35 2. Overall framework of contact phenomena tion phenomena in contact situations, and may provide important clues to culture history. (Saville-Troike 2003: 6–7) In the ethnographic perspective, it is the language of a speech community that constitutes the core of analysis. However, according to this approach language is not studied in isolation, and the corpus of linguistic material is essential to establish the place of the language in a culture and society. Hence, Dell Hymes states that “[w]ell-analyzed linguistic materials are indispensable, and the logic of linguistic methodology is a principal influence in the ethnographic perspective of the approach” (1964: 3). The patterns of communication are the result of the fact “[…] that much of linguistic behavior is rule-governed: i.e. it follows regular patterns and constraints which can be formulated descriptively as rules” (Saville-Troike 2003: 10). The means of communicating ideas among human beings is language. It is the parents in particular who are the first teachers to their children, who use language to transmit the patterns of their culture to younger generations: Language is the main channel through which the patterns of living are transmitted to him, through which he learns to act as a member of a ‘society’ – in and through the various social groups, the family, the neighbourhood, and so on – and to adopt its ‘culture,’ its modes of though and action, its beliefs and values. (Halliday 1978: 9) When we take into consideration the transmission of proverbs, language is the only channel through which proverbs are conveyed, especially in cultures where there is no writing tradition. The patterns of living, general knowledge and sometimes specific knowledge are carried via language. There is an aspect of the ethnography of communication that is characteristic for African culture which constitutes a major part of Jamaican Creole. Formal, elegant speech used on official occasions is very important in this culture. What is considered as a mastery of rhetoric is the knowledge of proverbs and their appropriate use (Dakubu 2006: 138). The scope and focus of the ethnography of communication seems to be encompassed in the following question: “What does a speaker need to know to communicate appropriately within a particular speech community, and how does he or she learn to do so?” (Saville-Troike 2003: 2). Such knowledge and skills obtained to function in a given speech community is collectively called communicative competence (ibidem). However, communicative competence involves more than just the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, it necessarily includes acquiring the social and cultural rules
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