format of an emergency call. Suggesting that institutional resistance to change may stem from such routinized and embodied practices, the authors further consider the impact on emergency services due to shifting presuppositions in multiple calls produced during community-wide events.
LL Summary:
Raymond and Zimmerman begin by describing the emergency captured by their call corpus: a mountainside fire in a coastal community on the Pacific Coast that affected thousands of residents, allowing the researchers to track an ordered series of calls about the same event. They describe the questions driving their research, outlining their focus on the practices that organize calls and the ways that these practices embody an alignment of identities between a service seeker and service provider. Identifying a directionality to the information flow in emergency calls (where practices are designed to facilitate information into a dispatch center), they introduce three ways that these practices are altered over multiple calls: information flow is reversed, complication of the service seeker/provider relationship, and complication in the rights and responsibilities of that relationship. In the next section of the article, the authors review prior research on the organization and production of emergency calls, beginning with how calls generally have a monofocal character leading to brevity and order as callers are constrained to present service-appropriate matters. They describe the ways that callers are aligned to report problems and answer questions, while call-takers receive the report and ask questions, resulting in the a division of rights and responsibilities that provide the directionality of information they previously discuss. As deviations from the orientations, presuppositions, and activities have consequences for the emergency call, the authors note how the first two turns of a call set up the responsibilities for each party while positioning them to engage in a specific type of activity: reporting an event for the purpose of obtaining help for that problematic event. Using the first call about the fire, Raymond and Zimmerman show how the organization of 911 calls allow callers to use their first turn as a “slot” for presenting the trouble that led them to call (the “caller’s problem). Noting the compact opening and closing sequences of the first call, the authors illustrate the sequencing inherent in emergency calls that facilitates the orientations, presuppositions, and activities that enable callers to report emergencies. Next, Raymond and Zimmerman use examples from several calls to show how callers departed from the norms of an emergency call in reversing the directionality of the calls as the fire emergency progressed, demonstrating that both callers and call-takers maintained a tangential alignment with these norms despite these deviations. Here both call-takers and callers are shown modifying their practices in an effort to see if their call matches previously delivered information, resulting in modified service announcements and orientations to a caller’s right to report an emergency (e.g. when a caller’s first turn opens with a request for a call taker to confirm they already know about the fire, or a call taker provides “candidate locations” for the emergency). In addition to calls where reporting is sustained as the overall activity, the authors next examine calls where other projects are pursued, such as information or advice seeking calls. Here they show that callers orient to their limited rights as reporters yet presuppose that call takers know more about the event in question than the caller, reversing the activities in a typical emergency call. In calls seeking advice, the authors demonstrate that callers use location formulations to establish their proximity to the fire as a basis for pursuing information and advice. They conclude their analysis with two examples of calls where call takers struggled with requests for advice, as in these cases the call takers faced institutional limits on their own rights to provide information or advice (such as encouraging a caller to evacuate). The article ends with a discussion of how the calls systematically changed over time, from reporting the fire to seeking advice or information about the emergency, and the authors note that both the organization and distribution of rights and responsibilities in these calls changed as a result. Despite these changes, they underscore that callers and call takers attempted to preserve the ordinary structure of these calls, suggesting that institutional constraints make resistance to change problematic in such situations.
LL Recipe Comparison:
This article reminds me of the recipe for Feisty Shrimp Linguine:
While the authors of this article discuss different linguistic responses to a fiery situation, you will find yourself loving the fiery flavor of this linguine dish! The shrimp and red pepper of this recipe are a nice twist on the traditional seafood linguine approach, and the thick tomato sauce can be adjusted to your own heat preferences. Even though callers and call takers must deal with problems if an emergency steps outside the norm, you won’t face any problems putting this easy dinner idea together. Good Cooking!
