[8.1.3]

Serial Glossary of Terms in Ethnosemantics.

1. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY is the systematic study of SOCIAL OCCASIONS, i. e., the way in which BEHAVIOR is explainable as being an outcome or FUNCTION OF THE CULTURAL SETTING ENVIRONMENT.
   Related terms: ETHNOLOGY; CULTURAL or COGNITIVE ANTHROPOLOGY; APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY; COMMUNITY-SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY; ETHNOSEMANTICS; IMPLICIT or COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY; ETHNOMETHODOLOGY; SOCIOPSYCHOLINGUISTICS; ETHOGENY;
2. SOCIAL OCCASION is the UNIT OF STUDY in Social Psychology (MORPHOLOGICALLY: the "molecule"); the simplest molecular structure for social occasions is constituted of two "atoms": THE SETTING and THE INDIVIDUAL. Thus,

   [SOCIAL OCCASION] = [[SETTING FACTORS] X [PERSONAL FACTORS]]

   A = X x Y

3. EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION in Social Psychology furthers our understanding of the constituents of social occasions and their effects on individuals. This leads to better identification of problems through objective research and better planning for change through control and prediction.
4. RESEARCH REPORTS are standardized written presentations. Any ordinary person with a degree of LITERACY equivalent to High School Education is, by this definition, capable or competent to prepare Research Reports after some instruction. These research reports are deposited as DATA into a laboratory for research in Social Psychology which we have come to designate as THE DRA or THE DAILY ROUND ARCHIVES. Students being trained in our Undergraduate Sequence in Applied Social Psychology [PSYCH 222/397/499] learn to prepare Research Reports. These are then incorporated into the DRA.
5. THE DRA OR DAILY ROUND ARCHIVES is our research field laboratory in applied social psychology. It encompasses two categories of activities: (1) the -preparation of DATA in the form of standardized contributions ("RESEARCH REPORTS"), and (2) the ANALYSES or "treatment of the data."
6. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH refers to the systematic, explicitly formulated, strategies for pursuing empirical investigations (q.v.). Three approaches are currently available: SURVEY-TYPE, EXPERIMENTAL-TYPE, and NATURAL HISTORYTYPE. (q. v.)
7. SURVEY-TYPE RESEARCH is a methodology that generates data through ORAL or WRITTEN INTERVIEW PROCEDURES (e.g., questionnaires, information forms, inventory blanks, listings, etc.). In this type of methodology, the two critical features are: (a) SAMPLING ISSUES connected with the problem of "representativeness" of people being interviewed, and (b) VALIDITY ISSUES involving the OBJECTIVITY and "trustworthiness" of the global judgments required by the interviewee (e.g., answers are often in terms of degrees of agreement or likability, felt towards general categories of things --" Blacks," "green toothpaste," "government officials," "this year," "in the past six months," "the last time you used it," etc.). People using this methodology are generally sophisticated about the sampling issues, less so, however, with regards to the validity issues where objectivity of the DATA ANALYSIS is erroneously taken as sufficient to overcome the impurity or subjectivity involved in global judgments and uncontrolled estimations of self-behavior.
8. EXPERIMENTAL-TYPE RESEARCH is a methodology that generates SIMULATED SETTINGS wherein individuals assume the role of SUBJECTS, follow detailed and often not completely understood instructions to simulate MOTIVATION, INVOLVEMENT, and INTERPRETATION. Within this world of simulation and make believe, subjects are sources of "observations," yielding responses according to pre-arranged signals suitable for generating a permanent record. These records are analyzed according to a few standard statistical routines that yield statements of probability or "significance levels." If results are "significant," the "experimental hypothesis" is assumed correct until shown wrong or its generality questioned or doubted.
9. NATURAL HISTORY-TYPE RESEARCH is a methodology that generates DATA on natural (actual, real, particular) settings (as opposed to simulated, imagined, fabricated through contained staged set-ups). "Natural" needs a definitional context: in this methodology, natural is used as in "natural phenomenon": i.e.. in the context of the systematic study of SOCIAL OCCASIONS (q.v.), the natural history of a social occasion always implies an event that occurs in real time and space (not an imagined or fabricated event that requires the cooperation of participants for its completion, after which the set-up or subterfuge is then revealed, ended; thereafter, everything then returns to "normal, 11 at which point the "experiment" ends). Natural history needs to be systematized before it can yield objective data. Systematic techniques for generating objective natural history data include: MICRODE SCRIP TIONS, CATALOGUING, and INDEXING ("glosses") (q.v.).
10. MICRODESCRIPTIONS are paragraph entries contributed by an individual performing the role functions of a WITNESS. This term has a legal context, wherein it defines or sets the foundation for what is evidence (fact vs. supposition); it also has a scientific context, wherein it defines what is objectivity. An individual performs as a Witness to his daily round activities when he reports information regarding his own observations. Such reporting must furthermore meet certain specified standards of objectivity. "Research Reports," (q.v.) are examples of such particular procedures. Microdescriptions are "framed" by other microdescriptions that specify the time/setting parameters for the reported observations. Microdescriptions are written or dictated and later transcribed. Special techniques of content analysis are then used to transform microdescriptions into natural-history-type data: for descriptions of techniques see SOCIOPSYCHOLINGUISTICS; ETHNOSEMANTIC OUTLINES; ES-PROBES; NOTATION SYSTEM; DISCOURSE ANALYSIS; TOPIC NOMINAL; P.M. N. S.; etc.
11. CATALOGUING is a type of ANNOTATION, i.e., a comment on some segment of discourse (written or oral). Types of comments in annotation include: (i) TITLING a setting feature, viz., referring to something, and therefore involves such behaviors as recognizing, classifying, and ignoring; (ii) ARGUING, which refers to the ordinary, common sense logic of TOPICALIZING, e. g., "I'm late. My watch is slow. 11 involves an argument whose nominal or premise is "My watch is slow" and whose complement or conclusion is "(That is why) I'm late. "--the "That is why" being the elliptical argument , and ordinarily indexed or represented by the period separating two sentences when transcribing oral discourse (see TRANSCRIPTS). Forms of arguments abound in conversations, written discourse, and discourse thinking ("ideation"). Forms of arguments vary with cultural and social factors such as ETHNICITY and REGISTER (q. v.). Thus, arguing, along with titling, represent main modes of annotations in a community; hence, we've come to call them "COMMUNITY CATALOGUING PRACTICES" (CCPs) (q.v.). Recall that cataloguing along with microdescriptions and indexing, make up the three principal methodologies for NATURAL-HIS TORY-TYPE RESEARCH (q. v.)
12. INDEXING is a marking process that allows the localization of a piece of information (i.e., "TOPIC" TITLE, q. v.) within the frames of the daily round: time, place, relation to other items within pre-established networks or 'map-ways.’ For example, "This is for my brother." is a signal that relates "This" to "category of person for whom I'm intending it for. The latter information, indexed by "brother," has consequences for the transaction (contrast: "This is for the people who use the beach" and "This is for the residents only"). All indexing involves "pointing to" functions: deictics (this, it, over there, never, theirs), pronouns (I, you, she, etc.), proper names (John, the Silent Majority, etc.), sequencings (as in "Fill in the next word: John ate the candy without ______ any to Mary", etc.), patternings (as in "Father/Mother/Child"; or "If A, then B, but not Z, etc.), and many more types that are investigated in ETHNOSEMANTICS (q.v.). The study of marking processes used by the community includes the work of librarians, inventory clerks, philologists, filing clerks, almanacs, public documents and archives, and many more.

