Word play : what happens when people talk

314 Pages·1993·3.91 MB·English

by  Farb

Also by Peter Farb

MAN’S RISE TO CIVILIZATION
as Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to
the Coming of the Industrial State
YANKEE DOODLE
(A Fiction)
ECOLOGY
FACE OF NORTH AMERICA
LIVING EARTH
THE ATLANTIC SHORE:
Its Human and Natural History
(with John Hay)

For Mark and Tom
CONTENTS
Cover
Also by Peter Farb
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION: THE PLAY AND THE PLAYERS
I
The Game
1 THE ECOLOGY OF LANGUAGE
2 SPEECH SITUATIONS
3 WORDS AND DEEDS
II
The Strategies
4 THE SPEAKABLE AND THE UNSPEAKABLE
5 VERBAL DUELING
6 PLAYING WITH LANGUAGE
7 LINGUISTIC CHAUVINISM
III
Is the Game Rigged?
8 MAN AT THE MERCY OF LANGUAGE
9 HOW TO TALK ABOUT THE WORLD
10 IN OTHER WORDS
IV
Born to Speak
11 MAN THE TALKER
12 THE LANGUAGE OF CHILDREN
13 THE SPOKEN WORD
14 MAKING COMBINATIONS
V
The Changing Game
15 LANGUAGE IN FLUX
16 REPAIRING BABEL
REFERENCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
About the Author
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

And for ther is so gret diversite
In Englissh, and in writyng of oure tonge, So prey I God
that non myswrite the
Geoffrey Chaucer’s prayer in Troilus and Criseyde is mine as well. To write
about language and also to present a report on the state of linguistic research
demanded that I explore many disciplines—linguistics, anthropology, sociology,
psychology, ethology, poetics, and so on—and consequently expose myself to
the hazards of interdisciplinary points of view. Further, in writing about
language I had no alternative but to use the medium of language itself—which is
nearly as difficult as lifting oneself by one’s bootstraps.
My task has been eased considerably by the generous assistance of many
people. I am greatly in the debt of the following scholars who kindly read the
sections of the manuscript that fell within their disciplines and who offered
valuable suggestions: Joel Sherzer, Department of Anthropology, University of
Texas at Austin; Charles Clifton, Department of Psychology, University of
Massachusetts at Amherst; James T. Heringer, Department of Linguistics,
University of Massachusetts at Amherst; and Irven DeVore, Department of
Psychology and Social Relations, Harvard University. It would be misleading for
me to suggest that these readers found themselves in complete agreement with
every idea expressed in this book; nor is it likely that consensus could ever be
reached in a field so new and controversial as the one this book is about.
In the course of working on the manuscript I have also been the fortunate
recipient of advice and kindness from: Roger D. Abrahams, Director of the
African and Afro-American Research Institute, University of Texas at Austin;
Thomas L. Bernard, Department of Psychology and Education, Mount Holyoke
College; Gary H. Gossen, Department of Anthropology, University of California
at Santa Cruz; Nancy P. Hickerson, Texas Technological University; Jim
Kakumasu, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Equipe Linguistica, Belém, Brazil; Dina
Sherzer, Department of English, University of Texas at Austin; Robert Taylor,
Dean of Library Sciences, Syracuse University; and Frederick W. Turner III,
Department of English, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I am also
grateful to film critic Pauline Kael and to Joe Adamson, of the University of
Pennsylvania, for helpful suggestions and material about the Marx Brothers and
visual communication.
My expressions of gratitude would be grossly incomplete without mention of
the conscientious people at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) Library—
particularly Donald M. Koslow, formerly in charge of the reference section,
Gordon Fretwell, director of special services, and their conscientious assistants
—who worked wonders in locating inaccessible research materials for me.
Every page of this book reveals borrowings from scholars in many disciplines.
I hope that this single, overriding recognition of that fact will express my deep
appreciation and admiration for their work. Rather than attempting an invidious
listing of some of their names here, let me instead direct the reader to their works
cited in the References and Bibliography sections—which proclaim their
devotion to their craft more than my mere words could.
Ultimately, of course, I am responsible for whatever errors, inelegant
expressions, or tongue-tied explanations persist in this book.

Amherst, Massachusetts
April 1973
PETER FARB
INTRODUCTION

The Play and the Players
Immediately after the scene in which Hamlet hires players to act out his theory
about the murder of his father, Guildenstern attempts to manipulate Hamlet with
words. But Hamlet rebukes him:
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You
would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you
would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me
from my lowest note to the top of my compass…’Sblood, do you
think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what
instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon
me.
Hamlet fires off a barrage of puns and employs other forms of word play to
make it perfectly clear that he has seen through Guildenstern’s attempt to play
upon him with words. In this passage, and throughout his works, Shakespeare
demonstrates that he understood how people play a game with language to
achieve certain ends: to cajole or convince, to display their own wisdom to an
audience, to win honor or esteem. He often states his thoughts about language
with poetic intensity and apt detail—yet they are nonscientific, merely common-
sense observations, no matter how artfully they are expressed.
Beginning about 1960, and at an accelerating pace since then, a scientific
approach has replaced common sense in interpreting the way human beings use