John J. Gumperz

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John Joseph Gumperz (born Hans-Josef Gumperz on January 9, 1922 in Hattingen , died on March 29, 2013 in Santa Barbara ) was an American linguist and anthropologist . He is considered one of the founders and most important representatives of sociolinguistics .

Life

Gumperz was born in Hattingen (North Rhine-Westphalia) in 1922. Because of his Jewish descent, he was not allowed to attend secondary school, which is why his parents initially sent him to Italy for further education. He later emigrated to the Netherlands and in 1939 to the USA. There he Americanized his German first name and served in the US military. In 1947 he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Cincinnati and then worked in the subject at the University of Michigan . From then on, however, he was interested in linguistics. He received his doctorate in 1954 with a field study on the language variety of Swabian immigrants in Michigan.

A research stay in India (1954–1956) was followed by a position at the University of California (Berkeley). In 1964 he became head of the Language Behavior Research Laboratory and in 1965 Professor of Anthropology. In 1991 Gumperz was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Gumperz was a second marriage to the educationalist Jenny Cook-Gumperz , a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Act

Gumperz is considered one of the most renowned sociolinguists and linguistic anthropologists. The focus of his work was discourse analysis , especially interactional sociolinguistics . In addition to Charles A. Ferguson , Joshua Fishman , Basil Bernstein , William Labov and Dell Hymes , he is known as the "founding father of sociolinguistics". In his research he combined linguistic and ethnographic empirical research with social theory.

Code switching

Gumperz provided fundamental insights into contact linguistic topics such as code switching . He examined above all multilingualism and language contact situations. In doing so, he also focused on prosody .

Contextualization

According to Gumperz and Cook-Gumperz, language and social context cannot be separated from one another. Knowledge of contexts, communicative styles and networks is of fundamental importance for successful communication. Gumperz introduced the term contextualization cues . These are linguistic and non-linguistic (e.g. dialect, choice of words, prosody) elements that can be called up as background knowledge on the context, provided they are known to the conversation partners. This theory was later extended by Peter Auer to include other non-linguistic elements (e.g. volume, pauses, gaze behavior, role attribution).

Ethnography of speech

Together with Dell Hymes , he developed the method of the ethnography of speaking (now known as the ethnography of communication ), with which social organizational structures and norms are derived from the use of language. In addition, he developed a highly regarded thesis on the connection between linguistic diversity and social stratification (stratification); For example, he observed that social identity in the Indian caste system is marked through the use of language.

Publications (selection)

In German

  • Language, local culture and social identity. Theoretical contributions and case studies . Edited by Heinz Göhring, trans. by Ursula Christmann and Angelika Kraft. Pedagogical Verlag Schwann, Düsseldorf 1975, ISBN 3-590-14148-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i William F. Hanks, Charles L. Briggs, Marco Jacquemet, Deborah Tannen: John Joseph Gumperz. University of California, 2013, accessed February 6, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b c d Margalit Fox: John J. Gumperz, Linguist of Cultural Interchange, Dies at 91 . In: The New York Times . April 2, 2013, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed February 6, 2020]).
  3. ↑ a b c Peter Auer, Susanne Günthner, Werner Kallmeyer, Hubert Knoblauch, Helga Kotthoff & Aldo di Luzio: Obituary for John J. Gumperz. University of Münster, 2013, accessed on February 6, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter G. (PDF; 931 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved April 5, 2020 .
  5. ^ A b Peter Auer : Contextualization . In: Studying Linguistics . No. 19 , 1986, pp. 25 .
  6. ^ John Gumperz: Discourse Strategies . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1982.
personal data
SURNAME Gumperz, John J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gumperz, John Joseph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American linguist and anthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Hattingen , Germany
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 2013
Place of death Santa Barbara , California