Individual Variation in Scripted Talk

Abstract If your data is to have any meaning, it is essential that each respondent is put through the same experience. Canons of research demand that the interviewer operate somewhat like a computer with all the appearances of a fellow human being, but, so far as we know, persons in everyday life find it impossible either to present themselves as or to receive presentations of others ( regardless of the form it takes) which conform to the strict canons of scientific inquiry. Here is a transcription of a brief telephone conversation that took place one evening shortly after five o ‘clock:It is believed by speakers of Malagasy, who live in Madagascar, that there are two kinds of talk: everyday talk andkabary,or formal oratory (Keenan 1973). A person who can perform kabarywell is a good speaker, an articulate person. Not everyone is allowed to be an orator; women, for example, who are in general thought to be overly direct and pushy in speech (Keenan 1974), are excluded. And not every man who has learned something about the roundabout “winding words” in which kabarymust be phrased and the rules for who speaks when in the situations that call for kabaryis equally good at performing it. Some orators are more articulate than others, in other words, and accordingly in greater demand to speak at marriage-request ceremonies and in other situations in which kabaryis necessary. Being articulate, for the Malagasy, requires