Communication Before And After the Arrival

56 Pages·2010·0.46 MB·English

Masaryk University
Faculty of Arts

Department of English
and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Terezie Chýlová

Australia: Communication Before
And After the Arrival of Whites

Bachelor‘s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, Ph. D.

2010
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….
Terezie Chýlová
I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, PhD. for her help, support, guidance
and valuable advice.
Table of Contents
Introduction ……………………………………………………………… 2
1. Theory of Communication………………………………………......... 5
1.1. Communication As Viewed by Sociolinguistics ............................... 5
1.2. Communication As Viewed by Pragmatics …………….................. 9
1.3. Communication As Viewed by Cultural Anthropology................... 12
2. Characteristics of Aboriginal Communication ………....................... 17
2.1. Aborigines As a Contact Culture ……………………….................. 17
2.2. Body Language ………………………………………..................... 19
3. Communication Before the Arrival of Whites ………….................... 19
3.1. General Characteristics of Aboriginal
Communication Before the Arrival of Whites …………….................... 21
3.2. Aboriginal Languages in Pre-contact Australia ……........................ 23
3.3. Women of the Sun: Alinta the Flame ………………….................... 25
4. Communication After the Arrival of Whites …………....................... 29
4.1. First Contact …………………………………………...................... 29
4.2. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith ......................…............................. 31
4.3. The Fringe Dwellers …………………………………...................... 36
4.4. Rabbit-proof Fence …………………………………........................ 38
4.5. Samson and Delilah …………………………………....................... 40
4.6. Aboriginal Languages and Aboriginal Engllish After
the Arrival of Whites …………………………………............................. 42
Conclusion .................................................................................................... 46
Resumé in English ....................................................................................... 48
Resumé v češtině .......................................................................................... 49
Works Cited ................................................................................................. 50

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Introduction
Communication is a tool we use every day without even thinking about it. Yet
there are many factors that determine whether communication will be successful or not,
factors that influence communication. In other words, it is a complex process.
The aim of my thesis is to analyse and contrast communication of Aborigines
before and after the white settlement and also communication between Aborigines
and whites from the point of view of the communication theories. I will look at both
non-verbal and verbal communication of Aborigines and I will compare it and
contrast with communication between Aborigines and whites.
For my analysis I have chosen the film The Women of the Sun: Alinta the Flame
for communication before the arrival of whites and the book The Chant of Jimmie
Blacksmith and the films The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit-proof Fence and Samson and
Delilah for communication after the arrival of whites.
The first chapter is devoted to the theoretical background of communication.
I will describe communication from the point of view of the communication theories,
namely sociolunguistics, pragmatics and cultural anthropology. I will describe different
principles of these theories which I will be using in my thesis.
In the second chapter I will introduce the main aspects of Aboriginal
communication – the features common in high contact cultures, and body language,
the most significant part of Aboriginal communication. The aim of this chapter is to
demonstrate the importance of body language in their communication and the
complexity of it.
The third chapter deals with communication before the arrival of whites, i.e.
with Aboriginal communication before 1788. I will elaborate on their non-verbal
communication and I will also discuss verbal communication. Aboriginal languages
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form a separate subchapter; they are one of the most apparent changes in Aboriginal
communication after the white settlement, as will be demonstrated in the fourth
chapter. The last part of the third chapter is devoted to the film Women of the Sun:
Alinta the Flame; I analyse body language and verbal communication shown in the
film using the communication principles mentioned in the first chapter. The aim of
the third chapter is, as the name suggests, the analysis of communication of
Aborigines before the white settlement. I would like to say that every film I analyse
in this thesis is introduced by a short summary of the plot for better understanding.
The fourth chapter is devoted both to communication of Aborigines after the
arrival of whites and to communication between Aborigines and whites. First of all
I will describe the first contact of Aborigines and whites and the first communication.
Afterwards I will analyse communication in the book The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
and in the films The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit-proof Fence and Samson and Delilah.
The very last part of the fourth chapter is devoted to Aboriginal languages and
Aboriginal English, both to the development after the white settlement and to the
current situation. The aim of this chapter can be divided into two parts: the first one
is analysis of communication of Aborigines after the white settlement and observation
of changes in it – changes in non-verbal and verbal communication, including
Aboriginal languages and Aboriginal English. And the second part is the analysis of
communication between Aborigines and whites; the reason why I deal with
communication between Aborigines and whites is because on the one hand ―white‖
communication has influenced communication of Aborigines and on the other hand
we will be able to understand changes in Aboriginal communication only if we
know communication between Aborigines and whites.
The intention of my thesis is to show how considerably Aboriginal
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communication has changed after the arrival of whites and to demonstrate that
communication between Aborigines and whites is often unsuccessful due to the feeling
of superiority of whites and because of the differences between their cultures.
I would like to point out that communication is such a broad topic that it is
impossible to cover everything within the scope of my thesis; therefore I will only
analyse some apparent aspects of it.

