7.635, Sum: Language and Violence
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LINGUIST List: Vol-7-635. Tue Apr 30 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 571
Subject: 7.635, Sum: Language and Violence
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---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 01:02:19 EDT
From: afn11122 at afn.org (M J Hardman)
Subject: Summary: Language and Violence
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 01:02:19 EDT
From: afn11122 at afn.org (M J Hardman)
Subject: Summary: Language and Violence
Some time ago I sent a request for material for a course I was
designing on language and violence, including a request for
information on languages with different structural bases. All replies
were much appreciated: I wish to thank the people who replied to me in
one capacity or another:
Victor Golla <vkg1 at axe.humboldt.edu>
kenneth hale <klhale at MIT.EDU>
Johanna Rubba <jrubba at harp.aix.calpoly.edu>
M D Kinkade <mdkd at unixg.ubc.ca>
"Ellen F. Prince" <ellen at central.cis.upenn.edu>
Michal Brody <brody at mail.utexas.edu>
MADELINE MAXWELL <MMAXWELL at utxvms.cc.utexas.edu>
halasz at kewszeg.norden1.com
BRANDT at anthro.la.asu.edu
Jim.Wilce at nau.edu (Jim Wilce)
Chao-Chih Liao <ccliao at fcusqnt.fcu.edu.tw>
The course itself was a sophomore course with 40 students with no
prerequisite. These facts limited in some ways what I was able to do.
In this summary I include: the course syllabus and introductory
materials, the final exam review which includes the final bibliography
from the course and the questions for the final exam, the bibliography
for the Hardman packet, a specification of the nature of the
observations, and a supplementary bibliography of material recommended
by those who replied to me that I did not use in this version of the
course.
LIN2000
Language and People
Special Topic Section Number 2498
Language and Violence
Spring 1996
T 4 / R4-5 AND 18
Dr. M. J. Hardman
Domestic Violence
Street Violence
Why is it so prevalent?
How do we construct violence in our everyday language?
How do our metaphors cause us to be tolerant of violence?
Why do we find violence so justifiable even as we deplore it?
What about the structure of English might lead to easy acceptance of
violence?
How is violence related to sexism? to racism?
How are sexism and racism incorporated into the structure of English?
What can we do about it?
As background to all of the above the course will also include a brief
introduction to basic linguistic principles. You will be expected to
write one short paper, and present one oral abstract from readings
and/or video/audio tapes outside the assigned texts. You will also,
each week, make a directed observation of the language behavior around
you so that you will become more aware of the ways in which language
and violence are related. There will be frequent quizzes on the
assigned readings. You will need to keep an observation/workout/log
notebook for the work with Elgin. Also, at the end of the course you
will need to look back on the observations you have made.
Taylor, Anita & Judi Beinstein Miller Conflict and Gender Hampton Press 1994
Elgin, Suzette Haden You cant say that to me! Wiley 1994
Elgin, Suzette Haden Staying Well with the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense
Prentice Hall 1990
Hardman, M.J. A Language Sampler for Language and Perception 1996
Tickner, J. Ann Gender in International Relations; Feminist perspectives on
achieving global security Univ. of Colombia Press 1992
Test Week
Friday, May 3, 1996 - 7:30 AM - 9:30 official
Thursday, May 2, 1996- 12:30 PM - 2:30 alternate
Generic Week
Tuesday - hand in: observation; linguistics background
Thursday - discussion of readings; student oral reports on
reading
Week 1
Thursday, January 4, 1996
Introduction
Week 2
Tuesday, January 9, 1996
Observation: war/sports/sex
Hardman - section one
Thursday, January 11, 1996
Elgin You Can't intro, step 1
Taylor & Beinstein intros & 1
Week 3
Tuesday, January 16, 1996
Observation: war/sports/sex
Hardman - section two
Thursday, January 18, 1996
Elgin You Can't step 2,3
Taylor & Beinstein 2
Week 4
Tuesday, January 23, 1996
Observation: 24 hrs no ranking
Hardman - section three pp28-29
Thursday, January 25, 1996
Elgin You Can't step 4,5
Taylor & Beinstein 3,4
Week 5
Tuesday, January 30, 1996
Observation: have to
Hardman - section three p30 on
Thursday, February 1, 1996
Elgin You Can't step 6,7
Taylor & Beinstein intro & 5
Week 6
Tuesday, February 6, 1996
Observation: 5 words
Hardman - section four pp 36-43
Thursday, February 8, 1996
Elgin You Can't step 8
Taylor & Beinstein 6,7
Week 7
Tuesday, February 13, 1996
Observation: in your field
Hardman - section four pp 44-47
Thursday, February 15, 1996
Elgin Staying Well chap 1,2
Taylor & Beinstein 8,9
Week 8
Tuesday, February 20, 1996
Observation: MIDTERM
Hardman - section four p 48 on
Thursday, February 22, 1996
Elgin Staying Well chap 3,4
Taylor & Beinstein intro & 10
Week 9
Tuesday, February 27, 1996
Observation: blame the victim
Hardman - section five pp 58-64
Thursday, February 29, 1996
Elgin Staying Well chap 5,6
Taylor & Beinstein 11,12
Week 10
Tuesday, March 5, 1996 - Ashwell
Observation: violence semantics
Hardman - section five p 65 on
Thursday, March 7, 1996
Elgin Staying Well chap 7
Taylor & Beinstein 13,14
Week 11
Tuesday, March 19, 1996 - Shear
Observation: power semantics
Hardman - section six pp 84-98
Thursday, March 21, 1996
Elgin Staying Well chap 8
Tickner intro & chap 1
Week 12
Tuesday, March 26, 1996
Observation: TV sit com
Hardman - section six p 99 on
Thursday, March 28, 1996 - Gaskin
Elgin Staying Well chap 9:2
Tickner chap 2
Week 13
Tuesday, April 2, 1996
Observation: Womens History Mongh
Thursday, April 4, 1996
Elgin Staying Well chap 10:3&4
Tickner chap 3
Week 14
Tuesday, April 9, 1996
Observation: violence
Thursday, April 11, 1996
Elgin Staying Well chap 11:4
Tickner chap 4
gang rape presentation
Week 15
Tuesday, April 16, 1996
Observation: Hardman packet
Thursday, April 18, 1996
Elgin Staying Well chap 12
Tickner chap 5
Week 16
Tuesday, April 23, 1996
Observation: Term papers due
Test Week
Thursday, May 2, 1996
12:30 PM 2:30 LIN 2000 exam
For each chapter in Elgin you will hand in one log/workout, to be
assigned as we go along. You will also keep in your notebook some
additional workouts/logs, also to be assigned as we go along. The
notebook is an essential part of your classwork. Keep all of your
observations in order in your notebook. These will help us towards the
end of the course develop other ways of using our language. The oral
abstracts will be assigned sporadically, once only for each student in
the semester. First assignment
First observation
In English we have a triad of generative metaphors that are regularly
used for each other: war, sports, & sex. A generative metaphor is an
underlying metaphor that allows us to spin off a lot of other
metaphors which everyone easily understands. For example, make a hit
in class, dress to kill, team player in business, conquer a disease
are all war/sports metaphors used outside an actual war or an actual
sports event. Between now and Tuesday January 9 and Tuesday January
16 you are to collect all the metaphors you hear that relate:
war to sports sports to war
sex to war war to sex
sex to sports sports to sex
You are to classify them by these six categories. On January 9 we
will have oral responses in class of what you have collected. On
January 16 you will hand in what you have collected.
First Hardman
Read the material very carefully, at least twice. Look especially
carefully at the design feature of language,at the section on language
and writing, and at the basic indications of the nature of
language. Be prepared for a quiz on the material. Be prepared to
discuss the material in class. Be prepared to say what you learned in
reading the material, and what significance it has for you.
First Elgin
Answer the survey on pp 6-8 as well as you can. Put the answers in
your notebook. At the end of the course we will go back over the
survey. For Chapter 1 do one example of each of the three logs on pp
25-28. Keep all three in you notebook. Hand in the one you feel best
illustrates what you learned from the text.
First Taylor/Beinstein
Read both introductions to the book and to the first section and
Chapter 1. Be prepared to discuss the reading in class. Be prepared
to say what you learned in reading the material, and what significance
it has for you. Also, be prepared for a brief quiz on each part.
