Language as Obstacle and as Data in Sociological Research.

The participants in this conference (A.V. Cicourel, I. Deutscher, S. Ervin-Tripp, J. Gumperz, D. Hymes, E. Sibley, H. Phillips, and R.B. Anderson) discussed the processes involved in eliciting verbal information, especially in cross-cultural studies. The four principal topics of their discussions were: (1) the ethnography of asking questions, (2) the meaning of words--particularly as influenced by social and linguistic contexts, (3) the use of linguistic and social data from research on the preceding two topics in developing theories and methods in the several disciplines, and (4) the need to correct some shortcomings of current research. It was felt that "we simply do not know how to phrase questions that will be meaningful to random samples of diversified populations." The participants agreed that almost all contemporary social science research would be improved by much more careful attention to ethnographies of interrogation, and that analyses and interpretations based on current research are often highly problematic. (JD)