citation/quotation conventions for list?

Fri Apr 25 02:21:55 UTC 2014

I also have cited List messages on occasion, though I think only in
pretty informal contexts like conference presentations. As you point
out, Saul, it is a public text, and I think it's legit to cite it the
same way you would cite any online resource.  

Perhaps it's good for us all to remind ourselves that everything we
write to the List IS not only public but permanently archived...

C.

>>> Bryan James Gordon  04/24/14 5:59 PM >>>
Hi Saul,

I've cited Siouan List messages a few times before, often because the
List is the only place I can find the relevant claims or data in an
easily accessible form. I certainly welcome having my own List messages
cited. That being said, for academic venues we have to keep in mind that
the List is not peer-reviewed in the ordinary sense, and it's hard to
know how on- or off-the-record things are. I'd like to continue your
conversation about the relationship between language and culture (and
also take part more actively in other Siouan stuff like helping out with
edited volumes), but right now I'm frantically trying to finish my
comprehensive exams so I'll have to put that off until the conference.
Keep up the good work!

Bryan

2014-04-24 15:27 GMT-07:00 Saul Schwartz <sschwart at princeton.edu>:
Dear all,

I am wonderingabout the social conventions (stated or unstated) for
citing and/or quotingmaterial from the Siouan Listserv. On the one hand,
the List is archived foranyone to view here
(http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A0=SIOUAN),so it is in some
sense a public text. On the other hand, there is a strongsense of
community among members of the List, and I have a feeling that we
sometimesforget that we’re talking to each other in what is essentially
a public forum(in the sense that the public can listen in on our
conversation; one has to bea member to contribute, of course). I would
be interested to hear generalthoughts or thoughts related to the
specific case described below.

For example, I amcurrently working on an article/dissertation chapter
about how the relationshipbetween “language” and “culture” is changing
for many American Indians who nolonger speak their heritage languages.
Specifically, I am trying point out theirony that while many people
support language revitalization because theybelieve that “the language”
is essential for “the culture,” revitalizationefforts themselves often
remove heritage languages from their traditional culturalcontexts in an
effort to make them more relevant to learners—for example, by comingup
with Siouan calques for English idioms. After discussing some examples
fromthe literature and my own experiences working with Jimm’s Ioway,
Otoe-MissouriaLanguage Project, I wanted to mention some of the
reactions on the List to the recentrequest to translate “curiouser and
curiouser” from Alice in Wonderland; specifically, I wanted to quote
parts ofBryan’s, Jimm’s, and Willem’s responses. I am including an
excerpt from the draftof the paper below to give some context, but the
paragraph that includes informationfrom the Siouan Listserv is the
second to last one.

Has a conventionfor citation and/or quotation already been established
for the List? Are postsassumed to be citable and/or quotable unless
otherwise stated? Do we expect someonewanting to cite and/or quote a
post to contact the poster off-list to requestpermission before doing
so? Etc....

All best,
Saul

Ironically,while efforts to revitalize heritage languages are often
motivated by a beliefthat “the language” is an essential part of “the
culture,” languagerevitalization itself often ends up separating codes
from their traditionallyassociated cultural settings. David Samuels
(2006), for example, discusses howconflicts between Apache
traditionalists, who believe the language is toopowerful for young
speakers, and Christians, who believe the language is tooun-Christian
for their children, have narrowed the kind of language that can betaught
in the community to obarelearning a version of the language stripped of its indexical
associations withtraditional culture practices. But, as an Apache
bilingual teacher wonders, ifchildren are only learning how to use
Apache to order a cheeseburger, what’sthe point? (2006:551). M. Eleanor
Nevins (2004) finds language classes arecontroversial in another Apache
community because they fail to teachcommunicative competence, that is,
social conventions for interaction that makeparticular codes culturally
significant means of communication.

Meeksreports similar developments in the Yukon, where educational
routines used toteach Kaska in school settings conflict with Dene
interactional conventions andlanguage socialization ideologies.
Furthermore, these educational routines“emphasiz[e] the referential
aspect of language while downplaying all otherindexical dimensions, and
thereby diminish their sustainability as complexsystems of and for
communication” (2010:126).

Intheir research on Pueblo groups in the Southwest, Debenport (xxxx) and
Whiteley (xxxx) also found conflictsbetween language revitalization and
cultural priorities. Many Tewas and Hopisbelieve that outsiders should
not have access to their languages and thusoppose revitalization efforts
that decontextualize codes fromcommunity-internal interpersonal
interactions and recontextualize them in formsthat can circulate beyond
the community (e.g., online, in books, in schoolsattended by Navajo or
other non-Pueblo children, etc.). By refusing to supportsuch language
revitalization efforts, community members are saying in effectthat
keeping their language private is more important to them than
maintainingthe code.

