On speaking terms : avoidance registers and the sociolinguistics of kinship / Luke Owles Fleming.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fleming, Luke Owles, author.

Series:

Studies in the anthropology of language, sign, and social life

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language in families--Cross-cultural studies.

Language in families.

Joking relationships--Cross-cultural studies.

Joking relationships.

Nonverbal communication--Cross-cultural studies.

Nonverbal communication.

Avoidance (Psychology)--Cross-cultural studies.

Avoidance (Psychology).

Kinship--Cross-cultural studies.

Kinship.

Sociolinguistics--Cross-cultural studies.

Sociolinguistics.

Anthropological linguistics.

anthropological linguistics.

Physical Description:

xiv, 353 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Toronto ; Buffalo ; London : University of Toronto Press, [2024]

Summary:

"Why are kin, in societies all over the world, divided into "joking" and "avoidance" relations? Foundational figures in the human sciences, from E.B. Tylor and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown to Sigmund Freud and Claude Lévi-Strauss, have sought to explain why some classes of kin are normatively expected to prank and tease one another while others must studiously avoid each other's presence. In this extensively researched comparative study, linguistic anthropologist Luke Owles Fleming offers a bold new answer to this problem. With a particular focus on avoidance relationships, On Speaking Terms argues that in order to understand cross-cultural convergences in the patterning of kinship-keyed comportments, we must attend to the sociolinguistic codes through which kinship relationships are enacted. Drawing on ethnographic data from more than one hundred different societies, the book documents and analyses parallels in the linguistic and non-verbal signs through which avoidance relationships are experientially realized. With dedicated discussions of Aboriginal Australian "mother-in-law languages," name and word tabooing practices, pronominal honorification, and non-verbal strategies of interactional and sensorial avoidance, it reveals recurrent sociolinguistic patterns attested in kinship avoidance. In demonstrating the vital role of sociolinguistic codes for transforming kinship categories into phenomenologically rich relationships, On Speaking Terms makes an important contribution to the anthropology of kinship."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction. The total orientation

Prospective regimes of language and avoidance registers. Avoidance lexicon, everyday grammar : why words are good to proscribe ; Many to one : lexicon asymmetries in avoidance registers

The sounds of reference : name taboos. Name registers : a sociolinguistic kind ; Rigid performativity : cross-cultural convergences in name registers

The anti-phatic function : interactional avoidances. Not on speaking terms : closing and rerouting channels of communication ; Out of touch : sensory avoidances and the multimodality of mutuality

The pattern which connects : avoidance registers as scalar honorific formations. The pragmatic suspension of semantic distinctions : honorific pronouns in kinship avoidance ; Degrees of unfreedom : from pragmatic structures to intensities of experience

Conclusion. The mutuality of being apart.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-345) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Fleming, Luke Owles. On speaking terms.

ISBN:

9781487549701

1487549709

OCLC:

1424730072

Publisher Number:

90104556855