re mumbling

[eldon]

At  , Jim Wilce wrote:

>It's interesting to think about how this inverts the controversial findings
>of Basil Bernstein linking elaboration with high status speech.

you may allow that one may be quite elaborate in speech and writing yet
still be indirect. in fact, many might judge such elaboration as
obfuscatory in some cases.
certainly schoolchildren may be heard to complain 'miss, why are you using
those big words?'
furthermore, i think bernstein's findings were linked to social class
rather than status, which sociologically-speaking, needs to be
distinguished. also, the valorisation of such speech patterns needs
contextualising - in other words, middle class parents and teachers, and
the social system which rewards ability in using so-called 'elaborated
code', obviously use and value such speech patterns. so it needs to be
asked, in what context and by whom is such elaboration valued, as high
status speech, for example.

generally-speaking, it seems to me that japanese speakers prefer vagueness
and non-elaboration. eloquence is sometimes a mark of immaturity and is
distrusted in some respects, as if the person who speaks too much and is
clever with words is an affront to social harmony. the language is of
course able to express any ideas and concepts, sometimes through the
borrowing of foreign lexical items, but there seem many avenues for leaving
it up to the audience to decide on interpretation - some of those are
pragmatic such as mumbling, although in japanese there seems to be a
preference for not finishing sentences, speaking very softly, or trailing
off at the end of turns as a mark of 'politeness'. but as mentioned, there
are also lexicogrammatical avenues for being less definitive in what one is
saying, and this is perhaps culturally linked to the negative attitude held
towards those who 'stick out', who are willing to elaborate their ideas and
feelings to a greater or more detailed extent....at least this is how it
appeared to me after several years stay...

regards,
alexanne don