Speech Play

The Power of Words

Josephson notes that griots among the Wolof of West Africa use praise names to change addresses morally, socially, and physically and prepare them to perform certain actions, and the Haya use tales as metaphors that [Page 674]hold aspects of the social world at “arms length” to allow them to think about changing it. Josephson expands on these ideas in his study of the Biyenge people of central Africa to show how people among them continually create notions of the world and power in it as they talk about their epic and other issues that concern them.

He also states that since people are constantly changing their ideas about the nature of the world, they are constantly changing their society. This is illustrated by the fact that in the contest for who should be chief among the Biyenge, people who told the “traditional” way to choose a chief did not give the same account. The Biyenge constantly engage in a competition between the different views.

Speech Play and Social Disputes

We can also see this idea of speech play as a contest in the abortion dispute that continues to go on in the United States. The role of words can be seen in the rhetorically powerful titles of the proponents of the two sides: Right to Life, and Right to Choice. Both sides have chosen titles that stress values accepted by almost everyone in the United States. However, despite the fact that both groups share common terms, people on both sides understand and define the meaning of these terms in relation to their stand on abortion.

People opposed to having abortions call themselves members of the Right to Life Movement. By these words they imply that people who would permit abortions want to murder people, even innocent babies. Those who would permit abortions refer to themselves as the Right to Choice Movement. By these words they imply that people against abortions want to take away people's right to choose, in this case the right of women. Both groups have an idea of what life and choice means, but in the context of abortion, they focus on different things. They use words in their contest to make the rules of society. If one side wins, abortions become more difficult; if the other side wins, abortions become easier to obtain.

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