TY - JOUR AU - Cummins, Fred AU - Wang, Bei PY - 2021/02/15 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Language and languaging from a phonetic point of view JF - Cadernos de Linguística JA - Cad. Linguíst. VL - 2 IS - 1 SE - Theoretical Essay DO - 10.25189/2675-4916.2021.v2.n1.id296 UR - https://cadernos.abralin.org/index.php/cadernos/article/view/296 SP - e296 AB - <p>We differentiate between language-as-system, as exemplified by such constructs as “English,” or “Mandarin,'” and <em>languaging</em>, understood as a rich set of affiliative and coordinative behaviours that involve speech. The former is the more familiar term, and has been constructed in a specific manner that is inextricably bound to literacy, writing and normative social practices. But we argue that only the latter can inform us about what it was that happened to the human species to so differentiate us from other primates. To draw out this distinction, we lean on the contrast between emic and etic approaches, introduced by Ken Pike and rooted in the distinction between phonology and phonetics. We argue that an etic approach to speech can reveal forms of languaging that are not addressed by language-as-system. Joint speech is put forward as an important form of languaging that can be thematised for study only if the emic/etic distinction is taken seriously. Consequences for the self-understanding of phonetics as a discipline are cautiously put forward.</p> ER -