The Relevance of Husserl's Theory to Language Socialization

jola_1031 205..226 This article suggests that the theory of language socialization could benefit from adopting some key concepts originally introduced by the philosopher Edmund Husserl in the first part of the twentieth century. In particular, it focuses on Husserl’s notion of “(phenomenological) modification,” to be understood as a change in “the natural attitude” that humans have toward the phenomenal world, their own actions included. After providing examples of different kinds of modifications in interpreting language and listening to music, Husserl’s notion of “theoretical attitude” (a modification of “the natural attitude”) is introduced and shown to be common in adult conversations as well as in interactions between adults and young children. A reanalysis of an exchange previously examined by Platt (1986) between a Samoan mother and her son is provided to show the benefits of an integration of phenomenological and interactional perspectives on adult-child discourse. Finally, it is suggested that the failure sometimes experienced by children and adults to adopt new ways of being may be due to the accumulated effects of modifications experienced earlier in life which make it difficult if not impossible to retrieve earlier, premodificational ways of being. [language socialization, phenomenology, jazz aesthetics, Samoan child language] I n this article I will suggest that the theory of language socialization could benefit from adopting some of the concepts originally introduced by the philosopher Edmund Husserl in the first part of the twentieth century to account for changes in the phenomenal world, that is, the world as meaningful for us. In particular, I will be focusing on the relevance of Husserl’s theory to our understanding of the role of language in the socialization of attention and in the development of a “theoretical attitude.” At the end of the article, I will also speculate on how Husserl’s theory might help us to explain the resistance to certain changes of habitus. A great deal of language socialization is centered on the language-mediated social organization of children’s attention. The interest in the role of language in guiding children’s attention first emerged in Elinor Ochs and Bambi B. Schieffelin’s joint work on attention-getting devices in talking to children ([Ochs] Keenan and Schieffelin 1976) and was later refined through their respective ethnographic experiences in (Western) Samoa (Ochs 1988) and Papua New Guinea (Schieffelin 1990)—the discussion of attention in Ochs and Schieffelin (1984) was based on their respective fieldwork experiences and predates the publication of the two just-mentioned monographs. The analysis of everyday face-to-face interaction between children and adults across societies showed that in the process of becoming acceptable members of their community, children are made to participate in a range of social acts realized (predominantly but never exclusively) through speaking that are explicitly aimed at directing and redirecting their social, emotional, and moral engagement with their surrounding world—a world made of people, animals, food, artifacts, things of