ABSTRACT
One function of an ethnography of communication is to develop a descriptive theory of speech in a particular community. But to formulate a descriptive theory of orality is not enough. A clearer understanding of the interaction between language and social life requires additional information on a community's rules for not speaking. According to Basso (ch. 20, this volume), “an adequate ethnography of communication should not confine itself exclusively to the analysis of choice within verbal repertoires. It should also … specify those conditions under which members of the society regularly decide to refrain from verbal behavior altogether” (p. 305). In other words, we must study when people speak and when they do not.
