goffman

[James Cornish]

randall henry eggert wrote:
>
>  What kind of project is this?  What are you trying to show?

Actually this is a stab at operationalizing Goffman's work in a short
seminar paper for a class.  Some of the aspects found in Goffman,
courtesy of a friend of mine, Ellen Weber:

Ellen's Weber's handout on Goffman's "Footing" article

1. Goffman says that a "change in footing is another way of talking
about a change in our frame for events" and that "participants over the
course of their speaking constantly change their footing, these changes
being a persistent feature of natural talk" (128).

-use of innuendo

-subordination of conversation to task at hand

-splitting of encounters

-merging of encounters

-response cries (Oops, Eek, etc.)

-podium events of the recreational, congregational and/or binding types
(both with live, present audiences and imagined audiences)

-perfunctory service contacts -overlaying of roles (e.g., "changing
hats") -embedding (e.g., storytelling, use of adages, stage acting, etc)

2. Goffman says that within a speech transaction various forms of
subordinate communication can exist. The three main types of subordinate
communication are:

-byplay ("subordianted communication of a subset of ratified
participants")
-crossplay ("communication between ratified participants and bystanders
across the boundaries of the dominant encounter")
-sideplay ("respectfully hushed words exchanged entirely among
bystanders")

and that when an attempt is made to conceal subordinate communication,
one of three types of collusion occurs:

-collusive byplay ("within the boundaries of an encounter")
-collusive crossplay ("across these boundaries")
-collusive sideplay (entirely outside the encounter")

3. Goffman says that communication can involve -sound -sight -touch

While watching the video, note some ways that sound, sight and touch
affect speech for ratified and non-ratified participants. In any of
these cases, could something other than what is being said, be said to
form the"meaningful context and the relevant unit for analysis" (142)?

**
So you can see that if I isolate some manners of presentation I use, I
will be able to discuss them in relation to possible classroom
effectiveness and such.  I think the labelling system has things to
offer beyond a time-use analysis or the more conventional things.