13. SETTING FACTORS x PERSONAL FACTORS = SOCIAL OCCASION X x Y = A

1. The formula [x x y = A] indicates that the empirical investigation of social occasions --the units of study in Social Psychology --can be pursued through the objectified treatment of Witnesses' Reports of their Daily Rounds. PERSONAL FACTORS (q.v.) interact multiplicatively with SETTING FACTORS (q.v.) (y x x), viz., SETTING FACTORS CONDITION OR OCCASION PERSONAL FACTORS. In other words, the environment or SETTING is defined as the functional (causative) antecedent to the personal factors. Behavior is thus a functional outcome of setting. Behavior always occurs within a social setting and is derived from the setting. Related terms: SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; INTERPERSONAL WORLD; TRANSACTIONAL COMPETENCE; CONDUCT; ACTION; REACTION; RELATIONSHIP; SITUATED DISPLAYS; DISPLAY REPERTOIRE; RESPONSES; SITUATION; DOINGS; GOINGS ON; EVENT; CIRCUMSTANCES; ALL THINGS TOLD; SOCIAL FACTS; THE WAY THINGS ARE; WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON; etc
2. SETTING FACTORS are those factors of a social occasion (q.v.) which are not personal, i.e., anything 'relevant' to a Report (by a Witness, q.v.) which is not part of the content of the Report. Thus, setting factors, by definition, function as frames for content; the latter is always personal. Examples: (a) an annotation (q.v.) is a frame for some identified segment of text; thus, a footnote or title, being annotations, act as setting factors for textual materials (content); (b) in the interactional discourse (q. v.) of conversationalists, a reply move (q.v.) in an adjacency-pair of talking turns (q. v.) is the content for which the preceding talking turn is the setting; (c) also in conversational exchanges, anything said at one time (or "place" in the transcript (q.v.)), is related to a network of things said or implied at other times. This network of implicature imbues all conversational acts, and its empirical investigation yields derivative facts (q. v.); these compose the elements of interpretation (q.v.). Thus, setting factors frame content which itself is personal. Personal and content act as figure while setting frame acts as ground. Personal and content are subjective and stylized; both are unique, particular, and actual. Setting and frame are objective and cross-personal ("interpersonal"; trans-actional"; "co-munal"; etc.): both are impersonal, identifiable, and catalogued.
   Related terms: FRAME; MEANING; INTERPRETATION; CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE; DAILY ROUND SETTING; CONTEXT OF SITUATION; RELEVANT FACTS; BACKGROUND INFORMATION; DERIVATIVE FACTS; OBJECTIVE SIDE; ETHNODYNAMICS; THEME; TOPIC DOMAIN; MORPHOLOGICAL PHASE OR DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE OR EVOLUTIONARY PERIOD; etc.
3. PERSONAL FACTORS are the variables of a social occasion (q.v.) that index (q. v.) or mark its content. Content is information contained in pre-established markers, signs, or symbolic expression Content is also known as topic focus or topic. Content and topic are productions put together and presented by a Witness in the form of a Report (microdescription, cataloguing, indexing) (q.v.). Therefore, content and topic are always personal, as well as "sharable" (transmittable as communication). In any social exchange, the meaning of the interactional whole, i. e., the transaction, is objectively given by the setting (q.v.), while the topic of the communication is subjectively given by personal selection or choice out of available alternative displays. Thus, the selection of things to point out is personal though the manner of pointing, as well as pointing itself, are setting factors and impersonal.
   Related terms: CONTENT; MARKER; INFORMATION; SIGNAL; SYMBOL; REFERENCE; PHRASE; TOPIC FOCUS; DEIC11C TOPIC NOMINAL; TOPIC NOMINAL; ORTHOGRAPH; TOPIC; TITLE; NAME; EXPERIENCE; WORDS; UNDERSTANDING; COMPREHENSION; PARAPHRASE; COHERENCE; THE THREAD OF DISCOURSE; TEXT; DISCOURSE; WHAT IS BEING PREDICATED; INDEXICAL ENTRY; STYLE; BIOGRAPHICAL; etc.
