Summary of linguistic incompetence by Prof Alison Phipps

1. “I often say that when you can
measure what you are speaking
about, and express it in numbers,
you know something about it; but
when you cannot measure it,
when you cannot express it in
numbers, your knowledge is of a
meagre and unsatisfactory kind.”
Lord Kelvin 1883
Linguistic Incompetence
How Competent is Competent Enough?
Researching multilingually with or without the language

2. “What happens when
social science tries to
describe things that are
complex, diffuse and
messy. The answer, […]
is that it tends to make a
mess of it.”
John Law, 2004

3. Giving an account of
myself…
Competent?
Incompetent?
Heroic?
Foolhardy?
Professional?
Unprofessional?
Risks = ‘language / communication’
Avalanches, food poisoning, sleeping
sickness, HIV, civil unrest, muggings,
robbery, kidnap…
I quickly learned:
Greetings, food names, Prayer language
(Insha'allah), to trust my hosts
Gestures and some aggression/suspicion that
translation maybe incorrect
Linguistic Incompetence and Accountability

4. Researching without the language
Ethnographic notes:
Difficulty and struggle to hear and make
meaning
The jouiscence of making progress
Resource to common language
(German and English) for rest and reflection
and writing
Notes full of new words and phrases –
mulitlingual research notes

5. Interpellation
“We start to give an account only because we are interpellated
as beings who are rendered accountable by a system of justice
and punishment. This system is not there from the start, but
becomes instituted over time at great cost to the human
instincts.”
(Butler, 2005: 11)
Personal experience of being aware of complexities?
Found wanting ....either way.
Not competent enough.
Punishment and/or Remedy.

6. Mother Tongue: A Mother’s Incompetence
Blen & Tigrinya
New script
Tonality
Linguistic exhaustion and pain – auto-didacticism
Paucity of resource and opportunity.
Ritual Learning
Sensory awareness heightened: incense, cloth, scarf, coffee
beans, skin and hair oil; spices, texture
Ethics: Linguistic power remains with powerless
Tsada: expections of whiteness

7. Lifelong Learning in Palestine
Arabic - tenderness of lack:
Borders
Welcomes
Security
Research interviews
NGO/academic English
Words Fail Me
So, what is my experience of becoming aware of the complexities of
researching multilingually?
“Is there an ethical valence to my unknowingness?” (Butler, 2005: 84)

8. The Value in “Incompetence”
Time to observe
Practice of researcher patience
and humility
Experience of frustration and
powerlessness which enables empathy
Noticing of greetings, rituals,
sensory dimensions
Valuable stage, but not status quo

9. Anthropology
“My main difficulty at this early stage was inability to converse freely with the
Nuer. I had no interpreter. None of the Nuer spoke Arabic, There was no
adequate grammar of the language, and apart from three short Nuer-English
vocabularies, no dictionary. Consequently the whole of my first and a large
part of my second expedition were taken up with trying to master the
language sufficiently to make inquiries (my emphasis) through it, and only
those who have tried to learn a very difficult tongue without the aid of an
interpreter and adequate literary guidance will fully appreciate the magnitude
of the task.”
(Evans-Pritchard, 1940: 10)

10. From Competence to Capabilities
to be a beginner
for relationships
for hospitality
of attentiveness
of sensory awareness
to de-centre
To “rest” capability
“to risk ourselves precisely at moments of unknowingness....constitutes
our chance of becoming human”
(Butler: ibid)