Proverbial dog names of the Baatombu

A strategic alternative to silence

Bibliographic Data

ID2875503
AuthorsWendy Schottman (Laboratoire d'Informatique, de Modélisation et d'Optimisation des Systèmes, corresponding author)
Year1993
Volume22
Issue4
Pages539-554
Publication date1993-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404500017462
OpenAlexW2127986265
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited3

A theoretical framework is presented to account for various means of indirect verbal communication used by the Baatombu of northern Benin to accomplish face-threatening acts, and a particular technique involving dog names is discussed. By carefully choosing a proverbial name for a puppy, the owner can then, simply by calling the dog, convey a message meant either for a particular neighbor or for anyone who hears it and feels concerned by its content. This diplomatic way of expressing oneself when a difference arises is doubly indirect: (a) The dog's owner makes use of a pseudo-addressee (the dog), and (b) the message is formulated with a proverb, therefore with words of which the owner is not the author. (Animal names, Africa, communicative acts, ethnography of speaking, indirectness, politeness, speech acts

Aesthetics · Face (sociological concept) · Linguistics · Politeness · Puppy · Silence · Sociology · Speech act · Communication · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism

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