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Literacy acts and cultural artifacts
Journal of Pragmatics ! 4 ( ! 990) 413--429 North-Holland
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LITERACY ACTS AND CULTURAL ARTIFACTS
On Extensions of English Modals
Patricia KWACHKA and Charlotte BASHAM*
This paper describes several distinctive strategies of qualification reflected in the compositions of Eskimo students writing in English. The authors contend that such strategies, particularly those which extend the range of English modals, pertain to obligatory pragmatic perspectives of Eskimo culture.
1. Introduction The degree to which speakers commit themselves to the truth of an assertion or observation depends only in part on the speakers' assessment of probability and certainty; it depends, to perhaps an even greater degree, upon a society's presuppositions regarding the relationship between talk and reality. Similarly, the degree to which speakers consider it appropriate to impose or insist on their verbal positions represents a matter determined by cultural consensus. Investigations of such culturally construed notions of linguistic presupposition and propriety, particularly as they affect literacy and intercultural communication, have pointed out that cultural differences in these notions resonate far beyond the linguistic universe, frequently perpetuating and even exacerbating existing social schisms (Heath (1983)). Our research, based on English texts written by Eskimo students at the University of Alaska, both confirms and extends this position. In the following discussion we will demonstrate how specific areas of English grammar have been systematically exploited to encode Eskimo social values and pragmatic perspectives. We argue that while some features of Eskimo student writing may be classified as developmental or transfer errors, a third category, which we have labeled 'qualification', is based on an important Eskimo discourse strategy, circumspection of assertion, and that, in order to fulfil this * Correspondence address: P. Kwachka / C. Basham, Cross-Cultural Communications, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 507 Gruening Building, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-0140, USA. A less extensive report on our research appears in S. Gass, C. Madden, D. Preston and L. Sclinker, eds., Variation in s,~cond-language acquisition: Discourse and pragmatics, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1989. 0378-2166/90/$03.50 © 1 9 9 0 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland)
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obligatory relationship between the speaker and the universe of discourse, a process of sociolinguistic extension has occurred by which Standard English forms have been adopted to express Eskimo functions. The social consequences of these patterns are discussed in the conclusion. The students whose written work we describe were born and raised in Alaskan Eskimo communities, either Yup'ik or Inupiaq. 2 These communities, like all Alaska Native communities, are quite small with populations averaging around 300 individuals, and with varying degrees of Native language retention) Some of the students are bilingual, but most speak English only; of the latter group, the majority have various degrees of passive competence in Eskimo. Unlike many other groups of indigenous peoples, Eskimo communities are extremely isolated, not only from other cultures but from each other. Many are hundreds of miles apart, and none is connected by either road or rail. Small aircraft, snowmachines, and boats provide transportation, with the result that travel to non-proximate villages is expensive, difficult, and frequently dangerous. The linguistic consequences of this isolation are important: Opportunities for interaction with English speakers in western social contexts are quite limited. Thus localized patterns of English have developed. These regional dialects are not only influenced by the area's first language (Jacobson (1984a)), but also exhibit an attenuated range of lexical, syntactic, rhetorical, and social levels of elaboration. A second linguistic characteristic of these communities is that they are traditionally and primarily oral; despite the presence of local schools, most students arrive at the university without college level literacy skills. From the point of view of the academic community, these students' inexperience with either literacy or standard English is compounded by differences in conventions for oral discourse. Discourse patterns in Eskimo villages can be related to the values found in many small communities oriented primarily to subsistence hunting and gathering; the values emphasize consensual decision making on topics considered to be within the collective purview, that is, topics touching on the common weal. In all other matters a high degree of individual autonomy and responsibility is expected and respected (see, for example, Hensel et al. (1983); Fienup-Riordan (1986)). These values result in a pervasive circumspection of assertion. In other words, This work comprises only a small portion of a much larger research effort to document and describe the nature of the oral and written Englishes developing in Alaska as a result of bflingualism and language shift. Although this larger work includes Athabaskans, Tlingits, and Aleuts, as well as Eskimos, our discussion here is limited to the writing of Eskimo students. All examples are from student papers. Codes refer to the authors' data base, and identity ethnicity, rhetorical form, and data groups. Where codes do not appear, examples were taken from a group of papers used for preliminary analysis, ' S ~ Damas (1984) for general ethnographic and linguistic information on Eskimo society and culture. 3 See Kwachka 0985) for general discussion of Native language maintenance in Alaska.
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speakers may make definite statements only about topics which are known to everyone in the community, topics which have, through literally centuries of accretion, gathered a 'group viewpoint'. Assertion or speculation about other topics is considered bad manners. Personal opinion is relatively unimportant and, furthermore, there is the possibility that the speaker is mistaken, and, in a small community, responsibility for the truth value of a statement is strict. Idle speculation cannot be indulged because of the relative fragility of social relationships and the absolute necessity, in a difficult arctic environment, for harmony and cooperation. Thus, if one cannot be certain about a topic, assertion must be carefully bracketed with varying degrees of qualification. Yup'ik Eskimo (and other Eskimo languages as well) offers a number of ways for accomplishing these discourse functions. Indefiniteness, for example, may be realized lexically through the highly elaborate system of demonstrative-locative pronouns which allow speakers to discuss topics extensively without actually identifying them by name. Syntactically, indefiniteness may be achieved through manipulation of case/verb relationships. Moreover, various suffixes exist for the purpose of providing evidential information, inclosing whether or not the speaker believes X to be the case; whether or not the speaker believes X might be the case; whether or not the speaker witnessed X, whether or not the assertion is reported, and so forth (Jacobson (1984b)). For example, assertions may be qualified by adding the enclictic, -gguq, one function of which is to indicate that someone said it or it is said, thus deflecting personal responsibility for the statement. 4 Similarly, sentences of the type, I wonder why lulie didn't come to work today?, a standard fishing-for-information quel ~: in Western culture, are met with a flat I don't know, and future plans are hedged with maybe and if conditions. Finally, Yup'ik Eskimo need not be specific about ever~,~ time, although it can be. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the sociolinguistic realization of these functions so there is only minimal information available concerning interactions among topic, situation, participants, and usage frequencies of morphological and syntactic structures (but see Fortescue (! 987)). s
2. Features of Eskimo student writing The data discussed in this paper were gathered over a four-year period from first drafts of essays written by Alaska Natives (AN) and a comparison group of general freshmen (GE)~ all of whom were enrolled in freshman English classes. Entire essays were read and various linguistic features coded and then collated by computer. 4 See Morrow (1987) for discussion. s See Inuit Studies (1986) for a reviewof recent linguistic(as well as other fields) research.
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While some of these features may be classified as developmental or transfer errors, 6 others appear either uniquely or disproportionately in the AN writing and therefore have been selected for discussion. Below is a sample text to provide the reader with the general "flavor' of Eskimo student writing and to illustrate a number of typical devices. (Note that in this and in all examples original spelling and grammar have been maintained.)
(i)
My village is located on the Yukon River. During the winter, people would go across the river to go hunting, trapping, and way down southwest to go fishing. During the summers, the majority of the people would go fish camping. They don't go for one night, but for a few weeks, or a month, then come home for the weekend and go back to camp within a couple of days or so. Some people commercial fish, some subsistence fish and maybe some of the others do both. They usually fish for King, Silver, and Chum Salmons. Some of the other fish they get for themselves are Pike and White fish. They would also fish for humpies for their dogs, if they have any dogs. Some of the recreational activities they do at [my village] are Eskimo dances, which are usually held during the winter. The older folks would like to have the younger people start dancing. Some of the young people have already started to Eskimo dance. I think they enjoy it, but some of the other young people are to embarassed too dance, although they aren't scared to dance at a white-marts dance. I sure don't see why they should be afraid to Eskimo dance, because I started to Eskimo dance when I was a little girl, and it is a lot of fun. I'm not going to be able to dance this year, because I'm attending college. (213-E-D)
2.1. Personal orientation
The first characteristic exemplified in the essay above is that of personal orientation. Although the writer begins by describing activities in her village, her closing statements deal exclusively with her own experience; the final statement serves as a 'coda' (Labor and Waletzky (1967)), returning the world of discourse to the present moment, where she is enrolled in college. Topics in Eskimo student writing tend to revolve around the individual writer's own experience. Written responses to reading, e.g., summaries, reflect this tendency, even when 'objectivity', i.e., lack of personal opinion, has been stressed (Basham (1986)). The persistence of the personal perspective, even after intensive instruction, can be understood as the expression and maintenance of traditional learning techniques. In small Alaskan communities, learning occurs as a result of extended individual consideration and interpretation; Some authors (e.g., Wolfram (1984)) argue that nonstandard tense usage in some Native American Englishes may be motivated by an attempt to express habitual aspect, present in the LI.
