The Grammar of Politics: Morality, Agency, and Voice Selection in Toraja Political Discourse

Q2 Arts and Humanities
Aurora Donzelli
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Abstract:Voice alternations in Austronesian languages have typically been explained either in terms of clausal transitivity or in terms of nominal pragmatic salience. Here I combine grammatical and ethnographic analysis to argue that speakers of Toraja (a language of Sulawesi) select grammatical voice forms to represent moral and political stances with respect to ongoing actions; voice selection is connected to the micropolitics of situated interaction and to the broader cultural context (vernacular moral theories and local styles of self-presentation). Patient voice mitigates the assignment of agency, and thus aids in reproducing local models of the disinterested and subdued political self; conversely, actor voice projects an agentive and authoritative speaking subject. Such integrated analysis not only reveals the essential role of linguistic practices in reproducing a community’s moral system, but also advances the understanding of voice alternation.
政治语法:托拉贾政治话语中的道德、能动性和声音选择
摘要:南岛语言中的语音交替通常用从句及物性或名词语用显著性来解释。在这里,我结合语法和人种学分析,认为说苏拉威西语的人选择语法语音形式来代表对正在进行的行动的道德和政治立场;声音选择与情境互动的微观政治和更广泛的文化背景(本土道德理论和自我呈现的地方风格)有关。耐心的声音减轻了代理的分配,从而有助于再现无私和克制的政治自我的地方模式;相反,演员的声音投射出一种能动性和权威性的话语主体。这种综合分析不仅揭示了语言实践在再现社区道德体系中的重要作用,而且促进了对声音交替的理解。
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来源期刊
Anthropological Linguistics
Anthropological Linguistics Arts and Humanities-Language and Linguistics
CiteScore
0.40
自引率
0.00%
发文量
0
期刊介绍: Anthropological Linguistics, a quarterly journal founded in 1959, provides a forum for the full range of scholarly study of the languages and cultures of the peoples of the world, especially the native peoples of the Americas. Embracing the field of language and culture broadly defined, the editors welcome articles and research reports addressing cultural, historical, and philological aspects of linguistic study, including analyses of texts and discourse; studies of semantic systems and cultural classifications; onomastic studies; ethnohistorical papers that draw significantly on linguistic data; studies of linguistic prehistory and genetic classification.
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