‘We’ as social categorization in Cha’palaa,
a language of Ecuador
Simeon Floyd | Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
This chapter connects the grammar of the first person collective pronoun in the Cha’palaa language of Ecuador with its use in interaction for collective reference and social category membership attribution, addressing the problem posed by the fact that non-singular pronouns do not have distributional semantics (“speakers”) but are rather associational (“speaker and relevant associates”). It advocates a cross-disciplinary approach that jointly considers elements of linguistic form, situated usages of those forms in instances of interaction, and the broader ethnographic context of those instances. Focusing on large-scale and relatively stable categories such as racial and ethnic groups, it argues that looking at how speakers categorize themselves and others in the speech situation by using pronouns provides empirical data on the status of macro-social categories for members of a society.
References (34)
Allport, Gordon
.
1954.
The Nature of Prejudice
. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Benveniste, Emile
.
1971. “
The nature of pronouns.” In
Problems in General Linguistics
, 217–222. Coral Gables: University of Miami Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brewer, Marilynn and Wendi Gardner
1996. “
Who is this ‘we’? Levels of collective identity and self representations.”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
71(1): 83–93.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Curnow, Timothy J.
2002. “
Conjunct/disjunct marking in Awa Pit.”
Linguistics
40(3): 611–627.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cysouw, Michael
.
2003.
The Paradigmatic Structure of Person Marking
. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
DeBoer, Warren
.
1995. “
Returning to Pueblo Viejo: History and archaeology of the Chachi, Ecuador.” In
Archaeology in the Lowland American tropics: Current Analytical Methods and Applications
,
Peter W. Stahl(ed.), 243–262. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dickinson, Connie
.
2002.
Complex Predicates in Tsafiki
. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Oregon.
Egbert, Maria
.
2004. “
Other-initiated repair and membership categorization—some conversational events that trigger linguistic and regional membership categorization.”
Journal of Pragmatics
36(8): 1467–1498.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Enfield, Nicholas J.
2009.
The Αnatomy of Μeaning: Speech, Gesture, and Composite Utterances
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Enfield, Nicholas. J.
2011. “
Sources of asymmetry in human interaction: Enchrony, status, knowledge and agency.” In
The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation
,
Tanya Stivers,
Lorenza Mondada, and
Jakob Steensig(eds), 285–312. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fitzgerald, Robert and Housley, William
.
2002. “
Identity, categorization and sequential organization: The sequential and categorial flow of identity in a radio phone-in,”
Discourse & Society
13(5): 579–602.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Floyd, Simeon
.
2010.
Discourse Forms and Social Categorization in Cha’palaa
. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Texas, Austin, TX.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hester, Stephen and Eglin, Peter
.
1997a.
Culture in Action: Studies in Membership Categorisation Analysis
. Washington, DC: University Press of America.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hester, Stephen and Eglin, Peter
.
1997b. “
Membership categorization analysis: An introduction.” In
Culture in Action: Studies in Membership Categorisation Analysis
,
Stephen Hester and
Peter Eglin(eds), 1–23. Washington, DC: University Press of America.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Housley, William and Fitzgerald, Robert
.
2002. “
The reconsidered model of membership categorization analysis.”
Qualitative Research
2(1): 59–83.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Housley, William and Fitzgerald, Robert
.
2009. “
Membership categorization, culture and norms in action.”
Discourse & Society
20(3): 345–362.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Housley, William and Smith, Robin J.
2011. “
Telling the CAQDAS code: Membership categorization and the accomplishment of ‘coding rules’ in research team talk.”
Discourse Studies
13(4): 417–434.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jayyusi, Lena
.
1984.
Categorisation and Moral Order
. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jijón y Caamaño, Jacinto
1914.
Los Aborígenes de la Provincia de Imbabura: Los Cayapas en Imbabura
. Madrid: Blass y Cía. Impresores.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lerner, Gene H.
1993. “
Collectivities in action: Establishing the relevance of conjoined participation in interaction.”
Text
. 13(2): 213–245.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Levinson, Stephen C.
2005. “
Living with Manny’s dangerous idea.”
Discourse Studies
, 7(4–5): 431–453.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Leudar, Ivan, Marsland, Vitoria, and Nekvapil, Jirí
.
2004. “
On Membership categorization: ‘Us’, ‘them’ and ‘doing violence’ in political discourse.”
Discourse & Society
15(2): 243–266.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mühlhäusler, Peter and Harré, Rom
.
1990.
Pronouns and People: The Linguistic Construction of Social and Personal Identity
. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacks, Harvey
.
1992. “
The MIR Membership Categorization Device.” In
Lectures on Conversation
,
Gail Jefferson(ed.), 40–48. Oxford: Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schegloff, Emanuel, Gail Jefferson and Harvey Sacks
.
1977. “
The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation.”
Language
52(2): 361–382.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schegloff, Emanuel
.
2007. “
Categories in action: Person-reference and membership categorization.”
Discourse Studies
. 9(4): 433–461.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Siewierska, Anna
.
2004.
Person
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Silverstein, Michael
.
1976. “
Shifters, linguistic categories, and cultural description,” in
Meaning and Anthropology
,
Keith Basso and
Henry Selby, (eds), 11–55. New York: Harper and Row.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stokoe, Elizabeth H.
2003. “
Mothers, single women and sluts: Gender, morality and membership categorisation in neighbour disputes.”
Feminism and Psychology
13: 317–344.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Urban, Greg
.
1989. “
The ‘I’ of discourse,” In
Semiotics, Self, and Society
.
Benjamin Lee and
Greg Urban, (eds), 27–51. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wade, Peter
.
2010.
Race and Ethnicity in Latin America
. 2
nd
edition. London: Pluto Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wechsler, Stephen
2010. “
What ‘You’ and ‘I’ mean to each other: Person marking, self-ascription, and theory of mind.”
Language
86(2): 332–365.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Whitten, Norman E., Jr
.
1974.
Black Frontiersmen: A South American Case
. New York: Schenkman.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by 2 other publications
Floyd, Simeon, Lila San Roque & Asifa Majid
2018.
Smell Is Coded in Grammar and Frequent in Discourse: Cha'palaa Olfactory Language in Cross‐Linguistic Perspective.
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 28:2
► pp. 175 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.