In this weeks reading I found the topic of speech
communities to be fascinating. As defined in the book it is “when people share
norms about how to use talk and what purposes it serves”(Labov 1972) (Wood
108). It describes these communities that are not connected by which language
they speak but more how they use it to communicate. This means using language
to be more assertive versus passive.
Being both Cuban and Filipino I have noticed from my own personal
experience that each culture using their speech as a way to communicate in two
different ways. The Cuban side of my family uses their speech very boldly with
a great emphasis on story telling while the Filipino side uses speech in a more
timid and inert type of way. These would represent certain speech communities
that are able to find how to interact in order to communicate effectively.
Hi there Brit,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this post a lot, I can totally relate. I think it's interesting how speech communities can vary from entire nationalities to just one particular family or group of friends. For instance, with my family I know not to swear and not to bring up certain topics. Whereas with my circle of friends swearing is completely acceptable (and often used comically), and most topics are open forum.
I think it's fascinating how based on everyones reactions and feedback we can intuitively figure out what is acceptable within any given speech community. I guess that just goes to show how awesome our brains are, huh? :)