FROM GRAMMAR TO POLITICS by Alessandro Duranti ( 9780520083851 )

Item Details

Title:

FROM GRAMMAR TO POLITICS
LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY IN A WESTERN SAMOAN VILLAGE

By:

Alessandro Duranti

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£26.00

Our price:

£20.80

Discount:

20% off

You save:

£5.20

ISBN 10:

0520083857

ISBN 13:

9780520083851

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Publisher:

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Pub. date:

10 August, 1994

Pages:

232

Description:

This monograph explores the way that traditional oratory in a Samoan village has been shaped by the needs of the political process. The author explains how grammar has been used to distribute praise and blame, in a way that also defines the standing of individuals in the community.

Synopsis:

Alessandro Duranti explores the way traditional oratory in a Samoan village is shaped by the needs of the political process and shows how language insulates ceremonial speakers from the perils of everyday confrontation. He proposes a "moral flow hypothesis" in discourse, to describe a grammar that distributes praise and blame and in that way defines the standing of individuals in the community. This ethnographic journey from linguistic to political anthropology demonstrates that the analysis of grammar in context needs ethnography just as much as the conduct of politics needs grammatical analysis.

Illustrations:

16 b&w photographs, 24 figures, 3 tables, 1 map

Publication:

Imprint:

University of California Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

A COMPANION TO LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY