Language in a Fijian village : an ethnolinguistic study

Abstract

This thesis investigates sociolinguistic variation in the Fijian village of Waitabu. The aim is to investigate how particular uses, functions and varieties of language relate to social patterns and modes of interaction. ·The investigation focuses on the various ways of speaking which characterise the Waitabu repertoire, and attempts to explicate basic sociolinguistic principles and norms for contextually appropriate behaviour.The general purpose is to explicate what the outsider needs to know to communicate appropriately in Waitabu community. Chapter one discusses relevant literature and the theoretical perspective of the thesis. I also detail the fieldwork setting, problems and restrictions, and thesis plan. Chapter two provides the necessary background information to this study, describing the geographical, demographical and sociohistorical setting. Description is given of the contemporary language situation, structure of Fijian (Bouma dialect), and Waitabu social structure and organisation. In Chapter 3, the kinship system which lies at the heart of Waitabu social organisation, and kin-based sociolinguistic roles are analysed. This chapter gives detailed description of the kin categories and the established modes of sociolinguistic behaviour which are associated with various kin-based social identities. Chapter 4 focuses on discourse of everyday life, dealing with the general rules and norms by which Waitabu individuals construct their everyday sociolinguistic behaviour including: male and female speech; greetings and leave-taking; deference and politeness markers; and conversational strategies. Chapter 5 provides detailed investigation of the ceremonial speech event. This event is characterised by special rules of speech and nonverbal behaviour, and is distinguishable by clearly defined opening and closing sequences with set sequencing of components in between. The chapter describes the specific principles and norms governing the linguistic, social and kinesic behaviour. In chapter 6, the decline of chiefly respect language is described. First, I detail distinguishing lexical, grammatical and speech act features of the speech style traditionally used towards the village chief. Then, I investigate the loss of these specific rules and norms in contemporary Waitabu, exploring factors in this change. Chapter 7 gives detailed description of dialect levelling evident in Waitabu. The various dialect varieties and their domains are described. Language attitudes and factors conducive to dialect shift are also investigated. Then follows analysis of how individuals creatively use these dialect differences in constructing their sociolinguistic behaviour, to mark certain contexts and role-relationships as distinct. Focus is on the specific rules and norms for sociolinguistic behaviour in the netball peer-group and in interaction with Indians. Chapter 8 investigates the special patterns of language use which characterise two institutionalised modes of communication in Waitabu society - religion and education. Chapter 9 gives a summary of the Waitabu investigation.