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knowledge is not demonstrated in an abstract, decontextualized fashion, e.g., 'tell me that instructive narrative I told you yesterday'; knowledge is demonstrated through application and personal example.
2.2. Framing devices A second characteristic of these texts is a lack of framing devices. They tend not to have introductions which provide background information for the reader, e.g., identifying places and people, nor do they have a great deal of descriptive detail. Note for example in the first paragraph of the sample essay that there is a reference to 'people'. The writer clearly intended the referent to be the people of her village on the Yukon River. Similarly, in the second paragraph, there is a reference to 'humpies', which Alaskans know to be a variety of salmon. While lack of elaboration per se may not be an unusual feature of freshman writing "n general, we believe that the prevalence of this feature in Alaska Native student writing is related to an assumption that the audience shares certain kinds of knowledge with the writer and therefore these matters need not be mentioned.
2.3. Qualification The third characteristic, and the most pervasive, we have termed 'qualification'. This category contains a number of linguistic devices, all of which seem to serve a similar purpose: circumspection with regard to direct assertion. Qualification is achieved through a wide variety of linguistic structures, categorized by form and/or specific function, and discussed below.
2.3.1. Adverbial and adjectival qualification The first type is illustrated by a sentence in the second paragraph above: Some
people commercial fish, some subsistence fish and maybe some of the others do both. The qualifying phrase beginning with maybe acknowledges the possibility of incomplete knowledge on the part of the writer as well as of individual variability. In some cases Eskimo student writers use adverbial and adjectival modifiers in contexts where qualification is redundant if not incongruous. For example, usually in the third sentence from the end of the second paragraph: They usually fish for King, Silver, and Chum Salmons, is actually misleading, since they 'always' fish for these varieties. The examples below, taken from different essays, provide further evidence of this particular usage. (2a) I could see the phone booths from this angle and there are about three people talking... (2b) The difference between a religion and a cult is probably how they act and carry out a duty.
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(2c) hi many cases the undergraduate will more likely quit school before they even start school. (257-E-CC) (2d) Most o f the time the trails would be rough and takes a long time to reach their camping ground. (103-E-C) (2e) When the village men go out to hunt, they would be on a look out for the break-up, which usually happens during the spring. (103-E-C) Example (2e) above is particularly clear since breakup - the going out of the winter ice - has always occurred in the spring since the last glacial period. 2.3.2. Doubles
The second type of qualification we have called "doubles'. They are illustrated in (3) below. (3a) (3b) (3c) (3d) (3e)
They all or most o f them are eating ... She worked in the kitchen of her house or apartment. Stress can happen in all different patterns or ways. There's a lot of cars waiting for the green light to come or appear. Some have to realize or think what they really came for.
Doubles may occur in any syntactic or iexical configuration; sometimes nouns, sometimes verbs, and sometimes entire clauses are duplicated in paraphrase. While this type of qualification appears a prime candidate for explication as transfer, no similar structures or processes seem to exist in Eskimo. We attribute them to the value placed on cautious expression; if one of the pair fails to convey the precise meaning, then perhaps the other will succeed.
3. Modal auxiliaries
The main focus of this paper, however, will be on a third type of qualification, namely modal auxiliaries. This is the most complex and thus the most interesting of the qualification devices in the AN essays. Not only do modals appear with great frequency, they serve both standard and nonstandard functions. In the first case, in their standard functions, modals provide a primary locus for the intersection of the individual, the social structure and the language, expressing and reflecting relationships between the speaker/ writer and the hearer/reader as well as commenting on degree of certainty, possibility, and so on. In their nonstandard functions modals have been extended to serve a wider than ordinary range of both pragmatic and rhetorical functions. The semantic functions of modal auxiliaries have been extensively examined
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(Halliday (1976), Leech (1971), Lyons (1977), Palmer (1979, 1986), Suzuki (1988), Sweetser (1982), Bolinger (1989)). Their congruence with formal, logical syllogisms has facilitated analyses and understanding but has, perhaps unduly, influenced the exploration of those widely recognized aspects of modal usage not conforming to binary, systematic explication. While various models have been proposed to handle these aspects (e.g., indeterminacy, gradience, fuzzy sets; see Suzuki (1988) for a review), until a thoroughgoing soeiolinguistic examination of their actual occurrence and semantic range in spoken English is accomplished, we must rely on written data and remain dependent on the interpretation of individual observers. The range of these interpretations, based on varying theoretical assumptions, has produced an array of analyses. We have attempted in our discussion to incorporate, without theoretical commitment or prejudice, the insights resulting from different frames of reference. Because our study of the Eskimo students' use of modals in written discourse has required a consistent and relevant comparative standard, we have developed a pragmatic framework for the discussion of modals in Standard American English, focusing particularly on those forms which appear most frequently in AN student writing: will, would, can, and could. This framework, presented in its entirety in the appendix, attempts to distinguish broadly among the traditionally recognized functions of modals (speaker assessment of truth, obligation of agent, etc.) and at the same time, take into account their pragmatic ramifications. The framework is not conceived as ~ theoretically adequate explanatory device; rather, it is a heuristic device for sorting among social and linguistic functions in our initial phases of re~earch. The model categorizes modal auxiliaries according to whether the speaker or the subject has the active role with regard to the predicate. For example, if a doctor were to say: (4) Natasha will take her medicine (now). the pragmatic force lies beyond the internal grammar of the discourse unit, and is external to the potential agent, Natasha. The power to influence social outcomes is in the speaker, in this ease, the doctor. If, on the other hand, an observer reports: (5) Natasha will not take her medicine. it is obvious that agency and control reside in the sentential subject and the sentence, moreover, is amenable to internal analysis without necessary reference to the non-linguistic universe. 7 7 A third factor, ignored by this interpretation, is the orientation of the speaker t o the agent/ topic; that is, whether the latter is being addressed, discussed, etc. This interpretation assumes an observer stance on the part of the speaker.
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The distinction between internal and external reference becomes particularly useful for disambiguation where tense and modality are morphologically collapsed. For example: (6) Natasha could have skinned that beaver. can be interpreted, from the speaker/active perspective as a possible event: 'It is possible that Natasha skinned the beaver'; or, from the subject/active perspective as ability: 'Natasha is/was capable of skinning that beaver'. In considering the examples and data, two caveats must be borne in mind. First, the dependence of modal auxiliaries on pragmatic considerations results in their being particularly difficult to separate from their social or textual source and that is just what we have attempted to do here. Readers should recognize that where alternative analyses are conceivable, the classifications we have proposed are based or. the totality of textual evidence and our ethnographic research. Data which were ambiguous or about which we could not agree have been set aside for future work. Secondly, in our exploration of the literature, we have come to appreciate that a vast variation in modal usage exists among dialects, not only between British and American English, but within regions of the United States as well. In the following discussion, we have relied, in the traditional fashion of our profession, on our versions of "standard' American English (SAE). In examining the data gathered from freshmen w;iters, both AN and GE (see the appendix for examples), we found that all the students use modal auxiliaries proficiently in standard ways. Thus, despite the fact that many of the AN students are bilingual or grew up in bilingual environments, the basic semantic and syntactic functions of these forms apparently make sufficient cross-cultural and cross-linguistic sense that they are used without difficulty (unlike. for example, other aspects of English grammar such as noun classes). The basic difference between the AN and GE writers is that the AN group not only uses the auxiliaries in standard ways but in a wide variety of nonstandard ways as well. In fact, one way of describing the Eskimo writers" texts is to say that modals make 'too much' sense; that is, they seem to fulfil a role so basic, obligatory, and widespread in Eskimo discourse that they have been transferred to constructions in which they would not ordinarily appear in SAE. In comparison, there were no unexpected uses of modals in the GE writing, s With reference to our descriptive framework, the model accounts for virtually all of the modals used by the GE students, while it o/aly partially accounts for the Eskimo students' usages. Nonstandard modal auxiliaries in the Eskimo writers' texts fall into two broad categories. The first can be described as an increase in the scope of Although the GE students made a variety of other errors, their modal use was completely slandard.
