This project involves the dissertation research of an anthropology student from Syracuse University. The focus of the project is to study linguistic practice in a North Indian village within discourses of everyday social interaction, and in the context of verbal performances The speech of different caste members in the village as well as more specialized performers will be analyzed to discover and report on the logic of linguistic interpersonal negotiation in Hindi. Methods will include participant observation and careful recording of verbal interactions and performances. The fundamental question is to understand how people select or reveal through their linguistic forms their social position with respect to the other member of the conversation. This research will advance our understanding of how language situates a person in a social field of interaction. By analyzing the discursive tools and frames in which members of this culture appreciate artistic forms and reveal differences in status, this case study will help advance our general understanding of how people's discourse constructs as well as reflects their social reality.