LIN 2000 L&V Exam Review Spring 1996 p.
LIN2000
Language and People
Special Topic Section Number 2498
Language and Violence
Spring 1996
T 4 / R4-5 AND 18
Dr. M. J. Hardman
Domestic Violence
Street Violence
Why is it so prevalent?
How do we construct violence in our everyday language?
How do our metaphors cause us to be tolerant of violence?
Why do we find violence so justifiable even as we deplore it?
What about the structure of English might lead to easy acceptance of
violence?
How is violence related to sexism? to racism?
How are sexism and racism incorporated into the structure of English?
What can we do about it?
As background to all of the above the course there was a brief
introduction to basic linguistic principles in the Sampler. There are
21 abstracts from readings and/or video/audio tapes outside the
assigned texts. You have made 12 directed observations of the language
behavior showing you how language and violence are related. You have
kept two observation/workout/log notebooks of work from the two Elgin
books.
Textbooks
Hardman, M.J. A Language Sampler for Language and Perception 1996
Elgin, Suzette Haden You cant say that to me! Wiley 1994
Elgin, Suzette Haden Staying Well with the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense
Prentice Hall 1990
Taylor, Anita & Judi Beinstein Miller Conflict and Gender Hampton Press 1994
Tickner, J. Ann Gender in International Relations; Feminist perspectives on
achieving global security Univ. of Colombia Press 1992
Observations & special tapes/lectures
War/sports/sex mutual metaphors
24 hours without ranking
uses of have to
uses 5 words war fight kill conquer battle
violence metaphors in your field
examples of blame the victim
violence semantics; power semantics
vaps/violence metaphors in TV show
event of womens history month
violence metaphor diversity
Ashwell - Japanese
Shear - Kannadigas (Dravidian - India)
Gaskin - Taylor review
Hardman derivational thinking packet
Derivational Thinking video
Abstracts
Babb, Florence E.(Winter 1980) Women and Men in Vicos, Per: A Case of
Unequal Development Michigan Occasional Papers no. XI Cataldi, Sue
L. Reflections on Male Bashing NWSA Journal summer 1995 pp 7-9
Defending Our Name - Loni Guinier, Johnetta Cole, Angela Davis
(audiotape) Gay, William C. Linguistic Violence CPP 1993 Presidential
Address Holm, Tom "Patriots and Pawns: State Use of American Indians
in the Military and the Process Nativization in the United States
p.345 Jaimes The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization, and
Resistance Houston, Marsha & Cheris Kramarae Speaking from silence:
methods of silencing and of resistance Discourse & Society 1991 pp
387-399 Jaimes, M. Annette w/ Theresa Halsey "American Indian Women:
At the Center of Indigenous Resistance in Contemporary North America"
1992 chap XI in The State of Native America Genocie, Colonization &
Resistance, Ed. by M. Annette Jaimes, South End Press Jones, William
R. "Oppression, Race & Humanism" The Humanist Nov/Dec 1992 & audiotape
Lakoff, George "Metaphor & War: The Metaphor System Used to Justify
War in the Gulf January 30, 1991 Lacour, Claudia Brodsky "Doing Things
with Words: "Racism" as Speech Act & the Undoing of Justice" in
Race-ing Justice, En-Gendering Power ed. Morrison, Toni pp 127-155
Merrill, Lisa & Denise Quirk 1994 "Gender, Media, and Militarism"
Turner &* Sterk, eds. Differences that make a difference, Greenwood
Publishing Group pp 179-186 OBarr, William M. & Bowman K. Atkins
Womens language or powerless language? in Women and Language in
Literature and Society chpt. 7 pp 93-110 Penelope, Julia
SpeakingFreely, 1990, Pergamon Press chapter 8 Thats how it is
pp126-143 Penelope, Julia SpeakingFreely, 1990, Pergamon Press chapter
9 The agents within pp 144-179 Sanday, Peggy Reeves Fraternity Gang
Rape: Sex, Brotherhood and Privilege on Campus, 1990 New York
University Press Schoepfle, G. Mark, Kenneth Nabahe, Angela Johnson,
Lucie Upshaw The Effects of the Great Stock Reduction on the Navajos
p. 58 Din Be'iina' - A Journal of Navajo Life Winter 1988 Vol. 1, #2
Serbin, Lisa A. & O'Leary, Daniel K. 1975 "How Nursery Schools Teach
Girls to Shut Up" p.57 Psychology Today
Sheldon, Amy "Pickle Fights: Gendered Talk in Preschool Disputes" Discourse
Prosesses 13:1 (Jan-Mar1990) pp 5-31; also in Gender and Conversational
Interaction (1993) ed. by Deborah Tannen. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. pp
83-109
Sontag, Susan - Illness as metaphor & AIDS & its metaphors, 1988 Doubleday
Steinam, Gloria - Words & Change Ms Sept/Oct 95 pp93ff
Witherspoon, Gary - Language and Art in the Navajo Universe, U of Michigan
Press, 1977 , introduction and chap. 1 Creating the World through Language
In the answers to the following questions, you are encouraged to use
material from all of the sources, including lectures, and to integrate
all of the material of the course. Also,use specific examples in all
cases. Bring one or two blue books to the exam. Questions for the
Final Exam You will answer four of the following questions, my choice,
for the final, approximately a half hour each.