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existing linguistic or semantic properties of SAE modals; we have labeled this category 'extensions'. The second, a more amorphous group, seems to be best explained as an over-reliance on modals because of their assertion-softening properties. 3.1. Extensions
Three types of extension were identified. The first involves the omission of the premise in the presence of a conditional. Such omissions are in fact quite common in SAE when the context is both shared and obvious (Palmer (1979: 31)). For example, in discussing the possibility of an outing, where the premise 'when we go' is understood, one might say, 'We could take the old highway' without explicitly mentioning the premise. In ordinary discourse, both speakers and writers must continually agsess the degree of shared knowledge and experience in determining when such premises can be assumed and when they must be delineated. Furthermore, the assessment process must take into account the fact that omission criteria are different for writing and speaking, the circumstances allowing omission being more restricted in the former context. Eskimo students dealing with university culture must first of all determine when their assumptions and experiences are different from those of the SAE culture, and secondly, when they are sufficiently different that the premise must be stated. Examples (7a) through (7c) below illustrate the Eskimo students' tendency to overestimate social commonality; information considered self-evident has not been stated. (7a) I actually hated my own sister. That would be too mean and I was not about to cause any trouble. (100-E-N-12) (7b) They just installed telephone poles around the village so that every household could have a phone ... (216-E-D-I) (7c) First of all many students are broke and they can't go somewhere (e.g., off-campus) to eat. That would cause a mini starvation to students. (2K-E-A-2) What is assumed in (7a) is knowledge of the fact that sibling rivalry and friction are not routinely expected in Eskimo society and are considered abnormal when they do occur. In (7b), could in this context seems to carry the premise 'if they wish', emphasizing the exercise of individual choice and autonomy, a central value in Eskimo culture. Although could is acceptable, can is a more likely SAE construct, in the sense of ~now has the capability'. In (7c), the understood premise is 'if they could not eat on campus', reflecting the student's assumption that the general public is familiar with the details of student life, including campus food service. The second type of l~gical extension is the habitual past extended to include
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habitual present circumstances. In SAE one of the functions of wouM is to mark a past habitual activity, particularly in narratives. For example, ~e would usually take the medicine after he ate. There are numerous instances in the data when this narrative function appears to have been extended to describe habitual activities that are on-going in the present, i.e., activities that would be described in SAE by using the simple present. In examples (8a) through (8d) below, the students are clearly referring to current, repetitive or customary events, rather than recalling the past.
(8a) The experienced sewers which usually is the older ladies, would all meet [SAE: meet] in the captain's house usually around 8:00 a.m.
(103-E-C-I)
(8b) My dad and my brothers usually do the job in getting the fish, but at times I would help them in getting it also. (212-E-R) (8c) Our family wouM always have our own Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner... (210-E-R) (8d) My dad wouM hunt for caribou and moose way out into the hills. Some other people are always hunting and picking berries too, so we get to visit other people ... (258-E-D) Example (8a) above refers to the maki"~ of walrus skin boats used for whaling in Point Hope, an activity that is as much a part of the subsistence cycle now as it was in the past. In (8b), the initial clause establishes a mood of present habitual: ... usually do the job, so that we expect the second clause to be ...I help them... However, the student has chosen instead to qualify that assertion with the modal would. Likewise (8c) and (8d) set up expectations for the present habitual) A third type of logical extension is the use of would as past distributive without a distributive adverbial (e.g., now and then, occasionally). A standard use of this structure, combining the past habitual would with a distributive adverb or implied distributive action, is illustrated in the following sentence from the data: (9a) ...as if Jim and I were traveling in a black hole, at times my boat would hit gravel and I would veer sharply... (262-E-N) Note the use of at times in (9a). Examples (9b) through (9d) below illustrate the tendency of Eskimo students to use the distributive form wouM without the adverbials. (9d) is particularly interesting in that the subject, branches, imparts a distributive or repetitive quality to the verb, an inherent or implied distributive which presumably accounts for the appearance of the modal in this example. 9 Extension in this case may be reinforced by L~ patterns; Yup'ik Eskimo marks habitual aspect but does not necessarily mark tense distinctions in running discourse.
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(9b) I looked all around me to see if any ducks were approaching me. I would rest [SAE: now and then I would rest] on a place where the grass was dry and sit for a few minutes. (101-E-N-I) (9c) Because they are so white like the snow they [rabbits] are very hard to see. l would shoot a couple of times [SAE: I would occasionally shoot] at them but never did hit any ... (261-E-N-2) (gd) The branches would sting [SAE: The branches stung] our legs, hands, and faces as we tried to make our way through them. (260-E-N-5) 3.2. Over-reliance In addition to logical extensions, we have found a second category of nonstandard mo~al use, much less coherent in its boundaries, which cannot be explained in terms of specific linguistic or semantic extensions traditionally associated with modals. This group appears to be explicable as an overreliance on the qualification functions of modals, a predilection for their use based on the fact that they represent a more cautious and responsible way of presenting and organizing statements. Two general contexts have been identified in which AN students regularly use such modals. In the first, modals alternate with tense in signalling rhetorical shifts. In example (10a), below, note that the first sentence includes a present tense verb form, picks. That statement is followed by several statements which include the modal would. If we take the first statement to be a generalization in the narrative present, ~hen the fOllowing sentences can be seen as instantiations with modal auxiliaries. In the sixth line of the essay, when the topic shifts from picking dogs to the role of dog races in the winter carnival, once again the present tense is used" During the winter, the villages ... hold up carnivals, and once again that statement is followed by a series of statements with would, these statements supplying details about the general evei,t, the carnival.
(lOa) The trainer then picks the best long lasting runners, for any planned dog races in the future. Each dog would run it's own pace, the trainer would keep the fast, untireable dog's up front, slower dogs, that get tire easily on the back .... During the winter, the villages around the lower Kuskokwim region, hold up carnivals, which consists of Dog races, Men's basketball tournaments, and games of all sorts. The main events would be the dog races, and the women, boys and girls would have there own catagories of races. The men's races would last three days. All three days score's would be combined and that wouM be the total .... [etc. with additional descriptive details and continued use of would] Dog racing is very fun. tireing but fab! If you like competing, then dog racing is the sports. (204-E-C-1)
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Examt~les (lOb) through (lOd), below, illustrate a similar pattern.
(~Ob) Winter festival had just begun in the early 1970's, and the main purpose for this festival was for the villages to get together and perform eskimo dances. The surrounding villages. Scammon Bay, Hooper Bay, and Newtok dancers would provide [SAE: provided] their own transportation by snow machine. (207-E-C-1) (10c) Then the 14-17 year-olds would race about 4 miles. Then the racers from 18 on up would race for 17 miles. After the races are over the people would go home and start getting food together ... (210-E-R-3,4) (lOd) There songs were all different not the same songs like the other dancers. Like they would have [SAE: had] more meanings, telling stories of so many hunt's, family life, traveling ... (204-E-CC-3) A second example of over-reliance is the substitution of would for intentional will or going to, the resulting statement carrying less assertive force, as in examples (! Ia) and (I I b) below. (1 l a) They told stories of the past what they learned from there grandfathers or grandmothers. So the stories are going down generations of natives to the younger generations so the customs wouldn't [SAE: won't] be forgotten. (204-E-CC-2) (1 lb) My dad talk and told me what would [SAE: was going to] happen. He said I could not go out hunting by myself anymore. (100-E-N-9) While the AN texts contain still other examples of modals which are so far unclassifiable, the vast majority fall into the two categories we have outlined above. On the basis of our analysis of these extensions, we propose that the unique uses of modals in the writing of Eskimo students derive from an inherent property of modals, their intersection with that aspect of social relationships regulating the expression of personal autonomy and accountability. They therefore represent the logical locus in English grammar for the translation and maintenance of these extremely important Eskimo social concepts. Moreover, we suspect that modals, both diachronically and synchronically, are 'leaky' interstices between the logic and intention of speakers and the dictates of English grammar. As a result, they are particularly prone to pragmatic extension and exploitation.
