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LECTURE TWO
ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION.
CULTURAL MODELS, SPEECH COMMUNITIES,
AND SPEECH NETWORKS

1) The essence of the ethnography of communication: its definition, scope and focus,
methods, goals and importance.
2) Culture and cultural models.
3) Speech communities and speech networks.
4) Components of the ethnography of communication.
5) Communication laws, norms, principles and laws as constraints.
6) Translation as a mediated cross-cultural communication.

Objectives:
 Explain the essence of ethnography of communication, its scope, focus and
importance.
 Define culture and cultural model.
 Explain interrelation between ethnography of communication and culture.
 Characterize speech communities and speech networks.
 Describe components of the ethnography of communication.
 Relate communication laws and principles to certain fragments of communication
 Generalize translation as a mediated cross-cultural communication.

THE ESSENCE OF ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION

The term “ethnography of communication” was proposed by D.H. Hymes in the early
1960s.
Definition of Ethnography
The word 'ethnography' is derived from the Greek θνος (ethnos), meaning "a
company, folk, people, nation" and -graphy meaning "field of study".
Ethnography is a field of study which is concerned primarily with the description and
analysis of culture. It focuses on large cultural groups of people who interact over time.

Definition of Ethnography of Communication
According to Hymes, an ethnography of communication includes descriptions of all
explicit and implicit norms for communication, detailing aspects of verbal, nonverbal, and social
parameters of interaction.
Other definitions:
• is the study of communication in its widest cultural and social context, including rules of
language, norms of appropriate language use in particular settings, and evaluations given
by members of a culture to various speech styles;
• is an approach to discourse that is based on anthropology and linguistics;
• focuses upon a wider range of communicative behaviours than the other approaches;
• provides an intentional openness to discovery of the variety of forms and functions
available for communication, and to the way such forms and functions are part of different
ways of life