28.2022, Review: Anthro Ling; Ling & Lit; Socioling: Finnegan (2015)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-2022. Mon May 01 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.2022, Review: Anthro Ling; Ling & Lit; Socioling: Finnegan (2015)

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                                   Michael Czerniakowski)
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Date: Mon, 01 May 2017 13:26:10
From: Sherrie Lee [csl15 at students.waikato.ac.nz]
Subject: Where is Language?

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36128537


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-4217.html

AUTHOR: Ruth  Finnegan
TITLE: Where is Language?
SUBTITLE: An Anthropologist's Questions on Language, Literature and Performance
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Sherrie Lee, University of Waikato

Reviews Editor: Robert A. Coté

SUMMARY

The book “Where is Language? An Anthropologist’s Questions on Language,
Literature and Performance” is a collection of thoughts about language by
renowned scholar and anthropologist, Ruth Finnegan, who is currently Emeritus
and Research Professor at the Open University, UK. Her call for “a more
multiplex, challenging, but more contextually situated understanding of
language, literature, and performance” (p. iv) stems from her ethnographic
work in Africa, England and Fiji . The book questions the assumptions held by
many researchers and scholars about language and how it is perceived and
expressed. Finnegan’s unique insights into the nature of language will appeal
to researchers interested in orality, literacy, narrative, ideology, and
performance of different cultural communities. Finnegan’s engaging and lyrical
prose will delight anyone who has a keen interest in understanding human
communication, especially across cultures.

In Chapter 1, “Where is the Art of Language?”, Finnegan reflects on the
essence of language by discussing the tensions between the performance aspect
of language and how and for whom language is represented in written accounts.
While Finnegan has published extensively about her anthropological research,
she is careful to point out that her reflections are based on experience and
not from a theoretical or specialist point of view.

Based on her experience of recording and transcribing African oral stories,
she reflects on the difficulties of capturing the subtleties of live
performance such as variations in pitch and tempo, and non-verbal expressions
to convey a range of emotions and attitudes. The importance and challenges of
documenting languages in her research has led her to re-evaluate the seemingly
straightforward and neutral task of transcribing speech into written text. Her
view of language has evolved to “seeing language as ultimately something
spoken, performed, oral, … [not essentially] in written text but in active
performance and interaction” (p. 4). 

Finnegan acknowledges that there are unavoidable uncertainties in treating
language as a dynamic entity, such as the multiple perceptions involved in
communication among people. Indeed, there can be no one single or
cross-culturally neutral or apolitical point of view of language. She reminds
her readers that “all data, wherever it originates, has to be treated
critically, with full awareness of the providers’ social situatedness, whether
outside or within ‘the field’” (p. 13).

Finnegan contends that researchers will have to be selective in their choices
in deciding what counts towards their analysis of language but reiterates that
researchers need to be ever conscious of the fact they are making choices
which will lead to particular views about the nature and working of language.

Chapter 2, “Playing with the Heroes of Human History”, critiques the dominant
understanding of language and literacy, that is, the Western view that the
written language in alphabetic writing is the true mark of rationality,
civilization and progress. This in turn leads to an oversimplified vision of
non-Western societies as not fully civilized by focusing on its oral practices
and exclusion of other forms of communication.

Alongside contemporary alternative views of human communication, Finnegan
considers the verbal and cognitive aspects of language to be merely part of a
larger repertoire of communication modes, whether in Western or non-Western
cultures. She points to scholars who highlight the reality and importance of
recognising feeling and imagination, and non-verbal communication modes such
as bodily gesture, dance and music.

Finnegan cautions researchers against assuming the prominence of the verbal
element of language in communication and urges them to recognize the diverse
modes of communication among different cultures, traditions and occasions.
Even examining the verbal aspect of communication alone will inevitably
involve considering other modes of expression and communication, as Finnegan
shows in the remaining chapters.

In Chapter 3, “‘Artisting the Self’: The Craft of Personal Story”, Finnegan
examines self-narrative, that is, stories people tell about themselves. She
briefly outlines the theoretical aspects of narrative or story as a way to
bring order and make sense of one’s life experiences and histories.

Using narrative examples from her research on people’s stories about their
lives in a particular town in England, Finnegan shows that personal stories
are not a simple reflection of reality or life but a way for the tellers of
the stories to construct reality for themselves. This constructed reality
often uses cultural conventions of sequence and coherence, for example, a plot
that makes sense to the audience. At the same time, the stories were
individually different, and creatively and interactively performed. 

Finnegan draws attention to understanding oral narrations not so much as fixed
written texts but as an expression based on people’s personal experiences,
directed at a particular audience on a particular occasion.

In Chapter 4, “Forget the Words…: It's Performance!”, Finnegan highlights how
understanding cultural and artistic performances are not just a matter of
transcribing what was said, but that the meaning of these performances are
extends to the way the performance was communicated, the participants and
settings. She discusses three contrasting examples - an African community
performance, a poetry performance, and Christmas carols. Through these
examples, Finnegan shows how performance and text are not separate from each
other but are dimensions of verbal art; neither is text more important than
the other elements of the performance. The meanings of cultural and literary
arts need to be explored through their multidimensional aspects.