4. Conclusion
In considering the entire range of structures we have noted as characteristic of
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Eskimo students' writing, none (with perhaps the exception of the 'doubles') is totally unique. Beginning writers in English everywhere experience difficulties with separating the personal from the general, with shaping content to fit rhetorical frames, with anticipating reader needs, and with learning the qualifying conventions of literate discourse. What distinguishes these students from others is the particular blend of the various characteristics, the overriding importance of qualificati6n, and the persistence of these characteristics (albeit disguised to circumvent or mollify academic discourse expectations) in their mature writing. The mature AN writer does not suppress the features we have discussed but rather camouflages them with sophisticated literacy devices. Notice, for example, how a particularly skilled student uses personal example in answering an essay test question designed to elicit an objective, textbook response: (12) This switch poses different kinds of problems derived from this fact like home sickness, self denial, etc. If you will, I would like to insert a personal experience that will hopefully reflect this problem. We conclude that the persistence of these patterns in Eskimo writing must be explained by factors so compelling that the students are incapable of eradicating them. Certainly in view of the negative evaluations with which their initial writings are met Eskimo writers would suppress these patterns were they not essential. The differences between the students' requirements with regard to careful qualification and the conventions of successful academic discourse are fundamental. In the university community, speakers frequently adopt exaggerated positions ~for the sake of argument'; a critical, rather than a consensual posture is rewarded. Qualification~ equivocation, or any form of non-decisiveness are considered the mark of a mediocre mind, while rapid opinions and decisions are admired; and, because discussion is abstract and theoretical, speakers are not necessarily accountable in casual debate for erroneous conclusions. In fact, a coherent, if fallacious argument may receive a more positive evaluation than a disorganized, but accurate presentation. While academic writing requires care with regard to qualification (Chafe (1986)), qualification must not interfere with authoritativeness, the hallmark of successful writing in this genre and a particular difficulty for novice writers whose cultural and linguistic backgrounds emphasize circumspection. A final factor which certainly reinforces the features found in the Eskimo writers' texts involves the domains of orality and literacy within their communities. Literacy is relatively circumscribed, associated almost exclusively with church and school, both of which are highly prescriptive and authoritarian environments, and where literacy is passive (reading) rather than active. As a result, students have almost no experience with the process of text creation
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- the drafting, revising, and polishing steps - and tend to regard any writing,
their own first efforts included, as 'final'. When this tendency is combined with two other features of written texts~ their permanence and the unknowable nature of the audience (to whom, as we have discussed, these writers feel personally accountable), the students' already cautious habits can only be increased. Given the complex variety of linguistic and cultural forces influencing the writing of AN students, it is not surprising that their initial encounters with the university are difficult. However, as their writing matuces, they begin to produce texts which are quite powerful, combining persona I perspective with a meticulous grounding of intellectual positions, as briefly demonstrated by the example above. The texts are successful in the academic sense both because of and in spite of their characteristic features. These writers, rathe" than suppressing their identity to conform to the dictates and constraints of western essayist literature, have successfully extended their ethnicity to a new domain, shaping their written world to maintain the pragmatic essence of their cultural perspective.
A p p e n d i x : M o d a l outline
In the outline below, the distinction between the speaker-active/agent-active perspectives is marked as 'A' and "B'. Included within each of these categories are the traditional semantic notions (obligation, permission, possibility, and so forth) which are attached to the various expressions. Each subcategory contains example sentences, constructed to illustrate each notion, as well as sample sentences from the data. Those numbered 100 and 200 are Eskimo writers (AN); those numbered 300 are the comparison group of Freshman English writers (GE). Note that we have separated out tense and aspect. While we recognize that these categories must be included in an account of modal auxiliaries, we felt that such distinc',ion~ !'c ~'_':side the pragmatic range we have defined; that is, what is included in this category is more a matter of linguistic marking than of pragmatic force° A. Speaker active; circumstance external to sentence grammar: i. Obligation (will/would, could): a. [ + Assertive]: She WILL take the medicine (said the doctor).
- no examples in any group b. [+Polite]: Wouht you like/could you take your medicine now ?
- Larry hollerd Ron could you head up the hill with the truck to pick up our guests. (262-E-N-4) 2. Permission (can/could): a. [+ Assertive]
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She can take the medicine now (said the doctor). - My dad...said I could not go out hunting by myself anymore. (100-E-N-9) - Dr. Wheeler said he couldn't go home until the infection had gone ... (307-N-9) b.
[+
Polite]:
Could she take the medicine now? - no examples in the data . P o s s i b i l i t y (Can): a.
[+ Assertive]:
This medicine can cause serious side effects. I said 'about' because you can't measure the miles from an imaginary line ( 5 K - E - D ) - How can a place of happiness be lonely? (308-D) -
B.
Subject active; circumstance internal to se~ tence grammar: 1. Volition (will/would): a. [+ Assertive]: She will/won 't take the medicine. (She insists/refuses even though we've told her (to/not to).) - I started getting scared because the boys wouldn't wait for me. (262-EN-t) - I would not wear it because the wrinkles still showed. (306-2) b. [ + Polite] (would/could): She would like to/could take her med,:cine now. - T h e older folks would like to have the younger people start dancing. (213-E-D) 2. Ability (can/could): a. General and physical: She can take the pills. (She doesn't have to have an injection.) - He told me he could not hear anything on his right ear. (100-E-N) - He knew it so well he could read along with me by memorization. (307-N) b. Perceptual and sensory: She could see the medicine on the shelf - To the south I could see the bay ... (2K-E-D-3) - As I walked outside, I could feel the sun already beginning to warm my skin. (307-D) c. Mental: She can remember taking the medicine. - How can anyone in the world know for a fact of the number of Caribou in Alaska? (IK-E-A) - I can remember being able to skateboard all the way ... (307-D-3) 3. Conditional and Hypothetical a. Conditional: I f she improves, she can stop taking her medicine/will not have to etc. - In town, the people usually have three or four wheelers that are used all year long. They can travel out of town to another village, if the ice is safe enough to travel on. (203-E-C-l)
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b. Hypothetical: If she improved, she could stop taking her medicine~would not have to etc. Just think of how things would be if you had no idea what time it was ... (203-E-Df) He gave her [dog] to me, and she immediately shook nervously, as a caged animal would. (302) -
-
C. Tense/Aspect I. Will/Would a. [+ Future, - Past]: He will take the medicine tomorrow. - ...maybe a road will be built in years to come. (203-E-C-3) Even if I never do go diving again, I will be glad I took the class. (304-N) b. [+ Future, + Past/Punctual]: He decided he would take the medicine after he ate. I even thought that the police would pick me up for shooting someone by accident. (100-E-N-6f) We drove off into the sun, and into town, where she would adjust to her new home with me. (300) c. [+Past, +Habitual]: He would (usually~always) take the medicine after he ate. During the early years it would almost flood. (3K-E-D-2) - Our garden was 20' by 3 0 ' . . . . We would till this up every May and prepare the ground for seeding. (302-D) d. [+ Past, + Distributive]: She would occasionally take medicine. ... as if Jim and I were traveling i r a black hole, at times my boat would hit gravel and I would veer sharply ... (262-E-N) 2. Can/Could a. [+ Past]: I could take the medicine yesterday (but I can't today). - He wanted to believe me, but couldn't. (300-A) -
-
-
-
-
RefeFences Basham, Charlotte, 1986. Summary writing: A study in textual and contextual constraints. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Bolinger, Dwight, 1989. Extrinsic possibility and intrinsic potentiality: 7 on may and can + I. Journal of Pragmatics 13(1): 1-23. Chafe, Wallace, 1986. 'Evidentiality in English conversation and academic writing'. In: W. Chafe and J. Nichols, eds., Evidentiality: The linguistic coding of epistemology. Norwood, N J: Ablex. pp. 261-272. Coates, Jennifer, 1983. The semantics of the modal auxiliaries. London: Croom Helm. Damas, David, ed., 1984. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. Fienup-Riordan, Ann, 1986. The real people: The concept of perso'ahood among the Yup'ik Eskimos of western Alaska. Inuit Studies 10(1/2): 261-270.
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Fortescue, Michael, 1987. Switch reference and 'psychological subject" in West Greenlandic: A case of pragrnatics over syntax. Paper presented at the International Pragmatics Conference, Antwerp, AugusL 1987. Halliday, Michael A., 1976. 'Modality and modulation in English'. In: G. Kress, ed., Halliday: System and function in language. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 189-213. Heath, Shirley Brice, 1983. Ways with words. Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hensel, Chase, Marie Blanchett, Ida Alexie, and Phyllis Morrow, 1983. Qaneryaurci Yup'igtun. Bethel: Yup'ik Language Center, Kuskokwim Community College. Inuit Studies, 1986. Vol. 10, Nos. I-2. Jacobson, Steven, 1984a. Central Yup'ik and the schools. Juneau, AK: Department of Education, Bilingual/Bicultural Program. Jacobson, Steven, 1984b. Dictionary of Central Yup'ik. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska. Kwachka, Patricia, 1985. Perspectives on the viability of Native language in Alaska. The Laurentian Review XVIII(2): 105-116. Labov, William and J. Waletzky, 1967. 'Narrative analy~,is'. In: .L Helm, ed., Essays on the verbal and visual arts. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press,. pp. 12-44. Leech, Geoffrey N., 1971. Meaning and the English ve,~b. London: Longman. Lyons, John, 1977. Semantics. Vols. 1-2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Morrow, Phyllis, 1987. Making the best of two worlds: An anthropological approach to the development of bilingual education materials in Southwestern Alaska. Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Palmer, F.R., 1979. ModaJity and the English mod~Lis.London: Longman. Palmer, F.R., 1986. Mood and modality. Cambridge: Cambridae University Press. Suzuki, Yuji, 1988. T~¢ modais in present-day American English: Meanings and backgr~,,mds. Language, Culture, Communication 3:131-202. Sweetser, Eve E., 1982. Root and epistemic modals: Causality in two worlds. Berkeley Ling,J.istic Society 8: 484-507. Wolfram, Walt, 1984. Unmarked tense in American Indian English. American Speech ~,9('0: 3150.
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LITERACY ACTS AND CULTURAL ARTIFACTS
On Extensions of English Modals
Patricia KWACHKA and Charlotte BASHAM*
This paper describes several distinctive strategies of qualification reflected in the compositions of Eskimo students writing in English. The authors contend that such strategies, particularly those which extend the range of English modals, pertain to obligatory pragmatic perspectives of Eskimo culture.
1. Introduction The degree to which speakers commit themselves to the truth of an assertion or observation depends only in part on the speakers' assessment of probability and certainty; it depends, to perhaps an even greater degree, upon a society's presuppositions regarding the relationship between talk and reality. Similarly, the degree to which speakers consider it appropriate to impose or insist on their verbal positions represents a matter determined by cultural consensus. Investigations of such culturally construed notions of linguistic presupposition and propriety, particularly as they affect literacy and intercultural communication, have pointed out that cultural differences in these notions resonate far beyond the linguistic universe, frequently perpetuating and even exacerbating existing social schisms (Heath (1983)). Our research, based on English texts written by Eskimo students at the University of Alaska, both confirms and extends this position. In the following discussion we will demonstrate how specific areas of English grammar have been systematically exploited to encode Eskimo social values and pragmatic perspectives. We argue that while some features of Eskimo student writing may be classified as developmental or transfer errors, a third category, which we have labeled 'qualification', is based on an important Eskimo discourse strategy, circumspection of assertion, and that, in order to fulfil this * Correspondence address: P. Kwachka / C. Basham, Cross-Cultural Communications, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 507 Gruening Building, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-0140, USA. A less extensive report on our research appears in S. Gass, C. Madden, D. Preston and L. Sclinker, eds., Variation in s,~cond-language acquisition: Discourse and pragmatics, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1989. 0378-2166/90/$03.50 © 1 9 9 0 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland)
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obligatory relationship between the speaker and the universe of discourse, a process of sociolinguistic extension has occurred by which Standard English forms have been adopted to express Eskimo functions. The social consequences of these patterns are discussed in the conclusion. The students whose written work we describe were born and raised in Alaskan Eskimo communities, either Yup'ik or Inupiaq. 2 These communities, like all Alaska Native communities, are quite small with populations averaging around 300 individuals, and with varying degrees of Native language retention) Some of the students are bilingual, but most speak English only; of the latter group, the majority have various degrees of passive competence in Eskimo. Unlike many other groups of indigenous peoples, Eskimo communities are extremely isolated, not only from other cultures but from each other. Many are hundreds of miles apart, and none is connected by either road or rail. Small aircraft, snowmachines, and boats provide transportation, with the result that travel to non-proximate villages is expensive, difficult, and frequently dangerous. The linguistic consequences of this isolation are important: Opportunities for interaction with English speakers in western social contexts are quite limited. Thus localized patterns of English have developed. These regional dialects are not only influenced by the area's first language (Jacobson (1984a)), but also exhibit an attenuated range of lexical, syntactic, rhetorical, and social levels of elaboration. A second linguistic characteristic of these communities is that they are traditionally and primarily oral; despite the presence of local schools, most students arrive at the university without college level literacy skills. From the point of view of the academic community, these students' inexperience with either literacy or standard English is compounded by differences in conventions for oral discourse. Discourse patterns in Eskimo villages can be related to the values found in many small communities oriented primarily to subsistence hunting and gathering; the values emphasize consensual decision making on topics considered to be within the collective purview, that is, topics touching on the common weal. In all other matters a high degree of individual autonomy and responsibility is expected and respected (see, for example, Hensel et al. (1983); Fienup-Riordan (1986)). These values result in a pervasive circumspection of assertion. In other words, This work comprises only a small portion of a much larger research effort to document and describe the nature of the oral and written Englishes developing in Alaska as a result of bflingualism and language shift. Although this larger work includes Athabaskans, Tlingits, and Aleuts, as well as Eskimos, our discussion here is limited to the writing of Eskimo students. All examples are from student papers. Codes refer to the authors' data base, and identity ethnicity, rhetorical form, and data groups. Where codes do not appear, examples were taken from a group of papers used for preliminary analysis, ' S ~ Damas (1984) for general ethnographic and linguistic information on Eskimo society and culture. 3 See Kwachka 0985) for general discussion of Native language maintenance in Alaska.
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speakers may make definite statements only about topics which are known to everyone in the community, topics which have, through literally centuries of accretion, gathered a 'group viewpoint'. Assertion or speculation about other topics is considered bad manners. Personal opinion is relatively unimportant and, furthermore, there is the possibility that the speaker is mistaken, and, in a small community, responsibility for the truth value of a statement is strict. Idle speculation cannot be indulged because of the relative fragility of social relationships and the absolute necessity, in a difficult arctic environment, for harmony and cooperation. Thus, if one cannot be certain about a topic, assertion must be carefully bracketed with varying degrees of qualification. Yup'ik Eskimo (and other Eskimo languages as well) offers a number of ways for accomplishing these discourse functions. Indefiniteness, for example, may be realized lexically through the highly elaborate system of demonstrative-locative pronouns which allow speakers to discuss topics extensively without actually identifying them by name. Syntactically, indefiniteness may be achieved through manipulation of case/verb relationships. Moreover, various suffixes exist for the purpose of providing evidential information, inclosing whether or not the speaker believes X to be the case; whether or not the speaker believes X might be the case; whether or not the speaker witnessed X, whether or not the assertion is reported, and so forth (Jacobson (1984b)). For example, assertions may be qualified by adding the enclictic, -gguq, one function of which is to indicate that someone said it or it is said, thus deflecting personal responsibility for the statement. 4 Similarly, sentences of the type, I wonder why lulie didn't come to work today?, a standard fishing-for-information quel ~: in Western culture, are met with a flat I don't know, and future plans are hedged with maybe and if conditions. Finally, Yup'ik Eskimo need not be specific about ever~,~ time, although it can be. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the sociolinguistic realization of these functions so there is only minimal information available concerning interactions among topic, situation, participants, and usage frequencies of morphological and syntactic structures (but see Fortescue (! 987)). s
2. Features of Eskimo student writing The data discussed in this paper were gathered over a four-year period from first drafts of essays written by Alaska Natives (AN) and a comparison group of general freshmen (GE)~ all of whom were enrolled in freshman English classes. Entire essays were read and various linguistic features coded and then collated by computer. 4 See Morrow (1987) for discussion. s See Inuit Studies (1986) for a reviewof recent linguistic(as well as other fields) research.
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While some of these features may be classified as developmental or transfer errors, 6 others appear either uniquely or disproportionately in the AN writing and therefore have been selected for discussion. Below is a sample text to provide the reader with the general "flavor' of Eskimo student writing and to illustrate a number of typical devices. (Note that in this and in all examples original spelling and grammar have been maintained.)
(i)
My village is located on the Yukon River. During the winter, people would go across the river to go hunting, trapping, and way down southwest to go fishing. During the summers, the majority of the people would go fish camping. They don't go for one night, but for a few weeks, or a month, then come home for the weekend and go back to camp within a couple of days or so. Some people commercial fish, some subsistence fish and maybe some of the others do both. They usually fish for King, Silver, and Chum Salmons. Some of the other fish they get for themselves are Pike and White fish. They would also fish for humpies for their dogs, if they have any dogs. Some of the recreational activities they do at [my village] are Eskimo dances, which are usually held during the winter. The older folks would like to have the younger people start dancing. Some of the young people have already started to Eskimo dance. I think they enjoy it, but some of the other young people are to embarassed too dance, although they aren't scared to dance at a white-marts dance. I sure don't see why they should be afraid to Eskimo dance, because I started to Eskimo dance when I was a little girl, and it is a lot of fun. I'm not going to be able to dance this year, because I'm attending college. (213-E-D)
2.1. Personal orientation
The first characteristic exemplified in the essay above is that of personal orientation. Although the writer begins by describing activities in her village, her closing statements deal exclusively with her own experience; the final statement serves as a 'coda' (Labor and Waletzky (1967)), returning the world of discourse to the present moment, where she is enrolled in college. Topics in Eskimo student writing tend to revolve around the individual writer's own experience. Written responses to reading, e.g., summaries, reflect this tendency, even when 'objectivity', i.e., lack of personal opinion, has been stressed (Basham (1986)). The persistence of the personal perspective, even after intensive instruction, can be understood as the expression and maintenance of traditional learning techniques. In small Alaskan communities, learning occurs as a result of extended individual consideration and interpretation; Some authors (e.g., Wolfram (1984)) argue that nonstandard tense usage in some Native American Englishes may be motivated by an attempt to express habitual aspect, present in the LI.