4. DISPLAYS are presentation units in social transactions. Implies a natural community setting, hence the term situated display. All possible displays in a community are catalogued, i.e., recognized as falling within pre-established categories. The notion of Displays implies participants whose acts of displaying count as moves within a transactional system of exchange proper to the community in question. It implies display repertoire which characterizes the habits, style, and rhythm of exchange in social transactions attributable to particular persons as characterizing then, and their ethnicity (q. v., below). The function of a display is marked by its transactional significance in the event which forms the context for the display, this value being objectively determined according to the cataloguing practices of the community. A situated display within the framed context of a social episode is a functional unit of behavior. Each such display is a natural phenomenon occurring within the socio-cultural manifold and thus it may be viewed as an operant in the sense that displays are performed moves whose consequences are specifiable by reference to objectively observable data called community cataloguing practices (CCP). These CCPS are formal statements that objectify reference standards (norms) of conduct I in the community as observable in the daily and routine practices of members. For example, there are functionally specialized operations and behavioral programs in the day-to-day business of the community- -calendars, time tables, appointment slips, agendas, schedules, diaries, minutes, coming events, almanacs, as well as the more permanent categories of information in library catalogues, ads and listings, Inventories, and so on; these are treated as data for the community's cataloguing practices in ethnosemantic investigations, viz., evidence is gathered on a systematic basis concerning the record keeping activities of the community, both in organized operations as well as in personal yet standard procedures for keeping track, for remembering, for knowing, for noticing, for later telling, for presenting, for reconstructing, etc. These are the channels of displaying or the display modalities. The functional analysis of display units requires an ESM approach inasmuch as a behavioral or experimental one would exclude the experiential mind parameters. The system we propose as ESNOSYS or, Ethnosemantic Notation System, employs the hexagrammatic morphology. The minimal unit of presentation in social transactions is thus analyzable into two trigrams: e. g., a minimal behavioral display may be exhibited by intimates when one makes a comment which the other ignores by continuing to read, for example --in that case the minimal display from a behavioral point of view is nevertheless maximal in functional significance- -which indicates that natural social displays are not suitably investigated solely through a behavioral methodology. As an ESM notion, ignoring the comment within the specified context is a CCP, and therefore part of the contingencies that define the setting in situated displays.
5. ARGUMENTS are a pair of displays treated functionally as belonging together; e.g., comment and reaction; request and reply; sign and meaning; item and its regular associate; content and its presentation frame. A pair of displays constitute an argument if they are arranged by participants in such an order that the first functions logically as a nominal (if x; given that x; assume x; etc.) while the second is a complement to it (then y; in that case y; then it follows that Y; etc.) E. g., the situated display of making a comment during a conversational exchange is a nominal --"Could you phone the roofer tonite? --whose complement is ignoring the comment; in that exchange, the first person's display functions as the ARGUMENT nominal while the second person's display functions as the ARGUMENT complement; together, the adjacency-pair of displays constitute a minimal transaction. A transaction is a special type of SITUATED ARGUMENT; others include assertions made by a member of a group whose other members are the occasion for the display; routines of interior dialogue involving such CCPs as deciding, planning, figuring it out, thinking about it,, rehearsing, practicings, etc. Arguments are represented in ESM through the double hexagram coordinate structure: each double hexagram formed is a formal representation of an empirical hypothesis about a particular community (local ethnography). Communities can be characterized and distinguished from each other through overlapping sets of arguments mapped and indexed according to their local function in transactions. Arguments are the units of entry in ethnosemantic glossaries, charts, and outlines (see Pitt, 1964; Capi, 1972);

