The Power of Words in African Verbal Arts

Peek, Philip M.

doi:10.2307/540774

Cited by 28 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Though these calibrations are hardly precise, this approach provides a generalizable model that can assist in ordering and exploring the data on the world's variable speech systems. A feature of this model, consistent with reports on many speech communities, is an increase in levels of speech formalization as we move from the informal to the formal end of this continuum (Fox 1974;Peek 1981;Feld 1982;Glassie 1982;Sherzer 1983;Urban 1986;Briggs 1988). That is to say, in many speech communities the available resources of the medium of expression-its acoustic, grammatical, and semantic features-evince higher levels of patterning and elaboration as we progress from casual speech settings to the more formally organized ones.…”

Section: Performative Efficacysupporting

confidence: 64%

Folklore and Sociolinguistics

McDowell

2018

Humanities

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Folklore and sociolinguistics exist in a symbiotic relationship; more than that, at points-in the ethnography of communication and in ethnopoetics, for example-they overlap and become indistinguishable. As part of a reaction to the formal rigor and social detachment of Chomsky's theoretical linguistics, sociolinguistics emerges in the mid-twentieth century to assess the role of language in social life. Folklorists join the cause and bring to it a commitment to in-depth ethnography and a longstanding engagement with artistic communication. In this essay, I trace key phases in the development of this interdisciplinary movement, revolutionary in its reorientation of language study to the messy but fascinating realm of speech usage. I offer the concept of performative efficacy, the notion that expressive culture performances have the capacity to shape attitude and action and thereby transform perceived realities, as a means of capturing the continuing promise of a sociolinguistically informed folkloristics.

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Section: Performative Efficacysupporting

confidence: 64%

Folklore and Sociolinguistics

McDowell

2018

Humanities

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“…They also find it strange to be asked what a word ''means,'' possibly because words are never taken out of context (Malinowski 1923), and cannot be ''looked up'' in dictionaries. In modern societies, where there is considerable emphasis on literacy, and laws that require formal instruction over a period of 10 years if not longer, there is a tendency to regard language as a body of knowledge that lies outside the individual (Goody 1977;Linell 2005;Olson 1994;Peek 1981).…”

Section: Selection or Instruction?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The trait of human language: lessons from the canal boat children of England

Locke

2007

Biol Philos

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To fully understand human language, an evolved trait that develops in the young without formal instruction, it must be possible to observe language that has not been influenced by instruction. But in modern societies, much of the language that is used, and most of the language that is measured, is confounded by literacy and academic training. This diverts empirical attention from natural habits of speech, causing theorists to miss critical features of linguistic practice. To dramatize this point, I examine data from a special population--the canal boat children of early twentieth century England--whose language developed without academic influence, but was evaluated using instruments designed primarily for academic use. These data, taken together with related research, suggest that formal instruction can convert language from a purely biological trait that was selected, to a talent that was instructed, while altering the users of language themselves. I then review research indicating that formal instruction can also mask or distort inter-sexual differences in the social applications of language, a significant handicap to evolutionary theorizing. I conclude that if biological theories of language are to succeed, they must explain the spontaneous speaking practices of naturally behaving individuals.

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“…Kuiper points out that in many societies, those who "not have way" cannot handle phrasal vocabulary (colloquialisms and other forms of formulaic material) with some degree of skill and may become "social lepers." In various cultures, people who do not speak well are disrespected or even censured (Edwards & Sienkewicz 1990;Peek 1981). In the target article, we pointed out that African Americans who lack the knowledge and skill needed for verbal duels are derided as "lames" (Abrahams 1989;Labov 1972;, and if they fail with women, their raps are ridiculed as "tissue paper" (Anderson 1990, p. 115).…”

Section: R4 Oral Societies: Verbal Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Associations between verbal ability and intelligence have been described in members of African and African-American cultures. In a review, Peek (1981) points out that among the Igbo of southeastern Nigeria, oratorical ability "is directly equated with intelligence and success," and that the Barundi people of central Africa associate verbal ability with "successful cleverness" (Peek 1981, p. 22). In Sierra Leone, "it is noticeable how strongly the Limba connect intelligence and speaking" (Finnegan 1969, p. 75, emphasis added).…”

Section: R5 Verbal Plumage: Folk Iq?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Language and life history: A new perspective on the development and evolution of human language

2006

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It has long been claimed that Homo sapiens is the only species that has language, but only recently has it been recognized that humans also have an unusual pattern of growth and development. Social mammals have two stages of pre-adult development: infancy and juvenility. Humans have two additional prolonged and pronounced life history stages: childhood, an interval of four years extending between infancy and the juvenile period that follows, and adolescence, a stage of about eight years that stretches from juvenility to adulthood. We begin by reviewing the primary biological and linguistic changes occurring in each of the four pre-adult ontogenetic stages in human life history. Then we attempt to trace the evolution of childhood and juvenility in our hominin ancestors. We propose that several different forms of selection applied in infancy and childhood; and that, in adolescence, elaborated vocal behaviors played a role in courtship and intrasexual competition, enhancing fitness and ultimately integrating performative and pragmatic skills with linguistic knowledge in a broad faculty of language. A theoretical consequence of our proposal is that fossil evidence of the uniquely human stages may be used, with other findings, to date the emergence of language. If important aspects of language cannot appear until sexual maturity, as we propose, then a second consequence is that the development of language requires the whole of modern human ontogeny. Our life history model thus offers new ways of investigating, and thinking about, the evolution, development, and ultimately the nature of human language.

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The Power of Words in African Verbal Arts

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

Folklore and Sociolinguistics

Folklore and Sociolinguistics

The trait of human language: lessons from the canal boat children of England

Language and life history: A new perspective on the development and evolution of human language

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