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knowledge is not demonstrated in an abstract, decontextualized fashion, e.g., 'tell me that instructive narrative I told you yesterday'; knowledge is demonstrated through application and personal example.
2.2. Framing devices A second characteristic of these texts is a lack of framing devices. They tend not to have introductions which provide background information for the reader, e.g., identifying places and people, nor do they have a great deal of descriptive detail. Note for example in the first paragraph of the sample essay that there is a reference to 'people'. The writer clearly intended the referent to be the people of her village on the Yukon River. Similarly, in the second paragraph, there is a reference to 'humpies', which Alaskans know to be a variety of salmon. While lack of elaboration per se may not be an unusual feature of freshman writing "n general, we believe that the prevalence of this feature in Alaska Native student writing is related to an assumption that the audience shares certain kinds of knowledge with the writer and therefore these matters need not be mentioned.
2.3. Qualification The third characteristic, and the most pervasive, we have termed 'qualification'. This category contains a number of linguistic devices, all of which seem to serve a similar purpose: circumspection with regard to direct assertion. Qualification is achieved through a wide variety of linguistic structures, categorized by form and/or specific function, and discussed below.
2.3.1. Adverbial and adjectival qualification The first type is illustrated by a sentence in the second paragraph above: Some
people commercial fish, some subsistence fish and maybe some of the others do both. The qualifying phrase beginning with maybe acknowledges the possibility of incomplete knowledge on the part of the writer as well as of individual variability. In some cases Eskimo student writers use adverbial and adjectival modifiers in contexts where qualification is redundant if not incongruous. For example, usually in the third sentence from the end of the second paragraph: They usually fish for King, Silver, and Chum Salmons, is actually misleading, since they 'always' fish for these varieties. The examples below, taken from different essays, provide further evidence of this particular usage. (2a) I could see the phone booths from this angle and there are about three people talking... (2b) The difference between a religion and a cult is probably how they act and carry out a duty.
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(2c) hi many cases the undergraduate will more likely quit school before they even start school. (257-E-CC) (2d) Most o f the time the trails would be rough and takes a long time to reach their camping ground. (103-E-C) (2e) When the village men go out to hunt, they would be on a look out for the break-up, which usually happens during the spring. (103-E-C) Example (2e) above is particularly clear since breakup - the going out of the winter ice - has always occurred in the spring since the last glacial period. 2.3.2. Doubles
The second type of qualification we have called "doubles'. They are illustrated in (3) below. (3a) (3b) (3c) (3d) (3e)
They all or most o f them are eating ... She worked in the kitchen of her house or apartment. Stress can happen in all different patterns or ways. There's a lot of cars waiting for the green light to come or appear. Some have to realize or think what they really came for.
Doubles may occur in any syntactic or iexical configuration; sometimes nouns, sometimes verbs, and sometimes entire clauses are duplicated in paraphrase. While this type of qualification appears a prime candidate for explication as transfer, no similar structures or processes seem to exist in Eskimo. We attribute them to the value placed on cautious expression; if one of the pair fails to convey the precise meaning, then perhaps the other will succeed.
3. Modal auxiliaries
The main focus of this paper, however, will be on a third type of qualification, namely modal auxiliaries. This is the most complex and thus the most interesting of the qualification devices in the AN essays. Not only do modals appear with great frequency, they serve both standard and nonstandard functions. In the first case, in their standard functions, modals provide a primary locus for the intersection of the individual, the social structure and the language, expressing and reflecting relationships between the speaker/ writer and the hearer/reader as well as commenting on degree of certainty, possibility, and so on. In their nonstandard functions modals have been extended to serve a wider than ordinary range of both pragmatic and rhetorical functions. The semantic functions of modal auxiliaries have been extensively examined
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(Halliday (1976), Leech (1971), Lyons (1977), Palmer (1979, 1986), Suzuki (1988), Sweetser (1982), Bolinger (1989)). Their congruence with formal, logical syllogisms has facilitated analyses and understanding but has, perhaps unduly, influenced the exploration of those widely recognized aspects of modal usage not conforming to binary, systematic explication. While various models have been proposed to handle these aspects (e.g., indeterminacy, gradience, fuzzy sets; see Suzuki (1988) for a review), until a thoroughgoing soeiolinguistic examination of their actual occurrence and semantic range in spoken English is accomplished, we must rely on written data and remain dependent on the interpretation of individual observers. The range of these interpretations, based on varying theoretical assumptions, has produced an array of analyses. We have attempted in our discussion to incorporate, without theoretical commitment or prejudice, the insights resulting from different frames of reference. Because our study of the Eskimo students' use of modals in written discourse has required a consistent and relevant comparative standard, we have developed a pragmatic framework for the discussion of modals in Standard American English, focusing particularly on those forms which appear most frequently in AN student writing: will, would, can, and could. This framework, presented in its entirety in the appendix, attempts to distinguish broadly among the traditionally recognized functions of modals (speaker assessment of truth, obligation of agent, etc.) and at the same time, take into account their pragmatic ramifications. The framework is not conceived as ~ theoretically adequate explanatory device; rather, it is a heuristic device for sorting among social and linguistic functions in our initial phases of re~earch. The model categorizes modal auxiliaries according to whether the speaker or the subject has the active role with regard to the predicate. For example, if a doctor were to say: (4) Natasha will take her medicine (now). the pragmatic force lies beyond the internal grammar of the discourse unit, and is external to the potential agent, Natasha. The power to influence social outcomes is in the speaker, in this ease, the doctor. If, on the other hand, an observer reports: (5) Natasha will not take her medicine. it is obvious that agency and control reside in the sentential subject and the sentence, moreover, is amenable to internal analysis without necessary reference to the non-linguistic universe. 7 7 A third factor, ignored by this interpretation, is the orientation of the speaker t o the agent/ topic; that is, whether the latter is being addressed, discussed, etc. This interpretation assumes an observer stance on the part of the speaker.
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The distinction between internal and external reference becomes particularly useful for disambiguation where tense and modality are morphologically collapsed. For example: (6) Natasha could have skinned that beaver. can be interpreted, from the speaker/active perspective as a possible event: 'It is possible that Natasha skinned the beaver'; or, from the subject/active perspective as ability: 'Natasha is/was capable of skinning that beaver'. In considering the examples and data, two caveats must be borne in mind. First, the dependence of modal auxiliaries on pragmatic considerations results in their being particularly difficult to separate from their social or textual source and that is just what we have attempted to do here. Readers should recognize that where alternative analyses are conceivable, the classifications we have proposed are based or. the totality of textual evidence and our ethnographic research. Data which were ambiguous or about which we could not agree have been set aside for future work. Secondly, in our exploration of the literature, we have come to appreciate that a vast variation in modal usage exists among dialects, not only between British and American English, but within regions of the United States as well. In the following discussion, we have relied, in the traditional fashion of our profession, on our versions of "standard' American English (SAE). In examining the data gathered from freshmen w;iters, both AN and GE (see the appendix for examples), we found that all the students use modal auxiliaries proficiently in standard ways. Thus, despite the fact that many of the AN students are bilingual or grew up in bilingual environments, the basic semantic and syntactic functions of these forms apparently make sufficient cross-cultural and cross-linguistic sense that they are used without difficulty (unlike. for example, other aspects of English grammar such as noun classes). The basic difference between the AN and GE writers is that the AN group not only uses the auxiliaries in standard ways but in a wide variety of nonstandard ways as well. In fact, one way of describing the Eskimo writers" texts is to say that modals make 'too much' sense; that is, they seem to fulfil a role so basic, obligatory, and widespread in Eskimo discourse that they have been transferred to constructions in which they would not ordinarily appear in SAE. In comparison, there were no unexpected uses of modals in the GE writing, s With reference to our descriptive framework, the model accounts for virtually all of the modals used by the GE students, while it o/aly partially accounts for the Eskimo students' usages. Nonstandard modal auxiliaries in the Eskimo writers' texts fall into two broad categories. The first can be described as an increase in the scope of Although the GE students made a variety of other errors, their modal use was completely slandard.
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existing linguistic or semantic properties of SAE modals; we have labeled this category 'extensions'. The second, a more amorphous group, seems to be best explained as an over-reliance on modals because of their assertion-softening properties. 3.1. Extensions
Three types of extension were identified. The first involves the omission of the premise in the presence of a conditional. Such omissions are in fact quite common in SAE when the context is both shared and obvious (Palmer (1979: 31)). For example, in discussing the possibility of an outing, where the premise 'when we go' is understood, one might say, 'We could take the old highway' without explicitly mentioning the premise. In ordinary discourse, both speakers and writers must continually agsess the degree of shared knowledge and experience in determining when such premises can be assumed and when they must be delineated. Furthermore, the assessment process must take into account the fact that omission criteria are different for writing and speaking, the circumstances allowing omission being more restricted in the former context. Eskimo students dealing with university culture must first of all determine when their assumptions and experiences are different from those of the SAE culture, and secondly, when they are sufficiently different that the premise must be stated. Examples (7a) through (7c) below illustrate the Eskimo students' tendency to overestimate social commonality; information considered self-evident has not been stated. (7a) I actually hated my own sister. That would be too mean and I was not about to cause any trouble. (100-E-N-12) (7b) They just installed telephone poles around the village so that every household could have a phone ... (216-E-D-I) (7c) First of all many students are broke and they can't go somewhere (e.g., off-campus) to eat. That would cause a mini starvation to students. (2K-E-A-2) What is assumed in (7a) is knowledge of the fact that sibling rivalry and friction are not routinely expected in Eskimo society and are considered abnormal when they do occur. In (7b), could in this context seems to carry the premise 'if they wish', emphasizing the exercise of individual choice and autonomy, a central value in Eskimo culture. Although could is acceptable, can is a more likely SAE construct, in the sense of ~now has the capability'. In (7c), the understood premise is 'if they could not eat on campus', reflecting the student's assumption that the general public is familiar with the details of student life, including campus food service. The second type of l~gical extension is the habitual past extended to include
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habitual present circumstances. In SAE one of the functions of wouM is to mark a past habitual activity, particularly in narratives. For example, ~e would usually take the medicine after he ate. There are numerous instances in the data when this narrative function appears to have been extended to describe habitual activities that are on-going in the present, i.e., activities that would be described in SAE by using the simple present. In examples (8a) through (8d) below, the students are clearly referring to current, repetitive or customary events, rather than recalling the past.
(8a) The experienced sewers which usually is the older ladies, would all meet [SAE: meet] in the captain's house usually around 8:00 a.m.
(103-E-C-I)
(8b) My dad and my brothers usually do the job in getting the fish, but at times I would help them in getting it also. (212-E-R) (8c) Our family wouM always have our own Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner... (210-E-R) (8d) My dad wouM hunt for caribou and moose way out into the hills. Some other people are always hunting and picking berries too, so we get to visit other people ... (258-E-D) Example (8a) above refers to the maki"~ of walrus skin boats used for whaling in Point Hope, an activity that is as much a part of the subsistence cycle now as it was in the past. In (8b), the initial clause establishes a mood of present habitual: ... usually do the job, so that we expect the second clause to be ...I help them... However, the student has chosen instead to qualify that assertion with the modal would. Likewise (8c) and (8d) set up expectations for the present habitual) A third type of logical extension is the use of would as past distributive without a distributive adverbial (e.g., now and then, occasionally). A standard use of this structure, combining the past habitual would with a distributive adverb or implied distributive action, is illustrated in the following sentence from the data: (9a) ...as if Jim and I were traveling in a black hole, at times my boat would hit gravel and I would veer sharply... (262-E-N) Note the use of at times in (9a). Examples (9b) through (9d) below illustrate the tendency of Eskimo students to use the distributive form wouM without the adverbials. (9d) is particularly interesting in that the subject, branches, imparts a distributive or repetitive quality to the verb, an inherent or implied distributive which presumably accounts for the appearance of the modal in this example. 9 Extension in this case may be reinforced by L~ patterns; Yup'ik Eskimo marks habitual aspect but does not necessarily mark tense distinctions in running discourse.
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(9b) I looked all around me to see if any ducks were approaching me. I would rest [SAE: now and then I would rest] on a place where the grass was dry and sit for a few minutes. (101-E-N-I) (9c) Because they are so white like the snow they [rabbits] are very hard to see. l would shoot a couple of times [SAE: I would occasionally shoot] at them but never did hit any ... (261-E-N-2) (gd) The branches would sting [SAE: The branches stung] our legs, hands, and faces as we tried to make our way through them. (260-E-N-5) 3.2. Over-reliance In addition to logical extensions, we have found a second category of nonstandard mo~al use, much less coherent in its boundaries, which cannot be explained in terms of specific linguistic or semantic extensions traditionally associated with modals. This group appears to be explicable as an overreliance on the qualification functions of modals, a predilection for their use based on the fact that they represent a more cautious and responsible way of presenting and organizing statements. Two general contexts have been identified in which AN students regularly use such modals. In the first, modals alternate with tense in signalling rhetorical shifts. In example (10a), below, note that the first sentence includes a present tense verb form, picks. That statement is followed by several statements which include the modal would. If we take the first statement to be a generalization in the narrative present, ~hen the fOllowing sentences can be seen as instantiations with modal auxiliaries. In the sixth line of the essay, when the topic shifts from picking dogs to the role of dog races in the winter carnival, once again the present tense is used" During the winter, the villages ... hold up carnivals, and once again that statement is followed by a series of statements with would, these statements supplying details about the general evei,t, the carnival.
(lOa) The trainer then picks the best long lasting runners, for any planned dog races in the future. Each dog would run it's own pace, the trainer would keep the fast, untireable dog's up front, slower dogs, that get tire easily on the back .... During the winter, the villages around the lower Kuskokwim region, hold up carnivals, which consists of Dog races, Men's basketball tournaments, and games of all sorts. The main events would be the dog races, and the women, boys and girls would have there own catagories of races. The men's races would last three days. All three days score's would be combined and that wouM be the total .... [etc. with additional descriptive details and continued use of would] Dog racing is very fun. tireing but fab! If you like competing, then dog racing is the sports. (204-E-C-1)
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Examt~les (lOb) through (lOd), below, illustrate a similar pattern.
(~Ob) Winter festival had just begun in the early 1970's, and the main purpose for this festival was for the villages to get together and perform eskimo dances. The surrounding villages. Scammon Bay, Hooper Bay, and Newtok dancers would provide [SAE: provided] their own transportation by snow machine. (207-E-C-1) (10c) Then the 14-17 year-olds would race about 4 miles. Then the racers from 18 on up would race for 17 miles. After the races are over the people would go home and start getting food together ... (210-E-R-3,4) (lOd) There songs were all different not the same songs like the other dancers. Like they would have [SAE: had] more meanings, telling stories of so many hunt's, family life, traveling ... (204-E-CC-3) A second example of over-reliance is the substitution of would for intentional will or going to, the resulting statement carrying less assertive force, as in examples (! Ia) and (I I b) below. (1 l a) They told stories of the past what they learned from there grandfathers or grandmothers. So the stories are going down generations of natives to the younger generations so the customs wouldn't [SAE: won't] be forgotten. (204-E-CC-2) (1 lb) My dad talk and told me what would [SAE: was going to] happen. He said I could not go out hunting by myself anymore. (100-E-N-9) While the AN texts contain still other examples of modals which are so far unclassifiable, the vast majority fall into the two categories we have outlined above. On the basis of our analysis of these extensions, we propose that the unique uses of modals in the writing of Eskimo students derive from an inherent property of modals, their intersection with that aspect of social relationships regulating the expression of personal autonomy and accountability. They therefore represent the logical locus in English grammar for the translation and maintenance of these extremely important Eskimo social concepts. Moreover, we suspect that modals, both diachronically and synchronically, are 'leaky' interstices between the logic and intention of speakers and the dictates of English grammar. As a result, they are particularly prone to pragmatic extension and exploitation.
