Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-dtkg6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-06T02:14:24.329Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Communicative strategies in Aboriginal English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2010

Get access

Summary

Introduction

Most definitions and descriptions of Aboriginal English confine themselves to formal linguistic structures, for example, phonology, syntax, and vocabulary. Although some Aboriginal speakers of English may share a common grammar with speakers of Standard Australian English (see e.g. Kaldor and Malcolm, this volume), they do not necessarily share meanings and interpretation because of the sociocultural context of Aboriginal ways of speaking. For example, constraints on the social dimensions of the use of question structures by Aboriginal speakers of English (discussed in 4.4.1 below), transcend grammatically defined dialectal boundaries, and are part of widespread Aboriginal communicative strategies, regardless of the language variety used. Such pragmatic evidence (and further evidence discussed later in this chapter) indicates that our definitions of Aboriginal English need to look beyond grammatical features and include aspects of communicative strategies. I therefore use the term ‘Aboriginal English’ to refer to Aboriginal varieties of English, which in some instances may differ from Standard Australian English primarily in features of pragmatics (and minimally in grammar).

On communicative strategies

This chapter is concerned with the patterned ways in which Aboriginal people use dialects of English as part of their social interaction. The focus is on ‘socially constituted linguistic’ study (Hymes 1974), which relies particularly on ethnographic method, and which reverses the typical structural linguistic tendency of isolating referential structure and then posing questions about social functions (see e.g. Gumperz 1972 on ‘correlational sociolinguistics’).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×