Language, Culture, and Society ELICITING LANGUAGE Language, Culture, and Society

Eliciting Language One main goal of linguistics research is to elicit language from participants: to have the participants use language in their normal, everyday way of speaking as much as possible. What do you think are some ways we can elicit language from a participant? Ask students what they think about eliciting language from participants. They may say, “Just ask them how they speak.” Ask if they think participants will be able to give accurate descriptions of how they use language... Hopefully steering the discussion towards the idea that people don’t always accurately describe how they speak.

Types of Elicitation Researchers try to elicit language in two different ways: Direct Elicitation Indirect Elicitation Ask students what they think the difference may be between indirect and direct elicitation before going into any definitions or explanations.

Direct Elicitation Directly asking participants about language “How do you say tomato?” “What word do you use for soft drink: soda, pop, or coke?”

Indirect Elicitation Indirect Elicitation: researcher guides the interaction with participant so that a certain type of language is likely to be used Researcher: “Can you tell me about a time when you got really angry while you were surfing?” Surfer: “Dude, one time there was this grom and it was his first time on point at TPL. He was just out there, trunkin’ it, and .... A lot of specialized lexicon and vocabulary has just been produced through natural usage without the researcher directly asking for it.

Purpose Main goal is to find out about: Insiders’ knowledge and perspectives Aspects of the culture that researchers can’t observe (experiences, feelings, opinions, preferences, knowledge etc). How do we gain this information? By focusing on the interviewee’s own experiences, attitudes, and language The fundamental principle of ethnographic interview is to provide a framework within which the informants can express their own understandings in their own terms. The object of an in-depth interview is to get the person to talk about experiences, feelings, opinions, preferences, knowledge etc.

Ethnographic Interview Questions Grand-tour questions: Large-scale descriptions “What do you do here in the afternoon?” “How did you come to volunteer at this organization?” Mini-tour questions: Specific step-by-step descriptions “What do you use a food processor for?” “What is involved in taking care of a baby?” Contrast questions: Comparative questions for learning the meaning of terms, types of people, activities, objects, etc. “How is a longboard different from a shortboard?” “What types of jobs are there at this restaurant?”

Ethnographic Interview Questions Experience questions: Open-ended questions about the interviewee’s experiences of any kind “What’s the best soccer game you ever played?” “Have you ever felt discriminated against because of how you speak?” Example questions: Questions that ask for specific illustrations of terms or issues raised by the interviewee “Can you give me an example of “clowning” someone?” “What’s an example of a bad day at your job?” Language questions: Questions that ask about the language used by people in the site “Do you have a term for customers who are really annoying?” “How would you talk to a child who’s crying?”