6. THEMES are structured arguments that naturally occur in relationship events and are identified through the arrangement of 4 hexagrams, viz., two double hexagrams. A diagram for a minimal theme would look like this:
7. CONCEPTS are the morphological units in a functional analysis, and in this case, the morphological unit is the trigram; the trigrammatic concepts of ESM are represented notationally by capitalized words arranged in a series of 3 and separated by a single line or slash; e. g.,

   FORM/ STRUCTURE/ FUNCTION
   ENCULTURATION/ SOCIALIZATION/ ASSIMILATION
   SELFCONSCIOUS/ UNSELFCONSCIOUS/ CONSCIOUSNESS
   POINT/ LINE/ TRIANGLE
   FIRST GRADE/ SECOND GRADE/ THIRD GRADE

   etc.Thus, ESM concepts are familiar in terms of their constituent elements but in this case they are taken in groups of 3, as well as in a definite order. The arrangement of elements into a particular identifiable trigram represents a hypothesis about the structure of ESM concepts just as in biology the arrangements of molecular structures the double helix) is a theory about molecular structure of life or living organisms. Ethnosemantics is a branch of psychology that attempts to discover the structure of concepts in a community; not the concepts found in the dictionary --which are only building blocks --but rather, the concepts found in the actual discourse of people, both external or interpersonal as well as internal or intrapersonal. The empirical work in ethnosemantics consists in (a) the identification of concepts actually used In a particular community under investigation; (b) the formal representation of the functional -relationships observable in the cataloguing practices of members, e.g., a transcript of talk, inter- or intra-personal, may be prepared to yield an index of the participant's topical or discourse concepts: viz., the particular topic nominals a person uses; their complexity and function for relationship events and transactional conduct on the daily round of natural socio-cultural settings. The goal of ethnosemantics is, like that of philology and archaeology, to reconstruct the units of the cultural dynamic and to present them in a coherent and historical theme, but in the case of ethnosemantics, the reconstructed units and their functional mechanics, must add up to an understanding of behavior, and more particularly, the cultural parameters of a setting that drive visible behavior. Thus, ethnosemantic concepts are empirically verifiable hypotheses about the actual units of consciousness used in a particular human community. Ethnosemantic outlines, glossaries, and charts are engineering analyses of particular zones of life in the community. As such, they have direct application and use in social management; adult re-education; personal programs of modification of behavior; objective historical and biographical analyses; applied mathematics; presentational programming; diagnostic educational problems; symbolism; indexing; cataloguing; retrieving of topical arguments; and many other applications.