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From Grammar to Politics

Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village

Alessandro Duranti author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of California Press

Published:10th Aug '94

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

From Grammar to Politics cover

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.

ISBN: 9780520083851

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 15mm

Weight: 408g

232 pages