Decorum

Abstract: A cursory introduction unlocking the word hoard - the Germanic heritage paynims and charlatans - swearing in Middle English schismatic vituperation - the Reformation creativity and suppression in the Renaissance expansion and xenophobia the reign of decorum - Augustan and Victorian attitudes Quakers to convicts - swearing in the New Worlds the modern explosion and its accompanying restraints sexuality in swearing Appendices: body language graffiti the language of comics

Abstract: ed out and in which the acts have been turned to a logical calculus, while still learning from Searle how rigorous systems of action may be realized. This understanding of the way genres structure social relations could be highly conservative in that decorum would urge repeating only the familiar, reproducing old dramas, prompting only replayings of the old songs at the familiar moments. But it can also give us the understanding to lead old hopes and expectations down familiar-seeming garden paths, but that lead to new places. Only by uncovering the pathways that guide our lives in certain directions can we begin to identify the possibilities for new turns and the consequences of taking those turns. When we are put on the spot, we must act, and in acting we must act generically if others are to understand our act and accept it as valid. Without a shared sense of genre others would not know what kind of thing we were doing. And life is mysterious enough already. I would like to thank all the participants in the Rethinking Genre conference for their discussion of this paper, and particularly John Dixon for his penetrating critique of my use of Searle in an earlier version of this paper. I would also like to thank Charles Goodwin and the students in my fall 1992 Language Theory course for helping me think through the puzzle John handed me. For outlines of the history and operations of the patent system in Britain and the U. S. see Bugbee, Davenport, Gomme, Jones, MacLeod, Vaughan, the various articles by P. J. Federico in the Journal of the Patent Office Society, and the special issue of Technology and Culture devoted to patents (32:4, October 1991). A comprehensive bibliography on patents appears in Weil and Snapper. A further feature of the patent system at that time, the reissuance of patents to correct defects created other opportunities to redefine the object being patented and the scope of the claim. Abuse arising from this opportunity to readjust patents on the basis of later knowledge about competition, workability of ideas, further developments of the product andmarketplace considerations, led to the reissue option to be removed in the middle of the nineteenth century. One can even suggest that in creating property (as all property is created by legal identification) our legal system, courts, etc serve to create the primary value of our society which allows the continuation of the life of society built on those values. In a Durkheimian sense we can see this as a sacred and sacralizing activity. See also McCarthy on the relationship between psychiatric reports and DSMIII and Blakeslee on the relationship between Physical Review and Physical Review Letters.

Abstract: This is a significant volume of essays-significant because they show one man's development and refinement of a folkloristic theory, significant because the theory is representative of the performance-centered school of folkloristics, and significant because through his analysis, Abrahams touches the very core of the British West Indian cultural system and places West Indian creativity within a cultural and historical framework. Abrahams brings not only the field of folkloristic theory to bear on his fieldwork, but those of sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, symbolic interactionism, and symbolic anthropology as well. The author's major focus is the "man-of-words" and his role of the verbal performer in the English-speaking Caribbean. As Abrahams tells us in his introduction, through these essays he "attempts to establish the presence and importance of a performance complex, a set of traits that articulate expressive relationships" (p. xv). His fieldwork was conducted in the 1960s and early 1970s on the islands of Nevis, St. Kitts, Tobago, and St. Vincent. Abrahams is careful to establish West Indian speech traditions as adaptations of African style to New World language. He points to "the continuity of African attitudes toward eloquence and the adaptation of selected European forms into this value and performance system" (p. 33). Abrahams also takes pains to develop the Afro-American term "play" as opposed to "work." While work is defined as a cooperative activity, play is referred to as a performance or means of publicly asserting one's individuality. Play is given a negative connotation as being the means of acting out "behaviors regarded as bad," but also provides "a means of channeling the energies of all those in the performance environment" (p. 53). Abrahams distinguishes two different men-of-words: "good talkers" and "good arguers." This distinction lies at the heart of the book, for the men-of-words function at different kinds of traditional performances. These different kinds of performances represent a basic point of conflict within the West Indian social structure: differences that are "spatial, temporal and social," and that "operate in virtually every facet of village life-and perhaps elsewhere in Afro-America" (p. xvii). On the one hand, there is the family and yard where people are supposed to "live nice" together. This is the realm of order, decorum, and respectability. The second is the world of the rum shop, the crossroads, and the town: the realm of license and gregarious camaraderie. It is the world that takes the men out of the home and yard. Here a man makes his reputation, a "reputation established by dramatic performance" (p. 146) by exhibiting his male prowess and masculinity. Here the friendship network rather than family ties hold sway; playing rather than working cooperatively is the major focus. The good talker or sweet talker is representative of the world of order, of family, yard, decorum, and respectability. He speaks eloquently, employing elevated diction, elaborate stylistic features, and an approximation of standard English speech patterns. This is the speech of community celebration. On the other hand, the good arguer employs invective, creole that emphasizes dialogue and punning, and generally wit through wordplay leading to talking nonsense and a language of license (p. 39). This is the primary means of both entertainment and communication in the world of the town and crossroads. Even festival performances underscore this dichotomy between the respectability of family, continuity, home, order, and tradition, and the reputation values of friendships, male meeting 472

Abstract: Notes on Contributors Introduction: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Humour and Comedy S.Lockyer & M.Pickering Comic Racism and Violence M.Billig Race and Ethnicity in Popular Humour D.Howitt & K.Owusu-Bempah Humour and the Conduct of Politics J.Morreall Parody and Decorum: Permission to Mock J.Palmer Breaking the Mould: Conversations with Omid Djalili and Shazia Mirza S.Lockyer & M.Pickering Merry Hell: Humour Competence and Social Incompetence K.Willis Privacy, Embarrassment and Social Power: British Sitcom F.Gray Comedies of Sexual Morality and Female Singlehood D.Chambers The Ambiguities of Comic Impersonation M.Pickering & S.Lockyer Bibliography Index