4. Conclusion
In considering the entire range of structures we have noted as characteristic of
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Eskimo students' writing, none (with perhaps the exception of the 'doubles') is totally unique. Beginning writers in English everywhere experience difficulties with separating the personal from the general, with shaping content to fit rhetorical frames, with anticipating reader needs, and with learning the qualifying conventions of literate discourse. What distinguishes these students from others is the particular blend of the various characteristics, the overriding importance of qualificati6n, and the persistence of these characteristics (albeit disguised to circumvent or mollify academic discourse expectations) in their mature writing. The mature AN writer does not suppress the features we have discussed but rather camouflages them with sophisticated literacy devices. Notice, for example, how a particularly skilled student uses personal example in answering an essay test question designed to elicit an objective, textbook response: (12) This switch poses different kinds of problems derived from this fact like home sickness, self denial, etc. If you will, I would like to insert a personal experience that will hopefully reflect this problem. We conclude that the persistence of these patterns in Eskimo writing must be explained by factors so compelling that the students are incapable of eradicating them. Certainly in view of the negative evaluations with which their initial writings are met Eskimo writers would suppress these patterns were they not essential. The differences between the students' requirements with regard to careful qualification and the conventions of successful academic discourse are fundamental. In the university community, speakers frequently adopt exaggerated positions ~for the sake of argument'; a critical, rather than a consensual posture is rewarded. Qualification~ equivocation, or any form of non-decisiveness are considered the mark of a mediocre mind, while rapid opinions and decisions are admired; and, because discussion is abstract and theoretical, speakers are not necessarily accountable in casual debate for erroneous conclusions. In fact, a coherent, if fallacious argument may receive a more positive evaluation than a disorganized, but accurate presentation. While academic writing requires care with regard to qualification (Chafe (1986)), qualification must not interfere with authoritativeness, the hallmark of successful writing in this genre and a particular difficulty for novice writers whose cultural and linguistic backgrounds emphasize circumspection. A final factor which certainly reinforces the features found in the Eskimo writers' texts involves the domains of orality and literacy within their communities. Literacy is relatively circumscribed, associated almost exclusively with church and school, both of which are highly prescriptive and authoritarian environments, and where literacy is passive (reading) rather than active. As a result, students have almost no experience with the process of text creation
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- the drafting, revising, and polishing steps - and tend to regard any writing,
their own first efforts included, as 'final'. When this tendency is combined with two other features of written texts~ their permanence and the unknowable nature of the audience (to whom, as we have discussed, these writers feel personally accountable), the students' already cautious habits can only be increased. Given the complex variety of linguistic and cultural forces influencing the writing of AN students, it is not surprising that their initial encounters with the university are difficult. However, as their writing matuces, they begin to produce texts which are quite powerful, combining persona I perspective with a meticulous grounding of intellectual positions, as briefly demonstrated by the example above. The texts are successful in the academic sense both because of and in spite of their characteristic features. These writers, rathe" than suppressing their identity to conform to the dictates and constraints of western essayist literature, have successfully extended their ethnicity to a new domain, shaping their written world to maintain the pragmatic essence of their cultural perspective.
A p p e n d i x : M o d a l outline
In the outline below, the distinction between the speaker-active/agent-active perspectives is marked as 'A' and "B'. Included within each of these categories are the traditional semantic notions (obligation, permission, possibility, and so forth) which are attached to the various expressions. Each subcategory contains example sentences, constructed to illustrate each notion, as well as sample sentences from the data. Those numbered 100 and 200 are Eskimo writers (AN); those numbered 300 are the comparison group of Freshman English writers (GE). Note that we have separated out tense and aspect. While we recognize that these categories must be included in an account of modal auxiliaries, we felt that such distinc',ion~ !'c ~'_':side the pragmatic range we have defined; that is, what is included in this category is more a matter of linguistic marking than of pragmatic force° A. Speaker active; circumstance external to sentence grammar: i. Obligation (will/would, could): a. [ + Assertive]: She WILL take the medicine (said the doctor).
- no examples in any group b. [+Polite]: Wouht you like/could you take your medicine now ?
- Larry hollerd Ron could you head up the hill with the truck to pick up our guests. (262-E-N-4) 2. Permission (can/could): a. [+ Assertive]
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She can take the medicine now (said the doctor). - My dad...said I could not go out hunting by myself anymore. (100-E-N-9) - Dr. Wheeler said he couldn't go home until the infection had gone ... (307-N-9) b.
[+
Polite]:
Could she take the medicine now? - no examples in the data . P o s s i b i l i t y (Can): a.
[+ Assertive]:
This medicine can cause serious side effects. I said 'about' because you can't measure the miles from an imaginary line ( 5 K - E - D ) - How can a place of happiness be lonely? (308-D) -
B.
Subject active; circumstance internal to se~ tence grammar: 1. Volition (will/would): a. [+ Assertive]: She will/won 't take the medicine. (She insists/refuses even though we've told her (to/not to).) - I started getting scared because the boys wouldn't wait for me. (262-EN-t) - I would not wear it because the wrinkles still showed. (306-2) b. [ + Polite] (would/could): She would like to/could take her med,:cine now. - T h e older folks would like to have the younger people start dancing. (213-E-D) 2. Ability (can/could): a. General and physical: She can take the pills. (She doesn't have to have an injection.) - He told me he could not hear anything on his right ear. (100-E-N) - He knew it so well he could read along with me by memorization. (307-N) b. Perceptual and sensory: She could see the medicine on the shelf - To the south I could see the bay ... (2K-E-D-3) - As I walked outside, I could feel the sun already beginning to warm my skin. (307-D) c. Mental: She can remember taking the medicine. - How can anyone in the world know for a fact of the number of Caribou in Alaska? (IK-E-A) - I can remember being able to skateboard all the way ... (307-D-3) 3. Conditional and Hypothetical a. Conditional: I f she improves, she can stop taking her medicine/will not have to etc. - In town, the people usually have three or four wheelers that are used all year long. They can travel out of town to another village, if the ice is safe enough to travel on. (203-E-C-l)
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b. Hypothetical: If she improved, she could stop taking her medicine~would not have to etc. Just think of how things would be if you had no idea what time it was ... (203-E-Df) He gave her [dog] to me, and she immediately shook nervously, as a caged animal would. (302) -
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C. Tense/Aspect I. Will/Would a. [+ Future, - Past]: He will take the medicine tomorrow. - ...maybe a road will be built in years to come. (203-E-C-3) Even if I never do go diving again, I will be glad I took the class. (304-N) b. [+ Future, + Past/Punctual]: He decided he would take the medicine after he ate. I even thought that the police would pick me up for shooting someone by accident. (100-E-N-6f) We drove off into the sun, and into town, where she would adjust to her new home with me. (300) c. [+Past, +Habitual]: He would (usually~always) take the medicine after he ate. During the early years it would almost flood. (3K-E-D-2) - Our garden was 20' by 3 0 ' . . . . We would till this up every May and prepare the ground for seeding. (302-D) d. [+ Past, + Distributive]: She would occasionally take medicine. ... as if Jim and I were traveling i r a black hole, at times my boat would hit gravel and I would veer sharply ... (262-E-N) 2. Can/Could a. [+ Past]: I could take the medicine yesterday (but I can't today). - He wanted to believe me, but couldn't. (300-A) -
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RefeFences Basham, Charlotte, 1986. Summary writing: A study in textual and contextual constraints. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Bolinger, Dwight, 1989. Extrinsic possibility and intrinsic potentiality: 7 on may and can + I. Journal of Pragmatics 13(1): 1-23. Chafe, Wallace, 1986. 'Evidentiality in English conversation and academic writing'. In: W. Chafe and J. Nichols, eds., Evidentiality: The linguistic coding of epistemology. Norwood, N J: Ablex. pp. 261-272. Coates, Jennifer, 1983. The semantics of the modal auxiliaries. London: Croom Helm. Damas, David, ed., 1984. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. Fienup-Riordan, Ann, 1986. The real people: The concept of perso'ahood among the Yup'ik Eskimos of western Alaska. Inuit Studies 10(1/2): 261-270.
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Fortescue, Michael, 1987. Switch reference and 'psychological subject" in West Greenlandic: A case of pragrnatics over syntax. Paper presented at the International Pragmatics Conference, Antwerp, AugusL 1987. Halliday, Michael A., 1976. 'Modality and modulation in English'. In: G. Kress, ed., Halliday: System and function in language. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 189-213. Heath, Shirley Brice, 1983. Ways with words. Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hensel, Chase, Marie Blanchett, Ida Alexie, and Phyllis Morrow, 1983. Qaneryaurci Yup'igtun. Bethel: Yup'ik Language Center, Kuskokwim Community College. Inuit Studies, 1986. Vol. 10, Nos. I-2. Jacobson, Steven, 1984a. Central Yup'ik and the schools. Juneau, AK: Department of Education, Bilingual/Bicultural Program. Jacobson, Steven, 1984b. Dictionary of Central Yup'ik. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska. Kwachka, Patricia, 1985. Perspectives on the viability of Native language in Alaska. The Laurentian Review XVIII(2): 105-116. Labov, William and J. Waletzky, 1967. 'Narrative analy~,is'. In: .L Helm, ed., Essays on the verbal and visual arts. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press,. pp. 12-44. Leech, Geoffrey N., 1971. Meaning and the English ve,~b. London: Longman. Lyons, John, 1977. Semantics. Vols. 1-2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Morrow, Phyllis, 1987. Making the best of two worlds: An anthropological approach to the development of bilingual education materials in Southwestern Alaska. Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Palmer, F.R., 1979. ModaJity and the English mod~Lis.London: Longman. Palmer, F.R., 1986. Mood and modality. Cambridge: Cambridae University Press. Suzuki, Yuji, 1988. T~¢ modais in present-day American English: Meanings and backgr~,,mds. Language, Culture, Communication 3:131-202. Sweetser, Eve E., 1982. Root and epistemic modals: Causality in two worlds. Berkeley Ling,J.istic Society 8: 484-507. Wolfram, Walt, 1984. Unmarked tense in American Indian English. American Speech ~,9('0: 3150.