Читать книгу Living Language - Laura M. Ahearn - Страница 24

Alessandro Duranti (1994) explores language use in a very different part of the world. His ethnography, From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village, analyzes political rhetoric in the local village council (fono) and shows how speechmakers’ seemingly apolitical, technical choices of grammatical markers can have important political ramifications. Duranti argues persuasively that a close look at the micro level of grammar – at one tiny Samoan grammatical particle in particular – offers important insights into how “the choice of specific linguistic framings for people’s actions, beliefs, and feelings does not simply reflect existing power relations, it also constitutes them” (1994:139). In other words, how people describe their actions, beliefs, and feelings – how they frame them linguistically – both influences, and is influenced by, the power dynamics of the community. Just as the title of Duranti’s book indicates, a grammatical analysis, when situated in actual social contexts, can lead to a better understanding of both grammar and politics.