Chapter 5, entitled “Reclothing the ‘Oral’”, takes readers through debates
about oral versus literate societies and examines in detail how researchers,
in particular anthropologists, have analysed oral cultures. Finnegan
highlights the ethnocentric and limited grand narrative of Western culture -
that non-Western traditional oral cultures are dominated by homogeneous and
local thinking, and associated with an emphasis of emotion over reason, while
Western cultures are characterised by civilized, secular and scientific
thought.

Finnegan uses the work of anthropologist Jack Goody (e.g. 2000, 1998) to
illustrate how vocal speech needs to be understood in its context, and not be
subservient to its written counterpart. Finnegan notes that Goody (2000, 1998)
rebuts the stereotype of oral cultures based on his research in African
communities. For instance, Goody found that there were divergent views and
attitudes among people in oral cultures, and questions the supremacy of
writing over orality, given that oral speech remains a dominant form of human
interaction.

Finnegan also reinforces earlier ideas about the complexity of oral speech,
for example, that the meaning of a spoken language cannot be reducible to a
transcription of speech. She concludes this chapter by stressing that the
multidimensionality of the oral, that is, involves a range of dimensions and
media such as visual, auditory, tactile, and material. She acknowledges that
there is no straightforward way of unpacking oral language, but welcomes an
openness and broadened perspective towards what is a rich and complex
component of human communication.

In Chapter 6, “Song: What Comes First: Words, Music or Performance?”, Finnegan
continues exploring the complexity of the oral in a different form, that of
song, or music with words. She examines various approaches in understanding a
song by looking at words, music, and performance. At times, scholars may find
it necessary to identify them as separate entities, but Finnegan highlights
that a thorough appreciation of a song must take into account “a recognition
of the staged, performed actuality of sung words enacted by the voice …. [in
that] performing moment” (p. 105).

Chapter 7, “Competence and Performance: Was Chomsky Right After All?”, 
evaluates Finnegan’s stance on language as a multilayered and creative
performance by considering Chomsky’s view of language as being abstract and
based on a universal competence in the person’s mind. While Finnegan has
clearly argued the case for approaching language as performance in the
preceding chapters, she nonetheless acknowledges that Chomsky’s cognitive view
of language has its place.

In Chapter 8, “Poem and Story: The Arts of Dreaming and Waking to Sweet
Words”, Finnegan explores the origin of human language by using her personal
experience with creating stories based on her dreams. She suggests, perhaps
tentatively, that dreams and imagination are the ultimate sources of human
language.

In the concluding chapter, “Where is Literature?”, Finnegan argues that
literature should not be thought of as written text or oral performance, but
rather, should be understood in multiple ways literature is expressed and
embodied. In her view, all literature is performed. Finnegan concludes that it
is important to recognise the multiplexity of language, and hence literature,
so that it avoids the ethnocentric view of the Western written form of
literature as being the main reference, and allows an “understanding and
appreciation of all literatures of the world” (p. 141).

EVALUATION

Finnegan has taken on a complex task of trying to uncover the multifaceted and
interrelated entities of language, literature, communication, and performance.
While it is impossible to have a comprehensive understanding of language in
all its variation and situatedness, Finnegan marshals her own experiences and
scholarly knowledge to put together a convincing argument that language and
communication is neither one-dimensional nor neutral. Any researcher claiming
an understanding of language, or of people and culture through language, need
to be cognizant of the multiple modes and the interactional and creative
nature of language.

As the author’s intention was to offer personal reflection rather than to
provide a comprehensive treatise on the nature of language, the writing may
come across as repetitive at times, especially when there are many overlapping
aspects of language and communication. In addition, some chapters could have
been better connected to the overall argument, in particular Chapters 3 and 8.
For example, Chapter 3 could have explored the performance aspect of personal
storytelling in more detail.

Overall, the book is a fine addition to contemporary understanding of language
and communication. While novices in the field may need to refer to other texts
for background information, graduate students and researchers will appreciate
Finnegan’s detailed and passionate arguments. The book is a timely reminder of
the Western bias in much of language-related analysis, and the need to be open
to the complexity and dynamic nature of language in all cultures and contexts.

REFERENCES

Goody, Jack. 1998. Food and love. A cultural history of East and West. New
York: Verso.

Goody, Jack. 2000. The power of the written tradition. Washington: Smithsonian
Institution Press.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Sherrie is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Education at the University of
Waikato. Her research focuses on informal learning practices of international
students. As a committee member of the Postgraduate Students’ Association, she
is actively involved in organising social and professional development events,
as well as advocating support for postgraduate students. She was formerly a
business communications lecturer at a polytechnic in Singapore. She completed
her Master of Arts in Teaching (TESOL) at the University of Southern
California. In her previous research, she examined the identity of an English
learner as influenced by competing discourses and social relationships.





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