The Whiteman And Hyme Summary

The readings I found interesting were Basso’s “Portraits of ‘The Whiteman’” and Hyme’s “On Communicative Competence” and how they both explain the importance of competence and performance, which is the ability to understand and use a language correctly. In Basso, he explains how the Apache Indians make jokes they call “Whiteman” and the danger of jokes. The jokes that they make can only be understand in “interpersonal relationships”. It can be taken out of context and be insulting if one is not as close to the person. It was discussed in class that the relationship between two people are stiff in the beginning, but as the relationship develop more through the years, they become friendly and will be able to joke around with each other. Basso
He suggested the theory of sociolinguistics that includes voice repertoire, linguistic routines, and domains of language behavior. There is a method to help learn the three known as the S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G. method that was covered in class. He took into account when one is speaking the setting they are in, the person or audience that is being spoken to, the ends, the act sequence, whether the conversation is light or heavy, the type of speech being used, social rules, and genre. Competence or Communicative Competence was divided into four categories: linguistic competence, pragmatic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence. Both fit well together since what’s being focused is how one should speaks to another person depending on circumstances. The example that stuck to me is if someone joked about having a bomb in an airport. It was not the right place to joke or talk about bombs and it can be taken as a threat. Also how one speaks to someone differently depending on status. One speaks differently when in a learning environment with an instructor, in a household with family, in public with strangers or with friends. In Basso’s reading, one can see the