1. Discuss the way in which the material in the Sampler provides the
scientific structural basis for the rest of the material dealing with
language and violence.
2. Discuss the way in which the video on derivational thinking and the
Hardman packet provides the basis for and integrates the material that
is presented in the abstracts and other class materials.
3. Using the material from the observations, from your logs, from
class discussions as well as readings, discuss the way in which
violence is structured in the English language.
4. Drawing on class lectures, Dr. Hardmans linguistic postulates
packet and the abstracts, discuss how information in Taylor fits into
at least 3 components of derivational thinking. Provide several
examples for each component & discuss appropriate abstract(s) where
relevant.
5. Discuss how derivational thinking explains the research in Taylor
regarding actual conflict behavior of women & men vs perceptions of
conflict behavior. How does such research provide support for
feminist non-essentialist (non-biologically determined) theories of
behavior? Discuss how our knowledge of other cultures also supports
non-essentialist (non-biologically determined) views of behavior. Give
specific examples.
6. Drawing on information from the Sampler, abstracts, class, and
Taylor, discuss how derivational thinking provides basis for Western
gendered identities and how these gendered identities are linked to
violence (hints: who is agent, who is victim?) How does language
protect the perpetrator and blame the victim? How is identity as
constructed through language different for the Jaqi (hint: compare
linguistic postulates)? Include any other cultures you wish as
contrast.
7. Discuss use of violence in language in the media (newspapers,
TV-news & sitcoms, etc.) drawing on information from Elgin (define &
discuss VAPs, patterns of grammar), observations, logs, abstracts, and
class discussions. Give specific examples.
8. Discuss how gendered perspectives of security and gendered concepts
of citizenship, miliary, power & violence ad discussed in Tickner are
consistent with derivational thinking. Describe how the current
(Western-influenced) system encourages and allows both physical and
verbal violence in the world. Give specific examples drawing on what
you know about language structure.
9. Compare/contrast violent/nonviolent metaphors regarding health as
discussed in Elgin. Discuss the concept & construction of bridge
metaphors. How could this concept be used to change use of violent
metaphors in other settings? Given an example. How can verbal violence
and hostility be dangerous to your physical and mental health?
Contrast this system with any other system you have knowledge of.
10. Describe the soto/uchi distinction that is a part of the Japanese
language What do the terms soto and uchi mean? How does this
distinction affect language use in Japanese? Also, if there is
violence, who is it likely directed toward? Why? Compare/contrast
this system with other systems such as that of the Kannada.
11. Recall the discussion of respect terms with the Japanese verb
system and noun system (honorifics). Cite examples from each
system. Who is the focus of these respect terms, the speaker or the
listener? Why would you say this is so? Based on what youve learned
in class thus far, do you think this would lead to an increase or
decrease in verbal violence? Explain. How does this contrast with
other systems you know of?
12. Think back to your work on violence metaphors in your major field
(business, medicine, for example). How can these affect ones work in
that area, based on what youve learned in class? Also, can you propose
a different metaphor in your field which does not include violence?
What sources can you draw on for your metaphors?
13. How has this course affected your own language behavior? How has
it affected your perception of others language behavior? How has it
changed your perception of language itself?