MWV 7/13/18
By: Cynthia Gordon
Published in: Narrative Matters in Medical Contexts across Disciplines
Edited by: Franziska Gygax and Miriam A. Locher
Pages 117-140
LL Abstract:
In this chapter, Gordon applies computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) methods to explain how participants in a single thread on a medical discussion board jointly work to address the first poster’s description of an interaction where a doctor criticizes her weight. Using a small stories perspective, she identifies six intertextual linking strategies that posters use to co-create a small story that works through the first poster’s dilemma: posing information-seeking questions, paraphrasing and reframing, creating “constructed dialogue” (Tannen, 2007), using the board’s quotation function, pointing (i.e. using the ^ sign), and advice-giving. In mapping these strategies, this chapter shows how participants use linguistic strategies to attribute responsibility for a problematic interaction to both the doctor and original patient/poster.
LL Summary:
Gordon (2015) opens this chapter by introducing online discussion boards as similar to what Ochs, Smith, and Taylor (1989) suggest about dinner tables, in that both act as “opportunity spaces” for the possibility of joint action of participants. In the introduction, she situates her research focus on this discussion board thread by describing her small stories approach to exploring the metadiscourse in this thread about a doctor’s unwelcome comments. Gordon next gives an overview of the chapter, then reviews previous research on online discussion boards, small stories, and intertextuality. Describing a range of studies making up the theoretical background of the study, she begins this section by discussing research showing how online discussion boards often feature participants engaging in storytelling to manage health-related issues while connecting with others. Gordon then reviews the “small stories” perspective in narrative analysis, wherein collaborative, fragmented, or incomplete “narrative-like formats of talk” have been demonstrated to act as a form of problem-solving behavior. The theoretical background section ends with a discussion of intertextuality - the relationships linking language meaning to prior instances of that language - and current research on linking/quoting others while revealing awareness of language through metadiscourse (language about language). In the next section of the chapter, the author describes “FriendInFitness/FIF”, an app and website geared to users attempting to track their caloric consumption and expenditure (aka food intake and exercise). Gordon describes how she applied Herring’s (2004) sampling methods to identify a thread with 46 posts by 24 participants beginning with a post by “Alma_Michelle” about a doctor-patient interaction about her body weight. The chapter then presents Gordon’s analysis, starting with a description of the linguistic strategies used by “Alma_Michelle” in her original post, such as the use of constructed dialogue to voice the doctor and the providing of details and information about her personal health statistics. Next, Gordon provides an analysis of the 6 intertextual strategies she identifies in the thread responding the original post. The first, asking information-seeking questions, occurs early in the thread and is typical of problem-solving narrative episodes. With the second strategy - paraphrasing and reframing - Gordon finds that participants recontextualize select elements of the first poster’s language, sometimes reinforcing her perspective and sometimes offering new understanding. The author finds that posters use the third strategy of constructed dialogue to create hypothetical utterances, re-create past utterances from outside of the thread, and to tie back to words used earlier in the thread, essentially suggesting the reinterpretation of information. Related to constructed dialogue, Gordon next shows how the fourth strategy - using the board’s built in quotation function - to link posts and create coherence on the thread. The fifth strategy of pointing echoes the previous two strategies, as Gordon reveals that posters use symbols and deictic pronouns to vividly link back to prior posts and introduce advice by modifying understandings of those previous posts. Finally, the sixth strategy of advice-giving is presented by Gordon as an interconnected activity with narration, as she finds that posters move their tellings into the future (similar to what has been found for small stories in other contexts) via advice that helps solve the original poster’s dilemma. Gordon ends the analysis section by summarizing her findings about the six strategies realizing posters’ co-telling or co-problem-solving via narration, suggesting that these strategies facilitate the gradual gathering and sharing of information and multiple perspectives. The chapter ends with a discussion of the larger themes referenced by the small story evoked in this thread (aka about how doctors should communicate with patients), tying Gordon’s analysis to questions of identity and narrative problem-solving online and the ways that online discussion forums provide opportunities for collaborative sense-making.
LL Recipe Comparison:
This chapter reminds me of the recipe forLinguine with Kale and Tomatoes:
While Gordon finds that many discussion board participants had to work together to solve a poster’s dilemma, you will find that this recipe only requires one participant to make and will have no dilemmas about reaching for seconds! The fresh kale and tomatoes pair quite nicely with the light garlic sauce in this dish, much as online discussion boards pair nicely with soliciting advice about health. Good cooking!
MWV 6/3/18