JocelynAhlers provides another example of how languages can become
separated fromtheir traditionally associated cultures in her description
of how moribundlanguages are used to perform Native identities through
memorized texts, aspeech style she calls “Native Language as Identity
Marker” (2006:62). Sheconcludes that “this speech style adds to the body
of evidence that languageuse is not indexical with cultural . . .
identity, but rather performative ofit” (2006:72). By this I understand
her to mean that, unlike other kinds ofcode-switching, in this case a
speaker sends a message about their identity bytheir code choice
alone—what they are saying in the code refers to nothingoutside
itself (denotatively, indexically, or otherwise) because it
is“code-switching, by a nonfluent speaker, to a noncomprehending
audience”(2006:69). In the case of these memorized speeches, a code
performs an identitywithout referring to anything cultural. Whiteley
(2003:715) offers a similarinterpretation of speeches by younger
generations at Haida memorial potlatches,and the Dauenhauers note an
analogous development in written Tlingit when thosewho have no or little
knowledge of the language “use literacy for itsdecorative and symbolic
effect or impression: for example, ‘Merry Christmas’ inTlingit on
corporate windows or Christmas cards” (1998:89).

Todraw from my own experience, the Ioway, Otoe-Missouria Language
Project (IOMLP)makes a special effort to embed language in culturally
significant contextsthat are also applicable to modern day life. For
example, the IOMLP designedand printed a tee shirt that includes a
traditional floral design, a diagramrepresenting the shared histories of
the Iowa, Otoe-Missouria, and closelyrelated Winnebago peoples (all
labeled by their Chiwere endo- or exo-nyms), animage of an elder and a
child wearing traditional ceremonial dance clothes, anda sentence in
Chiwere that translates, ‘The language honors our elders and teaches
ourchildren.’ Similarly, theIOMLP designed mugs that include the Chiwere
phrase for ‘I love my coffee’ withthe image of an Oneota-style ceramic
vessel superimposed over a medicine wheel.

Whilethe IOMLP makes a special effort to embed language in culturally
rich contexts,the Project is all too familiar with the opposite
possibility: that tradremoved from traditional culturalpractices and values. The director of
the Project often receives requests to calqueEnglish idioms, for
example, “Go green!” (for a tribal environmental awarenessprogram) or “I
[heart icon] boobies!” (for breast cancer awareness bracelets).He has
also been asked to provide Chiwere equivalents for terms from the
videogame Halo. These requests are metwith ambivalence since they have
no connection to traditional culturalpractices or can even seem
antithetical to them. For example, the request for“I [heart icon]
boobies!” provoked a lesson on traditional attitudes towardbody parts,
body functions, and sexuality. And when I explained to the IOMLPwhat
Halo is (a first-person shooter,i.e., rather violent, video game), the
director expressed reservations thatChiwere language be associated with
it at all. In some cases, then, indigenous languagescan be used not just
for cultural practices that are seen as untraditional(ordering a
cheeseburger) but also anti-traditional (ones that promote
dominantsociety attitudes toward sex, violence, etc.).

Thisphenomenon is not limited to Chiwere, however, and many people
involved inSiouan language documentation and revitalization receive
similar requests. JohnKoontz, for example, received so many requests to
translate stock English phrasesas well as names for children and pets
into Omaha-Ponca that he posted hisgeneral response to such questions on
the FAQ section of his website. Once, hewas even asked (presumably as a
joke) for a Native American name for an RV; heresponded in kind with
Hotanke, anAnglicized spelling of the Dakotan word for ‘Winnebago’
(Winnebago is a popularbrand of RV in the United States, much to the
chagrin of the Winnebago Indians).

Recently,a request appeared on the Siouan Listserv to translate a line
from Alice in Wonderland (“curiouser andcuriouser, cried Alice”) into
various Siouan languages for some kind ofpolyglot compilation. While
some found the intellectual challenge oftranslating a Victorian
neologism into Siouan languages intriguing, others wereless receptive to
the request because of its perceived triviality andirrelevance to Native
communities: “It’s a more distinguished request than petnames and such,
but it’s not the kind of translation work I would prefer tospend my time
on. Why don’t people ask us to translate Microsoft Word or a
K-12curriculum or something important?” and “I have other priorities and
am unclearon the need for [a translation of] the particular quote from a
story which hasnothing in common with Native American culture. . . . To
spend time on thetranslation of materials that have no immediate
application to the languagecommunities is nonsensical and, for my part,
a waste of time.” One linguistshared his general guidelines for
responding to such requests: “One has to pick and choose. If it is short
and culturallyappropriate, I generally agree to it. . . . Then other
requests have to benixed, like the set of ‘Spring Break’ phrases I once
was asked to translate,things like ‘I am so drunk,’ and ‘Where is the
bathroom?’”

Inshort, while language revitalization seeks to expand opportunities for
thecontinued use of heritage languages by making them seem more
applicable tocurrent social conditions, there is a danger that the codes
may becomedisassociated from the traditional cultures that motivate
their revitalizationin the first place. If what we care about is not
only preserving linguisticdiversity (in the sense of grammatical
structures) but also preservingdistinctive cultural worldviews
andlifeways by maintaining heritage languages, then we have won the
battle whilelosing the war if people are only learning and using
heritage languages toparticipate in the practices of the dominant
society.

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University of Arizona
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