The Literate Writes and the Nonliterate Chants: Written Language and Ritual Communication in Sociolinguistic Perspective

Abstract

Recent research by discourse analysts and students of literacy has shown a major consequence of literacy to be the dichotomization of language into two relatively distinct varieties: oral and written (see, for example, Goody and Watt, 1963; Greenfield, 1972; Goody, 1977, 1980- Olson, 1977a, 1977b; Ochs, 1979; Tannen, 1979, 1980a).2 For more than half a century, the lexical and structural differences between the two varieties have been the subject of rigorous study by linguists and language teachers (Woolbert 1922; Harrell 1957; Drieman 1962; DeVito 1964, 1967; Golub 1969; O’Donnell 1974; Poole and Field 1976; Ochs 1979; Chafe 1979). The two varieties can be distinguished according to several criteria, including (1) modes of acquisition and transmission; (2) mechanisms and contexts of production; (3) the kinds and degree of planning required; (4) language structure and degree of complexity; and (5) the social and cognitive functions specific to each modality.