ABSTRACT This project is an analysis of the form and function of affect- encoding discourse strategies in gossip on Nukulaelae Atoll (Central Pacific), where "gossip" is defined as conversations, usually multiparty, about the actions of absent persons who are known to all parties to the conversation. This is a pervasive Nukulaelae speech event, and one which provides a special insight into some key aspects of language use, including gender differ- ences in communicative style, covertness and indirection in dis- course, and the role of prosody in encoding affect in language. The investigator will be in the field for approximately six months. He will make recordings of gossip interactions, to enlarge and complement a preliminary data base gathered during previous field sojourns. These recordings will be transcribed and analyzed with a focus on linguistic and discourse devices that are privileged for the encoding of affective meaning. Explanatory correlations will be sought between the form and function of these affect-encoding devices and how Nukulaelae conceptualize gossip settings, emotional behavior in these settings, and presentation of self. This project brings together several strands of research: the linguistic study of the role of affect in discourse; the form and function of gossip interactions in the linguistic repertoire of a speech community; psychological anthropological concerns with ethnotheories of the person and emotion; and the sociocultural anthropological study of the function of gossip in society.
