week 4: Speech Events

"If only we could capture all speech events in a culture, we could understand it entirely" How fascinating an idea. I never thought it is possible to fully understand a whole classroom of people, let alone an entire culture. But here, its an idea worth giving some thought.

If this could be done, I would observe how differently people buy things, all over the world. Aha! Best way to find out bargaining techniques in every country. What else.. Things people would say or do during social, business gatherings, when they engage in small talk, see a doctor.. I would love to know them all!

The 10 different components of a speech event helped in breaking down each one of these. The 10 components are namely, genre, topic, purpose, setting, key, participants, message form, act sequences, rules of interaction and norms of interpretations. Sound complicated? Not so after each component is looked into.

Here's an example. I met with my girlfriends on sunday for some icecream and chat.

1) Genre: Gathering
2) Topic: School life, latest gossips about old classmates
3) Purpose: Catch up with each other and engage in mindless chats
4) Setting: McDonalds' Restaurant
5) Key: Casual
6) Participants: JC friends
7) Message form: Verbal (English and Chinese) - chats, laughter. Non-verbal - exaggerating gestures, tearing from excessive laughter, smiles
8) Act Sequence: (typical gossip scene)

A: I saw *** in the canteen that day. She was wearing a spaghetti top revealing her fatty arms and eating Ba Chor Mee (Minced meat noodle.)
The rest: Oh my goodness! So obscene.
A: Yeah. I think maybe next time she could offer some of her own flesh for the uncle to make the minced meat. Then she may be able to lunch for free!
The rest: *Choking from the ice cream*

9) Rules for Interaction: Listen when someone is sharing. Anyone who disagrees with the gossip is considered a retard.
10) Norms of Interpretation: People in this group gossip for leisure and do not take their conversations very seriously. These girls have known each other for 4years by now and can chat about almost anything.

There you go. A typical all girls outing.

Most people who do a case study on this speech event with components 1 to 9 would conclude that this group of girls are brainless and superficial. This is when component 10 would come in to enlighten these sanctimonious people.

Its a situation very similar to the 'lip service' phenomenon mentioned in class. Most of the time people don't actually mean what they say and this can create a lot of confusion. This is especially prevalent in the chinese community. People ask whether if you have eaten when they actually don't wish to know. They use self-effacing words while receiving praise, when they are actually beaming inside. All these add on to the difficulty in understanding the chinese people.

So now, chinese people are complex. Girls' way of thinking is hard to grasp. So chinese girls are the hardest to comprehend. Now I know exactly how to answer anyone who asks me to explain myself. "The complexity of my speech is unfathomable for an imbecile like you. I would explain in the amateur version, for a fee. :)"

Week 3: Speech Acts

Digression point: Week3 on the title refers to week3 of the NUS academic calendar and not the CELC calendar.

My lecturer has the tendency to repeat things twice. This is good in a sense it helps to reinforce things that were taught. But as time dragged by, I found myself writing a script in my head about how speech acts can apply to life stories. So, I wrote a story about Mary, which I will later reveal. Its short, contains only speech acts, but certainly a resounding memory in the lives of many people.

Anyway, to me, speech acts are like the curtains of a theatre performance. The moment they are uttered, they signify the point of no return from whatever situation previously intended by the speaker. These words can be scary at times, with the power to make or break relationships close to our hearts. At other times, they could even be life-changing, marking the start or end of an important phase in life.

And now, the story of my imaginary friend Mary.

Boy: Will you be my girlfriend?

(Signifies the start of courtship)

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Boy: Will you marry me?

(Signifies the proposal)

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Priest: I hereby pronounce you husband and wife.

(Signifies a union)

Aww... a typical courtship story of a loving couple. What about those with a violent streak, u ask? In contrast to how a relationship is built with speech acts, it is now torn down again with the same tools in Mary's story.

Mary: I am through with living with your mum.

(Signifies the breakup of generations)

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Mary: Let's divorce.

(Signifies a break in union)

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Mary: I'm bringing my son to America.

(Interpretation: You two shall be seperated!)

How powerful these words are indeed. The next time I use a speech act, it certainly makes me ponder about its ramifications.

Moving on, the next discussion in lecture was about complements. This is a topic that really got me interested. I've long ago heard of campaigns which encourage people to be more generous with their complements. And so, over the years, I've learned to behave in this manner. What I've not heard of, are campaigns asking people to ask for complements they think they deserve! Laura Trice certainly added a new dimension of interest to this topic. Immediately, I got myself busy thinking about what complements I deserve. A great sister, great daughter, friend.. and so much more. Just how many complements on earth do these people owe me?? So the night i got home, I immediately demanded one from my mum =P

Besides analyzing the complements, we also discussed about the ways people reply to complements. I definitely didn't know of so many! Accepting, Returning, Delfecting, Rejecting, Thanking and Denigrating. And I found myself using deflecting most of the time. Probably because I've learned to accept complements, shedding the 'self-effacing' culture of the east. At the same time, I want people around me to share the goodness too. Be it the cheapest bargains in town, or the best handwritten notes i got from a senior. If i have the good things, i want people I love benefit from them as well.

Lastly, the fact that what people give complements on are what they regard as important in life, as presented by Mr Deng, is the thing which strikes me the most. Almost every other day in my life of being a ME (Mechanical Engineering) student, my friends give complements on aesthetics freely. "Hey you brought a nice new bag today!" "Wah today put make up, very nice!" "Eh your hair so smooth recently, did you change your brand of shampoo?" These words ring a millions bells by now. And hey I don't mean i'm the only person on the receiving end. For some reason, from what i observe, ME students love the pretty things in life. I can still recall back in year one, while doing a tutorial, a friend suddenly took out a laptop and said, "Wah tutorial very sian(boring), lets surf facebook and see some pretty people." I was utterly stunned then. But for the next hour, a group of 7 to 8 people just hovered in front of a computer looking at photos of beautiful people and comparing whose friends are prettier. That remained a favourite pastime of many ME friends till now.

So now i guess i have established that ME people focus a lot on image. But then again, this is not exactly the best-dressed faculty. So how come there are still so many complements circulating around? I guess its because it is precisely that people do not normally have the time to dress well (engineers are very busy people), they actually desire to be able to. And so, one way to express this desire is to notice people who do dress well and complement them. In most cases, speech acts come into play here with just enough words to express envy, yet hide their jealousy. Complementing became a channel for expression of own desire, instead of genuine praise.

And now, to conclude my entry, I shall give a suggestion to those who badly need a complement. Dress well, make more ME friends, and everyday will be a sunshiny day.