The bibliography for the Hardman Packet:
The linguistic postulate
and derivational thinking
MJ Hardman
The four articles included here deal with the theoretical constructs
*linguistic postulate* and *derivational thinking*. The first article,
"Andean Ethnography: The role of language structure in observer bias"
deals with the concept of the linguistic postulate in detail and shows
its functioning within ethnography. The other three articles, all
written ten years after the first, deal with the application of the
concept of the linguistic postulate to English in a contrastive
manner, leading to the development of the concept of derivational
thinking, which is the mutually reinforcing interplay of three of the
linguistic postulates of English. "Gender through the levels" is the
defining article; "'And if we lose our name, then what about our
land?' or, What price development?" was written before that article
and "derivational thinking, or Why is equality so difficult?" was
written after.
1978 "Andean Ethnography: The role of language structure in observer
bias" in Semiotica 71-3/4, 339-372.
1993 "Gender through the Levels" in Women and Language Vol XVI no. 2
pp 42-49.
1994 "'And if We Lose Our Name, then What About Our Land?' or, What
Price Development?" in Differences That Make a Difference: Examining
the Assumptions in Gender Research, eds Lynn H. Turner and Helen
M. Sterk. Westport & London: Bergin & Garvey. pp 151-172.
1993 "Derivational Thinking, or, Why is Equality So Difficult?" in
Seeking Understanding of Communication, Language and Gender, ed. Carol
Ann Valentine. CyberSpace Publishing Corporation. pp 250-263.
Details of observations:
Generic Week
Tuesday - hand in: observation; linguistics background
Thursday - discussion of readings; student oral reports
on reading
For each chapter in Elgin you will hand in one log/workout, to be
assigned as we go along. You will also keep in your notebook some
additional workouts/logs, also to be assigned as we go along. The
notebook is an essential part of your classwork. Keep all of your
observations in order in your notebook. These will help us towards the
end of the course develop other ways of using our language. The oral
abstracts will be assigned sporadically, once only for each student in
the semester.
Observations:
1. Mutual generative metaphors: war/sports/sex - six examples of
metaphors of each of these for the other two.
2. Postulate of ranking: go 24 hours without using the ranking
mmorphological or syntactic structures of English (more/less; -er,
-est)
3. Observe the verb *have to* - sort the uses by categories
This is related to the notion that force is the solution also
that nature is human derived run by rules like society is linking of
'bears have to hibernate' & 'people have to stop at a red light', etc.
4. Metaphorical use of 5 words: war - fight - kill - conquer - battle
Observe the variety of contexts in which these are used.
5. Observe violence metaphors in your field
6. Observe examples of blaming the object
7. Do a semantic analysis of violence as you did w/ pain (from Elgin
8. Do a semantic analysis of power as you did w/ pain (from Elgin)
9. Observe the language violence patterns, VAPs (from Elgin) & violent
metaphors in any half hour sitcom
10. Attend one Womens history month event and report on its relevance
to the course.
11. Observe all the contexts in which you now see violence in language.
The following are references and resources that were recommended but
that were not used in this version of the course: O'odham linguist and
poet Ofelia Zepeda, Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona,
Tucson
Clark, Kate. The linguistics of blame: Representations of women in The
Sun's reporting of crimes of sexual violence. In Michael Toolan, ed.,
Language, Text and Context: Essays in stylistics. London, NY:
Routledge (sorry no year on that)
Mark Johnson, in his book 'The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of
Meaning, Imagination, and Reason' (U Chicago Press, 1987) does a
metaphorical analysis of one interview from Beneke's book on pp. 5-12
Eve Sweetser, a professor in linguistics at UC Berkeley, and ask her
about her work on rape as a 'contested category'
Emily Martin in her many publications, e.g.
1990. Toward an anthropology of immunology: The body as
nation-state.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly 4: 410-26.
1992. AES Distinguished Lecture: The end of the body?
American Ethnologist 19/1: 121-140.
1993. Histories of immune systems. Culture, Medicine, and
Psychiatry
17/1: 67-76.
Martin, Emily. 1994. Flexible bodies: The role of immunity in
American culture from the days of polio to the age of AIDS. Boston:
Beacon.
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