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1. Theory of Communication

Communication is a phenomenon we encounter every day; it is a substantial
part of our lives. However, it is a complex issue governed by certain rules and
influenced by many factors, for instance social factors or culture. In this chapter I will
examine such rules and factors within the scope of different communication theories.
But first of all, it is essential to define what communication actually is. The word
communication derives from the Latin verb communicare, which means ‗to share‘,
ʻto make commonʻ. When we communicate, we make things common. By making
things common, we increase our shared knowledge or ʻcommon sense‘; common sense
is a precondition for every community (Rosengren 1). Thus the importance of
communication in society is unquestionable.
As communication is a complex phenomenon, different communication theories
developed. The theories provide us with better understanding of communication as
such and of the principles that are applied to it. The following subchapters are devoted
to relevant issues in sociolinguistics, pragmatics and cultural anthropology; I will
describe communication from the point of view of each of these fields.

1.1. Communication As Viewed By Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is a field dealing with the relationship between language
and society. It examines social factors that influence language, the way language is used
in different social interactions, social functions of language etc. (Holmes 1).
The following terms and definitions are basic concepts of sociolinguistics; they
are important for understanding how society influences communication among
participants of a conversation.
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Social factors and social dimensions

There are certain social factors that are relevant in conversation: the participants,
the setting, the topic and the function (purpose of the conversation) (Holmes 9-10).
In addition to these factors, social dimensions are of importance as well: the social
distance, the status scale, the formality scale, the functional scale. The social distance is
a definite sign of how much we know the person we are talking to; it also influences our
linguistic choice. Intimate distance implies high solidarity, whereas long distance
implies low solidarity (Holmes 9-10). The status scale is also a relevant factor of
linguistic choice: someone of a low status, the subordinate, will talk with someone of a
high status, the superior, in a different way than they would talk with someone of the
same status; for example a speaker who sees himself/herself as lower status tends to
address a higher-status speaker by a title and a last name (for instance Mr Clinton, Dr
Dang) (Yule 59).
The formality scale determines whether our linguistic choice will be formal or informal,
depending on the social setting (Holmes 9-10).
Finally, the functional scale indicates the purpose of the conversation: a friendly chat, a
talk with a bank clerk or one´s boss (Holmes 9-10).

Politeness and address forms

Being linguistically polite means speaking to people appropriately according to
the relationships they have with us. As Holmes points out in An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, politeness is a complicated issue because it involves not only
understanding the language, but also the cultural and social values of the community
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(296-297). It is much more than only the use of the words please and thank you; being
polite involves being formal or informal or addressing people by their names, last
names or titles. It means that, for example, one does not address his or her boss or a
person he or she does not know well by their name, but rather by their title and last
name (296-297).
Politeness can be negative or positive: negative politeness shows deference and
emphasizes the importance of other´s time or concerns; it respects a person´s right to act
freely. An example of negative politeness is the sentence Could you lend me a pen? or
I´m sorry to bother you, but can I ask you for a pen or something? (Yule 62-64)
Positive politeness, on the other hand, shows solidarity, emphasizes that both speakers
want the same thing, and that they have the same goal. An example is the sentence How
about letting me use your pen? or Hi. How´s it going? Okay if I sit here? (Yule 62-64)
As we can see, positive politiness is usually used among friends or people who know
each other, whereas negative politeness is used when we are asking for permission to
ask a question and therefore it does not always concern people we know (Yule 65).

Code-switching

Code-switching means that a participant of a conversation switches between two
or more languages because of a changed social situation, such as the arrival of a new
person who takes part in the conversation. The purpose of code-switching is to give the
addressee a signal of group membership and shared ethnicity or solidarity (Holmes 41).

Language shift, language loss and language death
Language shift is a situation in which speakers of a community shift to another
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