Friday, August 6, 2010
Concept from Chapter 2: Speech Community
I found the idea of a speech community particularly interesting. A speech community is when people share common styles of communication along with common ways of thinking about it. I found it interesting that there can be small speech communities along with larger ones. I find small speech communities fascinating. The way that a small group of people can develop almost a language that only they understand. I like that the book pointed out locker room talk as a speech community. It is no secret that locker room talk occurs but until you are actually in the locker room an outsider can only guess what is being said. Excluding locker room talk, athletes come up with their own "language" on the field. I played soccer for a number of years and if we wanted the ball we would just yell "yea, yea yea" until we received it or the ball was passed to someone else. Or if the other team was getting close to the person with the ball we would say "man on." Now if we were talking in a normal conversation we wouldn't talk like we do on the field. Also, if someone were to play a game with us and they weren't an athlete and hadn't been around soccer players in the past they would have no idea what some of the things being said on the field meant. A speech community is a special thing to be a part of.
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I love the example you used to relate back to the content. I have played sports all my life and it is true that we have our own communication. I never thought if it in that way. I remember when I first starting play softball, I had no idea what they were saying but towards the end I was talking just like my teammates. It is amazing the amount of dialogue you have within a team and all the inside jokes. Even to the way we dress being a part of our nonverbal communication. If you are not a part of the group it is hard to understand.But thank you foe your post it really helped me to understand this concept.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post. I too found the topic of Hymes's model facinating, and the speech community is just one part of it. This example of locker room talk and althetic language is great. I personally have been involved in an advanced waterpolo class this summer, in order to fulfill my PE requirements for graduation. I am an outsider in the world of waterpolo. I had never really played before, while almost everyone else in the class is on the actual MJC waterpolo team. There are many different terms used that I am not familiar with, so I don't know what I should be doing or where to go. I know it is frustrating to them since they all are part of this speech community, so everything they say makes perfect sense to the speech situation. I have noticed that it is difficult to understand special languages of speech communities if you are not part of them.
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