On Written Discourse

Okay, this week's lecture left me rather doubtful about Kaplan's generalizations on the circular style of Oriental writing. From the classic Li Bai's "Bedfront Moon Bright Bright" poem, we learned that Chinese written discourse tends to use indirect, abstract analogies to indicate what they really mean. But i wasn't (and still am not) entirely convinced so i decided to test out another example. As a primary school student eons ago, I remembered having been forced to memorize another Chinese poem, by 杜牧 (Du Mu) called Qing Ming. Some of you might find it familiar ;)  

Credits to this website

I'm going to attempt my own translation at this, pardon my very lousy grasp of Mandarin.
First Line: It's drizzling heavily during the Qing Ming (i.e Tomb-Sweeping) season 

Second Line: On the roads, people are gloomy and despondent 

Third Line: I ask if there is a tavern nearby 

Fourth Line: Shepherd Boy points out a distant village surrounded by apricot blossoms. 

Actually the poem does somewhat fit into the qi-cheng-zhuan-he structure. Du Mu sets the atmosphere, develops the scene by introducing peripheral characters. Then he presents himself in first-person, posing a random question. And the final line serves as a proper "closing" that sums up everything Qing Ming is about! In Singapore, during Qing Ming festival (which happens around April each year) we're supposed to visit the tombs of our ancestors to pay our respects and tidy up the place. But in China, Qing Ming also marks the beginning of spring, and the apricot blossoms mentioned draws parallel with that. 

I still do think that Kaplan's perspectives are highly debatable though. Especially in today's globalized context, where there is an increasingly creative fusion of diverse language styles. 

On Spoken Discourse

Telephone conversations can be hugely therapeutic and I'm one of those girls who can spend several hours yakking over the phone about nothing in particular. So the lecture on spoken discourse got me really intrigued about my own speech patterns and how it related to Alexander Graham Bell's mighty invention. On Wednesday night I engaged in a mini participant observation of sorts while talking to my friend over the telephone. I'll list the couple of insights I've gained from my own phone-calling habits.

Whenever I call my close friends, I'll always say something along the lines of "Hello, _______ ah?". And the other party replies "Yah Grace, why what's up?". Then I'll answer with "No la/It's nothing much/It's no big deal, I just ________. " The opening sequence is fairly predictable cos I'll almost always be the considerate caller and ask if my friend is busy/doing something/free to talk. Hey, time spent over the phone is still precious time.

Warrants (like "okay", "yah lor" and "um"), instead of solely being pre-closers, might indicate the speaker's wish to move on to another subject cos the one being discussed has exhausted its potential in a sense. Like I realized that when I said "okay la" in response to my friend's comment, I wasn't looking to end the phone conversation. Rather, I had been reminded about another recent happening that I was desperately looking to share. If I really want to say bye, I tend to use the school-related excuse of having to rush assignment/sleep early to rush assignment next day. Evidence that I can still get my priorities right when I want to.

I'd like to make an observation about silence too. I really do believe that a mark of close friendship is the fact that you can spend time in comfortable silence with each other, and not get the awkward feeling like how you do with acquaintances. Even over the phone when I'm catching up with a long-time pal, we sometimes lapse into about 3 to 5 minutes of silence to hit the "pause" button and somehow indulge the moment. 

I'm still learning another surprising side of myself every now and then. I'm sure we all are:)

On Speech Events

You know when people say their life reads like a movie script? I've learnt that our everyday utterances are almost exactly that - scripted. Speech events follow a orderly pattern and, though it allows for a few variations, tend to be rather predictable. They include colloquial language, which would effectively distinguishes members of one culture from another.

Dr Deng mentioned that the term "Speech Events" originated from anthropologists and sociologists. So it got me thinking back on what indigenous speech events I've come across in my studies as a Soci major. And since I took a module on visual ethnography last semester, the film "To Live with Herds" (1971), by David and Judith MacDougall, stood out. It documents the life of Jie tribesmen in Uganda who are struggling to hang onto a pastoral lifestyle of cattle herding, as the country transitions into a modern capitalist society.

The Jie men are responsible for rearing the cattle and bringing these animals to graze in far-off plains, while the women stay behind at the homestead. I particularly liked the film's ending when Logoth, after walking miles from the Jie homestead (which he was initially left in charge of protecting), arrives at the cattle camp and exchanges greetings with his fellow Jie native. Here's the translated dialogue which i got from this website: 

Friend: Hail, Logoth.
Logoth: Hail.

Friend: Hail, again.

Logoth: Hail, then.

Friend: Welcome.

Logoth: Hail to the compound.

Friend: You've come from home.

Logoth: Yes.

Friend: Indeed.

Logoth: I came.

Friend: Indeed.

Logoth: I came.

Friend: What's the news?

Logoth: None.

Friend: There's none.

Logoth: There's nothing.

Friend: Everything's normal.

Logoth: Only hunger is at home.

Friend: Indeed.

Logoth: And the Turkana raiding. [Turkana was a rival tribe]

Friend: Indeed.

Logoth: We're well here.

Friend: Yes.

Logoth: We're well here.

Friend: Hail, Reto. [I don't know who Reto is]

Logoth: Hail.

Friend: Hail to the cattle camps.

Logoth: Hail to my greeting to you.

Friend: May you grow old and walk with a stick. [I'm pretty sure that meant living to a ripe old age]

Logoth: Hail with thanks.

Friends: To cows.

Logoth: To our seeing each other again.

Friend: May you live.

Logoth: Hail next time too.

Friend: May you always live with herds.

  

Even in the most obscure of cultures, act sequences are still being played out. With the final sentence, Logoth's friend was expressing the hope that all other Jie natives share - to be able to sustain their indigenous livelihoods in the face of Uganda's rapid progress and modernization. The conversation provides a little insight to a longing for better days ahead, to the implicit traditional values that Jie people hold dear to their hearts.

Connotative meaning is something in which outsiders definitely need more effort to decipher and understand. Ah, the rich layers of cultural linguistics.