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salāam tahīyah: greetings from the highlands of Yemen
Author(s) -
CATON STEVEN C.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1986.13.2.02a00060
Subject(s) - indexicality , semiotics , ethnography , linguistics , sociology , event (particle physics) , arabic , linguistic anthropology , point (geometry) , anthropology , epistemology , philosophy , physics , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics
The North Yemeni speech event of greeting as a rich semiotic act is interesting to analyze from both a linguistic and an anthropological point of view. It is argued that an indexical or pragmatic approach combined with an “interpretive” or symbolic understanding of culture may lead to the most interesting insights into verbal forms and their social meanings. In particular, it is argued that different constructs of the “person” are created in the speech event. [Arabic, ethnography of communication, interpretive anthropology, and self]