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/lp/university-of-nebraska-press/the-grammar-of-politics-morality-agency-and-voice-selection-in-toraja-LIV028Sj5L
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- Publisher
- University of Nebraska Press
- ISSN
- 1944-6527
Abstract
<p>Abstract:</p><p>Voice alternations in Austronesian languages have typically been explained either in terms of clausal transitivity or in terms of nominal pragmatic salience. Here I combine grammatical and ethnographic analysis to argue that speakers of Toraja (a language of Sulawesi) select grammatical voice forms to represent moral and political stances with respect to ongoing actions; voice selection is connected to the micropolitics of situated interaction and to the broader cultural context (vernacular moral theories and local styles of self-presentation). Patient voice mitigates the assignment of agency, and thus aids in reproducing local models of the disinterested and subdued political self; conversely, actor voice projects an agentive and authoritative speaking subject. Such integrated analysis not only reveals the essential role of linguistic practices in reproducing a community’s moral system, but also advances the understanding of voice alternation.</p>
Journal
Anthropological Linguistics – University of Nebraska Press
Published: Nov 8, 2017